NEW! Friday Ebert check: The Wrestler, Valkyrie, Others

The greatest movie critic we have is Roger Ebert. Here is his page. You’ll see why I think so by checking an old, old post I did on him. It is wholly worthwhile absolutely critical that you check in with him before seeing anything. Dude knows his stuff. And here are his ratings of the movies which [...]

Spokesperson for Disney villians declares group’s support for Bush’s veto on SCHIP: Calls move “pro-cigarette and anti-poor child, the perfect one-two”

Mary Malevolent, spokesperson for DisneyVillians, Inc., asked me to print this response to President Bush’s veto of the bipartisan SCHIP bill, which would have expanded health care to millions of uninsured children:
Greetings.
I understand there has been considerable frustration with President Bush for vetoing this bill, but I am here on behalf of DisneyVillians, Inc. to provide an [...]

Movie franchises that need to die a brutal, ‘Saw’-like death very, very soon: Complaint from a frustrated film-goer

When I go to see a new movie, I’m ready to get lost in a story. A good story. There’s nothing like sinking into a dark movie theater and being absorbed in a process that has gone on for millenia, that is, the process of storytelling. Some films, you can tell, take the burden of [...]

A couple things about Bob Dylan

For the Bob Dylan nuts out there, I’ll give you some info to which you’re probably hip. November 21, 2007, is the date that a new biopic of the enigmatic songwriter enters into a limited release here in the U.S. It’s called I’m Not There, named after a highly regarded unpublished track Dylan wrote that reportedly [...]

mr. beale’s frontier spirit re-awakened by ‘3:10 to Yuma’

Over the weekend I saw 3:10 to Yuma, and it about sent me over the edge crazy about the whole Western thing. I’ve been listening to a lot of Josh Ritter lately (as in, A LOT), so I’m ready to fill my family room with all the great Westerns and watch them all. Give me [...]

Umm, question: Am I supposed to laugh, or cringe? Christian film strikes back

For those of you who have been DYING for another brilliantly awkward Christian film to hit the theaters, your wait is over. Only, not really, because this is a straight-to-DVD release, as far as I can tell. It’s called The Genius Club, and its starring the Hollywood posterboy for moviestar-turned-fundy, Stephen Baldwin.
Check it.

Ok [...]

The day the house fell on the wicked witch of Colorado Springs: Why I think James Dobson is a closet witch (The Dobson Invectives, no. 3)

I do, from time to time, peruse Mr. Dobson’s fine website PluggedIn Online, which is meant as a resource for Christian parents seeking “Christian film reviews” for new music, film, and book releases (and is the object of the final Dobson potshot I’ll be taking, which will be finished, someday!).
There are predictable friends, and likely [...]

We’ve all got it coming, kid: Clint Eastwood, Iwo Jima, and the death of modernity

After finishing both Flags of our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, I realized that Clint Eastwood is trying to tell us something really, really big.
Here’s a man who made his name in Westerns and hard-bitten cop movies, a kind of career that becomes noteworthy merely for it’s blockbuster success and nothing else. But after [...]

Hey, wait – tonight we’re dining WHERE?? Oh, this won’t end well at all! Thoughts after having finally finished ‘300′

Just a short word or two about 300, that visual smorgasbord of gore so massively hyped by nearly everyone I know. If you want a really good, devastatingly Christian critique of 300, read Ron’s blog entry about the film he wrote during the Lent season. That’s good stuff.
There is one scene in particular that [...]

Two man-crushes in the same virtual room together?! Hold true, dear fragile bladder!

Now how’s that for an earthy title?
Well the cause for excitement was two-fold: first, that I finally found David Dark’s blog. Sweet, sweet, sweet! This man has radically altered my perception of the world more than nearly anyone.
And second, I found it via an interview he did with my man-crush of the season, Brian McLaren!
Two [...]