Archive for the ‘Movies’ tag
“The Last Exorcism,” a Review
“If you believe in God, you have to believe in the Devil.” Or so said the reverend Cotton Marcus in Eli Roth’s new movie, The Last Exorcism. That’s even the tagline on some of the move posters. Actually, I think he’s got it wrong. It should be the other way around: “if you believe in [...]
Winners and Losers, at the Oscars
I know this observation is a couple of weeks overdue, but I figured I’d go ahead and put this out there. Did you happen to notice that there were some changes in this year’s Academy Awards show on television? For one thing, even though they doubled the number of Best Picture nominees from five to [...]
Movie Review: District 9
District 9 is proof that you don’t need a ginormous budget or famous faces to put together a terrific movie. The special effects were stunning. The unknown main actor deserves to win awards. And the documentary style utilized by The Blair Witch Project (one of the scariest movies I have ever seen), Cloverfield, and Quarantine [...]
“Don’t Come Knocking” from Wim Wenders
What if someone told the story of the Prodigal Son with an inventive twist? The story of the Prodigal Father. What would that look like?
In 2005, the masterful German director Wim Wenders, well known for the fabulous Wings of Desire, gave us Don’t Come Knocking starring Sam Shepard. The story was, in [...]
How Geek Became Chic
Excited about the soon to premiere new Star Trek flic? Check out this perceptive article by Steve Daly in Newsweek. When the short-lived series first hit the airwaves in 1966, the Cold War war was angrily blazing away. But produce Gene Roddenberry broke the mold with his (mostly) optimistic view of the future. The general [...]
Dark Knight of the Soul
St. Paul wrote: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things (Phil. 4:8).”
Many Christians read this passage and focus on the pure & lovely. But notice that the first word Paul uses is [...]
Satanists At Large
I’ve been doing some research lately on the history and practice of Satanism. I just finished Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of Satanism, in which the author, Gareth Medway, argues that there is no proof of any satanic crimes or ritual abuse/murders, as was the scare in the 60s, 70s and 80s. [...]
The Sad Death of Actor Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger’s most critically acclaimed performance was for the recent Brokeback Mountain, a film I did not happen to see. But I could tell from several earlier performances such as The Patriot and Monster’s Ball that this was a young artist of considerable promise. It is with some sadness then that I write [...]
Eastern Promises: Violence and Horror in Film
Eastern Promises is the latest film directed by David Cronenberg and stars Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, and Armin Mueller-Stahl.
Cronenberg has a bizarre repertoire of films with a flair for the grotesque. Not only are his movies often graphically violent, but they serve as veritable meditations on the effects of violence, both emotionally and bodily. [...]
Vatican Blasts "Golden Compass" as Godless and Hopeless
That is the headline from Reuters earlier this week. Calling for a boycott of the recent film based on the controversial trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman, the Vatican statement elaborates: “when man tries to eliminate God from his horizon, everything is reduced, made sad, cold and inhumane”. Also according to Reuters, [...]
