To say I am a critic would be false. I enjoy going to movies to unplug and unwind from the world of pastoring. Therefore, I look for the good, enjoy the flick, and filter out the negatives. I enjoy thrillers, action movies, drama, and comedies…you won’t catch me in a chick flick. My reviews will be rather simple – something that I enjoyed or struck me that I felt might be worth mentioning. Don’t look at my reviews for advice on whether or not you should take your children, etc. There are great sites out there that provide detailed content reviews such as http://www.family.org/entertainment/Reviews/.
A few movies I’ve recently seen:
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: This was a great movie that I took my middle son to see on Memorial Day. We both enjoyed the story and battle scenes. Aslan, who is representative of Christ, is both gentle and fearsome. I was drawn to the mystery of his character. To me, the movie was about childlike faith in Christ over prideful ambition. I saw myself in the character of Peter and how he was transformed over the course of the film. The battle scenes were awesome. It was a great opportunity to talk about faith, courage, and honor with my son John. BTW, we have a 6 yr. old chocolate lab whose name is Honor.
21: I really enjoy movies that are based on true stories. This is about MIT students who count cards in Vegas and are caught between their dreams and greed. This movie has a great storyline with surprises along the way. The moral here is that greed always takes your further than you want to go and ultimately costs more than you ever wanted to pay. The main character Ben (James Sturgess), eventually gets his life back. Very entertaining.
Expelled: This movie is a documentary and is probably already out of theaters. It basically describes the science community as being somewhat like Nazis in their attempt to squelch the teaching of Intelligent Design. I enjoyed the documentary because I am interested in the subject. Two things particularly stuck out: First, a Baylor (Baptist Christian University) professor was allegedly dismissed due to some web site or publication that constituted his support of Intelligent Design. Second, Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion), ends up looking rather silly in the end when basically he leads us to believe that there was some coding for life, etc. deposited here by advanced aliens. He apparently thinks that is more plausible than believing in God as the master designer.
The Bucket List: Awesome movie that leads the viewer to think about the end of life, and challenges them to make their life count. I enjoy both Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and together they starred in a thought-provoking, humorous movie. I have already heard of sermon series developed from this movie and I am sure their will be more to come.