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
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
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
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
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