“Have you seen God’s Not Dead yet?” An elderly gentleman at my gym asks me this just about every month. It’s usually his second, right after “Watched any good movies lately?” (Super-nice guy, but not one to deviate from previous conversations, at least not while standing in his underwear.) “Nope,” I say every month. “Haven’t got around to that one.” “Oh!” he’ll respond. “It’s wonderful! You’ve got to!” And then he’ll wander off to the showers, presumably muttering about Kevin... Read more
I’ve learned a lot from Bill Cosby. I learned how to deal with everything from stage fright to drug abuse from Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. I learned that dads can be wise, silly and obstetricians from The Cosby Show. I learned that that Jell-O is awesome and that kids say the darndest things. I listened to his comedy routines constantly, where he taught me that it’s possible to be (mostly) clean and insanely funny. Cosby taught me—taught many... Read more
I’ve always felt that the semicolon was a woefully underused bit of punctuation. While other strange symbols on the computer keyboard have come into their own in the Internet age—the ubiquitous “@” sign for e-mail and the “#” on Twitter—the semicolon has still not found a comfortable place in the 21st Century. Because let’s face it: emoticon winks just don’t count. But now, at long last, there are people putting the semicolon to good use. Project Semicolon was founded in... Read more
Christian music, like Christianity itself, is a many-faceted thing. It encompasses Handel’s Messiah and “Amazing Grace,’ Bill Gaither and Lecrae. For most of us, Christian music isn’t tied to a particular style, but rather to the message the music conveys—lyrics that speak of God’s grace and truth and love. But can music be Christian if it has no lyrics at all? Kirk Whalum thinks so. Whalum is perhaps best known for his saxophone solo on Whitney Houston’s 1992 smash “I... Read more
Ted 2 pretty much bombed this weekend, and it deserved it. The original Ted was pretty much a one-joke movie, and the sequel added nary an extra chuckle. It was simply (ahem) stuffed with too much profanity and drug use and plain ol’ ook for my taste. But even though Ted 2 didn’t exactly have a heart of gold underneath its crass exterior—or even one of polyresin fluff—it did have an oddly redemptive twist. And believe it or not, it... Read more
I think God likes a good walk. It seems like lots of biblical characters had some revolutionary spiritual experiences while on the move: Paul on his way to Damascus, Jacob’s getaway to Haran (during which he dreamed of a stairway to heaven); Moses’ 40 years of wandering. Even Jesus spent much of his time walking around Palestine. And when I think about my own religious experiences, many of the best came while I was on my feet—walking or running or... Read more
Pixar is like the Christmas morning of movie studios, but without the inevitable disappointment. Almost every year, it seems, we unwrap our newest gift from the studio. And almost every year, Pixar gives us just what we always wanted—even if we didn’t know we wanted it. Inside Out is, so far, my favorite movie of the year. It’s a beautiful, thoughtful, emotional film that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Up and The Incredibles and not look a bit out of place.... Read more
The new trailer for The Peanuts Movie came out a couple of days ago. And while trailers can be misleading, this feels promising. It looks like Charlie Brown, Snoopy and company are getting a fresh, 3-D coat of paint while still holding true to creator Charles M. Schulz’s original vision. But if that’s true, we should feel a bit fatalistic about Charlie Brown’s determination to rebrand himself. “I’m going to change who I am and become a winner!” Charlie Brown... Read more
Game of Thrones concluded its fifth season with, as it always does, a lot of traumatic death. Characters dropped like clothes in a Miley Cyrus video, and The Atlantic called the finale a “Bleakness Binge.” I suspect that being a fan of the HBO show may feel a tiny bit like an abusive relationship: It punches you in the gut. It makes you cry. It betrays you every year. And still you come back, hoping (but not really believing) that... Read more
Summertime is vacation time. I’m on vacation right now. Maybe you are, too. Or maybe you just wish you were. Alas, most of us cannot take the whole summer off. Nor would we have the wherewithal to travel extensively even if we could. As such, we sometimes must vacation vicariously through our movies … updating our bucket lists and fantasizing about where we might go if we could. What follows is a list of some movie that make me want to travel.... Read more
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