I imagine that many Americans skipped right over the Coen Brothers’ 2009 film “A Serious Man” for many reasons — not the least of which is that the title does not exactly suggest a holiday tent-pole extravaganza.  It also probably didn’t help that the film centers entirely on Jewish characters set in a Jewish community in a small American town.  Sure, there are a few million Jews here in the U.S., but I’m not telling stories out of school by mentioning there are a hundred thirty million (or more?) folks who identify themselves as Christian.

The great thing is that we can learn much from those of other faiths without sacrificing our own beliefs and, hence, the value of “A Serious Man.” The film is about faith.  It doesn’t matter how you cloak that faith in religious terms.  The Coens have made a film that speaks universally to all faiths, and even to atheists. So while it happens to be set in a Jewish world, every single thing that happens could just as easily have happened to Christians or Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus.

And that is why you should see it. No matter what branch of faith you reside in, you will find plenty to identify with in this wonderful, dark, insightful, and thought-provoking movie.

There are spoilers ahead, but for now I’ll speak in generalities and a few specifics that do not impact the viewing experience and let you know about the big spoilers.

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Brent Bozell:

In an interview on the Catholic cable channel EWTN, Estevez joked about the horror of making the pitch for this movie about a pilgrimage – no massive special effects, no parade of gore or bedroom scenes with nudity. It’s just an old man hiking across Spain with three people he meets along the way. It’s a small movie, made on a small budget. It’s about our humanity and our spirituality. It’s so easy to imagine Tinseltown’s eyes glazing over.

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But what Estevez said in that interview was still striking. “Hollywood is a very difficult place to be earnest and be heartfelt. And I am not interested in making films that are anything but. There’s a lot of vulgarity in films. There’s a lot of violence, casual sex – things that make me uncomfortable watching – and I’m not interested in perpetuating that message.”  …

Here’s how “The Way” unfolds. Sheen’s character, California ophthalmologist Tom Avery, is a widower who’s been angry at his son’s decision to forego a graduate degree to wander the world. While Avery’s out on the golf course, a French policeman calls to tell him his son has died in a storm in the Pyrenees. When Avery arrives to identify the body, the policeman tells him about the “camino,” and he resolves to travel the route with his son’s cremated remains. On this very long walk, he finds companionship with a burly Dutchman who wants to lose weight, an Irish writer with writer’s block, and a bitter Canadian woman trying to quit smoking – and ultimately rediscovers his lost faith.

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Sherwood Baptist Church Associate Pastor Alex Kendrick joined the culture wars after reading a poll claiming film, television and the Internet had a bigger cultural influence than the local church.

But Kendrick couldn’t predict the impact his Albany, Ga. church would make on a film industry indifferent to matters of faith.

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Kendrick rallied his 3,000-member congregation to fund the 2003 film “Flywheel.” The movie, which followed a sketchy car salesman who finds Jesus Christ, ended up playing six consecutive weeks at a Georgia movie house despite featuring an all-volunteer crew. The film’s shock success helped fuel “Facing the Giants” and “Fireproof,” two faith-based indies which proved more profitable than many Hollywood features.

“Fireproof,” budgeted at $500,000, hauled in $33 million with no bankable stars and a tiny marketing push.

By the church’s own standards, Kendrick‘s latest film represents a quantum leap in both budget and outreach.

“Courageous” tracks four police officers whose lives are changed after tragedy strikes close to home. It’s a tale of grief and healing, one that emphasizes the profound influence fathers have on their children.

The film cost $1 million to produce and will be shown in nearly 1,000 screens nationwide as well as in Canada starting Sept. 30.

Kendrick and crew researched the role fathers play in the family structure before making “Courageous,“ uncovering some alarming statistics along the way. They learned more than 90 percent of gang members come from fatherless homes.

“They’re looking for that belonging to a male group,” says Kendrick, who typically writes, produces and directs his church’s films as well as appears in front of the camera.

Children who grow up without a strong, positive male figure are also less likely to believe in a higher power.

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Cowboys & Aliens is a highly enjoyable film with a good heart. It’s a great way to while away a couple of hours, and audiences will be the better for having been exposed to its themes. It could have been a classic, however, had the filmmakers done a bit more homework about how great movie Westerns of the past were assembled.

Directed by Jon Favreau (the Iron Man films, Elf, Zathura) from a script by multiple hands, Cowboys & Aliens has plenty of energy and action and is quite enjoyable, but it suffers from a curious lack of interesting plot twists and a rather glaring casting misstep. Most classic Westerns, contrary to contemporary beliefs, were given excellent, complex plots with strong character motivations. Unfortunately, the plot of Cowboys & Aliens is relatively simple.

We know from the film’s title and trailers that aliens are going to attack in the Old West, and it’s axiomatic that once that happens, the earthlings will fight back. So, no surprises there. Once the Western-standard mysterious stranger Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) arrives in town, we know the aliens won’t be far behind. And once he poses a challenge to the rule of the Western-standard arrogant ranch king Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), we know that the two will reconcile at some point in order to fight the aliens together.

The same is true of the choices made by Dolarhyde’s arrogant idiot son, Percy, Indian guide Nat Colorado (Adam Beach), and the tribe of Apache Indians who capture the small band of people fighting the aliens. Colorado is a likeable character, thanks to Beach’s understated performance and his character’s interesting and laudable longing to be a valued member of the society and in particular of Dolarhyde’s ranch team. Unfortunately, he’s not seen all that much.

The Apaches inject dramatic energy and an amusing element of political incorrectness in their savage, unruly celebration after capturing a group of white settlers. But none of them are given complex or particularly unusual characters. Of course, although classic Hollywood Westerns showed the Indians in a much more positive light than contemporary film historians acknowledge, they weren’t always given characters as complex as the protagonists’, just as is the case here. That’s natural to any story: the subsidiary characters aren’t explored as deeply as the main ones. And in Cowboys & Aliens, as in the best Westerns of Hollywood’s golden age, the Indians are shown making real, reasoned choices, which is a nice throwback to the classic Western approach.

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Soul Surfer

These days, it seems everyone wants to be famous – and the younger the person, the more attention-obsessed they seem to be. But what if you garnered international attention because a shark literally bit off your arm?

That was the dilemma faced by Bethany Hamilton on Halloween of 2003, when the teenage champion surfer survived a surprise shark attack off the coast of her home in Hawaii. Yet unlike others who have made the news due to freak occurrences, Hamilton has continued to fascinate the media due to the fact that she not only survived and recovered, but has become an even bigger star surfer since then.

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Her odds-defying story is now the basis of the new film “Soul Surfer,” which dives in to Hamilton’s story by showing that her entire family has two big passions: catching waves and celebrating their Christian faith. Early on, the couple of church scenes seem like a gloss as the focus rests on surfing action and Bethany’s teenage social life.

But once the film digs deeper into her story with the attack and a riveting sequence depicting her family’s desperate race to get her to a hospital, “Surfer” finds surer footing and its performances – including Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt as Bethany’s parents, and Anna Sophia Robb as Bethany herself, with “American Idol” champion and country singing superstar Carrie Underwood as her youth minister – also take root.

Aside from the inherent spectacle of surfing Hawaii’s spectacular coastline in competitions, “Surfer” proves affecting not only for its depiction of a family bonding through trauma but also for its portrayal of Bethany’s mission trip to the Indonesian coast after the devastating tsunami there. Her realization that there’s always a bigger crisis than your own to help others through is a timely reminder amid the ongoing tragedy in Japan.

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There’s nothing at all in the trailer to indicate the faith elements that are obviously a very big part of the true story of Bethany Hamilton — a young surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack and through the love of her parents, her Christian faith, and an incredible amount of determination, miraculously returned to tournament surfing. Instead, the marketing’s aimed directly at teens and positioned as a coming of age/overcoming obstacles/feel good film. Nothing wrong with that. As long as the film itself is true to the faith elements (from what I’ve read, it is), this is probably a wise move. People already aware of the story will show up, so why categorize your product as a “Christian film” if it’s so much more?

This is how it used to be, anyway, before Hollywood grew so openly hostile to Christianity. Hollywood always uses “reflecting reality” as an excuse for its coarseness, but won’t do so to reflect the reality of how the Christian faith is a central component in the lives of most Americans. Our faith is as natural a part of who we are as our work and family and secular lives, so there’s no reason to, for lack of a better term, “ghetto-ize” this kind of story as Christian.

In the real world, this is a universal story, no?

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If you want to understand why, 55 years on, Cecil B. DeMille’s epic retelling of the story of Moses, from his birth to ascendancy into Heaven, is still as beloved today as it was when released during the first term of the Eisenhower administration, all you need do is watch the director explain the theme of his masterpiece in the short segment that opens the film. It’s an odd moment. After all, how many movies open with the director stepping out from behind a curtain to lay the groundwork for what’s to follow? This unconventional decision more than works, though, as it sets a thoughtful and reverential tone that will carry you through the upcoming 220 minutes.

Mr. DeMille tells us outright…

“The theme of this picture is whether man ought to be ruled by God’s law or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Ramses. Are men property of the State, or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today.”

Yes, today, and not just where “The Ten Commandments” is set — throughout the Middle East in countries such as Egypt — but also here in America as we watch an ever-growing federal government burden us with debt and chip away at our liberties. I’m not comparing Egypt’s current struggle with our own in any way other than how DeMille’s use of this universal theme speaks in some way to everyone and will for as long as there’s a civilization. As his epic unfolds, this is the theme DeMille holds on to, straight through to the story’s final line of dialogue — Moses’ (Charlton Heston) parting words to Joshua (John Derek) before he joins the God who has put him through so much:

“Go. Proclaim liberty throughout all the lands, unto all the inhabitants there of.”

Last week I watched the entire film straight through twice, once on the big-screen at a special event commemorating the film’s Blu-ray release, and again just a few days later on the actual Blu-ray. The finest compliment I can pay one of Hollywood’s all-time great epics is that I could watch it again tonight and enjoy it just as much. DeMille’s world is so vivid, so detailed and all consuming, that after spending nearly four hours visiting, you just want to return to lose yourself into it again and again. The story stays with you for days and you truly do miss spending time with those wonderfully drawn characters.

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As a Christian, I’ve grown up with the debate between free will and predestination. Is my faith in Christ my choice, or did God choose me so that I had no choice in the matter? The Adjustment Bureau, a new film from established writer and first-time director George Nolfi explores the balance between fate and free will in a story that spans the genres. 

“The Adjustment Bureau” is all things to all people. For sci-fi fans it’s based on (though largely changed from) a short story by Philip K. Dick,who wrote “Blade Runner.” For thriller fans, it’s written and directed by one of the writers of “Ocean’s 12” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.” For comedy fans, the dialogue is witty and fresh, and for romantics, it’s a love story. 

The Adjustment Bureau is the story of David Norris (Matt Damon), a young politician on the verge of becoming one of New York’s senators. A chance meeting with a ballerina named Elise (Emily Blunt) threatens to ruin his dreams however, when the agents of Fate itself step in and try to steer him back onto the political course outlined for him, and away from the woman he loves. Ultimately, they give him a choice: a chance to change the world, or the freedom to be with the woman he loves. 

I’m typically not a fan of films that are written and directed by the same person. Having a director who can reign in a writer, or who knows how to edit out needless dialogue or scenes is essential. Unless you’ve got the talent of George Nolfi, who has kept the dialogue real throughout the film. 

The acting is solid. Damon and Blunt play off each other expertly, and the agents of fate are neither friendly or villainous. They are doing their job. 

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George Nolfi has been one of Hollywood’s hottest rising writers of intelligent action films, having had a hand in the smash hits “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Ocean’s Twelve.” Working with Matt Damon on both of those films, he developed a strong rapport that made him pick Damon as his first choice for his dream project and directing debut: an adaptation of legendary sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick’s short story “The Adjustment Bureau.”

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Dick’s books and stories have served as the fodder for some of Hollywood’s most striking films of the past three decades, including the timeless classic “Blade Runner.” In them, he addresses issues of free will and consciousness, and how much control we really have over our lives and destinies. That theme has never been laid out as strongly as it has in “Bureau,” which is a must-see film not only for film buffs of any stripe but especially for Christian filmgoers who wonder why Hollywood doesn’t deal with spiritual matters in a deep and meaningful way and bemoan the lack of entertainment value in independent Christian films that often don’t know how to entertain.

Nolfi has hit this one out of the park, and he has been involved in a massive national outreach to Christian churches and colleges designed to alert them to this extremely worthy film. He sat down for a phone interview with Big Hollywood and discussed the magic of his movie.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: How were you drawn to this subject matter? Were you just a fan of Philip K. Dick, or was there a spiritual element?

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I think Ricky Gervais’s television shows are hilarious, but he really should leave theology to other people.  He said in a recent article, A Holiday Message From Ricky Gervais: Why I’m an Atheist:

The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.

This statement, and several other things about his article, dismayed me.  However, his article was also instructive for those who want to look beyond its text.  I’ll get to that in a moment.

But first, why did Mr. Gervais and the media choose to release this article right before Christmas?  Nice timing.  Very respectful.  Why is it that Joy Behar storms off her own show because Bill O’Reilly makes a statement about Muslims and everyone cheers her, yet nobody has a problem with Mr. Gervais insulting Christians?  Mind you, it doesn’t bother me that his statement bothers people.  In fact, those who believe in God (regardless of religious affiliation) should welcome such a challenge. It’s the timing that is disrespectful.

Second, there’s an arrogance that oozes throughout the piece.  Mr. Gervais is so insistent that he is right – a trait often exuded by those on the Left — that he subsequently relies on faulty logic and a few bad childhood experiences to bolster his case. (more…)

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Here’s a list of theatres and release dates.

Before Season 6, my wife was a die-hard “Lost” fan.  For five years, during the appointed hour, I wasn’t allowed to so much as breathe.  And heaven help me if I had to walk past the TV screen.  Suddenly, my normally mild-mannered wife could hurl the remote with notable precision and ferocity.

Five years of secret hatches.  Ancient four-toed statues.  Teleporting cabins.  A string of lottery numbers popping up everywhere.  Weird pseudo-science. Steampunk technology.  The Dharma Initiative.  (Remember that?)  And what the heck was a polar bear doing on a tropical island?

“Lost” was a major brain tease, too.  Naming so many of the characters after philosophers (Locke, Rousseau, Hume, etc.) was a stroke of genius – paper-thin genius, I later learned, as few of the characters had much to do with their namesakes.  (My favorite character name was Charlotte Staples Lewis, i.e., C. S. Lewis – incidentally, his middle name really was Staples.)

As the show’s intellectual promise faded, my interest flagged, but it really took a tumble during Season 5, when time travel, the last refuge of a desperate sci-fi writer, reared its inevitable head. (more…)

I read kids’ books because the fun the author had writing shines through and drips from the pages. I think that’s the secret behind the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Kids and adults enjoy reading what authors enjoy writing. 

I was reminded of this a couple months ago when I read author Andrew Klavan’s “The Long Way Home,” second book of his The Homelanders series. You can read the first chapter here on BH. The series centers on high school student Charlie West, who wakes up one morning to a world turned upside down. The last year of his life has been erased from memory, and he’s running from police for a murder he didn’t commit. He’s also running – for his life – from a terrorist group called the Homelanders, who claim he’s a former member and want to silence him. Faced with prison from one side and death from the other, Charlie must rely on his karate black belt, a few high school friends and his faith to maneuver the fog of uncertainty surrounding him and discover the truth. 

“The Long Way Home” is a fast-paced read that feels like you are watching the opening sequences of “Casino Royale” over and over again. For example, the book starts: “The man with the knife was a stranger. I never saw him before he tried to kill me.” It doesn’t let up from there.  (more…)

Summer is the season of blockbuster action flicks, big budget epics and mad-cap comedies – the usual Hollywood fare. While I’m no encyclopedia of movie awareness, I find it unfortunate that Hollywood often goes out of its way to portray people of faith in a less-than-positive light on screen.

If you’re looking for that type of movie, then “Letters to God,” may not be your bag of popcorn. “Letters to God” makes no pretenses about its aim. It is a movie about faith in God – a movie that celebrates the value that faith can bring to life on earth.

The movie shares a story of a young boy named Tyler facing his personal storm — aggressive brain cancer – with pure trust in God, a dash of humor, and great hope. Not necessarily hope for himself and his own medical needs, but hope that everyone he loves will be granted a bright and happy future, even if he’s not there to see it. It’s a simple love for his family and friends that is shared in letters he writes to God, letters that are intercepted and read by a down-and-out mailman.

The mailman, early on, feeling like he’s not the right person to handle the letters, takes them to a church and tries to pass them off to a cleric. The cleric refuses to take them, telling the mailman that God has put the letters in his hands for some reason that he cannot explain, but that undoubtedly something good will come. (more…)

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As anyone in the entertainment industry will tell you, it is a miracle that any film actually gets made.  From the moment a writer sits down with an idea to the first time the movie actually graces the screen, a film has passed through the care of so many people, so many unique personalities and competing visions and interests, that even the simplest film is a defiance of the odds.

To Save a Life is not a simple film.

From the moment we meet Jake Taylor, high school (and soon-to-be college) basketball star, it is clear we are meeting a young man in crisis.  Jake’s world has been upended by the recent and very public suicide of his childhood friend Roger – a relationship Jake had forsaken in recent years as his own star was on the rise.  For Jake, the burden of guilt for the choices he did and did not make along the way have become a crushing rebuke.  The young man is lost.

Unfortunately for Jake, introspection is not a welcome trait among his top-of-the-food chain peers. Instead, Jake finds common ground with Chris, a local Christian youth-pastor carrying his own guilt over Roger’s death. Chris, who struggles to navigate a true course through the often false world of Christian culture, detects an authenticity in Jake’s growing and self-imposed alienation from his equally false high school aristocracy.  Jake detects in Chris an authentic faith.  As the story unfolds, the two men help one another to stand against the tides of inconsistency in both worlds. (more…)

“One day I heard this voice, like it was coming from inside me. It led me to a place… I found this book, buried deep in the rubble… And the voice told me to carry it west…”

Credit where credit is due… Hollywood is trying. Granted, six years have passed since “The Passion” proved we Christians can be convinced to return to a medium that has spent decades taking great pleasure in insulting who we are and what we believe; and with that clinical Christmas card of a follow up called “The Nativity” it seemed as though they would never figure it out. But between the unapologetic Christian “Blind Side” and now the down and dirty “Book of Eli,” there’s reason to hope the Pagans of the Pacific might have just moved a little closer to cracking our code.

“The Book of Eli” isn’t just Christian, it’s off-the-rails Christian … literally. Heathens might as well hit the lobby at the end of the second act because the final act is all about the faith. You’re more than welcome to stick around, but I have a feeling those of you with red strings tied ‘round your wrist will be checking your watch for the last twenty-minutes. Not we Bible-thumpers, though. That’s when it all comes together; and it’s moving and smart and best of all, not some hyper-reverent snoozer.

So, thanks Hollywood. Oh, I’ll be kicking your ass again in a sec, but for now… really, thanks. (more…)

In the classic manner of series television, the USA Network’s latest new dramedy, White Collar (Fridays at 10 EST), smartly combines elements common to numerous other contemporary TV crime dramas, especially other USA Network shows, in a way calculated to maximize both familiarity and originality. Thus we have at the center of the show a pair of characters of strongly contrasting personalities but similar values under the surface differences, working together to do good.

Convicted confidence artist, forger, and counterfeiter Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) is released from prison (and shackled with an electronic tracking device) in order to assist FBI agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) in catching other criminals. As in the 1960s TV series It Takes a Thief, Caffrey is young, handsome, single, insouciant, creative, and free-spirited, and his FBI handler is more mature, less handsome, and more conventional and stable. (more…)

Brad Pitt was recently asked by German magazine Bild if he believed in God. Pitt smiled and answered: “No, no, no!”  Then, asked if his soul was spiritual, he once again said: “No, no, no!” Adding: “I’m probably “20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic.” With that, the shrieks of millions of women who dreamed of a storybook church wedding with Mr. Pitt could be heard crying out across the planet.

The comment is sure to cause a few ripples from the man who once played the son of a preacher man in the spiritual A River Runs Through It.  What’s more, Pitt advises there is no use thinking about God or a higher power — we’ll find out when we get there, he says.  Umm, get where Brad?  The Beverly Hills Hotel in the sky?  It never ceases to amaze to hear celebrities speak out about religion – or a lack thereof.  In a business where vainglory is king, perhaps it is not surprising many in Hollywood are said to lack religion.  Que Sera Sera — free country, right?   (more…)

I still can’t decide which is silliest; a person believing in a God who “isn’t there,” or a person offended by a God whom he doesn’t believe exists. It’s a tough question, but I’m sure Janeane Garofalo has the answer… Haven’t you heard? That dame knows everything. There’s just “no two ways about it.”

For all of you atheist Libertarians who will undoubtedly be offended by this… Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to complain about it while you’re in hell.