About Us and Our Ratings
Posted by J on January 1, 2007
We’re husband and wife. Two moviewatchers and bookreaders who enjoy stories. We think that God told the ultimate story in His Word, and that the creatures made in His image are compelled to write stories that reflect parts of that ultimate story. Of course these creatures are inherently sinful. They are likely to pervert the truth and praise lies. So we, as Christians and moviewatchers, need to filter the truth from the lies.
The Apostle Paul said “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right: think about such things.” This is tough to do when it comes to movies. That’s because movies are a seductive way of storytelling, and people can make evil look good in storytelling. We think that Christians tend to turn off their critical thinking skills when going to the theater or shelling out $5 for a Blockbuster rental. They are merely looking to be entertained. All the while, these Christians ignore the moral truths contained in movies — many of which promote murder, adultery, and child rebellion. Worse, they plop their children in front of the TV and allow them to watch a bad or dumb movie over and over.
Recently, evangelical subculture has rebelled against Hollywood immorality. They have put a lot of effort into promoting “Christian” movies, which are the same as any mainstream movie except for being “cleaner.” It is almost a guarantee these days that when a piece of art is labelled “Christian,” that means it’s crummy. In the case of Christian movies, bad acting, bad writing, and bad direction abounds. We like stories with good morals, but not at the expense of craftsmanship. God demands our best because our best glorifies Him. If the best cartoon evangelicals can muster forth is VeggieTales, and the best special effects movie we can make is The Omega Code, and the best “Christian” actor we can produce is Carmen, we have big problems. Our subculture produces terrible craftsman and shoddy artworks. We deserve to be laughed at.
Our aim here, with each review, is to try our best to analyze movies presuppositionally. We start with the basic truths of the Christian faith — the essential dogmas — and then look at what a movie’s telling us about the world. This approach allows us a standard of objectivity. We can figure out what’s entertaining but stupid, and what’s wellcrafted but immoral. Occasionally, we will see something beautiful and true.
Our categories for ratings are Entertainment, Intelligence, and Morality. Obviously it’s a little absurd to quantify these. We sometimes feel silly giving them a number, especially morality. Still, as readers of reviews, we all want a quick reference guide. Thumbs up, thumbs down. That’s simple and straightforward.
The best movies, for us, will be high in all three categories. We don’t think a movie is good or recommendable if it has a high rating in Entertainment but a low one in Morality. In fact, if it’s not a ‘7′ in Morality or higher, we think there are better things to do than watch that movie. We try to tell you about objectionable material, but the best reference for that is Kids-in-Mind.
The point of this site is to build an online review library. We can’t afford to review new releases, nor do we have the credentials to attend press screenings. We just write reviews as time allows.
Finally, we’re curmudgeons when it comes to movies. Remember those two guys in the balcony on The Muppet Show? Well, that’s one of us. The other is a lovely, sweet, adorable lady. Rare it is when we find a movie we really liked. Praise from us is a high recommendation.
Remember always: the point of our lives is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and that includes glorifying Him in what movies we watch.
