Kendrick Brothers Announce New Movie

So we've all been wondering what Stephen and Alex Kendrick will bring next after their latest film "Fireproof". They plan on releasing some information on their next film November 15th. Until then, you have to wait for video clues that will be released weekly.


http://www.thenextsherwoodmovie.com/

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

Review
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine to my surprise was really good. But before I go into what I thought about the movie, let me explain the plot.

Plot: The movie starts out in 1845 Canada with a sickly boy by the name of James Howlett watching the murder of his father. With the trauma of his fathers death, James mutates and bone claws come out of his fists. James then thrusts his new claws into his fathers killer. Only to find out that the man whom James just killed was actually his real father. This leads into James and his older mutated brother Victor fighting in the Civil War, Both World Wars and the Vietnam War. Every war, the men become more and more blood thirsty to the point where Victor kills his superior officer. As they sit in their rat infested cell, Major William Stryker enters and offers them to join his mutant special ops. force. They readily join and James takes the name of his real father Logan. But because of their disregard for any human life Logan eventually leaves and settles down in Canada as a lumberjack. One thing leads to another where Victor kills Logan’s girlfriend which sends Logan on a mission of revenge.

That’s about all I can say without spoiling it. Now let’s break into the worldview of this film.

Worldview: The first thing you will notice by watching the trailer and the first 45 minutes of the film is that there is a lot of revenge. A lot of movies base their whole plot on revenge. I remember a poster for the movie “Oceans 13” which said, “Revenge is a funny thing”. To me, this is very disconcerting. The bible clearly say’s in Psalm 94:1 “O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs—O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!”
But X-Men Wolverine brings it with a twist. Yes, most of the movie is about Logan’s revenge for his wife. But, it takes a turn in the end where Logan decides not to take vengeance. He decides not to become the animal he’s treated like.

Conclusion: Wolverine was by far the best X-Men yet. The fighting sequences were awesome. Hugh Jackman pulled off his role as Logan. The Story was well written.

Review: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Review: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

At the first sight of the trailer, my reaction was this. “Oh, they just want you to jump out of your skin by flying giant meatballs at you in 3D. Not interested”. But from the suggestion of another filmmaker I decided to see it. And from my surprise, I loved it. It had a great theme, a great story that was unpredictable, it was funny and heartwarming. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Doorpost Film Project

Doorpost Film Project has one of the most unique ways of promoting independent films. This is how it works. Anybody can submit a short film with one of the following themes. Hope, Forgiveness, Freedom, Humility, Joy and Redemption. Your film will then be viewed by the judges to see if it meets qualifications. They then release all the films on their website to be viewed and voted on. Judges account for 70% of the score and online voters for 30%. All of the films are narrowed down to ten finalists.

The Doorpost Film Project then gives each of those ten finalists 30,000$ to make another short film. Then the judges along with online voters will determine the top three winners. 1st place prize being 100,000$, 2nd place prize 35,000$ and 3rd place prize 25,000$.

So not only are they encouraging filmmakers to rise to the occasion, but they are giving them the resources to do it.

Here is one of my favorite short films in the competition. Enjoy!
http://www.thedoorpost.com/hope/The%20Butterfly%20Circus/

Beverages With Ben: The Drawing

Beverages With Ben: The Drawing from Ben Kayser on Vimeo.

District 9: Trailer

Finally a movie that looks like it's worth seeing. I've heard a lot of good things about this movie.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/district9/

Beverages With Ben: The Music I Listen To

Beverages With Ben: The Music I Listen To from Ben Kayser on Vimeo.

Beverages With Ben: Square One

Faith Like Potatoes

I recently saw a Christian International film made in South Africa called Faith Like Potatoes. I was very impressed at the bar they raised with the quality of the film. It's definitely a film I would recommend.

Promo

David came over and helped me make a promo for Biblical Blueprints. So here it is.

More Posts are Coming

I apologize profusely for not posting anything lately. I've been preparing some posts which would include a promo video that David and I made and possibly a interview with a successful movie producer. I will also be going to a Super Worldview Conference next week where I hope to meet Dr. Ted Baehr of http://www.movieguide.org. Thanks for you patience.

ABC on Christian FIlms

Finally, the Christian film movement has some fair media coverage.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7771155

Up

Pixars newest movie "Up" is the best movie I have seen in a long while. Peter Docter who wrote and directed Up did a masterful job at bringing emotion, adventure and laugh out loud comedy all in one movie. Peter Docter is also a Christian. To get a better perspective of this film read the Christianity Today review.

Up
Review by Carolyn Arends
posted 5/29/2009

Up, the tenth feature film from Pixar Animation Studios, is a swashbuckling, continent-hopping adventure and an under-stated, nuanced psychodrama.

It’s an outlandish, wildly creative fantasy and an almost devastatingly poignant piece of realism.

It’s laugh-out-loud funny and try-to-hide-your-sobs moving.

Like the balloons that propel its plot, Up floats seemingly effortlessly into whatever cinematic territory it pleases, gently tugging its audience along for a delightful, perspective-changing ride.

The film centers on the oddest of couples.

Carl Fredricksen (voiced with gruff perfection by Ed Asner) is a 78-year-old retired balloon salesman mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ellie.

Grief, age, and unfulfilled dreams have made him more than a little grumpy, and the fact that urban developers are tearing down his neighborhood (and itching to raze his beloved home) is not helping matters.
Russell (Jordan Nagai) is a portly, bespectacled 8-year-old who lives to acquire Wilderness Explorer badges but has never actually been in the wild.

If he can only earn his “assist the elderly” badge, he will progress from Junior to Senior Explorer.

He knocks on Carl’s front door in hopes of helping him cross the street (or yard, or … anything), but Carl is in no mood to be assisted and sends the boy away badge-less.

When court officials rule Carl must move to a retirement home, he makes a bold decision.

In honor of a lifelong dream he and Ellie shared to travel to a South American landmark, he ties thousands of helium balloons to his house and lifts off on a journey to “Paradise Falls.”

It’s not until he is irrevocably on his way that he discovers young Russell on his front porch and realizes he has an unwanted travel partner.
Carl and Russell land near Paradise Falls and make a series of exciting discoveries.

They are greeted by dogs who wear high tech collars that translate their thoughts into language, and the audience is treated throughout the movie to the hysterical interior life of canines.

(“I have just met you, but I love you.”)

They also discover a huge, multi-colored, extremely rare bird.

She is awkward and delightfully expressive; Russell names her “Kevin.”

Eventually, Carl and Russell encounter Carl’s boyhood hero, Charles Muntz (voiced with sinister aplomb by Christopher Plummer), a now disgraced explorer (even older than Carl) who is living in the region and villainously obsessed with capturing the bird.

Various forms of conflict ensue, including one terrific sequence in which Carl and Charles do battle senior-style, using canes and dentures as weapons.

Along the way, Carl and Russell also make some interior (but no less monumental) discoveries.
Despite their seventy-year age difference, they have much more in common than they first realize.
Both of them have unfulfilled dreams of adventure, both of them are lonely, and both of them need each other.

Director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) and screenplay writer and co-director Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo) manage to mine great depths of emotion from the lives and needs of their two heroes without falling into maudlin or saccharine territory.

A five-minute, wordless montage near the beginning of the film (reminiscent of the head-turning extended dialogue-free portion of Pixar’s previous film, Wall-E) tells the story of Carl and Ellie’s life together simply and exquisitely.

It’s a jaw-dropping piece of filmmaking, and Up only gets deeper, funnier, more exciting and more moving from there.

The pathos in the movie is rooted not only in the loss of a loved one, but also in the death of dreams.

Carl and Ellie’s deferred hopes included children and the desire to travel, both of which are finally, bittersweetly fulfilled for Carl in Ellie’s absence.

But his adventure with Russell and a gift Ellie left behind help him do much more than check items off his “bucket list.”

Carl begins to realize that all the little interruptions that kept a husband and wife grounded at home were the stuff of dreams, because they added up to a life of love.

While most movies aimed at kids and families beat the “Go for your dreams!” mantra to death, Up dares to suggest that the dreams we defer—and the reasons we defer them—might matter more in the end.

Halfway through the movie, Russell speaks wistfully of the times he used to spend with his now-distant father.

“The funny thing is, it’s the boring stuff I miss the most,” he confesses.

This idea—that it’s the details we often overlook that actually count most of all—animates every frame of Up.

Even with their first foray into 3-D, Docter and his team handle Up‘s animation with graceful restraint.

The film bursts with vivid color and fluid action, but it’s the subtle things—the way Carl’s stubble grows in or what we learn about his character through the creases around his eyes—that help make Up arguably the most elegant of all the Pixar films.

The filmmakers use 3-D technology to render the movie visually richer and deeper, but they avoid the “make-‘em-duck” gimmickry that has made other 3D offerings wearisome.

As a result, the 3-D option is enjoyable but not essential, and some film aficionados are arguing that the brighter bulbs used in 2-D projection are more important to appreciating Up’s beauty.

Completely satisfying animation, gorgeous set-design—everything works in Up.

At a snappy 89 minutes, the pace moves along quickly enough to keep kids engaged without resorting to the sort of frenetic, rapid-fire hodgepodge of jokes and pop culture references that less accomplished filmmakers use to hide their insecurity.

Michael Giacchino’s understated score hits all the right highs and lows, and is especially effective in conveying Carl’s elderly urgency in chase scenes when his body forces him to plod rather than race.

Ultimately, though, it’s the story, as in all of Pixar’s offerings, that makes Up a masterpiece.

The characters are indelible, the humor organic, the adventure original, and the theme profound.
Funny thing is, it’s the details you’ll remember the most.

MPAA rating: PG
(for some peril and action)

Genre: Adventure, Animated, Family

Theater release:
May 29, 2009
by Walt Disney Studio

Directed by: Pete Docter, co-directed by Bob Peterson

Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes

Cast: Ed Asner (Carl Fredricksen), Christopher Plummer (Charles Muntz), Jordan Nagai (Russell), Bob Peterson (Dug, Alpha)

Calix Lewis Reneau

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Joined Aug 21, 2007

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Transgressor

My most recent short film "Transgressor" has been released. Enjoy!

The Boy In The Striped Pajama's

The Boy In The Striped Pajama’s literally shocks anyone who watches it. I highly suggest that you go rent this movie and watch it yourself.

Movie Review: Between The Walls

Between The Walls
Movie Review
By Ben Kayser

Plot: Peter had a tough childhood. He grew up under the strict discipline of his Father who treated Peter more like a seminary student than a son. Peter rejected Christianity when he was young because of his Fathers inconsistent faith. Twelve years later his father is dead and Peter has five days to clean out his childhood home before the bank takes it. While cleaning the house out he discovers a locked room that is full of recording equipment and thousands of tapes. What was on these tapes? Everything he ever did in that house. Every lie that was spoken and every bad word he said about his dad was recorded. This rollercoaster ride brings Peter through the swirling emotions of hate and anger toward his father. Will he forgive his father? Or will he let his anger destroy him?

Morals: There were several great messages in this film. The main one being that we need to forgive one another just as Christ forgave us. The second message is that God uses bad situations for our spiritual growth. As far as I could see they were theologically dead on.

Technical Aspects
Acting: The acting started off slow, but progressed as the movie went on. I don’t necessarily blame that on the actors because the problems were more with the dialogue. Some of it seemed awkward and unnatural. But that was mainly just in the beginning. The actor that played their part impressively was Peters father who was played by Scott Davis. You cared for him at some parts and he creped you out in others.

Conclusion: I really enjoyed this movie. The story was intriguing and suspenseful at parts. One thing I appreciated was that they were not ashamed of talking about hell. Many people like to wash right over that and forget the Bible ever mentions it. But they made sure they covered Grace also in the movie. I will be looking forward to Chris and Nick Starons next movie, which is a comedy called “Brining Up Bobby”.

http://www.bringingupbobby.com/

"Christian" Celebrities Versus Jesus

I read this great article from a website that I follow. Make sure you click on the link below to finish the article.

by Randy Thomasson - Christian Post Contributor

Most Americans were angered by the Miss USA pageant unfairly discriminating against the moral values of Miss California Carrie Prejean. But equally disturbing is the reaction of young, self-proclaimed Christian celebrities who are taking the side of homosexual activist Perez Hilton, who led the attack against Carrie.

The sad fact is, nowadays most of America's youth receives either no Biblical truth or cotton-candy truth disguised as "Christian." Anti-religious government schools and the music that most parents let their kids consume have produced a pagan, go-with-your-feelings youth culture.

Today, the majority of America's daughters - even those in the Church - are being heavily influenced by Hollywood singers such as Miley Cyrus and Heidi Montag, both who say they are Christians, yet hold non-Christian views on marriage. Right now, their pro-homosexual "marriage" values are reaching millions of young people through MTV and other media outlets.

This is something to understand and speak out on. Otherwise, more and more young people in the Church, even those who claim to be strong Christians, will misdefine "love" and "truth" and exchange Biblical truth for their own feelings. Their heart's desire to please themselves and please others will trump any desire to please the God of the Bible.

What follows is not a sordid interest in Hollywood lifestyles; it's a much-needed condemnation of the false gospel and false Biblical standards that are influencing young people. If you're a Christian - and even if your not - please join me in exposing this.

Sixteen-year-old pop star Miley Cyrus, who says she's a Christian and says she loves Jesus, attends the seeker-friendly Montrose Church (part of the Church of the Nazarene), where the pastor believes in easy Christianity, writing "God's truth never changes. He just loves you. It's that simple."

On April 21, Miley wrote this Twitter message expressing her support for homosexual "marriage" to homosexual activist Perez Hilton, who had publicly punished Carrie Prejean for supporting Biblical marriage between a man and a woman:

God's greatest commandment is to love, and judging is not loving. That's why Christians have such a bad rep. Jesus loves you and your partner and wants you to know how much he cares! That's like a daddy not loving his lil boy cuz he's gay and that is wrong and very sad! Like I said everyone deserves to be happy. I am a Christian and I love you - gay or not. Because you are no different that anyone else! We are all God's children! I am not saying this so would be nice on your site though that would be nice jk;) but because the LORD has spoken 'luv cuz god loves.'

Meanwhile, another self-proclaimed Christian in Hollywood, MTV's Heidi Montag, age 22, wrote this Twitter message to Perez Hilton:

God says in the bible that we should love our neighbor and he created us all as equals. I know in my heart that gays and lesbians should have the same government rights that Spencer and I will when we get married. So, yes, this blonde Christian believes in gay marriage and I hope to one day go to your wedding, Perez!!!

This non-Biblical "love fest" kept going. After discovering they both supported homosexual "marriage," Montag twittered Miley, "Let's [meet] up!!!! we should have a bible study!! I love Miley!!!! Jesus loves Miley!" Miley responded, "We should deff. meet up sometime! i think we have alot in common!!!!! JESUS ROCKS! WHOO HOO!"

Do Miley Cyrus and Heidi Montag want to be Biblically-correct like Miss California Carrie Prejean says she wants to be? No, far from it. Despite their claims, Miley Cyrus and Heidi Montag are in stark conflict with Jesus Christ and the Bible.

Read More from this article

Dangerous Calling Trailer

For those who like thriller movies, you'll be happy to know that two brothers (Josh and Jeremiah Daws) down in Georgia have made a Christian thriller. I hope to be reviewing it soon.

Here's the Trailer
http://www.christianfilmtrailers.com/trailers/index.php

Here's the website for the movie.
http://www.dangerouscalling.com/
Comment on what you think about it.

Movie Review: Swing Vote

Movie Review: Swing Vote

Reviewed by Ben Kayser

Plot: Swing Vote takes place during the 2008 elections with two presidential candidates. Incumbent Republican Andrew Boone is in a heated race with Democrat Donald Greenleaf. At the same time, in the small town of Texico, New Mexico 12 year old Molly tries to convince her drunkard irresponsible Dad (Bud Johnson) to vote. Through a series of mishaps her dad couldn’t make it because he lost his job that day and decided to get drunk. Frustrated, Molly sneaks into the polling center and somehow manages to vote undetected. But while she was voting someone accidentally unplugged the voting machine and her vote did not go through. As the evening progresses the candidates are at a dead heat. All the votes are counted and the two candidates are completely tied. Except one vote didn’t go through all of the way, and that would be Bud Johnson’s vote. The officials give him ten days to vote for a candidate. The media finds out and they bombard his home in New Mexico trying to find out his political views. Not having a political bone in his body, he says he has an open mind for either candidate. This leads the two candidates on race to win Bud over. Bud falls for the bribes the two candidates give, going to fancy parties and meeting famous celebrities. But Molly sees through it all and tries to convince her Dad otherwise.

Morals: The first moral to the story was this. Dads need to live up to their responsibility. I felt that the presidential elections were a sub plot, and Buds relationship (or lack thereof) with Molly was the main plot. Bud quickly realized that his self-centered life needed to change to a selfless life.
The second moral to the story was that politicians should not flip-flop on the issues. They really showed the lack of principle many politicians have these days. It was sad (yet funny) to see the Republican moving over to a gay rights position and the Democrat moving over to a pro-life stance JUST to please Bud Johnson.
The third moral to the story was that being apathetic is pathetic. Get involved with politics!



Technical Aspects
Acting: Although Kevin Costner (Bud) and Kelsey Grammer (Andrew Boone) did a fine job. The movie fell towards Madeline Carroll who stole the audiences with her character Molly. Madeline did a fantastic job at convincing the viewers she was real. I have to give a hand to the director Joshua Stern for handling all of the difficult and diverse moods very skillfully.
Screenplay: I felt at some points during the film the flow of the story was choppy and a little slow. But they did a good job at mixing drama with comedy without confusing people. I also liked that they focused more on Bud and Molly rather than the elections. Many screenplay writers get sidetracked into the story and forget about character development.
Soundtrack: John Debney did a great job at mixing his music with the moods of the story. I could even find myself a little teary at a few parts due to the music. For those who don’t know John Debney did the music for the Passion of the Christ. Which is one of the greatest soundtrack albums ever.

The Bad: One of the main problems that I had with the movie was its foul language. Now, I can handle a little swearing. But it’s when they start taking God’s name in vain when I get upset. Even though Molly gets on her dads case for using God’s name irreverently. It doesn’t make up for the usage. (Although it does say something that the writer would put something like that in.)

Conclusion: I was pleased that they ended the movie without endorsing either candidate. We all know that Bud won in the end because he saw his own sin in his life. Because of the language, I can’t recommend this movie without some sort of language blocker (which I have.) It’s sad that you can’t watch a movie these days without dishonoring God’s holy name. Overall, I give this movie a –3 for content and a +1 for worldview.

Christian Filmmakers Contest

The winner of the 36 hour Christian Filmmaker Contest was announced yesterday. Some of the movies were great, some were awful. Click on the link below to see the movies that were submitted including the winner.

If you do end up watching some of the movies. Comment on this post on which movies you liked.

http://www.christianfilmmakers.org/contest/2009-04/