by Cory Woodroof | Oct 13, 2012 | Opinion
Before I get 500 negative comments based on this review, let me add this important disclaimer. Kevin James’ newest comedy, “Here Comes the Boom,” is a flawed product. It’s ridden with inspiring clichés and could have used about twenty minutes cut out of its 105 minute run-time. It’s also one of the sweetest, down-to-earth comedies I’ve seen in a good while. “Here Comes the Boom” allows the likeable James to really hone in his, well, likeable personality, saddled with a half-way decent script filled with workable comedy and “that’s nice” greeting card heart. The film is also timely, making fairly accurate complaints against the current state of the public education system. Social commentary with effective humor? In a Kevin James movie, nonetheless? Strange times, indeed. After the budget of a Boston high school undergoes massive cuts, the music department led by Henry Winkler’s committed Marty, ends up falling to the wayside in favor of other extracurricular activities. James’ apathetic biology teacher Scott Voss, a friend of Marty, decides to save his pal’s job by entering into the ring of mixed martial arts. (He was a top wrestler in college, now, not so much). Teaming up with Marty and UFC fighter Bas Rutten’s Niko, Voss puts on the spandex and gloves in order to fight his way to somewhere around $38,000 dollars (the amount needed to keep Marty at the composer’s stand). I was skeptical about the prospects of this film simply due to the fact that Kevin James isn’t usually in that great of a movie. Last year’s not-as-bad-as-everyone-said-but-still-not-that-good Zookeeper seemed to become the thought that popped into one’s...
by Emily Snell | Sep 20, 2012 | News Slider
A former student, who was wanted for an on-campus burglary that took place in February, was arrested on campus Thursday morning. Around 10 a.m., Lipscomb Security recognized Shaun Immanuel Saunders, 27, thanks to a “be on the lookout” alert related to his previous offense. Hunter Patterson, a May graduate who happened to be on campus, witnessed the event. “I was in the amphitheater and saw two Lipscomb security guards escorting a restrained individual across campus,” he said. “They were about to go through the square, it looked like.” Saunders was turned over to Metro Police officers soon after. His bond was set at $25,000. According to an affidavit from Metro Police, Saunders had not attended Lipscomb for a year prior to the burglary. The report said surveillance video from Feb. 16 showed Saunders in the student center and then showed him in a classroom, stealing an iMac computer. He also appeared on surveillance video with the iMac and a flat screen TV near the loading dock, where he was putting the items in a silver vehicle. This is the second arrest that Metro Police, with help from campus security, has made on campus within the past seven days, including a man who was arrested on campus Saturday afternoon for public intoxication. Brad Wyatt, director of security, said in his five years at Lipscomb, campus security has never needed to call Metro onto campus for an arrest prior to this week. Continue to follow Lumination as this story develops. Sydney Poe, Nicolette Carney and Cory Woodroof contributed to this...
by Cory Woodroof | Sep 19, 2012 | Opinion
Maybe it’s just me, but I want to scream at the top of my lungs whenever someone pulls out their cell phone during a movie. Even though, as a people, our attention spans have dwindled down to that of a toddler shaking a rattle, it still baffles me as to the amount of people who freely showcase their iPhones during a film in which they paid good money to see. Well, I’ve had it. I understand that we all can’t be as sensible as The Belcourt, whose employees will ask you to vacate the premises if a cell phone is used during a screening. I also understand that the art of common courtesy in a theater has become a silly myth akin to the Lock Ness Monster, Bigfoot and holding the door for women as they enter a building. I don’t believe in vigilantism, but I’m ready to take a stand. No more will I tolerate the 15 year-old-tweeniebopper who feels as if her conversation of “LOL”s and smiley faces is far more important than the film her parents paid for her to see. No more will I tolerate the moron who would actually check their Twitter feed during the pivotal scene of a highly-anticipated blockbuster. Enough is enough. I’m going to stare at you. I’m quite literally going to turn my full body in your direction, widen my eyelids and give you the stare-down you never thought was humanly possible. If I have to get up from my seat and sit directly next to you, then so be it. If you feel uncomfortable, embarrassed or bothered, then I...
by Emily Snell | Sep 11, 2012 | Opinion
Most students at Lipscomb remember details about where they were, what they did and how they were affected on Sept. 11, 2001. Each of us has a unique perspective about what took place that day, but we all share in the way that it changed our nation forever. On this eleventh anniversary of 9/11, a handful of Lumination staff members share their experiences from that fateful day. Erica Aburto, senior studying journalism & new media; in Chicago on Sept. 11, 2001: The chilly gusts of wind were making a presence early in the year. It was a murky morning that day, almost as if foreshadowing something ominous was going to happen. I was in fifth grade at Nightingale Elementary on the southside of Chicago at the time. About thirty minutes after school had started, I remember one of the teachers from another hall coming into the classroom, sobbing, and whispering something into my homeroom teacher’s ear. My teacher, Ms. Hillman, gasped and put on her glasses to turn on the TV. She lowered the volume and told us that there had been some very bad men doing bad things. She said we wouldn’t be able to understand but that some bad guys flew a plane into a building, killing people. I remember one of my classmates breaking into tears and asking the teacher if we’d get hit too, since we also have big buildings. Ms. Hillman tried to put her at ease but said she hoped not. The rest of the day, we switched classes, but in every class we saw the same thing–the planes crashing into the towers....
by Cory Woodroof | Sep 7, 2012 | Opinion
Bradley Cooper has really got to stop doing bad things for the sake of writing. Just last year, the exuberantly likable actor journeyed into the world of Limitless – a film about an author who, in the name of writer’s block, takes a magical medicine that gives him superhuman mental abilities. Naturally, the stuff was off-the-market illegal, and he got into a heap of trouble. But that’s okay because the main character always makes it no matter how awful they are (sorry, I didn’t like Limitless very much). In The Words, Cooper plays another troubled writer given another unique-yet-unethical opportunity on which to form his career. Cooper’s Rory Jansen has no trouble with getting the words on paper. It’s the publishing part that’s giving him grief. There’s no market for his writing, which leads to, well, no cash flow (a visit to dad’s office ending with a signed check isn’t out of the ordinary). After he shotgun weds “the love of his life” (Zoe Saldana), a honeymoon trip to Paris leads to the discovery of a manuscript tucked away in a well-worn briefcase. The manuscript, of course, is an impeccably worded masterpiece that, if published, would lead to instant success. Jansen needs success. Steal the words of a nameless author without any known consequences to receive the dream career of a lifetime? Why not? As the story goes, Jeremy Irons’ “The Old Man” (no name, I believe) – the writer of the book that led to Jansen’s insta-fame – comes to New York with a poignant story to tell the thieving wordsmith (told in flashbacks starring Ben Barnes as...
