Movie Review: Up - PG

cross-posted from A Catholic View

The first part of "Up" traces the lives of Carl and Ellie Fredricksen from the time they meet as kids, to when they get married. They go through this quickly, but this was my favorite part, and I really like the way they show them as 'partners' in their relationship. They fix up their first home together, they deal with unexpected expenses (they show them using their savings each time), losing a baby, and growing old together.

Ellie has passed away now, and Carl is 78 years old and living alone in the house they shared so many years. There is now plenty of buildings and construction going on around his house. Car has resisted the offers to sell. He is finally given an ultimatum, and that's when he reveals his secret: he has hundreds of balloons connected to his house, and sets out for Ellie's dream place, Paradise Falls, a place in South America that she dreamed of going to someday.

Coming along for the ride is Russell, a Junior Wilderness Explorer who is looking for his Senior Service Medal. On the journey, they encounter a rare Snipe bird, which Russell names Kevin. They encounter Charles Muntz, an explorer who had discovered the Snipe years ago, but was discredited because he couldn't prove it's existence. At first, Charles is friendly and hospitable toward Carl and Russell, but that quickly changes when he discovers Kevin. In the end, Carl and Russell must rescue themselves and Kevin from Muntz and the mean group of dogs that he controls.

A very entertaining movie for kids, and the 3D is pretty cool.

Content Warnings: None. We took my nephews and niece, ages 7 to 16, and there was nothing objectional.



http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/up/

Al Pacino Set to Play “Dr. Death” Jack Kevorkian

cross-posted from A Catholic View

“Say hello to my little friend … Jack Kevorkian.” At least that seems to be the message from Al Pacino, as the Hollywood star, who made famous the above phrase in the gangster film “Scarface,” is getting set to play the man known as “Dr. Death.”

Variety magazine reports that director Barry Levinson has chosen Pacino to play Kevorkian, 81, who killed more than 130 persons through lethal injection administered by what he called his "Mercy Machine," between 1990 and 1999, when the Michigan justice system put his macabre death-dealing career to an end.

The planned HBO biopic is based on literary paean, "Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Assisted Suicide Machine and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia" written by Kevorkian friends, Harry Wylie and Neal Nicol. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series has the tentative title, “You Don’t Know Jack,” but given the unapologetically laudatory nature of its source, critics are questioning whether viewers will really know Jack by the end of it.

story here

Book Review: Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students

Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students

by Kerry Weber
Twenty-Third Publications, 2009

Kerry Weber, a graduate of Providence College who recently received her master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University, has written a new prayer book designed for college students. As an R.A. in college, she witnessed many of the struggles that college students face, and she addressed these topics in these prayers. While she deals with the expected topics of stress and studies and friends, she does not shy away from difficult topics such as suicide, sexual assault and self-mutilation. Her goal in writing this was to help college students maintain their connection to God. This would make a great gift for any student heading off to, or returning to, college.

Reviewed by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur
http://spiritualwomanthoughts.blogspot.com

Vatican Radio Goes Commercial

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Starting in July, the Vatican’s radio station will begin airing paid ads.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s chief spokesman, announced at a press conference yesterday that Vatican Radio will transmit ads, beginning July 6.

BBC News reported the move is being taken to help raise the $30 million per year the station currently needs to cover its operating costs.

Vatican Radio broadcasts worldwide in 40 languages on five continents, and is also available on the Internet.

The Italian electricity multinational ENEL has been chosen as Vatican Radio’s first commercial sponsor, BBC reported, and the station hopes to find other advertisers from countries around the world.

All paid ads aired by Vatican Radio will be screened by an advertising agency to ensure they meet the Church’s moral standards, Father Lombardi said.  This is the part I am apprehensive about.

http://www.vaticanradio.org/en1/index.asp

story here

Pope2You.net receives nearly 500,000 visits on first day

On its first day online, the new website enabling young people from around the world to get to know Pope Benedict XVI, received almost half a million visits.

According to webmaster Father Paolo Padrini of Vatican Radio, the website sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Laity is intended “to create a climate of belonging, of participating in the Church, through ever greater closeness with the Holy Father.”

Pope2you.net

story here

Pope2You

I received a message from Fr Paolo Padrini asking me to share Pope2 You. Since I attended the Papal Youth Rally last April, and watched the magic of the Holy Father's interaction with youth in person, I have longed for a way to recapture the magic of their special bond. Pope2You is a vehicle for the Holy Father to keep in touch with the youth of the Church between World Youth Days and other youth gatherings.
"The new media of Facebook, the iPhone, YouTube and Wikipedia are increasingly becoming the new forum where the Catholic Church dialogues with the world. As Pope Benedict XVI noted in his message for the 43rd annual World Communications Day, the Internet is a place where young people need to develop true friendships which spring from an encounter with the Risen Christ. With this awareness and the courage to enter into the world of social networks, the project Pope2You was started with the idea of helping these networks become authentic places of friendship and true dialogue.Pope2You was created in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications as an experiment in providing a new forum and channel of communication using the latest platforms. The Pope2You website provides a new way for Pope Benedict XVI to reach out to young people around the world. The site can be viewed in five languages and allows young people to learn more about the Church and Benedict XVI through his own writings, starting with the message for the 43rd World Communications Day. While the site aims to generate the interest of young people, it is also meant for people of all ages. It features news on the Catholic Church and details on the pastoral activities of Benedict XVI incorporating content from the Vatican’s YouTube channel. At the same time, a new application for the iPhone and iPod Touch has been created by the Catholic news agency H2Onews, with plans to add other mobile platforms later.Pope2You also provides a gateway to a parallel world in Facebook with an application where you can create and send to your friends virtual postcards with the Pope’s own words, greetings and excerpts of his writings staring with this year’s World Communications Day message. Also, with the help of the Media Office of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, a special area has been created along the lines of a WIKI with suggestions on how to put into pastoral practice the Pope’s 2009 Message. These new applications highlight the latest example of the Church reaching out in new ways in the world of social networks – a forum where the Church can meet new people, make new friends, dialogue and offer solidarity."
Cross posted at Causa Nostrae Laetitiae

Movie Review: Terminator Salvation - PG 13

cross-posted from A Catholic View

John Connor is leading the resistance against Skynet, which was a defense system which became self-aware, and is now making 'Terminators' at a record pace. Marcus Wright is an ex-con who was on death row. He was actually executed, but before he was, Dr Serena Kogan convinced him to donate his body to science for 'research'. He is back, but is he friend or foe?

The resistance finds a way to send a secret signal that will shut down the terminators. and makes plans to level sSkynet and everything/everyone in it. However, when John Connor finds out that Skynet has a lot of human prisoners, including Kyle Reese, a teenager who, in the future, will be his father, John can't convince General Ashdown to delay the attack until the prisoners can be rescued. Fortunately, the rest of the resistance views John as their leader.

Content warnings: Lots of killings, violence and explosions. There is a bit of gore, when you see someone part human/part Terminator and a very brief scene where you see body parts like hands and feet.

Spoiler Warning: Close to the end, John Connor fights a Terminator; One hint: Arnold. Yes, Arnold makes a brief appearance as a Terminator, but it seemed like they integrated older footage, because Arnold seemed a lot younger, and more fit than he is now.

Overall a pretty decent movie for those who are Terminator fans, but definitely not the best of of the four; I still think that Terminator 2 Judgement Day was the best of the four.

I did not care for the ending. It was fairly inconclusive, and indicated that there would be another Terminator. However, the way it ended did not, in my opinion, lend itself to another.



http://terminatorsalvation.warnerbros.com/

Fr. Barron reviews "Angels and Demons"

Book Review: Angels of God by Mike Aquilina

Angels of God
The Bible, the Church, and the Heavenly Host
by Mike Aquilina

Angels are persons. They can think, love and make choices. Like us, they have intellect and free will -- though their intellects make our own seem hardly worthy of the title; and their will is perfectly aligned with God's (at least in the case of the good angels), whereas our wills tend to veer and waver.

The fixity of the angelic will is the reason why we pray, in the Lord's Prayer, that God's "will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Here again, heaven means the realm of the spirits, not the expanse of the galaxies. We're praying not that we might be more predictable, like planets and asteroids, but that we might be as morally sure and true as the angels are.

Suffice it to say that it was easy to understand without dumbing it down. Altogether an informative and fascinating read about the angels and their relationship to us. It makes a good accompaniment to The Angels and Their Mission. There is some duplication of information but a surprising amount in both books stands as complements to each other. Some of that is due to their different foci in the authors' intentions for their books, naturally. For that matter, it also would be a good complement to The Rite. Although that book is about exorcism it is essentially about angels, albeit fallen angels. Reading Angels of God would be a good counterbalance for too much worrying that could come along with reading about a dark subject.

Although the subhead makes the book sound a bit dry, nothing could be further from the truth. With his customary clarity and thoroughness, Mike Aquilina not only enlightens us about angels but actually makes us realize that our angelic brethren are just that ... our brothers.

We are companions to the angels! As incredible as it seems, the Incarnation has lifted us up to a kind of equality with the powerful spirits of heaven. When people of the Old Testament fell on their faces in front of angels, the angels were often content to leave them there. But when Saint John bowed before an angel, the angel told him, "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God" (Revelation 19:10).

This should be amazing enough: angels calling themselves "fellow servants" with us puny humans. But in some ways we have even more than equality with the angels.

In Christ our humanity is assumed to God. "If we endure, we shall also reign with him" (2 Timothy 2:12), and so we render judgment with him. And whom do we judge? "Do you not know that we are to judge angels?" Saint Paul asked rhetorically (I Corinthians 6:3). It's an amazing idea: We, mere creatures of flesh and blood, will judge powerful spirits!

And if that weren't startling enough, Saint Peter talks about "the things which have now been announced to you by those who preached the good news to you through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look" (I Peter 1:12). It seems that we know things that weren't revealed to the angels!

I also especially appreciated that the book contains entire excerpts of scripture or other works where it is referenced. Too often the reader is left to seek out another work in order to get the whole picture. In my case, I must admit, I usually skip looking up anything. Aquilina does not leave us stranded in that way and it makes a huge difference.

Highly recommended.

The 13th Day: new film on Fatima

This looks like a promising film on Our Lady's apparitions at Fatima.It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 2009. We will keep you posted on possible US release.
View the website here.