Our Next Film...this friday!

Notes will be posted by wednesday nite...

127 Hours

The new film from Danny Boyle is mesmerizing and a powerful reflection on humanity's need for connection.

WALL-E

WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL·E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future. He eventually falls in love with another robot named EVE, and follows her into outer space on an adventure that changes the destiny of both his kind and humanity.
In chapter 2, Walk Home, we're introduced to our main character WALL-E & the earth that we've left behind for him to clean.  It shows the end result to a planet that mankind has abused for his purposes and left for a life of total leisure.  The artificial life then created on the Axiom makes man a slave to technology and their own base appetites, having lost what makes us human.  

Genesis 1:24-28 (The Message)

 ^24-25 God spoke: "Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind:
      cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds."
   And there it was:
      wild animals of every kind,
   Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug.
      God saw that it was good.

 ^26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God's nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

In chapter 14, Welcome to the Axiom, WALL-E encounters humans at the height of consumerism & disconnect from each other.  Their every want & whim is satisfied immediately leaving out the messy parts of real life where no one has to deal with the person next to them or be in any meaningful relationship.  BnL has become their god to them offering comfort & convenience at the cost of meaningful existence.

Matthew 6:27-33 (The Message)

 ^27-29"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
 ^30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

In chapter 31, Back Together, EVE rushes WALL-E back to his truck for repair.  When she finishes with his repair, WALL-E resumes his original purpose in cleaning the mess that was left on Earth.  Soon, after some prodding from EVE, WALL-E's true identity reappears showing us all that purpose is truly to be found in relationship not in doing, but in being.

Colossians 3:9-14 (The Message)

 ^9-11Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
 ^12-14So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

Conviction

A poor director can't totally sink this tale of redemption and truth.

Conviction opens with a 1980 crime scene in Ayer, Mass. In a little trailer home in the country, clothes and furniture are scattered across the floor; blood is smeared all over the walls and doors; and a female corpse rests peacefully beside her bed. This gritty progression, with slow shots, quiet music and a solemn atmosphere, marks an artistry that could have made Tony Goldwyn’s biographical drama a masterpiece given the story and cast. Unfortunately, this accomplished scene is the only one of its kind to show distinction or imagination, and because of this as well as some blunders in the script, the film, which was destined for greatness, has to settle for something just below that.

more...

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/film/reviews/23158-conviction

The new movies premiering this week

Morning Glory

Rachel McAdams as a young producer hired to wrangle two grouchy TV morning show hosts (Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton). (Opened Wednesday.)

Monsters

Director-writer Gareth Edwards crafts a nifty low-budget thriller about a journalist and a young tourist who have to cross Mexico six years after an invasion of giant alien creatures. Insert your own metaphor about illegal aliens.

Skyline

Directing brothers Colin and Greg Strauss with a big-budget story of an extraterrestrial force that threatens to swallow all the Earth's people.

Unstoppable

Denzel Washington and Chris Pine as a couple of railroad workers who have to save Pennsylvania when an unmanned train speeds off with a deadly cargo.

Sunday's Coming

hoping this is never us...

The Off- Kilter World of Zach Galifianakis

Talking stand-up, authenticity and beards with the current king of comedy.


Don’t go into an interview with Zach Galfianakis expecting him to provide you with straight answers. Like when asked a throwaway question of what band he’d like to jam out with onstage, the actor and comedian pauses, strokes his famous beard and stares at the ceiling, as if deeply pondering the most important question he’s ever been asked. You’re unsure for a second: Is he really thinking about the question? Maybe mentally rifling through his record collection? Finally, with a hint of glee in his eyes, he leans forward.

“The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.”

more...

Welcome to the Rileys

should be 1 to keep an eye out for...

Watch the New Trailer for Jack Black's Gulliver's Travels

Were you one of those kids in high school who, when reading Jonathan Swift’s classic novel, Gulliver’s Travels, thought to yourself, “Self, I wish this had less biting social commentary and more tiny Kiss cover bands.”? Hey, us too!

Luckily, a second trailer for Gulliver’s Travels has been released, and it looks like the Jack Black flick takes a few liberties with the story.

In this modern-day retelling, we get Black as a hapless travel writer who stumbles upon the island of pint-sized people (including Jason Segel doing a British accent, for, you know, authenticity’s sake). Check out the trailer below.

A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American film based on the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr., a Nobel Laureate in Economics.^[2] The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. The film stars Russell Crowe, along with Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Christopher Plummer and Paul Bettany.

The story begins in the early years of a young schizophrenic prodigy named John Nash. Early in the movie, Nash begins developing paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while painfully watching the loss and burden his condition brings on his wife and friends. Later, he competes in an Egg Challenge which only worsens his symptoms.

In chapter 4, The Need to Focus, John continues to struggle with finding his original idea for his thesis.  Helinger challenges John to focus & warrant placement by sensing the subtle differences between accomplishment & recognition.  Instead of allowing the natural progression of his work flow to a just means, John's end goal focus doesn't allow him any traction at all.  

Romans 2:25-29 (The Message)

^25-29Circumcision, the surgical ritual that marks you as a Jew, is great if you live in accord with God's law. But if you don't, it's worse than not being circumcised. The reverse is also true: The uncircumcised who keep God's ways are as good as the circumcised—in fact, better. Better to keep God's law uncircumcised than break it circumcised. Don't you see: It's not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew. You become a Jew by who you are. It's the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics.

In chapter 11, A Wedding, John asks for some verifiable empirical data that tells if Alicia is in love w/him or not.  She counters in a way that only he can understand and inevitably points him in the direction that his very analytical mind can comprehend.  She doesn't leave him with a proof of sorts that makes the next step safe, but leads to the leap from empirical data to that of faith.  

Colossians 2:6-7 (The Message)

 ^6-7My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

In chapter 19, A Noble Prize, Professor Nash is interviewed to gauge if he were to win the Nobel prize the likelihood that he would embarrass the givers at the Noble Prize ceremony.  He confesses that he is crazy, but gives thanks to newer medicines & a diet of the mind that helps to keep him in check.  We would be as well served as believers to also submit our minds to regimented 'diets' that didn't indulge our own fleshly thoughts,  but instead made them captive to our Lord.  

Acts 15:6-9 (The Message)

 ^6-9The apostles and leaders called a special meeting to consider the matter. The arguments went on and on, back and forth, getting more and more heated. Then Peter took the floor: "Friends, you well know that from early on God made it quite plain that he wanted the pagans to hear the Message of this good news and embrace it—and not in any secondhand or roundabout way, but firsthand, straight from my mouth. And God, who can't be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person's thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us. He treated the outsiders exactly as he treated us, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed him