The DaVinci Code......zzzzz

Well ladies and gentlemen,

The DaVinci Code is officially in theaters and guess what, it stinks.

Putting all of the historical fallacies and religious attacks aside, the movie is simply poorly made. I was bored, almost the entire time I was in the theater. Fighting sleep is not how I want to spend $9 and two hours of my time. How you can turn a page-turning murder mystery novel into two hours of boring film is beyond me. Yet, Ron Howard has managed to do it. With big names like Tom Hanks, Ian McKellan and Ron Howard behind the force of a film, you would expect a film of decent proportions, or least one that is entertaining. The Code fails on almost all accounts, the story is told through conversations in hallways with bad dialogue and a murderous albino monk who flagellates himself on a job well done.

I actually liked the book, The DaVinci code and thought the movie would be a good adaptation or it. It wasn’t. The book is anti-climatic enough and the movie just makes it worse. Also, throughout the film, it contradicts itself over and over. One particular contradiction that sticks out to me is their obsession with the Gnostic gospels. At one point in the movie, towards the end if I remember, Hank’s character says, “Maybe flesh is divine,” whereas the Gnostics were obsessed with immaterial and would never say that flesh is good at all. Much less divine. Its errors like this one, and others, that shows me that Opie didn’t do his homework when he picked the script or while directing it.

It was cool to see inside the Louvre though. Seeing the artisanship of some of the corridors and hallways (in which the lackluster dialogue takes place) is actually quite astounding. The gift of artistic ability that our God has given to some is so amazing. I’ve never seen “Mona Lisa” or Sistine Chapel, but I’ve seen pictures and it always amazes me.

As far as the historical fallacies in The DaVinci code, I could tell you what I think, but its easier for you to read a book. I recommend a book by Richard Abanes called, The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code. This is an excellent book and in my opinion a one stop shop for an intelligent believer who is looking to become educated on the Gnostic gospels and the claims of wacko-yoohoo’s like Dan Brown. So read the book, you can get it from EVBC for like $5 if you want.

Anyways,

The movie sucked, the book was good, and Richard’s refutation of the book is impeccable.

Thanks,

- The Breadstick Guy

Graduations glore!

Well everyone,

As I said in a previous post, my sister Michelle recently graduated from college. Now my sister Julia is graduating from High School. Wow, big year at the Brenner household. I got a job, both my sister's graduated, wow.

Crazy go nuts,

Yep. Just a quick update. Level 50 on WoW now. Gaining more converts everyday.
(Nods to David, Chase, John, Jeff, and Josh)

A weekend away...

Last weekend was my sister Michelle’s graduation from Bryan University. My other sister and I flew out to go to her ceremony and hang out in general. Here is the run down from the weekend.

We flew out Friday morning bright and early. We had a 7:30 A.M. flight that my buddy Kyle Ryan was gracious enough to pick us up and take us to the airport. We were quite early so we had some breakfast and sat there waiting for a little bit. Not too terrible, typical airport stuff. Then we flew to Houston. In Houston we had a four hour layover, arg…..boring. So my sister and I went to the airport bar and got smashed. Let me say, Julia, cannot hold her liquor. Just kidding of course, we had lunch at the mini-Chili’s inside the airport and hung out by the gate for like 3 hours. Thank God for the Nintendo DS. I just got Metriod Prime: Hunters and have been enjoying that so the time passed. A bummer about our gate in Houston was it was on ground level and the doors to the “gate” where just sliding doors that opened all the time, so it was really freaking hot and humid. Perfect weather to sit in a chair for 3 hours. Then we flew to Chattanooga and were pretty much exhausted so we met up with our parents and checked into the hotel. I then proceeded to fall asleep for an hour before I was awakened for dinner.

The next morning was graduation for Michelle. Pretty quick ceremony, pretty small school. I thought it was cool how the speakers really placed God as the most important thing in life, which he is. Not something you’ll hear from a secular university or larger Christian college even. It was cool. Then we helped Michelle pack her life into boxes and get ready to move. Yeah, it was thrilling. But, the trip wasn’t about me; it was about being there for my sister when she graduated.

Sunday Julia and I spent the entire day on planes or in airports. Our evening flight got cancelled so we had to move it earlier in the day, which was fine, but the airport was about an hour away from where Michelle was. So we had to go to the airport early and wait around otherwise we’d be mega rushed. Anyhow, it was a nice diversion from life for a while. And all in all, it was fun.

- The Breadstick Guy

Since no lives were lost, I’ll have to call this a victory

Blogspotting...

My friend Dave's blog is really hilarious this week.

You should all go check it out.

For those of you who don't know how to use links, www.ponderless.blogspot.com is the addy.