Star Trek

I just got back from watching the new Star Trek movie. I liked it a lot. I was pretty worried about some things that they could do to screw it up, but I thought they did everything very well. I especially thought that they did a great job keeping the characters true to how they were written originally.

Fire Creek unleashed

A long time ago in a valley far far away, I got to be an extra in a movie called Fire Creek. Some of my friends went with: Roy, Becca, and of course Tyler, who got the imaginary crap beat out of him.

Despite it having been 4 years ago this month, they finally decided to release it. I don't know if we're still in it or if they cut that scene or if they just had to start over because they took so long making it, but I want to go see it just in case.

Nightmare Before Christmas

Tonight I bought the movie that has become my favorite: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. I love the music and the richness of the atmosphere, and recently I've come to love the theme of the movie.
The main character, Jack, is dealing with an emptiness in his life, and he goes through the same kind of search for meaning that a lot of real people deal with. During this, he stumbles upon Christmas Town, and becomes enamored with it. Jack says that he feels "the warmth that's coming from inside", and he has a hard time both understanding and explaining what he feels, but he at last decides that "just because [he] cannot see it doesn't mean [he] can't believe it."
The beginning of the movie makes it obvious that there is a message about spirituality, mostly because the words that Jack uses to describe his experience are so typical of phrases used by people, especially Christians, of their spiritual awakenings. I was never quite sure what the story was trying to say about spirituality, however, since Jack makes such a mess of things in his excitement. I think I have it figured out now.
The message is about not taking religion to the point of fanaticism: Despite his spiritual experience, Jack is still the same person as he always was. Rather than completely changing who he is, his new spiritual side becomes a motivation for him to be better at living his normal life. I think that's a good lesson. People don't change their personalities when they become converted; they grow and become better, but they don't become different people, and in the end the best application of their religion is in their daily lives, and not in fanatic replacements for their lives.

will work for crack

Loyd's blog just made me think of that.

Fire Creek

Tyler and I were in a movie this week. Well, mostly Tyler.

We went to be extras in BYU's first feature film, which is to be called Fire Creek. I don't know all of the details of what the movie is about, but this week they were filming a boxing tournament, and they needed extras to play the spectators at the boxing match, so that's what we did. At first.

They wanted to show one of the boxers with a broken nose, to kind of give the feeling of how badly hurt someone can get (one of the main characters gets trounced pretty badly). Tyler volunteered and they made him up pretty nicely. It looked so good, in fact, that the director decided not to just show him with the broken nose, but to show it happening.

So Tyler got pitted up against this big Polynesian guy. The guy kind of tackled Tyler and got in a few shots to the face before the referee could pull him off. Then Tyler was pulled back onto a stool in his corner where a skilled actor (me) played his buddy who tried to clean off the blood. Tyler wouldn't let him touch it (despite the buddy's pleas to help clean him up), but demanded to know if it was broken, which his coach admitted that it was.

We had lines and everything. It was exciting. I have a few pictures of Tyler in action.

Homeless

I felt homesick yesterday, and it occurred to me that I wasn't homesick for Denver. But I'm in Provo.... So where am I homesick for? What if I don't have a home anymore? What if it's just like Zach Braff said and I'm going to feel like this until I make my own home with my own family?
So I start wondering what I'm going to do with myself when I graduate. It's always seemed so far off that I haven't really worried about it, but it's not so far off anymore. I have more friends here than I do back home now, but do I really want to live in Provo forever? FOR-EV-ER.

Biggie Size

I saw "Supersize me" last weekend. At first, as I was watching it, I thought that the guy was a huge weenie: I mean, he couldn't even finish his Double Quarter-pounder. What a wimp. But by the end of the movie I was feeling sick myself. You know that feeling when you've been sitting around all day not doing anything but maybe watching TV and eating Doritos, and you just feel gross and greasy. Well, maybe I'm the only one that knows that feeling, but that's how I felt just watching this guy eat so much McDonald's. I almost haven't been able to eat all week.
But today I went to Wendy's and ordered the biggest chicken sandwich that's ever been deep-fat-fried: the Wild Mountain Spicy Chicken. AND Wendy's still does the Biggie size. So I guess I'm over whatever that movie convinced me of.

Have you ever seen Grosse Point Blank? There's another one for your list, Loyd. You know what's gonna suck about hell? That it's exactly what you deserve. Like, when you get treated unfairly, you can complain about it or try to avoid it, but you can't fight a punishment that you deserve. So what do you do? Maybe its just too late to do anything by then, and you just have to take your medicine.