Loving the Bad Man (2010)
Boys' Bible Study
This shocking Christian film about the power of forgiveness at all costs will stun you with its gripping plot twists and the hilarious Stephen Baldwin reveal (in prison at the 30min mark, covered in drawn-on white supremacist tattoos). LOVING THE BAD MAN is by director, producer, and writer Péter Engart, an extremely competent filmmaker with a few features under his belt, each featuring a faith-based celebrity cameo. Stephen Baldwin is a recurring presence in this genre, and he is extremely entertaining here as “the ethical Nazi” who leads a white gang in prison. But the real star is Cree...
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Audience of One (2007)
Boys' Bible Study
“In 1994, at age 40, Pastor Richard Gazowsky saw his first movie. Later that year, he received a vision from God.” So begins the saga of AUDIENCE OF ONE, a brilliant documentary that serves as a cultural Rosetta stone for our podcast, an intimate portrait of where faith in God meets faith in movies. It’s both a monument to the power of belief and a sobering testimony of how unchecked pride can poison spiritual authority. Director Michael Jacobs was given deep access to Gazowsky, his family, and his church (Voice of Pentecost, San Francisco). The film opens as the congregation-turned-film...
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Slaughter of the Innocents (1993)
Boys' Bible Study
Christian imagery and biblical references abound in this violent early 1990s crime thriller, tonally similar to THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS is a lesser-known entry in the 1990s serial killer canon. Instead of a theatrical run, it premiered on HBO in 1993, which may have contributed to its obscurity. That’s unfortunate, because the movie takes creative risks and deserves to be reevaluated as a cult classic. The film stars Scott Glenn as FBI Special Agent Stephen Broderick, a family man whose crime scene experience makes him a natural choice to investigate the Provo...
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Six: The Mark Unleashed (2004)
Boys' Bible Study
One of the most dramatic and exciting entries in David A.R. White’s filmography is this tense, gritty end-times drama set in a world where monogamy is outlawed and bisexuality is encouraged (which is a bad thing, by the way). SIX: THE MARK UNLEASHED is a who’s who of faith-based cinema, featuring Pure Flix kingpin David A.R. White, his prolific collaborator Kevin Downes, DIY acting mercenary Eric Roberts, pretty-boy Stephen Baldwin, and future WALKING DEAD star Jeffrey Dean Morgan. White and Downes play Brody and Jerry, two unchipped men scraping by through smuggling cars and “white hat...
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Faith Based (2020) TEASER
Boys' Bible Study
Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! In 2020, a time of deep uncertainty for film releases as quarantine disrupted theatrical schedules, a certain comedy arrived lampooning the kinds of films we love here at Boys’ Bible Study, and out of fear of being owned by its cutting satire we only decided to watch it now in 2025. FAITH BASED is a slacker comedy evoking the post-2000s wave of comedies such as ANCHORMAN and GET SMART, both of which co-star veteran comic actor David Koechner, who also makes a cameo in FAITH BASED. The...
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A Line of Fire (2025)
Boys' Bible Study
This new offering from perpetually busy Christian film auteur David A.R. White continues his “single dad action hero” era that began with 2020’s BECKMAN. BECKMAN, LOVE ON THE ROCK (2021), and now A LINE OF FIRE are just a few of the many films White has made since the COVID era reshaped DIY filmmaking. Together, they show a man striking out on his own and reinventing himself, possibly influenced by his personal life, including a public divorce from actress Andrea Logan. Logan was a frequent artistic collaborator and business partner, and the two co-founded Pure Flix, the family-oriented...
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St. John in Exile (1986) TEASER
Boys' Bible Study
Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! Another entry in the noble genre of “Christian one-man show,” ST. JOHN IN EXILE stars career stage and screen actor Dean Jones as the exiled saint on the island of Patmos. We were excited to review this filmed stage production, since we’re huge fans of other one-man pieces of Bible fanfiction and inspirational slop—like Curt Cloninger’s WITNESSES (a true VHS classic) and Mike Adkins’s A MAN CALLED NORMAN, a beloved sermon distributed by Focus on the Family. Both of those...
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Leap: A Tale of the Last Days (2025)
Boys' Bible Study
The long-awaited third film in the notorious anti-Catholic parkour LEAP trilogy follows its lo-fi predecessors LEAP (2010) and LEAP: RISE OF THE BEAST (2011), continuing to proselytize its staunch anti-Vatican message with an athletic twist. Director Christopher Tempel returns, now armed with a drone camera, and delivers a crisp, ambitious reboot to a series that clearly holds nostalgic value for him despite his open disappointment in the first two films, which he considers amateurish. Characters Blake, the handsome parkour-running college boy lead, and Liz, his hometown girlfriend who works...
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We Believe (2024) TEASER
Boys' Bible Study
Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! We kick off football season with a review of a new film by prolific Christian director Jason Campbell. WE BELIEVE, which even features a cameo by former Superman actor Dean Cain, takes an impressionistic look at a real high school football community in St. Mary’s, West Virginia, centering on the inspirational story of coach Jodi Mote. Grounded in fact, the film makes odd leaps into seemingly fictional storylines about St. Mary’s students, an attempt to introduce conflict while...
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Standing With God (2024)
Boys' Bible Study
While most Roblox gamers are busy with worldly pursuits such as “dressing to impress” or “stealing a brainrot,” MinisterMatt and his Robloxian Children of God Ministries are using the popular gaming platform to spread the word of God. We review an hour-long Christian narrative special created entirely in Roblox called STANDING WITH GOD, subdivided into three episodes: “Challenges,” “Trials and Faith,” and “I Believe.” The story follows a college-aged protagonist named John as he navigates the conflicts between personal faith and a secular world. Filmed entirely on location...
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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