Yes, I watch a lot of movies. And yes, I have a filter for my choices.Many years ago I met Pastor Lawrence Crews. He was speaking at church about movies and how our culture makes “going to the movies” a big part of our lives. He was very concerned about the content in the movies we watch.
He said, “would you invite your pastor to see that movie”? And then he said, “bring that movie to church, we’ll show it on the screen and YOU can introduce it!”
It was time to give greater thought to the movies I watch.
I want to be a Christian all the time. “It’s a lifestyle” we tell people. But it seems like we hang up our Christian morals when it comes to watching movies. The Phillipians filter is a good one - “whatever is pure, whatever is right.” Using that as a filter will reduce your movie choices to, say about - zero!
I love movies! So I put a couple of filters in place for myself to weed out the junk that I don't want to see.
First I read the Plugged In Movie Review. The latest movies are posted with a breakdown of sexual content, violence, negative themes, the plot, the positive, etc. I don't always agree with the review, but at least I have their alert to consider.
Next I look at movie trailer. If the trailer makes me feel that guns dominate the movie, then I won’t see it. I don’t like revenge movies. They leave me with a feeling of emptiness, rather than fulfilled entertainment.
Then I will read what Wikipedia has to say.
Lastly, if Wes Farrell or Adam Sandler are in the movie I will NOT watch it. Those guys are usually rude and play roles that are “stupid.”
I’ll confess that I do watch movies with some junk. One of my favourite movies is “Rock Star” with Mark Wahlberg but I wish there was a cleaner version.
So, those are my filters. I wonder if Pastor Lawrence would approve? What are your’s?
I think you mean Will Farrell.
ReplyDeleteI really like screenit.com for breakdowns of movie content. They've got a "word to parents" section that's a short summary of possible issues, as well as a detailed breakdown of several categories of potential deal-breakers. I also like that they include an "issues to talk about" section for parents and youth workers whose kids watch them (with or without them).
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, I was helping to lead worship at a retreat that Lawrence was the speaker for a few months back. Great guy, and a fantastic encourager!
I listen & read the plugged in movie reviews, but I find them highly inaccurate & unreliable. They say they rate things on the "family friendliness", but I heard they rated "The Passion of The Christ" as 5 out of 5 for family friendliness, which is WAY off! You may think "How can a movie about Jesus not be family friendly?" but I'm not saying it's a bad movie, I'm saying any movie with that much gore and a PG-13 rating should never be given 5 out of 5 for family friendliness! That implies your whole family is safe to watch it, but if you had young children would you let them watch that?
ReplyDeleteYeah plugged in considered "Ted and Maggie make goo-goo eyes at each other and talk[ing] about going out on a date." as sexual content in "Curious George"!?! It also is listed as having violence because of George crossing the street and almost getting run over! A little over done! But wait here's the most ridiculous part, the film is listed as having "Drug content" because Edu get's a sleeping dart to the leg by accident!?! WAY over done.
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