Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
I finally got around recently to watching the fifth instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise. As expected, it was slick and high-budget, with impressive real-life stunts. Besides hanging on to moving planes and swerving motorcycles, Tom Cruise is showing his age a little, a rigid expression setting into his normally expressive face, a rictus grin[…]
I just took in the new American-everyman Tom Hank’s movie, Captain Philips which, surprisingly from its limited quality, has made over $218 million so far, and won six Academy awards. Directed in shaky-realistic-video by Paul Greengrass, who also oversaw two of the Bourne movies, the film has a stark realism. The problem, I think, is[…]
Marie de l’Incarnation: Études de théologie spirituelle by Pierre Gervais, S.J.: A Review Pierre Gervais is a Canadian-born Jesuit, professor of systematic, sacramental, and spiritual theology at the Institut d’Etudes Theologiques of Brussels as well as editor of the Nouvelle Revue Théologique. In his Foreword, Father Gervais explains the makeup of these “studies” or[…]
My movie selection over the past few months has been in the science fiction genre, which is often heavy on the ‘fiction’, and light on the ‘science’. The recent, visually impressive Christopher Nolan-directed Interstellar attempts to balance that, telling the story of mankind’s search for a new habitable planet with some degree of scientific accuracy. […]
Festival and Ferial Anna Rist Kaufmann Publishing, St. Simon’s Island [GA], 2014 ISBN : 978-0-9905329-3-4 In one of his Odes (IV.2) Horace describes the danger of trying to emulate the majestic Greek poet Pindar. Such daring, Horace says, would bring the would-be poet to a disastrous end, another Icarus flying too high on his[…]
Calvary (2014) Directed by John Michael McDonagh Written by John Michael McDonagh Stay for the credits at the end of Calvary, for interspersed in the endless lists of names are still shots of sites significant for the story line: a booth in the town pub, a table in a café, a split rock, the[…]
Millions Director: Danny Boyle, 98 min., U.K., 2004. Starring: Alex Etel, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan Plot: (Spoiler alert!) The UK is about to switch its currency from Pounds to Euros, giving some criminals a chance to rob a train loaded with banknotes destined for incineration. During the robbery, one of the bags falls onto playhouse[…]
Pushing Tin 1999, Director: Mike Newell. Actors: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thorton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie. Music: Anne Dudley. (Rated R for language and mild sexuality) “You land a million planes safely; then you have one little ‘mid-air’, and you never hear the end of it.” – Pushing Tin Plot The film opens in[…]
By Reason Alone: Assembling the Great Puzzle by Jacek Bacz Justin Press, 2010 ISBN: 978-0-98131-844-8 At the start of this rewarding book Jacek Bacz states that it is “the kind of book I wish I had read at age 25.” Born into the Catholic Faith in his native Poland, he lost his faith due to the[…]
It is perpetually wonderful to me how much truth can find its way into secularists’ stories. Dracula Untold, Universal’s newest origins story, is a prime example. This story creates—out of the historical Vlad III Dracula the Impaler, Prince of Walachia, and Stoker’s detestable Count—a noble character who resonates with the audience through his very human[…]
