Boys' Bible Study

Ash, Scott, and Julian are innocent angel babies incapable of doing wrong. They invite guests from Hell to watch and critique the best contemporary Christian movies. God wants you to listen to this podcast!

Barbara Sundstrom short film roundup! TEASER 03/02/2025

Barbara Sundstrom short film roundup! TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! THE GUARDIAN (2012) & FOSTER CARE (2013) Inspired by our rediscovery of one of our favorite Christian directors on our episode last week with guest Louise Weard, we decided to spend this week immersing ourselves once again in Barbara Sundstrom’s work, getting a few notches closer to having watched her entire catalog. Barbara Sundstrom is a Texas-based former youth film ministry director with a career spanning several features and shorts, primarily focused on empowering a youth cast and crew by giving teens real film production experience. Each one of Sundstrom’s Cross Wind Productions films has a very unique story but tends to focus on “social realism” themes of sin and suffering among ordinary people. Sometimes, they dip into the supernatural: for example, 20 minute short film THE GUARDIAN, which is written by a film student of Sundstrom’s, portrays a miracle that occurs when a “hobo” might be an angel in disguise. Christian teen Tara loses her father in a car crash but gets a second chance to say goodbye when she meets the homeless Leroy who coincidentally received Tara’s father’s eyes in a cornea transplant after the fateful accident. Faith also brings an orphaned teen to unlikely protectors in FOSTER CARE, a story by Sundstrom about how Christians’ good intentions need follow-through to make a positive impact. When teen Bridgette is suddenly orphaned by her mother’s intentional drug overdose, she is taken in by a family at her local church who aren’t ready for the commitment they agreed to when housing a troubled teen. Bridgette fortunately is able to find herself with yet another more suitable couple in church, which has got to be one of the luckiest stories about the foster system ever told. Blurring the line between stark realism and complete fantasy, Barbara Sundstrom remains the kind of compelling voice in faith-based film that keeps us as Christian film podcasters hunting for the next big thing. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/35502285

In the Mirror Dimly (2007) feat. Louise Weard 02/23/2025

In the Mirror Dimly (2007) feat. Louise Weard This dark, gripping teen drama about a girl suffering from an eating disorder begins with a surreal carnival dream sequence where protagonist Nicole sees herself distorted in a funhouse mirror, seemingly instigating a pattern of binge-eating candy and purging. Stuck traveling in between the houses of her divorced parents, Nicole’s disorder becomes life-threatening after an electrolyte imbalance causes her to faint while horseback riding on her father’s remote ranch. Director Barbara Sundstrom is a lesser known but accomplished Christian film ministry director whose work we’ve celebrated for years on our podcast, especially her 2007 magnum opus THE SABER (about a marine recruit battling porn addiction.) Sundstrom does not shy away from intense themes in her work, which primarily stars the teenagers who work with her as a part of her film ministry project Cross Wind Productions. Teens deal with intense emotions, so Sundstrom must feel that teens can handle powerful artistic truths. The dark subject matter of IN THE MIRROR DIMLY combined with its forays into the surreal, sometimes intentionally and other times unintentionally through bizarre visual storytelling, make the film an essential watch for anyone who appreciates unique film experiences. Joining us for this week’s review is another singular filmmaker, but from a very different realm: Canadian edgelord auteur Louise Weard, whose star is rising with the recent success of her crowdfunding campaign for upcoming feature CASTRATION MOVIE PT. II. This will be a sequel to CASTRATION MOVIE PT. I, which last weekend drew two nights of sold out crowds at screenings in the Los Angeles area. Taking a break from her touring schedule to join us in the studio, Louise discussed the parallels between IN THE MIRROR DIMLY and her own work (mainly, tons of vomit sequences) and also dropped hints that Christian influences might creep into her upcoming CASTRATION MOVIE sequel. Download Louise Weard's films CASTRATION MOVIE and COMPUTER HEARTS on Gumroad: View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/35392180

Promised Land (TV, 1996-1999) TEASER 02/16/2025

Promised Land (TV, 1996-1999) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! We’re getting deeper into our exploration of popular American TV with Christian themes, now scraping into this seemingly forgotten spinoff series of TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, also created by TBAA executive producer Martha Williamson. PROMISED LAND launched with a “backdoor pilot” in the third season of TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL where audiences met their new favorite family: the Greenes (Dad Russell, mom Claire, son Josh, daughter Dinah, mother Hattie, and roguish redheaded nephew Nathaniel.) Recently homeless, the family decides to nomadically drive their trailer around America after being told by an angel that their purpose is to help others. The American promise is a major theme of PROMISED LAND, leaning more heavily into an explicit endorsement of American values than TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL ever does. In fact, pilot episode “The Expatriate” centers around the Greene family helping a man who is moving from America to New Zealand after suffering a spinal injury from gun violence. It seems reasonable that a man who suffered a traumatic injury might want a change of scenery, but the Greenes (and thereby the logic of the show’s writers) seem to think it’s a sin to abandon America. It’s “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” taken to an extreme and delusional degree, with the Greenes adding value to America by inflicting themselves on average people’s lives who hold reasonable opinions. To get a broader sense of the vibe of PROMISED LAND, we also watch a late series episode where the show has completely abandoned the trailer-roaming angle of the show and the Greenes have settled down in Denver, CO. In the episode “What’s in a Word?” Nathaniel overhears cool black teenagers saying the “soft ‘a’ n-word” among themselves and, innocently not understanding the racial context, repeats this word to his own black friend in school the next day. This causes a massive stir within his community and ignites a conversation, poorly handled by the show’s writers, about racial dynamics in America. The conclusion? America is the greatest country on earth, no matter the cost. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/35302605

Touched by an Angel s8e8 "Heaven's Portal" feat. Woodrow White 02/09/2025

Touched by an Angel s8e8 "Heaven's Portal" feat. Woodrow White Prayer, Love, Unity, Respect: in this topical episode of popular 90s/y2k era TV drama TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, angel-in-training Gloria goes to a rave and actually does ecstasy with the human teen boy she’s supposed to be protecting. Raves were a huge point of anxiety in pop culture in the y2k era. Although their colorful futurism and utopian optimism inspired a generation of media and fashion, people also had safety concerns about the newfound popularity of club drugs like ecstasy, leading to a large-scale moral panic. In the U.S. in 2003, then-Senator Joe Biden co-sponsored the RAVE Act (Reducing American’s Vulnerability to Ecstasy) aimed at bringing harsh legal punishment not just to drug dealers but also party promotors. It’s no wonder then that the writers of TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL felt they had to get the angels to mission to ravers directly: rave media is great fodder for exploitation, titillating with radical imagery only to deliver an anti-fun message. In HEAVEN’S PORTAL, angels Tess, Monica, Andrew, and Gloria meet a teen named Nick who is upset with his parents’ separation and has taken to smoking weed and looking at websites about techno. When he gets info about rave 40 miles away, he drives there with the gullible Gloria, who was only crated by God recently and knows little about the world. Immediately, friendly ravers in silly costumes hand them pills to try. What happens when an angel takes ecstasy? Does the world end? We invite our good friend Woodrow White, an artist and scholar of rave-themed media, to return to the show to debate moral dilemmas about raves, pleasure, and sin. Follow Woodrow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/woodrow_white/ View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/35211150

Walker, Texas Ranger s7e9 "Paradise Trail" TEASER 02/02/2025

Walker, Texas Ranger s7e9 "Paradise Trail" TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! Our new favorite classic television series is WALKER, TEXAS RANGER, a thrilling and campy show starring action film hero Chuck Norris in one of his most legendary roles. It’s a police procedural with the unique twist of depicting Texas Rangers as being skilled in martial arts and frequently involved in supernatural or otherwise extraordinary plots involving elements such as hostile Native American ghosts, white supremacist gangs, time travel, and deadly poison gas. We at Boys’ Bible Study have also recently been TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, an intriguing companion piece because both shows were extremely popular 90s/y2k era franchises that blend conservative cultural values with pulpy, supernatural plot lines. This is evident in the WALKER episode we focus on for this week’s review: PARADISE TRAIL is a story where Walker and friends are being read a story about a 19th century bounty hunter in the Old West guiding a wagon crew of Mormon settlers crossing treacherous wilderness to get to Utah. The WALKER cast imagine themselves in various roles of the story, singing hymns and cooking meals with their pure and extremely Aryan-looking Mormon friends. The episode actually borrows plot points from real historic episodes involving Mormon settlers in the U.S., but like all good propaganda, misrepresents and distorts information to protect the honor of its sympathetic subjects; in this case, white American Christians. WALKER, TEXAS RANGER is much more successful than the Christian movies we usually watch at distilling Christian conservative values while still having broad cultural appeal. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/35116860

SPECIAL - 5 Years of Boys’ Bible Study! Roundup, Best Clips, and Top Picks 01/26/2025

My Private Line to God (2024) TEASER 01/19/2025

My Private Line to God (2024) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! As we await the great new Christian film of 2025, we realize there are still quite a few new offerings from last year that we at Boys’ Bible Study haven’t yet reviewed. Meet director Mignon Pinson, a faith-based film auteur as of yet unfamiliar to us, who seems to have begun her career in 2020 with a series of shorts and then a string of features primarily focusing on black Christian family life. MY PRIVATE LINE TO GOD is her latest film, which appears to be inspired by the famous verses Matthew 18-20 “Where two or three are gathered in the name…” It uses an adoption story to enforce key themes about the power of prayer and the importance of nuclear families attending church together. Married Christian couple Janice and Calvin are overjoyed to adopt their daughter, Joy, after being unable to have a child themselves. Joy is the answer to all of their prayers, but it seems that settling into life as parents causes them to take their blessings for granted. The couple start bickering about relatively minor things such as how many guests to invite to Joy’s 7th birthday party. Janice stops going to church because she becomes convinced the pastor “only cares about the tithes.” This confuses Joy, who retreats into prayer by calling God directly on the brand new phone she receives as a birthday gift. MY PRIVATE LINE TO GOD ends up being a film about how the precocious and sincere prayers of a faithful little girl can work real world miracles. It’s a wholesome Christian family film, but not without its narrative inconsistencies: Janice and Calvin’s fights are completely arbitrary and their stated viewpoints are frequently conflicting dialogue from earlier in the film. Dialogue is often delivered in a stilted tone that feels inhuman and unrealistic. Still, we’re always excited and intrigued to add a new directorial voice to the BBS “pantheon” and think Ms. Pinson has a lot to contribute to the faith-based film scene as a contemporary 2020s voice. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/34914425

[UNLOCKED] Let the Lion Roar (2014) 01/12/2025

[UNLOCKED] Let the Lion Roar (2014) Due to evacuating from the Los Angeles fires, for the first time ever in our 5 year run as a show, we were unable to deliver a new weekly episode. Instead, please enjoy this unlocked bonus episode from our Patreon vaults of one of our favorite things we watched in 2024. We are actually working on our special 5 year anniversary roundup/clip show, so we'll be back soon with brand new content. Thanks so much for your support! --- One of the most bizarre and singular pieces of Christian media we’ve ever watched is this dreamlike documentary from the minds of father/daughter writer/director team Derek and Vanessa Frank, who assembled some of the biggest names in Christian film history to shake the Protestant Reformation down to the “demonic conspiracy” at its very core: the anti-Semitic teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin. In LET THE LION ROAR, Kevin Sorbo, Stephen Baldwin, Eric Roberts, John Schneider, and young up-and-comer Ben Davies star as 16th-century European historical figures who don funny hats and monologue their virulently anti-Semitic views to the camera for extended scenes, some lasting for several minutes at a time. Writer Derek Frank believes that the major weakness that plagues Protestantism is its insufficient respect for the Jewish faith and an unwillingness for the Christian church to become fully “grafted into Israel.” Mr. Frank has written five more “theses,” to add to Martin Luther’s famous 95 Theses of 1517, that propose full deference to Jews from Protestants that he hopes will heal Christianity and save it from vague, unitarian sluggishness that he reads as weakness. This is an ambitious and extremely boring goal to try to sell to an audience, but the Franks make it fun with uncanny corporate stock footage and a series of costume changes that make Derek Frank look like the Architect from The Matrix, if that character were a hardcore Zionist. In general, Derek Frank’s extreme passion for his case of “finishing” the Protestant Reformation is what sells this documentary — he gazes directly at the audience severely like a cat that has just cornered a mouse and wants to talk to it about Israel for an hour before dealing the death blow that will wipe it out of existence forever. The Lion of Judah is a lion after all, and Derek Frank teaches us that to hammer your point home, you must approach your argument with the ferocity of an apex predator. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/34827300

Touched by an Angel S8E18 “Minute by Minute” (2002) TEASER 01/05/2025

Touched by an Angel S8E18 “Minute by Minute” (2002) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! There’s a chance that the long-running CBS drama TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL is responsible for the contemporary American spiritual sickness as it manifests today. (Even if that’s not true, it feels true, and that’s what’s important.) The extremely popular y2k era TV show depicts a troupe of angels trying to help humans on earth while adhering to a weird corporate power structure that dominates life in heaven. Tess (Della Reese) is the mother angel; Monica (Roma Downey) is a “search and rescue” angel who reports to her; Gloria (Valerie Bertinelli) is training for life on 21st century earth and is really bad at it; Andrew (John Dye) is an angel of death. Together they are case workers helping humans in need. where the gang of angels meet a self-hating Jewish antisemitic cartoonist. Today we review “Minute by Minute”, where a nun with a dark past must prevent a Columbine-style bombing of a Catholic school before it’s too late. Time is of the essence, but you wouldn’t know it from the angels in this episode, who spend tons of time frittering away at the local diner or refusing to use their powers to even encourage a human to pull the fire alarm or call the police. The lore of how angels are allowed to interfere with human lives in this show is incredibly confusing, especially noticeable when trying to prevent a mass casualty event. That’s why MINUTE BY MINUTE is an incredible piece of television that has undeniably influenced the way Americans view Christianity. Angels in American life are beautiful and wholesome yet ideologically confused, clumsy poltergeists. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/34728885

The Gathering (1998) 12/29/2024

The Gathering (1998) With Christmas season suddenly in our rearview mirrors, it’s time to move foward and acknowledge that we are one year closer to Jesus’s return. Something about the year number switching on Jan. 1 feels very apocalyptic, so we return to rapture themes in Christian media with the obscure and extremely entertaining THE GATHERING. Director Danny Carrales is an artist we respect for his work on a few key features in the faith-based film scene, especially his most recent CGI-heavy work HEAVEN’S WAR (2018). We also look forward to formally reviewing ESCAPE FROM HELL, a film we like but haven’t covered yet, which is directed by Carrales and also stars hunky Christian leading man Daniel Kruse who appears in several Carrales features from the 2000s and seems to be a muse of his. Daniel Kruse had a stint in the 2000s as a TV and film actor both in secular and Christian spheres; he brings his soap opera gravitas to his role as Michael in THE GATHERING, a high-powered white collar worker in the corporate world who has a “come to Jesus” moment and begins to suspect his company has a foundational role in the coming of the Antichrist and the New World Order. Michael is also visited by several apocalyptic visions that convince him Jesus’s return is imminent. These revelations come much to the chagrin of his wife Lisa, who feels jealous at the newfound role of Jesus in Michael’s life. Lisa’s mother Alex is also threatened by Michael’s Christianity, since she is an avowed atheist college professor who delights in owning her pathetic Christian undergrad students with logic and reason (as professors frequently do in these movies.) But when Alex and Lisa start experiencing visions of their own, the promise of Jesus’s second coming is too powerful even for them to ignore. THE GATHERING is a well paced and pulpy rapture thriller that we recommend for it’s over-the-top dialogue and one of the best “characters discover a scary website” scenes in all of Christian media. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/34646015

Christmas CEO (2021) 12/15/2024

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024) TEASER 12/08/2024

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! We pride ourselves on staying on the cutting edge of Christmas movies, especially those made for Christians by Christians. That’s why we were excited to visit our local theater to see the new, widely-released Dallas Jenkins film based on the popular children’s novel of the same name. Originally authored by Barbara Robinson in 1972, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER tells the story of the Herdman family, affectionately dubbed “the worst kids in the world”. The Herdmans effectively run their small town of Emmanuel because no one can control their bad behavior. The town always had a sanctuary away from the mischief in church, but this seal was broken when the Herdman kids discovered the free snacks offered and insisted on participating in the yearly Christmas pageant. A cherished town tradition in Emmanuel, the Herdmans risk destroying the Christmas Pageant through their destructive irreverence, but instead their sincere, outsider curiosity about Christianity ends up winning over the hearts and minds of the rest of the congregation, creating a special memory of THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER. Director Dallas Jenkins (son of Jerry B. Jenkins, co-author of the original LEFT BEHIND book series) was apparently so passionate about bringing THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER to life on film that he set a daily reminder in his phone to pray for acquiring the rights to the story. It’s a shame that this passion didn’t manifest in the final project, which is styled so blandly and portrayed so literally to the text that the story comes across as cruel and inhumane toward the Herdmans instead of whimsical. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/34336250

The Borrowed Christmas (2014) 12/01/2024

The Borrowed Christmas (2014) Christmas season 2024 is here! As usual, we at Boys’ Bible Study will be spending all of December pondering the reason for the season with Christmas movies made by Christian directors. We’re huge fans of director Chip Rossetti, but so far we’ve only ever watched his films written by and starring the singular Donald James Parker, aka “Gramps” (such as GRAMPS GOES TO COLLEGE, which we love.) So, to kick off the new Christmas season, we took a chance on a script written by Rossetti himself… and we were not disappointed. In fact, we were thrilled. THE BORROWED CHRISTMAS is a wholesome and hilarious watch about a man who makes insane life decisions and a woman who loves him for it. John Dale is a lonely rich man who dreams of the “Normal Rockwell Christmases” of his past but can no longer access the vibe due to grief over the death of his parents. He stumbles into Anne Weston’s store, whose business it is to “rent everything”, and John asks Anne to rent him the perfect Christmas. Money is no object. He asks for a wife, five kids, and carolers… the works! Anne is clearly intrigued by this handsome eccentric and sets out upon her greatest challenge yet. She secures (traffics?) orphans from the nearby orphanage to portray the kids and casts herself as the wife role after she is unable to hire an actor from the nearby Actors’ Guild (?). The Christmas that transpires is perfect in every way and ends up making a consequential impact on the life of John Dale, his two spacey maids, and everyone involved in the production. THE BORROWED CHRISTMAS is fun, snappy, and ethically dubious, so we can’t think of a better start to your Christmas season then to gather in the TV room and watch this with all of your favorite orphans. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/34219240

7th Street Theater - “The Letter” (2009) TEASER 11/24/2024

7th Street Theater - “The Letter” (2009) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! Intermission is over! We return back to the 7TH STREET THEATER to watch our favorite stories about the fictional lives of Christian stage actors. This meta-media soap opera by Dave Christiano has always been one of the biggest examples of Christian fantasy to us, because it imagines a world where a Christian theater would be popular and high-earning enough to keep drawing in crowds week after week. We did an episode on 7TH STREET THEATER a few years ago where we covered more of the background about this show. We’ve basically forgotten all of our research since then, so we decided instead to focus on a four episode storyline called “THE LETTER”. In this arc, Christian stage actress Andi gets an admiring fan letter from a man who says he sees her show every week and has been praying to God for a Christian woman to enter his life. Andi has never seen this man, but his letters fill her with a mixture of excitement and confusion, especially when he says he is “attracted to her in every way.” Andi’s coworkers at the theater seem unreasonably excited for her and practically beg her to meet the guy, but Andi has doubt and decides to pray to God about it, resulting in a confusing plot-line about prayer as magical thinking. The admirer asks Andi to send a signal to him from the stage, but Andi’s signal is thwarted unknowingly by her cast members, blocking the meeting. Is this really a sign from God, or is it the beginning stages of mental illness? Almost every aspect of this scenario, from Andi’s reaction, to her coworkers’ reactions, to the insane letters themselves, seems wildly off base for how someone in real life would handle this situation. It’s a pretty bizarre plot from a show that usually tries to be as tediously realistic as possible. That’s why there’s no better introduction to prolific Christian creator Dave Christiano’s mind than THE LETTER. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/34127921

Joshua and the Promised Land (2003) 11/17/2024

Joshua and the Promised Land (2003) This amateur but ambitious work of CGI animation has developed a cult following online for its bizarre aesthetics. JOSHUA AND THE PROMISED LAND is the passion project of animator Jim Lion. Coincidentally (or not?) all of the heroic characters in the film are anthropomorphic lions. The film centers around Joshua, a young lion living in modern times. His bickering parents ask him to get out of the way as they prepare dinner, so Joshua goes to his room and uses his vivid childlike imagination and the powers of his imaginary best friend Chris (a floating dog made out of TV static) to warp back in time to the Old Testament era. Joshua and Chris meet Moses and join his wandering band of Israelites in the desert hunting for the Promised Land, and protagonist Joshua becomes the Joshua of the Bible, mentored by Moses to take over leadership of the Israelites after Moses’s death. Joshua rises to the challenge and prepares for battle with the walled city of Jericho, one of the most famous Old Testament stories from Joshua 6. Jim Lion built a legitimately fascinating visual world of CGI for these famous bible characters to inhabit. The smooth, simple polygons and bright colors of Lion’s visual language are a powerful tool for communicating the surreal awe of Old Testament stories. The Old Testament is very hard to depict visually because the huge scope of its supernatural stories of death and destruction don’t get a lot of breathing room within the Bible’s terse, compact prose. It’s obvious that JOSHUA AND THE PROMISED LAND is not an “accurate” depiction of these happenings, but the film does faithfully translate how seeing these events unfold with your own eyes would completely break your brain. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/33962147

Reagan (2024) 11/03/2024

Reagan (2024) Forget French body horror or the return of Francis Ford Coppola: real heads know the cinematic event of 2024 was this star-studded retelling of the life of REAGAN. With experienced director Sean McNamara at the helm (ON A WING AND A PRAYER, BRATZ, THE EVEN STEVENS MOVIE) we at Boys’ Bible Study were confident this film’s depiction of Ronald Reagan would be respectful and thorough. Besides, many Americans are gearing up to vote in the most consequential election of our lifetimes, so it felt only right to review REAGAN and look back at the political values we cherish from our recent past as inspiration for casting our ballots. Dennis Quaid stars as Reagan using what appears to be a combination of prosthetics and digital de-aging (for Reagan’s younger years) that creates an otherworldly effect. He’s joined by other “who’s whos” of conservative Hollywood (Jon Voight, Robert Davi, Kevin Sorbo, Marshall Teague, and more) as well as some other surprising cameos. We were particularly excited to see Scott Stapp (former lead singer of Creed) in a quick cameo as Frank Sinatra. Much of REAGAN is re-told through grating narration of Jon Voight doing a bad Russian accent, representing the Soviet agents and politicians who the film claims monitored Reagan’s every move during his life, disturbed by his crusade against communism. REAGAN takes a nonstop glowing tone in its framing of the conservative president’s life and actions; everything Reagan done is perfect and in deliberate service to his master plan to fight the Soviets. Even the big bowls of jellybeans Reagan was known for keeping in the White House were a clever personality test for evaluating his cabinet, by seeing which flavors they chose. It seems clear that the REAGAN film is a piece of cultural warfare trying to inject some positive reviews of conservatism into the popular mindset, made by Hollywood conservatives who might relate to Reagan’s own background as an actor. Ultimately, this choice to uplift Reagan’s career at all costs makes the film a laughably ridiculous puff piece. Whatever your political values, t’s simply not serious to reduce the life of a consequential politician to the level of complication of a YA novel. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/33765492

Matthew 18 (2014) TEASER 10/27/2024

Matthew 18 (2014) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! In Bible verse Matthew 18:20, Jesus says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them.” To which we ask: two or what? G-g-g-ghosts? This Christian horror film featuring a predominantly black cast gets a touch of celebrity from notable costars Luenell and Faizon Love. It’s the only feature film directed by Roy Belfrey, and although it’s competently shot with some genuinely scary special effects, it suffers from narrative weakness by not coherently connecting the film’s haunting to its overtly Christian message. The film centers around a recent high school graduate named Michelle who has perfect grades and a hardworking drive that gets her a full ride scholarship to a pre-med program at a college in Minneapolis, MN. Although her tight-knit Christian family has trepidations about letting their baby stray so far from the nest, they relent because the family happens to own property in the city. Unfortunately, this property has a problem: a ghost problem. It appears to be haunted by the spirits of Russian women who were killed on the property 100 years or so ago after refusing to cell their house to greedy businessmen. The haunting of the Wilshire house escalates the tensions explored in the film between the natural world and the spiritual world; Michelle is always trying to convince her superstitious family that there is a rational explanation for everything, but even Michelle can’t explain the terrifying things happening to her. Finally, the haunting drives Michelle back with her loving family, although it’s unclear to us what Michelle learned from the experience, and how anything the film showed us has to do with the Bible verse Matthew 18:20, which was supposed to be the focal point. We at Boys’ Bible Study are still in search for a Christian horror film that threads the needle of its messaging instead of choosing style over substance. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/33631882

Sin Apple (2022) 10/20/2024

House (2008) TEASER 10/13/2024

House (2008) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! This stylish Christian horror film, possibly inspired by the SILENT HILL franchise, is based on a novel co-authored by the two titans of Christian supernatural fiction: Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. These writers each sold millions of copies of their respective books throughout the 2000s, identifying and filling a niche for Christian supernatural thriller literature with exciting stories that still promoted a wholesome message. HOUSE is a collaboration between Peretti and Dekker, adapted into a feature film by director Robby Henson (THR3E) in a very lurid, saturated way that nowadays feels dated to the late 2000s, and could have been influenced by the burgeoning video game adaptation genre of cinema at the time. HOUSE as a film has interesting ideas but is barely held together with no narrative follow through. A couple experiencing domestic issues gets into literally three or four car crashes within the first ten minutes of the film, then stumble upon a remote cabin hotel with eccentric hosts who try to kill the couple before telling them the legend of the Tin Man, a psycho wearing a wooden mask who claims to have killed God. Weird southern gothic set dressing and video game-style quests hurtle the plot toward a disappointing climax where (spoiler alert) the Tin Man is defeated by light. It’s barely coherent and barely Christian, and doesn’t compare to other Peretti film adaptations we enjoyed such as HANGMAN’S CURSE (2003), but at least it’s weird and funny with bold, bright colors that remind us how Christian cinema tried to merge with the secular in the chaotic and very silly decade of the 2000s. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/33438877

The Curse of Eve (2019) 10/06/2024

The Forge (2024) 09/22/2024

The Forge (2024) The newest film by the legendary Kendrick brothers, currently playing in theaters, feels impeccably focus-grouped for maximum impact of a Christian movie in 2024. We’re not surprised that director Alex Kendrick and producer Stephen Kendrick were able to create another competent and successful Christian film. They have a history of huge box office success stories on relatively low budgets, including WAR ROOM (2015) which notably became the #1 film in America during its second week of release. On a reported budget of $5 million, THE FORGE has already grossed $26 million in its first month, which is huge in the faith-based genre. THE FORGE seems like a spiritual sequel to WAR ROOM; it casts a lot of the same actors from WAR ROOM in extremely similar roles, including Priscilla Shirer (daughter of mega-church pastor Tony Evans) as a strong but exasperated mother struggling with family issues. In THE FORGE, newcomer Aspen Kennedy plays recent high school graduate Isaiah Wright, a directionless 19-year-old without a father who is unemployed and seems to have no passions in life beyond video games and basketball. When he gets a part time job at local business Moore Fitness, CEO Joshua Moore (played by Cameron Arnett) takes Isaiah under his wing and becomes the father he never had. With the help of an exclusive Christian men’s club called “The Forge”, Isaiah finally feels motivation to become the man he has always wanted to be. But unspoken in the film’s plot is how the setting of THE FORGE, Moore Fitness, is meant to resemble an Amazon fulfillment warehouse. THE FORGE attempts to bring dignity and motivation to fulfillment center employees through an unimaginable plot line where Isaiah and his coworkers volunteer to work a 24 hour shift to save the company. Sadly, this feels laughably out of touch for a film that otherwise does an eerily good job of elevating the mundane of an everyday Christian’s life in today’s fallen world. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/33159622

Switched (2020) 09/08/2024

Switched (2020) Body swapping is a time-honored film trope, especially in family-friendly inspirational comedies, where a character might “wish upon a star” to switch lives with someone who makes them jealous. Since God can make anything possible through prayer, Christian genre films are a perfect fit for this concept. SWITCHED lulls its audience into a false sense of security by beginning as one might expect a Christian teen body swap movie to go: a socially anxious Christian girl named Cassandra prays her school bully, the famous social media influencer Katie, could experience a day in the lives of her bullying victims. The two girls awaken the next morning in each others’ bodies, and the high jinks begin in school as both must train each other to carry out their their day-to-day lives without being able to explain their unbelievable circumstances. Katie must learn how to play folk guitar for a Julliard audition; Cassandra is now interviewing for a prestigious influencer position on “The Glam Slam”. It’s cute in theory, but SWITCHED ultimately fails because of some bizarre plot choices. Although aiming for originality is admirable, why would Cassandra (who is now inhabited by Katie’s soul) flirt with her own biological brother? Why would Katie’s parents (portrayed in celebrity cameo roles by John Schneider and Denise Richards) be so lackadaisical about Katie’s influencer career, even though they quit their jobs to support her work? SWITCHED is full of delightfully campy moments, like the UI of fictitious social media network The Social, but its desire to be perceived as easily watchable family fare that is light on the Christian message is thwarted by a confusing story that doesn’t stick the landing. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/32958192

The Believer's Heaven (1977) TEASER 09/01/2024

The Believer's Heaven (1977) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! The collaborations between Baptist preacher Estus Pirkle and the Ormond family of filmmakers are considered some of the most legendary Christian genre films ever for their shocking imagery and urgent sermonizing. With our review this week of THE BELIEVER’S HEAVEN, we here at Boys’ Bible Study have now reviewed the entire trilogy, which also includes IF FOOTMEN TIRE YOU, WHAT WILL HORSES DO? and THE BURNING HELL. All three films feature fiery narration by Estus Pirkle intercut with colorful, dramatic vignettes by the Ormonds. THE BELIEVER’S HEAVEN is unique in the trilogy for focusing on the pleasure of heaven rather than the tragedy of earth or the horrors of hell (but don’t worry — we still get enough of those in this piece to keep our interest piqued.) “In My Father’s House there are many mansions,” says Estus Pirkle quoting John 14:2. He then proceeds to take us on a tour through a real mansion to hype us up for the delights of heaven. This gleeful literalness drives the rest of the film, which includes lots of time spent filming Christians with physical disabilities to prove to non-disabled viewers that they should be excited to take on “glorified bodies” in heaven. However, the close-up shots on the deformities of disabled people remind the viewer that the Ormond family first made their mark in vaudeville and carnival entertainment, where the disabled were frequently displayed as sideshow “freaks”. By titillating the viewer at the expense of the disabled and in the name of religious education, the Ormonds show their talent as “mondo” genre filmmakers, a style marked by a moralizing tone that barely disguises the actual purpose of selling the audience on morbid or lurid imagery. The contrast between the exploitative tone of the Pirkle/Ormond films and their seemingly sincere moral message makes THE BELIEVER’S HEAVEN, and the rest of the trilogy, one of the most fascinating watches in all of faith-based film. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/32854117

L'Inferno (1911) 08/25/2024

Journey to Hell (2022) TEASER 08/18/2024

Journey to Hell (2022) TEASER Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! Let’s journey deeper into the twisted mind of Tim Chey, the Christian movie auteur responsible for some of our favorite films about the evils of money, Hollywood, and sports. Last week on this podcast, we congratulated Mr. Chey on the success of his newest film THE FIRING SQUAD, which we saw in theaters. This week we catch up on his most recent filmography we’ve neglected: 2022’s JOURNEY TO HELL. This is Chey’s take on the Divine Comedy trope of a guide leading a mortal spirit through hell, but the film is actually based on a John Bunyan novel instead of Dante. In Chey’s adaptation, protagonist Shane Badman is a successful entrepreneur and unsuccessful Christian who believes himself to be saved but is shocked after he perishes in a surfing accident only to wake up trapped in Hell for eternity. As we watch flashbacks of Shane’s corrupted earthly lifestyle, including an extremely meta scene where he makes fun of a bad Christian film, we also enjoy a guided tour of hell and all of the strange characters Shane meets along the way. Shane talks to Mao Zedong, the Zodiac Killer, the Columbine shooters, Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, an unnamed “iPhone CEO”, and even a certain Führer who you might remember from history class. They’re all there on a mission to humble Shane and get him to realize that his meager faith on Earth was no match for his pride, which was ultimately his downfall. JOURNEY TO HELL is a sobering depiction of the consequences of a life without God, where demons are depicted as micromanaging human labor for all of eternity… which honestly just sounds a lot like Earth. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/32624762

The Firing Squad (2024) 08/11/2024

The Firing Squad (2024) We here at Boys’ Bible Study jump at the chance to see a brand new Christian movie in theaters, especially one made by a director we trust as much as Tim Chey. THE FIRING SQUAD is the sixth film of his we’ve reviewed for the pod and we found it to possess some of the quirks and qualities we expect from a Chey joint: groups of hunky guys having fun together, D-list stunt casting, evangelical Christianity, and a bizarre hatred of sports. THE FIRING SQUAD finds established Christian genre superstars (Kevin Sorbo, Eric Roberts), a fallen former Oscar winner (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and newcomer James Barrington in a nonsensical plot set in an Indonesian prison, allegedly based on a true story (it's not; we can’t find info on these events anywhere.) Several foreigners facing the death penalty for drug charges in the draconian Indonesian justice system band together in the prison chapel to share the word of the Lord, resulting in some unlikely conversions and a feeling of peace despite the tragedy of impending death by firing squad. Now, we at BBS are all about DIY filmmakers using their big imaginations to tell stories beyond their means, but some of THE FIRING SQUAD’s asks of its audience to suspend our disbelief were a bit much. How did Cuba Gooding Jr., stuck in maximum security prison, acquire three formal suits that fit the protagonists perfectly so they could pretend to be “the media” and escape? Why are the prison doors always open, with guards and prisoners fraternizing like a freshman year university dormitory? Then again, the plot inconsistencies were so perfectly Chey that we think THE FIRING SQUAD might be the prolific anti-sports director’s most solid and enjoyable film yet. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/32529437

Let the Lion Roar (2014) TEASER 08/04/2024

Let the Lion Roar (2014) TEASER One of the most bizarre and singular pieces of Christian media we’ve ever watched is this dreamlike documentary from the minds of father/daughter writer/director team Derek and Vanessa Frank, who assembled some of the biggest names in Christian film history to shake the Protestant Reformation down to the “demonic conspiracy” at its very core: the anti-semitic teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin. In LET THE LION ROAR, Kevin Sorbo, Stephen Baldwin, Eric Roberts, John Schneider, and young up-and-comer Ben Davies star as 16th-century European historical figures who don funny hats and monologue their virulently anti-Semitic views to the camera for extended scenes, some lasting for several minutes at a time. Writer Derek Frank believes that the major weakness that plagues Protestantism is its insufficient respect for the Jewish faith and an unwillingness for the Christian church to become fully “grafted into Israel.” Mr. Frank has written five more “theses,” to add to Martin Luther’s famous 95 Theses of 1517, that propose full deference to Jews from Protestants that he hopes will heal Christianity and save it from vague, unitarian sluggishness that he reads as weakness. This is an ambitious and extremely boring goal to try to sell to an audience, but the Franks make it fun with uncanny corporate stock footage and a series of costume changes that make Derek Frank look like the Architect from The Matrix, if that character were a hardcore Zionist. In general, Derek Frank’s extreme passion for his case of “finishing” the Protestant Reformation is what sells this documentary — he gazes directly at the audience severely like a cat that has just cornered a mouse and wants to talk to it about Israel for an hour before dealing the death blow that will wipe it out of existence forever. The Lion of Judah is a lion after all, and Derek Frank teaches us that to hammer your point home, you must approach your argument with the ferocity of an apex predator. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: /episode/index/show/boysbiblestudy/id/32428187

The Grim Reaper (1976) 07/28/2024

Christmas with a Capital C (2010) TEASER 07/21/2024

Surfer: Teen Confronts Fear (2018) 07/14/2024

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