RISEN: CSI JERUSALEM

BATTLEFIELD MARS: BRING ON THE MAYHEM 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE: SPOOKY GOOD

RISEN: CSI JERUSALEM

<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mHPorWbVf1..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mHPorWbVf1..." width="280" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">David Robbins</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">© 2016</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let’s start by being honest. Hollywood isn’t held in high regard when it comes to religious movies. Especially Christian-themed. They don’t make a lot of them. When they do, the ‘Christian elements’ they insert leave many Christians scratching their heads and going, ‘Say what?’</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Take <i>The Last Temptation of Christ </i>as but one example. Jesus is portrayed as a vacillating wimp. He doesn’t die on the cross. He marries Mary Magdalene. When she dies, Jesus marries Martha ‘and’ Mary, the sisters of Lazarus. To redeem itself---pardon the pun---at the end of the movie, Jesus ends up at the site of the crucifixion, begs God for forgiveness, and presto, he’s cast back in time and on the cross again, dying to fulfill his mission. The best way to describe this concoction is that it takes everything you know about Jesus and doesn’t just throw it out the window, the movie tosses it over a cliff. And Hollywood wondered why Christians didn’t flock to the theater in droves.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s7PFq51XfA..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s7PFq51XfA..." width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> [A battle scene from <i>Risen</i>. The phalanx tactics remind you of <i>300</i> and <i>Troy</i>.]</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span> All that aside, the anathema toward Hollywood isn’t entirely justified. They do manage to make less controversial religious movies now and then. Take their Bible Extravaganza Era, when big-budget Biblical-themed movies like <i>The Ten Commandments </i>and<i> King of Kings </i>were produced.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hollywood recently, and rather accidentally, discovered that if someone makes a Christian movie that’s actually, you know, ‘Christian’, Christians will go to see it. So now we’re being treated to a new spate of religious movies.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>God’s Not Dead</i> had a lot to do with it. Made for about $2 million, it grossed $60 million at the box office. Suddenly Hollywood was seeing dollar signs. In the coming months moviegoers will be treated to a range of religious films, everything from movies about the relentless assault on Christianity in contemporary culture to <i>Young Messiah</i>, based on the Anne Rice novel.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z_v0Z6I_NE..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z_v0Z6I_NE..." width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> [Cliff Curtis as Yeshua on the cross. Reportedly, he took a vow of silence and lived monastically for a month to 'cleanse' himself for the role.] </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Which, finally, brings us to <i>Risen</i>. The story revolves around a Roman Tribune who is tasked with finding out what happened to Jesus’ body after it mysteriously disappears from Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For starters, the movie is ‘very’ respectful towards its source. Jesus doesn’t run around in clown makeup (<i>Godspell)</i> or marry anybody (see above). Yes, it tweaks a few things. For instance, John doesn’t mention a Tribune being present when Jesus showed his crucifixion wounds to Thomas and the other Apostles. And you’ll find no mention anywhere in the New Testament of a Tribune preventing the Romans from killing them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>These are minor elements, framed within the context of the story. And the story is about Jesus rising from the dead, as well as the clear and unequivocal assertion that Jesus was who he said he was.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ak5n0fzZL4..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ak5n0fzZL4..." width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>[Roman CSI. Trying to figure out how Yeshua's image was imprinted on his burial shroud.] </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> The movie is superbly well done. Given their budget, they have crafted wonderful settings. The acting, overall, is fine. Some criticism has been directed at Joseph Fiennes, the actor who plays the Tribune, as being too ‘stoic’. But he’s portraying a hard-as-nails soldier who worships Mars, the Roman god of war. What did the critics expect? Mister Rogers with a short sword? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For a Christian, one of the big questions revolves around the portrayal of Jesus. The actor is Cliff Curtis. You might know him as the father of the dysfunctional family in <i>Fear The Walking Dead</i>. We don’t see a lot of him, and when we do, Curtis is effective within the constraints of the script. This isn’t the somber Jesus of <i>The Greatest Story Ever Tol</i>d, or the grand Jesus of <i>King of Kings</i>. <i>Risen’s</i> Jesus is one of near-constant good cheer. His basic message is that all men and women are brothers/slash/sisters and should love one another. Atonement aspects are minimized.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Parents of young children should know that the movie begins with a terrific battle sequence pitting the Romans against some Zealots. We’re not talking, say, <i>Deadpool</i>-level violence, but there are some brutal moments.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If you’re a Christian who has been holding off going to Hollywood’s fare because their religious movies always leave you grimacing, you might give <i>Risen</i>a try. Or if you’re a non-Christian, you might go to appreciate the movie on its own merits.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> Which are considerable.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bWNN0QAUcu..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bWNN0QAUcu..." width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> [The crucifixion scene. Little does Clavius, the Roman Tribune, realize that reality as he knows it is about to be forever changed.]</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DavidR..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on March 06, 2016 12:52

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