Two Movies and a Funeral

I recently saw George Clooney's political thriller, Syriana, and the kid movie, Narnia. I'm not really familiar with the Narnia series so I was surprised that it has some Christian angle to it. I thought it would be like Lord of the Rings, but it's not. I then did a search online, and found out that Disney heavily targeted the Narnia movie to Christian audience. They spent millions to hire the PR company that launched Passion of the Christ, and they previewed Narnia to 40+ Evangelical churches. I've always hated it when politicians use religion to advance their agenda, and I feel the same way with movie companies doing the same thing to make money.

Luckily, I didn't pay to see Narnia. I paid to see Syriana and watched Narnia after seeing Syriana. Syriana is a great movie. The Middle East scenes reminded me of when I used to go to Saudi Arabia when I was younger. For better or worse, the movie is not politically bias. Usually oil-related movie tends to be left leaning, but not this one.

Today is a sad day for West Wing fans like me. John Spencer, who plays Leo McGarry in The West Wing passed away last night. He's a great actor and was nominated for Emmy's five times, winning once. He's currently Jimmy Smith's running mate in the show, so I don't know how the show would continue without him.

Rest in Peace, John Spencer.