Monday, March 30, 2009

BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker

With an opening scene reminding me of the one in Iron Man, BoneMan’s Daughters takes you for a trip that won’t free you until you read the final sentence.
Ryan Evans is a military intelligence officer stationed in Iraq. After being kidnapped, tortured and escaping, Evans returns home seeking to redeem himself to his estranged wife and daughter. But he isn’t welcomed warmly.

There’s a serial killer, called BoneMan, on the loose and he’s looking for the perfect daughter. If she doesn’t measure up, he breaks her bones without breaking her skin. And his latest victim is Bethany, Evans’ daughter.

Evans, seeking family redemption, launches his own rescue operation to win his daughter’s life and love. But the FBI has evidence linking Ryan Evans as the BoneMan.

Meet Ryan Evans: a father who will do anything to save his daughter…or is he?

Ted Dekker’s latest adventure reminded me of Dean Koontz’s The Husband. In both stories, you have a man going to great lengths to rescue a female family member. However, in BoneMan’s Daughters the rescuer may just be the killer.

As is the case with all Dekker novels, this book will keep you turning the pages well into late-night hours as you try to solve the case by turning with each new twist.

BoneMan’s Daughters will keep you thinking and asking questions well after you’ve finished the book. With twenty-three novels under his name, Ted Dekker is the master of storytellers.

Sons of God by Rebecca Kurtz

Based on her own research and experiences, Rebecca Kurtz has created an engaging novel that rivals Dan Brown and the Indiana Jones films.

Sons of God is a adventure novel that deals with the mysterious Nephelim of the Bible.

What if the descendants of the Nephelim were among us today? What if the gods of the ancient civilizations were actual creatures, children of the Nephelim?

Our stories of vampires, Thor, Goliath and others - all Nephelim.

This book, while fiction, gives you a look into uncharted areas Christians wouldn't think twice about.

Sons of God is a fun, engaging story that creates of tapestry of Ancient history including Scripture.

If you like Indiana Jones, The Mummy and the Tomb Raider movies, you may enjoy picking this book up at your library.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye stars Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan as two people who have been "activated" after they answer their cell phones.

The person on the other end of the call gives them detailed instructions to follow. If they fail to obey, people will die. (People die because they obey but what can you do?)

Billy Bob Thornton stars as the FBI agent in charge of the manhunt for the two suspected terrorists.

What would you do if there was someone watching you at all times? If they had complete control of your cell phone, other's cell phones, pretty much any mechanical device...

These two are thrown together to play their own parts in a master plan of assassination.

Steven Spielberg acts as executive producer so you know this film will be sharp. There's something about all the films he's involved in that you can be confident they will be solid.

Eagle Eye is a fun Summer pop corn flick.

Monday, March 23, 2009

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor joins movies like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as movies that are slightly enjoyable but should not have been made.

Brendan Fraser returns as the hero, Rick O' Connell who has retired from active duty (mummy hunting).

Jet Li stars as the Dragon Emperor. Wasn't he supposed to be done with films?

The story goes, Rick O'Connell's son is all grown up and following in his parent's footsteps. He's in China digging up dead people when he discovers the Dragon Emperor.

There are the token villains who want to bring the Emperor back to life and the O'Connells have to bring the crazy people back where they came from.

This third film has some special effects that we didn't see in the first two films. This mummy has some crazy abilities. He can turn into a three-headed dragon, some kind of monster cat and he can shoot fire from his hands.

The filmmakers tried to add "kiddie" humor in the story and it just made the dialogue worse.

So 2 stars for this dried up series.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Faith by Charles Colson

What Christians believe, why they believe it, and why it matters is the subtitle to Charles Colson's The Faith.

In a generation where Christianity is becoming whatever an individual wants it to be, Colson responds with a resounding, faith-affirming direction.

The Faith is divided into 2 parts. Part 1 deals with God and faith. Colson leads us through what the Bible says about God, Jesus, and the plan for rescue.

Part 2 deals with Faith and life - how our Christian worldview should play out in our society.

Nothing new - nothing Rob Bell-ish in what you will read. In point of fact, this book is designed to be used in church settings (Sunday School and Small Groups). The argument is made that Christians in the West don't truly know what they believe. Or don't know much about their faith. This book is meant to help.

This book is good for anyone to read to re-affirm their belief or to assist in building a firm foundation.

Essential Spider-Man volume 8

It's going to be a while before volume 9 is released. But I finished volume 8 last night. I think this is the beginning of the poor story-telling.

Outside of one saga involving the Green Goblin, the other stories were a far cry from the writing of Stan Lee.

The comics included in Essential Spider-Man vol. 8 are:

...And The Nightcrawler Came Prowling, Prowling
Let The Punisher Fit The Crime!
All The Kingpin's Men! (part 1)
Deadline! (part 2)
Stegron Stalks the City! (part 1)
War of the Reptile-Men! (part 2)
...Stalked By The Spider-Slayer!
Murder On The Wind!
Confrontation
Madness is All in the Mind!
Photon Is Another Name For...?
The Fiend From The Fire!
If You Can't Stand The Heat...!
The Hitman's Back in Town! (part 1)
Big Apple Battleground! (part 2)
He Who Laughs Last..! (part 1)
Goblin In The Middle (part 2)
Green Grows The Goblin! (part 3)
The Goblin's Always Greener...! (part 4)
Who Was That Goblin I Saw You With? (part 5)
Flashback!
The Rocket Racer's Back in Town! (part 1)
...And Where the Big Wheel Stops, Nobody Knows! (part 2)
White Dragon! Red Death!
Spider, Spider, Burning Bright!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

These books take forever to be available at the library. You'd think they were popular or something.

Eclipse is the third book in the Twilight series. We have vampires fighting werewolves, and vampires fighting vampires. And somewhere in the middle of the action is this incredibly sickening love story.

Bella is the human. Edward is the vampire she loves. Jacob is the werewolf she loves.

Yes, that's right - Jacob has she loved.

So there's this triangle thing going on. And werewolves hate vampires and vice versa.

That's the love story. The action comes because there's a vampire from the first novel who continues to hunt Bella to avenge her mate's death. Or something like that; and there's a big royal rumble in the woods to finish the book.

I had the same issues with this book as I did with the first two novels - so I won't get into them. You can search for those reviews on here.

The biggest complaint I have for Eclipse is Bella. That character drives me crazy! Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I cannot see a girl acting this way. Maybe I'm wrong. It's possible.

In this story, and for the series as a whole, Bella wants to have sex with Edward but she doesn't want to get married. Edward is opposite, he wants to wait for them to get married first. This drives Bella crazy.

At the end of Eclipse Edward gives in and tells Bella that he's ready to do whatever will make her happy. And do you think Bella is overjoyed?!?! Not in the slightest! She goes against her entire argument, for 3 books now!, and says, "let's wait until after we're married".

Just one more book and my suffering will be over.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision by N.T. Wright

I came into this discussion a little late in the game. You see, author N.T. Write wrote a book called, Surprised by Hope in which he shared some teachings on justification.

Another author, John Piper, wasn't in agreement with some of the ideas found in Surprised by Hope so he wrote a response titled, The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright in which he attempted to refute these ideas.

N.T. Wright, then, responded to Piper's book with Justification: God's Plan Paul's Vision.

And unfortunately, I entered this debate with N.T. Wright's response. So I was missing what the argument was in the first place.

In this book, Wright explains how Paul understood and taught this idea of being justified by God. It's all part of a plan.

For N.T. Wright, he calls it, "God's-plan-through-Israel-for-the-world". Israel let God down. They didn't hold up their end of the deal so God needed to solve the problem. Enter: Jesus.

This is a scholarly book. I would consider reading it in college or some other higher level of education. It took me a while to get attached to the style of writing (Wright is British) and how his thought process works.

In the end, Justification is a book that will be a benefit for anyone searching for what Paul was telling his audience in the letter to the Romans...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Watchmen

Watched this film on opening day.

Watchmen stars Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II (her mom was the original), Billy Crudup plays Dr Manhattan (the only character with super powers in the film), Jackie Haley plays Rorschach (my favorite) the sole remaining vigilante who did not quit when the government ordered the "masks" to stop fighting crime. Jeffrey Morgan plays The Comedian (see picture) whose death begins the story. And Patrick Wilson plays Nite Owl II (think Batman).

Okay, there are many more characters but I don't feel like writing about all of them.

The plot, The Comedian is thrown out of a window and Rorshach believes someone is targeting the old crimefighters.

His mission is to warn those who he was affiliated with.

Meanwhile, Dr Manhattan, a being who can manipulate matter, is working on a way to harness his energy to create the perfect source of fuel for the world.

So is someone going after the Watchmen? And will the world end up nuking themselves to oblivion? Watch the movie.

Or don't because it's really long and really boring.

Really - really boring.

It's directed by the guy who made 300 (another film based on a graphic novel) so there's a lot of slow-motion action scenes with lots of bloody violence and too much nudity.

"Too much" you ask? Yes - there really doesn't need to be any. We're talking about a man who glows blue and doesn't wear a single article of clothing...

Die hard fans will watch this, but I won't be getting this on DVD.

Lars and the Real Girl

I picked Lars and the Real Girl up from the library thinking it was going to be a nice romantic comedy. It was my wife's birthday and she enjoys movies starring Ryan Gosling.

Boy was I mistaken. This is an independent film about a guy who has some quirks... He decides to get a girl friend and chooses a life-sized doll.

When he brings her over to meet his family, the "comedy" begins.

Pretty soon the whole town is involved because the doctor believes Lars is suffering from some kind of delusion. Something happened to him when he was a boy. And I like how it was written in which you find out the cause.

In watching the bonus features, the writer described why she wrote the story. She wanted to see what it would be like if people treated those with mental illnesses with compassion and love instead of ignorance.

But other than that, I was disappointed by this film.

Too bad too.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Essential Spider-Man vol. 7

Continuing the Spider-Man comics saga are the following comics in volume 7:

Madness Means the Mindworm!
Day of the Grizzly! (part 1)
...And One Will Fall! (part 2)
The Man's Name Appears to Be... Mysterio! (part 1)
Dead Man's Bluff! (part 2)
...And the Wind Cries: Cyclone! (part 1)
The Delusion Conspiracy (part 2)
Gwen Stacy Is Alive... And Well...?! (part 1)
Scorpion... Where Is Thy Sting? (part 2)
The Tarantula Is A Very Deadly Beast!
Jackal, Jackal... Who's Got The Jackal?
Even If I Live, I Die! (part 1)
Spider-Man... Or Spider-Clone? (part 2)
Skirmish Beneath The Streets (part 1)
Shattered By The Shocker! (part 2)
The Longest Hundred Yards
The Sandman Always Strikes Twice
Whodunnit!
On a Clear Day, You Can See... The Mirage!
The Ghost That Haunted Octopus!
Hammerhead is Out!
Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm with Doctor Octopus
My Killer, The Car!

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

This review is a testament to the power of pop culture and viral campaigning.

I found this book at the library because after the first trailer for Cloverfield came out, people started talking about how the monster in that movie could be the monster from one of Lovecraft's stories.

As you can tell from the cover, these are horror stories.

The first story in this collection is called At the Mountains of Madness which tells the story of a group of people wanting to explore the arctic wastes. While they're there, one of their group members discovers some kind of "thing". Of course they lose contact with him and send another team to find out what went wrong...

Have you ever seen the movie, The Thing? That's what this story reminded me of.

Next in the line up is a short story titled, The Shunned House. This tells the story of a boy and his uncle who decides to investigate a house that, mysteriously, most of the owners have died in. There's a climax of staying over night in the basement and...well you get the idea.

There are two other stories but I think I've spent enough time in this book and genre...not exactly my cup of tea.

Black a graphic novel by Ted Dekker

This is Ted Dekker's first experience with a graphic novel based on one of his novels. Black is the first part of a trilogy that tells the story of Thomas Hunter who can, someone travel between two worlds whenever he sleeps. As the story progresses, finding out which world is real and which one is the dream becomes more difficult.

The second graphic novel is Red, followed by White. These are the same titles as the novels and the storyline keeps to the book although you do need to trim some things for size.

Ted Dekker is also creating graphic novels for his Young Adult novels that take place in the same universe as this trilogy. The first two are titled Chosen and Infidel with the last two coming out in 2009.

First novels, then movies, followed by graphic novels...what's next - a video game?