Wings of Desire (1987) TEASER
Boys' Bible Study
Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! This week we continue our education on the mysterious ways of angels and what they’re supposedly up to on Earth, this time by checking out a classic from one of the great film masters, Wim Wenders. What quickly becomes clear is that nearly everything we think we know about angels, whether in highbrow film or lowbrow TV, somehow circles back to TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, the definitive compilation of contemporary angel lore. WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) is contemporary but predates TBAA, yet it’s...
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SPECIAL - 6 Years of Boys’ Bible Study!
Boys' Bible Study
Can you love a bad man? Can an angel be born yesterday? Can a dog be a Kat? These are the questions that have haunted us for six years of Boys’ Bible Study, questions we haven’t been able to answer until now. Six is a very powerful number. Put a lot of sixes together and that’s the devil. But just one more is seven. And when those two numbers sit next to each other, it’s the most evil and powerful force unleashed on mankind, greater than God and greater than Satan. On our anniversary, we like to do a yearly recap episode celebrating the film, TV, and other Christian media that was new...
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Time Collectors (2012)
Boys' Bible Study
By watching TIME COLLECTORS we have now “collected” reviews of all three feature films written by Jeff Johnson and directed by Caleb Johnson. We’ve realized that the father and son team specialize in extremely convoluted plots involving double lives and criminal intrigue, usually with storylines tying together in a manner far more ambitious than your average DIY filmmaker. For instance, 2 TO TANGLE (2013) is about twins who were separated at birth and have never met each other, and all the confusion that could arise from that. ECHO RHYME (2016) involves faked deaths, revenge plots, and a...
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Could It Be a Miracle? (1996-7) TEASER
Boys' Bible Study
Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! In the past, natural occurrences such as sunsets and eclipses were thought to be miracles. Now, human reason has solved many mysteries, yet occurrences still happen that boggle the mind and make us wonder if there is still angelic influence on Earth. In the mid-90s, a TV series documented these freak happenings. COULD IT BE A MIRACLE? is an entertaining anthology of documented miracles retold with dramatic reenactments, and it also represents the non-denominational love of angels that...
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Mark Fox / Lil Markie Live in Miami!
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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
info_outlineBefore 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 accompanies Jonathan on his weekly assignments to use angelic influence to improve people’s lives. God is referred to as “The Boss” in the series; this world-building is consistent with TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL’s commitment to never discussing Jesus’s sacrifice or the concept of sin on network television. Both series only refer to a faceless God and His angelic messengers who can impact earthly forces. This week on BBS, we chose to explore this historical television series in our ongoing study of angel media, focusing on an episode with a trope we love: body swap. On previous BBS episodes ME AGAIN and SWITCHED we discuss the sub-genre of Christian body swap stories, and HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN s1e20 “The Banker and the Bum” is a triumphant new entry in that category. When homeless man Willy the Waver (Ned Beatty) has 24 hours to live, he makes a simple wish to tell elitist mayoral candidate Melvin Rich (also played by Ned Beatty) to “be nice”. Angel Jonathan Smith grants this wish by swapping the two men’s positions, teaching Melvin Rich an important lesson on empathy for others. The character of Willy the Waver reminds us of a common trope in Christian media: the homeless person who does unnecessary “kindness” to others that no one asked for in order to prove his unfortunate life is cheerful (in this case, waving to random cars on the road on a strict schedule like it’s his job.) “The Banker and the Bum” is both a charming tale of acceptance and a reminder of the shallow understanding much Christian media has of homeless people.
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