Rating:

I’ve noticed a pattern with Christian Slater movies: they’re sort of strange and not what I’m expecting, but they still entertain me, almost against my will.  I enjoyed this movie, but it’s hard to explain why, because I can come up with a long list of problems it has.

First of all, it’s a cute movie—far too cute at times.  It’s got that self-aware, indie-movie, quirky-characters thing going on that became way too popular after Pulp Fiction.  (Hired gun-men sit around diners talking about what men they’d have sex with if they were stranded in the woods?  Really?)  RuPaul might have been all the rage back when this was made, but now he just looks bizarre.  Jason Lee, in look-at-me-I’m-a-man drag on My Name Is Earl, made a more convincing woman; but this movie seems to think the audience will love every second of RuPaul’s act.  (Luckily he’s only on screen a couple times.)  Tim Allen’s character even gets Slater to do his Jack Nicholson voice, in case we hadn’t heard that one before.

I don’t think anything in the movie ever surprised me, except not recognizing Dreyfus at first.  The story is like a fairy tale: you know the prince is going to win in the end and find the treasure and live happily ever after with the princess, so if it’s done well, it’s fun to watch them get there.  I groaned at some of the clichés, like Allen not just being a good shot, but hitting every target right between the eyes. Or the old standby where the guy thinks the girl has left town never to be found again—oops, there she is!  As a mystery or adventure story, it’s nothing special, but as a fairy tale romance with the twist that most of the characters are crooks, it works well enough for me to recommend it lightly.

The Traditional Latin Mass is coming in Quincy this fall, to the re-opened Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church. I’ll be writing a lot more about that as things develop, but here are some pictures as the renovations begin. The church was basically gutted when it was closed a couple years ago, so we have to replace almost everything except the pews, and there’s a lot of cleaning to do.

First, some pictures from outside; click on them to see them full-sized. Please excuse my low-quality camera and even lower-quality photography skills.

Update, Oct 11, 2008: More pictures here…

From across the street:

Another angle:

Front entrance:

Looking up at the bell tower:

From the rear parking lot:

The front door handles, recently refinished and looking brand new:

Plaque on the front of church, showing it was built in 1912.  “Quincy Preserves” is the town’s historical preservation group, so the building is an historical landmark of some sort.

The rectory:

Stained glass in the north end of the transept:

Stained glass in the south end:

Joseph statue, which had been sold, but someone managed to track it and the Mary statue down and buy them back.

Paintings to the north and south of the main altar area.

Painting on the underside of the choir loft, right above your head as you walk in.