The
perennial debate over Creation/Evolution aside, my wife and three teenage
children and I sat down together for a Friday evening together recently to
enjoy homemade pizza, buttered popcorn and an advance screening of Ice Age 3. As expected, the voices were
familiar, the storyline was hilarious and the dialogue was captivating—even for
adults. Of course, that same dialogue was sometimes a little too adult, and
sometimes even a bit humanistic. “I knew when he was just a caterpillar,” one
character says as a giant, colorful butterfly flies overhead, “—before he came
out.” Only the adults in the room snickered at that one, while the more impressionable
youngsters continued to take in the worldview-changing scenery. Another time,
the bumbling Sid exclaims, “It’s a boy,” to which another character responds ,
“That’s just her tail.” Still, for teenagers who have already had their
Christian worldview defined and for adults looking for a cute movie, Ice Age 3 is a keeper. Just be sure not
to share this with young ’uns under the age of 12—unless they’re under the age
of 8. A little humanistic but a lot more hilarious. A tad bit sexual but a lot
more comical. A good set of parents will be able to able to guide their kids
through this one okay.
When a
movie starts out showing a funeral scene, it’s obvious a drama is about to
begin. This story is about two lives that take much different directions. We
follow the tale of two high school boys, one who walks with a limp and a gun
while the other dribbles a basketball and walks with a girl. The two boys had
originally been best friends, but over time a separation has occurred. Now one
has committed suicide, and the star basketball player and his blonde
cheerleader girlfriend are left to ponder what happened. Fortunes change,
however. During an underage keg party, our star is suddenly abandoned by his
girl. Then the boy realizes his parents hate each other and that his life is
centered too much on sports. Suddenly he’s torn between his girlfriend and his
conscience, Thrown into this confusing mix is the fact a pastor’s son is
smoking weed, and suddenly our basketball star is more interested in God than
the PK. The kid ends up asking a youth pastor why there are so many fakes
inside the church. “But that’s not what it’s about,” replies the pastor. As if
things aren’t complicated enough, this guy’s girlfriend next announces she’s
pregnant, and then he learns his parents are getting a divorce, Fortunately,
just when this boy’s life is totally headed downhill, he turns to God for
answers. The disturbing thing for this reviewer was that, just when this
athlete ready to give up his college basketball scholarship and prove his love
to his girlfriend by helping her raise their child, at the very end they give
up their child to adoption. Adoption is tons laudable than abortion, granted,
but the storyline could have been much stronger (and believable) had they kept
their child. Oh well, maybe there will be a sequel? This film ends up being
very realistic, very deep and very spiritual.
Historically,
Christian-based action movies have tended to be a little lame in both the
acting and the action categories. IN BLINK OF AN EYE, however, features not
only super cinematography but shows a criminal actually gets shot in the face
within the first 10 minutes of the film (not lame at all). Fortunately the
crime wasn’t violent enough to send my 12-year-old son upstairs to bed, and it
was actually funny to hear my teenage daughter Aletheia exclaim “Kissing!” at
another point in the film—yet another former no-no for religious movies. The
pro-Israel dialogue in this film was pretty over-the-top (even if I agree with
the politics) but otherwise the conversations were fairly realistic and
believable. This thriller’s storyline begins with the kidnapping of a pop
singer, who is then rescued by two brave cops, who subsequently are invited
aboard the singer’s boyfriend’s yacht for a vacation in Mexico. The wife of one
of the officers is soon “led to the Lord” by the wife of the other officer, who
then shares the gospel with her husband. While relaxing on a seashore, however,
the unsaved husband falls asleep and finds himself alone on the beach; when he
awakens, all the Christians are gone and only the cynics remain. Fortunately
for him, it was only a dream. But then, when the couple heads back out to the
surf aboard their Wave Runners, his wife again disappears and the boat’s radio
is beaming conversations about frantic disappearances and the end of the world.
It’s déjà vu all over again, with the same lines being recited and the same pop
song (“I’ll be your sugar, baby, I’ll be your ice cream”) playing on the radio
during every occurrence (which all turn out to be mere visions). This Christian
movie is, like most other religious films, predictable. But this time, it’s
predictable because that’s part of the Groundhog-Day storyline. One potential
downside: Although church audiences will enjoy this movie, secular crowds might
be bothered by too much Scripture quoting and preaching a mere 20 minutes into
the film. But then again, for a movie directed toward a religious crowd that’s
probably totally okay.
A
spousal argument is shown at the beginning of this film, followed soon after by
a crying baby and scenes from a sobbing wife, Two guys are next shown talking
about what makes a good wife: Being able to make a good sandwich? What’s her dad
like? Does she show respect? We next see a single dad, Jeff, talking to his
son, Ethan, about inviting a woman, Katie, to travel with them—after which the
three of them are shown sampling home-cooked meals together. A Christian work
colleague invites the man’s son to church camp, and then we see a mixture of
work scenes, church camp scenes and social scenes. After a while of this
confusion, my wife had to explain to me that Heather, who was married to Jeff
when Ethan was born, works at this church, and suddenly we begin to wonder if
reconciliation might be possible. This is where the storyline begins to make
sense and becomes extremely interesting. A former drug and alcohol addict,
Heather had become involved in church. She begs her former husband’s forgiveness,
which he’s not able to offer right away. But Jeff begins spending more and more
time with his former wife, even introducing her to his business partner. The
father then sits down with his son to talk about rediscovering his mother—his
real mother. This gives the little boy a chance to hear the truth about a
changed life, about how God works to bring healing to a relationship, and about
how God is the God of second chances. Kudos.
Film
festival award winner Brett Varvel directs this captivating story about the
fate of one man’s soul through a dramatic tale, which introduces a new
perspective on the inner debates of man and speaks to the faith community and
the world in an entirely new way. This is an extremely creative idea for a
film, and even more amazing that the actors were all amateurs. “I think this
is an astonishingly good piece of filmmaking and genuine ministry,” says
Congressman Mike Pence. “The conclusion literally had me in tears on a plane
back to Washington D.C.” A film produced by Bethesda Baptist Church, THE
BOARD tells about a board meeting attended by “Mind,” “Emotion,” “Will,”
“Memory,” “Conscience” and “Heart,” who together tell the story of how God
speaks to a person’s soul. This is one you’ll want to watch several times to
pick up all the details of the inner workings of a person’s spirit, as God’s
standards for humans are discussed and debated throughout the 32-minute film
The
final installment in this hit movie series (based on the Love Comes Softly
books by Janette Oke) stars Patty Duke and Haley Duff. The acting seems a
little rehearsed at times, though in a Western setting that’s really not
all that noticeable. Other than the recited lines, the acting is superb,
the cinematography is awesome and the storyline is as good as anything one
would expect out of Hollywood. The spiritual message is just under the
surface during the dialogue, and not a hit-them-over-the-head pushy
kind.A problem pregnancy sets the
backdrop for this drama, which is interspersed with bits of humor. It’s not
only old-style occupational roles but also old-fashioned marital roes that
do a lot of clashing in this film, as the independently minded women tend
to be the leaders while the males are portrayed as a little mousey. In
fact, the husbands don’t relate to their wives well and the fathers can’t
relate to their daughters well. But then again, I guess that’s pretty much
as real-life as it gets. Since it’s the female crowd that loves these
movies (and books) the most, I’m sure they’ll find plenty to smile about
watching this DVD.
Video Reviews
