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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
There’s courage aplenty on the summer’s movie screens: Hey, there’s Ethan Hunt hopping on the side of a plane! Owen’s battling dinosaurs! Oooh, Scott Lang’s bravely shrinking for the sake of all humanity! Heroes are everywhere—risking their all for everything. And that’s great. Worthy, even. But truth is, sometimes it’s easier to die for something than to live for it. In Ricki and the Flash, the titular character (played by Meryl Streep) is an aging rocker, lost somewhere between a... Read more
A year ago yesterday, we learned that Robin Williams was dead. I remember where I was when I heard–like I think we all remember when we learned about 9/11 or, for those of us a bit older, when the Challenger space shuttle exploded. I was with my son, heading off to play one of our rare rounds of golf. The poor lad had never watched a single episode of Mork and Mindy, and I tried to explain to him how... Read more
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