Olympic Alternative: Ai Weiwei

Last updated on: July 31, 2012 at 2:54 pm By Craig Detweiler

Looking for an alternative to the ubiquitous Olympics coverage? The riveting documentary, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, slipped quietly into theaters as the 2012 Summer Olympics opened. How appropriate for one of the most fervent advocates of democracy in China to present an alternative view of the People’s Republic. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is a celebration of a subversive artist and a bracing call to creative resistance. Olympic viewers who care about equality and human rights are urged to engage to... Read more

Is Apple losing its mojo? Applefied Ads strike back

Last updated on: July 30, 2012 at 10:57 am By Craig Detweiler

Do you find the new Apple “Genius” commercials blanketing the Olympics annoying? They lack the simple, relaxed cool that characterized Apple for so long. They seem to be trying to hard to please. Is Apple losing its mojo? One of my sharpest students at Pepperdine, Bryan Evans, felt that Apple’s white backgrounds on their print ads had fallen into cliche. Too much of a good thing is still too much. So he cooked his own series of Applefied Ads. What... Read more

A FREE PEOPLE’S SUICIDE by Os Guinness

Last updated on: July 24, 2012 at 11:07 am By Craig Detweiler

In a tumultuous American election year, social critic Os Guinness offers a bracing wake up call. In A Free People’s Suicide, he calls upon Americans to defend their freedom from an unlikely foe: too much freedom. Born in China and educated at Oxford, Guinness writes as a concerned admirer, tracing the decline of empires across the centuries, drawing parallels to our current devolution. While Americans once fought for freedom from the British in order to pursue excellence, Guinness laments how... Read more

The Dark Knight vs. Lord of the Rings: Best Trilogy?

Last updated on: July 19, 2012 at 12:57 am By Craig Detweiler

When The Dark Knight premiered in 2008, I declared it the best film of the decade (with The Lord of the Rings as closest competition). Now, with Christopher Nolan’s trilogy drawing to a close, how will the complete Dark Knight saga compare to Peter Jackson’s massive imagining of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic story? I raised these questions in this review, first published at Purple State of Mind, in summer 2008. With The Dark Knight‘s claims to box-office pre-eminence secured, the spin... Read more

Does The Dark Knight Still Shine?

Last updated on: July 19, 2012 at 12:53 am By Craig Detweiler

Four years ago, I raved about The Dark Knight. My enthusiasm for Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman saga was so boundless, it took two days of reviews to contain it. I called The Dark Knight the best film of the decade. But given some time and space, I wonder if Nolan (and the audience) fixate too much on The Joker. Does Heath Ledger’s galvanizing performance overwhelm the movie? What do you think? Does the film (and my review) hold up? The... Read more

Christopher Nolan and Batman Begins

Last updated on: July 19, 2012 at 12:51 am By Craig Detweiler

Over the weekend, I introduced my children (ages 13 and 10) to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. They immediately grasped how much darker these Batman films are than than something like The Avengers. Sure, the characters still wear masks, but in Nolan’s universe their issues and problems (and special effects) resemble the real world. No room for Loki and Thor and frost giants. It was also intriguing to see Katie Holmes, holding her own with Christian Bale, prior to all... Read more

Christopher Nolan on our Dark Knights

Last updated on: July 19, 2012 at 12:49 am By Craig Detweiler

In anticipation of The Dark Knight rising in theaters this week, I am reviewing the remarkable films of Christopher Nolan. Only Quentin Tarantino comes close to creating such a high percentage of classic movies (according to the dedicated users of the Internet Movie Database). But while Tarantino revels in darkness, Nolan seriously laments our blind spots. So in my book, Into the Dark, I focused upon Nolan’s breakthrough film, Memento as a way into understanding his recurring examination of our... Read more

Comic-Con Countdown: Chewbacca sighting!

Last updated on: July 12, 2012 at 12:49 pm By Craig Detweiler

As thousands of fanboys and girls descend upon San Diego for Comic Con, I stumbled across the one and only Chewbacca, Peter Mayhew, signing autographs at the Course of the Force tour stop in Huntington Beach. Beyond the free samples of Otter Pops and Farmer John’s sausages (couldn’t quite figure out the Stars Wars connections), Mr. Mayhew was offering his signature in exchange for donations to the Make-a-Wish foundation. While it would obviously be cool to see Mark Hamill, Carrie... Read more

What Piece of Pop Culture Challenged (or Inspired) Your Faith?

Last updated on: July 16, 2012 at 7:50 pm By Craig Detweiler

The AV Club over at the Onion recently asked the question, “What early piece of pop culture first challenged your religious faith or lack thereof?’ The staff’s answers unspool like an atheist revival with spirited testimonies of where they first encountered a crack in their convictions. Robert Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut, John Lennon and Marilyn Manson are cited as the creative catalysts of doubt. Televangelists serve as a rather obvious source of skepticism, but so does the self-centered depiction of Jesus... Read more

Hollywood Getting Enlightened on Faith?

Last updated on: July 13, 2012 at 10:54 am By Craig Detweiler

The success of The Blind Side, Soul Surfer, Courageous, and a host of Tyler Perry movies has heightened Hollywood’s interest in faith-fueled entertainment. With the studios backing upcoming projects on Noah, Moses, and the entire Bible, it has never been a better time to be a person of faith in Hollywood. Mark Burnett and Roma Downey recently wrapped production on an epic, 10 hour series on the Bible for the History Channel and principal photography is about to begin on... Read more