Posts tagged with "Movies"

Letters to juliet – not too bad

So I mave have had a preference for Robin Hood or Iron Man 2, but I sucked it up and went to see Letters to Juliet with my wife yesterday evening.

Guys, if your wife is dying for you to take her to a romantic comedy type movie with a touch of drama, you could do much worse.

I think what made the movie enjoyable is that the lead gentleman has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor much like myself. So, I could kind of identify with him.

Of course it goes a bit over the top with the romantic stuff trying to pull a few tears (which I did not shed mind you), but it saves that till the very end.

More importantly my wife was happy. I’m not sure she would have been thrilled with Iron Man 2 on her one night off from kids.

Tags:

Sherlock Holmes – Movie Plug

I don’t often plug movies on my blog (though I do discuss them from time to time).  We don’t have cable and can’t keep an antenna plugged in at my house (because my two year old would pull it down).  So, we watch a lot of movies.  It now takes a good bit for a movie to impress me.  But, if you haven’t seen it yet, I do recommend the new Sherlock Holmes movie.  It’s recently released on DVD.  There are a lot of religious overtones in the movie and almost certainly something that you could use as a sermon illustration or movie clip in a study (especially if you’re interested in apocalyptic literature). So, if you do that kind of stuff, that might make it worth your time too.

I liked it a lot.

If you want to waste 99 minutes of your life …

then watch The Invention of Lying.  It’s not just the caricature of religion that is ridiculous; it’s really the whole premise of the movie.  “Being honest” apparently means blurting out random stuff even when unsolicited, even though that principle is not applied in a balanced fashion throughout.  You only have to blurt out random oddball stuff (e.g. when you just went to the bathroom).  But, you don’t have blurt out random normal stuff like “I just sent an email.”  I guess that wouldn’t be funny.

I normally like Ricky Gervais, but this one gets a “thumbs down.”  And, if you can’t see the problems with the caricature of religion, try reading this book.

Related:

Bible Movies Meme

Knowing – Just Like Signs

Psalm 124 – Video Illustration for Verses 4-5

Psalm 124.2-5

2 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
4 then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
5 then over us would have gone
the raging waters.

(Full text of Psalm 124)

Psalm 124 is reminiscent of watery chaos.  I thought this clip from the movie “The Perfect Storm” might have conveyed the imagery … okay maybe it’s a little (a lot?) over the top.  But, here it is anyway.  I think it’s the made for TV version so I believe the language is edited.  At least, it sounds like it to me.

Related Posts:

Psalm 1.4 – A Video Illustration of Chaff

Video Illustration for Psalm 124 (For the end of the text)

Bible Movies Meme

Bible Movies Meme

I’ve been reading a few of the responses to this Bible movie meme, and my Twitter friend Carmen said that she would be interested to see my response.  The meme requires that you list your favorite three Bible movies and one that you would like to see made.  This reveals more about the person writing the post obviously than really about Bible movies.  I thought this would be interesting, so here goes:

  1. The Passion of the Christ – Mel Gibson and charges of antisemitism aside this movie makes the list for one primary reason.  It is in Aramaic, and that is very cool.  When I tell people that I have studied Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic the first question many of them ask is “So, can you understand what they’re saying in the Passion of the Christ?”  And, my answer is “Some of it.” They may then say something like “Cool,” or “That’s awesome.” And, that makes me feel special.  What does this reveal about me?  I suppose it just goes to show that I can be a very shallow person.
  2. The Ten Commandments – I love this movie because I went to Catholic school for a number of years.  And, I can remember this movie being a break from regular class at some point in almost every year of my academic career.  What does this reveal about me?  It is not that I did not like religion class or that I did not have good teachers. I think it is just that I, like everyone else, need a break every now and again.  Even from religion class.
  3. Finally, I like anything VeggieTales – This one is maybe the most difficult to explain.  I’m not really that into VeggieTales.  It is just that they serve as an illustration to me.  As much as people say that they believe the Bible literally to be true and every word of it to be the word of God, when it comes down to brass tacks, they usually take out the bad parts when they present the stories to children.  And, rightfully so.  But, I can always ask my friends, “If the Bible stories themselves are literal truth, then why do you have your kids watch the VeggieTales versions?  Why not just make a real accurate cartoon depiction for them?  I mean you do want them to see the real, ‘true’ story, don’t you?  Why not make a flood cartoon where Noah looks out the ark to see all the baby and toddler corpses?”  Turns out that in practice most people do treat it like a story after all, though they would never claim to do so in theory.  Anyway …

Finally, what Bible movie would I like to see made?  Well, this one is along the lines of the previous statements about VeggieTales (you might be able to tell that this is a soap box for me).  I would like to see someone make a literal depiction of the Book of Joshua.  It is one thing to defend a text in which the characters apparently go in and slaughter whole cities of people – man, woman, and child.  But, it would be quite another thing to watch a movie version in which an Israelite runs a baby through with a sword.  I think such a movie might do a great deal to stem some of the fundamentalism that prevails in our time.  Of course, this might also be damaging to the faith of some, but I think it would be most valuable in opening up doors for a dialogue with more moderate to liberal views of scripture in which depictions of God are open to critique.  People might eventually learn that if one reads the Book of Joshua alongside the Book of Judges, that the Book of Joshua like the flood narrative is also a story (this is not to say Judges is a completely accurate historical description either, but it does serve to balance the story in Joshua).