Movie: Is Genesis History?

This looks excellent.  Showing in theaters around the country February 23rd.

Check out the site and where it's playing HERE.

Kill Your Television!

Well, perhaps keep it for a movie every now and then... ;>)

Movie: Still Mine

Excellent movie.  Warm, engaging story of a loving marriage, self-reliant living and push-back against oppressive bureaucratic intrusion.  PG-13 due to several "cuss" words and an old man's bare backside.

Movie to Watch: Beckett

This movie is fabulous.  Best acting I've witnessed in quite sometime.  These two men poured themselves into these roles.  It isn't action packed, nor is it chalked full of non-stop visual stimuli. Rather, it has rich, deep dialogue infused with one man's unwavering dedication to Jesus and His Kingdom.  This is one of my top 10 films ever.  It is a rare treat to be savored.

Movie to Watch: Jesus of Montreal

On the surface this movie is presented as farcical and "light", perhaps some would think even blasphemous.  Don't be deceived!  Great acting throughout, and more Scripture quoted than any movie since The Ten Commandments.  It is in French with English subtitles.

    

This is one of those movies that will stick with ya for weeks after you watch it.  And while there were numerous points throughout the movie I disagreed with what was portrayed, I still would highly recommend this movie. 

Movie to Watch: North Face

My wife and I watched North Face, the movie, last night and really enjoyed it. Produced in 2010 and in German it's about two German men in 1936 who endeavor to climb Mt. Eiger in the Swiss Alps, which had never been successfully climbed before.  Really suspenseful and emotionally gripping, not to mention great acting and magnificent scenery. Check out the trailer below.  Highly recommended.

Preview of Lincoln Movie with Daniel Day-Lewis

The Ten Best "Christian" Movies

These 10 movies listed below are, in my opinion, saturated through-and-through with the Gospel.  That is, the central message of the Good News of God the Son coming to save a chosen people from death to sin, and doing it through His Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension thereby becoming King of Earth and Heaven.  

None of these movies have that central Gospel message spelled out for us in clean, clear lines, but I certainly find It there, concrete and inescapable.

Check them out, and I'd love to hear of others!

* Apocalypto
* I Am Legend
* The Iron Giant
* Machine Gun Preacher
* Bella
* King Kong (2005)
* Of Gods and Men
* As it is in Heaven
* Babette's Feast
* Last of the Mohicans

Movie: Machine Gun Preacher

Netflix has it.  Pick it up and watch it.  This displays the Gospel of Jesus with hands and feet on it, and not just in books and brains.  This is a topic we materialistic, comfy American Christians need to wrestle with head-on (and I'm including myself in that...). 

Notable Movie and Documentry

Of Gods and Men is a wonderful film set in Islamic Algeria, Africa where eight French monks reside  above an impoverished village in a monastery that has been there for decades. Under threat by Muslim terrorists the monks must decide to if they should abandon the village or stay which, if they do stay, they will likely be killed for being Christians. It's slow paced with English subtitles, but flat out beautiful in it's portrayal of our Christan duty to love our neighbors and be living sacrifices for the King.

Islam: What the West needs to Know dubs itself as "an examination of Islam, violence, and the fate of the non-Muslim world". Scary stuff, but Christians all need to get a handle on this! You can watch it here.

Recently Viewed Films I'd Recommend

Here's a couple of evocative films I'd strongly recommend for your viewing pleasure.  First, Make Way for Tomorrow is a 1937 doozie of a film concerning an elderly couple who are forced to separate when they lose their house and none of their five children will take both parents in.  If you're struggling and/or contemplating what to do one day when your parents are too old to earn a living or care for themselves, you should watch this.  Really great.

       

       The other is a "bookumentary" Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl named after the book published a few years ago by N.D. Wilson, and let me just say upfront  for the record, if there was to be one film I'd recommend to someone endeavoring to grasp what exactly "cruciform mirth" is and what my philosophy of the Trinitarian life looks like, it would have to be this film.  It is jam-packed, saturated in cross-shaped joy, through and through. 

       Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl stars Nathan Wilson, the author of the book Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl and is a delightful romp through what it is to cherish, live, and revel in Jesus' World and our part to play in it.  The cinematography is interesting and unique, and Nathan has many wonderful, challenging things to say through it all.  Good form Nathan, Beloved Independent and Gorilla Poet.  Stellar work.

A movie review in 199 words (more or less)

As it is in Heaven
     Racheal and I watched this movie last night and enjoyed it very much.  It is a Swedish drama, with English subtitles, telling the story of the character Daniel Dareus, who grew up loving music and living in a tiny village where he was harassed for his musicality.  He eventually leaves with his widowed mother and becomes a famous conductor throughout Europe.
    His intense emotional life in music begins to effect his health in his 40's, and strangely drives him back to the place of his youth where he buys an old elementary school to live in and to hopefully recover and relax.
    He's soon asked though to lead the local church choir (not his forte) which is a cornucopia full of differing personalities and backgrounds: the pastor's wife, the local hardware store owner, an abused wife, an overly prudish single woman, and a younger, kind-hearted "party girl".
    The film gloriously shows forth a group of Adam's descendants that grow close and personal through candid honesty, song and patience with one anothers foibles and sins.  For Rach and I, it was a beautiful portrayal of what local congregations should look like, but often are not.  Sadly, throughout the film, the story lucidly reveals the Church to actually be the stumbling block to such a life -- again, not without warrant and certainly true enough much of the time -- and not in any way the means to it.  Hence, the film shows a community disconnected from Christ's Church here on Earth, but as they imagine it to be in Heaven. 
     The film doesn't have a rating...thanks Sweden.  It did have a few "cuss" words ("What the cuss!") and there is a brief skinny-dipping scene, and a few "wife being abused scenes".  All in all, to play it safe, I'd probably give it a soft R rating.