Movie Blog: Films I Won’t Be Reviewing (or even watching)

Ug.   Apparently, it’s the season of propaganda and exploitation.   Happy Fall.

I’m new at the critic game, so I generally base what I’m going to watch on what other critics are saying.   And, reading reviews aroudn the web, I’m noticing a strange phenomenon.   There’s a whole slew of films recently released that carry overt agendas; I’ll be skipping them.

Releasing tomorrow is “An American Carol,” a conservative spoof of Michael Moore via Charles Dickens.  Now Michael Moore certainly needs to be sent up, but this looks truly horrible, perpetuating stereotypes about conservatives and liberals alike.   Instead, let me recommend a little noticed documentary released a few years ago: “Michael Moore Hates America.”

Then there’s Bill Maher’s “Religulous,” released last week.   From what I gather, Maher interviews Truckers for Jesus, the guy who plays God at the Holy Land theme park, and a rabbi he found at a Holocaust Denial Conference.   And thus tries to convince the world that religion is ridiculous (hence the title.)  Hey Bill, here’s a thought: try interviewing some scholars and intellectuals, guys like NT Wright, Eugene Peterson, or Richard Foster.   Making ridiculous people look ridiculous is pretty easy, and proves nothing about their beliefs.

On the other side of the religion coin, but just as idiotic is “Fireproof,”  a leaden Christian-themed film starring Kirk Cameron.   Just the title makes me groan.  Cameron is an incredible jerk who finds Jesus and saves his marriage.  This looks to have all the subtlety, depth and nuance of the Eternity play.  I’m (a little bit) sorry to say this, but conversion stories just don’t play on the big screen, except as comedy.  It’s movies like Fireproof (and Cameron’s other star turns, the Left Behind fiascos) that give “Christian filmmaking,” and Christians, a bad name.   If you’d like to watch a good movie about a man of faith struggling with how to live out that faith in the real world, I’d recommend “Gone Baby Gone” (my favorite movie from last year,)  or, to go back a few years, “The Apostle.”

Also, there’s “Forever Strong,” a Mormon-themed rugby movie, and “Allah Made Me Funny” a documentary about three Muslim comedians, neither of which look completely terrible, or, really, all that great.

Almost all movies have stances, perspectives, worldviews.   Terrible ones like these forget to have anything else.