Blog
These stories have been around a long time. Some of them I have updated. Many of them I haven’t. This started out when blogs were like, new!
Goin’ Back to “Cowboy Bebop: The Movie” – A Movie Review
The potboilers continue, this time in anime and with bioterrorism. I'm talking about 2002's Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. The place is Mars, the year 2071. A "cowboy" is a bounty hunter, Bebop the name of the spaceship; hence we watch a team of said hunters fly the Bebop...
On the Subject of the Universal Saving of Souls (Another Digression)
Universal salvation, or universal reconciliation--in which, in my review of A Woman of the Pharisees, I said I believe--is considered heresy by most Christians. I am one Christian who doesn't consider it that. It is widely argued that the Greek word aionios, rather...
A Napoleon Fantasy: “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – A Movie Review
A confection of a costume drama by Alan Taylor, The Emperor's New Clothes (2002) is about a make-believe scheme to get the imprisoned Napoleon Bonaparte off the island of St. Helena and back in Gallic power. Taylor's moviemaking team--Andrea Crisanti on production...
A Digression: The Christian Music of Krystal Meyers
Krystal Meyers is a Christian rock (not pop) artist, and a number of her songs has convinced me she made a pretty good showing during the Aughts. Her 2006 CD, Dying for a Heart, is only half-impressive, but at least it's that. Too often only about 10% of merit...
“The Avengers” Arrive – A Movie Review
Joss Whedon's The Avengers (2012) is consistently entertaining. Its action footage would be more entertaining, wholly exciting, if it contained greater suspense (like the car chase in The French Connection), but no matter. It's still head-on fun and technically...
Is “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” Any Good?
Dumb as it is, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), starring Dwayne Johnson, is a fairly palatable family film. Or . . . at least it would be if beautiful Vanessa Hudgens (ah, that jet black hair!) in her tank top didn't lend the movie too much sensuality. Luis...
Re a Critic’s Response
Critic Ross Douthat has panned Damsels in Distress in National Review magazine (May 14, 2002). He writes, "If the world of Damsels . . . isn't the real one to begin with, then how much can we care about the characters' struggles to build up their own equally unreal...
If You Want to See Something Intelligent, Go See “Damsels in Distress” – A Movie Review
His first picture in 14 years, Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress (2012) revolves around three college girls who recruit a new student for their suicide-prevention center (at fictitious Seven Oaks College) and for their larger idealistic purpose of gently freeing the...
Lust & Then Some in “Lust, Caution” – A Movie Review
About Lust, Caution (2007): Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), frankly, is a man who deserves to die. Along with being a traitor to his country in the Japanese-occupied Shanghai of the 1940s, he murders and tortures resistant Chinese countrymen. Patriotic activists want to kill...
