Echoes in Eternity

Best Drama

~ The Place Beyond the Pines

This film was so good, I saw it twice in the theater; the second time with a bunch of buddies after which we went to a bar to further discuss the film (later, one friend wrote up a "review" of sorts here).  The movie asks some hard-hitting questions about fatherhood, fate, and the role of each in our lives.  The film is basically filmed in three parts... it starts by following the life of Luke (played by Ryan Gosling), a loser with a temper who wants to do right by his son but can't pull himself out of his sinful and criminal past.  About halfway through, it switches protagonists to Avery (played by Bradley Cooper), who is trying to get out from under his own father's shadow.  Then last of all, the film again switches its character focus to look at the lives of Luke's and Avery's sons.  I won't spoil it beyond that, but I highly recommend this film as the most thought-provoking of the year.

Honorable Mention: Prisoners, Les Miserables, The Impossible, 42, Biutiful, Robot and Frank

Best Comedy

~ The Way Way Back

Most of the comedies I saw this year were not funny.  So it wouldn't have taken much to win this category, but along came this film which blew the other ones out of the water.  Starring Steve Carell (in a serious role, ironically enough) and Sam Rockwell (in a brilliantly hilarious role), this coming-of-age movie about two single parents taking their kids on a joint summer vacation gives you a lot of laughs while saying some good things about marriage, being a man, and other hard topics.

Honorable Mention:  The Heat, The Kings of Summer

Best Action

~ Gravity

Just like last year, this is a tight category with so many good action films in 2013.  But there really isn't any movie that could be in the top spot except this one.  I saw Gravity in IMAX 3D, which is really the best way to see this ground-breaking, breath-snatching film.  If you haven't been living under a rock in the last four months, then you know the basic premise: a team of astronauts gets stranded floating in space.  On paper, it may seem like a concept that offers little in terms of plot but plenty of physics-defying holes.  But in reality, while simple, the plot and script was powerful, profound, and well-executed.  And, contrary to some negative comments I've heard, the ending was perfect.

Honorable Mention: The Hobbit, Bourne Legacy, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty, Olympus Has Fallen, Iron Man 3, Jack Reacher, Star Trek Into Darkness, End of Watch, Man of Steel, Catching Fire

Best Family/Kids

~ Frozen

Whew, this was a tight category, with two deserving films in "Frozen" and "Wreck-It Ralph".  But ultimately, I had to go with the one that had the best (and most unexpected) messages.  "Frozen" isn't perfect, but I thought it largely avoided the ditch of "real princesses don't need men" and the other ditch of "evil is just misunderstood", all the while ridiculing the silly notion of love at first sight and the typical fairy tale plot twist involving "love's true kiss".  Love is depicted as something that reveals itself through sacrifice, not infatuation.  Our whole family loved this movie.

Honorable Mention: Wreck-It Ralph, Despicable Me 2, Monsters U, Jack the Giant Slayer, The Croods, Rise of the Guardians

Best Foreign

~ King of Devil's Island

I didn't see a lot of foreign films this year, so the options are a tad limited.  This Norwegian film offers a stark look at life in a real-life boys' juvenile detention center in Norway about a century back.

Honorable Mention:  Biutiful, Going by the Book

Best Movie You've Never Heard Of

~ Robot and Frank

I really enjoyed this little indie film. It's a quiet, subtly moving tale about aging, family, and cat burglary.  I really recommend it.

Honorable Mention: Mud, Dredd, Prisoners

Worst Movie of the Year

~ This is the End

Stupid, crude, inane, stupid.  That pretty well describes this movie.  I should have done more research before seeing this piece of trash.  Don't waste your time.

Honorable Mention: Now You Can See Me, Taken 2

Here are my best movie awards for films I watched in 2012. As always, several of these may have crude language, violence, and/or sexual situations. If you want to know the content of any of these films, go to movieguide.org or pluggedin.com.

Best Drama

~Warrior

First of all, the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), the boxing of the 21st century, doesn't interest me. It's unnecessarily violent and injury-prone.  So when I first heard about this little movie called "Warrior" coming out, I didn't give it a second thought. But then a friend or two had some glowing things to say about it, so I thought I'd check it out.  Wow, am I glad I did.  It will remain one of my favorite movies of all-time for many years to come, so much so that I've already re-watched the last 30 minutes of the film a half dozen times.  From a great story of redemption to brilliant acting (Nick Nolte and Tom Hardy deserved Oscars) to one of the greatest closing songs ever, this powerful movie was easily my favorite of the year.  I give additional props to the production team in leaving out unnecessary R-rated content which could have so easily found its way into the film.

Honorable Mention: The Descendants, Win Win, A Separation, Looper, Argo, Flight, Anna Karenina, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Safety Not Guaranteed

Best Comedy

~ The Guard

There were some high-profile comedies released this past year, and while some were very good (Silver Linings Playbook and Seven Psychopaths) and others overrated (Moonrise Kingdom), the one that stood out for me as the funniest film I saw this year was "The Guard".  Starring Brendan Gleeson (a comic genius) and Don Cheadle, this movie is about a rural Irish cop in over his head (or is he?) in dealing with drug dealers and hit men.  It's hilarious.

Honorable Mention:  The Muppets, What to Expect When You're Expecting, Silver Linings Playbook, Hope Springs, Ted, Seven Psychopaths

Best Action

~ The Avengers

This is a tough category, as there were so many solid action films this year.  But in the end, I have to give it to the Avengers.  Not much needs to be said about a movie that blew away nearly every box office record this past summer, so suffice it to say that this film was WAY more fun than it had any right to be and was the first movie to make The Hulk actually fun.  Once again, Joss Whedon proves himself a genius behind the camera.

Honorable Mention: The Man from Nowhere, Ip Man 1&2, Safe House, Chronicle, Men in Black 3, Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Headhunters, Skyfall

Best Family/Kids

~ The Muppets

While action movies were doing well in 2012, family flicks were experiencing a down year.  There were several decent ones, but nothing great.  So I'm giving it to the Muppets for once again charming a new generation.  Sit down with your family and check out this film for all ages.

Honorable Mention: Hugo, Madagascar 3, Tintin, The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Best Chick Flick

~ Anna Karenina

My wife and I had to go to a little single-screen indie theater to catch the new cinematic edition of Tolstoy's masterpiece, "Anna Karenina".  We found ourselves surrounded by Russian expats, some of whom probably hadn't been to a theater since Omar Sharif played the titular character in Dr Zhivago.  And like that 1965 film, the story of Karenina centers on her marital infidelity and the huge costs that comes with it.  A lesser director would have merely followed the script laid out for him by Tolstoy.  But this director dazzles the viewer with a unique film set that evokes a Russian theatre.  Quite enjoyable!

Honorable Mention: What to Expect When You're Expecting, Hope Springs, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Best Foreign

~ The Man from Nowhere / Ip Man

I can't choose, so I'm naming two movies as the best foreign flicks of the year.  "The Man from Nowhere" is a great Korean film about a man with a secret who comes to the aid of a neighbor.  "Ip Man" is actually two movies, the first takes place during in China during WWII, while the other shows us a few years later.  Ip Man was Bruce Lee's master, and this story of heroism was very enjoyable to watch.

Honorable Mention:  Headhunters, A Separation

Best Movie You've Never Heard Of

~ Safety Not Guaranteed

This was a fun little flick about time travel that avoids some of the cliches and mistakes of other films while giving us some real character depth.  The ending is not one you see coming...

Honorable Mention: Jeff Who Lives at Home, Rampart

Worst Movie of the Year

~ One Day

Vacuous and depressing, this one is not worth a rental.  And if you come across it in a few years on TNT, you may want to consider immediately calling Comcast to cancel your cable subscription.  Enough said.

Honorable Mention: The Lorax, Friends with Kids, Moonrise Kingdom (mostly because of how over-hyped it was)

Another year in the bag, another opportunity to highlight the best (and worst) movies of the year. 2011 ended up being a pretty solid year as far as quality films go (a summer of almost entirely comic book movies and sequels notwithstanding). Here are the ones I enjoyed from the past year or so (some of these may in fact be several years old). As always, several of these may have crude language, violence, and/or sexual situations. If you want to know the content of any of these films, go to Screenit.com or Pluggedin.com.

Best Drama

~The King's Speech

This film started slowly but gained a lot of buzz, primarily from Oscar talk, and ended up setting many records for box office longevity (it was still in the box office top 10 four months in).  And all of that popularity was well-founded.  This movie is a highly enjoyable re-telling of the circumstances surrounding the rise to power of King George VI just prior to World War II, focusing particularly on the speech impediment of George (or Bertie, if you will).  This video gives a better understanding of King George's real-life speaking difficulty.  The one thing the movie lacks is a glimpse into the courage of King George and Queen Elizabeth in leading the British through the war against the Nazis.  If you haven't seen this film, you've missed a gem.

Honorable Mention: Solitary Man, Buried, Get Low, Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows II, Midnight in Paris, The Help, The Tree of Life, Moneyball, Harry Brown, The Way Back

Best Comedy

~ Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Steve Carell reigns a second straight year atop the Best Comedy category.  Plenty of high profile comedies were released in 2011, but not many particularly funny ones.  And those that were funny were also usually excessively crude.  Crazy, Stupid, Love. is one of the exceptions, and has a reasonably good message to boot.  The film focuses on 40-something Cal Weaver, who is blindsided by his wife's revelation that she's been cheating on him and wants a divorce.  What follows is his attempt to fill the void in his life with non-committal one-night stands (with the help of Ryan Gosling) and a bachelor lifestyle.  Throw in a hilarious twist and the movie is an all-around gem compared to its 2011 competition.

Honorable Mention:  Bridesmaids, Our Idiot Brother, 50/50, the Snake Kings scene in Courageous

Best Action

~ True Grit

The wicked flee when none pursueth. Proverbs 28:1

Thus begins the best overall movie of the entire year. I have not seen the original with John Wayne, but I find it hard to believe that it could dare approach the grandeur that is the remake. Jeff Bridges is fantastic as old Rooster Cogburn, but the real star of the show is Hailee Steinfeld as Maddie Ross, the sharp-tongued teenager bent on avenging her father's murder. The movie is first and foremost an action-filled Western, but it also contains some very humorous dialogue. Maddie's banter with a horse trader is particularly enjoyable. After watching this film, I read the book and found it to be fantastic and the film very faithful to it. Once again, the Coen brothers nailed it.

Honorable Mention: The Fighter, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, X-Men: First Class, Source Code, Drive, 13 Assassins

Best Family/Kids

~ The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Oh, what a difference a new director makes.  After nearly running the entire Chronicles of Narnia franchise into the ground with the terrible Prince Caspian movie, Michael Apted (director of Amazing Grace) took over and made what was largely a successful return to the series, though it still had some rough edges.  Particularly pleasing to me was that the most critical portions of the book were handled well in the film.  I look forward to the next Narnia installment, though reports indicate that could be many years away.

Honorable Mention: Tangled, Kung Fu Panda 2, Rio, Courageous

Best Chick Flick

~ Midnight in Paris

No, that's not (necessarily) an oxymoron of a title. But the competition is usually thin, that's for sure. Midnight in Paris is a delightful little film starring Owen Wilson as a daydreaming writer who spends his nights in Paris with the who's who of great 19th and 20th century authors, only to find that his nostalgia for better days is sorely misplaced. A good lesson for us all.

Honorable Mention: Water for Elephants, all but the last ten minutes of Jane Eyre

Best Foreign

~ 13 Assassins

This Japanese film is a great piece involving samurais and honor, superb sword fights and witty banter. Unlike some other recent Asian action films (think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), 13 Assassins doesn't involve the same unrealistic stylized martial arts where gravity comes optional to every fight. Instead, it's the story of twelve honorable samurais who take on a vicious and cruel leader at no thought to their own lives.

Honorable Mention:  White Ribbon, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, John Rabe, Intacto, Downfall

Best Indie

~ The Tree of Life

I've already reviewed this film here, so suffice it to say that this great work is well-worth watching for the patient film lover.

Honorable Mention: Solitary Man, Get Low, Kill the Irishman, The Way Back, Harry Brown, Midnight in Paris

Best Documentary

~ Waiting for Superman

This doc gives a maddening inside look at some of the reasons why the public school system in this country is in the terrible state it is.  It follows the story of several students (mostly lower class, but does include an upper class child as well) as their parents attempt to find the best education possible for them, and the struggles they encounter along the way.  Every American should watch this film.

Honorable Mention: Kimjoniglia

Best Movie You've Never Heard Of

~ Get Low

This delightful little drama stars Robert Duvall as a southern hermit who has cut himself off from everyone because of guilt over past sins and mistakes.  He eventually decides to host his own funeral while he is still alive.  Check it out.

Honorable Mention: Buried, Harry Brown, The Way Back

Worst Movie of the Year

~ Easy A

While there was some competition for this award (Jason Bateman nearly took it home for a second straight year with The Switch), ultimately I had to go with this Christian-bashing, unfunny modernized telling of The Scarlet Letter.

Honorable Mention: The Switch, Due Date, I am Number Four, the last 10 minutes of Jane Eyre

I mentioned this before, but here is a great clip from the movie, A Solitary Man.

"There are two ways through life. The way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you will follow."

I went with a bunch of buddies to see The Tree of Life last night and while I knew that it was going to be a unique experience, I still wasn't quite prepared for how artsy yet amazing it would be. A movie with incredible cinematography but little dialogue (I don't know that we hear the main actors speak in front of the camera until 45 minutes into the film), it centers around one main question: Why is there suffering?

Without spoiling it at all, I will say that it will make you think like few movies, and you need to be patient. The film demands an approach to it as a piece of art and to be appreciated as such. And Terrence Malick, the director, hits a couple points a little too long. But don't let that scare you off... it is an astoundingly profound movie. Don't just sit down expecting entertainment; it deserves so much more than that and will disappoint you if you don't put in the intentional effort to engage it emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually. Watch it with friends, and then talk about it. It's not a film that you're likely to grasp well without discussing it with others.

This is sad news. Columbo is one of my favorite shows of all-time and I just recently began to watch a few of the old ones on Netflix. Columbo always got his man but not before convincing everyone that he was an absent-minded bumbling fool. He would always figure out the crime but due to the lack of any corroborating evidence, he'd set the suspect up in such a way as to show his guilt. Peter Falk played him perfectly, and actually some of his work as Columbo was complete improv on his part.

"Just one more thing."

I watched the new documentary Waiting for "Superman" tonight. Wow. Directed and narrated by union-loving liberal Davis Guggenheim (who also directed An Inconvenient Truth), one would think that a documentary about the problems in America's public school system would end up centering on the topic of budget cuts and underpaid teachers. And Guggenheim admitted that he went in expecting to find those issues to be the source of the problem. But the script got flipped when he saw the facts, and to his credit, he was honest enough to still tell the story. And what a story it is. The film follows the lives of five young students from around the country, four of whom are from inner city neighborhoods, as their families attempt to find a good education for them. The most heart-rending child is Bianca, a Hispanic girl from Los Angeles. She wants to be a veterinarian, but when one considers that just a small percentage of the children in the middle school she is destined to attend next year will even graduate high school, much less attend college, one can see how dim Bianca's dream probably is.

By the end of the movie, you realize that the only way that the public school system (in the inner city, suburbs, and rural communities) will ever begin to improve is if the teachers' unions lose a significant amount of power, by eliminating collective bargaining and stripping them of many of their current contractual rights. I'd go one step further than Guggenheim and say that teacher unions don't need to just be weakened, they need to be destroyed. While we're at it, I'd love to see all schools privatized. But one step at a time.

Watch this brilliant film and tell your friends about it. This has the potential (along with The Cartel, a documentary specifically focused on teachers' unions) to be a film that will help cause a seismic shift in how education is done in this country.

This is a great article in World Magazine about films and discernment. I wish more Christians practiced this kind of discernment when they watch movies.

[Dr.] Zhivago was a breakthrough movie. Made in 1965, the same year as The Sound of Music, it was the first film to make adultery beautiful.

I wrote a little post for the blogs confessing that Zhivago had done me more harm than any other film—and all without showing skin. One commenter wrote: "Funny thing about that movie. . . . My parents went to see it at the drive-in theater when it was first released. There, in the car, they decided to divorce."

As a woman now not only surpassing Lara (Komarovsky's betrayed lover) in age but even her mother and looking for holiness, I took pad and paper and started jotting all the elements of David Lean's direction that led to my seduction:

Do not develop the character of Tonya (the wife); make her two­dimensional and vaguely boring. Bring up the Zhivagos' little boy only enough to establish that Zhivago is a good father. This is tricky. Be careful not to overdo these snapshots. You would awaken common sense in the audience. It would dawn on them that Zhivago is no different after all from the deadbeat dads they disdain in the inner city. Then the jig is up.

The last thing you want to do is shift the point of view of the movie from Zhivago and Lara's relationship to the Zhivago family back in Moscow. The viewer must not be allowed to meditate for even a second on what it is like for the boy. No lingering shots of crying himself to sleep, first during the war separation, and later during his father's repeated absences as he goes to Yuriatin to see his illicit lover.

The goal is that the audience should fall in love with the doctor and the mistress, and not only forgive but root for their love affair. This is very difficult to pull off because of natural revulsion against adultery. Do not allow enough exposure of Tonya to create a heart-tie between her and the audience. We need 10 scenes of Lara for every one of Tonya.
...
Keep the action moving. Allow no time for viewer reflection. Above all, the forces that brought Zhivago and Lara together must be seen as inevitable. Encourage a particular anthropology—that the human heart is passive and not active, that its noblest intentions can be overthrown by a historical juggernaut against which it is hopeless to resist. Show Zhivago and Lara as good people doing their best (they volunteered in the army), struggling valiantly before succumbing to their inescapable fate.

By the time David Lean was done with me, God was a scowling moralist, a pinprick of light in a faraway galaxy. And you would think that all the best things on earth—fields of daffodils, snow-sculpted minarets, and Songs of Songs—were the gifts given under the sun.

This looks like a promising new show.

My church is currently working through a sermon series on being the Church. The first message can be summed up by this excerpted quote:

"Bottom line: You cannot genuinely love Christ's bride, the Church, if you only love this abstract, idealized version of the universal Church while you refuse to commit and get your hands dirty and love real people - even really messy, broken people in one localized gathering of believers. The local church is a big deal to God"

That sermon message reminded me of Doug Wilson's "shacking up with Jesus" quote. Then this morning I saw this John Stott quote over on another blog, saying a very similar thing as the aforementioned:

“The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is God’s new community. For his purpose, conceived in a past eternity, being worked out in history, and to be perfected in a future eternity, is not just to save isolated individuals and so perpetuate our loneliness, but rather to build his church, that is, to call out of the world a people for his own glory.”

Last night, I watched "Solitary Man", a recently released film about aging businessman Ben Kalmen (played superbly by Michael Douglas) who finds himself losing everything from his health to his friends to his business to his family, in no small part due to his terrible moral choices. The movie is a surprisingly honest and realistic (for Hollywood, at least) depiction of the carnage that a self-centered, adultery-riddled, hedonistic lifestyle can create. While focused primarily on the man's sexual lusts and proclivities, it never once glorifies his choices and is surprisingly clean of graphic content considering the subject matter. In one particularly good moment in the film, he asks his one remaining friend Jimmy Merino (played by Danny Devito) why he has remained faithful to his wife of 30+ years. The friend says, "when my father gave me this [restaurant] years ago, I used to dream about these [college] girls. Every night, dreams, all kinds of dreams about 'em. But then I'd see them coming back after graduation. They'd come to homecomings, ballgames. They'd sit at the same tables, eat the same food. And I'd look at them and I noticed, they don't stay like this. None of 'em. They put on years and pounds and wrinkles. And I got one like that at home. And we can talk to each other. I know her and I'll always know her."

What does that movie have to do with the first paragraph of this post, you ask? It's this: just as our wives will eventually put on "years and pounds and wrinkles," so can our local churches. People join the church that you may not personally find that likable, or the music begins to lose touch with your particular tastes in worship style, or a new pastor just doesn't teach very well or focus on the things that you think are important. Many people in similar situations have moved on to greener church pastures, places where the band is cool, the children's program is thriving, and good coffee is served. But such spiritual adultery comes with its costs. For one, besides being disobedient to where God has placed you, jumping around from church to church rarely breeds close community. And those popular churches will one day find themselves wrinkled and old. What are you going to do then? Being faithful to the local Bride of Christ, with all its warts... that can be hard. But as the pastors and theologians above remind us, it's what we're called to be.

Here is Roger Ebert's list of the best movies of 2010.

It's that time again... a chance to look back at this year's (or, in some cases, recent) films and give a few recommendations and perhaps some denunciations as well. As a whole, 2010 was a pretty average year movie-wise, at least compared to 2009. Here are a few that stood out. As always, several of these may have crude language, violence, and/or sexual situations. If you want to know the content of any of these films, go to Screenit.com or Pluggedin.com.

Best Drama

Crazy Heart

~ While ultimately failing to point the viewer to Christ as the answer, this moving tale of redemption does offer some good messages and great performances, particularly by Jeff Bridges. **** out of 5 stars

Honorable mention: The Road, Invictus, The Town, The Visitor, The Blind Side, Shutter Island

Best Comedy

Date Night

~ The considerable comedic talents of Steve Carell and Tina Fey made this a very funny and enjoyable film about a married couple who try to just get away from their kids for one peaceful date night and instead find themselves caught up in a mistaken identity problem with the mafia. **** out of 5 stars

Honorable mention: Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Other Guys, the first half of The Invention of Lying

Best Action

Inception

~ If you haven't yet seen this Chris Nolan masterpiece, do so immediately! Not only is it a brilliant and mind-blowing walk through the human understanding of mind, memory, and dreams (similar to Memento, another superb Nolan flick), it also has probably the best and most ground-breaking action sequences since The Matrix. Very original (unless you believe the plot was stolen from a Donald Duck comic book). For those who have seen it, one question for you. Does the top stop spinning? ***** out of 5 stars

Honorable Mention: Sherlock Holmes, Iron Man 2, Salt, Unstoppable, Body of Lies, Edge of Darkness, Daybreakers

Best Family/Kids

How to Train Your Dragon

~ I've already posted about this movie before, but let me once again strongly recommend this film as one that both adults and children will love. ***** out of 5 stars

Honorable Mention: Toy Story 3, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Christmas Carol, Megamind

Best Chick Flick

Remember Me

~ When it comes to chick flicks, I am pretty picky but also don't consider all of them to be vapid piles of pig snot. Many are, but some actually attain a level of depth and realism that make them worth watching. Which leads me to this pick... while some may hate the entirely unexpected ending (I liked it), Remember Me was on the whole a good (though kinda dark) movie. It was definitely not what I was expecting and barely counts as a chick flick at all. **** out of 5 stars

Honorable Mention: Dear John, Leap Year

Best Foreign

Red Cliff

~ This epic Chinese film is based on the true story of the Battle of Chibi back around 200 AD. I found it on the recommendation of a blogger friend and it ended up at the top of my favorite Chinese movies list, which says a lot considering Hero, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kung Fu Hustle, and House of the Flying Daggers are on that list. While Red Cliff doesn't involve the same type of qinggong martial arts that those other films do, it does have some great action scenes along with a wonderful and engaging story.

NOTE: The international version is actually two DVDs and nearly five hours long, while the version released outside of Asia is only one DVD and two and a half hours long. Take the time to watch the full international version, you'll thank me. ***** out of 5 stars

Honorable Mention: North Face, The Stoning of Soraya M.

Best Indie

Moon

~ This great little sci-fi film consists basically of a cast of one, Sam Rockwell. And he does a fantastic job. The plot follows his character (Sam Bell) in his 3-year stint mining helium-3 on the surface of the moon. Things are going smoothly as he approaches a return to Earth and his wife and daughter when suddenly everything goes haywire. To say more would spoil the plot, but suffice it to say that things are not quite as they seem. Kevin Spacey lends his voice as the robotic computer assistant GERTY. **** out of 5 stars

Honorable Mention: Grizzly Man

Best Movie You've Never Heard Of

The Visitor

~ This film is actually from 2007, but I saw it for the first time a few months ago and found it a very touching and well-acted story of two very different cultures coming together. **** out of 5 stars

Honorable Mention: Daybreakers, The Messenger, Defendor, Following, Felon

Worst Movie of the Year

Extract

~ This comedy is just not funny. It had so much potential and just fell flat. Avoid it. ** out of 5 stars

Honorable Mention: Avatar, second half of The Invention of Lying

"The plea bargain is the greatest advance in jurisprudence since the invention of the guillotine."

One of my favorite TV shows of all-time finished its last season recently (and no, I'm not talking about Lost). Law & Order, which began its run in 1990 (the same year that saw Home Alone and Dances With Wolves make big splashes in theaters), was unceremoniously canceled a few weeks ago (despite having made NBC billions of dollars after FOX initially passed on it). And because it was canceled after this current season's last episode was already filmed, it wasn't given much of a send-off in that final show. NBC hasn't exactly had a good year, what with one screw-up after another and generally dismal ratings across the board. This writer had a good remedy for the Law & Order shenanigans. On the bright side, the show's creator, Dick Wolf, is attempting to get a different network to pick it up for at least another year.

So stay tuned... but while you're waiting, check out reruns of all twenty seasons on TNT and read this good list of lessons learned over the years of Law & Order watching. And watch the clip below for a tribute to the show.



Bum-Bum.

I found this video interesting. Apparently, a huge portion of movies are practically bereft of useful female characters. Now, the gal in this video seems to think this is a big problem. Perhaps. But I think it points to something that liberals and feminists have been trying to deny for decades: men are the natural leaders. No matter how egalitarian our society tries and pretends to be, the God-given inherent tendency for people to look to men as the leaders and protectors cannot be dismissed or covered up. Would anyone want to watch Saving Private Ryan with a bunch of female leads?

[HT: My hot wife]

Incredible story and witness...

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Recently, a friend sent me an email urging me to sign this petition against the upcoming "JC" comedy series on Comedy Central. Now, I am certainly sympathetic to the urge to protest/boycott/verbally excoriate this program, particularly considering that it comes on the heals of Comedy Central's cowardly censorship of images of Muhammad on South Park a couple weeks ago. Comedy Central is baldly hypocritical, and everyone now knows it. For a cable station that prides itself in its parodies, it's ironically fallen into self-parody itself. What's worse, it shows them to be the true xenophobes and bigots, since by their cowardice they imply that Muslims are uncontrollably violent. So yeah, Comedy Central is full of a bunch of hypocritical racist lefties... what else is new?

My primary concern, though, is that Christians not respond foolishly (cause let's face it, we have a recent history overflowing with examples of just that... Harry Potter, anyone?) and unwittingly heap even more scorn and shame on the name of Christ than will be thrown on it by the new sitcom. I'm not sure if a petition or boycott is the best way to make God's name great in our culture. Either of those may have their place on occasion, as they can help the petitioned group or company obtain a clearer picture of just how many people aren't pleased with their actions. But other times, boycotts merely act as a promotional tool for whatever is being protested, particularly when it's regarding a medium like books or television shows. After all, what person doesn't want to keep up with the hottest water cooler topics? So there's the utilitarian argument against boycotts; you'll just end up making it more popular than it would have been otherwise.

Another and vastly more important argument against (most) boycotts, petitions, and rabidly-upset Christians in general is this: the Bible seems to call for a different response in the face of persecution (Matt. 5:44-45). And lest we forget, the persecution faced by Christians in the New Testament was a tad tougher than hearing about some irreverent cable show.

So how should a Christian respond? This guy and this guy give some great advice.

Put down the boycott signs. Jesus promised mockery, abuse, and suffering for his name so this ain't no big shocker. Possible responses:

1. Pray for the creators of this show.

2. Ignore it by not watching it. Flag waving and sign-holding protests oftentimes don't accomplish much other than more hype and hype sells.

3. Use it as a conversation starter with your co-workers. Ask them what they think of it. Why Jesus and not other religious figures throughout history?

4. Remember that Christianity grew out of the most abusive and violently oppressive regime known to man (The Roman Empire). If Rome couldn't stop Jesus and his mission, Comedy Central probably doesn't pose much of a threat.

First, some Christians are going to be mad. . . . very mad at Comedy Central. That anger will be fueled by the fact that Comedy Central censored South Park in light of threats of violence from Muslims upset over that series' depiction of Muhammad. But I wonder if we should ultimately be more sad than mad? Should we be angry that the people at Comedy Central are doing this? Or should we be sad over the condition of the hearts from which their actions come?

Second, if the show does make it into the fall lineup, I'm sure it will develop a huge following, particularly among teenaged and young adult males. This is just the kind of irreverent cartoon humor that's been lining them up for years. They've been groomed by South Park and Family Guy. Sadly, this army of followers will include those who proclaim allegiance to the very God who the show grossly misrepresents and blasphemes. It will be another in a long line of examples of how integration of faith into all of life is waning.

Third, God's big enough to take care of Himself. The day after the premiere episode of JC airs, the God who remains the same yesterday, today, and forever will not have changed.

Fourth, that unchanging God is the God we need to proclaim to our kids. I sometimes wonder if our anger might not be sparked by the fact that too many of our Christian kids fall for this kind of stuff. . . . which might actually be an indicator of the fact that we haven't prepared them to filter this kind of stuff with any sense of discernment long before shows like JC are even conceptualized. Without knowing the truth, one has no ability to discern lies.

Finally, I wonder how much we're like the folks at Reveille, the production company that's got JC in the works? They're reinventing God in their image. The Father and Son in JC will bear little resemblence to the Father who revealed Himself to His creation in the written and incarnate Word. Don't we (the church) have a pretty successful track record of doing and still doing the same? I'm wondering if that's the thing that should concern us the most.{emphasis added}

So when this story hits the Christian airwaves in the coming weeks, consider carefully how God would have you respond. Do you want to be a clanging cymbal?

Doug Wilson constantly talks about how media (movies, books, etc.) are the primary mode of education in today's world, and how few people recognize that fact. They watch movies or read books thinking they are purely entertainment when, in fact, most are educational tools at best, pieces of propaganda at worst. And not just the Inconvenient Truth's of the world. Some have socio-political messages, others wash the viewers' brains with subtle relational morals. But almost all teach something. Which brings me to this great article on the topic of emotional porn. Everyone knows how to recognize visual pornography, but few know the emotional kind when they see it. And it's just as dangerous, if not more so. Wilson has been recently writing against the emotion variety found in the Twilight series of books/movies, pointing out how it encourages girls to enter abusive relationships. But you can find heart porn with a couple clicks of the remote every night as well. Men, guard your hearts and your homes. This may mean asking your wife (or kids) to stop watching or reading certain things.

Kids eventually understand that pumpkins don’t turn to glass carriages and Fairy Godmothers don’t grant wishes, but many girls never grow out of the idea that one day they will be rescued from reality by some magic and a fictitious prince. And little boys never live up to the fantasy of the mind or that they’re supposed to be that prince and that their spouse is an all-fulfilling princess.

Next time you’re thinking about seeing a movie, be aware of what’s pulling you toward it. If you decide to watch it, recognize the moment when you feel the emotional reinforcement of fake love. And when you walk out, recognize what you now hope for and expect.

"Don't give me that you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings!"

Today is the 35th anniversary of the U.S. release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.