As students and teachers get settled into this new semester, and as the rest of us enjoy this fall weather [...]

Friday, Sept. 2, 2:04 a.m.Hi,I apologize for the delay in entries! This was our first week of classes at Marquette, [...]

Looking back on previous blogs, it has been a long while since I have given a book review or recommendation, [...]

Sara Paxton and Dustin Milligan star in a scene from the movie "Shark Night 3D." The Catholic News Service classification is O – morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (CNS photo/Relativity Media)NEW YORK –– The 3D in "Shark Night 3D" (Rogue) can best be interpreted as standing for "Dumb, dumb, dumb." That applies to the plot, the filmmaking technique and the characters -- as well as to any viewer foolish enough to waste money on seeing it.

Director David R. Ellis ("Snakes on a Plane") and screenwriters Will Hayes and Jesse Studenberg borrow their stale formula from 1980s screamers – such as the "Friday the 13th" franchise -- in which nubile young people head out to a lake for a weekend of drinking and casual sex, only to be slaughtered by some relentless killer.

As the title indicates, in this case it's sharks, and not only great whites – just about any kind of shark that can be attracted by blood: Big ones, little ones. ... Till you can't tell the preyers without a program.

This is a promotional poster from the movie "Apollo 18." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (CNS/courtesy of Dimension/Weinstein)NEW YORK –– History records Apollo 17 in 1972 as the last U.S. manned space mission to the moon. Not so, according to "Apollo 18" (Dimension/Weinstein), an inventive horror film that purports to tell the "true" story of a top-secret adventure – and why we dare not return to the lunar surface anytime soon.

Spanish director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, making his Hollywood debut, borrows heavily from 1999's "The Blair Witch Project" in presenting "Apollo 18" as a documentary based on "84 hours of classified footage," recently discovered. The film unfolds in real time, piecing together grainy, herky-jerky but authentic-looking film clips to document nearly every moment of the mission.

It's Christmas 1973, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration prepares Apollo 18 for a top-secret launch, under the guise of an unmanned Department of Defense satellite project. The eager astronauts, including Benjamin Anderson (Warren Christie) and Nathan Walker (Lloyd Owen), ask no questions, excited to make history by joining the ranks of the select few who have walked on the moon.

Deposited near the lunar South Pole, Walker and Anderson go about their duties, a routine familiar to anyone who lived through the golden age of space exploration: planting the American flag, collecting rocks, driving around in the Lunar Rover, eating freeze-dried food. They also set up secret defense payloads, which resemble listening devices but may have a more sinister purpose.