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New on DVD: Cars 2

Rebecca Cusey — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:18:00 EST

“Cars 2″ is out on DVD today.

Bottom Line: It’s preachy and silly and slow at times, but it’s from Pixar and even their worst is better than most of the rest.

Read our original review.

The Gist: When Lightning McQueen is challenged to a series of international races, it gives his down-home pal Mater chances to humiliate him in multiple languages. While McQueen works to prove the new eco-fuel Alinol is safe, British agents are hot on the trail of a shadowy group that may be sabotaging cars. Could there be a connection?

The Ups: Attention to detail and great characters, plus excellent humor make this movie entertaining as only Pixar can be.

The Downs: With a heavy-handed message about eco-fuels and evil gas companies, the movie may actually add to kids’ stress. Doesn’t anyone just laugh and enjoy fast cars anymore? The message takes the place of the heart that usually gives a Pixar movie its punch. This is definitely one of their poorer efforts.

Be Aware: Rated G, this film has no inappropriate content for children, but does feature some car deaths that may be upsetting to kids. It also is very preachy, which may irk adults.

The Verdict: Watch it. Have some laughs. Your kids will shrug off the preachiness as they watch the cars go zoom and crack wise.

DVD Giveaway: Little Angels

Rebecca Cusey — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:28:00 EDT

We have two copies of “Little Angels” to give away! Look below for instructions.

Roma Downey, who played the angel Monica on the popular TV series “Touched by an Angel,” has a favorite motherhood prayer which she shared with SixSeeds when we talked by phone last week.

“God in Heaven, my savior dear,

Watch over my children and draw them near.

Send little angels to be at their side,

To light, to guard, to love, and to guide.”

With her own family grown beyond the preschool years, Downey is celebrating the naps-and-sippy cup stage with a new project aimed at preschoolers called “Little Angels.” The animated series, available in Christian book stores, teaches children practical skills such as letters and numbers. It goes a step further to teach life lessons and ethics from Bible stories.

The central characters are twins Alex and Zoe. A mural graces the ceiling of their nursery, a painting of eight little angels. When the children need them, the angels come to life and guide them, using Bible stories. They might use the lesson of Jonah to teach courage or the story of David to teach obedience.

Each angel has a specialty. Urial is all about creativity. Ariel is a guardian angel who teaches kids safety lessons. Charmeine plays music but also teaches the lessons of harmony in relationships. Hayley is the angel of animals, teaching about the animal kingdom and drawing lessons from them.

Each show has a Bible lesson woven throughout the story and a final talk from Roma Downey at the end.

“We designed it to be in support of Christian families,” Downey told me, “We need all the help we can get, don’t we? It allows for the beginning of great conversations with preschoolers after each episode.”

Quality was also important to her. “Having raised a family, I know that they’re not going to sit down and watch something boring. So it was very important that we created colorful and dynamic stories. That we have great designs and animation, that we include some fantastic music.”

If you would like more information, Downey has set up a web site at www.littleangels.com

Although Downey is passionate about this project, it isn’t the only one on the table. She and her husband, producer Mark Burnett, are creating a ten part series on the Bible for the History Channel. It will be a dramatic presentation of Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation, with expert commentary as well.

If you would like a copy of “Little Angels,” leave a comment below. We’ll choose a winner soon!

Revenge (ABC Family, 10PM EST Wednesdays)

Jean Yih Kingston — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:40:00 EDT

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

-- Confucius

Oh, the sweet smell of revenge….

For the vengeful person, that probably feels good to say. I’m actually such a goody-goody I’ve never had a chance to smell that sweet aroma. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve wanted to smell it, especially certain times of life (middle school!) but that thing called a conscience has stopped me cold every time. Acts of revenge look especially bad when your main job description is “Mom” and a large part of being a good one is setting a respectable example. What would it look like if I avenged my enemy while simultaneously reprimanding my children for hitting back? Maybe that’s why this new show Revenge on ABC at 10PM on Wednesday (based on the Alexandre Dumas’ book, The Count of Monte Cristo) has been such delicious and addictive entertainment for me.

The show is set beachside in the Hamptons. Flashbacks show Amanda Clarke as a dimpled eight year-old living with her adoring widowed father, David. He says things to her like, “I love you infinity times infinity”. Then their sweet life is turned upside down by a corrupt self-serving group of rich folks. On a dark night, Amanda is snatched from her father in a horrific scene with the FBI aggressively infiltrating their home. She eventually ends up in juvenile detention and her father is jailed for terrorism crimes he didn’t commit. He dies in prison just weeks before Amanda is released. Upon her release, Nolan (a guy whose company her Dad invested in) hands her a wooden box filled with sentimental trinkets from her childhood, access to a huge bank account (she is 49% owner of Nolan’s extremely successful venture) and a pile of her father’s handwritten journals. Within the pages, her father writes the true story of what happened, includes details of every character who contributed to his demise and asks her for one thing – that Amanda do what he wasn’t able to do…forgive.

She won’t.

Instead, she chooses to seek revenge on everyone involved in ruining her father. Every night, she examines the details of her father’s journals. She changes her identity to Emily Thorne (played skillfully by Emily VanCamp), creates the resume of a wealthy young person interested in “good causes,” and settles right in the middle of the wealthy, good-looking and well-dressed Southampton community. In fact, she rents the house next door to the powerful Grayson family, the center of the society there. Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) and the rest of Emily’s enemies, comprise a rich, powerful, partying group involved in high levels of finance and politics.

However, no amount of power, wealth or social standing is enough of a match for hardened-by-circumstances, tough-as-nails Emily - a blonde, winning, beautiful young woman with gorgeous cheekbones, a perfect dress for every occasion and deeply sinister underlying goals. If Emily gets her wish, this group is going down and going down hard.

In other words, revenge is Emily’s fulltime job, and she manages to ruin the lives of at least one or two powerful people per show… all with flawless make-up, perfectly coiffed hair, four-inch heels and a cute perky smile.

Will she actually get retribution? Or will she end up in one of the two graves about which Confucius warns?

With a story as compelling and complex as this one, I’ll be tuning in to find out.

New on DVD: Crazy Stupid Love

Rebecca Cusey — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:16:00 EDT

Crazy Stupid Love

New on DVD

: Steve Carell and Julianne Moore play a separated couple in Crazy Stupid Love

The Gist: Steve Carell stars as a father and husband blindsided by his wife's (Julianne Moore) request for a divorce. Hanging out at the local bar, he meets a smooth operator (Ryan Gosling) and learns the way of the macho. The player, however, has met someone (Emma Stone) for whom changing just might be worthwhile. Meanwhile, Carell's tween son has a serious crush on the teen babysitter.

The Ups: Fine acting all around, plenty of laughs, and a sweet undercurrent of a love story between married people make this a refreshing and lovely comedy.

The Downs: The storyline involving the teen babysitter (and some highly inappropriate pictures, not shown but talked about) nearly ruins the whole movie. While the rest of the movie celebrates the notion of monogamy, the babysitter's actions are never repudiated, which makes the ending very creepy indeed.

The Verdict: If it weren't for that darn babysitter, I would recommend this movie wholeheartedly. If you can look beyond that, watch it.

Appropriate For: Adults. At PG-13, the film deals with adult topics like sex and divorce. Although it has some sexuality, it is not graphically portrayed. There is also light language. However, once again, the creepy ending with the babysitter rules out teens watching.

Occupy Hollywood!

Rebecca Cusey — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:44:00 EDT

If time really is money, then the Justin Timberlake vehicle “In Time” is an Occupy Wall Street manifesto costumed for Halloween as a Bonnie and Clyde type thriller. Like the Occupy movement, it packs a lot of punch and a lot of passion, but doesn’t have an underlying rationality.

In a vaguely futuristic, dystopian world, time has replaced money as currency. People have been genetically coded to stop aging at 25. They retain their youthful looks, but their internal clock starts ticking. This is a literal clock, glowing on their arms, constantly ticking down the moment until their death. At 25, they are issued one year. They may work to earn more time, they must pay for living expenses with time. A cup of coffee costs four minutes, rent might cost a few days.

Justin Timberlake plays Will Salas, who lives in the ghetto with his mother (the youthful Olivia Wilde), who is celebrating her 50^th birthday, or as they call it, 25 for 25. Being poor, they live on very thin margins. If they’re flush, they may have a day in reserve. Sometimes, they can be down to hours and minutes. They live with urgency, knowing a late bus or missed work shift might end their life.

The rich may walk around with a century or millennium on their arms, and more in the bank. They spend decades on fancy food and fast cars, knowing they have all the time in the world. Literally.

Suddenly wealthy through a gift, Will meets an ennui-ridden heiress (Amanda Seyfried) named Sylvia. When the police, called “time keepers,” track Will down believing he stole the time, he has little choice but to abduct Sylvia and embark with her on a Bonnie and Clyde spree of sticking it to the well-endowed.

The film is generally gripping, best when Timberlake and Seyfried are running from the law, fighting gangsters (cleverly named minute men), or committing acts of Robin Hood-esque thievery. However, at other times it plays as if the makers were too enamored with the concept to give the script a thorough going-over. The dialog is painfully clumsy at times, characters one dimensional, and the story full of holes. A storyline about Will picking up the mantle of his dead father is hinted at, but never brought to fruition. Rated PG-13, the film has some on-screen sexuality, violence, and brief strong language.

The concept is at least fresh. The idea of time literally being money brings urgency to economic theory. In this world, if your boss cheats you or prices rise dramatically, it could literally kill you.

In this world, there is “plenty of time to go around,” as one character says, but it is all controlled by the few. In other words, infinite time is made into a finite resource. Time (as a stand in for money) exists as a limited quantity and is in control of a few wealthy people.

Sound familiar?

They intentionally keep the poor in ghettos, with guarded gates, and force them to work in dismal factories. When the masses become too numerous or uppity, the wealthy arbitrarily raise prices, intentionally killing off the poorest of the poor.

Sound familiar now?

“For a few to be immortal, many must die,” the wealthy repeatedly intone, but don’t explain why. The rich don’t do things like harvest organs or feed of others’ energy or even need resources the poor take. They simply hog time to themselves. The poor do not serve a purpose, nor do they actually use resources up that are supposedly infinite.

The wealthy hate them simply because they are poor.

As a metaphor for wealth, the concept completely breaks down. It reflects the socialist or even communist notion that wealth is at a fixed level, a constant pie that must be sliced into pieces, but is controlled by a small segment of the population.

We understand wealth to be quite different, dynamic, ever expanding. In the movie, there is nothing a poor man can do to create time. He cannot plant seconds and reap years. He cannot scrimp and save to buy his own time factory. He cannot invent an iTime pod that becomes the hip gadget to have, making him fantastically wealthy. The poor simply scurry frantically from job to job, desperately seeking to add minutes to their sorry lives.

In the real world, in a healthy capitalistic market, a man or woman can create wealth by the sweat of their brow or the fruit of their mind. A field planted and harvested creates a crop that was not existent before, new wealth added to the pie. An idea conceived, nurtured, and acted upon can create a company that not only distributes wealth to its creator, but jobs to thousands.

When the unfortunate finally stick it to the man in the end, the conclusion feels as open ended and confusing as an Occupy Wall Street rally. At least the real-life protesters now have something to see when they need a break from their drum circles. We’ll just ignore that by doing so, they’re putting money in the pocket of 20^th Century Fox and the theater chains.

New on DVD: Captain America

Rebecca Cusey — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:56:00 EDT

Captain America: The First Avenger

The Gist: An eager, patriotic weakling longs to do his share in the battlefields of World War II. Luckily for him, the US of A has a secret program that can turn him into, well, Chris Evans. Meanwhile, a dastardly Nazi officer thinks Hitler is just a step toward his own world domination. Capt’n America might just have a thing or two to say about that. Read our full review.

The Ups: With power, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. He may be all musclebound with cool weapons, but Captain America’s greatest asset is his unfailing sense of right and wrong and his basic decency. The effects are good, the story vibrant, and America doesn’t end up looking like a weenie.

The Downs: Staying firmly planted in the past, the movie sidesteps updating basic American decency for today. We could use some World War II perspective on our times.

The Verdict: Watch it. The film isn’t as great as “The Dark Knight” or other superhero classic movies, but it’s a solid, enjoyable effort.

Be Aware: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, this film has a nice, nonsexual romance. A good movie for older kids.

Seeing Past the Shiny Car

Jean Yih Kingston — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:38:00 EDT

I’d only rolled backwards three, maybe four feet when I heard a terrible noise.

We were on our way to soccer practice. I remember looking back at my son William and his 3^rd grade friend belted safely in the back seat before I backed out of my garage.

That’s when I heard the noise.

It took just a moment before I realized that the back passenger door had been left ajar and I’d driven it straight into a steel beam between our garage doors.

“Why was the door open?” I thought, as I pulled my beloved car forward and jumped out to check for damage. I always prided myself on my safe driving record - no accidents or even minor bumps in years and no speeding tickets in almost three decades of driving. I’d even stated to the entire family that my previous car had not a blemish after three years. Unfortunately, pride often comes back to bite you, and I had apparently glared one too many times at my husband for his occasional speedy driving.

I calmly shut the door and inspected the crunched metal. The door was mangled and looked like someone had taken a crowbar to it to save a trapped child from a crash site. Thankfully it could still close and I didn’t need to resort to duct tape. I barely had a chance to think, “poor me, poor car” or break out into my usual sweat when things don’t go right.

Because I heard my passionate son angrily asking his friend, “What were you doing? Why didn’t you close the door?”

“William, this was not Owen’s fault. I’m the one responsible.”

“Are you kidding me?” he asked. “Yes – it was his fault.”

Owen sat behind me, trapped and silent.

“Enough! Owen, this was not your fault. It was entirely and completely my fault. I should have checked the doors before backing out.”

As I stood there next to the mangled metal, we talked this out. The conversation between me and the two kids went from: who was responsible, how important it is not to blame people, whether our family had enough money to cover the damage, how car insurance works, and homelessness. (Really…it’s true)

What mattered had absolutely nothing to do with crashing my shiny car. The shiny black one with only 8500 miles John had presented me last Christmas wrapped with a huge red bow. The one which still smelled new.

Rather, what mattered at this moment dealt with “heart issues.” William and Owen would remember this for a long time, and I had to put my adult hat on, forget about my “poor car,” and make sure the kids were processing this correctly.

By the time we got to the soccer field, the kids no longer feared homelessness resulting from excessive car repairs, Owen was no longer mortified, and William had apologized.

But when the boys grabbed their water bottles and soccer bags and ran off like puppies to join their teammates, I had time to think.

It’s only then I began contemplating the mangled car, increased insurance premiums and my now-marred driving record. But the fact I had to serve the needs of others first, had given me time and distance to gain perspective. The hunk of black metal, as scrunched as it was, hadn’t felt a thing and could be fixed up at the local autobody shop.

As parents, we’re fortunate the bigger picture is often sitting there in the shape of a small child who’s longing for insight and assurance from those they trust. I’m glad that evening, my shiny black car didn’t get in the way of my seeing that.

BOOKS: Ten Little Zombies: A Love Story

Jill Joiner — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:17:00 EDT

Halloween is fast around the corner and people are getting their crazy on. A book by a writer for the New Yorker and New York Times, Andy Rash, can definitely can help move your kids in that direction... if you want them to!

Rash’s newest book, Ten Little Zombies: A Love Story follows the storyline of the well-loved Ten Little Monkey’s chant, except that falling off the bed and bumping one’s head is so old fashioned and uncool. (Why are there monkeys in your room anyway? Who are you, Michael Jackson?)

No, this is poetry for a new generation. You know, the one obsessed with zombies?

Though zombies, traditionally, are slow, they’ve managed to catch up to insert themselves into our popular imaginations. And they aren’t going anywhere soon. Here are some zombie books that tap into our modern fixation:

The Walking Dead: Compendium One

John Joseph Adams’s anthologies The Living Dead and The Living Dead 2

Max Brooks’s World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, “by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith”

However, what about kids’ literature? Are we supposed to believe they don’t need a little story about the ambulatory undead before bed?

That’s where Rash’s Ten Little Zombies comes in:

Nine little zombies climbing up a gate

One fell on a fence spear

Now there are eight.

Five little zombies scratching at my door

Acid through the transom

Now there are four.

The rest of the book follows suit, sparing no graphic details in the pen and ink illustrations. You can expect this in certain books (sociopathic biographies, war memoirs, etc.) where such details are needed for the integrity of the story. Yes, yes, yes…. a story about zombies without gore is disingenuous. But who needs a kids’ book about zombies? While it could be moderately chuckle-inducing, there’s something off kilter and slightly disturbing about Rash’s lighthearted and gruesome portrayal of death.

The Bottom Line:

Admittedly, I don’t get zombies. As Terrence Rafferty wrote in the New York Times, “these alarming entities have fewer obvious attractions because, unlike vampires, werewolves, demons, witches, goblins and shape-shifters, zombies can’t plausibly be endowed with rich, complex inner lives. They don’t even have personalities.” Do we really find them that fascinating? Should we?

So, I’ve never pondered the complexities of properly neutralizing a zombie in preparation for the looming Zombie Apocalypse. While certain nuances are probably lost on this reviewer, this book just reads gratuitously trite to me, somewhat akin to the bloody hand sticking out in the Party City October display.

I get that it’s satire.

I’m just not amused.

For Parents to Consider:

Does regular access to these images desensitize our kids? Should we make universal rules for what kids see, or should we look at our kids’ individual personalities and propensities before deciding what’s best for them?

How do you handle your kid’s access to the darkness that accompanies this Halloween season?

I hate this book. So please leave a comment below so I can ship it to you, if this is the kind of thing that you find amusing! Are there zombie-defenders out there? Let me hear from you in the comments section. Seriously. Tell me what I’m missing.

We are giving this book away this week! Please leave a comment for a chance to win. We always enjoy hearing from you.

On one week from publication at noon (EST), we'll pick a name in a random drawing from all eligible entries received and send you an email notification if you are the winner!

Limit one (1) entry per person; NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C. who are 18 or older as of date of entry.

The Mighty Macs

Rebecca Cusey — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:30:00 EDT

Let the boys have their Sandlots, Ducks, and Bad News Bears. The new G-rated family movie “The Mighty Macs” takes the familiar genre of sports stories for kids and gives it a new focus: girls playing and a woman coaching. While it has some fine moments, the movie based on a real life college championship basketball coach named Cathy Rush turns out to be more of a near-miss rimshot than a nothing-but-net from the three point line.

In the early ‘70s, Cathy Rush (Carla Gugino) has recently married her NBA referee sweetie, but chafes at the notion of settling quietly into a wifely role in which the most exciting part of the day is cooking dinner. A basketball player in college, she is not ready to give up the game just yet, nor her identity as an athlete.

When an all-girls Catholic high school posts an opening for a basketball coach, Rush is the first applicant through the door. In fact, she’s the only applicant. Immaculata College is the kind of place nice Catholic girls go before marrying at graduation, not the place aspiring athletes look for glory. The nuns who run the school have problems of their own, including a crisis of faith and a distressing lack of funds. Cathy, however, sees winning basketball as worthwhile in itself, so she takes the undisciplined and unmotivated group of players who bother to show up and turns them into a national championship team.

The best part of the movie is watching Cathy redefine sports coaching into feminine concepts. She believes women work together better than men and thus focuses on teamwork. Her methods include honest discussion of lipstick colors as lessons on trust and practicing throwing balls with oven mitts on. Helped by a young nun (Marley Shelton) who isn’t sure of her calling, Cathy teaches sports as a woman, not as a man in heels.

As always, Gugino gives a workman-like (or workwoman-like) performance, perfectly portraying emotions without overacting. She is a far better actor than she gets credit for.

Other parts of the film don’t live up to Gugino. The characters of the girls on the team are especially clumsy. They’re drawn in roughly, like an artist’s pre-painting sketch, and never filled out. There’s the poor one, the saucy one, the one bucking her father, and the one planning her engagement. We never see anything more than a rough draft. The dialog between them is glaringly bad at times, to the point of wondering if the director just filmed a rehearsal run-through and called it a day.

Sadly, the nuns don’t fare much better. They, and their faith, are wonderfully respected, even celebrated. Some sparks of personality show through, as when the mother superior is revealed as a master poker player, but mostly they are as similar as penguins and not as interesting.

Little things are clumsily done as well. The setting is the early 1970s, but Cathy and her girls often look and dress oh so 2011.

This film could have been much better. It could have dared to talk more about women and sports, and examined things that the feminist revolution got right among all the extreme craziness. It could have highlighted excellence even when no one in the greater world cares about your sport or your school. It could have shown that nuns are people underneath their habits.

Still, for families looking for a movie that will not offend and will occasionally inspire, it works pretty well. It’s a mediocre effort that accomplishes what it sets out to do and not much else.

BOOKS: A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny

Anna Quinn — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:38:00 EDT

Congratulations to Peggy Drinkard on winning this week's book giveaway! While this contest is now closed, please come back to SixSeeds for more giveaways for good, family, fun!

October is Down Syndrome Awareness month! The newly released A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny is a beautiful picture of how love transforms the inherent imperfections of life, family, and relationships. This loving memoir is not only for families touched by the syndrome—it inspires all families to appreciate the good and perfect gifts in the people who surround them.

Early in her first pregnancy, Amy Julia Becker found herself chafing at its timing. Having a baby a semester before she finished seminary was not a great plan.

If only we had waited, she thought. And then it hit her, Then you wouldn’t have had this child.

When her daughter, Penny, is born with Down syndrome, Amy Julia is shocked and terrified, but remembers that she was to have this child.

A Good and Perfect Gift details Amy Julia and Peter Becker’s first few years with their daughter. It is a refreshingly honest account of new parents learning to care for a child who will never meet their original expectations but who will continually amaze them with her indomitable spirit. Peter quickly reconciles himself with their new reality, but Amy Julia fights against it. She shares her grief, her struggles with faith and her relationship with God, her sensitivities as a parent of child with a disability, and her fears as they expand their family. And she shows how her love for this child, for Penny, expands along the way.

As the Beckers learn about people with Down syndrome, they hear stories that make them cringe and others that encourage them. Amy Julia tells Peter, “It’s the thought that she might teach me to slow down, to love deeply, to compete less, to live more fully—those are the stories that bring hope.” As she tells Penny’s story, she manages to bring that hope. God, after all, not only redeems those who are broken emotionally and spiritually, but also those who are broken physically. There is also the hope that these children can enrich lives far more than believed possible.

A Good and Perfect Gift is not for other families with disabled children or friends of families with a person who has Down syndrome; this book is for everyone. It teaches all of us to look deep inside and see our fatal faults and our marvelous possibilities—and to see them in the people around us. This book is about grace: receiving grace in the face of great struggle and disappointment, giving grace when our friends and family cannot meet our needs, and finding grace to move forward in our lives. Beautifully written, A Good and Perfect Gift is the gift of an honest story that points us to the good and perfect God.

October is Down Syndrome Awareness month! The newly released A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny is a beautiful picture of how love transforms the inherent imperfections of life, family, and relationships. This loving memoir is not only for families touched by the syndrome—it inspires all families to appreciate the good and perfect gifts in the people who surround them.

Early in her first pregnancy, Amy Julia Becker found herself chafing at its timing. Having a baby a semester before she finished seminary was not a great plan.If only we had waited, she thought. And then it hit her, Then you wouldn’t have had this child.

When her daughter, Penny, is born with Down syndrome, Amy Julia is shocked and terrified, but remembers that she was to have this child.

A Good and Perfect Gift details Amy Julia and Peter Becker’s first few years with their daughter. It is a refreshingly honest account of new parents learning to care for a child who will never meet their original expectations but who will continually amaze them with her indomitable spirit. Peter quickly reconciles himself with their new reality, but Amy Julia fights against it. She shares her grief, her struggles with faith and her relationship with God, her sensitivities as a parent of child with a disability, and her fears as they expand their family. And she shows how her love for this child, for Penny, expands along the way.

A Good and Perfect Gift is not for other families with disabled children or friends of families with a person who has Down syndrome; this book is for everyone. It teaches all of us to look deep inside and see our fatal faults and our marvelous possibilities—and to see them in the people around us. This book is about grace: receiving grace in the face of great struggle and disappointment, giving grace when our friends and family cannot meet our needs, and finding grace to move forward in our lives. Beautifully written, A Good and Perfect Gift is the gift of an honest story that points us to the good and perfect God.

We are giving this book away this week! Please leave a comment for a chance to win. We always enjoy hearing from you.

On one week from publication at noon (EST), we'll pick a name in a random drawing from all eligible entries received and send you an email notification if you are the winner!

Limit one (1) entry per person; NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C. who are 18 or older as of date of entry.

New on DVD: Pirates, Teachers, and Red Staters

Rebecca Cusey — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:45:00 EDT

From popcorny fun to provocative statements, there are new choices on the DVD aisle.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Adventure

The Gist: That scallywag Jack Sparrow hunts – what else? – treasure with an old flame Angelica (Penelope Cruz), who has an agenda of her own. Add in the pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), the semi-dead Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and some sharp toothed mermaids and you’ve got yerself a pirate movie! Read our full review.

The Ups: It’s all about Jack Sparrow as he swaggers, quips, and slacks his way through life. The movie is a thinly veiled vehicle for Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Some good swordplay and one heroic priest round out the ups.

The Downs: If you’re looking for logic, look elsewhere. Parts of the plot walk the plank, as it were, never to be seen again. The whole thing doesn’t make sense. What do you expect for a fourth movie based on a Disney ride? Some innuendo and bare-breasted (but hair covered) mermaids walk the line of inappropriateness but stay just this side of a dealbreakers. The skeletons and piranha-like mermaids will be too intense for some children.

The Verdict: Enjoy! We all need some pirate in our lives from time to time.

Be Aware: Rated PG-13, for both the level of intense action that will scare younger children and the innuendo.

Bad Teacher

Comedy

The Gist: Cameron Diaz is the worst possible teacher, sleeping on the job, teaching via video, and being inappropriately sexy in front of her junior high boys. Her goal in life? Get enough money for breast implants, which she believes will land a man with a big bank account. She’s incorrigible and so is this movie. Read our full review.

The Ups: There’s no denying this movie is funny. It’s irony with a dose of cynicism with extra irony sauce on the side. If you don’t mind raunch and don’t take things too seriously, this movie was made for you.

The Downs: The film makes fun of anyone who takes anything seriously, anyone who tries a little or cares a little about the world, kids, their jobs, or the future. It’s deeply cynical. If you care about anything and try at all, pat yourself on the back and skip it.

The Verdict: Skip it.

Be Aware: Rated R, the film earns every bit of the rating. Sex? Check. Crudity? Check. Language? Oh yeah. Drug use, too. Absolutely not appropriate for teens or kids.

Red State

Horror/Thriller

The Gist: Based on the Westboro Baptist Church that pickets funerals with anti-gay signs, this movie takes it a step farther. What if, instead of just picketing, such an extreme group actually lured gay men and sex-crazed teens to meet up and then murdered them? And what if this happened in the middle of a showdown with the feds?

The Ups: From director Kevin Smith (Dogma), this movie is uncomfortably familiar with certain types of church environments. The acting is very good, for the most part. The story is creepy and disturbing.

The Downs: From a screenplay point of view, the film is disjointed as it moves from one hero to another. It’s not afraid to kill off people. This may be artsy, but makes it harder to care about the characters. It’s extremely low budget, so you have to accept things like the FBI invading a church compound with only about four cars and twenty people.

The Verdict: It’s not a great movie, but it is thought provoking. It’s not entirely fair to faith, but concerns itself more with extremism than with bashing Christianity. If you’re looking for a good popcorn movie to escape into, this is not the film for you. If you’re interested in keeping up with the culture, especially as it reflects on faith, this is the film that has Hollywood talking.

Be Aware: Rated R, this movie is intense in its violence and its language. The sexual worldview is very loose, but there’s no actual sex. Definitely not for kids or teens.

Discussion question: Why does the church leave it to those outside the church to take on such difficult topics? Why didn’t a Christian filmmaker make this movie and how would it be different if he had?

Love Song to a Love Song: The Tree of Life

Rebecca Cusey — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:22:00 EDT

Few movies have penetrated my soul like “The Tree of Life,” Terrence Malick’s impressionistic love song to life, the universe, and everything that comes out on DVD this week. The fragmentary film follows a middle aged man (Sean Penn) as he remembers his brother, killed years ago at 19, and reflects on his relationship with God and his own brokenness. Many of his mental memories of spirituality were influenced by his Mother (Jessica Chastain), angelic in memory, and his hard Father (Brad Pitt) as he grew up in the 60s in Texas.

Like a stained glass window, the film is made of pieces of images, story, and music that appeal differently to each viewer.

For me, the primary concept that keeps echoing around my head as I go through life is the opening prologue which compares the way of nature with the way of grace.

“The nuns taught us there were two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace,” whispers the Mother, “You have to choose which one you'll follow. Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.”

“Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things.”

“The nuns taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end.”

“I will be true to You. Whatever comes.”

114 words, spoken in the movie haltingly, as if each word matters, imposed over images of a beautiful mother as she smiles through the world around her. These words are her statement of faith, her framework for her life, and her challenge when tragedy strikes.

Like the Mother, I find myself wondering if my actions are the way of nature or the way of grace as I go about the tiny tasks and worries of my day. The framework has become part of me.

Others with whom I’ve spoken hardly remember that passage, but key off other images or ideas. One friend, an architect, was moved by the images of spaces in the film, how the afterlife is portrayed as wide open, free, and earthly life is increasingly closed in and removed from nature. Another woman was moved by a brief scene of a father and child planting a tree. Still others speak of the unimaginable grandeur of God seen through the cosmos and accompanied by choral music.

I have also spoken with many who hate the film. Its focus on images and lack of coherence strike them as pretentious and boring. At 139 minutes, it’s undoubtedly too long. At least half an hour should be cut.

The trick, however, is figuring out which thirty minutes to eliminate. While I most disliked the final scenes of the film, in which the family unites in a sort of afterlife, I have spoken to people for whom those images were deeply moving. The births of children, portrayed as swimming through doors and running through gates in gardens? Perhaps unnecessary, but haunting in their beauty and statements of life’s origins.

The meaning and questions would not strike with such power if Malick had not also captured the profound joy and beauty of life.

Which takes time, after all.

Perhaps the most universal disparagement is of the scenes of dinosaurs running through ancient earth. What was that?

Honey, I hear ya. We all wonder what that was.

Despite these very serious critiques, I left the theater feeling deeply content, as after a particularly good church service or a fulfilling day in a museum, but also confused. It took me a day of pondering just to figure out what was happening in the film. Me! Who spends her professional life summing up movies in a sentence or two!

My mind kept coming back, flirting with images and ideas, wondering, feeling.

The second time I saw it, I wept.

I think the thing I love most about the film is that, unlike most movies, you have to work at it. Each viewer brings himself to the movie and struggles with the discomfort, the questions, the infuriating vagueness of it. Although deeply Christian, I believe, in it its outlook, the film offers no answers or catechism of faith.

Instead, it makes faith, and I would argue Christian faith, universal. When the boy Jack, stunned by his own dark desires, cries out “The things I do…I hate!” it is not a treatise on the Apostle Paul and his theology, but an emotive heart-cry that feels common to all humanity. I did not recognize it as a Bible verse, although it surely is, but instead it made the Bible human to me, as an emotive universal distress that predated the day the Apostle Paul wrote those words.

I must note, however, that people of other faiths - or no faith at all - also see themselves in this film and are moved by it.

Like a great cathedral painting, an aria, or a particularly powerful church service, it requires you to work for your experience, for the insight you will gain.

For once in the theater, we are not consumers, but worshippers.

The film is far from perfect and will feel unfamiliar, but I urge you to give it a chance.

If it insinuates itself into your soul the way it has into mine, I would love to hear about it.

Rated PG-13, the film is appropriate for children, and would be a fascinating conversation starter with children, if you can get them to sit through it. It's not Sponge Bob.

More Than the Shirt Off My Back: My Short Stint as Underwear Mom

Jean Yih Kingston — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:16:00 EDT

More Than the Shirt Off My Back: My Short Stint as Underwear Mom

Last weekend, I was driving and I wasn’t wearing pants.

Before I had kids, I never fully understood the indignity that can accompany parenthood - a fact I considered as I anxiously drove home. I strictly obeyed the speed limit and came to complete stops, trying to ensure I wasn’t pulled over. Nervously gripping the steering wheel, I remembered my mother saying almost nineteen years ago, motherhood was “a lot of sacrifice.”

I thought I truly understood what she was talking about, but at twenty-six and pregnant with my first child, I didn’t. One can’t possibly understand “it’s a lot of sacrifice” before the first baby arrives - even if you’ve taken copious notes from the latest parenting books and put in thousands of babysitting hours.

Mothering sacrifices often involve physical discomfort - sleep deprivation, memory loss, surprising nursing “issues” no one tells you about and smelling spit-uppy no matter how many times you change your shirt. Motherhood means learning to live with unfinished conversations and having much less time with your husband and everyone and everything else. It means inefficiency because you have to stop, wait or change plans. And even a graduate school degree doesn’t exempt you from doing the most menial tasks such as scouring the potty, wiping runny noses, and getting down on all fours to sweep up dried cheese chunks and hard wrinkled peas from under the table. It’s perching like a pelican on one foot to brush off yet another crunched cheerio stuck to the bottom of the other and scrubbing the rice cereal and smashed carrot glue from the high chair tray.

And having gone through the early years, you’d think and hope it’d get easier when they grow up. But it doesn’t.

This past weekend, three of our four children (nine years old and up) had six soccer games. One game was two hours away and another was an hour away with a 7:30am arrival time. It was also my daughter Annalise’s homecoming weekend, so she needed to be at her high school to give alumni tours, play a varsity soccer game and later attend her homecoming dance followed by a friend’s pool party. And, to start off the hectic day, Annalise broke her beloved iPhone while doing the breakfast dishes.

By dusk, half the soccer games had been played, but Annalise still needed to get to her homecoming dance. This dance was summer-themed and casual and she said her friends were all planning to wear shorts – approved attire as stated by the activities coordinator. I told her if she hurried, we could try and activate an old iPhone at the mall before getting to the dance.

After a successful iPhone stop, texts she’d missed while her phone wasn’t functioning came in. By the time we pulled into the parking lot, she found out her shorts were against the dress code. Her friends had already changed plans and had all arrived in capris instead.

“Can I please go home and change?” she pleaded.

“How lucky is it I’m wearing capris? You can have mine!” I said, trying to muster as much enthusiasm as I could, knowing a trip home tacked another thirty minutes onto my already long day.

“Please Mom!”

“I’ve been up since 5:30 am and driving since 6:30. This is our third time to your school today…you’ll look great.”

So, in the parking lot where the streetlights seemed particularly bright, I squiggled out of my pants, finding it particularly hard to undress with a steering wheel in the way. When she handed me her shorts for a trade, I said, “You should keep those for the pool party.”

It was an uneasy ride home as I pulled far around cars parked on the roadside and stared directly ahead, trying to look as innocent as possible. When I got home, I grabbed a jacket from our mudroom, tied it around my waist and quickly ran past my husband and sons to retrieve some pants.

When my mom said years ago “it’s a lot of sacrifice,” I couldn’t really know what she meant.

But after four kids, and my latest stint as Underwear Mom, I’m beginning to understand.

Last weekend, I was driving and I wasn’t wearing pants.

And having gone through the early years, you’d think and hope it’d get easier when they grow up. But it doesn’t.

“Can I please go home and change?” she pleaded.

“How lucky is it I’m wearing capris? You can have mine!” I said, trying to muster as much enthusiasm as I could, knowing a trip home tacked another thirty minutes onto my already long day.

“Please Mom!”

“I’ve been up since 5:30 am and driving since 6:30. This is our third time to your school today…you’ll look great.”

When my mom said years ago “it’s a lot of sacrifice,” I couldn’t really know what she meant.

But after four kids, and my latest stint as Underwear Mom, I’m beginning to understand.

BOOKS: When Parents Text

Anna Quinn — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 01:05:00 EDT

Congratulations to Erin Perry of Hendersonville, TN on winning this week's book giveaway! While this contest is now closed, please come back to SixSeeds for more giveaways for good, family, fun!

I don’t do humor. I mean, I know, it’s funny. Haha. But really there’s no need to LOL. Why put yourself out? And do other people want to see you ROFL? I don’t think so.

My husband and kids can all hold their sides and literally fall off their chairs laughing and I look at them like they are deranged. And then they see that I’m not laughing and they laugh all the harder.

So when I learned that my next review book was When Parents Text: So much Said . . . So Little Understood, a humor book, I was less than thrilled. : (

I told my husband he would have to glance over it to tell me if it was funny, but then I read it.

Lauren Kaelin and Sophia Fraoili became best friends in the sixth grade. Both went away to college, graduated, and then today’s stellar economy sent them . . . right back home. They learned to negotiate house chores, curfews (or lack thereof), and DVR settings with their parents and discovered that having mom cook supper might not be so bad after all. And they found a new way to communicate with their parents . . . the text message, which proves more effective for bringing an adult child home for supper than the typical yell out the back door to a child playing in the yard.

The parent/child text relationship is fraught with misspelling, incorrect emoticons, and general miscommunication. One evening Lauren showed Sophia a particularly funny text from her mom, a light bulb went off, and the next day they registered the domain whenparentstext.com. Initially their friends and families submitted “parent” texts, but soon they received their first anonymous submission and the website went viral. Within weeks, publishers were approaching them about publishing a book based on the blog.

The book takes the blog to a new level, with new material, more information about the authors, and a glossary of important text abbreviations and emoticons. It traces the evolution of parental texting and exploits the more bizarre and wacky examples of parents reaching their kids via a new medium. Some of the jokes are expected: the typical text misspellings or bizarre autocorrect statements, but many underscore the awkward yet loving way that parents and their newly adult children communicate. And yes, most of them are LOL funny.

In one recent interview, Sophia said, “We hear feedback that people like our site because it’s not mean-spirited. We love our parents and we’re doing this because we find the technology gap interesting. There’s humor in it, but there’s also just wanting to communicate with your kids.”

This book highlights a cultural and technological crossroad, showing that while technology may change how parents and children relate (texts about being . . . or not being . . . facebook friends abound) their relationships are still ones of tenderness and care. Bizarre as a mom’s texts may be, at heart she still wants her children well fed, well clothed, safe, and preferably close to home. And if she looks a little foolish showing that love to her kids, then so be it.

Read this book, and . . . sigh . . . LOL. ;>)

I don’t do humor. I mean, I know, it’s funny. Haha. But really there’s no need to LOL. Why put yourself out? And do other people want to see you ROFL? I don’t think so.

So when I learned that my next review book was When Parents Text: So much Said . . . So Little Understood, a humor book, I was less than thrilled. : (

I told my husband he would have to glance over it to tell me if it was funny, but then I read it.

Read this book, and . . . sigh . . . LOL. ;>)

We are giving this book away this week! Please leave a comment for a chance to win. We always enjoy hearing from you.

On one week from publication at noon (EST), we'll pick a name in a random drawing from all eligible entries received and send you an email notification if you are the winner!

Limit one (1) entry per person; NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C. who are 18 or older as of date of entry.

BOOKS: Press Here

Jill Joiner — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:37:00 EDT

Congratulations to Judah Christopher Brown of Newton, MA on winning this week's book giveaway! While this contest is now closed, please come back to SixSeeds for more giveaways for good, family, fun!

Do you worry that the Wii, iPhone, or the latest Disney show kill our kids’ imaginations? Well, we’ve got a book for you.

At SixSeeds, we believe in the power of a good story... even the books our small children are hearing and reading. Stories have an amazing power to move, inspire, and sometimes even transform lives... even young lives. This week, we take a popular kids' book and examine it. Hopefully, the next time you're browsing though a crowded bookstore... you can choose wisely!

Title: Press Here

Author: Herve’ Tullet

Cost: 10.99

Buy it: here

Do you worry that the Wii, iPhone, or the latest Disney show kill our kids’ imaginations? Well, we’ve got a book for you.

Author, Herve Tullet is known for his atypical work aimed at inspiring kid’s imaginations. His latest book begins with a single circle evolving to well … numerous circles. Shake the book, rub the circles, repeat a few times, add a clap, and you have a quite clever book in which nothing really ever changes except the placement, color, and number of circles. Yet, with a simple shake here, and a rub there -- the reader feels like they are magically causing the movement on each successive page.

The Bottom Line:

After experiencing this book with kids, it’s easy to see why this author’s website would refer to him as the King of Preschool. His work is simple, yet delightfully interactive –incorporating an element of wonder that might just compete with the iPad or your child’s particular screen of choice. And it all comes from the pages of a book illustrated with nothing more than a progression of one-dimensional circles,

Press Here. Yes, that’s all.

Simply press here.

And let the adventure begin.

For Parents to Consider:

There was a day when parents would have been amazed at the innovativeness required to create adventures like this on a screen, and yet today we are intrigued at the novelty of this in a book. With the passing of Steve Jobs fresh on many minds, we don’t forget for long that this is a new day.

Do you long for the days when the kids played cowboys and shot the Indians, rather than shot the zombies on the screen?

Or, are you thrilled with all the new technological developments believing they are simply ushering in a new type of imaginative play?

Let us know your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you!

Title: Press Here

Author: Herve’ Tullet

Cost: 10.99

Buy it: Here

Author, Herve Tullet is known for his atypical work aimed at inspiring kid’s imaginations. His latest book begins with a single circle evolving to well … numerous circles. Shake the book, rub the circles, repeat a few times, add a clap, and you have a quite clever book in which nothing really ever changes except the placement, color, and number of circles. Yet, with a simple shake here, and a rub there -- the reader feels like they are magically causing the movement on each successive page.

The Bottom Line:
After experiencing this book with kids, it’s easy to see why this author’s website would refer to him as the King of Preschool. His work is simple, yet delightfully interactive –incorporating an element of wonder that might just compete with the iPad or your child’s particular screen of choice. And it all comes from the pages of a book illustrated with nothing more than a progression of one-dimensional circles,

Press Here. Yes, that’s all.

Simply press here.

And let the adventure begin.

For Parents to Consider:

Do you long for the days when the kids played cowboys and shot the Indians, rather than shot the zombies on the screen?

Or, are you thrilled with all the new technological developments believing they are simply ushering in a new type of imaginative play?

Let us know your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you!

We are giving this book away this week! Please leave a comment for a chance to win. We always enjoy hearing from you.

On one week from publication at noon (EST), we'll pick a name in a random drawing from all eligible entries received and send you an email notification if you are the winner!

Limit one (1) entry per person; NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C. who are 18 or older as of date of entry.

Ides of March

Rebecca Cusey — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:59:00 EDT

Had enough campaigning yet? Apparently, actor and activist George Clooney thinks you need more because he has made “Ides of March,” an intense, well-made story set in the high-stakes world of presidential primary elections. Delving the minutia of campaign life and the evolution of idealism to hypocrisy, the deeply cynical story profiles a young man and an older candidate who enter politics on a mission to better the world but end up selling their souls.

Not only does George Clooney star in the film, but he directed, helped write the script, and produced. It’s loosely adapted from the work of Beau Willimon who worked in the campaigns of Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Bradley and turned his experiences into the play “Farragut North.”

Current It-boy Ryan Gosling stars as Stephen Meyers, a political wonderkid with enough experience and talent to be a formidable campaign press director, but young enough at 30 to believe wholeheartedly in the candidate for whom he works. He sees Governor Mike Morris (Clooney), who espouses ultra-progressive causes, as the second coming of John F. Kennedy. As the film opens, Stephen and campaign manager Paul Zara (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) face a close race in the Ohio Democratic Primary.

Behind the scenes, however, Steven faces thorny ethical dilemmas. A pretty young intern (Evan Rachel Wood) turns out to be a game-changing liability for the Governor. Plus, Stephen flirts with working for the opposition (Paul Giamatti as the opposing campaign worker) and finds the press (led by Marisa Tomei) unforgiving.

As he espouses the highest ideals publicly, he secretly travels increasingly dark paths to cover up the Governor’s misdeeds and protect his own position. The second half of the film turns into a thriller as Stephen coerces abortion, covers up a death, and engages in blackmail, all for the greater good.

With a stellar cast, the acting is top notch and the tight script manages to be interesting most of the time, even when concerned with the minutia of campaign activity. Rated R primarily for pervasive language, the film is considered by some to be an Oscar contender. It certainly has the quality and gravitas to be so, but lacks the popular appeal to be a box office hit outside the Beltway.

The actual politics of Morris take a back seat in the film to the inner workings and betrayals of a campaign, but they pop in the background. One can presume they shine a light into Clooney’s personal politics as his character espouses causes no Democrat presidential hopeful would dare to endorse. Gay marriage and taxing the wealthy? Of course. Pushing hydrogen power? Yes.

Morris goes further when he proposes to outlaw the internal combustion engine as a means to end terrorism. It’s all about the oil, of course.

Things get downright silly, though, when Stephen, with earnest passion in his eyes, urges the candidate to propose a mandatory two-year national service project for youth. “No one will oppose it,” he gushes, which is true in the logic of the film. No one can accuse Clooney of being unsophisticated in his real-life political activity, but the creators of this film are out of touch with America if they think there would be no opposition to two years forced government-mandated activity. For their own good, youth would no longer be free to start a business or a family, travel the world or, say, intern in a political campaign. Nor would they be able to bum around the beach on a quest to find themselves, which surely is inscribed somewhere in the Constitution as a right of every American. It’s a perfect example of the tyranny of people who wish to impose their “good ideas” on others.

Deep down, however, the film isn’t about the politics. With a few tweaks, it could just as easily be set in a Republican campaign. The primary conflict is between personal integrity and opening the door to hypocrisy in a belief that the ends justify the means. Viewers will leave feeling discouraged about the political process and unsure if there are any good guys left. If the very nature of politics turns good men into cold-hearted amoral operatives, that must mean something very bad for our democracy.

True to the Red Sox

Jean Yih Kingston — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:54:00 EDT

“Will we definitely make it to the play-offs?” William asked.

As a passionate kid and consummate worrier, he needed assurance. Born into a family of diehard Red Sox fans, he’d lived a charmed existence – during his short lifetime, an 84 year-old curse was reversed and the Red Sox had won two World Championships. Still, before Labor Day 2011, William wanted a guarantee.

“Yes, we’re definitely gonna make it,” I said. “No matter what, we’ll at least get the wild card spot.”

My husband had said the same thing. I’d heard it on ESPN, a constant source of background noise at our house, that it was nearly impossible to lose a nine game lead this late in the season.

“Don’t worry. We’re good.”

“Are you sure, Mom?”

“We’re awesome this year and we’re way ahead of the Rays and the Angels!”

And with that assurance, he sighed with relief and ran off to play outside.

It was exactly that day the Red Sox began to lose their mojo.

It happened slowly, like poison eating away at your innards. At first you barely noticed, because in baseball even the best teams lose forty percent of their games. But as we came to the midpoint of September in Boston, a cloud of anxiety had settled over Red Sox nation.

The downward spiral continued and by the last week of the regular season, watching the Red Sox became nearly impossible for me because of the errors, injuries, poor pitching, temper tantrums on the mound, and absence of any luck falling our way.

But William was an unrelenting fan. He diligently performed his pre-bedtime routine of reading and showering and was ready to watch every game. And each evening, he was difficult to put to bed because he wanted to watch “one more at bat”.

The morning of the last regular season game, where we desperately needed a win against the lowly Orioles and if luck would have it, a simultaneous Rays loss to capture a play-off spot, William created a “shrine” to the Red Sox before walking to school. He set his two Red Sox stuffed Build-a-Bears on our ottoman in front of the big screen TV, alongside a Kevin Youkilis replica batting helmet, a couple foul balls caught at Fenway, several Red Sox t-shirts, a signed Ted Williams photograph, baseball cards, his little league glove and a variety of Wally stuffed animals and other Fenway Park paraphernalia. Up and down the stairs he went, arms full. The bears and all his Red Sox “stuff” would collectively give the downtrodden team the little extra they needed to get to the postseason.

I was the proud mom watching my son join the Red Sox faithful. But secretly, I was concerned about what would happen if, God forbid, the Red Sox crashed and burned all the way out of contention. I felt guilty. I had told my youngest child we were assured a play-off spot and now he was “working hard” to set up his good luck shrine so he could be prepared for the 7:05 start - perhaps the last game of the season.

Mother guilt and desperation set in. I had been a mom for almost two decades – hadn’t I learned that “maybes” were a lot safer than “definitelys”? What would happen to William if the Sox didn’t make the play-offs? What was I thinking in early September? These were the Red Sox we were dealing with – a team notoriously cursed! But surely, we’d pull this out. We weren’t about the curse any more, we were also the Comeback Kids…right?

Right?

Against all my positive wishes, the end of the evening brought the most colossal collapse in the history of baseball – the nine game lead I had banked on had been erased against all the odds. And it happened in spectacularly painful fashion with the Red Sox losing in a 2-out bottom of the ninth walk-off and the Rays winning in a fairytale-like 12-inning, come from behind (down 7-0) victory. It was a heartbreaking night for any Red Sox fan. To top it off, I knew when William got the bad news in the morning, not only would he be crushed, he’d also come face to face with the fact his mom was an outright liar. I slept fitfully and could just imagine his bears being tossed wildly across the family room in the morning.

“So William, how are you?’ I greeted him watchfully as he sat in front of the TV with ESPN showing footage of the Orioles victorious pig pile and then Terry Francona, the poor Red Sox manager, looking like a forlorn dog in the empty dugout.

I observed William’s face, thinking the worst – maybe we were on the verge of a volcano of erupted emotions and massive mother blame and at the very least, tears of frustration, despair and difficulty getting to school because of the trauma.

“I’m sad…but now I want the Phillies to win,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Really. Why the Phillies?”

“Because I like Hunter Pence.”

“Wow, you’re doing really well William.”

“But Mom, you told me they’d make the play-offs.”

I thought “here it comes” as I braced myself. “I know. I’m really really sorry William. I was so positive they would make it. I’m sorry I misled you.”

“It’s not okay…” he said in a huff with arms folded across his chest. But then his face broke out with his notoriously impish grin.

“You know William. It’s really fun to be a Red Sox fan with you.”

“It’s fun to be a Red Sox fan with you too Mom.”

And when we hugged it out that morning, even though our favorite beloved team had collapsed in unprecedented fashion, I was just enormously grateful to be a mom.

That’s one thing I’m definitely sure of.

Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez on Faith and Family

Rebecca Cusey — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EDT

Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez brimmed with excitement as I met them in a swanky Georgetown hotel to discuss their passion project, the new movie “The Way.” Written by Estevez and starring Sheen, the film tells the story of a lapsed Catholic, Tom (Sheen), who walks an ancient pilgrimage route through France and Spain after the sudden accidental death of his son (Estevez). As he meets up with other modern day pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago, they form a small community of faith. The only thing the band of pilgrims has in common is a deep inner need and a lack of clarity on why they took on such a seemingly outdated task.

Sheen and Estevez, who is his son, were joined by David Alexanian, a producer of the film. With solid laughter and good hospitality, Martin Sheen played host, genially asking me if he could bring me a soda and lounging comfortably on the suite’s sofa while Estevez spoke softly and passionately. Clearly both men feel strongly about this project, about working together, and about the love they share for film and deeper questions of faith. Fortunately, I loved the film as well and was moved by its quiet focus on faith. I highly recommend it.

Here is our conversation about filmmaking, faith, and the power of family.

Patheos: You’ve been doing a bus tour with this movie. Have you been doing Q&A’s?

Estevez: Every screening. Sometimes twice a day. Sometimes secular and faith based, the reactions at the screenings are the same. I would say 60% of the Q&A’s are people just standing up and sometimes giving witness or testimonial.

Sheen: And thanking us.

Estevez: And thanking us for making the film. How often does that happen? Lots of times actors or directors will make a film and then spend the next couple of months hiding.

Sheen: [deep booming laugh]

Sheen: When someone is enthusiastic and proud about what they’ve done, you don’t have to urge them to brag about it.

Patheos: When I was looking you guys up, I saw that your father, your grandfather is from Galicia. Is there a connection?

Sheen: Yeah. Amazing. The cycle has been completed in a sense. It started as my father, his [Estevez’s] grandfather, coming to first Cuba and then the United States. And then I of course grew up here. And then his [Estevez’s] son, my grandson, going back to Spain and meeting his wife and living there.

Estevez: He [Sheen] went over there in 2003 on a fact-finding mission. Wanted to see the Camino and the cathedral. My son was working as his assistant on The West Wing, he was 19, they went over.

Sheen: We actually drove the Camino. I had this fantasy of doing it. I didn’t have enough time or information.

Estevez: No backpack. No walking stick, no shoes. Woefully unprepared. My son met this gal at what’s called a casa mural, like a bed and breakfast. That night at the pilgrim’s supper, the innkeep’s daughter came in the room and it was like [gasps] Love. Fireworks. As he describes it.

Sheen: They’re married now.

Estevez: He came home and said “I’m moving to Spain, Pop.” I was like, “What? What?” So I had to figure out a way to work there if I wanted to spend time with him. And his [Sheen’s] insistence that I write something for him was a way to continue that conversation.

Alexanian: There’s loads of stories about the making of it. It was against the odds getting it going, it was against the odds filming it, and now it’s against the odds distributing it.

Sheen: They would not approve anybody filming in the cathedral.

Patheos: But then you did get in?

Sheen: It’s another miracle. He [Estevez] ordered the crew to begin praying and lighting candles

Estevez: Anything. I was desperate. David was running around town, doing what he had to do, offering up his firstborn, his first three.

Sheen: [deep laugh]

Sheen: 48 hours before we came, they said ok.

Patheos: Pilgrimage, though. Here you have this full circle family story and yet you chose to make it about pilgrimage. I connected because I’ve been on pilgrimage [to Jerusalem]. I had this experience of “Why am I here?”

Estevez: Aren’t we all pilgrims? If we didn’t come over on the Mayflower, we came from somewhere else.

Patheos: It’s such an ancient thing to do, and yet you connected it to modern life.

Sheen: You don’t have to go to Jerusalem or Mecca or Santiago to go on pilgrimage; you go in your own heart. But it is more conducive to get you out of your normal, everyday life, because you’re forced to deal with something new and you have to deal with something new within yourself. So pilgrimage is about a person preparing and packing all their stuff and carrying it. What invariably happens is they begin to discard stuff because they’ve overpacked. And they can’t give it away to other pilgrims because they’re doing exactly the same thing. In the refugios along the way, you see the libraries in all languages, people have left, you see things books, clothes, shoes everything. And that happens.

Sheen: And then the second stage of the pilgrimage begins, the transcendence, the inner journey, where you begin to let go of your own negativity and darkness and you come to grips with this one you have not made peace with, you let them out of the cell of your heart, and this one out of the dungeon that wronged you as a young person and you can’t forgive and they need to be punished more, no, no, it’s time to let them go. You begin to let go of judgments and envies anger and resentment and all the negativity that keeps us from being human, keeps us from being free and knowing ourselves, that’s the real pilgrimage. That’s what lasts. That’s the transformation that’s happening. You have to do this yourself. Nobody can carry your load. Nobody can walk in your shoes. You’re on your own. You have to do it yourself. But you cannot do it without community. That’s pilgrimage.

Estevez (teasing): Period.

Sheen: There’s a period. Sorry. They say I’m a windbag and I’m not going to say if it’s true.

Estevez: We’re trying to get him to use periods instead of commas.

Sheen: Did I say “It’s an effort to unite the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh?”

Estevez (laughing): Not yet.

Sheen: That’s pilgrimage.

Alexanian: It’s a timeless backdrop, this camino, but it’s a modern experience too. You have people who have just lost their job or they’ve separated. And they’re taking this walk to reset as we would say today, but clearly they’ve been doing it for a thousand years. What I think is unique is we have all these devices to keep us connected, but in truth we’ve never been so disconnected. And I think we more than ever need to shed those things and spend time on some sort of pilgrimage whether as you say it’s in your heart or simplifying your day here. But they’ve been doing this sort of things for over 900 years for a reason. We as human beings over time have become too wound up and we need to become unwound.

Patheos: You’ve talked a lot about the role of the pilgrim. What’s the role of God in the pilgrimage?

Sheen: Well we don’t have much without God. God comes in so many different forms. It’s the genius of God to choose indwelling where we least likely look. Inside of us. God converts us. We don’t convert to god. We awaken and go “I found God” or “I’m converted,” but God was there before we were born. God was there when He formed the earth. Our ways are not Yahweh’s ways. The God of scripture. Whether you put the name on it specifically, God, the One, the Other, the cosmos, the universe, whatever it is…the mystery.

Patheos: This movie was about an intensely religious subject. But you have this line “Religion has nothing to do with it.”

Estevez: Well, I tried to find that balance. This scene with his [Tom’s] parish priest in the beginning, “Would you like to pray with me?” and he says “What for?” That would never happen in this man’s [Sheen’s] life, it had to happen in Tom’s life. There had to be a place of hopelessness for him for conversion to happen. I think the film, the story, the script, the character for him [for Sheen] is the closest he’s every been able to play to who he as a man, as an actor, as a human being.

Sheen: Absolutely. Very true.

Estevez: He’s not an army assassin, or a cold blooded killer. He’s not…

Patheos: President…

Estevez: President, although he likes to think he is.

Estevez: I’m a work of progress in terms of my faith. My mother likes to say that. She was raised Southern Baptist, but left the church. He [Sheen] was raised devout Catholic and through their union, he left the church. So, I’ve heard a lot of arguments about religion, but they never talk spirituality. And yet, my mother is one of the most spiritual people I know.

Sheen: She’s the only truly honest person. She loves the truth, the whole truth, all the time.

Alexanian: I would assume there are fewer people that are devout than not. When Emilio handed me the screenplay for the first time, what appealed to me is that it was not heavy handed in any way. That makes it accessible. You don’t want to watch an expert do something. That’s boring. It’s interesting to watch four people who are like us. My friends or people I’ve spoken to say they can identify with one or more of the characters. I don’t know if I’d identify with somebody who was devout. That would probably throw me out of it. I think this film invites people who are working on it. I think most of us are.

Patheos: We have Tree of Life, Higher Ground, Of Gods and Men, Machine Gun Preacher, True Grit. Is there a thawing going on in Hollywood where it’s ok to talk about faith?

Sheen: You know, really and truly, we’re about as far away from Hollywood as you can get. We don’t have access to studios. We took this to studios and they had not a clue.

Estevez: They may today.

Sheen: We were trying for three years.

Estevez: They may take a different look at it than they did years ago. I think it’s just a different time now. If Hollywood feels like they’re going to make money at something, they go for it. The issue we have, is that if that’s all Hollywood is interested in, not raising the bar, but just simply making money, I think the faith based community is going to reject it.

Alexanian: They can smell it.

Estevez: They can smell it. And in fact, we met people along the road last year, Evangelicals, Catholics, who said “if this is your heart, if you are true in showing us your heart, we’ll go with you. But if you’re disingenuous, don’t bother knocking.”

Alexanian: You can’t set out to make an inspirational movie. It’s sort of like opening up a restaurant to make money. If you don’t make the best pasta dish that anyone’s ever tasted, that’s what you have to do. If you don’t do it, you’re gonna be less than who you are, who you’re supposed to be. This was a film that had to happen

Estevez: We couldn’t not make this film.

Alexanian: This was a film that had to happen. As Martin said, we’re not part of the Hollywood system.

Sheen: Not that we didn’t try.

New on DVD: Testosterone

Rebecca Cusey — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:04:00 EDT

Transformers and Fast Five are out on DVD this week. Enjoy!

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

The Gist: Back when the world was hip and women wore hats – that is, the 1960s – astronauts discovered a giant robot ship crashed on the moon. It has something to do with the ongoing war between the evil Decepticons and benevolent Autobots. So, naturally, Chicago must be destroyed in spectacular ways. Read our full review.

The Ups: The effects are pretty cool. If you need more explosions and slow-mo robot battles in your life, this is just the ticket.

The Downs: There is a story, somewhere, I’m just not exactly sure what it is. And that pretty girl who always wears the skimpy clothes, the one who replaced Megan Fox? It would be nice if she could act as well as heat up the screen.

The Verdict: Watch it. Have fun.

Be Aware: Rated PG-13, it’s cleaner than the last Transformers movie, but that’s not saying much. There is a scene or two that will make parents squirm. Also has a few rare obscenities and fast-paced action.

Fast Five

The Gist: An muscle-bound team of elite car thieves reunite for one last big heist, at least until the next film in the franchise. The heist has the added benefit of potentially bringing down a mob boss in Rio de Janeiro. I guess crime does pay! Read our full review.

The Ups: The cars go vroom vroom vroom. The men go grunt grunt grunt. The girls look pretty. Between car chases, shoot outs, and witty banter, Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson do their best to demolish an old warehouse in a WWE-style fight. Fast paced and high-octane, this movie is mindless fun.

The Downs: If you’re looking for profound dialog or insightful introspection, you’re in the wrong place. These guys don’t even know what those words mean.

The Verdict: Watch it. Have fun. Drive fast.

Be Aware: Rated PG-13, the sexual content consists of innuendo and short skirts, the obscenities are rare, and the violence is sky-high but not gruesome.

Muscular Christianity: The Machine Gun Preacher

Rebecca Cusey — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:36:00 EDT

Sam Childers, the subject of the new movie “Machine Gun Preacher,” doesn’t exactly fit in at the swanky Georgetown hotel in which we had our interview. Clad in black leather, sporting biker mustache, and gnawing on a toothpick, he looked like an extra from the biker drama “Sons of Anarchy,” only tougher. Despite his appearance, however, he wouldn’t necessarily fit in at your neighborhood biker bar either because his talk centers on Biblical passages and God’s requirements of His people.

Sam Childers is the real-life Machine Gun Preacher, played by Gerard Butler in the film. Once a drug abuser and criminal thug, he gave his life to Jesus, as he says, and was born again. On a church trip to Africa in the late 90s, he ditched the group and traveled into the civil war zone in Sudan. The brutality he saw there would change his life.

Childers built an orphanage in the war zone, hired guards to defend it, and provided a safe haven for the youngest victims of the conflict. Roving militias in Africa routinely round up scores of children, kill their parents, and press the little ones into prostitution or force them to become soldiers. Childers didn’t stop at providing an orphanage for children who came to him. He picked up a machine gun and actively hunted militia to rescue children.

He just may be the first real-life Rambo pastor.

“For me, if someone is killing one child, that’s a problem,” he said.

Rated R, the film features disturbing violence against children as well as biker-level profanity and one married sex scene. It also unflinchingly portrays Childers’ faith in its complexity and doubt, as well as the profound motivation it gives him.

As the war rages on and Childers finds himself unable to protect all the children he feels called to serve, he distances himself from his wife and child and struggles with God.

“I’m born again, spirit filled preacher,” he said, “Every Sunday I’m preaching somewhere. But most of all, I let people know I’m only human. I don’t try to hide the fact that I have struggles and I deal with things just like everyone else does.”

He added, “If you’re living the Christian faith, we all get to that point where that day is just a crappy day and we gotta come back to where we was.”

Jason Keller, the Hollywood scribe tasked with turning Sam’s life into a movie, doesn’t consider himself religious, but he came to respect Sam’s faith, doubts and all. “What I started to see in Sam and what moved me, we started to discover a man who’s a preacher, who’s a good Christian, who was flawed, who was to this day transforming, but trying to be the best man and Christian he can be, and sometimes succeeding and sometimes not succeeding … it was something I could identify with, he’s a real human being.”

When Keller met Childers, the preacher was mourning the murder of several children he had been forced to leave behind in a place of danger. “He was the darkest human being I’ve ever met,” Keller said.

Childers recovered from that horrific event, at least enough to function again. Since the establishment of the new state of South Sudan earlier this year, things look better for his orphanage.

“There hasn’t been anyone killed in northern Uganda in three years, there hasn’t been anyone killed around the orphanage in two years, but you could drive six to eight hours from the orphanage and you can be into what you would call an active war area,” he told me.

That doesn’t mean the fight is over. The energetic Childers has projects in the works. He wants to open feeding centers for the starving in Ethiopia and plans to restore the crumbling homes of elderly people in Uganda.

He allowed the movie to be made because he hopes it will move people to action.

“It’s hard for me to live in the United States,” he admitted, “Over there [Africa], every day you can do something good. You raise money to have a feeding program; you don’t know what that does to you inside. It is hard coming here and adjusting to the U.S. We’re so concerned about our parties and having a big Christmas, there’s so many concerns that we have here in the U.S. that are senseless.”