I usually do not pre-screen Rated-R movies, simply because our angle is Family Friendly, which means we know right out of the gate, an R movie will not be Family Friendly. However, from time to time something comes out that interests me. Usually the interest results from an actor or actress in the movie.

Such was the case with the new Jodie Foster movie, “Inside Man”. It opened this weekend, I pre-screened it earlier in the week. Over all, this is a great movie. It’s been quite some time since I’ve gone to a movie and not looked at my watch. However, with “Inside Man”, I did not look at my watch. That’s pretty good for a movie that clocks in around 2 hours!

The movie is described as a “suspense” and it certainly is. I walked out of the theater saying — “Wow! I didn’t see that ending come!” and “Amazing, I never would have thought that guy was involved in the bank robbery.” That’s what makes a good movie for me. Something that makes me think, and catches me by surprise.

However, here’s the downfall, and here’s why I’ve called this blog entry — “Why Do They Do That?” — The only reason this movie is Rated-R is because of the language. Why is it Hollywood seems to think the entire world doesn’t mind hearing the f-bomb dropped into causual conversation. In my opinion, they took a perfectly good movie, that could have appealed to a broader audience, but because some writers and producers think the entire world swears all the time, it ended up with an R rating.

Come on Hollywood…get with the program here. Stop trying to drive the culture forward, by degrading language. This movie could have been a PG-13 if it weren’t for the language. No one gets killed, no one gets blown up, and people walk away wondering exactly what’s going on.

In the end, the language does more to harm to this movie than anything else. In the end, if the writers and others involved in the movie really thought about it, the language wasn’t needed.

Keep it clean, and more people will love the movie.

Keep encouraged!
Dr. Rus

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to get caught in the routine of life? It’s like the old poem I learned a long time ago in 9th grade drama class. It went something like this — “Tick, tock, tick tock, minutes hours days passing by…tick tock, tick tock…(and then something about white pages flying by)” — I don’t remember much of anything else from the poem, but I do remember the repeated phrase so recurrent through the entire poem of — “tick tock, tick tock.”

It’s true, minutes turn in to hours, hours turn into days, days turn into weeks, and of course, weeks turn into months. Life ticks away, and before we know it, we can actually simply find ourselves going through the motions, instead of really connecting with what’s going on around us.

I found myself pondering these thoughts the other day when I then started thinking of all the things many people want to do, but never end up accomplishing. Why is that? Could it be human nature has us so addicted to routine, that we’re afraid to step outside of that routine into some unknown area? In reality, another aspect of human nature is the excitement of experiencing the adventure. However, in order to experience the adventure, we must venture out of the normal routine. Many times we find ourselves saying we can’t go that way, because we’ve never been there before. However, reality is, when we know our purpose and destiny in life, and when we’ve looked into strategy, all we need to do is step out into the adventure. Sure, we might discover some unknowns, but isn’t that the most exciting part of the adventure? Many times when we step into the adventure, we’ll discover answers for the unknowns as well.

“Tick tock, tick tock, minutes hours days passing by — tick tock, tick tock, blank pages, white pages of life flying by.”

Those blank white pages flying by, are waiting for us all to write words of adventure on them.

Keep encouraged!
Dr. Rus