I had a chance to see about 40 minutes worth of footage from Exodus: Gods and Kings Monday night. I’ve been curious about what Director Ridley Scott might be cooking up with this biblical epic: The man is unquestionably a great director (his resume includes Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator and so on), but his interaction with religion in his work, while frequent, has been mixed. Scott, an atheist, has said that religion has been the source of much of the... Read more
Salon’s Edwin Lyngar thinks that Christian films are awful. He’s not alone in that. I have seen my share of awful Christian films myself. But Lyngar believes all Christian films are downright horrid—and they’re all horrid in much the same way. He writes: You can’t judge Christian films like other movies, Any casual examination shows them to be conventionally terrible without exception. But they are not meant to be good, but rather they are designed to deliver pointed messages, spurring... Read more
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, directed by Frank Capra, premiered 75 years ago today in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The screening was sponsored by the National Press Club, which in itself is kind of interesting, since Mr. Smith spends a portion of the movie punching journalists in the face. Mr. Jefferson Smith (played by Jimmy Stewart, classic Hollywood’s favorite everyman) is small-town hero in flyover country, selected to fill a vacated senate seat for a couple of months before... Read more
I know, I know. I wrote a short Walking Dead blog last week. But I recently watched the Season Five premiere “No Sanctuary” for review, and I kinda feel like talking about it. It was bloody. Boy howdy was it bloody. Heads bashed. Throats slit. People eaten alive. And we won’t even talk about what a bad episode it was for the undead. Even Dracula would look at the goings-on here and gone, “Ewwww!” But the episode also wallowed into... Read more
The season finale of Cartoon Network’s Black Jesus aired a few days ago Oct. 9, and the A.V. Club marveled about how strangely uncontroversial the show was. “Nothing ever really feels important enough to get anyone on this show to put their joint down, let alone protest,” writes Eric Thurm, adding the program is “inoffensive, easygoing and responsible” (his emphasis, not mine). Well, I’d not go that far. It’s true that Black Jesus didn’t generate the sort of controversy that... Read more
If one wishes to make lots of money in this world, one does not major in English lit. But it does have its benefits. For one, it can allow you to criticize your co-workers in creative ways. (“Don’t you dare go all Harold Skimpole on me!” I’ve been known to say.) You stand a better chance of winning in Trivial Pursuit. And it gives you the inclination to tease out strange parallels between centuries-old classics and teen-oriented sci-fi flicks. Take,... Read more
Ran across a pretty terrific post in Christ and Pop Culture today—a piece about AMC’s The Walking Dead (returning this Sunday) by David Dunham. The theme: Brokenness will find you. That brokenness, be it in the guise of the shambling hordes or the duplicitous living, follows Rick, Carl and the rest of the cast, episode after episode, season after season. “Dad, you can’t keep me from it,” Dunham quotes the young Carl when father Rick is trying to protect his young... Read more
It’s probably a bit of a stretch to call 2014 the Year of the Christian Movie. Statistically, at least, it’s yet another Year of the Superhero. Four superhero flicks glut the year’s list of top 10 grossing movies, including No. 1 (Guardians of the Galaxy, $323.4 million) and No. 2 (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, $259.8 million). You don’t find an explicitly religious flick until Noah at No. 21, and lots of Christians hated that one. Heaven is For Real... Read more
I sort of enjoyed the new Left Behind movie. But I enjoy meals from a box, too. And bubblegum pop. And tellingly, bad, B-grade movies. I like a lot of things that some might thumb their noses at. I wanted to like Left Behind in a “hey, this is a pretty dramatic, exciting film you can take your friends to” sort of way. Instead, I wound up liking it in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 sort of way. That hurts... Read more
Has there ever been a work of literature that couldn’t be improved by rank amateurs taking said literature and molding it into something that suits their sensibilities? I thought not. Who needs pesky authors challenging our pre-existing worldviews? Personally, I think Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness could stand a happier ending, while still containing some of the grit. Perhaps we could call it Heart of Dimness. Naturally, I’ve been following the story of Grace Anne Parsons’ work with interest. Writing... Read more
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