Robin Hood

I found Ridley Scott's Robin Hood to be similar to his King Arthur. Both are attempting to explain the "true story" behind their own legend. And both are quite boring.

In Robin Hood, you have Russell Crowe as Robin. He's an archer in King Richard's army. As they return from the Crusades, they must sack castles in order to continue paying the men.

Richard dies in one such skirmish, Robin and his men flee.

You have many of the familiar characters from the story: Marian, the Sheriff, Prince John, etc...

In this film, however, you have a lackey who has dreams of the French invading England.

It's up to Robin, his men and a few pro-Englanders to stand up for their rights and save the land.

There were many parts in this movie where I laughed out loud. It was that lame. Crowe gives a half-hearted speech about why Englishmen need liberty and freedom...and then there's his, "I love you Marian" moment that comes across as just pathetic.

This was another movie that did not need to be made, or watched.

Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee

Many years have passed since civilization's brush with apocalypse. The world's greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace... and fear. But a terrible secret has been closely guarded for centuries: Every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity.

Fleeing pursuit, with only moments to live, a young man named Rom stumbles into possession of a vial of blood and a piece of cryptic writing. When consumed, the blood will bring him back to life. When decoded, the message will lead him on a perilous journey that will require him to abandon everything he has ever known and awaken humanity to the transforming power of true life and love.

But the blood will also resurrect hatred, ambition, and greed.

Set in a terrifying, medieval future, where grim pageantry masks death, this tale of dark desires and staggering stakes peels back the layers of the heart for all who dare to take the ride. 

I am thrilled with this new adventure from Ted Dekker. Forbidden and the following Book of Mortals books have been touted as the greatest follow-up to Dekker's Circle series. And I'm thinking the reviewers may be right.

As the first book of a trilogy, Forbidden lays a solid foundation. Once you are introduced to our hero Rom, a man shows up with the message, "RUN!" There's no looking back for Rom.

I had never heard of Tosca Lee before learning she was partnering with Dekker on this series. The pairing is superb. Lee has quite the influence in this book. This addition is a wonderful experience. Lee and Dekker make a great pair. Her ideas and characters create the boost that Dekker's plots need.

You will be discussing the emotional and ethical dynamics of this book months after finishing it. In fact, it would be wise to read it multiple times in order to wrap your imagination around the intensity.

Like many of Dekker's books, Forbidden has a direct connection to The Circle Series and its hero, Thomas Hunter. Fans will probably notice the tie-in before it's revealed but they will be doing flips.

You have to hand it to Dekker and Lee. They have created a fine introduction to a world that will be full of surprises and cleverly unique.



This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Center Street Publishing

God Wins by Mark Galli

It seems like the Christians are responding with a ferocity to Rob Bell's Love Wins. How many response books do we need? What happens when there are ten or twenty books critiquing Love Wins yet each have slightly different arguments? Won't that confuse the issue even further?

On the other hand, it seems that this is how we have a national/global debate - via books.

Mark Galli has offered his views through God Wins. This book goes out of it's way to show how it is the bane of Love Wins. The title font is similar yet the cover is white while Love Wins is black. (See the subtle message? Love Wins, bad. God Wins, good.)

I appreciate how these authors are patient with Bell and others who believe as he does. I also appreciate how civil they seem to be. However, I was dismayed to read Galli state that he wasn't going to criticize Rob Bell but only the book; as if you could separate the two. I didn't understand that. How can you criticize the ideas in a book and bypass the author of those ideas? It seemed like a pretty sleazy way to appear "nice".

Galli provides the basic teachings of God, Jesus, the Bible and hell that many people are familiar with. This is why I think if you've read one response book, you've read them all.

Galli criticizes Bell's way of using the power of emotion to get his point across (As if emotion causes thinking to be skewed.) and then uses emotional illustrations to get his own points.

There are moments in this book where I thought them to be great reactions to some of the theology of Bell. There were other moments where I could almost hear Bell nod along and say, "That really doesn't touch on what I'm saying"

One final critique: Galli repeatedly agrees with a point Bell brings out but then argues that more needs to be said. This caused me to think Galli wanted Bell to write a longer book! "Come on Bell, if you're going to talk about hell you need to write a massive tome. Everyone knows that."

God Wins is a book that covers much more than just hell and the afterlife. It will please those who hate Rob Bell and frustrate those who agree with him.




This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Tyndale Publishing

God of Love and God of Judgment by Stephen K. Moroney

There's a bug going around issuing statements on whether God is only a god of love or if He is a god who judges. Stephen Moroney adds his voice to the plethora of books. God of Love and God of Judgment is the typical Moroney work.

Moroney divides this into 3 parts. In the first part, he examines the path of a God of judgment without love. He explains the peril of holding this view in light of current events. Then we go back to Martin Luther and examine how we can move to include God's love.

In part 2, we look at a God of love without judgment. He includes Marcion up through Joel Olsteen and liberal theology.

I have always enjoyed how Moroney spells out the many views and how they caught fire and why people get caught up with them. This is all written out before he hits us with his view and why it should be correct!

Part 3 brings love and judgment together. Instead of viewing the love and judgment of God to be in conflict with one another, Moroney proposes that we look at God's character like a diamond - many angles to the one, united person and character of God that includes love and judgment.

This book is thick with footnotes, but it is just as easy to read for pure enjoyment.

This book would be an excellent discussion starter for students and coffee drinkers alike.



This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Wipf and Stock Publishers

Knowing

This is most certainly a religious movie. Nicolas Cage plays an agnostic professor whose wife has just died. He's dealing with those feelings while trying to raise his son.

His son's class digs up a 50-year old time capsule and discovers a piece of paper covered with numbers.

These numbers predict the time and place of major catastrophes. There's one more number that predicts the destruction of the planet.

Knowing begins as an interesting thriller but then devolves into a slightly confusing, religious/sci-fi mish-mash.

I long for the days when Nicolas Cage made good movies. What happened to him and his decision to make some really bad films lately?

This film is vague enough to not give the audience black and white answers but it's clear enough that you understand what the writers were trying to say...at least in the last 15 minutes it becomes clear.

This is a movie that should have been much better than it ended up being. I'm still waiting for a decent movie with Christian themes.

Hell, Rob Bell, and What Happens When People Die by Bobby Conway

Bobby Conway has done something that is a first for me to come across.

In this heavy debate over Rob Bell's book, Conway has kept his disagreements civil. I could hardly believe there were other Christians out there who could disagree without demonizing Bell. (*see Franklin Graham calling Bell a False Teacher)

Hell, Rob Bell, and What Happens When People Die takes Bell's Love Wins to task. Conway goes out of his way to explain that he believes Bell to be a fantastic person and is obvious a follower of Christ (just look at what he preaches on: the resurrection of Christ, the fact that Jesus is the only way to God, etc...)

He then begins the dissection of what he believes to be the problems with Bell's views on hell and our eternal destination. He begins with:

The Fuss about Loves Wins
Who Deserves Hell
Hell's Architect
Bell's Hell
Why "Good People" Go To Hell
A Name for It
Where Bell Went Wrong
What Happens When You Die?
A Life-or-Death Choice
Jesus Wins!

As I said, this is a very civil critique on the book and Bell's views. I enjoyed his comments as they were full of Scriptural support and based on how the Church historically viewed hell and eternity.

One of the issues I had was over the interpretation of "eternity". Bell explains that eternity does not mean something measurable by time and Conway doesn't step on that too much. Supposedly there are multiple definitions for the word "eternity".

Bell has opened a can with this hell stuff. (How many "response" books have been written already?)

However, is it ultimately what you believe about hell that should be so important to your faith?



This book was provided for review, at no cost, by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing

Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber

***Please note that there is some colorful language in one paragraph on page 17. If this content would be offensive to you, you may not want to read the preface.

A girl-meets-God style memoir of an agnostic who, through her surprising opportunity to study at Oxford, comes to a dynamic personal faith in God.
Carolyn Weber arrives for graduate study at Oxford University a feminist from a loving but broken family, suspicious of men and intellectually hostile to all things religious. As she grapples with her God-shaped void alongside the friends, classmates, and professors she meets, she tackles big questions in search of love and a life that matters.
This savvy, beautifully written, credible account of Christian conversion follows the calendar and events of the school year as it entertains, informs, and promises to engage even the most skeptical and unlikely reader.

I loved this book. Carolyn Weber has a way with words in that she will pull you into her world in the first two paragraphs. She divides this memoir into parts of her life at school and then dipping into parts of her past.

The way she offers the information will keep you turning the pages even if this book is quite thick.

I can't wait to read more from this author.



This book was provided for review,at no cost, by Thomas Nelson Publishing.

Desiring God Study DVD

John Piper is using his celebrated book, Desiring God, to lay out a 10-week Bible study on DVD.

Many of the 10 lessons touch on Christian Hedonism.

And what is Christian Hedonism? It came from this guy Piper. It refers to the idea that God gets the most glory when humans are satisfied in God. Does that make much sense?

If you are scratching your head or if you simply skimmed over that description, you'll want to take a look at this DVD or, at least, read the book.

This is a resource for the evangelical circles. Piper uses so much Scripture, you'll think you are watching some professor's lectures at some points.

One of the larger points that Piper emphasizes is the idea that God is wanting to chase after us. In many evangelical churches this is old news. But some people may find this DVD a great resource.



This DVD was provided for review, at no cost, by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing

Splice

Why in the world did Adrien Brody make this movie? Has he become such a low-brow that he actually believed this movie would be considered artistic or even "thought-provoking"?

Splice is about two geneticists (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) who are creating genetically altered hybrid animals for the medical research. When they want to go the next step, they decide to create a human hybrid.

I have never before desired a character to die as much as I wanted Polley's character to bite it. Throughout the entire movie, her character grates on the nerves. I found myself moaning out loud, "for the love of God kill this character already!" and "why?!!? Why does she have to be this annoying?!?!"

Brody is his typical character: the brooding, depressed guy. I think the only time I saw him as anything else was in The Village and in that film he added the quirk of being "the village idiot".

The hybrid they create is always surprising them with its abilities and secret, evolving traits. Things take a very weird turn when they decide to go out to a barn and we learn why Polley's character is a pathetic loser. And then let's not even discuss the ending which was touted as a horrific twist but ended up being ridiculous.

This movie was awful.

District 9

I remember when they began teasing this movie at Comic-Con. They and signs indicating places where only humans or aliens could venture. Almost everyone thought these signs were for the super secret J.J. Abrams movie (Cloverfield) but it turned out to be for the low-budget District 9.

After making a short for YouTube, director Neill Blomkamp was encouraged to make it a feature with the blessing of Peter Jackson.

Casting a bunch of no-names and having it take place is South Africa adds a flavor of realism if you can look past the fact that these are CGI aliens.

The movie begins as a documentary but quickly changes to a typical action/adventure sci-fi movie with lots of guns, explosions and characters shouting the F-word almost every other word. I can tolerate maybe a one-time use in movies but when the word is used so much, it becomes distracting and my rating of the movie falls with each utterance.

Add in a exoskeleton robot with massive firepower and what started as a clever film turns into just another summer action flick.

I was impressed with the CGI. The aliens really looked like they were in the locations and interacting with the humans.

Blomkamp also has a series of shorts that was his "request" to make the Halo movie on YouTube but it was never realized.

District 9 is a movie with interesting social commentary with excellent effects.