Jonathan's blog

Today I finished watching Batman Begins (2005,PG-13) (Screen It! Review). From Wikipedia:

Batman Begins is a 2005 motion picture based on the Batman character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. Although it is the fifth live-action Batman movie since 1989, the movie is a neither a prequel nor a sequel to the previous Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher movies, but rather a re-start of the movie franchise.

After hearing so many people tell me that this was good, I was more disappointed to see that it was unremarkable. I give it 3 out of 5.

From an AP story by Jason Straziuso in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer titled "9/11 widows help support Afghan women":

The two American women walk down a fly-infested alley where sewage from mud huts drains onto the dirt walkway. In a tiny back yard, they find two dozen chickens, five children and one Afghan war widow. Patti Quigley and Susan Retik -- whose husbands were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks -- decided to use the financial support they received afterward to help war widows in Afghanistan, where the al-Qaida planners of the terrorist strikes found harbor... Quigley and Retik were both pregnant when hijacked jets carrying their husbands crashed into the World Trade Center, and they met after the attacks. Retik saw an Oprah Winfrey show on Afghan women soon after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, and the two widows decided to help Afghan women... ...in 2004 they created Beyond the 11th, a non-profit foundation to aid widows in areas touched by conflict.. "We wanted people to understand that these widows were widows because of the same terrorists that affected our husbands. The terrorists were in that country, it doesn't mean they were from that country."

Today I finished watching Cradle Will Rock (1999,R) (Screen It! Review). From Wikipedia:

Cradle Will Rock chronicles the process and events that surrounded the production of the original 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein. Tim Robbins, in his third film as director, adapts history to create this fictionalized account of the original production, bringing in other stories of the time to produce this commentary on the role of art and power in the 1930's. In telling the story of The Cradle Will Rock, a leftist labor musical that was sponsored by the Federal Theater Project (FTP), only to be banned from going on after the Works Progress Administration (WPA) cut the project and diverted its funds elsewhere, Robbins is able to tie in issues labor unrest, the repression of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, as well as questions the role and value of art in such a tumultuous time.

I give it 4 out of 5.

Today I watched This is My Father (1999,R) (Screen It! Review). From Reel.com:

Starring: Aidan Quinn, Moya Farrelly
Director: Paul Quinn
Synopsis: The discovery of old photos leads a Chicago teacher to suspect his father may have been a different man than he was lead to believe while growing up. He travels to an Irish village with his nephew to investigate.

I enjoyed this one. 4 out of 5.

Via Dvorak Uncensored: An article by Kurt Bayer on Scotsman.com titled "Minister's microphone causes a wee splash at church" describes an embarrassing moment for Rev John Hawdon:

A MINISTER had his congregation squirming with embarrassment when he used the toilet during a service and forgot to switch off his clip-on radio microphone. The Rev John Hawdon was standing in for Elizabeth Kay at Longforgan Parish Church in Perthshire. But when nature called during a break in proceedings, he forgot to switch off his microphone, which broadcast his every splash and sigh to the congregation. Speaking at his home in Dundee last night, Mr Hawdon said: "I actually had a walk during the service, as I often do. But the congregation must have heard everything. I wasn't aware that I still had my microphone on." A parishioner said: "It was mortifying. Every sound boomed and echoed around the church. We all sat there looking at each other, totally embarrassed. One or two folk managed a wee giggle."