Gospel Prism

Recently, Shua (my wife) and I have decided to do much more research on a movie before going to Blockbuster and merely picking one up.  We have been burned so many times in watching a movie we “heard” was good and yet, we have had to fast forward so many scenes (due to graphic sexuality and/or nudity) that it has made watching the movie a bad experience. 

So we have gone to Rotten Tomatoes and Hollywood Jesus for some info.  But I must admit, we have simply not had enough time or energy to watch too many movies these days (we just saw The Queen, great movie). 

Joe Thorn has a great post on Christians and the discernment of watching movies.  Here are his points on how to choose what to watch:

1. Content Concerns
Before I take my kids to a movie, and before I see some films myself, I check the content on screenit.com. Sites like Screenit.com break down a film into its potentially objectionable parts. Language, violence, sex, frightening scenes, guns/weapons, etc. all get detailed treatment. Here’s their write-up of Disturbia, a thriller that tells a story similar to the classic Rear Window. This can produce some spoilers, but for those who want to be careful it’s worth it.

2. Culture Buzz
Just because a film is popular does not mean it’s worth watching. But, films that are generating culture buzz (attention and/or controversy producing a lot of dialog and interest) may be worth your time. These are stories that say something, explicitly or implicitly, about our culture. When seeing a movie like this, please watch it thoughtfully and critique it redempitively.

3. Christian Films
Just because a film is family-oriented, or Christian, does not mean it’s worth watching. In fact, my rule used to be - avoid films made by Christians. Why? Because they stink. Or stunk. The truth is more Christians are getting into the movie business and some are doing great work. Thankfully some are really using film as an art form instead of a tool simply to proselytize. Still, my advice is - be careful about Christian movies. In my experience most are not very good (I am not trying to be provocative here, but honest. I will unpack my thoughts on this topic in a future post.).

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