The Star illuminates holy with high jinks

Movie Title:   
    The Star

Grade:  B+

Rating: PG, 1 hour 26 minutes

In a Nutshell: Walden Media and Affirm Films (owned by Sony Pictures) present a very sweet animated movie for Christian families this Christmas.  

While the movie isn’t entirely accurate to the actual Bible, The Star is still very well done and a wonderful way to celebrate the reason for this Christmas season, especially with your little ones.

Uplifting theme: 

• “We’re meant for something greater than this.”  - Bo (Steven Yeun)
• “Just because God has a plan doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.” – Mary (Gina Rodriguez
• “Follow your heart.  Follow the light.  Follow that star.” – The Star - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack sung by Mariah Carey

Things I liked:

• Cute opening with appealing music while we watch the pygmy gerboa bounce around through the town.  Kristen Chenowith is the perfect voice for this adorable creature.
• The animation is simple, yet detailed and rich.  The hair, for example, looks textured and real.
• I have been a fan of Gina Rodriguez since I first started watching her on Jane the Virgin: Season 1, which role actually won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Comedy.  She gives Mary a practical voice that is also tender and sweet.
• The wonderful Christopher Plummer voices Herod the King.  It’s so great to hear his voice again.
• Mary named the donkey “Bo”, so of course that caught my attention, because my youngest son’s name is also Bo.  Steven Yeun voices Bo.
• The Star - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is great with upbeat versions of classic and modern Christmas carols.
• A large part of the movie focuses on talking animals.  They learn and teach each other important life lessons while having silly adventures.
• This is Oprah Winfrey’s 4^th time lending her voice to an animated character.  She plays Deborah the camel.
• This is Walden Media’s first animated film.  
• Mariah Carey voices “Rebecca the hen”, but also wrote and sings the theme song of the movie.  Another singer, Kelly Clarkson voices Leah the horse.
• Other voice talents include Keegan-Michael Key, Tyler Perry, Tracy Morgan, Gabriel Iglesias, Patricia Heaton, Kris Kristofferson, and Anthony Anderson.

Things I didn’t like:

• Christians who know the story will be able to read between the lines.  For example, you hear someone say, “Joseph!”, but you don’t see the angel Gabriel who appeared to him and explained what was happening with Mary.
• Do I dare say it’s a little bland?
• Non-Christians will probably dismiss this movie as rug-rat indoctrination.
• Some of the humor is cliched and falls flat.
• Mary’s espoused husband, Joseph, is a bit whiny and mad a lot.  I always pictured him differently.  He certainly was supportive and kind and had to be amazing in order for God to choose him to raise His son.

Tips for parents: 

• Because the target audience is children, you can expect some poop and fart jokes.
• No profanity.  Very clean.
• The doctrine isn't entirely correct, but it's still a good introduction for little ones to learn the story of Jesus Christ's birth.

@trinaboice 

Silence is Martin Scorsese's final testimony of faith

Movie Title:    Silence

Grade:  A-

Rating:  R, 161 minutes

In a Nutshell: 
Based on Shusaku Endo's novel, legendary director Martin Scorsese offers a passionate look at faith and devotion, which he said was twenty years in the making.

This is not your typical Christian movie.

Christianity in Japan in the 1600’s was illegal and dangerous.   I’m going to Japan this summer and am grateful that I will be welcome there, along with my religious convictions.  

Uplifting theme: 

• “Christianity brought love.” – Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield)
• “My love for God is strong.  Could that be the same as faith?” – Mokichi (Shin'ya Tsukamoto)
• “What have I done for Christ?  What am I doing for Christ?  What will I do for Christ?” – Father Rodrigues

Things I liked:

• The film asks very profound questions about religious conviction and faith.  How much would you still believe after you had been broken?  When do you stop fighting for your beliefs and just resign to being silent? What do you do when God himself remains silent?  The story and questions are both complex and challenging.  The film is not just a persecution allegory about what once happened in a time and place long ago, but it still has application to today.
• Adam Driver’s Portuguese accent is very good and believable, but Andrew Garfield’s is terrible.   Sorry The Amazing Spider-Man  Otherwise, both of their performances were really great. Despite all of his character's struggles in the film, Andrew Garfield's great hair remains.  ha ha  What an amazing year Andrew Garfield had in the movies this past year!  His starring role in Hacksaw Ridge  
• The production value is excellent.  While the target audience is predominantly either Christians or Scorsese fans, this movie is unlike any other Christian movie you have seen.  
• Fantastic title.  I love titles of movies that have multiple meanings.
• I liked the effect that the loud crickets had when they suddenly stopped in the very beginning and end of the film.
• Some of the faith demonstrated by the Japanese Christians was truly inspiring and absolutely heart-breaking.
• The direction was impressive, especially considering many of the scenes were shot in tiny spaces.

Things I didn’t like:

• The movie poster is misrepresented.  You think you're going to get to see a movie starring Liam Neeson, but he has less than 10 minutes of screen time.
• This is a VERY long movie that makes you relate a little bit to the LONG suffering experienced in the film.  The powerful message could have been delivered in much less the time.
• Deep spiritual questions are raised, but not often answered. The audience is left wondering what Scorsese's true message is.
• It's hard and painful to watch.  You just want the suffering to end.  Either that or you just want to kick the Old Samurai Inquisitor's butt.

Interesting lines:

• “Garupe and I have absolutely no luggage to bring to Japan except our hearts.” – Father Rodrigues
• “Feed my lambs.  It fascinates me.” – Father Rodrigues
• “But Christ did not die for the good and beautiful; that is easy enough. The hard thing is to die for the miserable and corrupt.”  - Father Rodrigues
• “God sends us trials to test us, and everything He does is good. But why must their trials be so terrible?  And why, when I look into their eyes, must my answers to their questions be so weak?” – Father Rodrigues
• “I’m sure God heard their prayers as they died, but did He hear their screams?” – Father Rodrigues
• “Where is the place for a weak man in a world like this?” – Interpreter (Tadanobu Asano)
• “Why do they have to suffer so much?” –Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield)

Funny lines:

• NONE.  This is a very serious drama.

Tips for parents: 

• You see decapitated heads on stakes at the very beginning just to warn you that you’re watching a Rated R movie.  It gets much, much worse.
• Brutal torture of Christians, including burning people at the stake, beheading, hot water torture, drownings, and beatings. Like most Scorsese films, it's violent and cruel, definitely not family-friendly fare.

@trinaboice 

The Young Messiah features a very sweet little Jesus

Movie Title:    The Young Messiah       

Grade:   PG-13, 1 hour 51 minutes

Rating:   B+

In a Nutshell:    “Inspired by scripture, rooted in history”, this is a very respectful telling of what MIGHT have occurred in Jesus Christ’s childhood. 

Based on Anne Rice’s book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt: A Novel , this is a lovely family-friendly movie for the Easter season.

Uplifting theme: 

• Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
• We all grow from grace to grace in our understanding of God’s plan for us.

Things I liked:

• I love watching Sean Bean in anything.
• Adam Greaves-Neal does a nice job as the young Jesus.  What a sweet little face.
• Italian actress Sara Lazzaro plays a loving, protective Mary.  Vincent Walsh plays a humble, self-sacrificing Joseph.  There are several sweet scenes where Joseph buoys up Mary during her moments of fear and doubt.  He tells her, “I thank God for choosing me every day.  Every day.”
• The cast, for the most part, looks believably Middle-Eastern.
• Rory Keenan is a perfectly creepy Satan, who is constantly lurking around and whispering evil ideas in everyone’s ears.  Reminiscent of the “fall” of Adam and Eve, he eats an apple in the opening scene and is represented as a snake in several other scenes+.
• I’m glad that the sets don’t look like cheesy Hollywood sets.  The fabrics are rough and the tiles are worn and dingy.  Everything looks very believable.
• I thought it was interesting to show that Jesus was the only one who could see Lucifer.  After a conversation with Satan, Jesus exclaimed “You don’t know the answers, do you?  You don’t know what’s going to happen!”
• I appreciated the parental struggles of Mary and Joseph as they decided when and what to tell Jesus and how to answer his questions.  Joseph explains to Jesus “Your questions are the questions of a child and your answers are for a man.”

Things I didn’t like:

• We already know how the story “ends”, so the film lacks a certain amount of tension, mystery, and anticipation.
• The target audience is most definitely Christian with very little attempt to convince the non-believer.
• There are many events that are not in the scriptures or are scripturally inaccurate, but the viewer should know that will be the case going into it.
• There is kind of an odd scene where Cleopas and Jesus go down in the water at the river Jordan.  I assume it was supposed to be a forshadowing of Jesus’ baptism there later?
• Everyone looked authentic, except one actress with fake boobs who looked out of place in the movie.

Interesting lines:

• “There’s only one miracle – it’s Roman steel.” – Severus (Sean Bean)
• “How do we explain God to His own son?” – Joseph
• “He’s just a child.” – Joseph

“No.  I was just a child and so were you, but he is not just a child.” – Cleopas (Christian McKay)

• “Chaos rules and I am its prince.” – Lucifer
• “Is that it?  Is that all you can do?” – Lucifer to Jesus as he was praying

Tips for parents:   

• There is a disturbing scene where Jesus and his family are traveling to Jerusalem and have to walk through a road lined with men who are currently being crucified.  That road was famous at the time and really did exist.
• A man begins to sexually assault a woman and she murders him while Jesus watches.  In fact, he sees a lot of disturbing things that might frighten young children.
• Children may not be familiar with the “blood of innocents” that Herod caused in search of the young Christ child at his birth.  The movie shows images of that event and revolves around Herod’s son’s attempt to find Jesus and kill him.
• No profanity.

The Son of God movie review

Movie Title:   Son of God 
PG-13, 2 hours, 18 minutes

Grade:   B

In a Nutshell:   As a Christian, I really wanted this film to provide a spiritual feast, but it’s really only a snack.  The movie is willing, but the spirit is weak.  Considering how strongly I feel about the life-changing topic, I found it to be more like an illustrated children’s Bible, highlighting only a few parts of the four Gospels that tell the story of Jesus Christ. It’s certainly not a detailed study, nor an entirely accurate account of the scriptures, playing more like a “Greatest Hits” version.

The audience I joined was reverent and hopeful enough, but the big screen version felt like a choppy, re-edited collection of The Bible: The Epic Miniseries that aired on the History Channel last year. Indeed, that’s exactly what it was. One critic noted that if The Bible: The Epic Miniseries was a Cliff’s Notes for the scriptures, then Son of God is the cheat sheet. Although the target audience consists mainly of supportive believers, the movie is more of a basic introduction to the Christian faith, visiting the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The audience was frozen in their seats during the crucifixion scenes and you could have heard a pin drop....or a tear drop.  It's hard to sit through that without feeling in awe.

Uplifting theme:   The movie’s witness, as well as mine, is that Jesus Christ lives!   

Things I liked:

• The Portuguese actor who plays Jesus (Diogo Morgado)  is a little Brad Pitt-esque.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.  He’s handsome and kind-looking, but some reviewers criticize his portrayal as a hippie being followed by a band of scruffy misfits.  Of course, some said that about Jesus himself.
• The lovely Roma Downey of Touched By an Angel: Complete Series Pack portrays a sweet Mary, mother of Jesus. She also co-produced the film with her husband Mark Burnett.  It’s nice to see her again. She was the only one in the movie whose face wasn't dusted with dirt.
• The cinematic journey starts with “In the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was there with Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses...” We’re given a quick walk-through of our religious history and then the narrator says “In the struggle for the promised land, He was always by our side.  He was the light shining in the darkness.  Then, He came into the world.”  We learn that John the Beloved is the narrator, as he begins and ends the movie with his testimony.  I love movies that carry us full circle to a poignant message.  John explains “I was one of His followers.  After what I saw, how could I not be?”
• I always like to see different interpretations of Pontius Pilate.  This version features a continuously scowling Roman prefect who is annoyed by the constant Jewish disturbances and more worried about keeping the peace in order to preserve his own political position and comfortable lifestyle.
• I loved it when the camera went underneath the Sea of Galilee to show us Jesus’ face above the water, reaching down to move the water and command the fish to swim into Peter’s nets.  Jesus tells Peter “I will make you a fisher of men”.  A confused Peter asks “What are we going to do?”  “Change the world.”
• While the Pharisees and Sadducees are depicted as jealous and fearful in their piety, other Jews are shown faithfully wearing phylacteries and prayer robes, strictly obeying the law out of love.  There are fanatics and hypocrites in every religion, but there are also believers who inspire us to live more valiantly.
• I love symbolism so I thought it was awesome when Judas spit the bread out of his mouth.  Bread, of course, is a symbol of Jesus Christ.  Did you know that the name Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, means “House of Bread”?   
• Thousands of hours of film have been recorded to tell the story of Christ, so I always appreciate subtle interpretations that directors are able to include in their version to speak to us.  I liked it when Jesus gently kissed the heavy cross he struggled to carry.  There’s a lesson in there for all of us; our trials will cause us to stretch and grow, so we should greet them with gratitude, rather than anger.

Things I didn’t like:

• The aerial views of Jerusalem looked like a child’s toy model of the legendary holy city that was put together in 15 minutes.
• One of the most disappointing features of the film is what it does NOT have: Satan.  The devil does not get his due…or screen time…in this movie because the filmmakers chose to intentionally edit out all of the scenes that reveal a Lucifer that looks too much like President Obama.  Producer Roma Downey told the Hollywood Reporter “This is now a movie about Jesus, the son of God, and the devil gets no more screen time.”  While I admire her desire to put the spotlight on the Savior, her choice also waters down the need for a redeemer and removes the necessary contrast that opposition provides in good film, as well as in religion.  It appears more like she is bowing down to Hollywood and political pressure than proclaiming that Jesus atoned for our sins and conquered death and hell.  The reason we need Jesus is because of Satan.  Sin separates us from God and Jesus bridges that gap.  Because of Satan we have spiritual and physical death; because of Jesus, we can live.
• The writing is inconsistent, sometimes quoting scripture from the traditional King James version of the Bible, while other times using today’s modern lingo.
• As if the audience weren’t sophisticated enough to recognize a powerful phrase or prophetic moment, a base note sounded after every significant spot in the movie.
• I really hate it when lousy movie extras are shown in the background shaking their fists weakly in the air and grumbling that they’d rather head to the Kraft food table than act.  There were, however, a few authentic-looking extras in the crowd with missing teeth and a Mediterranean look.
• I’m sure Sana Mouziane is a lovely person in real life, but I thought she was a terrible Martha.  
• The film was lacking a powerful musical score.  With the right music, an entire moment can be transformed into something truly magical.

Inspiring lines:

•  Jesus meets Peter for the first time and says “Peter, just give me an hour and I will give you a whole new life.”  Peter looks surprised and answers “Who says I want one?”  Jesus makes that same offer to all of us.
• “Put God first and everything else will follow.”  -  Jesus
• “If you hunger for righteousness, you will be filled through me.”  - Jesus

Tips for parents:   There are many bloody images when Jesus is beaten and crucified that can be quite disturbing to young children and even some adults.

Terrific videos about the life of Christ:  I can highly recommend the inspiring collection of free videos at www.BibleVideos.com that will strengthen your faith in the Savior.