Berryman posts: I told a friend of mine yesterday, I feel like I’m in the process of leaving the Old Country headed for the new, but there is a long dark journey to be made inbetween. I wonder how many people decide to stay on the shores of the Old Country even though they know there is no real life there anymore. They stand longingly at the banks of an ocean they have to cross. God is calling them to... Read more
UPDATE: Ebert has corrected his mistake! Here’s the earlier post… The vigilant Mark Shea notes Ebert’s big error: Here’s the first sentence of his review of Narnia: C. S. Lewis, who wrote the Narnia books, and J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote the Ring trilogy, were friends who taught at Oxford at the same time, were pipe smokers, drank in the same pub, took Christianity seriously and hated each other’s fantasy worlds. Here is Lewis, displaying his hatred of Tolkien’s fantasy: Such... Read more
Amy Wellborn, one of my favorite bloggers, saw the Narnia film this weekend, and she has a lot to say about it, of course. And, of course, she’s right on. Here’s an excerpt: It was okay. I agree with most of the reviews I’ve read on the major points: the little actress who played Lucy was a charmer, the other child actors, not so much. It is always startling to see British child actors who are just a little beyond... Read more
(via Chattaway’s FilmChat.) Now Disney’s meddling with the Hundred Acre Wood and replacing Christopher Robin with at 6-year-old girl, because Christoher Robin “just wouldn’t sell.” I need to find something to quit so I can say “I quit!” in protest. Read more
Sunday’s specials: David Brooks reviews Munich! In Spielberg’s Middle East the only way to achieve peace is by renouncing violence. But in the real Middle East the only way to achieve peace is through military victory over the fanatics, accompanied by compromise between the reasonable elements on each side. Somebody, the Israelis or the Palestinian Authority, has to defeat Hamas and the other terrorist groups. Far from leading to a downward cycle, this kind of violence is the precondition to... Read more
Coming Soon reports on The Lion, the Witch and the Box Office: Walt Disney Pictures’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe exceeded expectations, opening to an impressive $67.1 million. Director Andrew Adamson’s adaptation of the C.S. Lewis novel marks the second-biggest opening ever for a film in December, surpassing The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($62 million) and trailing only The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($72.6 million). It... Read more
Chris Rock won’t be invited back. Please, let us be spared another round with Whoopi Goldberg. Crystal’s time is done. When was the last time he turned in a worthwhile performance in a film? And Steve Martin, as much as I love him, is clearly tired of investing in worthwhile comedy, wasting his skills on Cheaper by the Dozen 2. My dream would be Eddie Izzard, but too few people know who he is. John Stewart? Steven Colbert? That would... Read more
UPDATE: Welcome to the Narnia Smackdown, a post that has provoked some of the most interesting comment-exchanges in this blog’s little history. It begins with the soon-to-be-father of twins, Peter T. Chattway, and his review of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, here. Then, it continues as Steven D. Greydanus (gotta love those middle initials! Golly, I need one!) turns in what he calls “the most blistering B-plus review ever.” My review of the film... Read more
The Washington Post is already stoking the fires of controversy over Mel Gibson’s next project, which hasn’t even started filming yet. Gibson, whose film “The Passion of the Christ” was seen by some critics as anti-Semitic and whose father is on record as doubting the Holocaust, may not take an executive producer credit on “Flory.” But his attachment to the project has attracted the attention of some Jewish groups. Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los... Read more
I don’t think Polly liked Aslan. But what’s this? After a long, dark night of the soul and women’s weeping, the lion is suddenly alive again. Why? How?, my children used to ask. Well, it is hard to say why. It does not make any more sense in CS Lewis’s tale than in the gospels. Ah, Aslan explains, it is the “deep magic”, where pure sacrifice alone vanquishes death. Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the... Read more
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