If You're Not A Part Of The Solution...
Hm. read this article this morning from the Hollywood Reporter.

"Strictly as a movie and ignoring the current swirl of controversy no amount of studio money could ever buy, the Ron Howard-directed film features one of Tom Hanks' more remote, even wooden performances in a role that admittedly demands all the wrong sorts of things from a thriller protagonist; an only slightly more animated performance from his French co-star, Audrey Tautou; and polished Hollywood production values where camera cranes sweep viewers up to God-like points of view and famous locations and deliciously sinister interiors heighten tension where the movie threatens to turn into a historical treatise. The movie really only catches fire after an hour, when Ian McKellen hobbles on the scene as the story's Sphinx-like Sir Leigh Teabing. Here is the one actor having fun with his role and playing a character rather than a piece to a puzzle...

The plot is driven not by its characters but by solutions to puzzles, the breaking of codes, interpreting covert references in works of art and a dazzling display of historical knowledge, all of which works terrifically in the novel but puts the brakes to all screen action. Hanks' character is far too reactive and contemplative for a movie action hero, and the cliched nature of those drifting in and out of his orbit hits home with jolting simplicity."

I then realized that this movie had already been done a couple of times!

I think Tom’s bad hairdo is holding him back and he looks a little bloated, he's definitely not at his usual fighting weight. If all they needed was a wooden performance with a name, then they should have cast Harrison Ford or Richard Gere. Ouch, at least Steve Zahn made me laugh. The odds of me seeing Tom’s bad hair now: 7:1.





Shawn’s Instant Recast: Let’s be pragmatic about this: Tom is Ron’s favorite go-to actor, they’re probably buddies, and their kids have play dates. That being said, Tom wasn’t the best choice for this role. The role requires someone that’s a classic Narrator/Storyteller, someone with a voice that you want to listen to for two and a half hours. I don’t know the story, as we discovered yesterday, but he’s probably in his mid-forties to early fifties and a man established in his field if he’s speaking in other cities. Everyone I’m picturing is too English and old, or Black: Sir Anthony Hopkins (brilliant in Hearts In Atlantis, too old, too British), Morgan Freeman (Black, it didn’t work for the remake of Wild Wild West either, did it Will?), or Ewan McGregor (too young, Too English, but I loved his storytelling abilities in Big Fish.

And was Monica Belucci (Tears of The Sun) busy?!? Why wasn’t she cast as the French chick? I mean, if it’s that bad a script, at least help make us forget that fact. It worked for Matrix 2 and 3, and sadly, Tears Of The Sun. Like anyone in the Midwest is going to being able to tell the difference between an Italian accent and a French accent.

I guess the bottom line is: there's no great American actors. Go with your buddy. I would have cast Richard Gere and Monica. At least their prettiness would have blinded you to the lame script.

Ripped From The Headlines!
I love it when Copudramas advertise their shows with that phrase. It seems like they want me to care, but I just...can't, because the acting is still deplorable and their dramatization of police officers is an insult to the process of actual crime scene investigation everywhere. I'm scanning the headlines today and the The Da Vinci Code is getting massive coverage. My wife, Ernie, read the book about as year and a half ago and tried to get me to read it because it was so entertaining. Let me repeat that phrase: she found the book entertaining. As in, she recognized that since she was grabbing a book from the fiction section of the bookstore, the book would be a work of fiction. At no point after reading the book has she ever come to me and said, "Shawn, I'd just like to renounce my Christian faith to you and let you know that I knew I didn't trust those dirty Catholics all along for some reason." Never once has she said that statement.

I think, because as she perceives reality, when you grab a book from the fiction section, it is a work of fiction. It's a nutty concept, but the only reason I bring this up is because in every single article I've read, people are having a real hard time with reality versus fiction aspect of the movie. There is even a poll, which says that people are struggling in their faith because of the movie. I just feel bad that people are this dumb. It's like one of those, Your-Mom-Is-So-Dumb jokes: "Your mom is so dumb that she stared at her orange juice carton for two hours because it said 'Concentrate'." It's that level of tragically stupid. "I saw a movie, Jesus isn't real! They lied to meeee!"

People. If you think you believe in Jesus as your Personal Lord and Savior and you are swayed by a movie that states that Jesus was just a nice guy that settled down in the suburbs and raised a family, and you believe it, then you probably never believed or had faith in the first place. "Shawn, a lot of the things they talk about in the book are real." And Gone With The Wind was a movie based around the Civil War, which was an actual event, but yet I know the story was a work of fiction! How is that?!? Dear Lord, it boggles the mind!!!

"If you are going to take any sort of movie at face value, particularly a huge-budget motion picture like this, you'd be making a very big mistake."
-Tom Hanks in reference to his new movie, The Da Vinci Code

"I think that people's faith is nothing to take lightly. I have a great deal of respect for people of faith, all faiths. At the same time, it is a work of fiction. It's not meant to offend, it's not theology."
-Ron Howard, director of The Da Vinci Code and once played that adorable little character Opie, from the Andy Griffith Show

"I think that if you can see a movie or read a book you get from the fiction section of your bookstore and allow it to change your worldview and destroy your faith, then you should be locked in a padded room and all sharp objects should be taken from your presence because you're officially a dumbass."
-Shawn Passwaters, some guy who will watch the new movie, The Da Vinci Code, because he was too lazy too read the book, but still loves Ron Howard movies, the actor Tom Hanks, and still believes that Jesus is the Son of God sent to die for the sins of man and whose faith has never been affected by movies like The Da Vinci Code, that lame movie, The Passion of The Christ, or the even lamer still, The Last Temptation of Christ

The Maturation Of Shawn
My fast ended a week ago. I feel...different now. I'm quieter, more pragmatic, maybe more faithful? I don't know, I just know I'm not completely who I was when I started. I feel nicer? Nah, most people who know me would probably say I'm the same jerk I was before, but integrally, I feel different. I feel like an adult now.

The only way I can think to explain it is that I went through the motions of maturity and the responsibilities that come with every respective age, but I longed for my youth. I was constantly missing the importance of the wisdom that comes from having lived for nearly four decades.

I think I have more to say on this subject, I just...don't wanna. That was the jist. Glad to be back talking to you guys again.

See ya' 'round the bend!