Mason and Anna just love the Jib Jab movies. Since I’m away on business I thought I’d post one for their must-see Disney movie High School Musical 3.

All the good stuff from my childhood is making a return. I’m psyched to see what Indiana Jones will be up to in the newest movie coming out this Spring.

On top of that, we’ve got Kitt making a return to TV this Sunday, albeit as a Ford Mustang which just screams paid product placement. These are good times for the 25-34 year old male demographic, coming on the heels of the Transformers and Dukes of Hazzard revivals.

Following on the bootstraps of the last time that Tricia and I actually left the house by ourseles, we went to another 1970’s tribute movie. This time it wasn’t Starsky and Hutch, oh no… it was Will “We’re Goin’ Streakin'” Ferrell in Anchorman. The movie really didn’t start off that funny, but by the end of the short hour and a half I got into the shtick and was rolling on the floor.

I’m just the least critical, easiest to please moviegoer ever. Give me some fart jokes and some polyester suits and you’ve got my 8 bucks wholeheartedly.

I got a chance to see Starsky & Hutch on Friday. I’m very much interested in attending any film that brings 70’s and 80’s era car chase tv to the big screen. If they ever make a movie of the Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, or the Rockford Files, I’m there. Starsky and Hutch was typical Ben Stiller. The hard luck, quirky, slightly feminine, every-man’s hero… just what I needed on a Friday.

Jesus Stories– After being profoundly affected by The Passion of the Christ, I decided to begin my journey down the path of Jesus movies. I watched Martin Scorcese’s The Last Temptation of Christ last night. It was a really weird experience. I recognized the elements in it that were controversial in 1988 when it was released, but I also found myself using it to fill in the holes in the story within Mel’s Passion. See the Last Temptation spends a lot more time on Christ’s life, breezes through the suffering parts that Gibson focused on, and then takes us down a hallucinatory path of Christ actually not dying on the cross, but instead marrying and having kids. In the beginning I was so irritated at William Defoe and Harvey Keitel with their cheesy English-speaking dialog, that I nearly gave up. But, suddenly I became so riveted in the film-making and the internal battle going on in Jesus’s mind, I completely forgave them. In the end, both movies are honestly great films. My quest continues to see more depictions of Christ’s life in film. I’ll have to spread out my viewings though ’cause it is the SAME story. The next ones to see:

The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Gospel According to St. Matthew

I had a really fascinating conversation yesterday with a co-worker sparked by her surprise that I went and saw Barbershop (which has a pretty cool movie site). She is black, and I am white. She was surprised that I went to see a “black” movie and really enjoyed the “black humor”. I had the frustrating realization that my attitude toward black people is as much a matter of not growing up in a very mixed neighborhood, to not making a lot of friends with black people, to listening to rap music, but not really “understanding it”. It’s not that I am consciously different. It’s that I am subconciously different. Likewise, I’m fascinated by my co-workers point of view having lived in Europe for some of her life. She’s used to people being judged by different points of view, not different skin colors.

So her struggle in fitting in with the American “Black Community” is to pass judgement the way they do. Her opinion differs with that community oftentimes. This is a theme hammered upon in the movie. It is only within the context of the Barbershop that the black people voiced an opinion that differed from the Black Community at large. My co-worker’s story of black people she knows being offended by these opinions-like Rosa Parks not being any more influential than any other black person that got kicked off a bus in the 60’s, illustrates the homogenous opinion sometimes offered by the Black Community.

My struggle is to understand others in a much more meaningful way. Specifically, understanding the roots of modern attitudes about each other that goes beyond the civil rights movement. If anyone has some good reading on any issues surrounding this topic, let me know. By the end of the conversation I was convinced that she is a human, and so am I. Our struggles are humaan ones, not black and white ones.

Saturday was awesome! Jim and I went to 5 movies in 10 hours.
(1) Red Dragon ** VERY similar to Hannibal.
(2) My Big Fat Greek Wedding *** Funny chick flick. Can’t beat lamb on a spit in the front yard.
(3) Sweet Home Alabama **Boring chick flick. Need some lamb on a spit in the front yard.
(4) Barbershop ****The only unique thing I saw all day. Ice Cube rules, and so does the guy that looks like Frederick Douglas.
(5) Road to Perdition *Don’t even bother. No lambs, no spits, no front yards. No fun to watch.

We topped off the night with my first White Castle ever. Those little mousemeat burgers may NEVER enter my body again.

We checked out A Beautiful Mind today at a real movie theater. I’m no film snob. It doesn’t need to be “indie”. It doesn’t need to be artsy, nor French. It just has to be good. Mainstream, least common denominator, watered-down-for-the-ticket-sales good. Russel Crowe is great. Just like my sicko fascination with Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson movies. All this was to distract Tricia and I from the fact that we took our 8 week old to day care today. ugh! Oh yeah we saw Fast and the Furious on DVD too. nice ride!