The Big Picture or Reel Discernment?
by Motte Brown on 05/27/2009 at 12:15 PM
Here's a sneak peak at the pilot of our new movie review video featuring Plugged In Online's Bob Waliszewski. We'll change the background and add movie clips for the final. Some of Bob's rating terminology will change too, but this will give you a good feel for what it could be.
Also, we've put up a new poll on the Boundless homepage so you can cast your vote between "The Big Picture" and "Reel Discernment," which was a write-in that seemed to gain some momentum.
1. brx said the following at 1:06 PM on May 27:
If it doesn't go into much more detail than this first attempt, then I'd go with "The Big Picture".
If you're going to tear films apart and critique or nit-pick them, I'd go with "Reel Discernment".
Personally, I think "The Big Picture" implies a more holistic viewpoint. Further, if you can recognize a good story and quality filming with constructive warnings and strong dissapointments about bad language, nudity, and graphic violence, and this quick review becomes popular, then you might even have a constructive effect on the movie industry. :)
I'd pass along this clip to friends.
I do hope you're also posting this on Youtube and not only Tangle.
2. obewan said the following at 1:23 PM on May 27:
#1 BRX wrote:
"Further, if you can recognize a good story and quality filming with constructive warnings and strong dissapointments about bad language, nudity, and graphic violence,..."
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The second half of your comment is why I went with the discernment title...should we expect anything else from Boundless? Maybe the rating system says enough by itself already though. I know many Christians who say they will not view any R movies under any circumstances...
3. Andre said the following at 1:51 PM on May 27:
I liked "Reel Wise" way better... oh, well...
4. Celebrindal said the following at 2:59 PM on May 27:
I'm gonna agree with brx and go with "The Big Picture" on this one. What you have here is a brief overview of the good points and bad points of the movie, not the in-depth analysis implied by "Reel Discernment." Sure, they added snippets of advice on language, violence, and nudity, but that should be a given for any Christian movie review.
5. Motte Brown said the following at 3:11 PM on May 27:
brx:
I agree with you. I was leaning toward Reel Discernment until I read your analysis of the clip. Good job.
6. Kate said the following at 3:12 PM on May 27:
I vote for "The Big Picture."
I think it's great to be able to get the pros and cons of a movie before seeing it!
Nice work guys!
7. BDB said the following at 3:13 PM on May 27:
Yes, Discernment is a good thing.
There are some movies, like Terminator and Good Will Hunting that I actually didn't realize were rated "R" until the 2nd or 3rd time I watched them and saw it on the little digital guide thing. And, I guess there are a few parts they could have cut out to get it down to PG-13 - which they do cut out when they show them on a channel like AMC.
I've always thought it was interesting that Robocop had to be seriously edited for violence, while Robocop 3 was PG-13, which I always attributed to the filmmakers realization that kids liked the toys so they ought to tone it down.
There was a part in Transformers that absolutely had no business being in there and added nothing to the plot. I hope they don't make the same mistake in the next movie. When you make a movie about toys, you should assume that there will be moms taking their sons, and don't put anything in there that would be awkward for mom to explain.
That said, Saving Private Ryan and The Passion of the Christ were rated R for very real reasons. They also depicted stomach-churning, real events. I suppose if you find such things stomach-churning, you're not desensitized yet.
Any civilian politician who has not served in the military really ought to watch Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers before ordering troops into battle.
8. Julie said the following at 3:15 PM on May 27:
I liked The Big Picture before anyway, for brx's reasons, and more so after reading this. I second brx's motion.
9. Rebekah said the following at 4:09 PM on May 27:
I voted "Big Picture",b/c too often we like one aspect of a movie and forget about the worldview, gratuitous violence/language/skin . . . but we should evaluate the whole picture when making entertainment decisions.
That being said, I'm sad that "Reel Wise" wasn't an option b/c I wd have voted for that one.
Rebekah
10. Adam said the following at 5:06 PM on May 27:
Call it whatever you will. This format is SO much better and evenhanded than pluggedin. Props to Bob on that.
One thing I would add; I think this is aimed at Boundless - which is directed towards those in their single years - recently married. Please try and come up with a better term than "family friendliness" and limit the commentary on whether movies are good for kids or not. If we're not your target audience tho... then nevermind.
11. BDB said the following at 5:51 PM on May 27:
Adam (#10)'s comment is why I like "discernment," because even if things are mentioned briefly, the fact that they are mentioned allows much better discernment than the reviews in the newspaper...
For those who read a newspaper, of course...
12. Rabenstrange said the following at 2:40 AM on May 28:
"The Big Picture" is already the name of a widely known photo blog from the Boston Globe.
13. Emily Y said the following at 8:41 AM on May 28:
Looks good! I like the conversation style you guys have chosen! works much better. =)
The only thing that I find a bit weird is the whole rating system that's being adopted for all the radio and video PluggedIn broadcasts. For the online version, which is what I usually refer to, there is no rating system and the rational that's presented for it in the Q&A section, I thought was very admirable, that PluggedIn wanted to encourage media discernment. Although I understand that a rating system makes it all more accessable to people with no time to read the full review, I still feel it's a pity. Or am I looking at it wrong?
14. Motte Brown said the following at 9:33 AM on May 28:
Emily Y:
We did two takes and on the second --which I did not record on my flip-cam =( -- there were no ratings used. I believe we'll be going with the no ratings version.
15. Jenny said the following at 12:31 PM on May 28:
I usually check out the detailed review on pluggedinonline.com before going to a movie, but this could be a great resource for anyone wanting the quick overview for several big movies at once. Looks very promising!