Archive for January, 2011

The King’s Speech

by Hugh on January 29, 2011 in Film & TV, Life with No comments

Unusually for me, perhaps this is on the back of the Christmas break, I’ve had time enough to watch and take in a few films and series…

My good lady and I decided to break the usual tradition of Monday night apathy to brave a trip to the cinema – a rare event… cinemas are overpriced, and 4.45 for a box of popcorn is just silly!

So ever the ones to jump on the bandwagon of hype surrounding a new film we thought we should probably go and see the King’s Speech. The film ends with Colin Firth (the King) giving a speech – sorry for the spoiler!

However, don’t confuse my flippancy for indifference – it’s a good film. I loved the simplicity, powerful stuff yet done through dialogue with no fancy special effects or CGI, just a good script, well acted. Worth seeing, even with cinema prices! I’m not sure it’s quite worth all the hype it’s been given, it does feel a little bit laboured in places, and the ending isn’t quite as rousing as it should be… but worth a see.

Coming Soon:

Prison Break… off the back of finishing 24

Trying to understand Christopher Nolan more through Momento and Insomnia.

Mainly for nostalgia sake, we bought the BBC Narnia box set…

24: What an adventure

by Hugh on January 27, 2011 in Film & TV, Life with No comments

I still remember the first time it graced our screens, I have to confess I largely ignored it, couldn’t be bothered with the concept of a long running series where your involvement was dependant on consistent viewing. But that all changed at University… plenty of time to sit around watching DVDs.

It’s been 8 seasons, 8 box sets, 144 hours of real-time viewing, oh and don’t forget the film, 24: Redemption… it all started back in CTU Los Angeles on the day of the California Presidential Primary. We have the Bauer family, Ira Gaines,David Palmer, Victor Drazen, Nina Myers, Tony Almeida… what a team!

Plots have included kidnap, murder, nuclear bombs, nerve gas, Russians, Chinese, Arabs, Serbs, assignations, love interests, blackmail, moles, and all sorts of other everyday happenings.

Three things I love about 24:

  • The plot twists – you’re unlikely to meet the ‘boss’ until the final 6 hours.
  • The unlikely heroes – Chappelle, Mason, McGill, Milo…
  • No one is above being killed off… except Jack of course…?

Anyways… we’ve just finished Season 8… which ended in the only way it could really… a blaze of glory! If you haven’t started, it’s not too late… the box sets can be picked up cheap on ebay/cex. If you have started… give Jack the honour of just 144 hours of your life, he deserves it with all he’s been through!

The Model Church

by Hugh on January 26, 2011 in Faith, Talks with No comments

Recently we’ve been studying 1 Thessalonians, I was able to look a 2:1-16… seeing something of Paul’s model ministry, and the model church which the Thessalonians had become. Below are a few quotes that I found helpful… particularly helpful was a book called Body Beautiful by Melvin Tinker and Nathan Buttery, seeking to recover a Biblical view of the Church. It’s a great little book, so surprising to see it now seems to be out of print – although copies available here.

“Pay attention to the example of Paul. His evident love for those he ministered to and the honesty with which he lived before people gave his entire ministry of the Word integrity and persuasive force.”

Paul David Tripp – Instruments in the Redeemers Hands

“I did nothing. The Word did everything”

Martin Luther

The church best serves the world when it is most distinctively and unapologetically the church… when the church dares to be different, it models for the world what God calls the world to become. The church models what it means to be a community of caring and a community of character.

Richard Neuhaus – quoted from Body Beautiful

The Pacific

by Hugh on January 13, 2011 in Film & TV, Life with No comments

I’ve just finished watching The Pacific, the recent HBO mini-series documenting the story of the 1st US Marine Division. It stands alongside the awesome Band of Brothers. Watching this in Blue-Ray is a fantastic experience as the panorama of the pacific and gritty action of war meet.

You don’t really feel like you get to know a group of men, like you do with Band of Brothers, as the story follows a much wider group of soldiers, and you don’t really get to see the bigger picture of the war in the Pacific, and beyond. However, you don’t get to know 3 marines very well; Robert Leckie, John Basilone and Eugene Sledge – all real life characters with very different experiences of war.

The series isn’t dominated by fighting scenes, there’s lots of dialogue, and scenes and whole episodes set away from the battlefield, even some love stories interwoven. Part of the brilliance of this series is that the horror of war isn’t portrayed in people getting blown up, although that is there, no rather the horror is revealed slowly through the trauma of shell shock, the hatred towards the Japanese and the slow dehumanisation of the soldiers – powerful yet subtle.

The box set features some good special features, including historical background of real footage and interviews before each episode, as well as ‘enhanced viewing’ where every so often historians and veterans will appear in a small window at the bottom to give some input – this can be distracting so is only for a second viewing. There’s also an extra disc full of interviews and documentaries.

This is a must buy for any Band of Brothers fan, or really for anyone who enjoys a good war film or takes an interest in recent history. Buy and enjoy!

Is Missional Church a False Dichotomy?

by Hugh on January 12, 2011 in Faith with 7 Comments

At church this week we watched the following video, an explanation of what ‘Missional Church’ is…

Here’s my question… Isn’t this a false dichotomy? Isn’t this trying to distinguish two aspects of the nature of church which go hand in hand? My feeling is that the church planting movement in recent years is focusing on trying to be ‘missional’ at the expense of being ‘attractional’.

There is a fair critique here of the ‘established’ church, that tends towards being a bit of a ‘show’, while members take a back seat. That’s an unwanted side-effect, but sadly a reality of church life. Why not keep a model that works – ie. large, attractional church, but within that focus on teaching and training church members to have a missional lifestyle?

Is there a best way to reach the world? Planting lots of small churches / gospel communities, or building a larger church to attract lots and effectively resource it’s members? Is one model better? Does one model work better in certain areas of the country?

Discuss… anyone got any experience of the two models in question as an approach to building God’s Kingdom?

Inception vs. Minority Report

by Hugh on January 7, 2011 in Film & TV with 4 Comments

I was on the periphery of a conversation the other day where someone made a quite outlandish statement… “Minority Report is better than Inception”, which was greeted with murmurs of unrest. However, having had some time to reflect on this I’m inclined to agree. We rented Inception the other day, on Blue-Ray, to make the most of it. It was a good film, my wife hated it, but generally good – unique concept, great effects etc. But here’s where I felt it was a let down and where a film like Minority Report trumps it.

Context - Minority Report sets the scene, you know you’re in the future, you’re given an example of ‘pre-crime’ in action, those involved, and a history of pre-crime. The story goes on to give you a feel of what life in the future is like. Inception is set up around the idea of corporate espionage through dreams, but we’re not really told where we are, how or why this technology came to be, or any background to the corporate espionage… we don’t really know who the ‘boss’ is, or why he’s having to work for them (maybe we do? I can’t remember).

Characters - a lot of time in Inception is devoted to unveiling the concept, particularly of the architecture of dreams, and the action contained in the dreams themselves, but little time is devoted to developing the characters. Cobb (DiCaprio) is the main star of Inception, we learn a little bit about his relationship with his wife, helped through his time spent with Ariadne (Ellen Page), but we don’t really know him. I wouldn’t say Minority Report is particularly strong on this, but John Anderton (Cruise) has much more dialogue with a variety of characters, the story line is based around the character more than the concept.

Action - Since we’re in a dream most of the time in Inception, it’s hard to accept the action as being ‘real’, which I think takes away from some of the suspense. Sure they introduce the idea of getting ‘stuck’ in a dream, but the action in Minority Report just seems that much more real. I guess not really having a ‘bad guy’ as such does leave you feeling like you’re not really sure who to root for, and perhaps takes away the suspense of finding out who the ‘bad guy is’.

Don’t want to knock Inception too much… it’s got one of the best closing sequences to a film I’ve seen, up there with the Italian Job! What do you think? Inception? Or Minority Report?

The Event

by Hugh on January 6, 2011 in Film & TV, Life with No comments

So before Christmas we started to watch ‘The Event’, a “high octance US thriller”, which has proved to be the perfect filler as we wait to see series 8 of 24. It has everything that a good thriller should have… kidnap, murder, plane crashes, White House politics, high-level conspiracies… and aliens!

This is the point where I would normally switch off and think… don’t be so ridiculous, and think to myself how realistic and down-to-earth the world of Jack Bauer is! But unusually I’ve been strangely compelled to keep watching, the way the producers have built up the suspense to leave you wanting more, and how they’ve spent time to help you learn to appreciate even some of the less popular character is great.

Anyway… if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s still time to get involved… we’re ten episodes down (sure you can catch up online somewhere) and in the middle of a mini break until it starts up again at the end of February – look out, Channel 4, 9pm.

Now admittedly it has started to get a bit weird, but when you’re talking about Aliens I suppose that comes with the territory, although here is my big fear, and plea to the Event team – please don’t let it turn into Lost! Endless seasons, and plot twists, and reordering of events just to make more episodes… what a novelty it would be to get some real conclusions within a single season!!

Memory Moleskine

by Hugh on January 3, 2011 in Faith, Life with No comments

Here’s another New Year’s resolution of sorts.

In a challenge initially reminiscent of a Blue Peter craft (cutting and sticking involved), I’ve converted a simple Moleskine notebook (just the really small ones – 3 for about a fiver I think) into a “Memory Moleskine”.

Here’s the idea… between now and Easter (16 weeks), myself, and lots of other people all around the world are going to try and memorise the book of Philippians together. Sounds like a tall order, but is only a few verses each week.

All you need to join in is a Cahier Moleskine (or similar sized notepad), some scissors and glue, and to download and print off the learning plan from the Resurgence website.

Don’t forget to leave a blank page next to each week to write down some reflections…

Hello 2011

by Hugh on January 1, 2011 in Life with 1 Comment

Hello. It’s been a while.

Well, a New Year… a New Decade… what will be in store?

A major redesign for the blog as you can see. Watch out for some more photography… I’ve decided that my new year’s resolution is to learn how to use my digital camera. Pictured left is my ‘New Year Cigar’ captured in ‘Macro Mode’. It’s a brave new world.

Also to look forward to…

Three great conferences in New Word Alive, Bible by the Beach and the EMA, I’ll be at all of them, maybe blogging… but probably just trying to soak it up…

…and we’ll find out if the CofE wants to hire me! Watch this space for a new decade of ramblings…