Monday, March 2, 2009

Movie Madness

Movieguide magazine, a Christian family guide to movies and entertainment, has put out their annual year in review issue.

There’s lots of interesting stuff.

They list the ten Best Movies of 2008 for families and give the theme/reason why they were chosen:
1. WALL-E (love gives all to save mankind -- best love and sacrifice)
2. FIREPROOF (learning to truly love -- best redemptive love story)
3. PRINCE CASPIAN (substance of things hoped for -- best faith and chivalry)
4. BOLT (love overcomes all obstacles -- best faith and trust triumph)
5. JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 3D (discovering the value of family -- best finding family)
6. NIM’S ISLAND (hope, courage, and keeping promises -- best coming of age)
7. KUNG FU PANDA (the truth is there is no secret -- best overcoming elitism)
8. THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (commending a code of real honor -- best valor in the face of danger)
9. MADAGASCAR 2 (love bears ignominy and perseveres -- best father/son reunion)
10. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 (learning to do the right thing -- best good, clean fun).

The ten Best Movies of 2008 for Mature Audiences:
1. IRONMAN (sacrifice redeems cad -- best conversion to righteousness)
2. GRAN TORINO (redemptive power of sacrifice -- best learning true valor)
3. VALKYRIE (righteous courage -- best standing against evil)
4. CHANGELING (a mother’s love will not be silenced -- best truth triumphs)
5. THE LONGSHOTS (the gifts God gives you -- best use of God’s gifts)
6. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (save mankind to save the world -- best pro-humankind)
7. EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED (truth vanquishes false philosophy -- best expose of tyranny)
8. TYLER PERRY’S THE FAMILY THAT PREYS (Jesus forgives sinners -- best forgiveness in Christ)
9. MARLEY AND ME (unruly dog builds family -- best pet builds marriage)
10. HENRY POOLE IS HERE (miraculous deliverance from despair -- best atheist finds God).

One of the cool findings they report: movies reflecting high moral, biblical, and Christian standards do much better at the box office than movies that violate those high standards. Even better, this is especially true of movies that go out of their way to aggressively violate such standards. Moviegoers tend to reject them.

Four of the top five movies in 2008 had strong or very strong Christian, moral, and/or biblical content (with HANCOCK being the exception). Ten of the top ten movies had at least some Christian, moral, and/or biblical principles.

I don’t know about you, but I often have a beef with movie critics -- it seems the more they like a movie, the more I’ll probably dislike it. So I especially enjoyed this tidbit -- according to Movieguide, most movie critics picked as their favorites the worst movies seen by the fewest number of people.

The bottom line good news is that family friendly movies and movies with positive Christian content make the most money, on average, of any other kind of movie and these kinds of movies did so again in 2008. In fact, 2008 was the year that Communist movies like CHE totally bombed at the box office. Pedophile movies like HOUNDDOG with Dakota Fanning, anti-American movies like WAR, INC., anti-Christian movies like ADAM RESURRECTED, RELIGULOUS, and SAVE ME, also all bombed at the box office. It was the year where sex, foul language, graphic nudity, and homosexuality did not sell yet again.

Christians need to realize that this trend will not continue unless they support good movies as much as they can, thus sending the message to Hollywood to produce more of the same. We can’t ignore the huge influence Hollywood has on our kids and grandkids and on the society in which we all live.

With that said, here are some of the worst movies of 2008 for contributing to the corruption of the culture. In no particular order, they include: MILK, HANCOCK, W., SEX AND THE CITY, THE READER, THE HOUSE BUNNY, WALTZ WITH BASHIR, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, SAW V, THE PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, and WANTED.


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The top three religions in the world are:
1. Christianity -- 2.1 billion
2. Islam -- 1.5 billion
3. Secular/Non-Religious/Agnostic/Atheist -- 1.1 billion.

The largest religious bodies and churches in the world are:
1. Catholic Church -- 1,100,000,000
2. Sunni Muslim -- 1,000,000,000
3. Eastern Orthodox Church -- 225,000,000


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Americans seem to be confused about several important moral issues. While 88% of Americans disapprove of adultery, only 52% say abortion is wrong while 50% say homosexual behavior is morally wrong.


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If you needed more proof that we're living in a post-Christian age, check this out. Active Christians in American number about 43 millions adults or 19% of the nation’s 226.2 million adults according to an R.R. Bowker study. ‘Active’ Christians are those most likely to read the Bible in their spare time, be committed churchgoers. accept leadership positions in the church, and feel obligated to share their faith.


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The political correctness gestapo isn’t only at work in the U.S. when it comes to the homosexual agenda. Now the European Union has demanded that all foreign aid to Nigeria be suspended after the Nigerians voted not to recognize homosexual marriage.

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