Category: Uncategorized

SOMEONE MADE THE FOLLOWING COMMENT TO SOMETHING I HAD WRITTEN AT YOUTUBE A WHILE BACK…

People hate this movie just because the fate of the survivors in the previous movies, not because it is bad. I remember how angry I was at the end of this movie the first I saw it at the theater. But over time I learned to appreciate it. It’s not a bad movie at all. And it was shoot by a genius in filmmaking, David Fincher, even with all the meddling by stupid producers. I feel that after Aliens if they had made another sequel in which Ripley, Newt and Hicks had survived again would have been a huge fail. Have you read the Gibson’s version of Alien 3? Boring, cliched, absolutely uninteresting script. All the goodies survive again but it doesn’t have a tenth of interesting value than of the theatrical version of Alien 3.

SO I RESPONDED WITH THE FOLLOWING COMMENT…

Your evolving opinion of Alien 3 doesn’t change the fact that television is a cancer on Western society.  Television is a cancer that needs to be removed.  Television is a social contagion that has been around for way too long.

IT WAS IMMEDIATELY CENSORED AT YOUTUBE

There’s nothing like good old-fashioned censorship by big tech to shape and control what’s being said online.

…A MORE GRAMMATICALLY-EFFICIENT RESPONSE WOULD BE…

Your evolving opinion of Alien 3 doesn’t change the fact that television is a cancer on Western society that needs to be removed.  Television is a social contagion that has been around for way too long.

MANY CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD FOR A FAITHLESS IMBECILE…

At least three while watching The Sixth Sense for the first time in a hotel room by myself.  (All within the first 65 minutes of the movie.) …

• Film music during the opening credits that let me know the movie was going to be one of those exceptional movies that had marked most of the years of my life, dating back to 1975. A pattern I had first noticed in 1996 (and kept alive by Titanic and Saving Private Ryan) that had continued into 1999 with The Sixth Sense.  I felt as if Hollywood was following me.  Very creepy feeling.
• Words from a Latin-speaking soldier early in the movie. I had been told by an uncle that something happens early in the movie that was connected to a big twist revealed at the end of the movie.  Thinking that the Latin words might have something to do with the big twist, I stopped looking after that scene where Bruce Willis looked up the translation of those words.  That scene would take on a whole new meaning in January of 2003, when I saw The Sixth Sense for the first time since the theatrical release of Signs.
• Shopping for an engagement ring. When the fiancé opened his mouth, what he had to say somehow didn’t surprise me, as if I expected him to say what he said.  (I had displayed a similar attitude from just a few weeks earlier.)  This should have been even creepier than the feeling I had during the movie’s opening credits.  But I was so clueless back then.

There were many other close encounters that year, four of which include:

• Noticing a billboard that read “Don’t make me come down there. –God”.
• Realizing that I needed God during my wedding ceremony…but that I wasn’t sure if there was a way I could know that He was actually real.
• Upon learning that my six year-old cat had cancer, I vocalized for the first time in my life my belief in God as I believed He was punishing me for my sins.
• In a newly updated version of The Exorcist…two priests talking to each other while taking a break from performing an exorcism. The 1973 version had them sitting in silence in a very brief scene.  So when they started speaking in the updated version, I was very much surprised.  One of the priests answered as to why the enemy was doing what it was doing by saying “To reject the possibility that God could love us.”

• In 1966:  Time asks “Is God dead?”.   Time complained they couldn’t find “a work of art that would convey a contemporary notion of God”.
• Late 60’s/early 70’s:  The film industry struggling for economic survival.
• 1972 – 2003:  Hollywood creates 209 movies that would outgross the Best Picture winners, according to the yearly box-office charts.  The average Best Picture winner ranks in the top 10 at the yearly box-office during this era of 32 years.
• In 2004:  The Passion Of The Christ opens to box-office records for opening weekends in February, after which it would spend six more weekends grossing at least $10 million.  Spending four weekends total at the top of the box-office charts, it would become the highest grossing R-rated film at the domestic box-office for 20 years.  (What other worldview or religion has a film about its central core to do so well at the box-office, to hold an important box-office record for so long?)
• In 2005:  The film industry goes out of its way to snub The Passion Of The Christ in most categories during awards season, except for three minor categories.
• 2004-2022:  Hollywood creates over 1,000 movies that would outgross the Best Picture winners, according to the yearly box-office charts.  The average Best Picture winner ranks below 52 at the yearly box-office during this era of 19 years…as opposed to ranking in the top 10.
• In 2023:  A successful director who once received a DGA nomination for directing a comic book film (the kind of movie that has proven to be Hollywood’s bread and butter for many years) directs an R-rated film that would become one of the year’s top ten biggest hits at the box-office.
• In 2024:  The film industry showers accolades on that hit film during the awards season.  Later in the year, a comic book film smashes the domestic box-office record for all R-rated films, finally ending the 20 year-old record held by The Passion Of The Christ.
• In 2025:  God, the Creator of the universe, gets mocked at an awards show early in the season.  Later that week, the R-rated comic book box-office record-holder fails to get a DGA nomination.  (Since 1978, only one comic book movie has received the DGA’s most prestigious nomination.)  Later in the month, Oscar history is made when the movie leading with the most nominations became the first movie ever to land more nominations than the number of people outside of Los Angeles County to see the movie.  Okay, that last sentence is probably just a joke.  Probably.

• COMIC BOOK MOVIES:  Hollywood’s bread-and-butter for many years.
• DGA RECOGNITION:  Hollywood’s most valid movie award nominations, from both a historical and logistical perspective.  

• Getting a prestigious DGA nomination for directing a comic-book movie.
• After last year’s success during the awards season with your R-rated hit movie, was it worth it?  Any regrets?

*Going forward from this year’s nominations, any significance of Hollywood’s movie awards have been reduced to ashes.  (Psalm 28:4-5)

• Fighting Apollo Creed
• Fighting apathy towards the $36 trillion national debt.

“This is bizarre!”

January 20, 2025

The national debt at 11 am (Central Standard Time)…  $36.375 trillion.

January 20, 2025

1 Peter 5:7  Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.

January 6

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. DONALD J. TRUMP

4 Felony counts for conspiring to overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential election results

“The pages contain so many charges, and those charges are so detailed, that we risk becoming numb to their monumental importance, particularly those of us who lack formal legal training.

Hence, this book.

Typically, the layperson is happy to leave legal briefs to the lawyers and scientific studies to the scientists.  But there are some matters of such import that we must read and form our own opinions about them.”  –from The Trump Indictments:  The 91 Criminal Counts Against The Former President Of The United States.  Edited and Introduced by Ali Velshi.

Spielberg’s 1987 War Against Movies

SPIELBERG vs MOVIES… IN 1987

“I think we’ve partially lost something that we now have to reclaim.  I think it’s time to renew our romance with the word.” –Steven Spielberg, speaking to Hollywood in 1987.

Opening & closing shots from Spielberg’s 1987 film Empire Of The Sun..

• Opening shot of caskets…floating in the water.
• Closing shot of a case containing things important to a 12 year-old …floating in the water.

Spielberg’s Other Wars

SPIELBERG vs TELEVISION

• Quickly becoming Hollywood’s new king with three blockbusters in 1975, 1977, and 1981.
• June 1982.  Will churches ever phone home? 
• Numerous movie similarities between 1982 and 1993.

SPIELBERG vs A FAITHLESS TEENAGER

• After his 1987 war against movies and what’s important to a 12 year-old, he directs a blockbuster sequel released in theaters during the summer before a 14 year-old’s freshman year in high school.
• A blockbuster sequel, whose last 40 minutes would be viewed multiple times via VCR by a faithless teenager.

John Williams (1989) & the faith of a 14 year-old…or the lack thereof.

• • • • • • • • A clueless teenager and the last 40 minutes of 1989’s Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade.
              • A faithless teenager and the tragedy of 1989’s Born On The Fourth Of July.  (Or to put it another way, Murphy’s Law and a faithless teenager. Or even Murphy’s Law and a faithless anybody, for that matter.)

SPIELBERG vs APATHY ABOUT HISTORY…IN 1998.

• I guess one could argue Spielberg’s 1998 movie was about luck.
• But I would argue instead that it was more of a war movie.  But maybe that’s just me. 

YOUNG SPIELBERG vs RECENT SPIELBERG

Spielberg:  1974-1998

• Director of Raiders Of The Lost Ark  (2 Samuel 6:11-12)
• Director of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (John 19:19-22)
• Director of Schindler’s List   “Everybody remembers him.   He did something extraordinary.  He did something no one else did.  He came here with nothing. A suitcase.  And built a bankrupt company into a major manufactory.  And left with a steamer trunk.  Two steamer trunks full of money.  All the riches of the world… …There’s no way I could have known this before, but there was always something missing.  In every business I tried, I could see now, it wasn’t me that failed.  Something was missing.  Even if I had known what it was, there was nothing I could have done about it because you can’t create this thing, and it makes all the difference in the world between success and failure.”

Spielberg: Since 1998

“That, however, leaves out of the conversation the matter of luck, of which I have had a good share… …So, yes, luck… …So I hope this book turns out to be part of my good luck.”  –Steven Spielberg, as quoted in the introduction of a very recent book  (Romans 1:19-21)

SIGNS, LUCK, COINCIDENCES, & 9/11

“What kind of person are you?  Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles?  Or do you believe that people just get lucky?  Or look at the question this way:  is it possible that there are no coincidences?” –from the very first film to begin production after 9/11