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CHRISTIAN MOVIE REVIEW: San Andreas (2015)

The movie reviewed here is definitely NOT for children, and probably not for many other people either.

  • GENRE: Thriller / Action
    • ACTORS: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, and Alexandra Daddario
    • RATING: PG-13
    • LENGTH: 1 hour, 54 minutes
    • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Violence. Lots of implied killing–mostly non-graphic.
    • INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre, and may not be appreciated by others.
    • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) The San Andreas Fault makes a major split, devastating big parts of urban California. A helicopter pilot rushes to save his daughter and almost ex-wife.
    • REVIEW: One word for this movie: Ridiculous. OK, two words: Ridiculous, ridiculous. Many movies ask us to suspend the normal rules of heaven and earth. For example, to pretend that zombies or ghosts exist. Such an exercise seems a reasonable tradeoff for watching a fictional story. But this movie suspends the rules of human nature. That is, human being don’t behave (I hope) as suggested. To summarize, with a few spoilers included, Dwayne Johnson’s character apparently abandons his job as a rescue pilot to go in search of his daughter and almost ex-wife. He steals his work helicopter, a truck, and airplane in search of his family. The scenes of earthquake and tsunami disaster look convincing to me. But watching the portrayal of thousands (or maybe millions) of people being killed in a natural disaster isn’t what I consider wholesome entertainment.
    • RECOMMENDATION: This is a thriller movie. Many people will be highly offended by every movie in this genre because of the violence, and other questionable elements. Good computer generated imagery (CGI). Too good, really.
    • RATING (out of 5 stars): ★★★★★

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CHRISTIAN MOVIE REVIEW: Ben-Hur (2016)

  • GENRE: Action / Adventure
  • ACTORS: Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Rodrigo Santoro, Nazanin Boniadi, Ayelet Zurer, Morgan Freeman
  • RATING: PG-13
  • LENGTH: 2 hours, 5 minutes
  • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. No bad language or questionable situations. But there is the violence. This film does not have extreme or gratuitous violence.1 The violence will be too much for very young children or the squeamish of any age. What you might call “XTV” (Extreme Trampling Violence). That is, men and their horses get run over by horses in the chariot race. There is a sea battle scene in which men are killed–some set afire. Also, Rome’s armies are shown battling the barbarians. Again, all disturbing images for the very young or squeamish.

    • … Read the complete review

  1. In my opinion, the violence is neither extreme or gratuitous. Of course, this is a subjective standard, with which others may disagree. There is no gore–disembowelments; lingering shots on dismemberments, or the like. This is an action / adventure film, not a horror film. ↩

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CHRISTIAN MOVIE REVIEW: After.Life (2009)

The movie reviewed here is definately NOT for children. Also probably not for people who are not fans of horror.

after.life

  • GENRE: Thriller, Mystery, Horror
  • ACTORS: Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci, Justin Long, Josh Charles, Chandler Canterbury, Celia Weston, Shuler Hensley, Anna Kuchma, Rosemary Murphy, Malachy McCourt, Laurel Bryce, Luz Alexandra Ramos
  • RATING: R
  • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Nudity. Presentation of Death is contrary to Christian beliefs. Bad language and questionable situations. Some violence, but there is little gore or excessive blood. If a behind the scenes look at a funeral parlor (heavily fictionalized) makes you queasy, I don’t think you’ll enjoy the subject matter here.
  • INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre, and may not be appreciated by others.
  • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) A young woman has a fight with her boyfriend, and storms off in her car. She’s killed in a car wreck. Wait. Oh, yes–she’s killed in a car wreck. (?)

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