DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 26, 2024

Lowlifes (2024) A family of well-to-do city dwellers traveling by RV find themselves stranded at a remote farmstead with a clan full of eccentric hicks. As you might expect, things go wrong very quickly, but... they don't go wrong in the way you might expect. It's not an all-time classic or anything, but it's fun enough that you'll find yourself double checking to make sure you're actually watching a Tubi original.

TIL: Following on the heals of the commandments to worship God, the 4th Commandment to honor parents establishes the family as the foundation for all the social commandments that follow (don't steal, don't murder, etc.). Basically, if family members don't uphold their proper responsibilities to each other, the wider social order will naturally suffer and eventually collapse into a free-for-all.

I HAVE SOME NOTES: Not gonna stop jotting down random thoughts on my daily Scripture readings until the Pope tells me to stop (which, I suppose, could happen).

DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 23, 2024

For Aleteia this week I look into whether or not it's accurate to attach a pro-life label to 'Dune: Part Two'.

I HAVE SOME NOTES: Still sketching out some thoughts on my daily Scripture readings.

DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 19, 2024

Sasquatch Sunset (2024) In which we join a small family of Bigfoot as they traverse the shrinking wilderness looking for more of their kind. Along the way, we see them grunt, forage, grunt, sleep, grunt, mate, and exercise every possible excretory function you can imagine (and one or two you probably can't), while grunting. Gross, ridiculous, and oddly poignant by the end. Honestly, I'm not sure whether to give this a low or high rating, but I'm going high since it makes me happy that oddball movies like this can still get made.

TIL: A pastoral statement from the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops noted that by preserving natural environments, by protecting endangered species, by laboring to make human environments compatible with local ecology, by employing appropriate technology, and by carefully evaluating technological innovations as we adopt them, we exhibit respect for creation and reverence for the Creator.

I HAVE SOME NOTES: Continuing to keep my notepad nearby as I bumble my way through  daily Scripture readings.

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 14, 2024

The Substitute (1996) Merc goes undercover as a high school teacher to find and punish the thugs who roughed up his ex-lover. Along the way, he decides to whip (and beat and stab and shoot) the rest of the student body and faculty into shape as well. Ah, the 1990's, the last decade where you could solve both school violence and classroom overcrowding by tossing the problem kids out of a second story window. Crank up your suspension of disbelief and enjoy the brainless fun.

TIL: While never recommending it, the Church believes that corporal punishment remains a matter of prudential judgment for parents as they are the ones who have a duty to rectify their child’s inappropriate action by imposing reasonable consequences for bad behavior. Punishment of any kind, however, must take into consideration the child’s ability to understand it as corrective, and must never undermine the child's inherent dignity as a person.

I HAVE SOME NOTES: More dubious doodlings on my daily Scripture readings.

DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 10, 2024

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1966) Another amiable Amicus anthology wherein tarot reader Peter Cushing spins yarns about werewolves, vampires, voodoo, and killer plants. The highlight features Christopher Lee as a pompous art critic (is there any other kind) tormented by the disembodied hand of the artist he (quite literally) drove to suicide. A bit of wish fulfillment fantasy from the creators of low budget movies perhaps?

TIL: The criticism that some art is derivative is kind of silly when you think about it. All human artists have no choice but to draw from preexisting material. Only God is able to make something from nothing.

I HAVE SOME NOTES: Continuing to jot down thoughts on my daily Scripture readings, even though some of them suggest something is obviously wrong with me.

DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 6, 2024

Dead Dudes in the House (1989) A group of friends pitch in together to renovate a fixer-upper, only to discover once they get there that a weird old woman is squatting on the premises. Perhaps she has something to do with all the dead bodies and zombies that start showing up? Though nowhere near as good, it's sorta Troma's take on the Evil Dead, but mercifully played more straight than most of that studio's other output.

TIL: Aquinas taught that in cases where there is no other way to secure a basic necessity for survival, such as shelter, taking it from those who have more than they need is not wrongful because such basic necessities are a human right. However, it's immoral to take basic necessities, even from the rich, if such things can be obtained through one’s own work or through the voluntary assistance of others such as governmental agencies or private charities.

I HAVE SOME NOTES: Still jotting down musings on my daily Scripture readings.

DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 2, 2024

Nemesis (1992) The future's not bright, but everybody wears shades anyway, especially cyborg cop Alex Rain, who's going through one of those "Am I still human?" existential crises as cyborgs are prone to do. Angst takes a backseat, though, when Alex uncovers an android plot to eradicate flesh and blood humans. This could've been just another schlocky sci-fi outing starring some random martial artist, but it's Albert Pyun, so it's dripping with style. What would video store shelves have done without him?

TIL: Neuroscientist Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk sees the transhumanist notion that our current human bodies don't represent the final state of our evolutionary development as being reflective of our inherent desire for transcendence. However, the problem is that transhumanism only promises transcendence of the body and not of the soul. As he puts it, "There’s a bigger kind of unsettledness at the heart of who we are and simple longevity and life extension isn’t going to address that at its core."

I HAVE SOME NOTES: Continuing to jot down thoughts on my daily Scripture readings because the Pope hasn't told me to knock it off yet.