In Gramps' Shoes (2014)
Boys' Bible Study
We first fell in love with the film character Gramps and his anti-evolution hijinks when we watched GRAMPS GOES TO COLLEGE (2014), one of the most outrageous Christian films of all time. We knew we’d eventually explore the entire Gramps cinematic universe. We continue our journey with IN GRAMPS’ SHOES, the confident first entry in this series, which, based on its morbid ending, does not feel like it’s setting itself up for a sequel. Thankfully, writer Donald James Parker and director Chip Rosetti broke canon and persisted. Donald James Parker’s work as Gramps could be compared to...
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Frailty (2001)
Boys' Bible Study
The tension between faith and delusion builds to a thrilling climax in FRAILTY, the Bill Paxton-directed y2k crime drama with Christian themes. Matthew McConaughey, who we recently reviewed as a cast member of 1994’s ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD, stars as a man recounting his troubled childhood as the son of a religiously-motivated murderer (Bill Paxton) to a detective (Powers Boothe) who is trying to solve the case of the God’s Hand killer. This killer, who McConaughey’s character Fenton believes is his own brother Adam, targets seemingly random victims who are allegedly demons in human form....
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Touched by an Angel s8e3 "The Birthday Present"
Boys' Bible Study
TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL returns to our watchlist with another episode from its triumphant season 8, possibly one of the best runs in all of television history. Using its “human of the week” format, TBAA stars Roma Downey as Monica, Della Reese as Tess, John Dye as Andrew (the angel of death) and Valerie Bertinelli as the dumbass angel-in-training Gloria (our favorite character.) Gloria and Andrew figure prominently in “The Birthday Present”, the story of a mail carrier accidentally uncovering brutal child abuse in an idyllic suburban neighborhood. Mailman Chuck, portrayed by frequent...
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2 to Tangle (2013) TEASER
Boys' Bible Study
Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! “And twins!” This Christian romantic thriller about identical twins performing emotional terrorism on a Christian woman will make you believe in love during this Valentines-Day-in-July season. 2 TO TANGLE is one of a few feature films created by the son/father team (respectively) of director Caleb Johnson and writer Jeff Johnson. Per Caleb Johnson’s self-written iMDb bio, Caleb directed his first film TIME COLLECTORS at the age of 17, before immediately moving onto 2 TO TANGLE, which...
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George W. Bush: Faith in the White House (2004)
Boys' Bible Study
Do you ever reminisce about the good old days? We took a trip down memory lane to a time when political decisions were based on strong moral values, and when faith allowed men of consequence to weather tumultuous times. Our source material for this nostalgia sesh is GEORGE W. BUSH: FAITH IN THE WHITE HOUSE, a “documentary” (heavy emphasis on the scare quotes) produced by GRIZZLY ADAMS creator Charles E. Sellier Jr. and hosted by conservative radio host Janet Parshall. The thesis of the documentary is that the 43rd American president’s strong personal Christian faith is what gave him...
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Noah (2014)
Boys' Bible Study
To celebrate Father’s Day, we spend time with the story of one of the most important Old Testament patriarchs as depicted by acclaimed American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. NOAH takes great liberties with the biblical legend of Noah, adding elements inspired by the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. In Aronofsky’s NOAH, the harsh realities of day-to-day life in Bible times are exaggerated with high fantasy elements. The most notable addition to the story are the giant stone “Watchers”, towering giants whose stone exteriors imprison the souls of fallen angels doomed to wander Earth....
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Highway to Heaven s1e20 "The Banker and the Bum" (1985)
Boys' Bible Study
Before there was TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL there was HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, an 80s sitcom that may be the blueprint for the angel media craze that swept American pop culture at the end of the 20th century. HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN was created and directed by American television legend Michael Landon, who also stars in the series as the angel Jonathan Smith. Landon, known for his roles on all-American historical dramas BONANZA and LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, enlisted his former LITTLE HOUSE… co-star Victor French to play Jonathan Smith’s buddy Mark Gordon, a retired policeman (and mortal human) who...
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Chi Ann Blaze of Fury (2025) TEASER
Boys' Bible Study
Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! For the first time in the history of our podcast, we are reviewing a film in which we co-starred. This is CHI ANN BLAZE OF FURY, the brand new film by 3Angels Power, a Canadian film production company based in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. In 2019, BBS co-host Julian struck up a friendship and artistic relationship with the Karam sisters (Gladys, Mona Lisa, and Jeanne d’arc) whose films he found by accident after misspelling a search term on YouTube. He was immediately captivated by the...
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Michael (1996)
Boys' Bible Study
In the 1990s, filmmakers and audiences seemed obsessed with “magic men” who caused chaos in their communities while teaching everyone an important lesson. Some of these men were angels; some of them were just weird little freaks who made a big difference. Some examples of this: POWDER, MEET JOE BLACK, PHENOMENON, and another John Travolta starring film called MICHAEL. MICHAEL is an interesting hybrid magic man/religious film where this “magic man” archetype is also the archangel Michael from the Bible. This device allows the film to be safe-religious while not directly invoking Jesus,...
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Battlefield Earth (2000)
Boys' Bible Study
This infamous sci-fi film is perhaps the church of Scientology’s biggest attempt to ingratiate itself with mainstream culture. BATTLEFIELD EARTH is based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, whose end goal was to adapt this book into a Hollywood film. Hubbard made an attempt in the mid-1980s to produce the adaptation himself, but it failed, and Hubbard died in 1986. Hubbard had hinted to John Travolta, a prominent Scientologist, that Hubbard would have liked Travolta to star in the film. Travolta took it upon himself to bring BATTLEFIELD EARTH to life in the mid-90s, eventually...
info_outlineThis stylized post-apocalyptic thriller is a unique example of a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster with overtly Christian themes, even if it stops just short of a true Christian message. Directed by the Hughes Brothers (MENACE II SOCIETY, DEAD PRESIDENTS, FROM HELL) and starring beloved leading man Denzel Washington, THE BOOK OF ELI depicts the Bible as a source of tremendous power in a fallen world. Eli (Denzel Washington) is a survivor of a nuclear holocaust, wandering westward on a mysterious mission with few possessions except for a large book that he treasures. When Eli crosses paths with local warlord Carnegie (Gary Oldman), Carnegie suspects that Eli’s book may be the Bible, which Carnegie himself has been seeking because he believes reading it will give him the power to control large groups of people. Carnegie is perhaps a metaphor for hypocritical conmen religious leaders who use Christianity as a way to acquire power and money, whereas Eli could represent Christ or even just a true honest believer who has made it his mission to spread faith into the world. This metaphor becomes even more clear when Eli’s quest is revealed to be delivery of the Bible to an enclave of secret archivists who will reprint and preserve it forever. The authenticity of Eli’s faith becomes even more clear when Carnegie does steal the Bible, only to be upset to find it is written in Braille, revealing Eli to have been blind the whole time. Despite being mortally wounded by Carnegie, Eli makes it to the archivists in time to speak the entire Bible to them as an oral tradition, ensuring its preservation. In the final scene of the movie, we see the archivists putting the newly reprinted Bible on a shelf alongside the Torah and the Quran. This ending, which is obviously inspired by the novel FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury, shows that THE BOOK OF ELI is not a truly Christian genre film — few faith-based films would equate the Bible and the Quran. To view THE BOOK OF ELI through the lens of faith-based film criticism is to see it as a religious cop out; hinting that the Bible is the source of spiritual truth but ultimately dismissing it as “just another book on a shelf.”
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