That's entertainment

Over the weekend I watched Starcrash, a low budget science fiction movie that was released in 1978. As a child, I remember watching it one summer on television during non-ratings period, and thinking at the time that it was a good movie. I was too young to be bothered by the bad special effects, the cheap looking sets, the nonsensical plot, and the uneven acting. Now that I'm older, I know better.

Its cast includes Caroline Munro as a space pilot, David Hasselhoff as a prince, Victor Spinell as a scenery-chewing villain, and Christopher Plummer as a space Emperor. By far the best actor in this movie, Plummer accepted the role because he wanted to work in Rome, where it was shot. His scenes took three days to complete, and give the movie much needed gravitas.

The male lead was played by Marjoe Gortner. It was fascinating to read about his background. Before he was an actor, he was famous in the United States as a child preacher. Sadly, he was pushed into this work by his exploitative parents, who used him to fleece the public, and make money for themselves. It was an an example of the worst aspects of Christian culture. He was also the subject of a documentary, and mentioned in the work of atheist author, Christopher Hitchens, as an example of the danger of religion. It's hardly surprising that Gortner is now completely disillusioned with religion.

On multiple movie websites, Starcrash is consistently listed among the worst movies ever made, but remains a cult classic. Anyone watching a film that Roger Corman was involved in knows that his name is always a mark of quality.

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/starcrash/

http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/reviews/S/starcrash.html

By Source, Fair use, Link

Retro geek

Universal Pictures are developing a Battlestar Galactica movie. It has been stuck in development hell for years. It would be cool if they could manage to release it by 2018, which will be the 40th anniversary of the original television series.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/06/the-battlestar-galactica-movie-just-took-a-major-step-forward/

Where's Luke Skywalker when you need him?

Here it is; the final trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. All I know is that it's set 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, and that as well as some returning characters from the original trilogy, it has some new heroes and villains in it.

It will be released on December 17, which is just under two months away. It takes a tremendous amount of willpower to avoid reading spoilers. There will be battles with explosions, and lightsabre duels. People will die. There will be surprise revelations. That's all I need to know.

A headful of rubbish

Muffet from Battlestar Galactica

Churches are often fond of getting their congregations to participate in some sort of study program to get the year off on the right foot, so to speak. To that end, my cell group is working through Rick Warren's Forty Days in the Word. 

The DVD and accompanying workbook is designed to help Christians read the Bible more effectively, which is sorely needed these days.

Each chapter of the workbook is devoted to a different Bible study method, and the third chapter explains what Warren calls the "probe" method.

Warren has devised the following acrostic to apply to a verse or passage that you might be reading: SPACEPETS.

S - Is there a SIN to confess?
P - Is there a PROMISE to claim?
A - Is there an ATTITUDE to change?
C - Is there a COMMAND to obey?
E - Is there an EXAMPLE to follow?
P - Is there a PRAYER to pray?
E - Is there an ERROR to avoid?
T - Is there a TRUTH to believe?
S. - Is there SOMETHING to praise God for?

The phrases in the acrostic are all framed so as to help the reader draw out the passage's meaning. We all found this acrostic very amusing. What was Warren thinking when he came up with it? At least it is easy to remember. For my mind, the first thing I thought of was Muffet the daggett, which was a sort of robot dog from the original 1978 series of Battlestar Galactica.

If his teaching videos are any indication, Warren is an affable sort of chap and he'd probably be amused and not offended if somebody pointed this out to him, as long as it does not detract too much from his goal of getting Christians to read, properly understand and correctly apply the Bible to their lives.