'Reel Discernment' Movie Review
by Motte Brown on 09/03/2009 at 12:30 PM
We're excited to announce the premiere of our new movie review for young adults called Reel Discernment featuring Plugged In's Bob Waliszewski and Cheryl Wilhelmi. Each week Bob and Cheryl will give us a quick look into what we can expect from the new releases. Here is this week's description:
Hosts Bob Waliszewski and Cheryl Wilhelmi discuss five end-of-summer movies, including The Time Traveler's Wife, Inglourious Basterds, Taking Woodstock, Bandslam and Julie & Julia.
Look for it every Friday afternoon on the Boundless homepage and here on the blog.
I know I'm a little biased, but I think it's a fun feature that'll prove helpful for the viewer. Which is exactly what we wanted.
Enjoy!
1. Brian Ramsey said the following at 1:11 PM on Sep 3:
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Wow, this is awesome! Very well produced, the hosts are great, and I am glad to have heard their insights about those movies.
We saw Julie and Julia, and I agree completely with Bob's opinions about the movie.
Thanks for putting out Reel Discernment Boundless! I'm going to watch it every week without a doubt!
2. Tara C. said the following at 1:47 PM on Sep 3:
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This is good! I never liked Plugged In because I felt like I was watching the movie before I actually watched movie because the descriptions were so detailed (well, I guess that's the point--it's more for parents). Anyway, good reviews, well made: two thumbs up!
3. Tim Peterson said the following at 2:09 PM on Sep 3:
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Any chance you could fix the aspect ratio? The video appears to have been produced in widescreen (16:9) but got squished vertically somewhere before reaching our screens.
4. Ted Slater said the following at 2:31 PM on Sep 3:
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Tim (#2) -- yeah, that aspect ratio thing is pretty ugly and unprofessional. We're still ironing things out; we had to let that error slip through this time.
I was given two MOV files yesterday. I didn't have the correct codec to work with the first one (which was 1.4GB), and the second one had that incorrect aspect ratio (which probably looked just fine in FCP). Last night I set my computer to fix it and save it as an MP4, but the quality was just too poor, so I just uploaded the stretched one. Hmf.
I'm using a 5-year-old PowerBook, and it takes several hours and most of my CPU to do the job, so I was just unable to fix that in time for Motte's post. Ugly compression artifacts, or wrong aspect ratio? I went with the wrong aspect ratio.
(A bright side to the sad fact that Focus laid off another 75 employees yesterday because of our financial difficulties: I may get a newer/faster Mac from an outgoing employee.)
I anticipate that the next one will be correct. I do appreciate your eye for getting things right, Tim.
5. Adam said the following at 2:50 PM on Sep 3:
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Entertaining, well done. It is definitely something that I will watch on Fridays.
I have yet to figure out just what Reel Discernment is trying to do. On the one hand, it seems to be actually reviewing the films - the main plot, what the hosts liked and disliked about the movie, and the offensive content or lack thereof.
On the other hand, it doesn't even review other movies. Inglourious Basterds was not even mentioned by name! The only real description was "Revisionist WW2 history" and then proceeded to rip on the violence in the movie. No plot summary, no real description, not even a single positive thing mentioned.
Taking Woodstock had a little bit of interaction with the plot and the movie.
I suppose I'd say pretty good job on Time Traveler's Wife, Bandslam and Julie & Julia. I'll have to look elsewhere if I want an actual review of Inglourious Basterds or Taking Woodstock though.
I'll be looking forward to see how Reel Discernment evolves.
6. endlessnights said the following at 3:42 PM on Sep 3:
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I have to say..Americans are extremely conservative.
Movies are designed to be entertainment no? So why do we need to scrutinize things down to a t. Ok, Bruno - an obvious choice of film not to see. But so what if a guy time travels but gets naked half way?! Full frontal nudity at woodstock - to be expected, but obviously not a choice of movie Id watch either.
Inglorious 'B-word' - haven't seen, am going to see it, yes it's violent, but thats the point!
7. Michelle said the following at 6:35 PM on Sep 3:
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A fantastic idea! I love this format for 'reel discernment' and that it's fast-paced and succinct.
It would be great for the hosts to direct people to Plugged In's site so they know they can access additional movie reviews and deeper descriptions of the movies mentioned.
One element that left me a little uncertain was that I had checked out "Time Traveller's Wife" on the Plugged In site and decided not to see it as a result of the review and detail about sexual scenes, and yet, the plug on 'Reel Discernment' made me think it would be worthwhile going to see. I realize that these are obviously the reviewers opinions (which are helpful and appreciated), but it might also be good to focus a bit more specifically with a quick rundown of the pros and cons of each movie, similar to the written review.
8. ADH said the following at 7:05 PM on Sep 3:
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So...I loved this! I go on pluggedinonline alot, but I know I'm really going to enjoy these reviews. They are concise, enjoyable, and don't give all the details (which, for me, is good!). And the picture that presented "Reel Discernment" on the main page was so nice! Another great addition to Boundless :)
9. dreamer426 said the following at 9:19 PM on Sep 3:
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Wow, I think that overall this is great - I've really missed this part of the podcasts. That said, I was really bothered by the clips shown from "Inglorious Bastards". As a girl who is extremely affected by violence (even a small amount makes me feel physically sick) the snapshot with the baseball bat was really too much for me. Please be careful what clips you include! But also do keep them coming - I love the concept.
10. Kelo said the following at 7:06 AM on Sep 4:
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Cheryl's great. Sounds like she's from Minne-SOH-tah. (I'd be interested in the heritage behind the name Wilhelmi, by the way.)
11. Alexis said the following at 9:26 AM on Sep 4:
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Reading some of these comments I would guess there is a reason for naming this Reel DISCERNMENT. You have to have a discerning spirit that is steeped in Prayer and God's Word to know what movies are healthy to watch (read edifying and uplifting to the soul) and which are not (read Inglorious Basterds). Violence for the sake of violence because "that is the point" is never good. I will watch war movies, because it is history (although sometimes skewed) and these sorts of things DO happen/ARE happening but to watch a film purely for its violent content because it is entertaining, that cannot be wise discernment.
On another note, I really enjoyed this and look forward to more, I do agree with #8 that you might want to be careful what clips you show though, as some may be very sensitive to violence even if it is not fully shown.
12. Alexis said the following at 9:30 AM on Sep 4:
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Also, to add another thought. If I find violence entertaining, what part of myself am I entertaining? The part that is serving God or the part that is serving Flesh and Satan? Would God consider violence in a film, because that is the point, entertaining? If our deepest desire is to become more like Christ and less like the world...should we spend 2 hours of our lives watching a film like Inglorious Basterds?
13. Kara said the following at 11:26 AM on Sep 4:
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I'm one of those odd people who rarely sees a movie but I am ADDICTED to movie reviews. I don't know what it is, but I love them and always have. And I really enjoyed Reel Discernment. Great concept and well put together. One thing I'd like to see more of though: I've noticed that Christian reviews tend to see all of the stuff to avoid (sex, violence, language, etc) but avoid commenting on the movie itself. I DO want to know what the movie contains as far as stuff that I wouldn't want to see, but from Christian reviews you can frequently get the impression that a movie is worth seeing just b/c it has no violence or sex. A la High School Musical. Sure HSM is a "clean" movie... with horrible, over-the-top acting and little-to-no plotline. I want to know if it's both clean AND THEN is it well written, acted, directed, etc.
Can't wait to see more!
14. Heather in NY said the following at 11:57 AM on Sep 4:
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Loved this! Keep 'em coming!! I did agree with the post regarding carefully choosing the clips, that scene was disturbing.
15. Candice Watters said the following at 2:44 PM on Sep 4:
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Wow, guys, and Cheryl. This turned out great!! I love the energy. Very up and informative and the actual movie clips in the background seal the deal. You knocked this one out of the park. (Incidentally, it's way more fun to watch Bob and Cheryl talking and engaging with the films than to read a swear-word tally.)
16. Mark said the following at 3:41 PM on Sep 4:
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This is great! I love how they touch on both content and themes. It will definitely help my wife and me to be more informed movie-goers. Thanks!
17. jc said the following at 3:24 PM on Sep 5:
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This was fun to watch and super helpful! Thanks for keeping God's standard when discerning this films.. having this sooner may have saved me many movie mistakes!
18. Jorden said the following at 8:36 PM on Sep 5:
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I like it. Very good feature ^^. I also like how they said whether they liked it or not. I think pluggedin is good because it lets you decide, but it's also really nice having someone tell you what they think of a movie as well.
19. Swithun said the following at 2:09 AM on Sep 7:
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As has been mentioned above I'm wondering what the purpose of Reel Discernment is. After just listening to the episode all it seemed to tell me was how much sex, violence and swearing was in it. Now if this is the sole purpose then just produce a tally chart of the categories of each film and have done with it.
Yet, the title of the programme is Reel DISCERNMENT whereas the above attitude encourages a superficial reading of film. There was reference to whether the sex, violence or swearing was narratively justified- for example Paul-Thomas Anderson's film Boogie Nights which is about the porn industry would have been rather odd if it had no sex in it. Further there wasn't much criticism, though at one point one of the films was stated to be somewhat pro marriage, regarding the underlying message of the film which is the most powerful part of the film- David Lynch's Elephant Man even though it's ostensibly about a man with massive facial deformity is actually about the dehumanisation of capitalism and voyeurism.
Finally the complete lack of discussing of the craft of film making is inexcusable. God didn't say to the craftsmen of the tabernacle in Exodus it doesn't matter if it looks like a pile as long as it has Jesus saves written on the walls. A film can be technically excellent but still be a pagan work. It is most uncharitable not to praise technical excellence and to misunderstand the nature of the medium.
I'm glad that Christians are more willing to engage than the used to be but we still have a way to go.
20. Chris said the following at 2:21 PM on Oct 26:
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Too Christian. Seems like the reviews are very bias, and doesn't give a thorough insight of the films.