Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I'd skipped more of my daily calcium supplements than I'd realized, recently, and so was surprised to find my hands apparently incapable of holding onto my Pyrex containers full of steamed asparagus and warmed-over lasagna at lunchtime yesterday (when I don't get enough extra calcium, my body gets seriously low on that mineral and the first symptom I generally notice is the growing numbness in my extremities through loss of circulation), with the result that I had no lunch to eat, the stairwell down to the cafeteria had hot food and broken glass all over it, and every stitch of clothing I was wearing was spattered with sure-to-stain lunch residue and the occasional bit of broken glass.

Since I had plenty of 'extra hours' saved (hours I'd worked but not been paid for), I decided to use up some of those hours to justify going home at noon to soak my clothes and pull myself together. And since I couldn't do much while waiting for the calcium tablets to kick in, I decided to head out to the multiplex for a matinee showing of "Fast Five", which I'd been wanting to see since it came out.

"Fast Five" was REALLY GOOD! I really liked the way they brought together characters from the previous movies in the "Fast & Furious" franchise, even though the only one I'd really enjoyed was the original "The Fast and the Furious" starring Vin Diesel ('cause, you know, it's Vin Diesel that I like, and not street-racing or fast cars). Fortunately, the film is set up so that even if you'd seen none of the sequels (or, like me, had seen one of them but had forgotten the characters entirely), you could get right up to speed and enjoy the 'team-building' scenes.

Plus, as a bonus, the film gives us Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. 'The Rock') as the tough-as-nails-and-dangerously-smart agent (with a shaved head like Vin's and even bigger biceps) in charge of catching Dominic, Mia, and Brian and bringing them to justice for an impressive number of charged offenses. Anytime I can watch two amazing examples of macho physique such as Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson pitted against one another, some primitive part of my psyche is very happy indeed!

See this film (if you haven't already), and by all means be sure to stay through the first rounds of the closing credits, so you can see the additional scene which focuses on Johnson's character Agent Hobbs and does an admirable job of setting up for a sequel or spin-off film that I'd be happy to go and see right away (and might still be interested in seeing even if it doesn't have Vin Diesel in it, so long as I've got The Rock to look at instead).

Afterwards, since there was a showing of "Kung Fu Panda 2" starting almost as soon as I got out of "Fast Five", I decided to stick around the multiplex for another hour and a half and enjoy some quality animation on the big screen. And it was visually impressive, I must say (I'd only seen the first "Kung Fu Panda" movie on TV last Thanksgiving, and you don't get so much of the grandeur on the small screen). But then on top of the animation you get characters you actually really like, a witty and even occasionally psychologically insightful script, and a plot that actually had me close to tears, at times (which I can't entirely blame on my calcium deficiency!).

I'd highly recommend both films, but especially "Fast Five" (since it's been out longer and may not be as easy to find in theaters soon).

I'm going to be preaching at the bilingual church again this Sunday (how very appropriate for Pentecost!), so maybe I'll get a chance to squeeze in a showing of the latest "X-Men" film later in the afternoon.