Apostles of Comedy

Posted on September 8, 2008 at 10:00 am

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	NR
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	References to illness and sad death
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to DVD:	September 9, 2008
Amazon.com ASIN:	B001957A12

Four Christian stand-up comics join forces in this performance film that combines hilarious commentary on all of the absurdities of life with very touching glimpses of the men at home and their fellowship with each other. Anthony Griffith, Brad Stine, Jeff Allen, and Ron Pearson are talented performers who believe that their comedy can be a kind of testimony, bringing people to a place where they are more receptive to God. This is a heart-warming, hilarious, and inspiring film. Be sure to check out my interview with Ron Pearson about what makes him laugh and how he finds a way to be both reverent and irreverent.

A live tour featuring the four stars of “Apostles of Comedy” will begin on November 10 in Northern California and make stops in over 15 cities before Thanksgiving. Venues for the tour will include large churches as well as theaters and auditoriums. Stops will include Phoenix, Tulsa’s Maybee Center, Dallas’ Nokia Theatre, Houston, Orlando, Chattanooga and Knoxville, TN.

Mandela

Posted on July 14, 2008 at 8:00 am

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	NR
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Disturbing material about apartheid
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movies
Date Released to Theaters:	March 21, 1997

Celebrate the 90th birthday this week of one of history’s greatest leaders, Nelson Mandela, with one of the fine films about his extraordinary perseverance, vision, courage, and leadership. The story of the massive social change he achieved without violence is profoundly moving and inspiring and one that all families should understand and discuss. Perhaps his greatest contribution is the notion of reconciliation and forgiveness rather than retribution and punishment, a lesson the world will need to recover from its current conflicts.

The documentary, Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation follows Mandela from his early years as one of nine children of a polygamist father assigned the name “Nelson” by a teacher instead of his tribal name to his 27 years in prison, his election to the Presidency of South Africa and the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. The made-for-television Mandela & De Klerk (PG-13 for disturbing images of political violence) has Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine as Mandela and his co-Nobel awardee F.W. de Klerk. Both are outstanding.

Darkon interview: Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer

Posted on January 15, 2008 at 6:00 pm

Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer are the writer-directors of an exceptionally entertaining and engrossing film called “Darkon,” a documentary about LARPers — participants in live action role-playing games. Think of a mash-up between Civil War reenactors, a “Star Trek” convention, and a computer game with elements from “Lord of the Rings” and the Crusades.

Every other week, Darkon players meet for battle in the fields around Baltimore wearing armor and carrying shields and swords. No longer at their boring jobs, no longer their boring selves, Darkon gives them scope for their imagination and lets them be epic and heroic. And sometimes they discover things about themselves that carry over into their daily life as well.

The film, a festival award-winner, is sympathetic to its subjects, drawing us into their battles on and off the field.

Related Tags:

Interview

Arctic Tale

Posted on December 3, 2007 at 9:51 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating:	G
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Nature-style violence, some graphic footage of animals killing and eating each other, some disturbing images of the effects of climate change
Diversity Issues:	Diverse species
Date Released to Theaters:	July 30, 2007
Date Released to DVD:	December 4, 2007
Amazon.com ASIN:	B000WZAE0O

The people behind “March of the Penguins” have put together another endearing story of life in the coldest place on earth. This time, it is the story of two newborns, a polar bear called Nanu and a walrus named Seela. “What seems forbidding to us is home to them,” says narrator Queen Latifah, whose affectionate tone brings warmth to the frozen landscape. The story is not as linear or involving as “Penguins,” and it is overcast with more forboding, as the effects of climate change pose a greater threat to these new lives than temperature or predators.
arctic%20tale.jpg

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How to Cook Your Life

Posted on November 7, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Writer-director Doris Dörrie has made a wonderfully touching and inspiring documentary about zen priest and best-selling cookbook author Edward Espe Brown. It is about food and dignity and touch and mindfulness, sufficiency and abundance, physical, spiritual, and emotional hunger, anger and satisfaction. It is funny and moving and inspiring and even in its own way nourishing. And it has a wonderful score. It is worth seeing just for the scene when Brown recites the poem his mother included in a letter just before she died, about a duck that “reposes in the immediate as if it were infinity — which it is. He has made himself a part of the boundless by easing himself into just where it touches him.”

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Related Tags:

Documentary