Category: Movies

19740284582_de964065cf_z-e1467573136818
By micoots
03/07/2016 0

Popcorn in the pews

When I was in my twenties, my friends referred to the movies as my second church. I could be found there probably as often as I could be found at my regular house of worship, and I probably extolled some films with the same fervor I used when talking about doctrine.
When I was asked to participate in the Patheos symposium on nontraditional worship, I was surprised that churches that meet in movie theaters were considered “nontraditional.” It’s been ..

legendoftarzan-a
By micoots
03/07/2016 0

Box office: Tarzan leads a pack of also-rans behind Dory

A Pixar cartoon just kept swimming at the top of the box office this week, while three new releases had openings that ranged from decent to disappointing.
The Legend of Tarzan earned an estimated $38.1 million between Thursday and Sunday, which is either good or not-so-good depending on how you spin it.
On the one hand, it’s a record for a Tarzan movie (beating the $34.2 million that Disney’s animated Tarzan opened to in 1999), but it’s also not as good as the studio might have hoped for a film ..

66107
By micoots
02/07/2016 0

Review: Joy

The text at the beginning of Joy, the latest film from director David O. Russell (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook), says it is “inspired by the true stories of daring women . . . one in particular.”

That “one” is Joy Mangano, play..

66102
By micoots
02/07/2016 0

Review: The Revenant

One of the memorable (and most talked about) scenes in The Revenant is an epic fight between Leonardo DiCaprio and a grizzly bear. The bloody brawl occurs early in the film and is the plot’s inciting incident. Gravely injured by the bear, 1820s frontiersman Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is left for dead by his fellow hunters/fur-traders and must survive in the wilderness in the dead of winter.

As if it wasn’t already hard enough to survive the Pawnee tomahawks and arrows, subzero temperatures, blizzards, dehydration, and treacherous men within his own group (most notably Tom Hardy’s villainous character Fitzgerald), Glass must do it all having been maimed, mauled, and flayed by a bear.

66162
By micoots
02/07/2016 0

Review: Concussion

Concussion tries to achieve the depth and stakes of the Biblical story of Esther, without quite enough unchecked power or genocide to support the claim.

The movie is based on real-life Dr. Bennet Omalu’s discovery of the danger of repeated brain trauma sustained by professional football players and his battle to publicize that danger. Oma..

66115
By micoots
02/07/2016 0

Review: 45 Years

Much about 45 Years makes it clear that it’s adapted from a short story, but nothing more than the moment when Kate (Charlotte Rampling) is surveying the hall in which she intends to host her 45th wedding anniversary party at the end of the week. “So full of history, you see?” says the man showing her the room, wh..

66073
By micoots
02/07/2016 0

Review: Sisters

Universal Pictures

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in ‘Sisters’

This is a great movie for fans of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who are OK with laughing until they cry at dirty jokes that have no right being that funny. Anybody who’s just one, the other, or neither, should probably steer clear and go see Star Wars.

For those of you left in that small camp, you’ve hit a gold mine. Sisters is hilarious in all the worst ways, one of those movies..

68242
By micoots
02/07/2016 0

Interview: When God Calls You to Leave the Art World

When God Calls You to Leave the Art WorldLilias Trotter could have been a famous painter. Instead, she chose to travel with two other single women to preach the gospel in Algeria. Why?

In a recent New York magazine cover story, journalist Rebecca Traister notes that many more US women are embracing “that it’s okay for them not to be married.” She calls the decline of marriage “the most radical of feminist ideas.” But in fact, many women..

startrekbeyond-clip-1024×331
By micoots
01/07/2016 0

Watch: McCoy gives Spock a word of advice about “Earth girls” in the first clip from Star Trek Beyond

The other day, while trying to figure out the relevance of Rihanna’s lyrics to the Star Trek film she had written them for, I speculated that Spock and Uhura might break up in this movie. And, well, what do you know: our first clip from the film seems to depict just that, though without all the layers of angst that Rihanna’s song provides.
Here is the clip:
It’s interesting to see McCoy step in as Uhura walks away. When the first JJ Abrams film came out several years ago, it was noted that Uhura..