“I’m not lost.” — Frank Churchill
“I will keep the ground that God has given me and perhaps in his grace, he will ignite me again. But ignite me or not, in his grace, in his power, I will hold the ground.” — John Knox
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” — Sir Richard Steele
“The very familiarity of blessings sometimes makes us insensible to their value."— J. C. Ryle
“Some people get an education without going to college; the rest get it after they get out.” — Mark Twain
“Question everything but Scripture.” — Geoff Botkin
“[T]he ministry of Satan is employed to instigate the reprobate, whenever the Lord, in the course of his providence, has any purpose to accomplish in them...” — John Calvin (Institutes 2.4.5)
“Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.” — Elias Boudinot
“A lot of men have a wishbone where they ought to have a backbone.” — Unknown
“Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your own living room by people you wouldn’t have in your house.” — David Frost
“[N]ot one particle remains to man as a ground of boasting. The whole is of God.” — John Calvin (Institutes 2.3.6)
“I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.” — Jackie Mason
“Thanks, modest girls. Appreciated by a male whose time studying the ground is proportional to each degree of rising temperature.” — Unknown
“Even if you are on the right track, but just sit there, you will still get run over.” — Will Rogers
“If you don’t fear God, you’ll fear everything.” — Dan Horn
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they simply make the best of everything they have.” — Unknown
“Drag and Drop for Windows users: DRAG your peecee off your desk, and DROP it in the trash.” — some forum member’s tagline
“When she married you, she gave you her life to spend. Are you spending your life wisely?” — Dan Horn
“You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” — C. S. Lewis
“People will not look forward to posterity who will not look backward to their ancestors.” — Edmund Burke
“Dreams don’t work unless you do.” — John C. Maxwell
“The measure of a great teacher isn’t what he or she knows; it’s what the students know.” — John C. Maxwell
“I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book.” — Groucho Marx
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.” — St. Augustine
“Self-righteousness is being more aware of and irritated by the sins of others than you are conscious of and grieved by your own.” — Paul Tripp
“People fall in private, long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it, is often not discovered until it is down on the ground.” — J. C. Ryle
“Man does not need to know exhaustively in order to know truly and certainly.” — Cornelius Van Til
“Paul’s life was a prophetic book for Jews to read and see how to be saved, so our lives should be an easy to read book for the lost on how they can easily be saved.” — Ken Ham
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." — Edmund Burke
“True education is not giving in the answer, it’s in showing them how to find it.” — Kelly Crawford
“TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they’ll have with twenty-six. Open your child’s imagination. Open a book.” — Unknown
“I began my education at a very early age—in fact, right after I left college.” — Winston Churchill
“Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.” — George Washington
“Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.” — Paxton Hood
“People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.” — Thomas Sowell
“One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one covetous action, may cut the throat of many a sermon. Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine.” — Richard Baxter
“Luther once said, ‘The devil hates goose quills,’ and, doubtless, he has good reason, for ready writers, by the Holy Spirit’s blessing, have done his kingdom much damage.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“Heaven is eternity in the presence of God through a Mediator. Hell is eternity in the presence of God with no Mediator.” — Tony Reinke
“A ship in the harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for.” — John Shedd
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” — C. H. Spurgeon
"When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy." — Corrie ten Boom
“We should never do what we cannot pray God to bless.” — James Smith
“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” — Martin Luther
“The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.” — La Rochefoucauld
“The cold water of persecution is often thrown on the church’s face to fetch her to herself when she is in a swoon of indolence or pride.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“Non-Christian investigators of nature are as successful as they are because they work with stolen capital.” — Cornelius Van Til
“What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.” — J. C. Ryle
“Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.” — Martin Luther
— June 10th, 2012 —
Tintin. Comparatively few Americans know the name, but in Europe, he’s very well known: Tintin is a young man, a journalist, who travels the world with his dog, Snowy, and his sea-captain sidekick, Captain Archibald Haddock. Written in the early/mid 20th century, Tintin’s escapades are presented in comic-book form by the Belgian author Hergé—and this film, directed by Steven Spielberg, is a combination of three of those stories.
After purchasing a beautiful model of a ship, Tintin is thrust into a mystery of three brothers, three ships, and lost treasure. Kidnappings, escapes, gunfights, and crash-landings—the entire film feels very much like an Indiana Jones film (without the language, occultism, and adult content, thankfully). From picturesque Middle-Eastern cities and adventures on the high seas, to car chases and messages written with blood—it’s all in here. Not to mention the fact that young Tintin is also an excellent example of a responsible young man who seizes a situation and takes control.
And oh, the music! John Williams’s score for The Adventures of Tintin is epic, loud, and adventurous, and yet at the same time maintains a precise delicacy and subtlety in the orchestration and performance that brings a wonderful balance to everything. It’s really a beautiful work of art—not unlike a auditory dance where all the instruments step, flit, leap, and fly gracefully around each other to create a beautiful experience. All elements are masterfully unified, but nowhere is such a unity a muddy one.
The Adventures of Tintin is an action-packed film for the family—and I’m eagerly waiting the second installment! Isaac Botkin has written a far more in-depth review here.
INDECENCY: Other than perhaps one or two innuendos (I couldn’t tell), none.
LANGUAGE: One “swear to God”, one use each of “hell” and “damned”. Also, some odd exclamations like, “Ten thousand thundering typhoons!” and “Great snakes!” and the like.
VIOLENCE: Punching and gunfire mostly. There is destruction of private property both during a chase through a city and at a climatic battle towards the end between two enemies. A man is shot to death (we hear gunfire) and he dies on someone’s doorstep, after writing a message with his blood on a newspaper.
OTHER NEGATIVE ELEMENTS: Captain Haddock is a drunkard for the first portion of his screen time, until he appears to overcome his addiction with the help of Tintin. In another scene, in order to save an airplane from crashing into the ocean, a man belches very loudly into the fuel tank of the plane—causing the engine to quite literally “run on fumes.”
AGE RANGE: While not graphic, some sequences are tense and may cause a discomfort to very small children.