DAILY CALL SHEET: OCTOBER 4, 2025

The Amazing Colossal Man. (1957 ) Lt. Colonel Glenn Manning saves a pilot who has crash landed in a bomb testing site, but gets a heaping dose of radiation for his efforts. The good news is that Glenn's burns begin to miraculously heal. The bad news is that's because he's slowly expanding to giant size. The really bad news is that his heart isn't growing at the same rate and will eventually explode from the stress. The worst news is that his mind can't handle what's happening, causing Glenn to go on a psychotic rampage in Las Vegas, which wouldn't be that odd of an occurrence in Sin City except for the fact that Glenn is 50-feet tall at the time. There's lot to enjoy in this Bert I. Gordon flick, not the least of which is that the title character, with his bald head and giant diaper, comes across as nothing less than a Kong-sized baby throwing a temper tantrum.

TIL: Speaking of growing, John Collins writes in Our Sunday Visitor, "In our contemporary culture 'spiritual growth' is a term that has become not only ambiguous but annoyingly vague. Used in various ways by people of different faiths (and sometimes by people of no faith), this is a term that conjures up a multitude of images: Eastern meditation, vision quests in California, a variety of New Age explorations and all the rest. … Ultimately, as Catholics, we must realize that if we wish to grow spiritually, we cannot follow the paths or the ideas of others religions. … For the Catholic, spiritual growth can be nothing but a continual turning to Christ. In this we come to understand an astonishing truth, that spiritual growth is really a growth in relationship, a constant deepening of our relationship with Christ."

Good Boy (2025) Against the advice of just about everyone he knows, an ill young man named Todd moves into his grandfather's abandoned home in the middle of nowhere. Todd dismisses warnings that the place is haunted, but his faithful retriever Indy isn't so sure, especially once an ominous dark shape only the dog can see starts to emerge from the house's dark corners. Can Indy be a good enough boy to save his beloved master from whatever's coming for them, or is it already too late? Unfortunately, the movie lets slip what's really going on about half way through the film, but the visual approach of telling the story entirely from the dog's perspective is so well done (and ultimately emotional) that you'll want to stick with it to the end.

TIL: One of the consequences of the ancient Jewish purity laws is that dogs aren't portrayed all that well in the Bible. Most of the verses in which they appear paint puppies as generally filthy scavengers fit only to serve as metaphors for moral or spiritual uncleanness. An interesting exception is the book of Tobit, in which a random pooch shows up to travel with Tobias and the angel Raphael. The dog's presence is never explained, leaving theologians to speculate he's there as a symbol of unwavering companionship and steadfastness in the face of adversity, mirroring the loyalty of Tobias and Raphael to God despite their trials. Whatever the reason, Tobias' adopted doggie is the rare good boy in the Bible and deserves a nice scratch behind the ears.