Amadeus Movie Review

Ok, I decided to join Netflix and since I have increased the amount of entire movies I'm watching (as opposed to a part here and there between commercials as TV gives you), I thought I should write an analysis of the movie and what I think of it. After all, I don't believe in just allowing movies to influence my thinking and worldview without really thinking to how it applies to life.

First movie I watched was the 80s classic "Amadeus". I know. I know, this has been around for a while and here it is 2006 and I'm just beginning to watch it. Well at least I finally did. I used to take piano lessons, so I have played some amount of Mozart and do have respect for him as a composer and musical genius. My wife and I sat down watching Amadeus and we quickly became hooked. I thought it was very well written and definitely did not have the boring pace of "Pride and Prejudice" (no offense to all who love those movies). I found it fascinating that one of the main opponents of Mozart was this character who actually loved Mozart and was astounded at his brilliance in music, yet believed that he wasn't as blessed from the Lord with the gift of music. In the long run, he becomes bent on destroying this man and becomes bitter at God. Why? Mainly because he believed that God had given Mozart a gift he didn't deserve. Mozart was kind of a wild fellow, and although he was diligent the main guy (I forget his name) became jealous to the point of turning his back on God believing that he was blessed with less of a gift of music than Mozart. Sounds like he worshipped the gift of music more than the One who gives us good music (God). His idolatry finally climaxed when he worked Mozart to death, and then ended up going insane himself. Fascinating. Really showed how common grace in music is given in different portions to different people and the danger of becoming so obsessed with the talent and success of another that you lose your joy in what you've been given.

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" 1 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

X-Men 3 - The Last Stand
I have to confess that this movie was entertaining but not very substational. I had seen all the other X-men movies, so I decided to watch this one and it definitely offered plenty of action-packed clips. However there were parts that I just found kind of boring and without character development. First of all Wolverine in my opinion was just a cocky know-it-all who kind of got annoying with how powerful and great he thought he was. The other thing is that he says a line in there that really made me wonder if the script writer had a father problem. Wolverine tries to give counsel to one character and when she thinks he should give her an order to do the right thing Wolverine replies "I'm not your father, I'm your friend." What does that mean? All fathers are supposed to be bossy and not care what their children are struggling with and true friends understand in a way no father could? Lame, lame, lame. Fortunately, I was blessed with a father I would also consider my friend. On top of that, they all unite and live happily ever after. Kind of disappointing, and not worth re-watching in my opinion. However, our of 5 stars, I would give it about 3.5 because it still was better than Fantastic Four and the childish take-off Zoom in my opinion. That's my two cents.