Review: Fireproof

2008/PG/Drama

(I've done my absolute best not to include any spoilers in the following review. )

This the third installment from the church in Georgia that made Flywheel and Facing the Giants. Kirk Cameron (from Growing Pains fame) plays Caleb Holt. He's a firefighter who never leaves his partner behind in a fire, but can't seem to keep his partner happy at home. Facing divorce, he takes forty days and participates in "The Love Dare," a process by which he increasingly shows his soon-to-be ex-wife that he loves her, even though she returns zero affection back to him. In the meantime, she's getting a little friendly with a co-worker and believes that her soon-to-be ex-husband's attempts are simply a plan to butter her up so he can keep the house.

I'm going to give my overall feeling first, then elaborate on it:

Fireproof was adequate.

There was nothing amazing about the movie, it had it's bright spots and it had it's stab me in the eye with an ice pick moments. But overall, it was adequate.

If I hadn't known better, I would have assumed this was a written and directed by first film. The script was clearly never viewed by a fresh set of eyes and the ones that wrote it probably only revised it once. It definitely could have used a rewrite, especially by someone other than the writer, someone who wasn't in love with certain lines or scenes. The movie opens with a "Because-we-can" crane shot yet includes a fairly convincing fire scene. As with all films slapped with the "Christian" label, this one rents a billboard with it's salvation scene, yet handles the fact that Caleb is addicted to pornography with tact and subtlety. So much so that it lead one reviewer to believe that it was being played as a small marital problem.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In this situation, it's simply the difference of how the characters handle their anger, hurt, and frustration. In the bigger picture, I have the opposite complaint with Christian films as I have with Hollywood. While Hollywood takes their message and buries it in story, Christian movies kill their story by slamming a salvation sermon in the middle of it. The pornography was dealt with expertly: It was never mentioned "by name" but everyone knew what was going on. Pay attention next time you are watching a great movie: You come into conversations mid-stream and are forced to play catch-up. You have to deduce what is being discussed. That is how this was portrayed and it was well done. The Caleb Conversion scene, however, was another story. All that was needed was for Caleb to say "How am I supposed to show love to somebody over and over and over who constantly rejects me?"; see the cross then cut to the "I'm in" scene between he and his friend, Michael. We understand the point, we assume the decision, we see the reaction. I will say, though, that this was one of the tamest and most well-acted conversions that I'd seen in recent memory. No tears, no "sinners prayer," no crying out to God.

Yes, most of the acting left something to be desired (Kirk Cameron and Ken Bevel being the notable exceptions) and yes, their "twists" were predictable (with one brief moment of surprise) and yes, the movie came off as preachy. But it did have its good parts. The juxtaposition of what Christ did for us and how Caleb's wife was treating him was inventive and powerful. And I was very glad to hear a movie finally say "Don't follow your heart. Lead it." Too much of Hollywood (and our culture) is the "if it feels right" "follow your heart" crap that leads to shirked responsibilities, broken marriages, and poor decisions.

You can read other's opinions on Fireproof here and here.

While not on par with the great movies of our time, Fireproof warrants a viewing. It has a good message and, for the most part, is palatable. If you don't expect much, you'll be pleased.

(The book "Love Dare" was written after the movie was finished. Normally I'd hold that against the film but Kirk Cameron didn't get a fee for his performance, he simply accepted a donation to his camp Camp Firefly. These two events cancel each other out.)

2 out of 5 stars.

One one final note. I'm pleased to report that Fireproof earned twice as much as Religulous. Take that Mr. Bill "I'm-smarter-than-God" Maher

Things That Make Me Go "Huh?"

General

Parents letting their teens have virgin alcoholic drinks.

Nothing like encouraging your children to drink. Strawberry Daiquiri? Sure, without the liquor. And what do they do when mommy and daddy aren't there? I wonder...

I saw this at Target:

How hard can they be?

Regardless of what you are doing, if your phone rings it is suddenly the most important thing in the world.

People could be having a heated argument, eating dinner, or watching a movie. It doesn't matter. When that phone rings, the world stops. People will get out of the shower to answer the phone. And call waiting compounds this. A few minutes ago, the person on the line was most important, but now someone else is calling and they are more important that the current caller.

Obama

"Obama vows to cut huge deficit in half" -Politico.com

How? By spending trillions of dollars that we don't have? By sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan? I think he failed to mention that if you make over $150,000 a year you can expect your taxes to increase by 80%. (Actually, the truth behind this statement is that he's vowing to cut the projected deficit. See, the projected deficit includes his current spending and projects out from there. He's not really promising anything.)

"'Global War On Terror' Is Given New Name" -The Washington Post.

Change is change, right? We may be increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, but at least we changed the name of the war! Now it's the "'Overseas Contingency Operation." Once again the brilliant rhetoricist has come through. "Contingency": 1. An event that may occur but that is not likely or intended. 2. The condition of being dependent on chance; uncertainty. 3. Something incidental to something else. So it sounds good, but it doesn't exactly instill confidence in me! Incidental? Uncertainty? Unintended? What are we doing over there?

Sports

$2.5 Billion dollars is wagered on the NCAA Tournament.

This is overshadowed only by the Super Bowl. Why do sports nuts risk their hard earned money on an untested group of 18-22 year-olds who notoriously crack under pressure?!

The NFL resists putting a salary cap on first round draft picks.

These college students have never played a down in the NFL but they are signing for more than seasoned veterans make? Who was the last 1st rounder to actually earn their millions? Just like with any other company, there should be a starting salary and you can go up from there.

The NFL considers expanding to 18 games.

See the post below...

Two More Games

At their annual meeting, the owners of all of the NFL teams are considering adding two more games to the NFL regular season moving it from a 16 games season to 18 games.

This is a terrible idea!

The original plan was to take two of the four preseason games and make them count. However, coaches felt they wouldn't be able to give prospective starters a fair shake if they lost two of the preseason games so this idea was scrapped. But not the whole idea. Now they are talking about adding these games to the end of the season.

Here's why this idea is for the birds (and I don't mean the Cardinals, Falcons, Eagles, Seahawks, or Ravens).

First and foremost: Injuries. The human body can only take so much punishment even if you are in prime condition. Compound that with the fact that a hit week sixteen is exponentially harder to take than a hit week one. Now we are talking about week 17? Week 18? With a hit week 18 being like 3 week two, this would also shorten the careers of players even more. Instead of being football-ancient at 30, now running backs have to hang up their cleats at 28. Imagine what that would do to players salaries! They already claim they need to make millions upon millions because their tenure is so limited. With an 18 week season, it would be even more so.

Second: Exposure. There is no question that the NFL has taken over from Major League Baseball as America's favorite game. Why is that? It has a reasonable season length. Or rather, it has the perfect season length. Every game in the NFL is a must see game. Every win is important. Every loss is crushing. What do people say about the other three major sports? Their seasons are too long! Let's compare them:

MLB

Regular Season...162 games
Playoffs...........11 to 19 games to win the World Series
Months playing...April to October
Total games......173-181

NHL

Regular Season...82 games
Playoffs...........16 to 28 games to win the Stanley cup
Months playing...October to May
Total games......98-110

NBA

Regular Season....82 games
Playoffs............16 to 28 games to win the Championship
Months playing....November to June
Total games.......98-110

NFL

Regular Season...16 games
Playoffs............3 to 4 games to win the Super Bowl
Months playing....September to February
Total games.......19-20

Why would they want to start down the road that leads to disinterest? Why did the XFL and Arena football leagues fail? Because football is 16 hard fought games and a short Championship tournament. That's why.

Finally: Money. How does money make this a bad idea? Because that is what is fueling the push for this change. If the NFL expands it's season by two weeks, not only would we have the Super Bowl on President's Day, but the league could charge more for the network and satellite contracts (The most recent of which had the Satellite NFL provider paying the NFL $1 Billion per year!)! The owners could charge more for season tickets. They may end up alienating more fans with their money grabbing ways (see NFL Network) just like baseball did by taking Friday Night Baseball off of free TV.

Keep the season at 16. Accept your $1,000,000,000 per year and be happy.

Kings is Not

*Forgive me, I've been trying to get this posted for a week!*

NBC's new show "Kings" is actually 1 Samuel, not the book of Kings.

The Queen of Hearts and I were first suspicious as we watched the previews for this new series. Our suspicions were confirmed when we watched the two hour premiere episode:

The main characters:

• David Shepherd

This is the up and coming star of the country.
1 Samuel 16:11. David, the future king of Israel was a shepherd.
• King Silas Benjamin

He is the current king whom God annointed by causing butterflies to encircle his head as a living crown.
1 Samuel 10:1. Samuel annoints Saul king of Israel.
1 Samuel 9:21. Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin.
• Nathan Samuelson

This man is a mysterious religious figure. He is the combination of the prophet during King Saul's time (Samuel) and David's prophet (Nathan).
1 Samuel 10:1 Samuel was the prophet to Saul.
2 Samuel 7:17 Nathan was the prophet to David.
• Michelle Benjamin

King Silas' daughter.
1 Samuel 14:49 Saul's daughter's name was Michal.
• Jack Benjamin

King Silas' son.
1 Samuel 14:1 Saul's son's name was Jonathan.
• Jesse Shepherd

David's mother's name is Jesse.
1 Samuel 17:12 Jesse is David's father.
• Eli Shepherd

even the brother of David is the same.
1 Samuel 17:28. The Biblical David's brother's name was Eliab

Places

• Gath

This is the neighboring country that King Silas' army is fighting.
1 Samuel 17:4. Goliath is from Gath
• Shiloh

King Silas' capitol city is called Shiloh.
1 Samuel 4:4 Shiloh was the place where the Arc of the Covenant was brought

Events

• Goliath

David defeats a tank called Goliath in an attempt to rescue the King's son from captivity. David defeats a giant called Goliath
1 Samuel 17:50 David defeats Goliath
• Parade

When peace is reached the city has a parade primarily honoring David, secondarily honoring the King.
1 Samuel 18:7 The Israelites sang, "Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands"
• Courtship

David is falling for Michelle, the king's daughter (and vice versa).
1 Samuel 18:20 Saul was pleased that Michal was in love with David.
• Music

David is a musician, he plays the piano.
1 Samuel 16:23 David plays the harp.
• God's favor

Silas is annointed king by butterflies. When he reenters the war he looses God's favor. Samuelson tells him that God will chose "a man after Hisown heart." David is given his own crown of butterflies annointing him as the next king. Silas sees this and is trying to have David killed.
1 Samuel 15:26 Saul loses God's favor.
• Annointing

Silas was annointed by the crown of butterflies. David was annointed the same way. However, before the butterflies, David was visited by Nathan Samuelson and David fixed his car. Nathan wiped away a smudge of grease from David's forehead with his thumb. Lit from behind, this was a classic annointing pose.
1 Samuel 16:1 The LORD sends Samuel to annoint David.

The reason I mention this is two-fold:

First, during the previews when the Queen of Hearts and I were growing suspicious that this show was in fact Saul and David, one of the quotes from the critics was "Innovative." I had to chuckle. Innovative? This story has been told for 3000 years! (My pastor pointed out that they may have meant "innovative" in that no one has taken a Biblical story, set it in modern times, and made it into a TV series.)

Second, I wonder how many people recognize this story? 40 years ago, there'd be no doubt that the majority of the population would nearly imediately see the corilation. What's the percentage now?

I hope this series does well. Not only because I've kinda always had a soft spot for NBC, but because I think this is good for TV. Let's set Moses in the 1860's. Let's set Abraham in the wild west. Let's set Daniel during WWII occupied France. (This is fun!) Anyway. Watch Kings. Good writing. Good acting. Good story.

I wonder what season two would be? Solomon? (They'd probably call it Second Kings!)

The "Pepsi" Administration

Have you seen this billboard? Did you do a double take as you opened up Just My Opinion during your daily routine? (You need your JMO like your morning cup of coffee, right? Like the morning paper?)

I did a double take on my way to work a few weeks ago when I first saw this advertisement. It looked just a little to similar to this:


At first I scolded myself for assuming that Pepsi's advertising department would stoop to such blatant unimaginative levels as to plagiarize the President's symbol and slogan. But then I thought, "What does Pepsi give me in which I can place my hope?" Too much sugar in my diet? Aspartame? Pepsi One?

Ok, maybe they are simply wishing the President well. Maybe they buy into his messiah-like status and they just want the world to know. If that's the case, their billboard should say something to the effect of "We're behind you President Obama!" and then at the bottom "Sponsored by Pepsi." This sentiment also would not have required changing their logo. Also, if they were simply cheerleaders for our Commander in Chief then this campaign (and logo change) would have occurred following the election on November 4th.

As a good reporter should, I did a little research and found the following:
A) Pepsi altered their logo during the Presidential election (the first mention I found of it was toward the end of October 2008 (the 24th is the earliest reference I could find), when it began to look like Obama had it in the bag)
B) People were already noting the similarity between the new logo and the Obama logo before this billboard was erected.

But, maybe I'm crazy. Are they really trying to do what I'm alledging? Look at this progression:


Not so far fetched now is it?

The only conclusion that I could come
to was that they were hoping to tap into something subconscious in the American populous and ride the wave of Obama's rapidly declining approval rating. What's that website say? "Refresh Everything?" Yeah, except the originality of your advertising campaign. Maybe you should try "Got Pepsi?"

I think the aspect of this advertising campaign that irks me most is less that they've plagiarized from the Obama's graphic designers, but more along the lines of: Seriously, what does Pepsi offer that deserves our hope? Hope is a serious term. Hope is immense. People without hope end their lives and Pepsi is going to trivialize it by sticking their logo in the middle of the word? I understand hoping in government. So many people have ignored the real hope that we have in Christ that they cling to the "next best thing." Pepsi does not fit that bill!

I have met people who have no hope. They aren't turning to Pepsi. Nor shall I. Until this advertising campaign is ended, I will not be buying any Pepsi products (including but not limited to):
Pepsi, Pepsi One, Pepsi Max, Diet Pepsi
Mountain Dew, Mountain Dew Code Red, Mountain Dew Voltage
Mug Root Beer, Sierra Mist, Tropicana Twister Orange Soda
flavored and non flavored Propel and Aquafina waters
any and all SoBe drinks
Amp Energy Drink, No Fear Energy Drink
Brisk Tea and Lipton Tea, all variations
all Dole Juice Drinks Tropicana juice drinks
Bottled Starbucks Frappuccino, Canned Starbucks Iced Coffee
Gatorade and Gatorade G

After all is said and done, I couldn't help but wonder what Pepsi would have done if McCain had won...

Give It Some Time!

The Obama's have been in the White House for just over 50 days. That's less than three months. Let's take a look at some magazine covers and books that have already been out for a few weeks:














.......February 18, 2009 .........................February 4, 2009.......

















To quote Seth and Amy from SNL: "Really?" Do they really know what it's like to be a "White House" family? As of February 4th (15 days after the inaugeration), did Michelle really have some "secrets of a White House Mom" to share? Really? Two weeks later was there really an "Our life in the White House" expose that just needed to be reported on? Really? A children's book? Really? What educational value does speculating about the Obama's life in the White House hold for my eight year old? Really? I've had a daughter for alomst 6 months! Do I have some secrets to share on how to raise a girl? Really!

I have an idea: Let's let them be a family first. The President second. And celebrities third. Or, we could cut out that last part all together! That'd be just fine with me!

The Biblical Economist

I thought this was an apropos quote for what we are facing in these days and regarding the "solution" that has been proposed and enacted by our Federal Government:

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

By Rev William JH Boetcker (Written in 1916) (9th quote in the link)

When plainly laid out in this fashion, to go against these observations seems to defy logic. Why are these tenets so hard to understand?

Not Gonna Mumbai it!

If you hop on over to The Queen of Hearts' most recent post, you'll read about the frustrating situation that is our home Internet.

In an effort to remove this consternation from our home, I've been calling about high speed Internet and various other solutions. I'm shopping around. Every time I call I'm transferred to a sales department filled with well trained people trying to get me to buy their product over the phone right then and there.

Allow me to provide a small hint to some of those companies:

DON'T OUTSOURCE YOUR
SALES
DEPARTMENT TO INDIA!
Nothing sets me against your company faster than a digital connection with someone with a thick Indian accent who is calling himself "Mike" or "Dave"! Maybe if you were to give me your service free of charge, I might consider it.

I understand outsourcing your customer service. Your customers already have your service, know what you provide and are probably mostly happy with it. Few people will cancel because the customer service has been outsourced. However, If you outsource your sales department you are outsourcing your first impression. Bad idea.

I will not purchase Direct TV nor will I patronize The Dish Network, both of whom attempted to sell me their product from India.

Employ Americans and more Americans will purchase your service.

Castle

ABC debuted a new show on Monday night called "Castle" starring Nathan Fillion (no relation that I'm aware of) and Stana Katic.

And as I'm watching this show I find myself pondering, "Do I want this show to succeed? Or fail miserably?" Following that thought I couldn't help but wonder why I'm concerned with the success or failure of this specific show! I don't care how "Private Practice" does. I have no opinion on "Boston Legal." I want "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives" to crash and burn, but those are on moral grounds. So, why this show? I found myself exploring these possibilities:

Jealousy: I'm not too proud to suggest that this may be the issue. Here's someone successful in something that I once wanted to do. Would I rather it be me? Do I see his success as a barrier to my own?

Pride: Allow me to explain... I don't like Guy Pearce. When I was in Hollywood, it was suggested that we find an actor with whom we thought we shared some similarities. This would be a good gauge of the types of roles we could play well. Guy Pearce was one of my choices. I began watching his movies. I began to think that I could do a better job than he did. Yet he was successful and I was unknown. Is this why I have some conflicting desires for this show? Do I think I could play these roles better than Nathan?

The Future: It's always in the back of my head that some of my friends in show-biz will make it big someday and be thinking, "I need the perfect person to play this role!" Their minds will hearken back to a time long long ago and think of me... Let's say this happens. (Just humor me ok?) Can I use my name? Or, like Nicolas Cage (who's name is actually Nicolas Coppola, nephew to Francis Ford Coppola), will I have to change my name so people don't think I road in on the coat-tails of success of Nathan? You know, like Joan Cusack has done with her brother John. (Please ignore the fact that I'd be riding in on the coat-tails of success of whichever friend made it big and gave me a call.)

The Show: Is it the show? Am I not sure whether I want the show to fail or not because of it's content? Well, that can't really be because as soon as I saw previews for it I started dealing with these questions. Not only that, but I watched the show... and I liked it! It was intelligent. It didn't have a base foundation of sex like most new shows. The conflict between the two main characters was interesting. It's not the show.

I've seen a few other pieces that Nathan has been in. I first saw him in Saving Private Ryan (He was the first wrong "Private Ryan" who's brothers were in elementary school...) I can't say that he is commonly in roles that would be well suited for me. Hence Pride cannot be the issue.

Why would I be jealous of him and not Ewan McGregor or Ed Harris. I don't like watching actors succeed that I think are sub-par (see Keanu Reeves, Joaquin Phoenix, and Joan Cusack). But Nathan has given no evidence that he isn't a good actor. So it's not jealousy.

That leaves only "The Future." How dumb is that?! Somebody smack me and tell me it's over!

Nathan, I liked the pilot for the show Castle and I wish you a long and successful career!

"Increased taxes"

The mayor of Hartford gave his "state of the city" address recently. He said that he had to use two of the words that people never like to hear and politicians never like to say: "Tax Increase." Well, at least 50% of that statement is true.

We are in a recession that's "rivalled only by the great depression," as he put it. So, here we are in the worst economic situation since the 1920's, people are hurting everywhere: out of work, losing their homes, business struggling, prices rising... What's the solution?

Take more money from those who still have jobs? Yeah, that makes sense.

Actually, what it says is: The function of the government is more important than the financial security of your family!

What do these people do? These people who now have problems paying rent and buying food because more of their money is going to the government? Where do they turn? To the government!

Now the government has a deficit and, in an effort to correct that, they've caused more of a draw on their already depleted funds!

"No, you foolish blogger, we're only going to increase business taxes." There's a solution. Make sure that those businesses are definitely not able to hire new people. In fact, depending on how much the increase is, let's cause more people to be out of work. That's even less money coming into the treasury coffers and even more people relying on the government!

I have an idea! Lower taxes! Let people and companies keep more of their money. Fewer people drawing on the funds of the state. More companies able to offer work. More money going back into the economy in the private sector rather than being forced in by the politicians!

Truth be told, however, if you want to funnel a culture into socialism the way to do it is spend money you don't have and then force the people to pay for it later. Once it's paid for, they'll be so used to sending 40%, 50%, even 60% of their paycheck to Uncle Sam that they won't notice that the government has taken over the banking system, has an ownership share in the auto makers, and decides who has their house paid for by the government. Now... where have I heard that plan before?

Saying Goodbye

This is another two part post.

The first is saying goodbye to a faithful, valued mode of transportation.

We never named it, and when it was given to us the previous owners estimated we might be able to squeeze another two, maybe three years out of it. That was five years ago. So a new starter, two new distributors (Never EVER go to the Firestone in Bristol, CT), a new muffler, and a couple of oil changes later, it's time to say farewell.

With the work that's already been done on this vehicle, what could possibly force this car into retirement? Well, for one, it doesn't go in reverse. Secondarily, every now and then (mostly all of the time) the transmission slips into what is known as "safety mode." This is when it never shifts out of second gear because the computer is telling it that there is something wrong: No transmission fluid, mechanical problem, etc. We've had it looked at and none of these are the case. It was this very problem that causes it to no longer travel in reverse. When we would need to travel on the highway (remember, in second gear) we would throw it into neutral to drop the RPMs and coast for a while. Did you know that you can throw a 93 Honda Accord into reverse while traveling 65 mph once and have few ill effects? Yeah... you can't do it twice.

So, after a lifetime of 242,578 miles, on January 24, 2009 we parked the car for the final time. And now, the car in which we brought both of our children home from the hospital in now sits, resting comfortably in our drive way.

Why did we keep it? Read the next post to find out!

Saying Hello

Since January 24th, we've totally revamped our fleet of vehicles. We had a white '93 Honda Accord and a (borrowed) grey '87 Oldsmobile 98. Now we have a red '93 Honda Accord and a red '97 Eagle Vision.

Prayer works. Since I married the woman of my dreams we've owned four vehicles:
A white '93 Honda Accord
A red '93 Honda Accord
A red '95 Mitsubishi Mirage
A red '97 Eagle Vision

Three of these cars were given to us. I've prayed for free cars and God has answered.

Our most recent free car was the red '93 Honda Accord.

It's a standard. I like standards. Not only that, however, it recently reached an amazing milestone!

That's right. Three hundred thousand miles! That's quite a feat! And I think I can squeeze another, oh, hundred thousand out of it!

Here are our new cars!

The Vision
The Accord
We've kept the white '93 because, apart from the transmission, it's identical to the red one. If anything goes on the red Accord, we've got the part ready and waiting!

At one point we had over 1 million miles parked in our driveway!
'97 Vision:.......... 104537
'95 Mitsubishi:..... 154477
white '93 Accord:.. 242578
'87 Oldsmobile 98 : 247832
...the Vision needed some work
red '93 Accord:.... 300054
Grand total: ....1,049,478

I think we are finally at a place where we are both very happy with the cars in our drive way! And I don't think that's just my opinion.

Band Album Cover Game

I found this "game" recently and it is so adictive! You get to create your own band and produce your first album! (I have to give credit where credit is due. I found this game on this blog.)

Here's how it works.

First, you need to get your band name. To do this you visit Wikipedia and select a random article. Or you can click here: Random Wikipedia Article.

Then you need the name of your album. This comes from the Quotations Page and selecting random quotes. The final few words of the last quote is your album title. You can get there by clicking here: Random Quotes.

Next, you need an image for your album cover. Head on over to Flickr. Click on the "Explore" drop down menu and select "Interesting last seven days." The third image is your album cover. Or you can click here: Interesting Flickr Images

Finally, you assemble the peices together in a photoshop or paint program and you have your finished Band Album Cover!

Here are two of mine:




If you can find a way to get your album covers to me, I can add them in a future post!

This is too much fun, here are some more:







I couldn't resist! Here are more:





Happy cover making!

Here are a few from JMO readers!:
Dawn

"L"

The Queen of Hearts