Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Powder Review


Another movie I managed to squeeze into my schedule. Actually I rather enjoyed this interesting movie about an abnormal boy. I first want to preface this review by saying that I hated the movie "ET". Say what you want about how cute Eliot and ET were, I just never fell in love with the alien who could make a bicycle fly. Maybe my distaste for the movie had something to do with me watching it for the first time when I was 16 years old. After hearing over and over how wonderful the movie was, I guess I just was expecting more. Now I did happen to like Star Wars, but never really grew to love Episodes 1, 2, and 3 that much. Jar jar binks may have had something to do with that. ANYWAY - I digress back to the review of Powder. This is kind of an alien movie, but mainly just an interesting story of how people respond to others that are different. Powder is a really nice kid who has some pretty weird powers with electricity and has a way of reading what others are thinking. This really unnerves a few people, not to mention he doesn't look like your average teenager. However, their were many lessons of life explored and the acting was well-done. A very interesting character study on a small town's reaction to a new kid. It was worth watching in my opinion. That is saying something and keeps my Netflix subscription continuing. I was losing hope after "Nacho Libre" and some other lame movies, but gems like these keep me hopeful that good movies still are made. However, disclaimer on the worldview in this movie - a little different than you may believe. It appears that Powder believes that all matter becomes other matter to the point that he believes when you die you become the wind, the trees and the air. I don't know if that is what the writer believes or if he/she were merely trying to include some references to Albert Einstein in this movie, but it does come across throughout. 1.5 thumbs for this one!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

The Effect of this blog

Crazy picture of me around New Years 2007. (now removed)

Today while listening to a great message preached at my church, our pastor challenged us to think about the effect our blog has on others. I thought that was interesting because I wondered if all my weird movie reviews were what others would call "uplifting". Sure, the material may not be that offensive, but really who cares what I think about movies. From what I can see (my observations in talking to others), I have strange movie tastes anyway compared to many movie buffs out there, so I really am considering quitting the movie reviews on my blog. I want this blog to be something that people find useful and at least leave with a better perspective on life as a result of the material contained in this blog. Maybe this wouldn't be from me, but as long as I am quoting others and reflecting on what truly matters in life, work and recreation, maybe that would be more beneficial to all those in blog-readerville than my two cents on movies. So I challenge all those who read this to leave me a comment as to if my movie reviews should continue or whether there should be more variation in content of this blog. Yes, I do recognize that I have been negligent in updating, but part of that is related to the fact that I haven't been watching movies as much. I did watch "When Harry Met Sally" and "Michael" but have yet to write a review on these. Anyway - let me know what you would prefer to see on a blog like this.