Review of Bullet to the Head, Directed by Walter Hill By COYLE NEAL This movie is a combination of the original graphic novel and all previous Stallone movies (except possibly that soccer one). And… I don’t actually think I’m exaggerating much. In addition to the cameo photograph from the Rambo series, the plot is basically an average thug (Rocky) who works as an assassin (The Specialist and Assassins), doesn’t play by the rules (Cobra), but still manages to punch his way... Read more
Review of Stand Up Guys, Directed by Fisher Stevens By KENDRICK KUO What makes a stand up guy? Friendships between three retired gangsters tries to answer this question in the just-released Stand Up Guys starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Alan Arkin. After 28 years in prison, Val (Pacino) has finally served his time and rejoins his two buddies Doc (Walken) and Hirsch (Arkin) for a night to remember. There’s a problem, however. Val was in jail because of a... Read more
Review of Big Trouble in Little China, directed by John Carpenter By ALEXIS NEAL Jack Burton is nobody special. He’s just your average red-blooded American—a loudmouth truckdriver with a gambling habit and a knack for getting into trouble. When his friend Wang’s fiancée Miao Yin is kidnapped by sex traffickers, Jack agrees to help get her back. This ends up being more complicated than he expected. Before long, Jack finds himself smack in the middle of a longstanding Chinese gang... Read more
Review of Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr. By KENDRICK KUO Aesop’s fables, Narnia, and Animal Farm, all rolled into one, would produce something similar to Book of the Dun Cow (1978), although Dun Cow is in a league of its own. The book won the the National Book Award (1980), to tell you a little about the caliber of this book; yet it reads like a children’s novel in most respects. Book of the Dun Cow... Read more
Review of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut By COYLE NEAL Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time. That is, he does not live from second to second as most of us do, but instead jumps to the future, and then back to the past, and then again to the present (whatever that means—it can be hard to judge what the “present” is when you’re unstuck in time). Along the way, he fights in the Battle of the Bulge, lives in a... Read more
Review of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Directed by Tommy Wirkola By COYLE NEAL Deep in the woods of Germany, a sinister plot is brewing—and the brew will be seasoned with twelve kidnapped children from nearby Augsburg. Enter Hansel and Gretel: orphans, siblings, and professional witch hunters hired by the city to rescue the children. But they find that there’s more to the story than kidnapped children. Between a corrupt sheriff, a (non-internet) troll, and a most unwelcome sprint down... Read more
Review of The Words, Directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal By KENDRICK KUO The Words is almost more a parable than a movie. The film has three interlayered stories—Clayton Hammond is an author who writes The Words, a book about Rory Jensen who finds an old book manuscript and decides to publish it as his own, only to be found later by the original author, “The Old Man”, who has his own tragic story to tell about how he... Read more
Review of Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling, by James W. Sire By PAUL D. MILLER A colleague once asked me what makes a good analyst. I thought for a while, and answered “humility, courage, and integrity.” My colleague was surprised, having expected me to answer “a masters degree, high scores on standardized tests, and the ability to read and write.” I explained anyone who chooses a career defined by reading and writing already has, or... Read more
Review of Les Miserables, Directed by Tom Hooper By COYLE NEAL “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” Luke 17:33 I went into Les Miserables without having read the book or seen the musical or previous film adaptations (though I have read The Hunchback of Notre Dame), so please be aware that this is a review by a noob. That said, the movie is fantastic. While of course... Read more
Excellence: The Character of God and the Pursuit of Scholarly Virtue, by Andreas J. Kostenberger By Justin Hawkins Andreas J. Kostenberger’s position at the top of evangelical Biblical scholarship affords him a particularly privileged vantage point to comment on the challenges and joys of the Christian scholarly task. Yet his Excellence: The Character of God and the Pursuit of Scholarly Virtue is a work that does not live up to Kostenberger’s reputation for academic rigor and insightful argumentation. Excellence analyzes... Read more
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