One Minute Review: Get Low

Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, and the Great Depression?  What could go wrong?  Before leaving your hermit cabin in the woods to see the film “Get Low,” maybe you should watch the One Minute Review. 


One Minute Review: Get Low from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.


If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?

One Minute Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

This is the One Minute Review of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  From the director who brought you Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz comes the story of a young man who must defeat a girl’s seven evil exes.  Loaded with references to video games, indie rock, and comic books, let the One Minute Review offer some wisdom on whether you will like this movie enough to go see it. 


One Minute Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.


If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?

One Minute Review: The Other Guys

This is the One Minute Review of the Other Guys.  Is this buddy cop farce staring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg worth your time and money?  I’ll let you know what I think. 


One Minute Review: The Other Guys from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?

The Dove Award for Narcissism

I love this person's videos.  This new one is awesome.



If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?

One Minute Review: Winter's Bone

The One Minute Review gets some indie cred by commenting upon the well reviewed but barely seen Winter's Bone. If you've actually seen this little flick, I hope you enjoy the hommage to the film's color palate.

One Minute Review: Winter's Bone from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.


If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?

One Minute Review: Dinner for Schmucks

Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd are comic geniuses. However, they don't always make good movies. What about this one? Is it worth seeing? Let the OMR give you the good news and the bad news to help you decide.

One Minute Review: Dinner for Schmucks from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?

39

David Paul DeRubbio

Today I am 39 years old.  A year from now, I change decades.  But, for now, I'm still in the under 40 set.

It is my custom on my birthday to consider those of greater fame whom I have now officially outlived. I don't do this as joke, but rather to honor some people who made great contributions at a younger age.  I also do it to remind myself that I don't have all the time in the world, that my death draws ever nearer. 

This is especially difficult for me today because my high school friend Scott Raymond is in hospice as I write this, not long for this world.  Scott was a kind, funny, energetic, handsome and talented young man.  We were in band, choir, and theater together.  He far excelled me in all of those endeavors.  While I suffered from social awkwardness, and was not always the easiest person to get along with, Scott was always a warm and accepting soul.

His mother had been my 2nd grade teacher.  In our public school, she used to lead us in the Lord's Prayer each day before we went to the lunchroom.  Standing with my class, saying that prayer, is one of my favorite memories of childhood.  We were so good, and yet so bad.

On to my list.  As of today, I have officially outlived the following people who died at the age of 38:

• Flo Jo (Florence Griffith Joyner)
• George Gershwin 
• John John (John F. Kennedy, Jr.)
• Roberto Clemente
• Sam Kinison
• Corey Haim
• Paul Gray (of Slipknot)
• Philippe Cousteau
• Joan Shorenstein (of the Washington Post)
• Tamara Lazakovich (Soviet gymnast)
• Maria Bronte (the eldest Bronte sister)
• David Paul DeRubbio of the NYFD , and 131 other 38 year-olds, who were murdered by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001.

"Blessed is he who keeps his death ever before his eyes."  --Thomas a Kempis

If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?

The Man Without A Dragon Tattoo

I read Entertainment Weekly (pray for me), and so I had heard of something called “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”  I had no idea what that was--video game, TV show, movie, graphic novel, whatever--but it had a cool title.  Then about a month ago I was on Amazon.com and was informed that I could download this novel to my Kindle for $5.99.  I thought, "why not?  Let’s see what all the fuss is about."

While I was on vacation, I read the Stieg Larsson novel “cover to cover” (a phrase I put in quotes since I read it in digitized form, so there was no cover per se).  After reading it, I watched the film of the same name.  While I could have seen it in the theater on Martha’s Vineyard, I decided to see it streaming on Netflix for free.

Since then, I have read a bit about the author’s life, and have been invited by Amazon to download the other two books in the series.  I have also been informed that Daniel Craig, who I loved even before he was James Bond, will be playing the male lead in the upcoming Hollywood version of the film (because Americans won’t pay to read subtitles).

Now, having done all that, I am prepared to make my grand pronouncement.  Ready, here it comes.  Drum roll please . . . .

What?  Really?  Am I missing something?  (yes, that is my grand pronouncement). 

This book is OK, but it isn’t especially good.  I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, though it was good enough to finish.  I thought the lead man, Mikael, was kind of tool.  Lisbeth didn’t seem like a real person to me at all; she just had too many superpowers.  The other characters all seemed fairly one-dimensional.  I didn't believe about half of the relationships.  I questioned characters' motivations.  I was annoyed by the over-attention to minor details and the way major details were sometimes ignored.

There were effectively three mysteries in this novel.  The answer to the presenting mystery was fairly obvious (though the how? was impossible for the reader to figure out).  Of the other two mysteries, one went way over-the-top (Nazis, the Old Testament, and serial killing, oh my) and the other, the one involving the bad-guy captain of industry, was handled far too quickly.  The book was talky, it dragged, and then when stuff did happen the action felt out of place.  Overall, the book strained credibility.  Further, and this was confirmed in my mind by my some of Larrson’s biographical data, the whole experience made me feel that I was privy to a particular man’s fantasy life.  Whatever Larsson wanted to be, he made Mikael that. 

The movie was better than the book.  By cleaning up the plot, the story was somewhat more believable.  The acting was generally solid; most everything else about the film was average.  I was glad that Mikael was less of a sexual stud, though I did not need to see the brutality that happens a couple of times. 

All in all, I don’t feel the need to read the other books.  I doubt I will see the other movies.  I don’t hate the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Even though I sort of attack it in this post, it was interesting enough to read all the way through (though I did consider stopping several times).

I am left with this very serious question:  Why?  Why this book?  Why did it explode in popularity?  Why are so many people reading it?  Why the rush to make a Hollywood version of it? (OK, the answer to that question is invariably “money.”)

If you loved the book or the movie, or the series of books, would you please tell me why? What is it about this story that has made it so popular with so many people?  I would very much like to know. 


If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?

Anne Rice

For those of you who don't know her, Anne Rice is an author.  She became famous for writing fiction about vampires, before Twilight.  Then a few years ago, she announced that she had become a Christian.  Last week, she said something on facebook.  That thing she said has caused a firestorm among Christian bloggers.  Here is what she said:

For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

Later, she said this:

My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.

Since saying these things, she has been utterly thrashed on-line.  And she has also been defended, usually by people who agree with what she said.  I don't agree with what she said.  I think that being committed to the Church and being committed to Christ are indivisible.  But a couple of people asked me for my thoughts, and I took the time to write them down, so here is what I think of this little controversy. 

It seems to me that Anne Rice is immature in her faith.  I say that because she said things that many, many immature people have said over the years: I love Jesus but I don't like the Church.  Books have been written about this feeling.  Surveys have been done.  And it is a feeling that is reiterated constantly by every hip pastor/CCM musician/christian author/Barna disciple/emergent guy out there.  Isn't this what people say when they say "I'm not a Christian, I'm a Christ-follower"?   Of course that thinking is immature, but it is not unusual at all in evangelical circles. 

Further, she said it on facebook.  Facebook is an instant form of broadcast, well suited to immature thoughts that, in the past, would have stayed personal.  Now those thoughts become public and permanent.  People used to get drunk at parties in college, but no one cared a year later.  Now that drunken party, that immaturity, is on-line forever.  It is stupid and immature, but it is not unusual. 

Further, she said it response to the perceived anti-woman and anti-gay bias in certain parts of Christianity.  That perception may be overblown, but it is actually based on the way certain Christians talk and behave.  She isn't crazy to see that.  She doesn't have the personal discipleship to see the arguments from a deeply biblical perspective.  To her, perhaps love is the same thing as celebration of behavior (who knows?).  OK, she isn't well formed in Christian theology.  She is immature in her faith.

And, to all this, I say: so what?  She is immature in her faith.  Maybe someday she won't be, God alone knows.  But how immature is it for all these Christian bloggers to jump on her.  As if she is some Christian pastor or bishop or theologian who has made a distinctly heretical statement.  She writes fiction, she is a lay person.  So what if she is immature in her faith?  Big deal.  Were you looking to her for theological insights or pastoral advise before this?  I hope not.  Leave the woman alone.  Pray for her, if you wish, but otherwise . . . take some of that "righteous anger" (or whatever it is) and go out and love somebody in the Name of Jesus.


If you are reading this as a note on facebook, may I recommend you visit www.ThomasMcKenzie.com for the full service version?