Child Cancer Foundation

Now I’m taking a big risk here talking negatively about the Child Cancer Foundation, so let me first start by saying that I think that they are great and you should go support them now. But from a marketing point of view (I work in marketing) and from a frustrated Auckland in a rush point of view, their fundraising methods today raised my blood pressure and didn’t make me inclined to be generous to them.

You see I had to pick up my middle daughter early from school for an appointment, and figured I had time to sneak into Steve’s Models in Papakura. So I’m driving down Great South Road and all of a sudden I hit backed up traffic – I can see road signs ahead and cones, lots of cones. Oh great, road works.

But it wasn’t road works; it was the Child Cancer Foundation, forcing commuters to slow down so that they could ask for donations. And if that wasn’t bad enough, right on the other side of Papakura township, there they were again, double dipping, and forcing me to wait in traffic. There’s nothing easier to get Aucklander’s blood pressure rising than unnecessary traffic problems.

And there’s an easy solution that will raise as much money with out raising blood pressure, and that’s to collect money at traffic lights – It means that the cars are stationary so it’s safer, and traffic isn’t being forced to slow down and back up.

So please, Child Cancer Foundation, and all other well meaning fundraisers, please don’t slow traffic down to ask for money – do it at the traffic lights and I’ll gladly give you my loose change.

LOST #32 [Collision a.k.a. Old Habits]

Ok, a slightly better episode this week – it seems we’re up to date and can continue with the story – the most dramatic being the Ana Lucia/Sayid face off. We also got to see some of Ana Lucia’s history explaining why she’s the way she is.

But what’s with the golf? And the feel good arrival of the rafties and tailies? Too much syrup. And what about next week – looks like more flash backs to the plane crash (yawn) and a little bit of interest with Mr Eko showing Locke a book.

C’mon, you’re loosing us, give us back the mystery of the Island, some direction on the plot, and no more friggen flash backs to what we’ve already seen!

DVD | Howl's Moving Castle

The movie is based on Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Howl's Moving Castle follows the story of young Sophie Hatter, a bookworm, the eldest of three daughters, a girl doomed to an uninteresting life as a hat maker. Sophie resigns herself to her boring fate, but fate has other plans for her. Cursed by the Witch of the Waste with the body of a 90-year-old woman, she finds her way to the moving castle inhabited by the wizard Howl, said by all to eat the souls of young girls.

Howl has been cursed by the Witch as well, and is seeking the love of young girl to help him break the curse. The book has enchanted readers of all ages for nearly 20 years. I hope to find a copy of the book, because, like Sophie, I am a self confessed book-worm and I am also the eldest of three girls. :)

[Reviewed by Hope, age 9]

Casino Royale

Oh yes, Daniel Craig is the man. We'll forgive him for Enduring Love, just because he looks to be a kick-ass James Bond.Need I say more?

DVD | The Perfect Catch

The Perfect Catch is a light-hearted romantic comedy based on Nick Hornby’s book Fever Pitch.

With the story having been movie from England (and football) to America (and baseball) some of the understanding has disappeared. I mean it’s only American’s that really get baseball right?

But having said that, it’s not too hard a bridge to get over, and while predictable this is a great date movie – all soft and squishy romantic with a few well-timed laughs.

Barrymore and Fallon make the perfect adorable couple, he with his boy like charm and she with her girls like charm – a couple of school kids in love really.

Spiritual Connections
It is only after these two grasp the extent of their love for one another and are willing to sacrifice what they thought was the focus of their lives, that things come to a conclusion.

Sacrifice is a true symbol of love, but one that has to go both ways.

What's Jesus Up To?

This is a funny blog that I found over the weekend. It's well worth a look, trust me ;-)
"Let me introduce to you the talking Jesus. This blog is about documenting this simple life and taking a peek into what he gets up to on a regular basis. Stay tuned for our regular window into this interesting and varied life."

DVD | Dust To Glory

From Dana Brown, the creator of Step Into Liquid comes an adrenaline pumping, dust cloud of a documentary, Dust To Glory.

Dana Brown manages to capture the feel and intensity of the Baja 1000, the worlds longest point to point race, and probably one of the most dangerous and unpredictable races ever known to man.

Utilising 90 cameras, Brown records the wild ride that consists of 1200 participants and 270 vastly different vehicles,, where the focus of this off road race isn’t always winning, but just finishing.

Racing everything from motorbikes to dune buggies to trophy trucks, there’s one thing these riders have in common – the desire to finish and the desire to have fun.

The determination to finish is one of sheer stupidity on one level as motocross rider Mike Mouse McCoy shows, only 30KM from the finish he crashes his bike, breaking a few ribs and bruising many other places, but manages to get back on his bike to finish 7th in his category.

If you’re after an adrenaline laced ride, then Dust To Glory is for you.

DVD | Calcutta Hilton

Evie Ashton discovered the story of the Calcutta Hilton by accident. She was at her local liquor outlet when she noticed some nice wine bags for sale. These bags were made by Freeset, who were in the business of helping sex workers in Calcutta’s largest red light district.

Ashton a TV presenter known for her work on Flipside saw an interesting story, so decided to investigate Freeset further.

What she discovered was a Kiwi couple and their kids who decided to go live in Calcutta and help their neighbours – unwittingly they settled into an area called Sonagacchi, the largest sex district in Calcutta.

The need that they saw for their neighbours was having the freedom to choose. You see, most of these women never chose the sex industry – it chose them. They were forced into it, and get very little out of it. Kerry and Annie Hilton set up Freeset as a company that bends all the rules. They take the worst qualified and pay them the most they can, whilst along the way giving them an education, and more importantly, freedom.

Similar in vein to Born Into Brothels, Calcutta Hilton goes one better as it not only shows the extreme poverty of the district, but also gives a tangible solution to the problem.

It’s a heart wrenching emotional roller coaster, but well worth a watch.

Lost #31 [The Other 48 Days]

Ok, a little more excitement this week, though we already knew the outcome, so not really THAT exciting. The only interesting thing is that we now know that the ‘others’ only take ‘good’ people. This at least adds to the mystery, which has been sadly missing recently.

It also raises the question as to why the ‘others’ haven’t bothered to try and take any of the main group of survivors yet (with the exception of Walt on the raft)?

Next week looks ho hum as Lost takes a turn towards revenge, and the mysteries of the island seem to take a back seat yet again.

Might not be too long before I decide to do something else on a Wednesday night.

Q. What Intel DuoCore Laptop runs XP faster?

A. Apple MacBook Pro!

According to GearLog, the MacBook Pro's score for Photoshop performance beats every currently shipping PC laptop running on the identical Intel DuoCore chip (only an Acer came close) from PC Magazine's testing.

What's particularly interesting about this is that the MacBook Pro doesn't even have video drivers in Windows yet. Apple was always serious about building the best computers in the world. This is just evidence that it applies to hardware as well as software.

DVD | Enduring Love

Emphasis on the word enduring; Long-suffering; patient. Yep, it’s a movie that you have to endure. Not quite the same as a movie you enjoy.

But it does have its moments, including some brilliant camera work, which portrays the characters emotional state very cleverly in one particular scene. And it has some very capable Brit actors, including Mr Layer Cake and the next James Bond, Daniel Craig.

But alas, the pondering and bizarre storyline destroys any hope of this being a movie that can be recommended.

DVD | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Shane Black knows big-budget action movies, he wrote the screenplays for movies such as Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. In Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Black not only writes, but directs also. He manages to mock and undercut every action movie cliché he once helped to invent.

The story goes a little like this; Fleeing from the cops, Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr) gate crashes an acting audition - and nails it - he gets taken to Hollywood, where he discovers his high school love (Michelle Monaghan) and gets caught up in plot twisting murder mystery.

Not only is this movie a riot of action and laughs, it manages to be original whilst serving up the clichés.

Of course it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and there’s no profound message, but it’s refreshing to see some very black humour in a genre that is often taken way to seriously.

If Dreamworks had done Narnia...

[click for bigger image]

Lost #30 [Abandoned]

Yaaaaawn. Oh wait, something DID happen in this episode, that annoying Shannon got killed.

Next week might be interesting though, at least it had better be, ‘cause this second season desperately needs something to keep it going.

DVD | Crash

"Moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other."

Crash is one of those amazing movies that you’re either gonna love or hate. Me, I loved it. I loved it on so many ways.

I love movies where the key characters paths are always crossing, and I love movies where the end of the movie is shown at the beginning, but you don’t grasp it’s relevance until the end.

So what is Crash all about? It’s a dark and gritty movie about racism. And not just your stereotypical white man racism. It makes a bold generalisation that we are all racist. Every race featured in this movie has some for of racism towards someone out side of their racial group. Weather it be intentional or not, obvious or subtle, it’s still there.

But rather than just show us how bad we are, Crash attempts to show us that we can change. That life gives us opportunities to redeem ourselves, to take back what was taken, to reach out and help someone.

It’s also a funny movie in places – yes I laughed at some scenes. But the funny thing is, you start to think after you laugh, just what was so funny and should you actually be laughing. It catches you off guard.

It’s rarely predictable. Even the most heart-stopping scene doesn’t turn out how you expected it too.

But it is quite a lot to take in. It’s a visual, audio, thinking assault on your brain. If you’re after a popcorn thrill try The Island or Flight of the Pheonix. Crash is a thinking movie. Crash is a sombre movie.

Crash also takes a group of actors you never wanted to see together (some of them you never wanted to see period) and makes them work, makes them believable. I mean, Brendan Fraser in a movie with Don Cheadle? That was never going to work, but it does, in this case anyway.

Personal Thoughts
Crash starts off focussing on how distorted we see people of other races and creeds. How we pre-judge them and consequently treat them. How we elevate ourselves above them.

But by the end of the movie, some of these people are starting to change, to see people for who they really are. To accept them and even embrace them. To discover what true love really is.

I love how Rhett talks about it:
“Another thing that's great about Crash is that characters you originally find repulsive, you end up feeling sympathy for. It shows that no one is beyond redemption.”

DVD | The Island

You have been chosen. It’s these four words that the last remaining inhabitants on earth can’t wait to hear. It means they’ve won the lottery and will be going to the Island, the last inhabitable place on Earth, paradise found.

You see, there was a huge biological l disaster that contaminated most of the world and killed off most of it’s inhabitants. But survivors are found and treated at a facility, and when chosen get to go to the Island.

But if the the world really was contaminated, and unihabitable, they why do they keep finding new survivors , and why does the lottery always seem fixed. And what of there meaningless work, what does it achieve? These are dangerous questions, but ones that residen Lincoln Six-Echo can’t help but wonder.

And his wondering and investigating leades him to the horrific truth that leads him and his best friend Jordan Two-Delta on a race for their lives.

In this fast paced action spectacular, Michael Bay not only wows us with intense action and special effects, but makes us laugh with well placed humour, and causes us to think about the value of human life, and more importantly; what is human life.

Spoiler Warning
You see, Lincoln Six-Echo is just one of hundreds of specially grown humans, grown from their sponsors DNA, specifically as a life insurance premium. If they need replacement parts, they’ve got exact replicate parts just waiting to be harvested.

Personal Thoughts
The Island not only gets you thinking about the value of human life and what makes a human, human, it also poses so other worthy dilemmas. If you have to answer the question of where a cloned object becomes human, and there for worth the chance at life, it’s not a huge leap to the whole abortion debate, though I’m sure that wasn’t on Michael Bay’s agenda.

It also brings up the question of how far do we go to help others, as the subject of cloning, stem cell research and all these new fields of medical research promise us with more and more solutions to our fragile state, but bring with them even bigger moral questions.

I’m not sure where I stand on this one, but the question basically comes down to is it ok to TAKE one life to save another?

DVD | Cinderella Man

Cinderella Man is Ron Howard’s take on the inspirational true story of boxing legend James J. Braddock.

Braddock was an up and coming boxer, with an impressive record until injury and lost confidence brought him a string of bad luck, this combined with the on-set of the depression, set him sliding into obscurity and poverty.

Desperate for work, and on the verge of loosing his kids, Braddock is offered one last fight against an opponent that is expected to knock him out in the first round. But in the stuff of fairytales, Braddock finds that he has something to fight for and wins the fight by a knockout.

But it was only a one-fight deal and it’s back to the poverty line.

But Joe Gould (played by the always spectacular Paul Giamatti), Braddock’s manager manages to swing him another fight, which could, as slim a chance as it would be, secure him a journey to the heavy weight title.

Knowing nothing of the history behind this movie probably helped with the excitement and edge of your seats thrills, as even though you think you know how it’s going to finish, you’re never really sure.

Whilst it’s based on a true story, Ron Howard has used artistic license to provide the viewer with an easy villain in Max Baer, which helps increase the tension. Howard however portrays the depression era hardships with some gritty realism.

Personal Thoughts
One of the most interesting scenes is at the press conference before the big fight, where one journalist asks Braddock why he keeps on fighting. The journalist was probably expecting some egotistical comment, but Braddock keeps it simple and to the point; “For milk.”

In an era where work was hard to find, and poverty was a reality and a widespread danger in American society, James J Braddock was fighting just so his family could survive.

DVD | Zelary

It’s 1943 in the Nazi occupied Prague. Eliska is a nurse who was unable to finish medical school because the Nazi’s closed the universities. She’s in a relationship with one of the hospitals surgeons, and she’s a courier for the resistance.

All is going well for young Eliska, until the Gestapo captures one of the local resistance members. Eliska is sent away to the moutain hamlet of Zelary with Joza, a local resident who’s life was recently saved by Eliska. They marry out of convenience, so as to give city girl Eliska a valid reason to move to Zelary and to be accepted by the locals.

But all is not well, as the city girl has to come to terms with life in a little mountain shack with no electricity and only one bed.

But predictable as it is, Eliska falls in love with Joza, and she even finds acceptance in the local community.

Zelary is a spellbinding romantic tale, that avoids all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

Personal Thoughts
It’s not clear why Eliska joined the resistance, but it seems it’s more of a game to her, that is until she has to be bundled away for her own safety. She has to leave everything behind and start life afresh as a poor country girl with none of the luxuries she was accustomed to. While it’s a struggle at first, she soon accepts what she has and in due course finds life to the fullest. A life that is much more rewarding that when she was surrounded by luxury.

It gets you thinking about what we might be missing out on in our nice consumer driven society. How much more rewarding a simple, no frills community focused life could be.

DVD | Mean Creek

Mean Creek is a movie that moves along at a similar pace and style to that of Gus Van Sant’s Gerry. For the most part nothing happens, but armed with the knowledge that something IS going to happen you gladly sit for the meandering ride.

You’re willing to wait because you want to know what happens, and if it does happen, what will they do.

They, being a group of teens, who want to teach the school bully a lesson. Somewhere along the journey though, one by one they decide that it’s not a good idea. All except the oldest kid, who decides that what was planned, has to be bought to fulfilment.

Without ruining the plot, something does happen, but it’s far worse than anyone could have planned for, and the lose group of teens have to make some big decisions.

Thoughts
There’s a couple of things that stand out for me in this movie, one is the server absence of adults/parents in this movie. In fact for most of the kids we don’t meet their parents until the end of the movie. This speaks volumes as to how these kids got into the situation they did – no real parental guidance.

The other thing is we find out something at the end of the movie – though it is obvious throughout – about one of the key characters. And when you think about it, it’s not just the parent at fault but also a school system that doesn’t pick up on the obvious needs of it’s students.

It would seem (imho) that the director is making a social commentary on the roles of both parents and schools in the lives of children and how severely lacking both are in our modern society. A generalisation I know, but it makes for interesting thinking – our kids are what they learn from us.

Spiritual Connections
This may be seen as a spoiler, so read on with caution!

No matter how dark this movie gets, and it gets pretty dark, there’s one character who for the most part shines the light of a moral compass. But in the end when the decisions are forced on the rest by the much older and (physically) stronger character, everyone concedes and tows the line.

But later, when out of his sphere of influence, the rest of this motley crew realise what they’ve done, and decide to try and make things right.

It’s all about having a second chance (to a degree) and about all of our actions having consequences.

It’s also funny that it’s the youngest, weakest kid who figures it out and convinces the others to do what’s right. His grasp on the concept of guilt and forgiveness proves to be very mature.

Lost #29 [...And Found]

Is it just me or was this another lame episode where nothing actually happens. Just a whole lot of flashbacks showing you nothing you really wanted, or needed to know.

The action that was hinted at for this week never came; maybe it’s coming next week. Other than that the only thing to keep me interested in watching next week would have to be the promise of the phantom Walt making another appearance.

Maybe it’s time to give up on TV again?

Trailer | X-Men 3

Oh yes, I’m excited, but them some people say I’m easily excitable.

Why am I excited? Did you not read title of this post? The trailer for X-Men 3 is now online, and it’s a beauty!

Go and have a look, you know you want to. Or at least you know I want you to!

My only concerns with this movie, is the number of new characters in it. I’m loving that they are there, but with so many, will they each have enough screen time to satisfy the viewer? Or will it be like Flight of the Pheonix where Hugh Laurie didn’t get enough time to be his good old self?

Band of Brothers | Currahee

July 1942 - 5th June 1944

We homeschool two of our three daughters, and our oldest has taken a keen interest in war games. I don’t know if it’s just that she has an aggressive, world domination type personality, or that she just wants to do something with her old man. And I don’t care, it’s right up my street, so let the games begin!

We started out with RISK, but wanted more of a challenge, so my daughter decided on D-Day. Rather than let it just be a games night, I decided I would educate her on the back ground of D-Day and what happened afterwards, and me being me, decided that my Band of Brothers DVD, along with downloaded discussion guides would be the best way. So hopefully for the next 10 Monday nights, oldest daughter and I will be watching Band of Brothers, and I’ll be filling you in on the Tuesday!

Overview
The first episode, Currahee is where we get to meet Easy Company. We find out just what they are made of, through there intense training. We also get to meet Captain Herbert Sobel.

As with most everyone who meet the real Sobel, we end up hating his character. He’s mean a petty. He’s on a power trip and for some unknown reason isn’t enjoying life, so makes life un-enjoyable for everyone around him.

But as bad as he is, most of the men of Easy Company will tell you that with out the intense training that Sobel dished out, they wouldn’t have made it through the war.

Having said that, the men of Easy would rather be shot for treason than go into battle with Sobel, and it’s this along with Soble trying to get one over Lt Winters, leads to his being re-assigned and missing out on the D-Day drop.

On 6th June 1944, Easy Company and the rest of the 82nd Airborne and the 101st Airborne board their C-47s and head for Normandy joining the largest naval fleet in history.

Thoughts
When I first watched Band of Brothers I decided that episode one was necessary, but really one of the most boring episodes of the series. Now that I’ve watched the series a number of times, I’ve come to appreciate more, and it has become one of my favourites.

I think it’s because it gives you a chance to ‘bond’ with the men of Easy, you get to, to the small extent that TV allows, experience what they had to over come to become Airborne Infantry. With out this experience, you’d struggle to empathise with them for the rest of the journey.

Spiritual Connections
No matter how well trained they were, the men of Easy were sent off with the encouragement and prayers of General Eisenhower:
I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Lost #28 [Everybody Hates Hugo]

Ok, fairly run of the mill episode, as I predicted, not as exciting as last week. Also as I predicted, the ‘others’ were not the others, but scared (and friendly) survivors of the tail section of the plane.

They’ve found a less glamorous bunker complex with a slightly different Dharma logo – it looks like either the bunker complex was never completed, or its succumbed to decay a lot quicker, either way, the number of survivors is a lot less than Sawyer et al were told HAD survived the crash – this leads to some excitement next we as we discover what happened to them, and as they try and get back to the other side of the island.

DVD | Flight Of The Phoenix

As I mentioned in my last post, Hollywood has to cater for an increased appetite for movie watching, and so a lot of thought isn’t always put into what films to make. And easy out for Hollywood of course is the re-make. Take a classic movie and remake it with all the glitz and special effects that are available today and hope that nobody notices that you ripped it off.

Flight is a re-make, but as I never saw the original I can’t say how good or bad this version is. It’s gonna have to stand on it’s own merits.

And it does.

Sure, it’s a popcorn movie that will have you groaning at the implausibility of it all, but that’s what makes some movie fun! The thing with Flight is that it’s an exciting boys adventure/survival movie, and whilst it’s no Lost, it does have similar hallmarks.

Special effects and eye candy aside, there’s a lot going for Flight in the acting – Hugh Laurie was his brilliant self, although never really given enough time to really shine. Dennis Quaid was perfect in the lead role.

But the standout performance was Giovanni Ribisi as Elliot, the guy who comes up with the idea to cannibalise the plain and build a smaller one, his performance as an anal retentive nerd struggling with feelings of inadequacy and finding new power in his ideas makes the movie worth watching on its own.

So check your brain at the door, grab some popcorn, a cold bottle of Vanilla Coke (if only), sit back and enjoy the ride.

Spiritual Connections
Elliot is pretty much branded a wacko when he comes up with his idea for salvation, but when you think about it, so was Jesus. Yet if we all pull finger and listen to what he says, we might just find that there’s hope after all.