Movies
Movie Meditations
- - "Son of God" (2014) movie review
- - "Philomena" (2013) movie review
- - "I am Gabriel" (2012) movie review
- - "Frozen" (2013) movie review
- - Batman Begins. 2005. Christian Bale.
- - The Dark Knight. 2008. Christian Bale, Heath Ledger.
Mass Media Manifesto
The problem of our culture is "if it isn't on TV it isn't real."
TV is not made for truth; it is made for stirring up emotions.
The makers of media must make money. They must play to the mob. And most people are dominated by concupiscence. Therefore, our media are dominated by concupiscence.
Sin photographs beautifully. Most acts of virtue are interior and leave the virtuous characters looking as though they aren't doing anything. At best, the camera shows lots of anguish in order to represent the interior struggle (Frodo, Harry Potter). It's not great theater.
Filmmakers have found that tales of superheroes sell well. So do ancient Greek myths. So why not exploit the stories of the Bible? Telling a Bible story, complete with God's action in it, does not imply any commitment to the reality of God, any more than the movie Thor implies a commitment to the Gods of Greece. It's just a good story, with interesting characters, beautiful costumes, exotic settings, and lots of action.
These films are not going to preach the gospel for us. They do, however, give us a chance to get a word in edgewise among our unchurched family, friends, and colleagues.
Strategy
- GKC.
- A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
Don't be like Steve Cichon's first-grade principal, the merciless Mercy sister. Praise all that is praiseworthy.
Commentators
Barbara Nicolosi
- "Theaters are the new Church of he Masses--where people sit huddled in the dark listenin to people in the light tell them what it is to be human" (1930s theater critic).
- Script writer, script consultant
- Movies will rarely fall in the “sacred art†category as they are consitutionally unsuited to liturgical and ecclesial purposes. The notable exception is The Passion of Christ which was an experiment by Mel Gibson to do the Stations of the Cross through cinema.
- A movie made by a Christian should work with Catholics on a theological level, and should work with non-believers on an artistic and/or narrative level. It will satisfy their story instincts and their desire for the beautiful, and maybe do something more for them spiritually through the project’s theme. As an example of this kind of cultural success, I would point to the stories of Flannery O’Connor, or the movies A Man for All Seasons or The Passion of Joan of Arc.
- Our movies and television are not flowing out of the mysterious impulse to create and connect, which is the hallmark of art, but rather out of the desire to preach and distract.
- Ideally, a movie made by Christians should be a marriage of beauty plus one of our defining themes as a subtext. That is, first and foremost a movie made by believers ought to have all its parts present and executed with excellence, and then its meaning should reflect something that only we Christians can say with unique authority. So, some of our defining themes are, “Good and evil are not equal,†and “Joy and sorrow have a necessary and ironic juxtaposition,†and “Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person,†and “Everything we see is a sign of something we cannot see.†A sign that a movie is really, profoundly Christian, is that it will carry tremendous meaning for non-Christians. Of course, we never see this kind of project from Christian filmmakers today. Not yet any way.
- In so far as talented pagan film makers are pursuing wholeness, harmony and radiance in their work – which are the elements of the beautiful – they will be producing stories that far outshine the efforts of Christians who are basically making propaganda and cheap resistance literature for the faithful. Secondly, pagans respect things like artistic principles. They tend to invest seriously in cultural endeavors, and they honor talent and training. In the Church, all that is necessary to get a job as a singer is to own a guitar and have a good heart. It is really very perverse. I think of the loss of the sense of the beautiful as one of the great heresies in the Church in the modern age. It has been devastating particularly because it undermines all of our efforts at evangelization. What good does it do to tell people that the Holy Spirit is Wisdom and Power in a hymn or movie that is lame and pedestrian?
- Cinema is perceived by most of the thought leaders in the Church as unserious or as a means of catechesis. We don’t have one Catholic university in the top twenty film programs in the world. Too many of our religious leaders never have a good word for any movie or television and would seem to prefer if we Christians all just lived in caves when they aren’t at church. We need to work with people who have artistic talent, regardless of where they are spiritually, because our working with them might be the way in which God will introduce Himself to the artist, and as a plus, the people of God will get beautiful work done. Too often, I have seen Christians hire bad actors or writers or directors just because they are believers. It always mean ugly movies.
- What we really need today are many wonderful parables for the people of our time, that do all the things that Aristotle notes a story should do in his seminal work “The Poetics.†Good parables don’t need to mention God. Jesus told many parables and none of them mention God. I say to my students all the time, “The story is enough.†That is, you shouldn’t need to deliver it with a copy of a homily attached.
- As Aristotle said it, human society needs stories to lead people to cathartic experiences of compassion and the fear of evil.
- You can’t have a good story without what we call “high stakes.†High stakes means that, in a story, death is always on the table. Stories are better than real life in that way. The most profound kinds of death that human beings experience come through sin – the death of the ability to love, the death of the instinct to care for others, the death of the ability to see and penetrate reality, for example. Hence, you can’t take sin out of storytelling. What Christians could demonstrate to the secular storytellers is how to talk about sin without it becoming an occasion of sin for the audience. The Bible shows us this. It has always high stakes stories of adultery, murder, deceit and betrayal, but never told in a ways that violate the reader.
- Some fabulous, powerful movies made by pagans that carry Gospel themes include, The Visitor, Lars and the Real Girl, The Lives of Others, Juno, and Of Gods and Men. I would include nearly everything made by Pixar as something that Christians could look to as a marriage of excellence and deep universal themes.
- Again, a beautiful story works because it is beauty married to profound truth. You don’t have to be Christian to do this. Gran Torino was a solid film, and yes, Clint was clearly drawing a parallel to his main character as a Christ-figure. The Christ-figure archetype is well-established in Hollywood lore.
Steve Greydanus
John Darrouzet
- "John Darrouzet is a successful Hollywood screenwriter, an accomplished lawyer, a student of decision-making, and a deeply committed Roman Catholic layman."
- "Simply put, I want to show how to help others find faith by watching movies."
A
Another Perfect Stranger
- Sequel to The Perfect Stranger.
- 2005
B
The Bible
- LightWorkers Media
C
Cesar Chavez
- I don't intend to see Cesar Chavez, even though I worked for the United Farm Workers Union as a volunteer for three years and acted as a bodyguard for Cesar in New York City in the summer of 1974. He was a great Catholic and he lived a great life, but I don't expect it to be a great movie.
D
Day of War
- Part of Lion of War series.
- About soldiers in David's army.
- The cinematic action movie is based upon the biblical characters of King David and his elite warriors known as the Mighty Men. This is a live action, in your face, gritty, major motion picture. David and Goliath, one of the most well-known stories in all of history will be presented to the big screen like never before, according to those behind the film.
- "Day of War, author Cliff Graham's first novel, has earned him a film option for the entire book series---Lion of War---from director David L. Cunningham (Path to 9/11) and producer Grant Curtis (Spider-Man films). In ancient Israel, at the crossroads of the great trading routes, a man named Benaiah is searching for a fresh start in life. He has joined a band of soldiers led by a warlord named David, seeking to bury the past that refuses to leave him. Their ragged army is disgruntled and full of reckless men. Some are loyal to David, but others are only with him for the promise of captured wealth. While the ruthless and increasingly mad King Saul marches hopelessly against the powerful Philistines, loyal son Jonathan in tow, the land of the Hebrew tribes has never been more despondent---and more in need of rescue. Over the course of ten days, from snowy mountain passes to sword-wracked battlefields, Benaiah and his fellow mercenaries must call upon every skill they have to survive and establish the throne for David---if they don't kill each other first."[1]
Dogma
Bleaugh.
E
Exodus
- Christian Bale
- In an interview with Esquire magazine, [the directory] Ridley Scott called religion "the biggest source of evil", explaining, "Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshiping the same god".
- It is further rumored to be more in the vein of "300" than "The Ten Commandments."
F
Faith Like Potatoes
- South African farmer lives by faith. Tragedies and miracles.
- The farmer becomes a non-denominational preacher.
Fireproof
- 2008
- IMDB.
- In Albany, the marriage of Caleb end Catherine Holt is in crisis and they decide to divorce. However, Caleb's father, John, proposes that his son delays their separation process for forty days and follow a procedure called "The Love Dare" to make them love each other again.
- Though Sherwood Pictures produces movies, they are primarily a ministry. For Fireproof, almost everybody involved was a volunteer- over 1,000 people. Every day they began with devotions and a time of prayer.
Frozen
G
Gimme Shelter
- Based on an inspiring true story.
- Opening today (January 24)?
- A pregnant teenager flees her abusive mother in search of her father, only to be rejected by her dad and forced to survive on the streets until a compassionate stranger offers a hopeful alternative.
- Sometimes you have to leave home to find your family.
Give Me Shelter
- 2013 documentary about saving animal species.
- pro-life?
- Plot Summary: In order to save the rest of the over 100 million different species of animals we share this planet with; something needs to be done on behalf of those with no voice who depend on us to survive. We've seen all of these movies of so many adorable animals doing funny things that make us laugh, but we never dig into the lives of animals behind the scenes and impact viewers with real people who are passionate for this cause. Do we want to be the generation that lets tigers go extinct, or sees the last white rhino? Wouldn't we want to be the generation that stopped the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji or saved the last orangutans in Indonesia? Their lives are literally in our hands and we can either continue pushing forward to impact and educate the world on what is really going on or we can just give up.
God's Not Dead
- College student Josh Wheaton's faith is challenged by his philosophy professor, who believes God does not exist.
- Duck Dynasty connection? Willie and Korie Robertson are in the cast!
- "After he refuses to disavow his faith, a devout Christian student (Shane Harper) must prove the existence of God or else his college philosophy professor (Kevin Sorbo) will fail him" (Google).
- The movie is named after a Newsboys song of the same name, which also features in the film along with the band.
- "God is Not Dead" is already gathering interest from churches across the US, and those behind the movie hope it will equip and encourage believers to share their faith and remain steadfast in their beliefs in an increasingly secular society.
- The movie will open in over 600 cinemas across the US on 21 March 2014.
Gods of Egypt
- Gerard Butler, Brenton Thwaites and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau star in the epic fantasy Gods of Egypt, inspired by the classic mythology of Egypt. Australian actress Courtney Eaton (Mad Max: Fury Road) has landed the female lead. Eaton will play a slave girl who Brenton Thwaites’ character falls for. In Gods of Egypt, Bek (Thwaites), a mortal thief, enlists the aid of the powerful god Horus (Coster-Waldau) in an unlikely alliance against Set (Butler), the merciless god of darkness.
Gran Torino
- 2008
- In box office terms, the most successful Clint Eastwood movie ever, both in the U.S. and the U.K, but not with inflation. Taking inflation into account, his most successful films are Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980).
- Eastwood's son, Scott Eastwood plays Trey. And his oldest son, Kyle Eastwood provided the music score.
H
Heaven is For Real
J
"Jesus of Nazareth" (1977)
- IMDB.
"Joseph, King of Dreams"
- Dreamworks
- Prologue: "While artistic and historical license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide."
- Judah treated as more important than Reuben.
- "Half-brother." -- Four wives.
- "I am a Miracle Child": "I am special, I am smart, any rules don't apply, for I am set apart."
- Potiphar learns that his wife alleges she is pursued by Joseph. When he asks Joseph about this in front of her, he denies it. When Potiphar looks at his wife h e understands that she was lying and throws Joseph in jail.
- Potiphar later releases Joseph from jail and reconciles with him.
- Joseph gets married and has two kids before his brothers ever come to Egypt.
- Joseph has to learn to forgive his brothers and how to control the anger he had toward them for trying to kill him.
- His brothers reassure Joseph that God had intended what happened for the purpose of saving many people! Talk about backwards!
K
Korean Drama
"Korean Drama: A Refreshing Entertainment Alternative."
L
The Last Song
Left Behind
- Lea Thompson has joined her Switched at Birth co-star Cassi Thompson in Left Behind, Samuel Goldwyn Films’ reboot of the apocalyptic film franchise. Thompson (Back to the Future trilogy) will also star opposite Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, and Jordin Sparks. Based on the popular series of books, the story centers on pilot Rayford Steele (Cage) and journalist Buck Williams (Murray) that lead a group of survivors after thousands of people mysteriously disappear worldwide in an event called “The Rapture.†For those who have been left behind, the apocalypse has just begun.
N
The Nativity Story
Noah
Greydanus
- While Noah is more righteous than his contemporaries (“righteous in his generationâ€), he follows a disturbing course of action he believes to be God’s will. Noah’s understanding of God’s will is not always clear, and for a key part of the story, he believes God wants him to do something appalling. While this is not contrary to the biblical text (and while God actually does command other people in Scripture to do similar things), some will not appreciate this disturbing portrait of Noah.
- Without getting into major spoilers, as the drama unfolds, the exact cast of characters on the ark is somewhat fuzzy. However, as my review notes, “in the end, the filmmakers can claim to have satisfied the text — just barely.†(Moderate spoiler warning: While on the ark, not all of Noah’s three sons are married. However, the film has not forgotten their wives, or the ones they will marry.)
- The sole issue, if you can call it that, is that characters in Noah generally speak, not of “God,†but of “the Creator.†It’s hard to imagine anyone considering this controversial or problematic, but for some reason the claim that “God is never mentioned†in the film refuses to die — even though the Creator actually is referred to as “God†at least once, when Ham tells Tubal-cain, “My father says there can be no king; the Creator is God.â€
- Rocking the boat: The first major big-studio Bible film in decades is a provocative take on the venerable story of the Flood.
- It is not a “Bible movie†in the usual sense, with all the story beats predetermined by the text, and actors in ancient Near Eastern couture hitting their marks and saying all the expected things. It is something more vital, surprising and confounding: a work of art and imagination that makes this most familiar of tales strange and new: at times illuminating the text, at times stretching it to the breaking point, at times inviting cross-examination and critique.
- Have Aronofsky (raised with a Jewish education) and co-writer Ari Handel made a film that’s too religious for secular viewers and too secular for religious ones? Who is the audience?
- Well, I am, to begin with. For a lifelong Bible geek and lover of movie-making and storytelling like me, Noah is a rare gift: a blend of epic spectacle, startling character drama and creative reworking of Scripture and other ancient Jewish and rabbinic writings. It’s a movie with much to look at, much to think about and much to feel; a movie to argue about, and argue with.
- My main theological quarrel with Noah, and it’s an important one, is nothing the filmmakers put in, but something they left out: Genesis’ clear vision of mankind as the pinnacle of God’s creative work. In Genesis 1, it is only after God creates man in his image that we get the summary benediction, “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good†(Genesis 1:31).
- Noah’s retelling alters this, with a ringing summary benediction of the glory and balance of creation (“a jewel in the Creator’s handâ€) coming before the creation of man. This gives man an ambiguous status in the narrative — particularly since Noah omits the words “in his image.â€
- Caveat Spectator: Action violence and battle mayhem; disturbing images; a childbirth scene (nothing explicit); brief sensuality; fleeting rear nudity (a brief, distant shot of a nude man lying face down); theological ambiguities requiring critical thought. Might be fine for thoughtful, mature teens.
- Aronofsky: We wanted the audience to understand how much it grieved the Creator’s heart to destroy his creation. And part of what grieved his heart, I believe, is that there was, say, an innocent baby who was born five minutes before the flood happened. Methuselah died in the flood. All those animals that didn’t get on the ark that were part of his creation [died too].
- Handel: The image a lot of people probably have of how God feels even toward anyone who’s wicked is that there’s love there. So there’s no question that killing all these people, whatever they may have been, had to be incredibly difficult. We wanted to feel that difficulty. It’s very easy to say, “These are the bad guys; they should die. These are the good guys; they shouldn’t die.â€
- Aronofsky: Noah’s a real human being in incredible circumstances, and through them, he becomes a prophet. And you identify with him. That’s my understanding of the Christ story: that he came down to experience life as a real man, and we can all identify with him.
O
October Baby
- "Harvesting the Fruits of Contemplation," a review of October Baby.
- "October Baby: A Professionally Produced Pro-Life Film."
P
Passion of the Christ
- "The Passion of the Christ."
- Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is the ultimate example of the style which Giotto began. It is also the ultimate in our great contemporary tradition of victim chic. Gibson’s Jesus (James Caviezel) is presented not as godhead but as victimhood incarnate. Nobody — not Marlon Brando in The Chase, not Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, not Denzel Washington in Glory, not even Mel himself in Braveheart is going to take a more impressive beating than Jim’s Jesus does. But without any more of a context than they are given here, his sufferings are merely bewildering, sickening. Surely, whatever other heterodoxy he may be guilty of, Mel cannot believe that pity is the same thing as piety? ...
- Mel Gibson must have known that, in taking torture and brutality as his subject in preference to more traditionally spiritual considerations, he ensured that not only those who were implicated in such a crime but also those with a history of being unfairly implicated in it would feel themselves aggrieved. My guess is that he’s not sorry to have stirred up this hornet’s nest. ...
- All of which is simply to say that The Passion of the Christ is like every other Mel Gibson picture in being ridiculously overproduced. As the British would say, he has once again over-egged the pudding. The new age music with pan pipes and wordless choruses, the swelling orchestral sounds at moments of significance, the flashbacks cross cut with the main action so as to produce heavy-handed ironies — all these things take us annoyingly out of the period and plonk us down jarringly in the entertainment culture of the present day.
The Perfect Stranger
- The Perfect Stranger is a 2005 Independent Christian film based on the novel Dinner With a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory.[1] A film sequel was created, Another Perfect Stranger . It was featured at the 2005 Western Film and Video Festival,[2] and was released on October 28, 2005. Directed by Jefferson Moore and Shane Sooter,[2] the film starred Pamela Brumley and Jefferson Moore.
Philomena
Prince of Egypt
- Dreamworks
- Prologue: "While artistic and historical license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide."
- The murder is accidental. Softens the Biblical account: "Ex 2:12 He looked all around, and when he didn’t see anyone, he beat the Egyptian to death and hid the body in the sand."
- Moses doesn't stutter.
- Irreverrent followup--The Road to El Dorado.
- Zipporah replaces Aaron as Moses' sidekick before the Pharaoh.
- "No Kingdom should be built on the backs of slaves."
There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
Its hard to kill
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve
When you believe
Somehow you will
You will when you believe
S
Son of God
"Son of God" (2014) movie review
R
"Religulous"
- Bill Maher
"Lord of the Rings" vs. Godless worldviews
The existence of God is powerfully asserted in The Lord of the Rings, though, if I remember correctly, the word "God" does not appear in The Hobbit or the Trilogy.
I loved the spirituality of "Star Wars" episodes 4-6. There seemed to be room in the theology of the Force to understand it in monotheistic terms. Episode 1 made that charitable interpretation untenable. The Force is a byproduct of symbiosis between midichlorians and humans.
The "Harry Potter" series is also a Godless universe. Christmas is celebrated, but there is no Christian content. It is simply the winter holiday.
Miscellaneous Movies
- Godspel
- Jesus Christ Superstar
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
- Passion of the Christ
- Veggie Tales
Sabbatical Movie Festival (2013)
These are the movies that I watched online with Netflix. I also watched six or seven DVDs along with some Amazon on-demand videos.
| year | title | comments |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | ||
| 2011 | 30 for 30: The Real Rocky | Chuck Wepner--inspired the franchise. Sued, got a settlement. |
| A | ||
| Argo | ||
| 2005 | As It Is in Heaven | "This Oscar-nominated drama tells the story of Daniel Dareus, a small-town boy who escaped his tiny village to become a famous conductor. A tragic mishap sends him back home in search of a fresh start, and he ends up leading the local choir." "Singing in tongues" at the end. One song from the film became a pop hit, I think. |
| B | ||
| Babette's Feast | ||
| 1991 | Barton Fink | Coen brothers. Writer's block is just the beginning of the horrors. |
| Best in Show | ||
| Best Worst Movie | ||
| Bourne Supremacy (2004) | ||
| Bourne Ultimatum (2012) | ||
| 2011 | Buck | "Buck Brannaman, inspiration for 'The Horse Whisperer,' is revealed as a complex figure in this Sundance Audience Award winner for Best Documentary by Cindy Meehl. The master horseman reveals details of his troubled childhood and his dawning awareness of new ways that humans and horses might work with one another." |
| C | ||
| California Split | Eliot Gould | |
| 2010 | Cave of Forgotten Dreams | "Werner Herzog offers an unprecedented examination of the Chauvet Cave, a cavern in southern France that contains the oldest human-painted images yet to be found on Earth." |
| 1988 | Cinema Paradiso | |
| 2009 | Cleanflix | |
| 1985 | Clue | |
| D | ||
| 2007 | Death at a Funeral | |
| 2010 | Devil | Shyamalan. |
| 2008 | Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog | |
| E | ||
| Everest: Beyond the Limit | ||
| Everest: IMAX | ||
| F | ||
| Footnote. | ||
| 2010 | Four Lions |
"In a scathingly hilarious indictment of true believers and the social systems that create them, this outrageous comedy follows an inept group of young Islamic Brits who fancy themselves bloodthirsty jihadists of the first order." For good or for ill, the film makes us sympathize with the terrorists and grieve their deaths. |
| G | ||
| Gates of Heaven | Errol Morris documentary about pet cemeteries. On one critic's top-10 all time list (!). | |
| Gravity | ||
| H | ||
| 2010 | Happy People: A Year in the Taiga | "Venerated documentarian Werner Herzog teams with director Dmitry Vasyukov for this observant look at life along the River Yenisei in northern Russia, where the industrious inhabitants of a rural village truly live off the land." [No, they don't. They are fully armed and mechanized by industrial civilization!] |
| 2007 | Helvetica | Story of the ubiquitous type font. |
| I | ||
| 2008 | I Sell the Dead | "As 19th-century grave robber Arthur Blake faces the guillotine, he confesses his sins to a priest, revealing a life filled with unearthly high jinks in this macabre comedy starring Dominic Monaghan as the doomed digger and Ron Perlman as the cleric." One of the worst movies I saw. Dreadfully bad! |
| In a Lonely Place |
| |
| Inception | ||
| 2008 | In Bruges | An extremely black comedy. A friend gives his life to save his friend. Both are ruthless murderers. |
| 2003 | Intolerable Cruelty | Coen brothers. "A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce." |
| J | ||
| K | ||
| L | ||
| 2007 | Lars and the Real Girl | |
| 2010 | Life after Django Reinhardt | "Born to Gypsy parents in 1910, musical genius Django Reinhardt is considered by many to be the single most important guitarist in the history of jazz. To honor the legend, a hundred of his disciples gathered for the Django 100 Centennial Tour." |
| Life is Beautiful | ||
| Looper. | ||
| 2012 | Lunarcy! | Space dreamers. |
| M | ||
| 1979 | Manhattan | |
| Midnight in Paris | ||
| 1990 | Miller's Crossing | |
| 2012 | Mirror Mirror | "Much darker than the well-known animated Disney version, this remake of the classic Grimm tale follows fair-skinned princess Snow White on a quest to regain her royal throne with help from a team of shady dwarves." I didn't like it at all. |
| 2011 | Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol | I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. |
| 2001 | Monsoon Wedding | Mira Nair. |
| Moon | Duncan Jones | |
| N | ||
| Night Train to Munich | ||
| Noises Off (1992) | ||
| O | ||
| Of Gods and Men. | ||
| 1984 | Once Upon a Time in America | Sergio Leone. A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life. |
| 1968 | Once Upon a Time in the West | Sergio Leone. Classic Spaghetti Western. |
| P | ||
| 1998 | Pi | Aronofski. Obessive, paranoid "mathematics." |
| Q | ||
| R | ||
| Radio Days | ||
| Return to Everest/Surviving Everest | National Geographic | |
| Revenge of the Nerds 2.0.1. | ||
| S | ||
| 2005 | Serenity | "Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the ship Serenity, picks up two fugitives from the powerful coalition ruling the universe. Mal and his mates find themselves at the center of a cosmic conflict, pursued by military forces and space-roaming savages." |
| 2012 | Skyfall | James Bond. |
| Something Beautiful for God | ||
| T | ||
| 2010 | Tabloid | "Director Errol Morris profiles another intriguingly dysfunctional personality in this complex documentary about Joyce McKinney, a former beauty queen whose lovely exterior hides a genius IQ -- and a criminal disposition." |
| 2009 | The Achievers: The Story of the Lebowski Fans | All about Lebowski fest. |
| 2011 | The Artist | "Winner of five Oscars, this artful black-and-white silent film follows the romance between a silent-era superstar on a downward spiral and a rising young starlet who embraces the future of cinema at the dawn of the 'talkies.'" |
| 1989 | The Dream Team | "While escorting four of his patients to a Yankees game, a shrink (Dennis Boutsikaris) gets waylaid by crooked cops, and his quartet of crazies is unleashed on the streets of New York City in this comic gem from director Howard Zieff." |
| 1926 | The General | |
| Mountain Men: The ghosts of K2. | ||
| 2005 | The Ice Harvest | "Unethical dim-bulb attorney Charlie Arglist embezzles $2 million from a mobster. Not content with the cash, the sleazy lawyer plans to skip town with pretty club owner Renata Crest -- until the cops and townsfolk grow increasingly suspicious." (R rated--nudity and violence.) |
| 2007 | The Island (Ostrov) | "Father Anatoli (portrayed by former Russian rock star Pyotr Mamonov) lives a hermitlike existence in a remote Russian Orthodox monastery, where he's visited by people who believe he has the power to heal, see the future and exorcise demons. But Anatoli's odd behavior confuses his fellow monks, who are unaware that he's tortured by a past sin and considers himself an unworthy fraud. Pavel Lungin directed this poignant parable." |
| 2003 | The Italian Job | Team heist with small cars. |
| 1938 | The Lady Vanishes | Hitchcock's last British movie. |
| The Long Goodbye | Eliot Gould | |
| 2011 | The Mill & The Cross | Watched this for the love of my friends. Slow, symbolic, surreal. |
| 2009 | The People vs. George Lucas | Fan criticism of what Lucas has done to Star Wars. |
| 1992 | The Player | Altman |
| AE The Price of Courage. | ||
| 2009 | The Road | Recommended by a friend. The love of the father for his son is edifying. Accepting the conditions under which they suffer and survive is a hard stretch for me. What kind of disaster would kill virtually all animal life but allow dogs and humans to survive? |
| 1986 | Offret (The Sacrifice) | Andrei Tarkovsky's final film. Dedicated to his son. "A birthday party is interrupted by news that World War III has begun and mankind faces annihilation." I did not like the "sacrifice" that is made at the end. |
| The Talented Mr Ripley. | A horror story. | |
| 1988 | The Thin Blue Line | "Filmmaker Errol Morris's gripping investigation into the murder of a Dallas police officer was responsible for freeing the man who was originally -- and erroneously -- charged with and convicted of the crime." |
| The Village | Shyamalan | |
| 2010 | The Way Back | "After narrowly escaping from a wretched World War II Siberian labor camp, a small band of multinational soldiers desperately undertakes a harrowing journey to traverse Siberia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas on foot." |
| 1999 | Topsy-Turvy | |
| The Triumph of the Nerds. | Robert X. Cringely. | |
| U | ||
| Unbreakable | Shyamalan. | |
| V | ||
| 1981 | Vernon, Florida | Errol Morris. |
| 2009 | Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen | |
| W | ||
| Wall of Death | ||
| Water | ||
| Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. | ||
| 2010 | Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) | Nilsson wrote "Everybody's Talking" from Midnight Cowboy. Huge talent, party animal, admired by the greats, peaked in 1969-1972, seems to have lost his way, became a family man, died with work unfinished. |
| 2010 | Windfall | The downside of wind turbines. |
| 2011 | Woody Allen: A Documentary: Part 1 | |
| 2011 | Woody Allen: A Documentary: Part 2 | |
| X | ||
| Y | ||
| Z | ||
Film Festival
- Do you want it to be something canned? Just me and Mike? Me and Mike and open lines?
- Do you have in idea where you would like it to be in the show? I guess the basic options are first, middle, last.
- Classic movies or what's playing in the theaters now?
- The baby needs a name:
- - Focus on Films
- - Faith 'n' Films
- - Finding Faith in Film
- - Friday Film Festival
- - Faith 'n' Reason Film Festival
- - Heroes and Heroines
- - The Moral of the Story
- - The True, the Beautiful, and the Good
- - Creative Thinking
- Watch the clock. Assign a time limit for the segment--10 minutes? 15 minutes? Keep calls on the segment during the segment; anything goes afterward.
References
Links
- Barbara Nicolosi, "A “Christian†Cinema? An interview with Av Venire."
- Steven D. Greydanus, "Decent Films Guide."
To do
- Buffalo News
- Buffalo Film Society
- WBEN?
Release dates
- Pious; intended to evangelize, I think.
- - Gimme Shelter (pro-life movie, 2014). Very definitely not Give Me Shelter (pro-animal documentary, 2013). January 24, 2014.
- - Son of God (History Channel, 2014).
- - Left Behind (remake, Nicolas Cage, 2014). October 3, 2014.
- - Heaven Is For Real (little boy, near death experience, 2014). April 16, 2014.
- - God's Not Dead (2014). March 21, 2014.
- Relatively secular. "God" is just another character in an action-hero movie.
- - Noah (Russell Crowe, 2014). March 28, 2014.
- - Exodus (a.k.a. Moses; starring Christian Bale, 2014). The name of the movie is "Exodus," not "Moses." December 12, 2014.
- - Day of War (Ken called it "King David"; 2014). Not cast? No release date set?
- - Gods of Egypt (2016).
- Secular
- - Guardians of the Galaxy -- August 1, 2014.
Theaters
- Dipson Eastern Hills Cinema
- On Transit, just south of Sheridan Drive.
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