You don't want to miss this life-changing video of my kids singing Tenacious D's "Tribute." Go watch Tenacious Kids.
You don't want to miss this life-changing video of my kids singing Tenacious D's "Tribute." Go watch Tenacious Kids.
Sony isn't stupid. As the worldwide bestseller and much discussed, debated and disliked (among Christians especially) The Da Vinci Code heads to theaters on May 19th, Sony has put together a truly brilliant marketing scheme. They have started a website called The Da Vinci Challenge for Christians. On the site Christian experts will deal with issues raised by The Da Vinci Code between now and the release date. Currently there are articles by Darrell Bock, George Barna and Richard Mouw, and links for discussion take you to the Hollywood Jesus website.
From The Da Vinci Challenge...
The primary focus of The Da Vinci Challenge is to help Christians prepare for the inevitable question that will arise with the release of the film, “What do you think of The Da Vinci Code?”
These are the facts - currently, there over 40 million hardback copies of The Da Vinci Code in print. There have been thousands of column inches already written about The Da Vinci Code, and there will surely be more. It is now possible to take tours across Europe to visit historic sites referenced in the novel. On May 19, 2006, the highly-anticipated film version of the book, starring Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, will open in theaters. There are literally millions and millions of devoted fans of The Da Vinci Code spanning the globe.
But there are also numerous people worldwide who question the theories espoused in The Da Vinci Code. Books refuting the claims of the best-selling novel have collectively sold millions of copies. Churches have held sermons and seminars to address the controversy and dispute assertions that many believe run counter to the foundations of their faith. These, too, are the facts.
The Da Vinci Challenge offers a thoughtful and faithful response to the questions raised by The Da Vinci Code. In the weeks leading up to the release of the film, prominent scholars and experts from across the spectrum of Christianity have volunteered to tackle specific issues raised by The Da Vinci Code – cultural, historical, theological and practical. By tapping into the collective wisdom of these respected Christian men and women, The Da Vinci Challenge hopes to present a forum where people can wrestle with the complex topics raised by the book and the film.
While Sony Pictures Entertainment has provided the means for this discussion to take place, neither the studio, the filmmakers nor Dan Brown have any editorial control over the content of this site. None of the Christian experts have been paid for their commentary or insights. This is an open forum where discussion, debate and disagreement are welcome. The Da Vinci Challenge wholeheartedly invites you to join the conversation.
Fascinating explanation by Michael Collender of St. Anne's Pub on how Brokeback Mountain was financed by those who watched Pride & Prejudice. Listen here.
My wife and I went to hear two of our church
members play live music last night at the Last Chance Saloon in Grayslake, IL. Our song leader on
Sunday mornings opened with some covers and originals, and then another church
member and his band (AliveInside) played mostly original stuff. It was really a good
time, good music, and I was able to take some
pictures of the band.
On the topic of music, I picked up the newest one of the newest Nooma
videos from Rob Bell, Rhythm, a few days ago. I decided to watch it last night. He talked about how we all are playing a song, the question is
whether or not we are in tune. Powerful stuff. And very provocative. If you have seen it, I'd love to hear what you think about it.
UPDATE: You can also view the entire "Rain" Nooma video online. If you haven't seen Nooma, check it out.
Joe Thorn has written on Mohler and the Movies. It's an engaging piece that discusses Mohler's TV takes on Brokeback as well as his writing on End of the Spear and gay actor Chad Allen.
I'm glad 24 is coming on now because I need something to get me over my depression caused by the Chicago Bears losing to Carolina. And the reason? The Bears' defense is either overrated, or more likely were just flat-out outplayed. Great game by Rex Grossman, considering his experience level. This is all on the defense. I think the coaches failed to adjust to a very different Carolina team (since the November game).
I will now be pulling for Denver who became one of my favorite teams when we spent three years living in a suburb of Denver (Lakewood).
I told myself the only way I would watch Brokeback Mountain at the theater is if Joe Thorn went with me. Then I questioned what that would communicate and decided it would be better to pretend the movie didn't exist long enough to make it to the DVD release date.
But after reading this review I'm now actually very interested in watching it. A blurb...
Brokeback Mountain is the story of two young cowboys, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, who meet in a 1960s summer job tending sheep on the mountain. They fall in love, then upon returning to the world, go their separate ways, marry and start families. A few years later, they resume their intensely sexual affair – visually, this is a rather chaste film – but with terrible consequences for themselves and the wives and children they deceive. The film climaxes violently and tragically, and it's this that has the critics lauding it as a cinematic cri du coeur for tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality.
But Brokeback is not nearly that tidy. True, the men begin their doomed affair in a time and place where homosexuality was viciously suppressed, and so they suffer from social constrictions that make it difficult to master their own fates. But it is also true that both men are overgrown boys who waste their lives searching for something they've lost, and which might be irrecoverable. They are boys who refuse to become men, or to be more precise, do not, for various reasons, have the wherewithal to understand how to become men in their bleak situation.
It is impossible to watch this movie and think that all would be well with Jack and Ennis if only we'd legalize gay marriage. It is also impossible to watch this movie and not grieve for them in their suffering, even while raging over the suffering that these poor country kids who grew up unloved cause for their families. As the film grapples with Ennis' pain, confusion and cruelty, different levels of meaning unspool – social, moral, spiritual and erotic. In the end, Brokeback Mountain is not about the need to normalize homosexuality, or "about" anything other than the tragic human condition.
(HT: Matt Crash!)
So I watched Narnia yesterday with my lovely wife, my four kids, and my 9:15am popcorn. A lot of folks are blogging the heck out of this movie and I'm not going to try to do anything fancy or long. But I thought it would be helpful to share some thoughts, both good and bad. If you are going to watch the movie, I encourage you NOT to read on. Experience it for yourself first.
**Spoilers Coming**
Over the last three weeks I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to the kids. We enjoyed it very much. And if you have never experienced a movie after reading the book, it's definitely a different experience. I think it makes enjoying the movie (for an adult) much more difficult. Plus, as we read I tried to imagine how the movie would handle certain things, and that led to some satisfying elements, but also some disappointments.
1. Characters: Both Lucy and Tumnus were played very well. Brilliant. Edmund was good, Susan was just okay, Peter was fine, the Beavers were fun, Father Christmas was better than I expected, Maugrim was pretty good, the White Witch was pretty good, and the professor was just right. Some of the characters were a bit overdone, I thought (Susan sticks out to me here), but generally speaking the characters were good.
2. Effects: The effects were fine. There were times when they looked a bit more fake than they needed to, but that isn't a big surprise. I expected that from the very first teaser I saw months ago.
3. A Few differences between book and movie: Rumblebuffin was missing, at least in character. There were a few random giants. When they fled the Beavers' house they left through a tunnel, which was a nice addition for a movie. There were plenty of other differences, but these stuck out to me.
4. What I didn't like: Edmund's insatiable desire for Turkish Delight (after the first bite) was missing. He wanted more, but he just looked selfish. The point was the White Witch's food could never satisfy.
The connection between the kids (or anyone else) and Aslan was poorly done. When Lucy and Susan are laying on his dead body and just distraught (which was good), it wasn't developed enough ahead of time. For example, in the book when Mr. Beaver said "Aslan is on the move" it's followed by some great description of what happens inside the kids as they hear this news. They "felt something jump" inside them, "Peter felt brave and adventurous," and so on. Someone needed to develop the heart-leaping aspect of hearing about and knowing Aslan, but it was missing. This was the biggest disappointment for me.
One thing that I was looking forward to most other than seeing the general plot unfold was the roar of Aslan after resurrection which bent the trees. Why was this not included? From the book...
"And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it. And they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind.
I also thought they missed a great opportunity to show Aslan (Lucy and Susan aboard) running through the trees and such. They showed this, but it was stunted. From the book...
"That ride was perhaps the most wonderful thing that happened to them in Narnia."
One last thing, the narration quality of the book was missing. And so it became the adventure of four kids rather than the adventure any kid can have. I feel Lewis intends a more universal, YOU can find Narnia. You can be a king. You can have adventure and be brave and just, etc. I wanted the movie to make me go home and start looking for branches in the back of my closet, but it didn't so much. It could have been done better, I think.
5. What I liked: It was nice to see what Turkish Delight looks like, though I'm still not sure it looks all that delicious.
I liked how we saw a close up on the face of Aslan when he was
executed. I didn't like the book at this point. He seemed to die too fast in the movie, but for a kid movie it needed to be fast I suppose.
For all the problems in developing the Aslan-children connection, I liked how Lucy and Susan were portrayed after the killing of Aslan, laying on him for some time. The broken stone table was well done also, shaking the earth.
For the absence of the battle in the book, the movie needed it. It was done pretty well, though Edmund looked pretty clueless the whole time.
Side note: Liam Neeson has become quite the redeemer. Oscar Schindler (purchases Jews), Qui-Gon Jinn (rescues Anakin), and now Aslan (saving Edmund and Narnia). Hmmm. I liked his voice with Aslan. If it would have been Matthew Broderick (The Lion King) I would have walked out. :)
My overall take is this: If the book didn't exist and the movie came out, I would be telling everyone of great, redemptive kids movie that everyone needs to see. And so I cannot help but to promote it and encourage everyone to go. It's good.
So to be clear, I did enjoy the movie very much. We will buy the DVD when it comes out. And the movie, for it's weaknesses, is completely worthwhile.
I Fandangoed 6 tickets (me, wife, our 4 kiddos) to Narnia for the 9:15am showing tomorrow. Totally pumped. Popcorn in the morning, yeah buddy. I'm thinking of dressing in my Aslan outfit.
Scot McKnight recently saw Walk the Line, the movie on the life of Johnny Cash. He blogged on it today (also at Touchstone's Mere Comments) with an interesting twist, that he found it curious that Russ Moore (SBTS) stands with the Man in Black while the Kentucky Baptist Convention didn't stand with a different sort of man in black, Brian McLaren.
I've read both posts a few times now. On the one hand, I'm not sure McKnight's connections between McLaren and Cash work. I don't know the history of how Cash was treated by SBC'rs, so I can't speak to that. But the KBC decides who it wants to instruct them, and Cash had a different purpose altogether. You are standing for different things when you stand for one or the other.
On the other hand, Moore's unreasonable caricatures of the EC make whatever wisdom he has on the issue hard to hear. He writes,
The difference between Cash's sin-and-repentance authenticity and the manufactured faddish candles-and-incense "authenticity" of the "emerging church" movement is one of kind, not just degree.
and
One might also say of the repackaged liberalism of the "emerging church," everyone who wears dark turtlenecks is not a Man in Black.
I just don't get this sort of response. Does Russ actually believe the EC is (STILL!) only a fad? I'm not saying the EC is the church of the future, or whatever. But I think Moore's position is a very unscholarly one. I don't see John Hammett or Justin Taylor or Don Carson using this sort of language. They are engaging the issues. Sure there are faddish elements in the EC, just as there are in the SBC and everywhere else.
But characterizing the whole this way is like saying you aren't willing to look any deeper. It's like saying that you would rather see the EC as a big impersonal whole that you can mock rather than as real people with real faith and a real desire to know and follow Jesus. I encourage my friend Russ to lose the rhetoric and stick to the issues. He has a lot to add if he does.
I'm excited about the new movie Walk the Line about the life of Johnny Cash. Rotten Tomatoes, as of the time of this post, has it at a 93% (meaning 93% of reviews are positive, so far) including two thumbs from Ebert and Roeper.
Russ Moore likes the movie, and is a big Cash fan. Get out and see it.
Go to CNN.com and click on the link to the video "Screams for Help" about the situation following hurricane Katrina. In it Jeanne Meserve, a CNN reporter, has been in New Orleans reporting on the devastation. She is on the phone, so it's not really about what you see, but what she says is very sobering and sad. She nearly breaks down a few times in her interview with Aaron Brown.
The photo is from CNN.
Kevin Cawley was the first and last person to recommend that I should watch The Big Kahuna. I finally gave in, and I'm glad I did. Kevin Spacey is brilliant as usual and Danny Devito has never been so good. It's a movie about God, honesty, character, business, life, reality, crisis, and understanding (among other things). I recommend picking it up to rent soon. I think it's a movie worth watching more than once.
Check out Kevin's "Finding God in a Hospitality Suite," a paper for his Ecclesiastes and Film class. But do yourself a favor and watch the movie first.
Man, this is too funny. Am I the only one who thinks it's funny that Baptist Press is now publishing articles to pimp the Disney movies that may have been missed during the Southern Baptist Convention boycott?
My take...
1. Almost no one boycotted Disney if they had kids.
2. If people with kids did boycott Disney, it was probably because they had other convictions, like that TV corrupts the little cherubs and should be avoided altogether (unless it's Prayer Bear, Bible Man, or the like). So these guys wouldn't watch Disney anyway, and still won't.
3. Do we really want to taint our eyes with movies made during such a horrible time in the corporate life of Disney? I mean, if we shouldn't watch a movie by them in 1999, maybe we shouldn't watch it now out of protest for who they were then, eh? Otherwise we may be encouraging them to return to their old ways, and may result in another future boycott.
4. If I want to know about Disney movies, I'm not going to listen to someone writing for the organization who shouldn't know about all the Disney movies that were missed. Can I trust someone who crossed the boycott lines in the heat of the battle? Or should I trust someone who just watched 25 DVD's in like 6 weeks trying to catch up with what they missed? I think not.
Memorable line from Batman Begins,
It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.
I'm afraid too many Christians will watch the movie and say, "NO. It's who I am, a Christian. That's what defines me." Just because I consider myself something doesn't make it so. Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit.
Joe Thorn and I watched a truly great movie tonight. Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe is about a man who can take a punch inside and outside the ring. Not only is he his kids' hero but he's also the champion of his wife's heart. As a husband and father, the movie resonated with me like few others.
You will rarely see a movie so well made and acted, and that so effectively grabs your emotions. You leave wanting to endure adversity in such a remarkable way.
Read Joe's review.
Dave Chappelle is in a mental health facility in South Africa. Man, that guy is funny. Have you seen the skit with John Mayer? Hilarious.
Hope he's okay.
UPDATE: Where in the world is Dave Chappelle? Maybe not where we thought. Time article.
The new BP article by Mark Kelly, on Hollywood and the new movie Kingdom of Heaven, isn't very interesting, but the opening paragraph is funny to me...
Evangelicals have tried for years to convince Hollywood it is more profitable to make decent movies for normal people than to grind out the gratuitous sex and violence that only sucks society deeper into the sewer. Mel Gibson finally got their attention when his “Passion of the Christ” grossed almost $612 million worldwide -- more than 20 times his original investment.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees the irony here. Roger Ebert wrote in his review of "Passion"...
The movie is 126 minutes long, and I would guess that at least 100 of those minutes, maybe more, are concerned specifically and graphically with the details of the torture and death of Jesus. This is the most violent film I have ever seen.
I think this is really, truly funny. But I also think it's sad and revealing.
We say things about movies like "Violence just leads to violence, so let's keep it clean." But how can we say that real violence doesn't tell a story far better? If it did for Passion then why not for Kingdom of Heaven or Gladiator or Braveheart?
The Bible tells bloody stories. It is not a PG-13 book. And if we are going to get our children and teenagers and everyone else to understand the Story of redemption, they are going to have to understand violence because the death of Jesus was incredibly violent.
Is it reasonable for Christians to encourage violence in movies since it reminds us of redemption?
Kelly Boggs, an SBC pastor who writes a weekly article for Baptist Press, is picking a fight with the culture with his pool noodle again. His recent article, "Hollywood's Real Motive," has been aptly critiqued by Joe Thorn.
Joe writes...
I believe Boggs has once again ably misunderstood his culture, and is addressing a symptom instead of the disease. The diagnosis is wrong, and no remedy is prescribed.
For several weeks now the "controversy" concerning the Clint Eastwood movie Million Dollar Baby (MDB) has been stewing. The conservative Christians are on the attack more than ever because the Oscars are coming and MDB has been nominated. I won't give away the reasons for this controversy because I would rather you see the movie with its full effect. It is truly a very good movie.
For now, let me point you to some reviews by Christians to read after seeing the movie (they all include spoilers).
I generally don't agree with these guys...
Focus on the Family: PluggedIn
R. Albert Mohler: Crosswalk Weblog
Brian Godawa: Godawa Creative
Kelly Boggs: In Baptist Press
I generally agree with...
Kevin Miller: Relevant Magazine
I really agree with...
I recommend seeing the movie because it deals with real issues of great importance. It's a "feeling" movie for sure, but it will also make you think about your own life, your view of the world, your understanding of hope and hopelessness, and your understanding of love, redemption, and life.
I think this movie also provides us with a great opportunity as followers of Jesus to learn how to and not to engage the culture. I think the first four reviews get it wrong on this, and the last two get it right.
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