Archive for March, 2010

FROM ANGELS TO ALIENS: A Review

Mar 31, 2010 No Comments by

In keeping with my recent academic obsession with the undead, I came across Lynn Schofield Clark‘s From Angels to Aliens:  Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural.  In this book she explores the rising interest in the supernatural among teenagers and the potential roles that American evangelicalism might play in its resurgence in pop culture.

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The Time is Now

Mar 30, 2010 No Comments by

Recent Pop Theology contributor and self-proclaimed Bare Naked Ladies addict (seriously, we need to conduct an intervention), Jessica Margrave Schirm, reviews their latest album, All in Good Time, which releases today.

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Save the Next One

Mar 29, 2010 2 Comments by

In preparation for our trip to Belgium next month, my wife wanted to watch In Bruges, and since I absolutely love the film, I had no problem watching it yet again.  It proved to be yet another rewarding experience as I continued to find new elements that stood out in ways I hadn’t noticed before.

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VAMPIRE GOD: A Review

Mar 25, 2010 1 Comment

In preparation for an upcoming conference on vampires and the undead in popular culture, I’ve been catching up on vampire literature.  Via Theofantastique, I came across a new book, Vampire God:  The Allure of the Undead in Western Culture, by Mary Y. Hallab.  In only 136 pages, Hallab takes readers from vampire folklore up to [...]

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Forget LOST, Get BAD

Mar 25, 2010 No Comments

Forget Lost, AMC’s Breaking Bad is currently the best television series going right now…by a mile.  In fact, the first 5-10 minutes of the season three opener is better than the entire final season of Lost thus far.  After the jump, I’ll give a very brief synopsis of the first two seasons and the first [...]

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Justified is Righteous

Mar 23, 2010 1 Comment

In one of the concluding lines to the first episode of the new FX series, Justified, Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), an on-the-ropes Deputy U.S. Marshal, sneaks in to his ex-wife’s house for a late-night chat.  In the course of their conversation, she tells him, “Raylan, you might just be the angriest man I’ve ever known.”  [...]

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Soul Storage

Mar 22, 2010 No Comments

Last week, I wrote a short review of Seconds and the “what-if-ness” of cinema.  This weekend, I watched a recent dark comedy, Cold Souls, that blends reality and the “what if” in really interesting ways.

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Filming Revolutions: Film History as Church History?

Mar 18, 2010 No Comments

After the jump, check out a video of my presentation at the Theology After Google conference last week in Claremont, CA.  Below the video is a link to the other presenters’ videos.  More will be added throughout the weekend.  Enjoy!

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No Third Chances…

Mar 17, 2010 No Comments

“What if” is the basis of cinema.  All filmmakers, to some degree, ask themselves this question.  Their success, in part, relies on their ability to answer that question.  “What if” plays a significant part of our daily lives as well.   Hopefully, we live our lives in such a way that those “what ifs” don’t [...]

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Hitchcock and Murder

Mar 16, 2010 No Comments

David Thomson is one of the most accomplished film historians and critics working today.  His books, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film and The Whole Equation:  A History of Hollywood, are must-owns for all film fans.  While, I was excited to read his most recent book, The Moment of Psycho:  How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America [...]

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