Think Of The Homeless

There are over 30 million Americans who live on the streets of our nation. Can you consider giving something to a shelter near you? Your fellow human beings need socks because they walk everywhere. Food and shelter are great too, if they will take them. So please give.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Rango


Rango

Rango/Lars Johnny Depp
Beans Isla Fisher
Priscilla • Abigail Breslin
Mayor • Ned Beatty
Roadkill • Alfred Molina
Jake • Bill Nighy
Doc/Merrimack• Stephen Root
Balthazar • Harry Dean Stanton
Bad Bill• Ray Winstone

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Gore Verbinski. Written by John Logan. Running time: 107 minutes. Rated PG (for rude humor, language, action and smoking).

Is Johnny Depp quietly becoming the “go to” guy in Hollywood? Does anyone see what this talented actor has been doing in a wide variety of movies? Face it, if a producer wants and actor who can disappear into a character, Depp has to be your first choice. If you doubt that, just take a look at last year’s Alice in Wonderland and now this year’s Rango.

I wasn’t going to catch Rango, instead I was going to wait for the upcoming Rio instead. Someone recommended Rango to me however, so on a double bill day, I made Rango the second half of my movie day, and boy am I glad I did! Rango is smart, snarky, satirical and in tune with the audience, always keeping tongue in cheek and one eye looking at the audience sideways. They don’t take it seriously and they know you won’t either.   

You’ve seen all of this before, but not all in the same place. I wondered just how close to Blazing Saddles this movie would be, due to its overused premise, and was greatly surprised to see that even the producers admit the comparisons. But then there are lots of scenes from other movies here, and because it is handled with such top flight comedy one finds that the “copycatting” is easy to forgive.

Rango is a lizard, more specifically a chameleon. He dreams of being an actor and in a sudden change of fate he is thrust into a journey of self discovery and testing that will either end in his reaffirmation or his death. And if you believe his commentators, a mariachi band of owls, you had better measure him for the pine box. 

Rango  trips into a town in the desert that is dry on water and threatened by several types of villains. Being an actor, he chooses to play the role of his life, only to find that it’s easier to pull off an attempt at subterfuge and chicanery when perhaps one is an avatar on the internet in a chat room rather than being in person live with sentient beings like himself.  

There are many other characters here in this desert town, many of which are modeled and “faced” by some old school western archetypes we’ve all seen in movies and TV shows before. I swear I saw Irene Ryan, Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies, and several other faces, many of which are probably modeled after many old west movie actors who may or may not still be with us. But it’s clever, and a loving homage to the actors who have come and gone and those who made westerns what they are in the place of American movie history.   

Rango impresses the town by clumsily disabling an impressively smart hawk (one who understands how to operate a vending machine no less) who has Rango targeted for dinner. The Mayor makes him the latest sheriff and sets him up, though he does not realize this, as a fall guy. Fortunately, Rango is no "Gomer", and he smells a rat before things get too underway. As a result, there are scenes of posse chases in the canyons, high noon face offs, and heroines whose land the government wants. There are also dream scapes, and Salvador Dali like backdrops.   

This was truly one of the great animated movies I have ever seen, and if you miss it, you will be worse off. Not only that, but it scores as a comedy which has writers who kept on going with the humor right up till the end. Not something one usually sees in a comedy, where most have all the comedy writing in the first twenty minuets, and then it becomes a nice story. The last comedy I saw like that was Taledega Nights. Run, don’t walk! (and your kids can come too)

4.5/5 Stars

You’ll Thank me.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Sucker Punch


Sucker Punch

Genre: Action & Adventure, 
Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Synopsis: “Sucker Punch” is an epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary. She has been locked away against her will, but Babydoll (Emily Browning) has not lost her will to survive. Determined to fight for her freedom, she urges four other young girls-the reluctant Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), the outspoken Rocket (Jena Malone), the street-smart Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and the fiercely loyal Amber (Jamie Chung)-to band together and try to escape a terrible fate at the hands of their captors, Blue (Oscar Isaac) and Madam Gorski (Carla Gugino), before the mysterious High Roller (Jon Hamm) comes for Babydoll. Led by Babydoll, the girls engage in fantastical warfare against everything from samurais to serpents, with a virtual arsenal at their disposal. Together, they must decide what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive. But with the help of a Wise Man (Scott Glenn), their unbelievable journey-if they succeed-will set them free.. -- (C) Warner Bros More

Rated: PG-13 – See Full Rating for thematic material involving sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language

Directed & Written By: Zack Snyder
  Emily Browning • Babydoll
  Abbie Cornish • Sweet Pea
  Jena Malone • Rocket
  Vanessa Hudgens • Blondie
  Jamie Chung • Amber

Ridiculous. Absurd. Exploitative. Sexist. 
Existentialist. Corrupt. Slimy. Sophomoric.
For the “women in peril” crowd only. Teenage boys who play video games will also love it. Unfortunately, in the middle of the day during the week, the theater I was in had too many older men, sitting alone in various seats around the movie plex watching this one. What have we come to?

Frank Miller’s look and feel of 300, and the stylized camera work of Watchmen are mixed with an art palette that is a bit too reminiscent of a salad left out on the counter too long. All the comic book conventions are in full display here as towering demonic Asian adversaries take on school girls with samurai swords, who themselves cannot be injured, but the Amelikite enemies can be felled by a common sword. What? No light sabers? Of course, the heroine’s commando team also takes on Nazis as well as Ninjas, and also some dragons, one of which manages NOT to flood the crew’s airplane with a column of deadly fire when it could have easily done so and ended things right there.

It’s all rather ridiculous, and yet right up the “girls with guns” genre Quentin Tarantino is so fond of. Emily browning plays “Baby Doll” (not Baby Spice, but you could have fooled me, no musical numbers folks) who is wrongly committed to an insane asylum, so we are lead to believe, but then who really knows where the real truth lies in this hodge podge of an action movie steroided with video game conventions?

Wrongly accused of killing her own sister (we think) she bonds with a group of other inmates, all nubile and about to burst upon the world of full blown womanhood, eh hem. They plan to gain their freedom from the obviously puerile and corrupt keepers of their imprisonment.... at least we think so. The problem is that viewpoints are so slanted and one sided that it’s hard to know if the girl’s imagination is highly prejudiced in her interpretation of things that happen to her and the group.

She does, therefore escape into her imagination, where anything can happen and she can survive anything. She is about 5 foot 4 inches tall and her compatriots are not all that statuesque either, but she manages to ruthlessly kick butt anyway, even though the giant enemies often look dead already, and who can kill animated dead? Anyhow, the action sequences happen while the girl dances in real life for her “suitors” whom she is being trained to “pleasure” in what is kind of a strip club/Moulon Rouge from hell. Though there is never any sex that would bring an “R” rating, there is plenty of concentration on the sexuality and exploitation of women’s physical place and attributes that is a bit too “enjoyed” by the movie itself. I wouldn’t let my kid see this one based solely on that, and we’d talk about the subversive nature of this sort of thing in detail.

For cartoony action scenes, the choreography is well done, one can almost see the comic book panels and the usual contrivances coming from a mile away. “Girls with guns” action almost warrants bloodless scenes, since it would be distracting from the “rason de etre” of the whole narrative. You have to accept a lot of silly, impossible antics in the violence and it is only the walking dead or the dragon who get the worst of it. For action scenes themselves, the girls are no punching bags, and I was glad to see it, but they also survive a lot of things that require full fledge fantasy daydreaming to accept.

I will say one thing though about the performances, I felt that Miss Abbey Cornish, who plays Sweet  Pea, was a stand out, and deserved to be the superheroine of the movie. She has the height, look and feel of the position. Someone out there has to pick this up besides me.

The main bad guy, (Oscar Issac?) the keeper of the girls, also has a fine turn as a slimy villain who reminded me of real people I have known. He was downright great at being slimy and corrupt. Perhaps the best acting job of the whole cast.

Unfortunately, I was not all that impressed by the rampant existentialism used as philosophy in the movie, with its pretentious clap trap that is supposed to inject some type of philosophical meaning into the narrative. Complete hooey! But you know it sounds good, and is attractive in a way to the common person, despite its empty promises.  I suppose one could say this about Sucker Punch also, as a writer once said:

"Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Yep, it’s a 2.5/5. And only for the production values, if indeed it has any values at all.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Reviews by Hubie Goode: God Favors Our Righteous Cause


God Favors Our Righteous Cause  
by Lizzie Ducking

Can we be sure that God will bless the things that we do? Yes, we can be sure if it is according to His word.

The Bible said that Jesus went about doing good. He had favor from God and man and if we would imitate what He did then we can be assured of God's blessing.

What are righteous causes? They are things we do that please God. It could range from giving a Child a cold drink of water to starting a Ministry. These are only two examples but both are righteous causes. The Lord fills our day with opportunities to be blessed by righteous causes.

I use to hate when the phone rang while I was busy doing something, it really frustrated me until I realized that the People who were calling did not know that I was busy so I had to make an adjustment in my attitude and become patient, this was a righteous cause for me because having patience is a blessing. Every time the phone rings when I am busy and I patiently answers it I have a blessing coming. Blessings followed Jesus everywhere because He went about taking advantage of righteous causes that was presented to Him.

If what we are doing or want to do is right, that is a righteous cause and God will perform all that we ask of Him. We would not have to try to figure out what to do it will be given to us by the Holy Spirit, all we would need to do is to follow His instructions.

Psalm 35:27 says, let them shout for joy and be glad who favor my righteous cause and let them say continually let the Lord be magnified who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. Not only will God favor us but He will also bless those who rejoices in the thing that we are doing and give Glory and Honor to Him.

Instead of being jealous of what a Person is doing, we should rejoice in the Lord over it and the Lord will bless us for doing that.

If we are having a difficult time, we can work our way out of it by doing good, every single time that we do something good towards someone else there is a blessing in it and if we continue to do good towards others, we will find ourselves living a life of blessings. It will follow us jus as it did with Jesus.

A lot of People think that they will have to do something profound for the Lord to receive His blessing, this is not the case because He said when we have done it to the least one of these you have done it unto me. Simple things like helping to pick us items a Person dropped are a righteous cause. We were there at that time to help them so it was not a co-incident; it was a destiny trying to get a blessing to us.

About the Author
I am a Christian and a License Practical Nurse. I enjoy helping and encouraging others. I am a Wife, Mother and Grandmother. I am also President of the Parent Teachers Organization, President of the Parent Supporter Task Force and a member of the Parent Leadership Institute.
My website is: http://www.lizzieschristianbookstoreandmore.com. I sell a variety of Christian Products such as E-books, Poems, and Teachings. Free weekly Devotions. Inspiritional products like Crosses, Bible covers, Plaques, Figurines. Also other products for the entire family.
http://www.fhtmus.com/lizzieducking The best resource in online shopping right at your fingertip. A variety of busineses and stores to shop from

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Healthy Fat Free Cooking for Weight Loss



Healthy Fat Free 
Cooking for Weight Loss   

by John Chancellor


The human body is a complex machine and every person has different needs and body structure. While some seem to be able to eat rich and fatty foods without putting on a pound, most of us sooner or later are forced to try to reduce the amount of fat we consume in order to control our weight

Unfortunately we often associate the idea of "low-fat" cooking with the word "Yuck" and we all dread boring and tasteless food! Low fat does not necessarily mean tasteless. With some creativity and a dash of imagination you can now easily whip up fat free or low fat dishes which are both healthy and fun.

The first thing we need to remember is that a healthy body needs a reasonable amount of fat in our diets in order to operate properly and all fats are not same. The most important consideration in low fat diets is to avoid saturated fats. These saturated fats not only derived from animal sources, like fatty red meat, lard and butter, but also from vegetable sources such as palm oil or coconut oil.

Another type of fat that you need to stay away from is hydrogenated trans-fats which are often found in commercially fried foods like french fries or doughnuts. The oil that is extracted from seeds and nuts or other vegetable oils like safflower, olive, soy, and corn are polyunsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats. The healthiest and most important fats are Omega 3 fatty acid that comes from seafood, cod liver oil, and flax seed oil.

There are a few minor changes that you can make in the kitchen that will have a huge impact on your overall fat intake. When are cooking vegetables, try to steam them in a microwave or steamer. Many meat dishes can also be steamed as well. When you buy meat be sure to trim all visible excess fat, and avoid frying at all costs! Choose instead to boil, broil, bake or grill.

While making broths use light spices and avoid consuming thick gravies with cream sauces, instead make sauces of pureed vegetables sauces. Most dried or canned soups are not very healthy and can hinder in losing weight since they contain preservatives and high salts.

While preparing sauces and soups, substitute creams with skimmed milk; if the recipe requires cream, substitute low fat yogurt instead. Opt for sandwiches that are made with whole grain bread, and add lettuce and other green veggies. Instead of dinner rolls or white bread, make servings with whole wheat and sourdough breads.

Finally, avoid sugary sodas and opt for more servings of water or fruit juices instead. Pay attention to these simple ideas, and you can easily reduce the amount of fat you take into your body without sacrificing flavor!

About the Author
John Chancellor is a sports nut and a freelance writer

Monday, March 7, 2011

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Pros of Homeschooling


Pros of Homeschooling   

by Mila Tami Monette

Hundreds of thousands of parents had noticed the pros of homeschooling. Educating their child at home lessened their worries and fears about the cons of sending their kids to public schools. What really are the pros of homeschooling?

•More freedom for you and your child

Are you tired getting frustrated forcing your child to wake up early in the morning, preparing for his lunch etc? Brining him to school or picking him up? How about his home works? Ah! All these things controls your child's everyday routine. Time, school obligation, responsibilities and requirements are exactly what deprive your child's freedom. You child needs quality time to rest and sleep.

•Your child will be free from the pressure of drugs or any crime in school

We heard of many stories about bullying, drugs, teenage pregnancy, abuse, smoking and alcohol in school. Homeschooling your child means his own safety from all those possible harms he will encounter if you send him to school

•Shape your child the way you want and develop his skill

From the very beginning of your child's life on earth, you knew him. You know his talents, skills and gifts. Would it not be easier for you to develop him and train him to reach his full potential? How about good qualities, you want your child to be responsible, honest, patient, kind and lovable? If you choose to home school your child, it will be all in the power of your hand to shape him. No one will twist it.

•Your relationship will be built

You may know your child's abilities but not his heart conditions. As your child continues to grow, there are many good and bad things emerging from his young heart. As you keep moulding him for his own good, your love and care for him will grow too. As he feels your love and concern, he will learn to love you in return. Your relationship is being built. The more time you spend together, the closer you will be with each other. Truly homeschooling is just a perfect option if you like that the relationship between and you and your child to be built.

•Cost you just a fraction

Calculating the amount you will spend if you send your child to school will be thousands of dollars, but homeschooling your child will just cost you just a fraction. These are some of the pros of homeschooling. Of course there are pros of public school too. But we choose homeschooling because we agree the benefits we discussed.

About the Author

There is an important thing you need to know about the pros of homeschooling your child. It is a reality many parents have discovered about homeschooling. This is one reason why more and more parents are choosing to educate their child at home rather than sending them to public school. You just need to click this website below:

Escape The Hezbollah