Ripples

The full effect of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" has still not been fully measured. There have been reactions to the film itself, but what hasn't been seen yet is the new wave of films that were bound to be inspired by Gibson's epic.

Until now. We may soon be seeing the first of the films that were put in motion when "The Passion" first hit theaters. Like a rock thrown into a lake, "The Passion" made a big splash, but it has most likely had a ripple effect on other filmmakers. Their films may not be as big as the inital rock, but they could be seen as a good sign of a fresh breath being blown into Hollywood allowing them to release more Christian-themed films.

The only question that remains is: what influence will Hollywood have on the substance of these movies? With the Christian message get through with minimal editing? Well, New Line Cinema will give us a first glimpse this Christmas with the release of "The Nativity Story".

I could be just reading a bit much into it, but even the title evokes "The Passion" a little bit, which could be taken as an indicator (albeit small) that the film follows in the same vein. The trailer gives more hints of this from the slow motion footage to the soundtrack.

Or it could all be a bait-and-switch operation. "We look just like 'The Passion'!... but with a DaVinci Code twist!" Maybe I'm a little paranoid, but I'll try to remain hopeful.

Stay tuned.

Good one, Ted.

Ted Nugent on deer hunting.

He was being interviewed by a British journalist. The journalist asked,"What do you think the last thought is in the head of a deer before you shoot it? Is it, `Are you my friend?` or is it `Are you the one who killed my brother?'"

Nugent replied, "They aren't capable of that kind of thinking. All they care about is, 'What am I going to eat next, who am I going to screw next, and can I run fast enough to get away'. They are very much like the French in that way."

Unbelievable

The Story of the Summer - the Stolen Sidekick. I've been amazed by this little on-line saga because it shows us yet another new facet in the power of the Internet. This time, it has been used to help bring a petty thief and her accomplices to justice. A stolen item has been returned to its rightful owner.

Taking advantage of the massive attention this little lost device garnered, the owner opted to put it up for auction on eBay with proceeds going to a charity helping children and single mothers. (The way this guy has handled himself despite the favorable media attention has been very admirable.)

The auction went up on July 7th, and I was expecting that this story was about to come to a close. It was such a gripping story though, that I was in a way sad to see it end. Instead it appears Evan has a new chapter to write.

It turns out the winning bidder is a fake. Of all the things to happen to this guy. I'm just as amazed as he is. He's so tenacious however, that he's actually tracked down and made contact with the people who supposedly placed the winning bid. They have given him a variety of excuses why they shouldn't be held responsible for the payment they are contractually obliged to make (wrong number, my 14 year-old son did it, I left the computer on and one of my roommates made the bid.) It's as if Sasha has reappeared in the UK to give poor Evan another go. The blog is beginning to resemble "Cuckoo's Egg".

He says he's going to contact the penultimate bidder and see if he can work with eBay on a workaround, but I hope that he also makes good on his threat to once again use the power of the Internet to publicly expose, humiliate and bring to justice these British bozos who have decided to defraud the Stolen Sidekick Auction and charity fundraiser.

Go get 'em, Evan.

Happy Feet!

I can't wait for this movie. Every trailer I've seen has been great.

For Make Benefit

Okay... like I said. I like goofy stuff. This new trailer for Borat fits that category.

No Laughing Matter

Okay... I'll admit it. I'm a Jim Carrey fan. I had seen him on "In Living Color" a number of times, and thought Fire Marshal Bill was pretty funny, but it wasn't until my first viewing of "Ace Ventura" that I discovered just how hard he could make me laugh. Just the first five minutes of that movie made me laugh hard enough that my wife had to pause the movie for ten minutes to give me time to catch my breath. No joke.

He's tried to move away from the "zany" comedy and do more subtle stuff will mixed results. Well, perhaps "mixed" is being too kind. Frankly, Carrey should go back and wipe the lame sequels to "Dumb and Dumber" and "The Mask" off the planet and remake them in his own image. He is this generation's Jerry Lewis or Danny Kaye. As far as physical comedy goes, the guy's a genius. He should stick with what works.

Now on to the topic that prompted all this rambling on. I've been browsing new movie trailers on Apple.com. There's a new movie coming out called "Strangers With Candy". It's apparently a"prequel" of a Comedy Central series by the same name. Never watching that channel, I can't say I've heard of it, so I'm seeing this without any sense for the larger context of the show. I've never seen or heard of the lead actress, but the supporting actors are fairly big names (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ian Holm, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker) so I guess someone's trying to keep this off the "B-movie" list.

Judging from the trailer I think they failed in that attempt...miserably. Frankly the movie looks lousy. For that the writers are most likely to blame since that's who usually is at fault for a bad movie. Having read a little about the show, it sounds like the writers didn't even do much work for the movie. Instead they borrowed heavily from the three seasons of the cable series - recycling the best jokes. I'd wager they picked the jokes first and built the screenplay around them (that must break a screenwriting rule somewhere). But that's not why I'll be avoiding the movie - more on that in a moment.

The real shame is that judging from the few clips the trailer offers, the lead actress appears to have the comedic potential to be the yin to Jim Carrey's yang. My favorite bit is towards the end of the trailer when someone accuses her of talking with food in her mouth. There are some other moments sprinkled throughout that make me think of Carrey's "Ace Ventura" shtick. Aside from those little jems in the trailer, the rest of it is just plain stupid (which coming from me is saying a lot.)

Of course, all films coming out of Hollywood have to play by the Agenda Playbook, and so we have a token sub-plot evident in the trailer of a gay romance between a teacher and one of his students. Given the media uproar in recent months of the heterosexual affairs between female teachers and their male students, how anyone is supposed to find comedy in a gay affair between a teacher and a high-school student is beyond me, but I guess I'm not the target audience.

But the film caters to the Agenda perfectly: make homosexuality sanitary, lighthearted, fun, funny, palatable, attractive, pleasing, acceptable. Once everyone has been convinced of this, then the people will be less resistive to the laws which give this tiny minority group what they want: the erosion and ultimate decimation of the very building-blocks of society - marriage and family life. Strange that I can go from finding an actress funny to saying that her movie is leading our culture to implosion, but there it is.

So cross this one off your list, and we'll keep our fingers crossed that she will be in an upcoming film with Jim Carrey. Something like "Dumb and Dumbette" would suffice.