Some more family movies

We quite enjoy a family movie night with Husband’s homemade pizza. Some we have enjoyed in recent months:

Apollo 13

A blast from the past with this Tom Hanks classic. It’s a long one at well over two hours, with a solid story accounting the real problems aboard the Apollo 13 lunar expedition in 1970. Our kids (aged 8.5-13) were engrossed and could mostly follow what was going on, what the issues were and how serious it was. It was never too scary, and while there is a little bit of minor swearing, there is nothing else about this that is concerning for a family night. A great movie with real challenges and emotion, and the added bonus of it being true.   I enjoyed seeing it again too!

Finding Nemo

 

Again, a return to the classic in preparation for seeing Finding Dory. [That was seen with extended family, so no review from me yet, although the summary I gleaned was: the girls (aged 11 & 8) loved it, adults thought it wasn't as good as the original]. Everyone has probably seen this wonderful story of a little fish getting taken by a diver and put in a tank in Sydney, and his dad coming all the way from the Barrier Reef in search of him.   It always had scary bits in it (especially the shark scenes) and other scenes with real suspense, but the lovely characters and friendships forged are delightful, and there is humour to appeal to all ages. It’s a great story about family, eventually letting go, and reminding kids that parents are always ‘for you’.

Herbie Fully Loaded

This cute adventure starring Lindsay Lohan has Herbie the VW bug with a mind of his own and a way to show it. Assigned to the scrapheap, Herbie is rescued by Maggie (Lohan) as a present from her dad.  To Maggie’s astonishment, Herbie proves to be very adept as racing, controlling the car himself. Coming from a long-line of race-car drivers, she secretly enters him to race in a major event.  My girls (ages 8 & 11) thought this was great fun, they loved watching the car take control of things (no voice, just movement and action with personified headlights as eyes, noises, etc)

Enjoying that one so much meant it was time to revisit Cars.

Cars

Cars is another of the Disney Pixar classics. Produced at a time when animation had really hit its stride, it’s fun to watch a world entirely inhabited by personified cars and trucks (indeed all transport). Lightning McQueen is the new race car in the Piston Cup; a brash, insensitive, rookie who thinks he can win without support. A three way draw in the final finds him racing to California against the others to woo sponsors before the final showdown race.  He gets lost on the way and ends up in the small town of Radiator Springs, along Route 66, a town that has died with the building of the interstate. Meeting the motley crew of cars who long for their town to find its way again, McQueen is forced to re-examine both his priorities and his decisions to do things alone. This is a fun movie with great messages about friendship and competition, as well as a frank acknowledgement that while change will always happen, some people get left behind. I love the scenes with stadiums packed with cheering cars on the sidelines and racing cars on the track, and the soundtrack is good too, with the bonus of a track from one of my favourite musicians of all time, James Taylor.

The Muppets

This was a treat waiting to be unwrapped. The kids were hesitant, I promised them we would only watch half an hour and then judge it.  Of course 30 minutes in, no-one was asking for it to stop! If you watched The Muppets yourself as a child, all the favourite characters are here filling the same roles.  I laughed out loud regularly, both to previous Muppet things and new cultural references. As usual, mixing real actors with Muppets provide lots of visual gags and general humour.  In summary, the Muppet studios are to be knocked down so that oil can be drilled underneath. They have to raise $10m in a telethon to save the studios, but have times moved on?  Do people really care about the Muppets anymore? Do people still enjoy their clean-cut style of humour? With lots of all singing and dancing numbers (the highlight being Life is a Happy Song) with both muppets and actors (including Jason Segel and Amy Adams), this is great fun. Afterwards we had a look at some old Muppet clips online and had a great time laughing at those as well.

Bolt

This lovely Disney animation is getting older now (2008) but keeps its charm with the lovely story of Bolt, the superdog. That is, he thinks he is a superdog.  Bolt has spent his life on the set of a television series as the companion to his human Penny. On screen, this duo regularly save the world and since Bolt has never known any other life, he believes all his superpowers are real, something the producers have fostered to make his ‘acting’ more believable. As such, his protective love for Penny is absolute, and one day when he believes she is kidnapped, he will stop at nothing to save her. Ending up on the other side of the country, he meets a sassy cat, Mittens, who he believes holds the answer to finding Penny.The majority of the movie is the story of the two of them slowly forging a friendship, as they travel back across America and are joined by Rhino (a hamster and Bolt’s biggest fan). It’s a lovely story about friendship and the loyalty of animals, with great humour and a catchy soundtrack along the way. The final scene is a little scary for little ones when Penny is in very clear danger, but as to be expected, Bolt come to the rescue. This is a fun choice for a movie night, and it will probably endear children of most ages (including ours aged 7-11)

Click

When we get together with couples about to become parents, we talk about many things.   These include prioritising their relationship with God, prioritising their marriage, trusting themselves as new parents, managing their relationships with their own parents, and thinking about their new roles as ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’. 

One specific thing we talk about is the risk of always looking forward to the next stage, rather than finding the positives in the stage you are in.   Those “I wish they could talk”, “I wish they were at school”, “I wish we could skip the tantrums” thoughts.  All very understandable and thoughts many of us will have had at some time or another. 

One of the suggestions to bring this home is to watch the movie Click.   If you find yourself often wishing this too would pass, have a look at it.   It’s a pretty good example of what would happen if you really could skip ahead.   Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is struggling to balance all that life holds with a young family, and a busy job.  One night, a kind stranger offers him a ‘universal remote’ to help him control his life.   To his amazement, and excitement, the remote actually controls time.   He can skip arguments, mute his wife’s complaining and fast forward to when a project is completed without actually doing the work.    In time, however, it becomes clear that the remote ‘learns’, so the things he skips become skipped regularly – times of intimacy, resolution of problems, years of work.  In time, the things that Michael misses become more and more extreme and in the end, decades pass with him essentially functioning on autopilot.  It is clear that he has become trapped by his own choices. 

At one level, it’s a pretty depressing film, and it has all the usual crassness of most Sandler offerings so you certainly won’t agree with or even like parts of it, but it certainly makes you question your life’s priorities.   It’s worth watching and then thinking about where your life tends to function on auto pilot and anything you might like to think about changing.

Airman

Airman, Eoin Colfer

 

This single novel by the same author of the Artemis Fowl series has delivered another good read.   I have not reviewed Artemis Fowl to date on this blog, but simply said – they are good books for children (aged about 10 and older).   Airman is of similar quality, although rather than fantasy this is set in the 19^th century on the Saltee islands off the Irish coast in a fictional kingdom.   Conor Broekhart grows up friend of the princess and mentored by the palace tutor, all the time dreaming and planning machines with the capability of flight.   Yet, his fortunes quickly change when he is set up and imprisoned for treason.   As he realises his only hope of escape is in the air, his long term planning looks upwards.   This is a great story of character and the choices people make.  He is only a teenager, yet Conor faces adult choices – does he run for freedom, save others, clear his name or just make money?  An action packed, fast paced book recommended for those about age 12 and up.

If you like any of Colfer’s books, it’s worth reviewing his website to find more – he has written a lot, and for various ages.

Olympics

Whenever the Olympics (or any similar major sporting event) take place, there is a mixture of emotions - interest in some sports and apathy in many others, amazement and horror at the money spent to stage such events, and a realisation again of how much we idolise physical success and perfection.   Sometimes I wonder what God thinks of it all.

In an attempt to marshall some of these thoughts, I have written a prayer.  Click over to The Prayer project if you are interested.

Star Trek

I have never been a Trek fan, having been scarred forever by The Wrath of Khan (and the bugs that crawled in their ears) in my own youth.  So the TV shows and various spinoffs never held any appeal.  However, Husband suggested it was time to try the new movie franchise.   Thankfully the first two were on TV in the leadup to the new movie coming out.

So in one week, we watched Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond.   Mostly produced and directed by J.J. Abrams, (and in my basic understanding) with the same characters as the original movie series, they are pretty good.  I won’t compare them any previous Trek offering (because I can’t!), but from the perspective of someone who is essentially new to the franchise, I liked them.   It’s a great cast with Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock – and the original Leonard Nemoy as another Spock), John Cho (Sulu) and Simon Pegg (Scotty) as main characters, with many other recognisable faces along the way (obviously a cameo in a Star Trek movie is highly valued).

If you like Star Wars and The Avenger movies (as you know I do!), these will appeal as well.  The visual effects in Beyond were excellent.  The space station Yorktown is marvellous; a 3-D setting impossible in existence, but fantastic to look at.   As a side note it’s interesting that in ‘updating’ the series, Sulu now has a husband and daughter, so the only family portrayed in the movie is one with same-sex parents.

As I watch more movies like these, again and again I see clearly illustrated that light is good and dark is evil.  The good side are always in well-lit, clean and organised settings, while the evil people generally operate in dark, oppressive environments.  Yet another hint that the truth lives in all of us, and perhaps another touchstone with our popular culture that we can talk to for “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) and that even a movie can illustrate that everyone wants to be in the light.

The Deep End of the Ocean

The Deep End of the Ocean, Jacquelyn Mitchard

Published in 1997, this book quickly made it to the top of the bestseller list and I think I first read it about that time. It was later made into a movie (which I must have seen years ago, as images kept coming back to me). Having just found it again at the library, I have just re-read it.

This is a great book, full of depth and detail. Having said that if you have young children, I don’t recommend reading it at your stage. Beth Cappadora, with her three young children, heads off to her 15-year high school reunion leaving husband Pat at home alone for the weekend. Caught up in the excitement of seeing old school friends, Beth leaves 3-year-old Ben with 7-year-old Vincent in the hotel lobby while she sorts out her room reservation. Not five minutes later she returns and Ben is gone. Totally and completely gone.

A shoe found about 12 hours later indicates it was an abduction and from then the family spiral into a parent’s worst nightmare. Over the years, you read how the family deals with it, mainly Beth, Pat and Vincent, along with friends, extended family and the police force. A close friendship is forged between Beth and Candy, the officer in charge.

Those events and the following 9 years cover the first half of the book. While I rarely give spoilers (alert!), this one is on the back of the book, so it seems OK.  The second half details what happens after a strangely familiar 12-year-old from the neighbourhood knocks on the door offering to the mow the lawn.  Astonishingly it is Ben.  What follows next is the aftermath for the families – the Cappadoras with an increasingly delinquent Vincent, Pat who is delighted and insists his family is back together, and Beth who begins to see the pain that Ben is in.  For Ben, now known as Sam, has known loving parents – his mentally ill ‘mother’ did abduct him, but his step-father George knew nothing of it and has raised him, and that family is all Sam knows and remembers.

Mitchard does an excellent job of cataloguing the varied ways that grief, guilt and pain can strike different people, including children.  It’s a book that tears at your heart, yet all the time wills you to keep reading it.  A good choice for some holiday reading.

Stop the shouting

There is a very interesting commentary in The Australian newspaper this morning, from The Times "Stop the Shouting: if we don't tame Twitter, we'll face mob rule". Some excerpts are below:

"...I think communications technologies can decide the political temperature. After decades in which they generally helped moderate discourse, outside autocracies, they are now inflaming it. When blogging was all the rage a decade ago, at least there was space for nuance. Now, opinions are boiled down to a single shout. 

I use Twitter mainly to find and pass on links to articles and reports on topics that interest me. To do so, though, I have to wade through bitter feuds, walk past vicious ad-homs, jump over blatant embellishments and bump into absurd hyperbole... 

We need to find a way to tame Twitter, to fence in Facebook, to insist on net neutrality and revive moderation. To do so while respecting free speech and without handing government the power to propagandise and censor, will not be easy. But it must be attempted before the mutual shouting gets worse."

It echoes some of my own thoughts, particularly observing commentary on world events in the last few months, including our own election.

Full article is here. Apologies if you can't read it, it may be subscriber only access - I can send you a copy though if you ask.

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, Rosario Champagne Butterfield

This book has been recommended to me by friends for a number of years, but I had never managed to read it. In the meantime, Husband bought it, read it, and handed it to me!

It is the story of a university professor’s almost unwilling conversion to Christ. Rosario was a tenured English professor specialising in gender studies and queer theory, living in a lesbian relationship and a key supporter and advocate for the LGBT community.

After publishing a critique of a religious group in the local paper, one pastor write to her a letter she couldn’t ignore. It was a letter that asked her gently how she arrived at her theories, what her presuppositions were, and whether she believed in God. Intrigued by its tone and content, she got in touch with the author. It started a deep friendship with him and his wife, in which they talked about what they both believed over meals and time together.

In time she came to believe in Christ: “Although grateful, I did not perceive conversion to be “a blessing.” It was a train wreck.” (p25)

“This word - conversion - is simply too tame and too refined to capture the train wreck that I experienced in coming to terms with the Living God. I know of only one word to describe this time-released encounter: impact.” (xi) It is an open and honest account of how coming to know God completely altered her life.

She details her life prior to conversion, but only in an informative and descriptive way. At once everything changes - partner, friends, teaching, writing, lifestyle, clothes, speech and thoughts. In time, she marries a pastor, they adopt and foster four children and currently home-school them.

You never know when you read a book like this quite what it is going to say. It could obviously go in many directions. It could be lewd. It could be judgemental. It could be shocking. It could be self-aggrandizing. It is none of these.

She is honest about her struggles, open about her questions, and clear that she had much to learn. She is never hostile to the gay community, and continues to love and serve friends who are part of it.

If there is any group who come under her critique - it is those of the Christian faith who are unthought in their responses and unloving in their words and actions, those who are unable to remove the speck in their own eyes before they remove the planks in others. She challenges those in the church to see our own blinkers and blindness and judgmentalism. She challenges church prejudices, the failure to love and to serve.

It’s a biography - one woman’s account of her own experience. At the same time, it is a clear challenge to think deeper on a number of issues. How well do we really love the outsider? How hospitable are we really? Do we know how casual comments and unwise words can cause deep hurt? Are we willing to cross the bridge of culture and belief and talk with anyone, kindly and gently, about what we both believe?

For Christians - this is a book worth reading, it might challenge you and make you uncomfortable - hopefully about yourself. And that is a good thing.


One quote (almost random considering the rest of the subject matter) stayed with me – her comments on being a pastor’s wife and they echo my own thoughts:

I believe… there is a little known secret about the inner spiritual lives of pastors’ wives. The experience of really knowing the man behind the pulpit, counting the costs of his week, palpably knowing how deeply Satan wants the gospel to simply die from lack of interest, and seeing the Holy Spirit triumph in his preaching even when just the hour before all looked grim, is a great shot in the arm to enduring faith. I wish that others knew this: Pastor’s wives get the cream of the ministry, even as we sacrifice certain aspects of our personal, private and family lives to have this. I have found my life as Kent’s wife to be full, rich, amusing, edifying, and exciting. I have tasted a small bit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I would not trade this for anything. (p129-130)