Mike Rundle's Weblog

Fahrenheit 9/11 vs. The Passion of the Christ

I went to go see both of these movies, and happened to enjoy Fahrenheit 9/11 more because I am definitely more Liberal than I am Christian. And by "not that Christian", I mean I'm Jewish.

From what I've seen on the news (not Fox News mind you) and from friends, Church leaders have been encouraging everyone to go see The Passion like it is your Heaven-Sent duty as a Christian on Earth. So maybe this means Hollywood, Mel Gibson, and his millions of dollars represent the Second Coming, but to me it's just a movie.

A Christian going to see The Passion is like a Liberal viewing Fahrenheit 9/11. Both movies are preaching to their own choir, and at the end you just want to get up and cheer. Well not at The Passion, 'cause that would be tacky, but you get the idea.

I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 in a small independent theater in Doylestown, PA — a town founded by a well-known homosexual and hundreds of hippies — so already the town is slanted a wee bit to the left. Everyone in the theater was connected, and everyone appeared to be talking and quite excited about it. People were laughing at some of Dubya's comments (that Moore stripped out of context and juxtaposed along with some horrific scenes, but who cares), crying with the bad parts, and then gave a standing ovation at the end. For those few hours we all shared a common bond.

I don't know any Liberals who saw Fahrenheit 9/11 and weren't moved by it. I know lots of Conservatives who were moved by it as well, but their movements typically involved them folding down 4 of their fingers and moving their legs toward the door. In the same sense, I thought The Passion was just one long, mediocre, middle-of-a-story with no discernable beginning nor end. Then I was told afterwards that I should have read The New Testament before I went to go see it because then I wouldn't be asking so many stupid questions throughout the movie. Oops, my bad.

Are there any Christians in the audience who thought The Passion sucked? Any Liberals who thought that Fahrenheit 9/11 was a load of crap? I'm really interested in hearing from y'all minorities.

Return of the King Redux

"I'm glad to be with you TypePad readers........ here at the end of all things."

Saw the movie again and it was even better the second time :)

iPod Update: And for those of you awaiting mini iPods (2GB or so), check out extraordinarily useful Google search. For what? "2GB / 6MB". 'Nuff said.

Recent Movies

Heather got me thinking about movies recently, and I thought I'd share this little Google tidbit with y'all. If you search on Google for "worst movie 2003", my weblog post discussing The Cat in the Hat movie shows up on the front page!

And if you're undecided about what movie to rent/download this post-holiday season, may I recommend Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Its funny. No, really, it had a lot of funny moments. Johnny Depp (no matter what role he's taking on), is generally a funny actor, as he was in that crazy Pirates movie I saw a few nights ago. Which I (sorta) liked too, but definitely not as much.

"Are you a MexiCAN or a MexiCAN'T?"
"I'm a MexiCAN."
"Good."

"Cat in the Hat": Worst movie in a decade

I haven't seen it (notice the absence of the word "yet" after that phrase) because I've already found reviews that validate my worst fears.

Bowling for Columbine

After watching this documentary and realizing the tragedy that is the American culture and media, I hope everyone that is a card-carrying member of the NRA dies and rots in hell.

Just to make you aware, the United States of America has more gun deaths than France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Spain combined. Why do you think that is? Because we are completely irresponsible gun owners, fearful of events that would not occur if we were not so fearful of them.

How many people are going to break into your house while you are there and sleeping and try and rob you? Are they going to go into your room, pull out their 9mm and shoot you and your significant other dead? Most likely, they are not there to kill you. But because we live in a culture of fear, we feel the need to arm ourselves in case that event ever comes up — but in the mean time, our children and their friends find our guns and bring them to schools to shoot other children.

Great trade-off. We protect ourselves in case a one-in-a-million event occurs (a robber not only taking your possessions, but also trying to kill you), and in the mean time there are massive media and ad campaigns reminding you to "lock your gun up", or "teach your child about gun safety". How about you get rid of your gun instead of teaching your kids how to deal with it in the house? How about you practice acceptance of your neighbor and reach out a friendly hand when they are in need? How about you treat others the same way you'd like to be treated?

Or how about we all move to Canada, because they don't have the problems we do.