Christian movies can be difficult for secular audiences to embrace. Sometimes it’s because of the acting or writing. They can feel amateurish and overwrought or just way too preachy. But there are times that, even when most of the aesthetic pieces are there, they’re a hard sell for general moviegoers. Why? Because, simply put, the stories can feel just too good to be true—even if they are true. Which brings us to Woodlawn—a fine piece of Christian craftsmanship that, in... Read more
Frankenstein, the 1931 classic Universal monster movie, probably doesn’t have the oomph to terrify folks like it did back in the day. Most horror movies base their effectiveness on the fear of the unknown, and after 84 years, this flick is hardly that. Boris Karloff’s classic look as “the Monster” is so much a part of the culture that most 4-year-olds know what “Frankenstein” looks like. But even though the first site of the Monster isn’t enough to cause hardened... Read more
October is the season for scary movies. So says Redbox, anyway. The movie rental company polled its users about their Halloween-season viewing habits, and about half said they typically watch at least one horror movie during the month of October. Among those, more than half say they won’t watch scary movies alone, and 50 percent admit to having freaked out over strange noises after watching. Yeah, I’d be one of those. I always know when I’ve watched or reviewed a particularly... Read more
Phil Vischer has always been one of my favorite storytellers. My kids drew up watching Vischer’s VeggieTales—a rare faith-based product that was both seriously Christian and delightfully entertaining—and he’s continued telling stories through his JellyTelly characters, headed by the intrepid big-headed puppet Buck Denver. But his latest feels like one of the most personal stories he’s told yet. “You might even call it autobiographical,” Vischer told me. In Galaxy Buck: Mission to Sector 9 (available on Oct. 11 here and... Read more
The second season of The Leftovers, on HBO, begins with what feels like a Paleolithic parable. A woman, very pregnant (and mostly naked), wakes up in the deep of night and staggers out of a communal cave, needing to pee. She looks up and sees an eagle fly across the full moon … just as an earthquake destroys the cave she’d been sleeping in. The woman gives birth just moments later. Miraculously, it would seem, a call of nature saved... Read more
Mars has never been a particularly welcoming place. From H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds to Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!, the planet’s primary export has always been terror. Even Marvin the Martian was constantly trying to blow up our little blue planet. There are no hostile aliens on Mars in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, but it may kill him anyway. Stranded astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is the only sentient being on the red planet, forced to figure out how... Read more
When I was youngish, a friend of mine and I went to check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison during a camping trip. It looks something like this. Very pretty, yes? But it’s also a long way down from the ridge of the canyon to its rocky, watery bottom. A really, really long way down. So my friend and I—brave, stupid fellows who once tried to break through the ice on a lake while standing on it—literally crawled on... Read more
Say what you will about we conservative Christians, we do not lack opinions. And we’re eager to tell you what they are—sometimes even before we know exactly what we’re talking about. Take ABC’s The Muppets, which premiered Tuesday. Before the premiere, the show was widely advertised as an “adult” Muppet show—a phrase used by Kermit the Frog himself in an interview or two. One advertisement, showing a towel-toting Kermit, declared, “Finally. A network TV show with full frontal nudity.” It’s certainly... Read more
I typically deal with entertainment here at the Watching God blog, but its mission extends to pop culture, too. And at this moment in American pop culture, all eyes are on Pope Francis. Even though he’s only been in the United States for a couple of days, some believe he’s already overstayed his welcome. Francis opened a joint session of Congress this morning, and his address struck many as overtly political. He called on the country to swing open its... Read more
Way back in the Paleolithic 1980s, sage philosopher Mr. Spock told us that “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Sure, Spock recanted later, after Captain Kirk and his bevy of co-workers stole a starship to rescue him. But the core philosophy seems pretty logical, right? Lots of thinkers through the ages have thought so. It’s a central tenant to the philosophy of Utilitarianism. “The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals... Read more
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