Review of Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey By ALEXIS NEAL Young, beautiful Jane Withersteen seems to have it made. She owns several thousand head of cattle, a powerful lot of land, the fastest, most beautiful pair of black racehorses in the state, and the only spring for miles around. But trouble is looking for Jane Withersteen. See, as a wealthy, unmarried Mormon woman, she’s quite the catch for the men in her community, and Elder Tull has had his... Read more
Review of Hereafter, Directed by Clint Eastwood Review by KENDRICK KUO The very name and premise of Hereafter promise viewers an exploration of the afterlife. Stylistically and in substance, the film fails to do the topic any justice. Hereafter follows three lives—a young boy in Britain who loses his twin brother, a French journalist that “dies” during the tsunami in Indonesia, but is resuscitated, and an American man who is able to communicate with the dead. Sounds like the makings... Read more
Review of Hondo, Directed by Louis L’Amour By COYLE NEAL As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, Americans are always in search of their own body of myths and legends—a literary past we can look to and claim as our own. The most recognizable and uniquely American body of literature that has grown up as a result of this search is the Western. This is particularly of interest to Christians, as perhaps no genre more easily reflects the Gospel than this one.... Read more
Review of Munich, Directed by Steven Spielberg By PAUL D. MILLER Munich (2005) is a sad movie. Unlike Spielberg’s other dramas—Shindler’s List (1993), Amistad (1997), or Saving Private Ryan (1998)—Munich ends without hope, full of questions, under a heart of sorrow. It asks “How do you balance the need to respond to terrorism with the knowledge that the response may provoke more terrorism?” In simpler form, “How do you balance justice with peace?” It is a heart-rending choice. We see the heartache reflected in the... Read more
Review of Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace by Miroslav Volf By JUSTIN HAWKINS The greatest cause for joy in the life of the Christian is the fact that God has forgiven the presumably indelible stain of his depravity. It follows, then, that the Christian’s forgiveness of others ought to be quick and unhesitating, because it represents an opportunity to imitate the greatest act done on our behalf by our God. Free of Charge,... Read more
Review of Mao’s Last Dancer, Directed by Bruce Beresford By KENDRICK KUO I’ve become the resident reviewer of Chinese foreign films and movies about China. And in due course I will also become the reviewer of books about China. Having grown up as an Asian American, let’s say this is a way for me to get in touch with my roots. So in the same vein, I decided to continue my trend of watching China-related movies and watched Mao’s Last... Read more
Review of Bad Religion by Ross Douthat By CHRISTIAN HAMAKER Yes, that’s the Apostle Paul referred to in the title. I can already hear the objections. “No! When religion goes ‘bad,’ turn to Jesus!” “Turn to God!” or even “Turn to the Bible!” There’s nothing wrong with any of those approaches, except that none of them addresses the problems laid out in Ross Douthat’s recent book, Bad Religion: the paradigm shift that has sent the Christian church into a “bad”... Read more
Review of Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin By COYLE NEAL I think that Ursula Le Guin must be a desperately unhappy person. Not only is she one of the few female science fiction/fantasy writers out there (I want to say she was the only one when she started, but that might be a lie), but I get the impression that she is increasingly dissatisfied with her previous writings. If you aren’t familiar with Ursula Le Guin, you should be. She’s... Read more
Review of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky By PAUL D. MILLER Crime and Punishment may be the most theologically explicit and ambitious novel ever written. It attempts nothing less than the conviction of nihilism and postmodernism for the sins latent within them, and the conversion of their adherents to Christianity. The books follows a young man, Raskolnikov, as he murders an old woman; is consumed by guilt; eventually confesses; and is exiled to Siberia. He tells himself that he... Read more
Review of Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko By ALEXIS NEAL Years before emotionally stunted vampires first sparkled in idyllic mountain meadows, bloodthirsty creatures of the night stalked the streets of Moscow in search of human prey—and they are not the only ones. To the vampires, shape shifters, and dark sorcerers of the world, humans are a commodity, a resource to be exploited by any means necessary to any end deemed desirable. The only thing restraining these “Dark Ones” is a... Read more
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