BabuLife

The Heart of An Empire

I was poking around looking at some of the Star Wars Celebration IV stuff and came across an exclusive pink action figure being offered at the conference called "R2-KT".  I found it rather odd that there was a pink figure made available and discovered there's a story behind the figure.

In 2005, Katie Johnson lost her life to cancer at the age of 6.  The Make a Wish Foundation made some of her biggest dreams come true and a group of Star Wars fans also took part in helping Katie and her family. Here a few of the things I noted when reading about her story:

1. Heart of an Empire - A movie about the "501st".  A group of hard core Star Wars fans who do more than just dress up for movie's and conventions.  They costume themselves and visit kids in hospitals and spend time loving families and helping raise funds.
2. Hasbro & Lucasfilm - Both are donating $100,000 to the Make A Wish Foundation of San Diego in honor of Katie.
3. Make A Wish Foundation - What a great cause. 
4. Marketing - What a huge thing for Lucasfilm to have this giant community of fans consistently out there marketing the Star Wars product without lifting a finger.  They jumped on that instead of telling the fans to stop doing stuff using their brand.  Wise choice.
5. Community - Reading the story of this community of Star Wars fans and their passion to do more than just dress up and watch movies struck me.  It's amazing how a cause can rally people together.  The local church needs to get with it sometimes.  Stop "bellybutton looking" and rally to reach people and transform lives for Christ through loving people.
6. Katie's Memorial Video - This just choked me up. 

I think everyone desires to be connected to a cause.  What greater cause than the one God called us to?

Go watch Katie Johnson's memorial video here.

30 Years of Star Wars

Today Star Wars turns 30. May 25,1977 the world of movie making and pop culture changed.  My memory of Star Wars was seeing it at the old Glenwood theater in Overland Park with my folks.  I don't remember much except going home and suddenly all of the Hot Wheels became secondary and Star Wars toys became my primary means of play.  The opening scene of the Star Destroyer chasing the Rebel ship, the stormtroopers busting through the door and the Luke and Leia swinging across the chasm being shot at by Stormtroopers were the things I remember most.  I was hooked.

Is Star Wars done?  Nope.  With a new animated Clone Wars series coming, there will be plenty of opportunities to get future children addicted to the Star Wars galaxy.

Check out the "Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed" on the History Channel this coming Monday.

Revenge of the Sith in 2 Minutes

Indy IV in 2008

It's official.  You can find at StarWars.com an official note giving the release date of the next installment to the Indiana Jones franchise.  Thursday, May 22, 2008. If you're a Star Wars geek such as myself, you've probably been aware of this for more than a year, but now that the offical word is out everyone is picking up the story.  Doubters believe!  See the announcement StarWars.com here.  Visit IndianaJones.com for the official announcement here.

Check out the IMDB page for Indy IV here.  Some cast announcements have been made.

HT: Rick
HT: StarWars.com
HT: TheForce.net

Spidey 3 Poster

This will be my movie this summer.  What do you think of this poster? Visit the Spidey 3 website.

A New Year Glutton

When I was a kid, I spent most of my New Years day laying in front of the family TV watching movies with my Dad and the rest of the family.  I think we used to rent like 5 - 6 movies for the whole day and just watch from early afternoon to night.  This of course would be followed with a trip to a chinese restaurant or KFC.  Ahhh...my youthful days of the 1980's.

I'm not much of a College Football watcher so I flipped through the channels only to find a slew of different Judge shows.  Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Alex and Judge somebody er other.  We don't have cable so there aren't many options.  We popped in a DVD of The Andy Griffith Show.  I believe this is BY FAR the best show in television history.  Don Knotts made that show.  Seriously...why don't they play these reruns anymore?  Is it because of channels like TVLand and Nick at Night?

In other holiday news...here's what I've been watching this past week on DVD:

Superman Returns Never had a chance to see this in the theatre...actually I had no desire to see it.  As I stated somewhere before on my blog, I'm a comic book geek.  I can be pretty picky about my superheroes.  I'm more of a Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil kind of guy.  I like the superheroes who are regular joe's like myself and sort of stumble upon their powers and struggle with finding their place in this world with their new power.  Marvel comics has the best characters with these stories in my opinion.  However, with this Superman movie, I was intrigued by some great lines and great visuals.  Bryan Singer created a great world in this flick totally ignoring Superman 3 & 4, indisputably the goofiest of the Superman franchise.  I enjoyed this one and would recommend it.

Nacho Libre Good flick.  I laughed, didn't cry and didn't fall in love.  Made by the same folks who put together Napolean Dynamite...and their fingerprints are all over it.  Musically and visually.  My 7 year old watched it with me.  Clean fun...unless you consider Jack Black without a shirt and wearing wrestling tights a bad influence.

Ice Age 2 Didn't finish it.  Sat down with the kids and got about 30 minutes into it.  When they get to the part where the main Mammoth played by Ray Ramano has to pro-create with the female Mammoth to ensure their species doesn't go extinct, my wife and I looked at each other and made the call to pull the plug.  With jokes about "getting some" and what not, I didn't feel it was appropriate for my kidlets.  Why can't they just make cartoon movies without sexual inuendo?  GARSH!!! Maybe I'm a little too "old-fashioned". I do NOT recommend this one.

The Break-up This one was intended to be my "girly movie" pick.  I think I laughed more than my wife.  As a matter of fact, I think she played Soduku through the whole movie.  It was funny, but also a bit depressing.  I don't know if the creators intended to make this point, but it really reinforced to me sacred relationship between a husband and wife should not be played by a boyfriend and girlfriend living together.   Not great to me, but had some funny moments.  I wouldn't recommend to a friend.

Talladega Nights The Ballad of Ricky Bobby My wife and I laughed way too hard this summer when we saw this with some friends.  We thought we'd laugh again together this week.  I think we were a bit tired and laughed a little, but not as hard as we did in the theatre.  That's all I got to say 'bout that.

Anybody got any recommendations?

Merry Christmas & Happy Life Day!

Merry Christmas! Happy Life Day all you wookies out there. Here's a clip from the Star Wars Holiday Special George Lucas doesn't want you to see. Princess Leia sings! Enjoy!

Spidey 3 Footage

Fellow Geeks...I bring good news!

I guess on Thanksgiving Fox Network played Spiderman-2 along with some glimpses of the upcoming Spidey 3 movie.  I wouldn't know because the Chiefs were busy beating up the Broncos on Fox that evening here in Kansas City.  Venom, Sandman, Hobgoblin...that's a lot of villians to deal with in one movie.  This should be a good one.

Superman Gets a Makeover

I read this story on the DrudgeReport about the disappointing first day for the new Superman movie.  It's funny how a $19 million opening is considered a disappointment.  I guess in the context of budget, money spent and upcoming competition like Pirates of the Caribbean 2, it doesn't look good for the man in blue tights.

It would appear that one reason attributed to Superman's uneventful opening is the constant whispering about Supe's sexuality.  The director's homosexual life has bled into the movies release over the TV news, internet and radio which Warner Brothers has decided to combat.  They're going to do a commercial makeover and try to eliminate some of Supe's "feminine" soft side look and include some "manly" type of commercials with louder music.  Replacing the techno "thumpa thumpa" music with louder screaming guitars and what not.  Interesting approach.

I wonder if it'll make any difference.

Kyle's Film

Check out this upcoming film created for Kyle Lake who lost his life last fall during a baptism.  A friend of Kyle's is paying tribute by creating a film based on Kyle's last sermon.  Trailer 2 will make you want to go home and tell your wife and kids how much you love them.  Life is a gift,  don't waste a moment.

Thanks to Pete Kim for the heads up on his blog.