the    sides

Saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today. I liked. In fact, I laughed out loud a couple of times - so the whole thing was a total surprise to me because…

1. I normally don’t dig Tim Burton flicks…
2. The original Charlie (circa 1971 with Gene Wilder) was really freaky - from a kid’s perspective, at least…and
3. Minus Captain Jack Sparrow and Chocolate (Johhny Depp’s intial romp in chocolate), I normally don’t dig Johnny Depp’s movies.

But I liked this one.

As a random addendum to the rant, some of you might be wondering - how in the world I’m affording to see all these flicks.

I’m not. My good friend, former student Noel Kurtz (who doesn’t blog but should) works at Rave Motion Pictures. And since I’m his favorite youth pastor that lives in Arkansas and likes to go to movies with him…he takes me for free.

I like Noel.

Not just for the movies. Every youth ministry needs a Noel. He’s a steady, everybody likes him kinda leader. He’s big, intimidating but a teddy bear. He’ll give a ride home to anybody. He’s funny but can crack some heads when he needs to and won’t let anyone be a bully.

And he gets me into movies for free.

Every youth worker needs a Noel.