The Gospel: Reloaded - no joke

[SeebianWurm]

This was in the local paper. It gives me a headache.

Movies Get Religion

Hollywood finds spiritual themes in its films are box-office draws
By J. Michael Parker

Hollywood is producing more films with religious themes than ever in recent box office history, and it's proving what religious film critics have said for years: they sell.

"The Matrix Reloaded" and "Bruce Almighty" are the season's hottest opening movies, the first raking in almost $93.3 million in its first weekend and the latter $86.4 million. Other popular films with religious themes or subplots released recently or soon to come include "A Walk to Remember," "The Passion," "The In-Laws" and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

That's no surprise to Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide, a Christian publication that critiques films and tracks their success.

""The number of films with religious content has been growing geometrically," Baehr said. "In 1985, we found one film with positive content. There were more than 100 last year."

Among the 25 top grossing films last year, religious-themed movies grossed $255 million, and moral and family-content films $232 million.

Baehr said his statistics have helped convince film executives that Christian-content films do better at the box office than movies loaded with sex and violence.

"USA Today said that there wasn't one negative film in the top 20 last year. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that means," Baehr said.

He said the increase reflects the concern of film executives who are parents themselves, as well as the psychological and spiritual condition of American society.

David Bruce, webmaster of Hollywood Jesus (www.hollywoodjesus.com), a web site that critiques films from an evangelical perspective, noted that the 1999 film "The Fifth Element" and even "Superman" are widely seen as remakes of the Jesus story. "French Kiss" is a recasting of the Gospel story of the Prodigial Son and the Old Testament Story of Esau selling his birthright.

He said evangelical Christians and Hollywood executives are seeing each other with new eyes.

"Hollywood now sees evangelical Christianity as a market that should be courted and has softened its stance," Bruce said. "Fuller Theological Seminary, a major evangelical institution, hosts a City of Angels film festival. They invite the Hollywood film directors, screen films, and then have dialogue about them. Steven King spoke about his faith at one of them.

NavPress, which publishes apologetical material, has tapped into the popularity of The Matrix: Reloaded by producing The Gospel: Reloaded as an evangelizing tool for youth.

It's quite a switch from the time when Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ." was released amid boycotts by evangelicals.

"They were (also) protesting films by Catholics and other evangelicals. They couldn't see their own story in many of these films. Now Christians want to understand films and look for connections, rather than disjunctions," Bruce said.

In the past, evangelicals rated movies according to their suitability for small children, missing the rich religious content of many films for adults.

"That's a bogus standard," Bruce said. "You wouldn't rate an adult Bible class as 'anti-family' that way, even though it wasn't suitable for your 9-year old."

But Gerri Pare, director of the U.S. Catholic bishops' office of film and broadcasting, said religious content is largely in the eye of the beholder.

"A summer with 17 sequels coming out points to a certain lack of creativity in Hollywood. I wouldn't say this is the best of times. But the fact that movies like 'The Matrix Reloaded' and 'Bruce Almighty,' which have positive religious content, can be successful is a positive sign," Pare said.

jparker@express-news.net

I'm currently wiping my runny nose with the article.

[Peregrin Toker]

Is it just me, or is that Ted Baehr seeing patterns where they aren't??? He almost remind me of Frank Allnutt, the guy who thought "Jedi" was an acronym of "Jesus' Disciples."

[PeZook]

Baehr said his statistics have helped convince film executives that Christian-content films do better at the box office than movies loaded with sex and violence.

Yeah, I'm sure the success of Matrix: Reloaded came from it's vague religious references instead of cool fight scenes, the freeway chase, explosions, gunplay, music...same for Lord Of The Rings.

"USA Today said that there wasn't one negative film in the top 20 last year. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that means," Baehr said.

Demolition Man? Blade I & II? Terminator? End Of Days? Countless shitty action/destruction movies scoring pretty high in the box office?

It means the guy is an idiot, and truly it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, I'll give him that