I was sitting in my parents Jeep Cherokee outside my elementary school when I heard the Challenger shuttle had exploded in January 1986. I was sitting outside the movie theatre in my car in June, 1989 when I first learned of the Tiananmen Square protests on the radio. I had just returned to my parents home […]
Roger Ebert
“The Lovely Bones,” and why Roger Ebert will not like a film version of “The Shack”
This article was originally published at The Christian Post in January 2010. Film critic Roger Ebert clearly did not like the film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. While I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, I certainly found Ebert’s review revealing. Ebert is one of the most interesting film critics to […]
A jerk before Jesus becomes a jerk for Jesus
The story behind “Machine Gun Preacher” is made for Hollywood. The film tells the (true) story of Sam Childers, a biker who becomes a Christian and then is deeply moved when he hears a missionary describe the plight of Sudanese orphans. So moved is he that he leaves his family, flies to Sudan, gets a gun, and begins […]
Drag me to cinematic hell: A Review of “Don’t be afraid of the Dark”
What was Gulliermo Del Toro thinking? The director who gave us “Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” came up with this? (Del Toro is writer and producer while Troy Nixey directed.) The film has received some positive reviews from a few critics, most notably from Roger Ebert. Pay no attention to that. Pay attention to the C- grade from Cinemascore. […]
Pedophiles and rock stars: A reflection on “The Woodsman”
“The Woodsman” opens with convicted pedophile Walter (Kevin Bacon) returning home after a twelve year stint in prison. Not surprisingly, he finds that his entire support network has evaporated. After all, who wants to be associated with a pedophile? But how blurred the criteria of social condemnation can be. In the late eighties the glam metal band “Winger” had […]
“Soul Surfer” and the idea of “faith-based films”
Among the new crop of movies this weekend is “Soul Surfer”. It tells the story of Bethany Hamilton, a surfer and a young woman of deep Christian faith who lost an arm surfing when she was thirteen due to a shark attack. Incredibly, she was back on her surfboard a month later and has since won several […]
Torture Porn and Human Nature: An All Hallow’s Eve Meditation
This weekend “Saw 3-D” came out on top at the box office. No surprise. It is a well established horror film franchise. I’ve never seen any of the Saw films, but I get the general idea: line people up to be tortured and killed in a series of grisly, sadistic and extraordinarily creative ways. The Saw […]
