[Movie Review] Noah by Russell Crowe

I took my two good friends to watch this movie just because we have never seen a Noah’s Ark on the big screen before and wondered what it would look like.  The movie was LOOOOOONNNGGG!  It felt like the director didn’t want to waste all the lovely footage and kept every single thing he shot like the Battle of the Red Cliffs which became two movies in Asia.  Long!  Too long for a simple story.  I have to agree with my friends.  The director sure had a lot of imagination.  Not only are there rock monsters called Watchers, the devolvement of which was totally biblically incorrect (SPOILER ALERT – HIGHLIGHT TO READ :  The fallen angels were expelled because they followed Lucifer who rebelled, not because they wanted to help a human and therefore were condemned into rock monsters), their ending were unbiblical too. (SPOILER ALERT – HIGHLIGHT TO READ : Fallen angels do not get to be redeemed.  They along with Lucifer get thrown into the lake of sulfur at the end of the day.)

And what’s with the family of 6 instead of 8? Groan.  (SPOILER ALERT – HIGHLIGHT TO READ :  Noah’s family of 8 went into the ark.  Period.  3 sons and 3 daughters-in-laws and his wife.  So all that wife seeking business is imagined.)

Don’t believe Methulselah having healing power.  It was never mentioned in the bible.  Nor was Cain, the first son of Adam, mentioned ever again after being sent away. Whether he lived that long or not, it’s doubtful.  See chart of different interpretations of time of the patriachs here.  But definitely, Cain was not in the ark.  If he were, the bible would have said so.  So don’t believe it.

I suggest everyone to read the bible chapters here before or after the movie to see how the director put in so much distortion into the bible story.  Granted, it’s entertainment, but there are some scary concepts introduced too.

[Movie Review] Son of God

Yesterday, I took my two boys and the girlfriend and my 85 year old missionary friend to watch the Son of God.  Parents, singles, atheists, agnostics, everyone reading this, if you have a chance to watch this movie, please watch it, and preferably on the big screen.  The Gladiator folks were hired to work on this movie too and it’s above my expectation for a bible recount.  The people who produced The Bible, 10 part TV series did this one and that series was one of the top ratings show last year.

This story starts from Jesus’ birth to his resurrection, unlike the Passion which was only about the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life.  I love how Jesus was portrayed as loving and compassionate, full of human emotion.  After that, my favorite character is the very flawed Peter.  The opening scene of him fishing somehow touches me.  That invitation to join Jesus – to some goal and future unknown – that was how I felt when I yielded totally to Him that day, and even now, everyday, it’s an adventure. My middle one asked why Peter was the leader even when he made so many mistakes.  It’s exactly because he made so many mistakes – he learnt through them and would not repeat them again.  2 Corinthians 12:9 In the end, (this part is not in the movie), though Peter became the rock on which the church was built, and the leader of all, he deemed himself still unworthy of Jesus and when he was crucified himself, he chose to be hanged upside down as a statement that he could never come close to Jesus and therefore did not deserve the same treatment.

Back to the movie. While the crucifixion was touching too, the reassurance that Jesus would always be there for us was translated very well throughout the movie.  So much so that even my little rebel, aka my youngest son, was overwhelmed when He appeared to the apostles once more.  My middle one said he cried a bit, but even better, after 6 months of my evangelizing and retelling of the gospels on the morning drive to school every day, everything on screen seemed to finally all fit together.  All that he heard about at his literature, English and cinema classes, they all mentioned the bible in some way and for the first time, they all gelled together to make sense of who Jesus really was.

So if you have kids heading to high school and college, take them to this movie so that they could at least have an idea what the humanities classes in higher education would require.  This used to be basic knowledge for every kid until parents stopped taking the kids to Sunday school and schools took the secular route, yet in general education in tertiary education, you need to have this side of the story, not just science and pantheism, new age, philosophy or Buddhism or whatever you happen to adhere to.

This production is high quality big screen material with politics fleshed out during that period of time and closely followed the Gospel of Mark. Don’t believe what other reviewers said. Don’t even read them.  See for yourself.  Most reviewers are non-Christian and don’t even read the bible.  When the movie ended, my heart went out to my missionary friend sitting quietly feeling very full.  He and his wife spent 45 years doing exactly what Jesus did, in Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines spreading the good news and healing the sick through miracles.  How dare anyone say that Jesus Christ is bogus or that God does not exist? 45 years doing just that, performing miracles.  Don’t be narrow minded.  Go find a real church and find their missionaries and talk to them.  God works in miracles even to this day.

I look forward to their next movie, AD, which will be about the early church movement.

(Movie Review) The Monuments Men by Matt Damon

My middle son dragged me to watch The Monuments Men because he enjoys Matt Damon’s acting and he made sure to call it a family outing bringing the younger brother and his girlfriend along.  “But mom, it’s about art.”  I thought about it.  It’s family outing.  I need to have some more family outings to make memories for them.  So I went along.

I do enjoy Matt Damon’s acting but he has a very small part in it in the first half of the movie.  Nevertheless, his costars were superb, be they tall or fat, old or rickety.  It was good fun and great American humor, but I don’t agree with the mission.  This is a real story of a platoon of World War II soldiers going around Europe rescuing art that the Nazi’s were looting systematically everywhere they went and destroying them as they were retreating.  But listen, no single piece of artwork is worth a life.  Not one, not two, not even thousands.  Not even the depiction of the Lord’s Supper.  It is man made.  Don’t even say it’s created.  Only God can create something out of nothing.

If your brother is stuck behind enemy line and the famous Mona Lisa painting is just in the next town also behind enemy line, which one would you save?  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  The two greatest commandments in the New Testament, our covenant, are these:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”  Mark 12:30

If you couldn’t even rescue your own brother, you are falling short.

I am an artist and I know what transpires when I put paint and marks on a painting or drawing.  There is a sense of pride involved in the process, that I “created” something, that I was expecting how others would marvel at my cleverness.  It’s all vanity, everyone.  Vanity.  Read King Solomon’s writing in the Ecclessiastes, folks.   It may sound like a depressing book where everything we do are futile or meaningless but that’s exactly the point.  Existentialism follows the same lines.  Whenever a people is rich and has everything, everything seem not to mean much anymore.  Nothing matters.  Only rich countries suffer this syndrome, readers.  In a poor country, everything matters.   Paintings are not worth dying for.  My youngest son begs to disagree because it’s important for him to keep a record of that legacy.  Who cares about legacy when a human life is involved.  Oivay.

Get your priorities right, readers.  Should a war break out in your neighborhood next time, don’t turn back to go for the painting of your grannies or your gold or jewelry or family album.  It’s time to go out and save lives!!

Don’t waste eight bucks for the movie.  Watch it when it comes to your nearest video store.