Carriers vs. The Happening

Look, I'm usually not all about end-of-the-world-everyone-dies movies. But, since Justin and I rented Carriers last night and it was similar in some ways to The Happening, I thought that I would write some comparisons as well as contrasts. (If you don't like the end ruined, don't read on.)

To start with, Carriers jumps into the middle of the action: there's a deadly virus that is highly contagious and kills a person within days of receiving it. There's no antidote. The main idea is to stay away from anyone that has it. Our four main characters, who are not infected (yet), are trying to get to a safe haven at Turtle Beach, where the two brothers used to go for family vacations. At this point, I'm thinking that the movie has redeeming qualities of family and sticking up for each other in terrible, horrifying times. However, to cut to the point, only two end up surviving- the younger brother and a girl who he met in college. It's a survival of the fittest with no human love or care shown along the way, at least not when it counts.

In The Happening, a movie by M. Night Shyamalan, the characters are also faced with a horrible, apocalyptic fate. People start dying for no reason (in fact, they are committing suicide). In this movie, however, the main characters band together and learn to trust and love instead of going against each other. Furthermore, we learn that the cause of the whole situation was that the plants were upset and releasing toxins in the air. As a result, the antidote is to live in peace with nature (at least that was the environmentalist theme I took away from it). Thankfully, part of the family survives the event to love and trust each other.

Now, technically The Happening is rated R for scary images, etc, and Carriers is rated PG13 for about the same things. While the Happening may be more graphic, at least it has some redeeming qualities about life. On the other hand, Carriers seem to portray humans at their worst state- in a fight to survive where they will turn against even their own family. And what did the main character get from it in the end? Loneliness. Nothing more, according to the closing narration.

As a Christian, I am careful to analyze movies from a Biblical worldview. Don't both of these movies show the depraved nature of man? Of course man will be selfish when he sees death all around and does not believe in the Savior Jesus Christ. Sinful man will only defend his own life, as shown in Carriers, because there is nothing else to hope in. While The Happening does end on a more positive note, it almost seems to be pantheistic in its turn to nature and harmony. I am so comforted in my faith to know that God holds the end of all things, and as a Christian, no matter how horrible the physical death on this earth, I will live in eternity with the Lord.

More reviews at Christian Answers. I'm bummed that Plugged In, a Focus on the Family movie review site doesn't have this one yet, but does have many others if you want to look up the ratings.

Amusing...

Browsing over the Yahoo homepage today, I found a hilarious story on a ad for Old Spice Body Wash.

Here it is- hope you enjoy and laugh like I did! And don't worry, it's nothing questionable.

Why My Husband Loves Me

Food. That's the bottom line. If his belly is happy, he's happy!

So perhaps that is quite a bit shallow, and of course not true. But the adage "the way to man's heart is through his stomach" always rings true for me.

Here was my quick recipe from last night. I hopelessly throw together my own recipes, and some turn out and some do not. This one did:

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup ham, cubed
1 cup peas
3-4 cups potatoes, cut in 1/2 in. cubes (hash browns or tater tots work fine too and are E-Z!)
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup crushed crackers
salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix soup, milk, cheese, salt, and pepper in bowl.
2. In greased casserole pan, mix cubed ham, peas, and potatoes.
3. Pour soup mixture on top and mix to evenly coat ham, peas, and potatoes.
4. Melt butter and mix with crackers, sprinkle on top.
5. Cook on 350 for about 45 minutes- 1 hour.
6. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to cool and set up. Serve to a hungry man!

Variations: Add chopped onions or carrots, or your favorite spices. You could also substitute cream of cheddar or cream of mushroom soup.

When I'm not improvising, my favorite site is All Recipes. Check out their awesome advanced search where you can search by ingredient too!

A Different Perspective

Over the last few months my husband and I have watched a several gut-wrenching, sad movies about a horrible time in history. If I were to summon all of the negative adjectives that I could think of, it just wouldn't be enough to account for this time- the Holocaust.

As a teacher, I am privileged with teaching The Diary of Anne Frank. This book is a wonderful tool to teach students about this time period. Other books such as The Devil's Arithmetic and Night are also great pieces of literature, though Night and Anne's Diary are the true stories. When teaching, it is great to see students connect and see how in Anne's case, she was a struggling teenager like them, but unique in her struggle to grow up because of her place in the world and in history. So much can be said, so perhaps I will share more as I teach through the drama version and students have revelations.

Back to the movies though: Valkyrie, Schindler's List, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are all movies I recommend, though at various levels. Valkyrie , which is based on a true story, shows the uprisings within the military of citizens loyal to Germany, not Hitler's totalitarian regime. While not showing the Jewish horrors, it does show some of what Hitler's fear-driven rule was like. Next, Schindler's List, however graphic, perhaps best portrays the atrocities and horrors that the Jews lived and died through. Finally, this weekend we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It offers a totally different perspective- that of a child. Though fictional, one can imagine the two boys from two worlds meeting, and becoming friends in childhood innocence.

I won't ruin the movie for you if you haven't seen it, and I highly recommend it. Perhaps later I will write more; for now I am processing. With it's PG13 rating, I'll have to send a note home to parents if I want to show a clip from it in class- which I think could be very beneficial. I wouldn't use class time to watch the others, though I might recommend them for parents to watch with their students to give students a background. In junior high, it's hard to escape your own world of glorious freedom and imaging a world so trapped in fear and hate. I do realize that these are movies, and with that comes the director's license to portray things as they will, but these movies seem right-on target to me.

Does anyone disagree with me? Or have another Holocaust movie to recommend?

First Post!

Well, hello internet and blogging world! I've decided to give it a whirl and start a blog. I've been thinking about it for while, and here on this Saturday morning without a rigid schedule, I have begun.

I plan on posting frequently, as I frequently muse over the happenings in this world and think I might have a few insightful comments here and there. Whether the blogging world will think so or not, time will tell.

Pheidippides was, according to the legend, the first person to run the length of a marathon. He ran to take an urgent message after a victory, but after running the distance, he collapsed and died. In contrast to Pheidippides, I hope to run, or more likely, write, faithfully and not collapse at the end, but finish the race strong. The race of life. As the apostle Paul said, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives a prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it...Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."

In high school, my youth group from Grace Baptist Church took a hiking trip to the gorgeous Appalachian Trail. In a week we hiked about 30 miles, and we definitely weren't gorgeous after that. If you didn't realize, serious trail hikers pack all supplies in and out, and usually get a shower once a week. At the end of that week, my quarter shower at the state park was positively marvelous. During that trip, one of the girls gave me the trail name of Pheidippides, because she said I seemed to always have energy to keep climbing those hills. Every down leads to an up, but I loved the challenge and was invigorated by the fresh air of God's creation. Since I love to run anyways, Pheidippides seemed to be the perfect trail name. Still, I hope to take that trail name from high school, about 8 years ago now, and infuse it into my life today.

I am a proud American citizen, a wife, a teacher, a church member, a runner, a reader, a scrapbooker, a friend, a daughter, a sister. I'm excited to be writing.

Here's picture of me on the Appalachian Trail in high school. I'm in the middle, and Fancy Free and T-Bott are on either side. They were Thru-Hikers-- people who hiked the entire length of the trail.