Another great piece from Busted Halo. Here's a slice...

When a friend e-mailed me last September to tell me a movie was coming out about the Camino I was a little alarmed — would the Camino become overrun with Americans? I liked that most of the people I told about the Camino back in the United States had never heard of it. It felt like I'd discovered something. As a former teacher, I enjoyed telling people about the history of the pilgrimage trail and the details of my upcoming trip. I was looking forward to meeting pilgrims from all over the world — not a bunch of Americans who had come on a whim after seeing a movie. When the movie was released in November, my mother and I went to see it. "Was there anything that surprised you?" she asked as we walked out of the theater.

"No, I pretty much knew all that stuff," I told her. I had, after all, been researching for my upcoming walk on the Camino for the last six months. I had read every book our library had on the topic. I knew about the passport stamps, the difficulties of sleeping in albergues, the variety of people I would meet. I also knew it was highly unlikely my pack would get stolen or fall in a river.

After seeing the movie, I found my fear of the Camino becoming inundated with Americans also disappeared. Harry Potter fans might plan a trip to Scotland to see where the films were made, but taking a month to walk nearly 500 miles took a bit more planning and physical stamina and was probably not the ideal vacation for most Americans.

It wasn't until after friends started seeing The Way, however, that I realized what a gift it was. They no longer thought I was hiking something akin to the Appalachian Trail — camping out each night and cooking food over a campfire. They called, texted, and e-mailed their excitement after viewing the movie. "I watched The Way last night. Cried and laughed and put the Camino on my list," Caitlin wrote to me on Facebook....

Go, read the rest...

Another 60-Second Movie Review from DecentFilms.com/ National Catholic Register

Another 60-Second Movie Review from DecentFilms.com/ National Catholic Register

I saw this and reviewed it a few weeks back.

As ever though, there are smarter people than me watching these things, so you might want to check out the reviews by LifeTeen and DecentFilms.com.

I still think that the whole Alien sequel/ prequel/ universe thing is mega confusing and I love the line in the latter of these reviews. In a throwback to Alien's tagline, Steven Greydanus says, 'In Prometheus, no-one cares if you scream!'

At the Youthwork Summit a few weeks back, one of the best talks was about finding faith in movies. It was given by the two guys who run the ReelFaith website.

I'd like to write a huge article about this talk because it was amazing, but I don't have time. Luckily though YouthLeadersAcademy.com has already written one, so, go read it...

Apparently, there's a new Bourne film out this summer. It doesn't have Matt Damon, but fear not ladies, because Jeremy Renner is starring instead.

As we've noted a few time, Hollywood is mad on sequels and prequels at the minute. A sure thing, it seems, is better in times of economic turmoil than a tricky risk.

Personally though, I'm okay with that. If the sequels are good, then fair enough. And besides, it can be good to delve further into a universe rather than close it off for good.

Anyway, the new Bourne movie focuses on another agent product of the 'Treadstone' programme. Well, it's successor programme anyway. Renner and his companion (played by Rachel Weisz - one for the lads while the ladies are looking at Renner!) then have to escape before the CIA functionary, Edward Norton (one for those who just like really good actors) tries to have them killed.

There are so many films from China in recent years which take us back into more recent history - after such a spate of films about the military history of China in the various kingdoms in previous millennia.

Empire of Silver goes back only a century or more. It opens in the provinces with a voiceover narrative from a descendant of the protagonists who reminisces from the 20th century vantage point and elaborates what he sees as the final achievement of his family, a family of bankers.

As with the other films, the audience will feel that they have been immersed in this Chinese world, the action, the colour, the dangers, the costumes, the disparity between the poor and the rich.

Western audiences not familiar with the events will need to pay attention since the film often moves rapidly, passing sometimes over a year or more at a time. We have to try to work out who is who in the family, especially when the narrative goes into flashback.

Read the rest of this review at CathNews.com

Since seeing Avengers Assemble a few weeks ago, I got interested in seeing the movies which led up to it. Before seeing the Avengers movie, I hadn't seen any of them and apparently - according to the young people I work with - that's just the wrong way round.

So, I'm trying to get through them. First on the list was Captain America: The First Avenger. The bottom-line (first, as ever) is it's a great film. It's highly useable in youth ministry and has some great themes around weakness, strength, empowerment and the fight between good and evil.

The movie follows a young American called Steve Rogers trying and failing in 1943 to enlist in the US Army. His father fought in the first World War and he desperately wants to follow in his footsteps. A long list of medical conditions combined with a very weak demeanour though, mean that he keeps on getting turned down. No matter how many times he tries to enlist, and no matter how many false names he uses, he just can't get in.

Eventually Rogers is approached by a recently-defected German scientist, Dr. Erskine, who gets him into the Army and onto a special programme. Erskine has developed a process which creates super soldiers, by amplifying their traits and abilities. It transpires that he defected from Germany after developing the technique for a German officer names Schmidt. Schmidt was evil and so Erskine's work made him more evil. Wanting to redress the balance, he defected to the US to find a good soldier to provide a good guy to Schmidt's bad guy.

The technique works on Rogers, and he becomes an instant super-soldier. The rest of the movie then follows him as he goes from role-model, war bond salesman to real soldier, eventually doing battle with Schmidt - AKA the Red Skull - and saving the day.

The movie itself is good enough. A great story, some brilliant action sequences and fantastic cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L Jackson, Toby Jones, Stanley Tucci, Neal McDonough make sure of that. And I think that this movie provides some really strong youth work fodder.

At the heart of the movie is a young man who is convinced that he has something to offer, but finds it hard to find his place in...