The Little Theology Corner Presents...

By the Love of Morgan Freeman!





A quick look at EVAN ALMIGHTY





This one will be brief and not as preachy as you might think. There is a reason though, to include this one in the Little Theology Corner instead of just a regular review... the critics.





As you might know by now, the most expensive comedy ever made has been flamed to death by critics who pronounced it a not so worthy successor to BRUCE ALMIGHTY. Must say I enjoyed BRUCE, but comparing these two movies is like doing so with oranges and apples. They are both fruit, and that is just it.





I must concede though that EVAN is a little preachier than BRUCE was, but then one thing is to PLAY GOD, the other is TO DEPEND UPON HIM FOR YOUR EVERY MOVE. I believe this is what disgusted critics. Whenever Bruce was doing his thing, even if it was the biggest trial and error situation, he seemed to have the upper hand, because he was literally the closest being to God in the Universe. As far as God Himself, His redemptive is shown through making right what went wrong, and who doesn't love the guy that fixes a screw up...





In this movie though, God openly laughs at Evan's plans, tears his life apart and compels him to build something altogether different... and that is never cool. No one loves the guy who meddles in your plans and needs not of your wisdom or your fabulous input.





For anyone who knows God, or claims to know Him, I will dare say, that as far as movies go, Morgan Freeman has made the best portrayal of the Man Upstairs . Yes people in my movie book, Morgan Freeman is God, just like Al Pacino is the Devil- hands down.





I must agree with the critics though that the plot is too linear, even for a family film. For those of all who venture in the Bible a little more than others, the twist were no surprises either. Although I liked it a lot, I didn't quite burst laughing. I just smiled, and nodded and felt a little better...


In fact the theology of Evan Almighty is easy to summarize... (this is not EVAN IN 15 BULLETS OR LESS, I must advise, just the condensed theology of a feel good movie)

• Be careful what you pray for, an answer might come your way


• Being the crown jewel of creation is easy... all that it implies is not


• This is not in the Bible, but ever since Spiderman came to be, this is the most biblical non biblical assessment: with great power comes great responsibility


• Say no to God and you'll get your due, say yes to God and you'll get your due... not because you said yes it will be easier


• I've said it before, I'll say it again, God loves stories with a touch of humor.


• If you do it His way, he'll allow you to make up your own victory dance, and may even shake it along with you...

PS... as far as movie stuff, Carell is the most brilliant physical comedian in Hollywood's pay role right now, and as I said before, Freeman is God in celluloid.

The Quote that best shows the simplicity of it all:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!- God (after hearing Evan had plans of his own...)

Meme... game of Tag, nothing to do... you choose

Alright, just visited Light Shadow's Blog and was instantly tagged in a game called Meme, or something like it

I have to write eight things about myself and tag other eight people to do the same... that is basically it... I think... Ah I guess you don't post your answers here, but in your own blog and this thing keeps spreading like some disease....


1.I'm usually game for everything and it's hard for me to say no... thus my famous saying, in another life I must have been a whore.Like right now I don't fully understand the rules of this game, but I'll finish it.

2. I too get depressed, not that often though, my swings are linked to a slight obsession with time, and how after I make use of it, I discover it might have not been the best of choices and I cannot have it back. It's what I call the March depression.

3. I love dark and Gothic, and I'll die that way. Some people get really annoyed trying to reconcile this idea with the fact that I am a Christian, but I have no problem and neither does God. I like reading angst in the Bible and scare people with it "darkness is my only friend"- sayeth David, King of Israel...

4. Sometimes I wish I had lived in the 15th century, but in order to achieve what I needed to, I think I should have been a man, and I'm not totally convinced I would have been happy because I firmly believe that I am a gay guy trapped in a woman's body.

5. I am torn between procrastination and perfectionism, which means that I usually leave things for last and then viciously increase my blood pressure trying to make them seem as if I spent a lot of time paying attention to detail.

6. I have a very twisted sense of humor, which I have to control in order to fit in.

7. Sometimes I am completely bitter about leaving New York, but then something happens that makes me forget it.

8. The only thing that I am really terrified of is not achieving the goals that I have set for myself... like I am planning to adopt a child and somehow I'm fucking scared of being read by a psychologist as an unfit mother.

That was not that bad

As far as tagging goes, I'll copy Light Shadow. If you READ IT , then TAG, YOU ARE IT.

Stolen from Light Shadow

You scored as Vampyre, You are Vampyre, The oldest and wisest of all breeds besides the wolves. You and the wolves get along famously despite the rumors and fights over the ages. Not only are you wise but you are very mature for your age. Beautiful, strong, wise and mature. You've got the whole package! ((Sorry, the image isn't working...)) What ancient breed are you? created with QuizFarm.com Errr... doesn't look much like me , but it sort of feels like me. Technically in the realm of The Breeds I am both Vampire and Sorceress, which means that according to lore, I have cunning and wisdom which nevertheless can't guarantee that I'll have it my way... Sucks. But then... shouldn't it?

Movies you love... and those you love to hate

Alright, found myself with some spare time this weekend and caught up with what has become my bonding activity for the Summer... watching movies with the great Ken Ken.

It was either Silver Surfer or Surf's Up, so it's seemed that no matter how much I got to run, I'll end up watching someone or something trying to keep balance on a flat surface while pretending to glide in places nature didn't intend us to.

Surf's Up! turned out to be really cool. I mean, if this quasi aficionado movie critics had her way, I would proclaim it better than Shrek.

Let us take in consideration the endless string of Penguin movies we've put up with lately, March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, Farce of the Penguins, all a load of crap, except for March, which had a life of it's own with Morgan Freeman narrating.

This one had non other than Surfing Penguins... what made it unique was that although this was a kid's movie, their directors took it seriously.

Basically every single stereotype was represented in full. From the typical Surfer dude ( the stoned chicken) to the Wave Jock (reigning surf champ) to the has been (who would rather fade away than be burned out by the game). Of course, right front and center is the dreamer, who not only is willing to win, but to earn respect, which is what all surfers should aspire to.

It spoke volumes about the surfing subculture and the heart of it all, which is the love of the sea and the great sense of wonder that derives from being "allowed to be there".

I thought it was funny, as it should be, but most of all, specially for a kid's movie nowadays, it went the extra mile to be inspiring...alright kiddie aisle is closed.

I also saw a movie this weekend, which really struck the wrong kind of chord with me. I cannot say it sucked horribly, I can say though that I hate it , with the level of respect that formidable enemies show to one and other. I wonder if this marvelous piece of "Americana" is a straight to video gem or if it ever saw, at least a limited release, in ever embracing cities like New York and LA. Ladies and gents, the pinnacle of Salma Hayek's career: Ask the Dust

And yes, peoples of the Internet, that is Colin Farrel. Don't kid yourselves though, he is not Mexican... he is dark Italian from Colorado...

I cannot say I hated the film because the characters caught me, hooked me, actually and after promising what I thought would be an amazing story of love and self discovery, left me wandering the streets of 1930's LA, wishing for the big Quake to come and topple it all off.

I could smack the director of this film in the face several times over, just for playing with it's audience the way he did. The only thing that could save him from my wrath is me ever setting eyes on the original source material and discovering that is actually a crappy novel, thus delivering Hollywood from it's formulaic "better than those writer's plots"

What could have been a picture perfect of life in Los Angeles as the anti NewYork... a place that glitters like gold and yet suffocates and slowly turns hope into content with mediocrity; it turned out to be a trivial discourse about racial perception, with Hayek playing the most despicable Mexican she's played yet.

I was furious. The complexity of Farrel's character was reduced to horse manure by Hayek's childish remarks. The whole movie played like... oh, so you are Italian and feel out of place, you cannot feel more out of place like me, after all I am Mexican, and no one suffers prejudice like Mexicans... Aha! your name is Arturo, it sounds Spanish, but you are not, so you cannot be as pathetic as I am, after all you are white. Oh... you are not white enough for whites? Well you are not brown enough for me...when at a given moment, Farrel decides to escort her out of a place instead of getting into a fight with a bunch of racists, she is quick to say "I knew it you are ashamed of me" (?)

If anything instead of playing a redeeming character, Hayek painted Latinos as insensitive and moronic, willing to bend over backwards in order to get ahead in the "shades of white" game. In the meantime, Farell's character is reduced to trying to love a woman who hates him for things that are beyond his control, and worse, hates herself although she won't admit it... follow me into the next paragraph, because I still cannot believe the woman who so brilliantly played Frida would demean her self to play the grandest stereotype within the stereotype...

The Masochistic Mexican Sexpot... a woman who would rather be beaten by a blue eyed blond that live happily with someone who is sort of tanned. At a given moment "Camilla" (Hayek) utters the pathetic phrase "I want to give my children a chance",and I asked myself... what the fuck, you want to have children who grow up seeing you get beaten on a daily basis while their father grace them with epitaph's like mongrel kids... that's one fucking great American Dream.

Yet, I couldn't take my eyes off this wreck, because they held me ato the promise that it might get better, that somehow this guy was about to write the Great american Novel - Farell's character is a writer. I'll say I loved to hate it. It will forever be in the "Movie that could have been " category. Amen.

Ahhhhhhhhh Quotes:

From Surf's Up: "Cody is here... I can feel it in my nuggets"- Chicken Joe

"I'm Arturo Bandini, who loves men and beast alike, I am a writer. I can't afford to be mean"- Ask the Dust

This is why...

This blog is Titled Time Consuming Trivialities... because sometimes I'll find something that I consider truly amazing and no one else gives a crap about. Like right now, I could get all philosophical about it, but I'll cut it short. Although I'm not of the PETA crew, I felt like bitch slapping whoever killed a magnificent animal that once swam in a Sea much different than what we have today and would eventually died as it was intended, being older, and in some strikes of fancy, wiser than all of us...

I'll leave the quote before the piece, and it is of course, Melville:

"Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all."

19th-century weapon found in whale
By ERIN CONROY, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 37 minutes ago
A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago.
Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.
"No other finding has been this precise," said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Calculating a whale's age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It's rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest were close to 200 years old.
The bomb lance fragment, lodged a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade, was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time, Bockstoce said.
It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890. The small metal cylinder was filled with explosives fitted with a time-delay fuse so it would explode seconds after it was shot into the whale. The bomb lance was meant to kill the whale immediately and prevent it from escaping.
The device exploded and probably injured the whale, Bockstoce said.
"It probably hurt the whale, or annoyed him, but it hit him in a non-lethal place," he said. "He couldn't have been that bothered if he lived for another 100 years."
The whale harkens back to far different era. If 130 years old, it would have been born in 1877, the year Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in as president, when federal Reconstruction troops withdrew from the South and when Thomas Edison unveiled his newest invention, the phonograph.
The 49-foot male whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month, and the older device was found buried beneath its blubber as hunters carved it with a chain saw for harvesting.
"It's unusual to find old things like that in whales, and I knew immediately that it was quite old by its shape," said Craig George, a wildlife biologist for the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, who was called down to the site soon after it was found.
The revelation led George to return to a similar piece found in a whale hunted near St. Lawrence Island in 1980, which he sent to Bockstoce to compare.
"We didn't make anything of it at the time, and no one had any idea about their lifespan, or speculated that a bowhead could be that old," George said.
Bockstoce said he was impressed by notches carved into the head of the arrow used in the 19th century hunt, a traditional way for the Alaskan hunters to indicate ownership of the whale.
Whaling has always been a prominent source of food for Alaskans, and is monitored by the International Whaling Commission. A hunting quota for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission was recently renewed, allowing 255 whales to be harvested by 10 Alaskan villages over five years.
After it is analyzed, the fragment will be displayed at the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska.
(This version REMOVES incorrect comparison to football field.)

30 Days Of Night - HD Trailer

What do you do when you are working 8 HOURS OF OVERTIME? You surf the web, of course! Little did you know the fates would make you stumble into this. You jump out of you skin and grin like a mad woman thinking... maybe, just maybe. Eyes open wide, you crack your fingers mentally drafting that essay in regards to horror and the American collective unconscoius you've wanted to write... your expectations rise as to this might be the movie that bring vampires back, after all, the Graphic novel was kickass, right?... And then you see Josh Harnett and something tells you, this could either be a wonderful bit (Harnett in low doses works- Sin City, any one?- or a terrible mess- can you spell Pearl Harbor? Anyways, your break is through before your mood takes a side and it's back to work...

The Music for Office Monkeys to dance to

I'm not bitching I swear, after one year of Celine Dione's Greatest Hits as a background for my Slave Duty, I was grateful when 5 new CD's showed up to enrich Doc's Soundtrack.

I will not even ask where he got them from, because the selection is ECLECTIC to say the least. I'll spend God knows how long listening to Enya's Greatest Hits... I could have sworn the woman was a one hit wonder you know the whole "Sail Away Stuff".... Another brilliant addition is Yanni's Greatest Hits.

Note about Greatest Hits...How come if you've never bought a SINGLE ALBUM from a freaking artist that you couldn't care for a bit, nevertheless, most of the time you'll buy the GREATEST HITS- there must be something about the bargain side of it. What ever... not too deep and philosophical today, not even sensical... it's the frigging music.

Anyways, the coolest CD in the whole bunch will be quickly eliminated. It's something I've come to call "The Graveyard Mix" and it is sorta New Age beat with Crows in the back ground... some patients complained about it - I would too if I were 80 something, owing time to the Reaper already ;p. In their defense, the Crows sounded happy.

However since the patient is always right, it was quickly replaced by a compilation of HOLLYWOOD GREATEST SCORES, out of which the only one I can make out is THE GODFATHER.

That will be the Soundtrack of my day for the next 6-8 months... and how ya doinggggg?

United 300

To all of you who saw the MTV Movie Awards... here's the Winner for best spoof. In a hurry as always, but it's just that the whole anger management with Xerxes gets me every time I see this... enjoy