Movies

The Woadani are a native tribe in the jungles of Ecuador along the Amazon river. They live simply as one might imagine but bore the distinction of being one of the most violent people groups known to exist. This violence perpetuated through generations of revenge killings. One family group or clan would murder with spears or machetes members of another family group or clan who had previously murdered their members. These killings had become so frequent that their entire ethnic group would have likely ceased to exist, had the killing not stopped.

This is the setting of Beyond the Gates of Splendor, a documentary on the tribe and the missionaries who impacted their lives so greatly. Five missionary families had gone down to Ecuador to reach out to many of the native peoples of that area and support the work of nearby missionaries. In 1956, the men were killed after a successful conversation with some Woadani ended in one big misunderstanding and a lie that the foreigners were there to kill them. They were speared to death.

Later, some of the Woadani very apologetically ask two of the women to come live with them. They do and by their love and teaching, many come to know Jesus through his "carvings", the Bible. Little else changes in their community, but the love of Christ alone, impacting an entire people group causes the killing to drop by more than 90%.

As you watch it, the documentary then follows one of the boys whose father was killed as he becomes friends with the men and boys of the Woadani and after he grows up, he brings his family down to Ecuador to live with them for a while.

I had already read "End of the Spear" a book by Steve Saint (the boy above) which tells both the history and of his journey back to live with the Woadani people. It's priceless though to hear and see the actual people from the widows to the grandchildren to the Woadani themselves tell the story from their perspective. And seeing Mincaye, one of the Woadani tribesmen who killed his father, walking through a grocery store with Saint is amazing.

Make sure you check out this documentary!

Deidox, produced by the Chronicle Project, are short films about real people and how God is working in their lives. Brent Gudgel and Dave Mahanes bring these untold stories to life in these films which are available for individual and large group use.

Lindsay is a young teacher who works in Middle School 223 in the Bronx, where 50% of the kids live below the poverty line. Watch the video below for a preview.

Rachel comes back home after trying a career as an actress, and she had to start off as a video girl. Grandma forces her to go back to the church of her childhood. She meets her old best friend and one of the young pastors gets interested in Rachel.

This movie had so much promise but is hindered by a bunch of things. The acting is mostly good but there were some scenes that were pretty bad. The sound editing is really lacking as within one scene the sound from one camera angle has a ton more background noise than the next angle. There were also more than a few awkward camera angles, some where they broke the rule of thirds for no apparent reason.

Ok, all that aside, the plot is pretty good but not great. David and Rachel have several struggles while David's brother Darrel lets his seriousness for the ministry get the better of his relationship with his girlfriend. The clique-ishness of some of the people is a little overblown. My concern is that its not clear that David ever asked Rachel about her relationship with Jesus. Its just kind of assumed that she must have received Christ as a child.

It bugs me that most of the characters don't learn anything through the course of the movie. For instance, Rachel has no idea that this "screen test" is not really for a standard movie. How can she not? At no point in the movie does she seem naive until this supposed "screen test". Oh yeah, then she accepts vodka at this screen test. Oops!

If the overall point, is that people should be real with each other, then, it certainly does that. The more fake they are, the worse the situation in the movie gets.

Maybe its worth a rent but this would not be a movie I'd put on my shelf.

Max Lucado, author of many inspirational Christian books including 3:16 which focuses a chapter on each aspect of the verse John 3:16, put out a supplementary video for the 3:16 study. For each chapter he has a short video clip discussing the chapter and giving additional anecdotes and stories that help explain the topic. It could be "love", "gave", "Son" or others but each one is broken down. Here's an example:

In addition, the DVD includes a short film based on a story Lucado wrote. "Wherever You Are" is about a girl who has run away from her father, whom she used to dance with, and became a stripper. Her father shows he nothing but love and tried to spend time with her but she ran away. As a metaphor for God's love for us, it works pretty well. The actor who plays the teddy bear-like father does a particularly good job.

Accoring to CMSpin.com, Rebecca St. James is busier than ever. In their post,
"Rebecca St. James' Career Balancing Act" they discuss her acting career, books she is writing and music she is working on. St. James is currently acting in "Sarah's Choice".

She portrays a single, successful young career woman faced with the unexpected news that she is pregnant—and the dramatic, life altering decision of what follows.

Rebecca St. James's book Pure also broke into the Top 10 in the "Young Adult" sales chart. Music is also on the horizon, with concert dates upcoming and songs for movie soundtracks in the works. Read the full post for more info on what she's up to.

I recently was able to start using the New Xbox Experience (NXE) through their preview program. All Xbox 360 users get it on the 19th. The NXE completely revamps the Xbox 360 interface which had become overly complex when trying to navigate through the many items available for playing or watching. Additionally it adds avatar characters which gamers can customize and that will show up in certain games.

One of the biggest changes people have been looking forward to is the partnership Microsoft struck with Netflix which allows streaming of a portion of their catalog through the Xbox 360. (Streaming has previously been available to PCs, Macs and a set-top box)

I wanted to take this opportunity to recommend some Christian and other inspirational content I've found in their streaming catalog.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed - Ben Stein examines situations of scientists being discriminated against for expousing intelligent design. He ends up cornering a couple atheist scientists on where they think life came from. Directed Panspermia FTW!

One Night with the King - The story of Queen Esther and King Xerxes. Esther hides her Hebrew background to survive and ends up selected to be Xerxes' queen. Her humility and strength played a huge role in her selection. Though she knew she risked death she went to the king to ask him to save the Jews. The film is beautifully done and both actors do a great job.

Thr3e - The thriller from Ted Dekker brought to screen. The Riddle Killer, responsible for the death of police psychologist Jennifer Peters' brother, appears to be behind the attempted murder and stalking of seminary student Kevin Parson. Parson is given a deadline to confess a certain sin or die.

Hermie and Friends - Animated videos for kids. I haven't had a chance to watch these but I hear great things.

God's Outlaw: The Story of William Tyndale - Known as the "Father of the English Bible," Tyndale worked tirelessly to translate and publish an English Bible during an era when prayers uttered in English were outlawed.

Remember, both Netflix and Blockbuster have gigantic DVD mail rental catalogs but Netflix's internet streaming catalog is much smaller. This is some of the best I've found to stream from Netflix but there is more.

House started out as a book co-written by best-selling authors Ted Dekker (of the Circle Trilogy) and Frank Peretti (from Piercing the Darkness). In it, Jack and Stephanie are headed to couples counseling when they are diverted and trapped in a house with another troubled couple. They must deal with the evil within their own hearts in order to survive.

Directed by Robby Henson, the movie adaptation of House did not do well in its first weekend in theaters. It opened 24th at the box office in 363 theaters according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. House earned $329,836, or $909 per theater, and was even beaten by Bill Maher's Religulous which came in at #20 in its sixth week. Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron, came in 13th in its seventh week earning over $1.5 million.

Todd Hertz, over at Christianity Today Movies, wrote a great review of House which you need to check out. He thought the book's narrative was "heavy-handed" but that a faster paced movie could really make an impact. The premise of a horror film where the penalty for the characters sins is their death but someone comes in and pays that penalty for them is very Biblical and powerful. Hertz says the movie is hurt by some of the director's decisions including "a lot of MTVish fast-forward and quick-cut devices that make it very hard for the terror to settle over the viewer". Also, the salvation climax is faster paced than the book but too fast, barely long enough to allow the audience or characters to realize "why or how they had been saved".

At the same time, Hertz says that Henson has shown significant improvement over his two previous adaptations - Dekker's Thr3e and Peretti's The Visitation.

The anthropic principle is the idea that the universe has been "finely-tuned" to allow for life to occur. If any one of dozens of quantities (forces, quantities of elements, etc) were slightly different from what they are, complex life such as humans would not be possible. This is what "The Privileged Planet" is supposedly about. In fact, it takes the principle to another level.

Already, the argument is quite compelling. What are the chances of a universe capable of supporting life coming about through purely random circumstances? Slim-to-none doesn't even cover it. In fact the number, even though different people will give you different ones, is so infinitesimally small, it is essentially zero.

Let's tack on to that something new. It seems that some of the things that make the Earth and even the Universe perfect for human life are the same things that make it perfect for scientific discovery. These are the features that the makers of The Privileged Planet discuss.

One example is the transparency of our atmosphere. It allows visible light through and protects from most of the other radiation types, many of which are harmful. It allows us, even ancient astronomers, to look out and observe the Universe. Certain features of the solar system allow many asteroids to be blocked before reaching Earth. Our solar system's position in the Milky Way allows us to see out into the rest of the universe. (It is very close to a spiral arm, that if it were inside, all we would see is dust)

Check out the video, narrated by John Rhys-Davies on DVD. There are several nice bonus features. Some of the video is available on YouTube.

VeggieTales - the cartoons with morals, have continued to entertain kids and adults for several years now. "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" is their second movie on the big screen and was released back in January. It brought in more than $4 million in opening weekend box office receipts and more than $12 million during its 2-month run according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

In the movie, Larry the Cucumber, Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt, learn what it means to be heroes when a princess' ship is captured. These wannabe pirates were first seen in the sing-along song of the same name which you can find in one of their earliest animated videos.

Produced by Big Idea, the VeggieTales videos are well known for comical, friendly vegetables telling stories with a moral lesson. Many of the stories are straight out of the Bible including my favorite "Rack, Shack and Benny" (read: Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego). The story of three young men (or in this case, vegetables) who stay true to their God despite strong pressure from the king to worship other gods is a very powerful one.

In this video, Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer from Big Idea talk about the movie:

UPDATE: CNN Showbiz has also written about Fireproof and its success. Additionally, my pastor, Rev. Carr of North Central Baptist blogged about the movie this week.

Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron, debuted at #4 during the last weekend of September. Cameron plays a firefighter who's family is about to be split by divorce. He is encouraged by his father to take the "Love Dare", showing love to his wife in different ways for 40 days.

Christian Press reports that Fireproof opened "on 839 screens, grossing $6,804,764 with a per-screen average of $8,111." The production companies credit a massive grass roots effort with the marketing success.

I first heard about the movie Fireproof from our local Christian radio network, the Joy FM. The "Morning Cruise" DJs were able to interview Cameron and others involved with the movie and even tour the set. The opening weekend success of Fireproof, and the previous theatrical success of Facing the Giants shows that American movie goers are looking for meaningful and entertaining films.