Alright. So this movie wasn't perfect. At all. It has extremely sloppy story telling and even worse editing. It felt like huge gaps in the somewhat mediocre story were missing or left on the cutting room floor. The only reason my box is green is because I wasn't totally pissed when I left the theater.

Christian Bale played Angry Christian Bale and not John Conner. When he enters their secret hide out and everyone stands to salute him, I would kind of like to know exactly why everyone respects him so much, other than the fact that he yells and gives motivational speeches on the radio.

Kate Conner does virtually nothing the entire film and was a waste of a really great actress. It would of at least been cool for a pack of Terminators to find their way into their little secret base and Kate have to go "Sarah Conner" on their asses with a machine gun. While being pregnant no less.

Anton Yelchin's Kyle Reese was probably my favorite part of the film, even though the role was demoted to saving the mute child named Star, and explaining to us the various Terminators. Overall he was the character I was the most emotionally invested in. Probably because he was also in Star Trek. Which is currently my favorite film this year.

Also. "Hunter Killer"...Thats a really terrible name for a Terminator. The motorcycle ones were pretty sweet. All the actions scenes were pretty spot on and its one of the things the film did well. One of the few things.

Visually I thought it was great, minus a few really really bad effects towards the end of the film (not to spoil much, but a certain cameo was kind of dreadful).

Overall. I enjoyed it, more than I was disappointed, but I think thats just because I went into this film with pretty even expectations. It could of been a hell of a lot better than what it was.

Sam Worthington wasn't a complete waste, but the percentage of the movie's runtime focusing on him was kind of ridiculous. And sometimes felt like Bicentential Man, more so than a Terminator film.

Also. Too many helicopter crashes. I counted at least three. The 1st of which took WAY too long. And another pointless sequence was Blair and Marcus's escape from the Resistance Base. That took FOREVER. It was just them running through a minefield and continuing to prove that the Resistance has really really bad aim.

Best Quote: "The Signal. It's working. It's BEAUTIFUL!!!" - Common

Anyway. I give the movie a 6/10.

Today was ridiculous fun.



Woke up at 4:55AM.

Got on location around 6:00.



It was a lot of sitting around. The set at first was really
underwhelming. We were filming the opening incident at a "Race Track",
but really we were just at stadium at Universal Studios used for their
outdoor stunt shows. They decorated the stands to look like a race way.
Flags. Banners, etc.



It was a good few hours before we go the chance to do our job. Running
and screaming. The director sat us down and explained that there has
just been a car crash, and the racer has burst into the flames and
FLIPPED into the stands. I chatted with another extra who worked the
day before me also, and she said that a tire flies into a girl next to
her and obliterates her with blood and gore.



They filled the stadium with flames and smoke machines, a few of the
stunt doubles for the main talent came in for particular stuff, and we
were all set. We we running. Screaming. Running. Jumping. Tripping.
Screaming. Running. The usual. I was kind of annoyed actually at the
lack of enthusiasm from other extras like myself. My friend and I were
freaking out, running blind through the fog. Other people were actually
laughing and barely jogging. It was pathetic.



I've never heard of the director so it wasn't super special to see him
do his thing. But in between takes it was crazy long. Lunch was good.
The Universal Backlot was interesting.



Towards the end of the day it got interesting. We saw giant bags of
foam rocks and debris. Giant stone blocks high above on cherry pickers.
And a HUGE block on wires hoisted into the ceiling. They divided the
extras into groups and took them to the setup. I waited.



Rocks were thrown. cables snapped, explosions, fire, rocks, dirt, dust,
screaming. It was ridiculous. But then the casting person told us our
group was allowed to leave. I was disappointed. I was really looking
forward to dodging rocks and falling nonsense. But. I can't complain. I
had a super day.

I had a crazy weird dream. I can't really remember the sequence of events in order, but I do have highlights. I don't know what I'm drinking before I go to bed that leads to stuff like this...

1. I was registering for High School (for some reason), and Matthew Fox (aka Jack from LOST) was there and I was telling him how much I love the show and he invited me to the private Lost finale party in Tokyo, Japan.

2. I was at home and I really needed to go pee and I went into the bathroom and the toilet was gone and was replaced with a hole in the wall with a sticker pointing down into it. I was angry and I didn't go to the bathroom...

3. I was involved with some ridiculous infomercial. I was watching a couple before I went to bed last night. But this one was awful. It was like "Make A Baby", with a few ingredients and a 2 liter coke bottle. It was strange and freaky.

4. I was driving with Rachel Tripp and we passed under the 50/I-95 overpass, except Ihop and stuff wasn't there. It was just ghetto gift shops and antique stores. And Rachel needed toll money so she reached down to get some, and we went off the road and rolled her car a few times in some lady's gravel driveway. And this crazy woman came out, yelling at us for crashing in her driveway and next thing I knew me and Rachel are arrested and being carted off to jail...

I don't remember a whole lot of it. I know there was more than that. But whatever. I thought I'd forget it if I didn't blog about it....Thanks.

This song is about the Westboro Baptist Church.
Go check them out at www.godhatesfags.com

So. I've been listening to a lot of good music lately, and also experiencing a ton of past issues that have crept back into my life for the soul reason of pissing me off. I was up really late the past few nights unable to sleep because I've just been so angry about so much, and I'm thankful that God's blessed me with an ability to write, and an ability to find new ways to get things out of my system. Good ways of letting go. So I've been writing a lot of song lyrics lately.

So this first song I'll share with my fellow myspace friends, is one that's subject doesn't need to be discussed. For those of you who know me. You'll probably know what this song is about. If it bugs you, whatever.

Myspace friends. I can't really explain to you the condition of my heart right now. It hurts. Its in pain. And it pains over something that could have been avoided. Over something that could have been stopped before it happened. And now...It hurts over something that has forever been cemented into the fabric of our world and its not ever going to be the same again.

I assume you all know what i'm talking about right?

THE MUMMY:
TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR

Some might ask how a person's heart could be in such pain after watching something as simple as a movie, but let me ask you this. Think of the Harry Potter series and its characters. Ron, Harry, Hermione all running around the castle fighting evil for the past 7 books. Now think of the movies. What would it feel like if you were so used to having Emma Watson as Hermione, for the past 8 years of your life, and then for the FINAL movie, they switch her out with some American brunette who wanted to play Hermione. That would be hard to watch, am I right? It would feel so wrong and so out of place. And so...violating to everything you've known for so long.

Thats what it was like watching The Mummy 3. From the very first minute I felt that something wasn't write. In the dialogue, in the action, in the story. It all felt so wrong. I felt the first hardcore signs of this in Evelyn O'Connell's first scene. It was dreadful. And I don't blame Maria Bello at all, but she no matter what she does is never going to be Evelyn O'Connell...

That character was destroyed in this movie. The wit, humor, sarcasm, subtle mannerisms, and all out persona that Evee was and that Rachel Weisz created, was completely kicked to the curb by this film. Maria's American descent was so obvious throughout the film, as her accent was SO completely over the top in every word. Her scenes with Brendan Fraser were hard to watch. They had absolutely no chemistry on screen. They weren't Rick and Evee.

The writers really did one in with that. It wouldn't have made this movie any better, but it would have laid to rest so many discrepencies if they had just written out Evee's role. Say that she died of cancer or something, ANYTHING. Heck, the movie took place a whopping 23 years after the first film, yet they looked not a hair over their mid 30's. Aging is not something these characters do well.

This movie was so incredibly hard to watch. It was the series that turned me on to filmmaking. I was nine years old when The Mummy came out and it was the first frightening movie I would allow myself to watch in my room at night just because I loved the characters, the story, the action, the adventure. It was amazing to me at the time. When the sequel came out in 2001, I was a few years older, and by then completely overwhelmed in the world of filmmaking. I went to school pretending I was walking onto a movie set. I spent hours on the computer not playing games, on the internet, but rather on Microsoft Word, working on my first movies.

I would come home everyday after school in the 6th Grade and put on The Mummy Returns in my room and act out the scenes, recite the dialogue, and even jot down my own ideas for a third installment. I was Eleven. And it was something so epic in my eyes.

So here I am seven years later knowing verywell that what I was going to see in that theater was not something that was going to make me happy. It was not going to do my childhood dreams justice and by all means wasn't going to do the same for the work Stephen Sommers and the rest of his crew put into making this series what it was.

I pulled very few elements out of this 3rd movie, that I could compare with the first. It was so different. I would have rather them recast the entire movie then drag Brendan Fraser and John Hannah into it, and have them act out a script that was so flawed. I felt sorry for them the entire film. This was NOT a Mummy sequel. It felt like a jacked up fanfilm. Like someone off the street just thought they had a good idea for a Mummy movie and had no interest in keeping the continuity of the series, or maintaining what was already laid down. They didn't add to it. They swept it out of the way and constructed something weak and devoid of creativity.

If I could go back and time and rescue ONE movie series from bad sequels like this I would choose this one. Over X-Men 3, Charlie's Angels, The Ring Two, and Jurassic Park 3, I would have no choice but to choose The Mummy. I'm only 18 years old but I'm certain that I could write a better story for this, and maintain everything that the previous films had created.

I would wait for friggin Rachel Weisz to be settled in to being a mom, and wait until 2011 if I had to, rather then replacing her for the namesake of cashing in NOW. Hollywood is so flawed for things like that. Everything is an investment. Its why things like Power Rangers are so disgusting now. When a cult like Disney sells out on something that was good, for the sake of cashing in. Its heartbreaking. It makes me think whats next? What series are they gonna hack up next? I don't want to think about it.

The moral of this...? Don't sell out. This series could have continued to of been something amazing. But they settled for a half-assed script with an action director who wanted to take a crack at it. If they wanted to do that they could have tweeked it a bit so that it was in no relation to The Mummy franchise at all, and they could have done whatever the heck they wanted. Experiment on a franchise that doesn't have a fanbase, instead of screwing up one that was already awesome. Why can't they just leave good things alone.

I feel like Chris Crocker. "LEAVE MUMMY ALONE! I MEAN IT!"

Thats all I have to say. And hopefully. Before they decide to take a crack at a 4th installment. They'll give me a call. They sever ties with this 3rd installment, and start from scratch to what it should of been. Isn't that what they're doing for Jurassic Park. Giving it the ending it needed. Scrapping the idea of the 3rd and making something new. A proper ending. Its not too late. Just...don't jump back on the wagon to jack it up even more.

I'm done. This is my heart right now. And I'm sorry, on behalf of everyone who ever cared about this franchise. I'm sorry Stephen, Brendan and the rest of the Mummy crew, for what happened to your franchise. Truly Sorry.

Fin.

(This is a repost of a blog by Renee Yohe, of To Write Love On Her Arms. I'm reposting it because it means so much to the walk I have in my own life, and I just want to have it a part of my blog, because...she spoke something thats so true and alot of people need to hear)

From Renee.

Renee has been doing some writing on the TWLOHA Street Team page.
She has a gift and we're excited to be able to share some of that with you.
More coming very soon.

From Renee:
I just wrote five paragraphs about hope, and I also just deleted them
all a million times faster than it took me to write them. I deleted
them because I think there is something underneath hope. There is
something that feeds it, and keeps it alive, and perpetuates it. I
believe that everything is undeniably intertwined, such as purpose,
hope, love, redemption and healing...specifically those things, are on
my heart tonight...

Many of you do not know me. Perhaps most of you do not know me.
You know the story, the image, the picture of the girl in that video you
saw that one time...or maybe you know what I desperately long to
represent. Here is a little window into my heart and mind these days.

These are the days after the digging and burying. This is the part
where I stop running and fight every part of myself to slowly turn
around and look into the mirror. This is where I fight to feel, where
the ones that I love get clawed up in the process and my heart has to
learn how to apologize. It has to learn how to allow itself to be
weak and vulnerable as opposed to calloused and hostile. These are the
days that I have to choose healing. True healing, holistically and not
just where it hurts less. When we spend our lives trying preserve
ourselves, trying to escape, we build a dam. Sooner or later we have
to let it out, and the fear of that process knocked me down face first
in the mud time after time. My fear came from the belief that such a
weight would crush me, that feeling such pain after years of apathy
would kill me, and the unknown. What would happen to my heart if I let
it feel these things? What vices would I turn to this time? Would the
blow of such a burden wipe me out, put the running shoes back on my
feet...break me?
yes.
it would.
it will.
break me.
it will break me so that the parts that healed wrong from being
ignored so long might have a second chance.
it will hurt my heart so that it may heal.
peroxide.
my fight is not for hope as much as it is for healing these days, and
it has taken me over five years of sitting on her couch to touch the
edge of this idea. of this new direction.

The other day my boyfriend thought he might have been bitten by a
spider. His foot was swollen and red to the point that he was sent
home from work. Despite the pain he was in, he didn't want to go to
the doctor. He told me he was afraid. He told me that if it was a
spider bite, the doctor would cut open his foot and squeeze all of the
poison out. I think that is what this is. I think that we fear per
suing help, healing, because of the pain we will have to go through to
get it. The pain might even be worse then the actual wound in the
first place. So, we are left with a choice. We can let the poison
fester and build, cripple, and potentially destroy us. Or we can
choose to face it, fight it, cut it out and let it truly heal. all the
way.

The other key component to this path, is who will walk with me. I, in
all of my determination and willpower, could not endure such pain on
my own. We aren't asked to do this alone, but our cruel little minds
would like for us to forget this. I know mine would. It is my mind
that would like to destroy me, it's the place upstairs that is driven
to destruction, and on it's own it would surely succeed. However, when
I choose to go there, and I invite someone else in with me, to hold my
hand, to carry me when I am beaten down, that is when healing is
possible. This is where I believe we find community and its value in
our lives, and this is also the role we are asked to take part in. We
are not asked to be the doctor, or the scalpel, we are asked to be the
ones who will stand by and hold your hand, when our hearts are not on
the table themselves.

We were never meant to live with poison. We aren't asked to walk
around with it determined not to let it impede us. We are not intended
to be crippled from our wounds, but we are left with the option of
accepting it, or biting down and getting dirty and feeling our pain in
all of its awfulness in order that we may be restored. This is one way
that bloodletting is good. Maybe that's where I got onto the wrong
track. I took that concept in my life and literally tried to cut out
my pain, I was a terrible doctor! But here, two years later, I'm
handing the knife over and asking my God to help me let out the
poison. I will not walk away this time, in shame or isolation. I will
move forward in love and community and with a new found strength, a
new kind of hope to offer. I want this healing, first for my own
heart, and secondly so that I might offer it to you, my dear friends,
dear hearts out there, walking around with spider bites, desperate for
healing and afraid of the pain. I spend my Mondays on a couch with a
blanket fighting to hurt, to heal, and it is my hope that you might be
encouraged to do the same in your own way.

So, hi. This is me. a human being, in all of my frailty. laying myself
out for you, that we might walk through this beautiful, awful, strange
thing we call life, together. I have exchanged my knife for a pen and
some dead trees. I am fighting to turn my will over and put myself on
the table. To not just admit that there are some things that need
fixing, but to see them for all that they are. It is possible. to
heal. to walk away restored from trauma. to acknowledge pain without
letting it own you. it is OK to be weak. it is OK to be powerless. it
is OK to be afraid. as much as we love to hate anything that isn't
pretty and presentable, sometimes we need permission to just, be. as
messy as it may seem, as sticky and heavy and slow as it may be, we
have to remember to be patient and gracious with our hearts. It is
worth it. There is so much more than merely surviving, and that is far
more beautiful than any cleaned up pretty version of ourselves we'd
like to walk around with. This is my where my heart is, and this is my
hope for you.

I spent the past five years of my life writing out my pain, my joy, my
struggle and the drive to find a new life on paper. Part of recovery
is finding new solutions to our problems and this has continued to be
one of mine. I always thought I'd be your modern-day Emily Dickinson,
that some tragic event would take place and I would die and people would
find my journals and publish them... instead I am still alive and happy to say
that there are some very exciting things in the works...but I'm pretty
sure Emily would have me beat any day...anyway, stay tuned, there
is definitely more to come.

This is a documentary film I am producing about soceity and how it's been effected by "Christianity" both negatively and positively. A major part of the film will be a look into the Westboro Baptist Church's twisted view of God. It breaks my heart to see how much hatred is vomitted out by them. They blackeye Jesus for so many people and I think we have a duty of Christ followers to shed light on this issue, and to put out the fires these people have started.

Check out this video: The Greatest Lie Ever Told

..

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Obedience is Thicker than Blood

       Matthew 12:46-50 "While he was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers showed up. They were outside trying to get a message to him. someone told Jesus, "Your mother and brothers are out here, wanting to speak with you."
       Jesus didn't respond directly, but said, "Who do you think my mother and brothers are?" He then stretched out his hand toward his disciples. "Look closely. These are my mother and brothers. Obedience is thicker then blood. The person who obeys my heavenly Father's will is my brother and sister and mother."

This story leapt off the pages of my Bible to me last night. I've been dealing with alot of different mixed feelings about friendships, and family, and wanting to build the greatest and most Godly relationships with people, because I believe love and our love for eachother is such a key aspect to a Godly lifestyle.

I believe the friends I have today are a testiment to God's love for me. 6 years ago, if you had told me people like Maracore, Hunter, Samantha Tripp, or Sir William Ruckus, existed, I'd probably make you prove it to me. I believe strongly that the relationships I have with people today are a straight blessing from God himself, as each of them blesses me daily, or whenever I see them.

But it was difficult to find the words or the understanding of what these relationships meant to God. Or why I had relationships like these in my life. Or why these people mattered so much more to me then the people I see every day in school. I would ask God why I had such a care for these friendships. Why it was so set in my heart, that if I could stop harm from coming to any of these amazing people, I would drop what I was doing in a heartbeat. Just alot of "why" questions.

That story completely answered that. When Jesus spoke and said that "Obedience is thicker then blood." His answer was completely put into perspective to me. Thicker then blood. My friends, we're all children under God, all serving his will as best we can, and that alone makes us far more then friends. We're family. A family far closer then if we all had the same blood running through our veins.

We have so much greater then the same blood running through us. We have love straight from God, a love that binds us together tighter then anything. Families fall apart with divorce and disagreements. Friends stop being friends over bitterness and unforgiveness. But our relationships are forever tied together as long as we obey God's will for our lives, and we hold eachother up in prayer.

I see no reason why a friendship can't last a lifetime. Some say thats unrealistic thinking, or naive of me. Is it? If you think in retrospect, if we're all going to the same place when the world falls away, don't these friends last for ETERNITY regardless of our current situations?

I love my friends. Go check out my 'Blessed with Friends' picture folder, and see why I care for these people as strongly as I do.

Peace out. Loving All of you
-Joshua