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RichSwingle
Reviews
The Voyage That Shook the World (2009)
Outstanding!
Everyone in the scientific community should see this! It's interesting that many of those giving this one star say it isn't scientific, despite the fact that most (all?) of those interviewed hold PhDs in some scientific discipline. They seem to be prejudiced against the conclusions drawn from the science. Their low ratings have nothing whatever to do with the quality of the filmmaking, which is superb.
At least one reviewer says the scientific community is in 100% agreement that evolution is the reason for today's biodiversity, but that statement is false. There are 2.5 million scientists who believe God created the world.
The Case for Christ (2017)
My new favorite!
This is my new favorite movie, and that's only changed twice since 1981: Chariots of Fire and Risen are the only ones to have held that top spot since junior high, and I like movies enough to have performed in almost 30 of them.
The Case for Christ tells the true story of how Lee Strobel, a hard-boiled, award-winning investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune set his skills on debunking the resurrection of Jesus Christ to convince his wife to abandon her newfound love for the Lord.
Acting, writing (Brian Bird: Captive, Touched by an Angel), cinematography (Brian Shanley: God's Not Dead, Do You Believe?) are all top shelf. Nothing cheesy about this one, and major papers are agreeing with that.
The worst The Hollywood Reporter could do was imply that the film stereotyped Lee Strobel as an atheist by showing him 'constantly acting like a jerk, including drinking heavily, accidentally terrifying his little girl, and whining to Leslie (his wife), "You're cheating on me with Jesus!"' Maybe the reviewer missed the fact that this is a biography based on Lee's actual life.
My wife, Joyce, who was going to journalism school in Chicago (Medill at Northwestern University) when Lee Strobel was writing at the Chicago Tribune, said it was more accurate to say that those actions stereotyped Chicago journalists of the time. She said you had to be tough to make it.
The reviewer goes on to say that Leslie, 'on the other hand, displays infinite love and patience with her husband, proving that — as was also shown in the faith-based film War Room — Jesus makes an ideal marriage counselor.' I know the validity of Erika Christensen's portrayal of Leslie, because part of my own bride Joyce's testimony is that one of her co-workers said, about a year after Joyce gave her life to the Lord, that Joyce's changed life was the first miracle the woman had ever seen.
Also, the reviewer is leaving out the fact that both lead actors are much more nuanced than his review implies. Lee is very caring and loving at times, especially as a father, and it's clear that his investigation into the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an attempt to save what he perceives to be a crumbling marriage. He is deeply moved when he discovers something he didn't know about his father, played by Robert Forster. On the other side, Leslie certainly expresses the pain Lee is causing her through his attacks on Christianity, she breaks down crying over her fear of losing their marriage, she raises her voice in numerous scenes, and at one point kicks Lee out for the night.
Forster's single scene was like an espresso: short but with a lot of punch. Another gem of a cameo was Faye Dunaway, playing another skeptic, but one who reluctantly directs Lee toward Truth.
One of the charming elements of the film is the detailing of the 80s: He drives a Trans Am with his massive mop flopping over his wide collars. He and his wife have worked out code for his pager. Bill Hybel's church (Willow Creek) sings a Keith Green song. A fast call back to the editor is from a creatively marked pay phone. He pops open a flip top soda can. (I whispered to my wife, Joyce: "Hope that didn't take too many takes!") And my favorite: "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie-Pop? The world may never know."
At the end of the day that's how Lee Strobel's atheist friend, aptly played by Brett Rice, puts it to him. We'll never know everything. It takes faith to believe or not to believe. If you're leaning toward disbelief I challenge you to see this film without presuppositions. If you still have questions read the book of the same title. I have more ideas about faith at www.RichDrama.com/MyPassion.
I believe The Case for Christ is pure Truth in its best package yet.
We watched it in a packed house on Times Square, where it received robust applause. The showing after ours was sold out.
Captive (2015)
An Outstanding Story of Hope!
My wife and I recently saw a pre-release screening of Captive at The Sheen Center in New York City, along with 130 recovering drug addicts. What a powerful message of hope for them!
It's a very powerful film about how Ashley Smith, played by Kate Mara (Fantastic Four), was held captive by Brian Nichols, played by David Oyelowo (Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma), in her own home for seven hours. Brian put a woman in a coma and then shot and killed four people as he made his escape from an Atlanta area courthouse and carjacked one vehicle after the next. He took refuge in Ashley's home, where she read from The Purpose Driven Life, the second most translated book next to The Bible, to Brian, and he (SPOILER ALERT for any who weren't aware of this front page incident over ten years ago) turned himself in to authorities.
The film has the crucible of Ashley's home at the center of its tightly wound plot. Michael K. Williams (RoboCop) plays Detective John Chestnut, who is leading the pursuit.
Ashley's book is titled Unlikely Angel because she was a methamphetamines addict at the time she was taken hostage in her own home. After the screening we saw, Ashley was a part of a panel interviewed by Gayle King of CBS Good Morning. Gayle asked Ashley about a moment in the film when Brian asks Ashley for drugs. She brings out the methamphetamines she almost flushed earlier. Brian tells her to take the drugs along with him. Ashley told the audience at the screening that in that moment she knew she had been more of a captive to drugs than she was to Brian that night. She refuses the drugs as he's taking them, but later, when he thinks they were laced, he tries again to force her to take them. Still she refuses. Ashley told us that her Aunt Kim had prayed for the Lord to take Ashley Home if she were not able to stop taking the drugs. Ashley thought that if she capitulated to taking the drugs when Brian held the gun to her head, she would literally die. Caught between death at Brian's hand and death at the drugs' hand, she chose obedience to God, risking her life with the man who'd killed four people that morning. Brian hijacked five vehicles within fifteen minutes, and one woman reported that he told her, "Don't you see this blood on my hands? I'm a dead man." Ashley also knew he had nothing to lose, but still she chose not to take those drugs. Ashley told us that after that moment she began to see Brian through the eyes of Jesus. Later in the interview Gayle King asked Ashley what compelled her to make pancakes for Brian. She took us back to that moment of refusing to take the drugs and how it sparked her ability to see him through the eyes of Jesus and treat him as a real human being.
Ashley was joined in the talk-back by...
Read my full review at www.RichDrama.com/Captive
Moms' Night Out (2014)
Laughed both times!
We just got back from seeing Moms' Night Out the second time. While we were walking out my wife said she heard some lines she missed the first time because we were laughing so hard. But I still laughed 'til I hurt and wept at the profundity.
Sarah Drew (Grey's Anatomy, Mad Men, Castle) plays a frazzled mother of three, who can't quite seem to stay on top of her dream job: raising her three adorable children. Her loving husband, played by Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings, Rudy) urges her to do something for herself, so she arranges, well, a moms' night out with her best friend, played by Logan White (Sarah's Choice, Brother White, Revelation Road), and her pastor's wife, played by Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond, The Middle), who took comedy to an entirely new plane. The night goes hilariously wrong.
We spoke to a family afterward who loved it, even their 9-year-old. They were glad we told them to wait for the scene following the credits.