September 18, 2015

Last year was called the year of the faith-based movie, and in a lot of ways, it was. Three straight-up Christian flicks (Heaven is for Real, God’s Not Dead and Son of God) each made more than $50 million. Another two movies theoretically made with a faith-based audience in mind—Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings—banked even more. Only problem: Secular audiences had no use for the former, and most evangelical Christians kinda hated the latter. This fall, though, we’re about... Read more

September 14, 2015

I’ve never been a big fan of the term “Dark Ages,” actually. It seems kinda unfair to call the whole millennia between the disintegration of the Roman Empire to the start of the Renaissance “dark”—particularly when it was such a cool time. Well, OK. “Cool” maybe isn’t quite the right word. The Black Death was kind of a downer, not to mention all the wars and famines and poverty and so on. But c’mon. Castles! Cathedrals! Knights! Monks! It was... Read more

September 11, 2015

90 Minutes in Heaven, released today, is reportedly the true  story of a man who died and went through the proverbial pearly gates. Based on Don Piper’s own bestselling book of the same name, it’s admittedly not a great movie. But I did like how in spite of its title, it spent most of its time on earth—exploring the painful aftermath of Piper’s own incredible experiences. Once you see golden eternity, it seems, it’s tough to attach yourself back to... Read more

September 4, 2015

A Walk in the Woods is about two oldsters (played by the suitably-but-gracefully aged Robert Redford and Nick Nolte) who decide to take a 2,000-mile, 14-state trek along the Appalachian Trail. Why, you ask? Was a tour bus unavailable? Do they have a fear of motorized transportation? No. Bill Bryson, it seems in the movie, was struck with the inexplicable desire to … walk. The urge came to Bill (Redford) after a series of rather explicable events. He participated in... Read more

September 2, 2015

A few days ago, a reporter interviewed me about the Christian movie industry—whether there should be a Christian movie genre at all and whether Christian movies will ever go mainstream. I told her, essentially, yes and no. Yes, there should be a Christian movie genre because that’s what the market demands: There are certain Christians who love Christian movies, and a few who won’t see anything but. The fact that War Room—a movie explicitly about prayer—finished second this weekend at... Read more

August 28, 2015

It’s been a great year for women in movies. Check out the year’s 15 top-grossing films, and you’ll see that a majority of them—from Inside Out to to Pitch Perfect 2 to Mad Max: Fury Road—feature strong women in leading roles. Time, Forbes and io9 have all noted what a great year it’s been for girl power, and all I can say is, it’s about time. How Hollywood ever got the idea that blockbusters have to be anchored by men... Read more

August 26, 2015

If there’s anything the Tim Tebow phenomenon has taught us, we Christians love our Christian football players–so much so that we’re quite forgiving of their readily apparent shortcomings. So maybe it shouldn’t surprise me that there are so many Christian football movies out there. Some, like Tebow, have some weaknesses in their game. But that doesn’t necessarily stop ’em from pulling out a win in the closing minutes. I reviewed two such movies–23 Blast and When the Game Stands Tall–just last... Read more

August 24, 2015

You can count the things that American Ultra’s Mike Howell loves on three fingers: his girlfriend (Phoebe), his drugs (marijuana, mostly), and Apollo Ape. Sorta like Athena, Apollo Ape sprang from Mike’s fertile, somewhat stoned mind. Every spare minute he’s got (and he’s got plenty), Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) draws his prime primate and sketches out Apollo’s madcap adventures—on a spare napkin, in a notebook, on the wall. You could argue that Apollo’s life is more fulfilling than Mike’s own. Well,... Read more

August 19, 2015

To mark the sad anniversary of Robin Williams’ death, Esther O’Reilly posted last week the first three of her top five performances by the much-missed actor and comedian. Now she’s back with her top two selections. Both surprised me a little—and they might surprise you, too, as she alludes to in her introduction. But it makes me want to watch both again. *** To reward all you patient readers for bearing with my ramblings, I’ve put in a link at... Read more

August 17, 2015

GQ features former-fake-conservative-blowhard-turned-Late-Show-host Stephen Colbert in its newest issue. And Joel Lovell’s cover story, “The Late, Great Stephen Colbert,” might be one of the best things I’ve read all year. (But be warned: Colbert’s language can get a bit salty.) I’ve always known that Colbert could be funny. I’ve suspected he’s kinda brilliant. I knew he was a Christian—sometimes becoming an unlikely defender of the faith.  I never thought he might impact my own. But I think he did. Colbert... Read more

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