Libsyn Directory

Michael (1996)

Release Date: 05/18/2025

Boys' Bible Study

This notorious VHS tape has taken on a second life on the Internet as a treasured relic of found footage. Recorded live at First Baptist Church in Perrine, Florida (year unknown), LIL MARKIE LIVE IN MIAMI is a rare chance to see Christian entertainer Mark Fox fully embody his iconic Lil Markie character in the flesh. Lil Markie is basically Mr. Fox doing a cartoonish child’s voice, which in practice sounds like a combination of TV characters Elmo from Sesame Street and Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. As Lil Markie, Mark Fox recorded multiple albums. He is perhaps most known for “Diary...

Hank's Christmas Wish 3: Elvis Lives (2025) TEASER

Boys' Bible Study

Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! This brand new installment in the HANK’S CHRISTMAS WISH series was released just a few weeks ago and adds a key legendary figure to the Hankiverse Christmas pantheon: Elvis. Directed by West Virginia’s finest filmmaker, Jason Campbell, the yearly updates to the HANK’S CHRISTMAS WISH saga show the series becoming increasingly meta and disjointed. Although it’s clear the HANK films are meant to be lighthearted, silly romps, as Campbell fanatics we found ourselves distracted by the...

Hank's Christmas Wish 2: The Nutcracker (2024)

Boys' Bible Study

Just when you thought you had meditated enough on the true meaning of Christmas, Santa’s favorite aged former elf reminds you that you still have so much to learn. Hank returns in the sequel to the popular, at least to us, HANK’S CHRISTMAS WISH, directed by West Virginia film icon Jason Campbell, bringing back many of the familiar faces from the first film for another round of holiday magic. Remember Tippee and Toes, the elves? No? You don’t? Well, too bad, because they’re back. Bella has been recast and is largely absent, as she and her husband Kevin are away on a mission trip to...

Echo Rhyme (2016)

Boys' Bible Study

Is a heart transplant also a soul transplant? A real-life news story from 2008 concerns Sonny Graham, a heart transplant recipient who married his donor’s wife and ultimately committed suicide in the exact same method as his donor. Likely inspired by this bizarre event is ECHO RHYME, a Christian thriller with far too many plot points, but mostly about a career criminal who receives a Christian’s heart transplant and gets saved. ECHO RHYME is by director Caleb Johnson and his son and frequent writing collaborator Jeff Johnson, who also made 2 TO TANGLE, a film we absolutely love that is...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

More Episodes

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, a storytelling technique also used by popular Y2K-era television show TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL. In the film, Michael is an angel discovered living in Iowa by tabloid reporters who specialize on documenting unexplained phenomena. When they travel to meet Michael, they find out he is indeed a real angel, but not in the way that most of us would expect to experience one. He is sweet, but with bad manners, and prone to seducing earth women because he’s very interested in sex with them. Michael also introduces new rules of angel encounters on earth: for instance, angels are only allowed to visit earth 26 times and they can only perform small miracles. Inventing fake angel tropes outside of the Bible is a very common device of these safe religious 90s films, usually used to tie up plot continuity issues. In the end, Michael’s secret mission is to unite the characters Frank (played by William Hurt) and Dorothy (played by Andie MacDowell) in a romantic love they will treasure forever. Although it’s a sweet but ultimately quite stupid film that uses half-baked angel powers as a cop out, MICHAEL is an extremely interesting study in trends of biblical imagery in mainstream pop culture of the recent past.

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