Movie Review: Unstoppable

Unstoppable is a movie about how easily events in our lives can get out of control and send us on a seemingly inevitable, unstoppable path to destruction.

I say seemingly because this movie is redemptive, and its theme virtuous: If you act courageously and are willing to lay down your life, you might actually regain control of your life.

Denzel Washington plays Frank Barnes, a train engineer of 28 years who has learned just weeks before that he is being forced into early retirement. Continue reading “Movie Review: Unstoppable”

Movie Review: Eat Pray Love

Eat Pray Love should have been titled Eat Pray Be Selfish.

I don’t know why I wanted to see this movie; maybe because I knew it wouldn’t be the typical two-hour chase scene shoot-em up.  I thought it had a good chance of being a thoughtful movie.

I didn’t expect it to be  a two hour tribute to narcissism. Somehow I hoped there would be more depth to the movie than the worn-out vacuous search for self, wrapped up in an existential faux spirituality.

Julia Robert’s character, Liz, decides she’s not happy in her marriage. Her husband hasn’t been unfaithful and seems to love her. They don’t fight, and if he’s guilty of anything it’s that he doesn’t worship her. Continue reading “Movie Review: Eat Pray Love”

Top 10 Christmas Movies Of All Time

(c)iStockphoto.com/racnus

Last night I went to my first party of the holidays, this one for the employment law section of our local bar association. This was a signal to me it was time to publish my Top Ten list for Christmas movies. Here they are, but if you disagree or think I’ve left any out, feel free to weigh in with a comment:

1.    A Christmas Carol (1951)

Dickens was one of the greatest writers of all time, and in my book this is the best Christmas movie of all time.  It’s the story of repentance and redemption.  The story is so good, I’ve included the 1938 movie as number 10 on this list as well.  Best line:  Scrooge to Cratchit:  “I suppose you’ll be wanting the whole day off for Christmas!”  I try this line on my employees every year.  It’s always good for some nervous laughter.

Continue reading “Top 10 Christmas Movies Of All Time”

Boethius On Congressman Rangel

(c)iStockphoto.com/tacojim

Anicius Boethius (A.D. 480-524) was a Roman Christian philosopher who lived just after its last emperor was deposed.  He had progressed to the highest of political offices in Rome before being accused (falsley, he contended) of a conspiracy against the government.

While in prison awaiting his death, he wrote his classic, The Consolation of Philosophy. In discussing those things men seek to make them happy, but which are unable to confer true happiness, he comes to political office.

Boethius writes: “But it is said, when a man comes to high office, that makes him worthy of honour and respect.  Surely such offices don’t have the power of planting virtue in the minds of those who hold them, do they?  Or of removing vices?  No: the opposite is true.  More often than removing wickedness, high office brings it to light, and this is the reason why we are angry at seeing how often high office has devolved upon the most wicked of men…”

Yesterday a panel of eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives found Congressman Charles Rangel guilty on 11 counts of ethical wrongdoing.  Tomorrow the full Ethics Committee will determine his punishment.

Earlier this year former representative, Eric Messa, who had resigned from Congress amid sexual harassment allegations, admitted to groping a male staffer.  (The rumor is he has now applied for a job with the TSA).  Before that former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards had a love child with a female staffer while his wife was battling cancer, lied to the nation about it, and then finally came clean when the National Inquirer produced pictures.

We watch this perverse play and it is tempting to say, “All politicians are scoundrels and liars.”  But as Boethius correctly noted 1,500 years ago, it’s not that all politicians are that, but that men are that, and high political office exposes them for what they are.  The problem is not with politicians but with men.  And only Jesus can make better men. GS

Musings About Halloween

I have to admit, I’m probably like most other American Christians. I recognize Halloween is the celebration of death, fear and the occult, but  we still give out candy to the kids who come by. We don’t hand out Bible verses or preach to them. We just play along and are glad when it’s over.

But I got to thinking. I wonder if witches and others who are into the occult (notice I didn’t say “who dabble in the occult”–I don’t know what it is about the occult that prompts dabbling, and I’m not even sure what dabbling is) are upset that Halloween has become so commercialized.

As I mentioned in the post yesterday, Halloween is the second biggest holiday in the United States in terms of money spent.  Just two years ago, Americans spent $5.1 billion on Halloween, more than Easter, Mother’s Day and Thanksgiving.

So, I wonder, do the witches and occultists long for the days when people celebrated Halloween for what it really is: the glorification of death, fear and the occult?

Do they complain that pumpkin farmers and companies like Hallmark have taken the true spirit out of the holiday? I wonder if they talk about the good old days when people didn’t even bother with giving homeowners the option of “trick or treat” but went straight to the vandalism and property damage.

Or maybe they boycott Halloween completely and instead hold all night vigils with their covens where they break out their Ouiji boards and Dungeons and Dragons, while listening to the backmasking on Stairway to Heaven.

I don’t know, I’m just guessing, but it seems plausible. GS