A friend and I talked about our favorite movies today. Considering that the most recent movie I watched was The Joker, it was nice to reminisce about movies that I truly enjoy. Many of my favorite movies are parts of franchises now; some of them were we they were first released. By and large, the majority of them are blockbusters, often with action and sci-fi elements, but there are some that are complete stand-alones. In general, a favorite movie of mine is one that I can rewatch. As an example, The Shawshank Redemption and Schindler's List are two amazing movies that I highly recommend, but they are not in my group of favorite movies because I don't think that I ever want to see them again. 

Anyway, our conversation included some of my standard movies: The Lord of the Rings (all extended with The Fellowship of the Ring being my favorite of the three), The Dark Knight, Captain America: The Winter Solider, Empire Strikes Back and the original Star Wars film (A New Hope), Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,  Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (and then The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country, and First Contact), The Hunt for Red October, The Fifth Element, 2010, Apollo 13, and The Matrix. If you need any explanation for any of them, let me know; I would happy to talk to you about them for hours.

As I've thought about it, there are some other movies that I feel should be added to this list:
Silverado - the all-time greatest Western; I will fight you if you believe otherwise
Sliding Doors - a romantic comedy with a sci-fi twist
The Princess Bride - I don't know why it didn't come up in the original conversation
Star Dust - it has a Princess Bride vibe
Once Upon a Deadpool - the underrated sequel to The Princess Bride
Fools Rush In - this is a charming and underappreciated rom-com
Pirates of the Caribbean - Just the first one
Hot Fuzz - the all-time greatest buddy cop movie; see note on Silverado
The Truman Show - my favorite Jim Carrey movie
Groundhog Day - I can see this one over and over again
The Forbidden Planet - a favorite of my fathers that I came to appreciate on my own as it is an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest
Die Hard, Live Free or Die Hard, and Red - the best of Bruce Willis after The Fifth Element
Mulan, Moana, Aladdin, and Hunchback of Notre Dame - in that order
Harry Potter 3, 6, and 4 - in that order
Star Trek Beyond - the best of the rebooted Star Treks
Ghost Busters - another one that should have been in the original conversation
An American President - which would become the basis for The West Wing TV show

There's more, but I can say that any of the above movies are ones that if someone says they haven't seen it and would like to, I'm ready to pop the DVD in right away.

Another hero of mine has passed away.  Even though the Internet is full of people discussing, mourning, and reflecting on the passing of Robin Williams, I still want to add my voice to those who are expressing their grief at this loss.

For me, like many people, Robin Williams was the crazy uncle of the family.  Unlike many other actors and comedians, there was something about his presence that made him relatable, if off the wall.  Perhaps part of it, for me, was because I started watching him play Mork while I was still rather young and impressionable.  Through Mork, Robin played a naive, yet lovable, crazy person, someone who helped us examine the craziness in our own lives that we otherwise took for granted.

In a way, his characters in my two favorite movies of his, Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poets Society (whose ending will make it so I might not watch it again), expanded on this identity that he created with Mork.  In both, he is still an outside observer who helps people understand more about life through his wild manner.  In both, he was also a bit naive and surprised by the harshness of reality.

His passing also brings to light the loneliness that so many people feel.  It amazes me how much we, as humans, isolate ourselves even when we are surrounded by others.  In his case, perhaps his talent and energy brought about a bit of a curse for him.  Perhaps he felt like an outsider in reality which is why some of his roles were so convincing.

I'm not going to pull a moral out of this.  He was a great man who will be missed.

I just finished watching My Fellow Americans, a comedy from 1996 where two ex-Presidents (one Republican, one Democrat) must work together to help uncover a plot to discredit and kill them.   Played by Jack Lemon and James Garner, these two Presidents can't stand one another, but they not only learn how to work together, but they learn something about the people in the country that they were running as well.

I like this movie for its comedy and its entertaining cast, but mostly for the themes that it has.  One of the most important of these that struck me as I watching the movie today is how much more we accomplish when we work together rather than when we work against one another.  

Politics in America was designed to be divided.  The intention of the founders of this nation was to create a system that required debate and discussion before action could be taken.  Too often in America's history has this intentional division been taken too far.  Too often do the politicians on both sides use rhetoric to demolish the other side rather than use action to prove the positives of their own positions.  This is not a new phenomenon, but it is sad nonetheless.  

This is a nation that needs debate in order to make certain that the government is doing what is best for its citizens, but it needs debates that don't completely alienate the various positions.  We need to start listening to one another again and acknowledge the strengths of the various arguments.  The politicians of our nation are not trying to destroy America, and we need to recognize that.  People are not wrong simply because they support a different political party.  Once we clear those unworthy ideas from the American consciousness, we can make our country (and our world) a better place.

You see, you can learn things from watching movies.

More so than any other television show, except perhaps M.A.S.H., the Rockford Files was a major part of my early childhood.  I don't remember much from the show itself other than its car chases, but I remember Jim Rockford and his personality.  In some ways, I almost thought of him like an uncle.  It sounds weird as I write it, but it was true nonetheless.  

My father was a big fan of James Garner.  I believe his favorite movie is The Americanization of Emily (which is certainly worth watching).  Along with the Rockford Files, he also tried to watch any of the reruns of Maverick, which I enjoyed more, that he could find.  I know that these characters helped to form my idea of what a hero should be.  They didn't seek out confrontations and they often looked for non-violent solutions.  They were concerned about day-to-day life, but had a code of ethics that didn't allow them to ignore the downtrodden.

As I grew up, seeing James Garner in a film or show was like seeing a relative or friend.  I didn't always like the roles that he played, but I still looked forward to seeing him.  With that in mind, his passing has affected me almost as much as if a relative or friend passed away.  It amazes me how much we are affected by the lives of people who never met us.

We watched the first half of the Rockford Files pilot episode last night.  The clothes and hairstyles are entertaining and the show's pacing is MUCH slower than to what we are now accustomed, but the show is still entertaining and it was like seeing an old friend again.  Rest in peace, James Garner.

Bryan Singer did it; he fixed the massive screw-up that followed his leaving X-Men 3 in the hands of lesser writers.  The newest X-Men movie does not explain how some things (like Professor X still being alive) managed to change, but it doesn't need to.  Not only does it repair the damage from X-Men 3 while keeping most elements from the various movies in relative consistency, it even manages to tie in X-Men: First Class and leave multiple avenues for this movie series to explore in the future.

I believe X-Men 2 remains my favorite of the series, but this movie is now at least a close second.  It suffers from some of the standard problems of the series (How many immensely massive objects does Magneto need to prove he can levitate?), but it had characters I could care about, actions that were relatively believable, and moments that I would just like to see again.  One particular pickpocket turns out to be a scene-stealer as well.

I don't know if I should have brought Connor to see the movie as well as Trevor, but he seemed to do pretty well with it.  His favorite X-Man?  Wolverine, of course.  There are some disturbing images through the movie as a portion of it is in a dystopian future.  Perhaps I should be concerned that he didn't seem bothered by it.  Trevor, meanwhile, had his hands covering his eyes through quite a few parts (I think Mystique's scenes were what really got to him).

Like anything dealing with time-travel, I have some questions and concerns about both the method and the "rules" that they established for it.  They make sense for the cinematic aspect, but not when I try to apply any level of logic to them.  Alas, I have yet to find the time-travel movie that satisfies its own internal logic.

All said, I am certainly willing to go see the movie again.  Let me know if you need someone to see it with you.

We're watching the movie Bandits at the request of my oldest daughter.  Cate Blanchett, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bruce Willis form an unlikely group of bank robbers who sleep over at a bank manager's house the night before they rob the bank.  It is a well-constructed, if highly convoluted, movie that makes me laugh out loud at least every minute.

It's worth watching if you haven't seen it.  If you have seen it, it's worth watching again.

The new Noah movie starring Russell Crowe and Emma Watson has naturally created a flurry of discussion about Christian beliefs in general and the story of Noah in specific.  While some of the discussion has been from religious people concerned about the dramatization of this event and its accuracy when compared to the Bible, some of the discussion has been about the event itself and what it might reveal about the character of God.  One specific question that has been raised is how can a just and loving god kill off most of creation?

Surely not everyone killed in the flood was evil.  What about the children?  For a religion that is supposed to support life, this story seems rather blood-thirsty.

I don't have the best answer for this.  Frankly, natural disasters are one of the more difficult hurdles that I have to jump in my religion.  Still, I posit the following (and please remember that I am not a theologian nor a geologist):  

The world has survived many extinction-level calamities (us humans causing the largest of them all in number of species ended).  Humans have feared the omen of a comet in the sky (attributed to some level of calamity in nearly every culture of the world).  At some point in our past, a comet appeared in the sky, growing steadily bigger as it approaches and is captured by the Earth.  God warns His people of the danger, but only Noah listens.  The rest of the people deny the threat; some of them throwing "end of the world" parties.  God warns that their preparations need to include species of animal and bird rather than merely the creation of a life raft to hold people and a few supplies.  This event will require a massive rebuilding.  Only Noah and his family prepare.  Some people perhaps half-heartedly imitate Noah's plan, but nothing near the scale that he attempts.  

As the extra pull of the heavenly body asserts massive tidal pressures on the Earth (pulling the water through the gates of the ground), people begin their panic, still not listening to God.  They loot, rape, and murder as people so often do in the face of looming disaster.  Noah makes his final preparations and closes the ark.  The comet finally ends its orbit and crashes into an ocean.  Massive tsunami cross over the Earth.  Hurricane level storms fill the atmosphere.  The world is covered in water.

Noah's ride is not an easy one, but his preparations allow him to survive.  By listening to God's warning, Noah saved our species from a species-killing event.  Over time, the warning would be against the sinfulness of those who did not listen to God.  While true, the story of Noah is more powerful to me because it shows not a mass-murdering God, but a God who warned us and showed us how to save ourselves from a world-ending event, and the man who listened.

Two weeks of vacation around Christmas and New Year's Day (and my birthday) make up one of my favorite perks about my job.  These breaks usually don't see me getting much done as far as work or home-improvement are concerned, but I usually get the chance to recharge my mental and spiritual batteries.  As this break is coming to a close, I wanted to share some of the highlights:

1. I didn't put out my back.  Last year, I ended vacation with the most excruciating pain that I have ever experienced.  And while the snowpocalypse might still hit tonight or tomorrow, I have thus far avoided a similar experience.  This, by itself, makes this year's break a hundred times better than last year's.

2. Time with friends and family.  While a GNOME (Guy's Night Of Monster Evisceration) didn't occur, and I haven't seen some of the people whom I love this break, I had tremendously enjoyable times with people I did get to spend time with.  Every family and friend get-together this break was better than I thought they would be (even when I had high hopes to begin with).

3. Dungeons and Dragons became enjoyable again.  Since mid-summer, my enthusiasm for role-playing has been waning.  It was starting to feel like too much of a bother with not enough pay-off.  All it took was one great session with wonderful people to restore my love of this type of game/get-together.

4. The Last of Us - I can only play this game at night due to its horrifying, brutal, and profane content, but this game has one of the best stories that I have experienced this year.  I don't know why I like the post-apocalyptic genre so much, but this game has presented the most realistic (for a vombocalypse story) and still mildly uplifting view that I have yet seen (I refuse to watch The Road).  The gameplay is good.  Still, my favorite parts of the game are when the characters aren't in combat, but are simply exploring the desolation of their world and getting to know and understand each other a little better.  

5. New Year's Day mass - Due to a time mix-up, my mother and I attended the mass on New Year's Day at Queen's rather than St. Mary's.  Between the readings and the guest preacher's sermon, I left this particular mass inspired to a degree that I hadn't anticipated.  I truly wish that more people could experience the grace and contentment that this mass filled into my soul.

6. I turned 40.  The Pirates of the Caribbean marathon went better than I expected (that second movie is just crap), but I was most surprised about how at peace I've felt with reaching this new marker in my life.  Turning 30 made me feel the weight of all that I hadn't accomplished; turning 40 made me appreciate more all that I have.

There are certainly more elements that have combined to make this a favorite winter vacation.  That the snowpocalypse might extend it is a nice bonus.