Movie Review Do's and Don't's

Kite Runner (movie and book)
Speed Racer (movie)
Romero (movie and books)
What is the What (book)




On a spring weekend it would seem prudent to prune your yard, clean your house, or at least teach your kids manners -- for example why they should not make microwave s'mores and then play computer games meaning that even as I type this blog every single key plus the mouse is covered with gooey sticky matter -- but I digress.

Instead of taking on lovely springtime activities, I pondered Susan Sarandon's good skin and the state of human decency. And lack thereof. But only because I saw too many movies and started a book. Of course now I must review them and it seemed best if I did it in the style of deceny do's and don't's. So, if you don't mind this marshmallowee keyboard, here goes. . .

Terri's Suggested List of Do's and Don't's for Basic Human Decency:

DO love your family. (Speed Racer)

DO seek redemption even if it takes decades. (Kite Runner)

DON'T answer the door if you are a male in Sudan. (What is the What)

DO understand that peacemakers get assassinated. (Romero)

DO seek to age like Susan Sarandon if at all possible. (Speed Racer)

DON'T stone people to death during the soccer half time show. (Kite Runner)

DO believe in personal transformation of power made perfect in weakness. (Romero)

DON'T ever give up on the value of human decency even at a check point whereby the passing price for a truckload of refugees is a soldier's half hour with the woman holding the baby. (Kite Runner)

DO do what the father did in the aforementioned scene. (Kite Runner)

DON'T accept it when they tell you that the Grand Prix is fixed. (Speed Racer)

DO mute volume during massacres and other intense scenes. Or get up for another cup of coffee. (Kite Runner, Romero)

DO read this if you plan to convince a group of teenagers to care about Sudan and you don't know a lot about it. (What is the What)

DON'T even try to figure out why every home has a servant class, whether it be the half-brother or the mother. (Kite Runner, Speed Racer)

DO fall in love with the late great actor Raul Julia. (Romero)

DO soak in the amazing, surreal cinematography of the sky. (Kite Runner)

DO count your blessings every single time you remember that you do not have to pretend to be married to John Goodman. (Speed Racer)

DO wonder exactly where and when we are living when people in rural Iowa are rounded up and detained because they are working jobs that even high school students refuse to work. Keeping in mind that in another rural community in South Dakota, a meat packing plant is being built fully knowing that no local person will take the jobs; fulling knowing that migrant workers will come; fully planning for this entry of newcomers. Oh, if those people only knew the persecution they will face.

I'm sorry, friends, but I can't believe that we are rounding up people and scaring the hell out of children who are placed with other families. All because of a piece of paper. In the free-est country in the world. Today, here and now. It's how hate is manifested in -- not in Taliban ruled Afghanistan, not in civil war El Salvador, not in rebel ridden Sudan -- but in the good old Midwest, USA. Reports say that they are also preparing the Waterloo fairgrounds to hold more people in detention. The FAIRGROUNDS! What is the what of that! The next best thing to a really sick soccer time halftime show?

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. Just when you think human indecency is somewhere else. It's here. What is the what is what God will give you if you don't accept what you have. Or perhaps if you do accept what there is.

Excuse me as I wash the s'mores off my fingertips and escape with KC and the Sunshine Band to a simple land ruled by treadmill law. I hope you enjoyed the review.

Take care friends.

With love, T