6.24.2007

Ark: "acts of random kindness"


Just Say Noah: Evan Almighty's appalling effort to pander to religious moviegoers

Excerpts:

Evan Almighty, a drab retelling of the Noah story as a comic ecofable, is Hollywood's latest and—with a $200 million budget—most expensive pander at the Christian market. Ever since the success of The Passion of the Christ in 2004, studios have been hurling money at Christian directors in hopes they can recapture that Jesus mojo.
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You might argue that making a comedy about Noah's ark—one of the Bible's grimmest stories—is a bit like making a sex farce about the Rwandan genocide.
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But Evan Almighty also strips away anything Christian (or Jewish) about the story and replaces it with a message of universal hokum. God's entire instruction to his flock? Practice "acts of random kindness." (Look at the initial letters of that phrase.) That's not religion or even morality. It's a coffee mug slogan.
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never thought I'd hear myself say this, but Evan Almighty makes me miss The Passion. It was a sadistic, horrifying movie, about a bloody and terrifying book. But Mel Gibson captured the sense of the story, the ideas of suffering and sacrifice that undergird Christianity.

Comment: What I don't get is why some Christians are falling all over themselves to endorse this film! Salon review: God forbid Steve Carell should keep pouring his comic talents into brain-dead heart-warmers like this

1 comment:

  1. SO WHAT IF THEY USED COMEDY.. DO YOU THINK IF THEY HAD USED ANY OTHER GENRE AND MADE A SERIOUS(BORING) MOVIE ABOUT NOAHS ARK WOULD WE BE WASTING (YES YOU TOO) OUR TIME HERE DISCUSSING IT... IM 22 AND AFTER WATCHING THIS MOVIE I WAS MOVED TO READ THE BIBLE.. SO WOULD YOU TAKE THAT EXPERIENCE AWAY FROM ME??? IT WAS AIMED AT A YOUNGER AUDIENCE WHO PERHAPS FOR THE LACK OF A BETTER DESCRIPTION FOR IT - IS BEING SWEPT UP IN A SOCIETY ALL ABOUT CELEBRITYS, FASHION AND RECKLESS BEHAVIOUR??
    THE MOVIE IS ABOUT FAITH, LOVE, FAMILY AND THE ABILITY TO BELIEVE IN ONES SELF TO MAKE A CHANGE.
    SURELY THIS CAN NOT BE A BAD THING TO REMIND US OF THESE VALUES??
    WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PRACTICED A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS??

    ReplyDelete

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