Bad Movie Mondays…
March 31, 2008
Our nearest grocery store has RedBox, a $1 per night DVD rental vending machine. Surprisingly, the box is stocked with adequate amounts of new releases each Tuesday. If you already belong to a home-delivery service like Netflix or Blockbuster and don’t feel like spending that extra dollar, you can sign up on their website and receive a text message with a code for a free rental every Monday. I have begun using this free rental for what I like to call Bad Movie Mondays. Feel free to join in! Each Monday, I peruse the options at RedBox and rent, on purpose, a movie that I assume will be horrible in the hopes that I will be proven wrong. So far, RedBox is 0 for 3, or 3 for 3 depending on how you look at it. Bad Movie Mondays has featured, thus far, Reno 911: Miami, Bee Movie, and I Think I Love My Wife. To find your nearest RedBox visit their store locator. Sign up for the free rental text message here.
Backdraft…
March 30, 2008
World War II has inspired at least 600 films; the Vietnam War around 100. As the American occupation of Iraq continues, I am curious to see how many films will emerge from this experience and what kinds of stories they will tell. On the heels of the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Paramount Pictures released Kimberly Peirce’s (Boys Don’t Cry) latest film, Stop-Loss. It will be easy for most people to pigeonhole this film as an anti-Iraq War film, especially those who do not actually see it. In reality, however, we have something much more complex. Unlike In the Valley of Elah’s Paul Haggis, Peirce has experienced the reality of having a loved one actually fight in the war. This personal experience makes her soldiers seem like real people, rather than just instruments for anti-Iraq war sentiments. It is impossible not to feel Pierce’s sympathy and respect for American soldiers. Stop-Loss only evolves into an anti-Iraq war film when the American government fails to show this same respect for its soldiers. [Read more]
On the Radar…
March 27, 2008
I loved Deadwood. I think I watched all three seasons in a matter of two weeks, or maybe less. Last summer, I was excited to see a David Milch follow up with John From Cincinnati. I’m not even going to pretend that it was as good as Deadwood. Few shows could be. Most critics were less than enthused by the spirituality and surfing combination and found the mystical Buddha, Jesus flavored surfer a bit too much. Despite a plodding narrative, I still found what Milch was getting at to be terribly interesting. As is sometimes the case, a creators ideas about a show don’t always translate. However, I did enjoy his loyalty in recasting a couple of great Deadwood characters for his new series. The DVD of the first season will be available on Tuesday and at least one critic is giving the series some favorable attention. Here is one of the few enthusiastic reviews from “Moriarity’s One Thing I Love Today” over at Ain’t It Cool News.
Jesus Movies for Holiday Viewing…
March 22, 2008
Here is a list of Jesus movies (forgive the whiteness) for your Easter viewing pleasure. Most of these should be available at your local video store or through Netflix.
From the Manger to the Cross (1912)
Intolerance (1916)
The King of Kings (1927)
Ben-Hur (1959)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1966)
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
Godspell (1973)
Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
The Life of Brian (1979)
Jesus (1979)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Jesus of Montreal (1990)
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
The Color of the Cross (2006)
Rabid Rabbits
March 22, 2008
Last weekend, TCM aired the cult classic, Night of the Lepus, a B-horror movie about a failed science experiment to curb rabbit overpopulation. I decided to celebrate Easter weekend, in part by seeing just how terrifying the Easter Bunny could be. Unlike the birds in Hitchcock’s The Birds, the rabbits in Night of the Lepus remain cute and cuddly despite the filmmakers’ (who must have been highly intoxicated) “best” efforts. [Read more]
A Review of Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan’s “Violence and Theology”
March 20, 2008
As an active participant in popular culture, I am constantly barraged by violent images. From “humorous” cartoon fights to domestic abuse, violence pervades popular culture and sparks heated religious debates about spectatorship and the effects of pop culture on our physical, spiritual, and emotional well being. Far from avoiding popular culture or justifying it on the other hand, what takes place is, perhaps, a process of negotiation by which I place my religious or theological beliefs in conversation (critical) with the images that often contradict these beliefs. Moreover, I must also reckon with real-life violence in domestic and foreign relations that inspires or mirrors virtual violence. Beyond all this, I have to negotiate images of violence in my Christian faith. In scripture, I encounter a God that is at one and the same time brutal and gentle, forgiving yet destructive. [Read more]
Minghella Passes
March 18, 2008
Anthony Minghella, director of The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Cold Mountain, suffered a fatal hemorrage today at the age of 54. Here’s the article from The New York Times.
Anthony Minghella, Director, Dies
God-Man
March 17, 2008
Thanks to Andy Karlson for pointing out this hilarious comic from Salon.
Happy Anny, Lebowski!
March 17, 2008
The Big Lebowski’s celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. If, like me, you can’t get enough of the greatest comedy ever made, if not one of the greatest films (although I doubt El Duderino is big on lists), share your favorite moment or quote. One of mine:
The Big Lebowski: Are you employed, sir?
The Dude: Employed?
The Big Lebowski: You don’t go out looking for a job dressed like that? On a weekday?
The Dude: Is this a… what day is this?
Religion in the Media Age: A Review
March 16, 2008
As the previous post makes clear, religion and media interact in contemporary culture in complex ways. Not only does media struggle to represent religion, religious folk face the often daunting task of participating in a media culture that does not understand their value system or directly contradicts it. If Henry Jenkins can analyze convergence culture as the ways in which different media increasingly intertwine and how individuals and communities respond to them, in Religion in the Media Age, Stewart M. Hoover assumes this convergence as part of our new technological nature and thus focuses on how individuals make religious meaning through their encounters with converged media. [Read more]
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