Change Your Image
return_to_cinder
Reviews
Hard as Nails (2007)
Interesting character study of the fundamentalist mindset
Justin Fatica is a born again Catholic, a reformed troublemaker and masturbator (yes this comes up), and son of a very wealthy family.
He has "found his life's calling" in being a minister and we are told his story in this engaging documentary.
Not applying himself in school and making questionable ethical choices, among other things, led Justin to "give himself to God" when he was around 19 years old. Apparently God "touched" this young man, if both in the heart and the head.
Proselytizing is game one for Justin he loves Christ with all his heart and darned if the world isn't going to know about it he even met his wife when he went to her dorm room jabbering for Jesus.
Many people really like Justin and Hard As Nails ministries like them enough to give thousands of dollars - but of course, others don't. The Catholic organization of Vermont bans Justin from preaching because of his sideshow tendencies in "bringing the word" - but no problem there - Hard As Nails will just go into the fundamentalist protestant churches from now on.
The preaching method that gets Justin banned is quite the interesting package. If he isn't letting an assistant bang him in the back with a fold-up metal chair Wrestlemania-style while he implores an impressionable young mind with evangelical platitudes, he is calling overweight girls fat (yes, the exact word he uses) in order so that God can see their inner beauty.
Over the course of the show, Justin even has an encounter with an "angry atheist" which could have been even better if the nonbeliever hadn't been quite plastered and reduced to spouting curses.
This documentary is enlightening, thought-provoking, and very revealing about the mindset, or lack thereof, of the American fundamentalist believer.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Too much cheese...
Cheese is good in moderate amounts. But have you ever had a hamburger for example that had extra mozzarella? It is overload and it ruins the meal.
Such is the case for this movie. The acting is laughable at times and the script is ridiculous. I kept thinking to myself "No they are not trying to pull off the love triangle bull manure like Pearl Harbor." Well, they did. It doesn't work here either.
That said, I did rate this movie 6/10. The special effects are great and the action scenes/circumstances are some of the best if not the best to date. That doesn't save the overall movie though.
Like a bad cheeseburger, this movie will satisfy your hunger for big budget comic book flicks, but you might have to take some Tums afterwords.
Last Stand of the 300 (2007)
Nice program to give "300" its historical perspective
I watched this program the night before I saw "300," and I was glad that I did.
I had heard people complaining about "300" not being historically accurate, and while being true, that movie was meant to entertain, not teach history.
This program goes into depth about the lives of the Spartans and circumstances surrounding the battle at Thermopylae.
As far as documentaries go, it is above average quality and certainly worth seeing of you have or plan to watch "300" or are just interested in this part of history period. The reenactments are good and the scholarly commentary is very informative. I also think that they had the movie in mind when they produced this show, so that the progression overlaps and lets the viewer make a good pre- or post-viewing comparison between Hollywood and history.
Book TV (1998)
Very interesting programs interspersed with boring ones
As this program airs continually on cspan2 on the weekend and on some holidays, there is a lot of what I would call filler. But if you watch the listings closely, you'll find authors and speakers that talk about things that are very, very interesting.
Gems that I have recently watched included a reason and religion debate between Sam Harris (author "Letter to a Christian Nation" and "The End of Faith") and Reza Aslan (author "No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam",) a lively lecture by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on his new book "Death by Black Hole," and recent Daily Show and Realtime with Bill Maher guest Ayaan Hirsi Ali talking about her book "Infidel." I gave this program a 10/10 rating for the segments that deal with topics that I find interesting such as religion, science, and politics but there are many, many topics covered that almost anyone interested in the literary world will find interesting.
The range of opinions presented are also varied and diverse. Both liberals and conservatives can find authors and topics within this programming that they will like.