Chasing Comets (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: Rugby player Chase (Dan Ewing), after being caught cheating by his girlfriend Brooke (Dan Ewing), has lost his self-confidence and decides to make some changes. For a start, guided by his local reverend (George Houvardas), he takes a vow of abstinence and sets out to prove that he can be faithful in more ways than one. However, between the jeerings of his local town in response and the perplexed reactions of his best mate Rhys (Stan Walker), his plan to take control of his life again is going to be an uphill struggle.

Mary Magdalene (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: In 1st century C.E., Jewish woman Mary Magdalene (Rooney Mara) is stuck in a society that treats her existence as inherently lesser than the closest man, not to mention the oppression of her people by the Roman Empire. However, she soon connects with the prophet Jesus (Joaquin Phoenix), who along with his Apostles seem fit to change all that. As they travel the cities, spreading their gospel of forgiveness, it seems that salvation will come in a form that none of them could have ever predicted.

The Star (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: Grain mill donkey Bo (Steven Yeun) dreams of being part of the royal caravan in Jerusalem. However, once he notices a particularly bright star in the sky, he realizes that something special is about to happen. With Dave the dove (Keegan-Michael Key) and Ruth the sheep (Aidy Bryant) in tow, he sets out to find Mary (Gina Rodriguez) and Joseph (Zachary Levi), who are about to be parents to the saviour of all humanity.

The Shack (2017) - Movie Review

 

This film isn’t getting an introduction. It doesn’t deserve an introduction. And hopefully, by the end of this review, you’ll understand why because a shocking lack of people seem to see this film for what it truly is. Let’s get this shit over and done with because I am legitimately getting more pissed the more brain power I have to devote to it.

90 Minutes In Heaven (2016) - Movie Review

It’s religious cinema time again! I want to point out that I am not doing this because such films are generally easy targets; sitting through God’s Not Dead 2 was anything but easy. No, I maintain that I want to see really good religious cinema come to theatres around here. One of my favourite films is Kevin Smith’s Dogma, something that affected me so deeply as to completely shape my views on theology to what they are today, and I’d give anything for someone else to be similarly affected by a recent release. The problem is, between the preachiness, toxicity and just plain banality that fills an awful lot of these kinds of releases, it doesn’t look hopeful. Not that I can guess who will be influenced by what; I’m just saying that, if there are people who sees something positive and enlightening in something like War Room, I’ll be happy for them from a very, very safe distance. So, on my quest to find a Christian film that doesn’t suck on toast, I came across this fairly recent release featuring Hayden Christensen. Well, that optimism was nice while it lasted.

God's Not Dead 2 (2016) - Movie Review

I doubt I will ever dread seeing a film for the rest of the year more so than this one. The first film was one of the first that I covered on this blog and… well, it is ugly on just about every level imaginable. As such, I spent two weeks prior to the film’s release to try and convince someone I knew, anyone I knew, to see this film with me. Needless to say, trying to sell someone else on a film that even you don’t want to see is a tall order. Thankfully, I did find someone else to watch it with and share the pain, but that kind of shows just how much seems to have changed over the last two years. Back then, I was that ill-prepared that I had to edit down entire pages worth of notes on the film out of some fear that I’d piss off Christians; now, I actually some confidence in being able to be non-biased and fair to this film. Does it deserve such treatment? Well, only one way to find out as we look at this inexplicably wide release; seriously, this is the biggest release I’ve seen for any Christian film in the last several years over here in Australia.

PK (2014) - Movie Review

It’s one thing to go into a film with a general assumption about whether it’ll be good or bad based on what you know about the film beforehand. It’s quite another thing, however, when you go into a film without any idea what to expect because, quite frankly, you don’t know thing one about the film itself. Granted, this is far less a case for people who do the sensible thing and choose what they see at the cinema, but for critics who have to see and give an opinion on as many movies that come out as possible (or idiots like me who have a compulsion to do a similar thing), there can be the occasional blinder. The last time this happened for me personally, funnily enough, was with Happy New Year, another Bollywood movie. This is another one of those occasions: This is PK.

God's Not Dead (2014) - Movie Review

I am not really a religious person, but I don’t identify as an atheist either. Since I don’t think what I believe falls under agnosticism either, I have taken to calling myself a ‘cynical spiritualist’. I believe that everyone is free to believe what they want without being persecuted. However, if someone uses their religious leanings (or lack thereof) as their reasoning for doing stupid/vile things, for example the Westboro Baptist Church, I believe that we are all well within our rights to mock them for doing so. Punish for what they do, not what they think. My own personal philosophies have been brewed over time from a mixture of tenets from different religions (e.g. Christianity, Buddhism, Ancient Egyptian, Dudeism, among others), and they continue to build themselves over time. I have, at different points in my life, identified as a Christian and a rather militant Atheist, so I like to think that I can look at today’s film with some level of objectivity. Then again, talking about religion on the internet is like coating yourself in gasoline: You’re kind of asking for flames.