Fireproof starts a fire in the box office!

WOW!  Fireproof  blew up this weekend!

Fireproof  grossed a total of $6,514,000 over the weekend!  That's 13 times its budget!  One weekend and it's twice as big a profit, percentage wise, as Star Wars: Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith!

Even more amazing, it averaged $7,764 per screen, which puts it in the neighborhood of Evan Almighty, which had a budget over 10,000% higher!  

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed , which was made a huge splash as the 12th highest grossing documentary of all time, averaged only a little more than $2,000 on its best weekend.  

Congrats to Sherwood Pictures, the Kendrick Bros. and whoever is making all the money off this film (probably MGM, the parent company of distributor Samuel Goldwyn).  Hopefully we'll see it next week!

(Box Office Mojo) 

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Fireproof this KISS

I have a hard time wading through Fireproof  news these days.

The movie, which opens today, has deluged all forms of media with publicity, which I guess is a good mark for a Christian movie.  It was so big that Kirk Cameron even made TMZ last night.  

There are about two stories I could find to celebrate the release of this movie that we hadn't talked about or weren't just re-hashing old news.  

The first is the interesting bit that Kirk Cameron refuses to kiss any woman but his wife, even when acting .  So the filmmakers of Fireproof had to have his actual wife stand in for the actress, and the scene was filmed in silhouette.  I guess that is understandable, but I think that if you make this kind of commitment you really need to re-think playing roles that involve kissing.  Maybe that's why Cameron hasn't done much acting recently; he's got the face for a romantic lead, but he refuses to kiss, hence a problem.

The second story is that the book from Fireproof , "The Love Dare," has been made into a real book .  I'm actually surprised that this took so long to be announced, as it seemed like a natural marketing tie-in.  You can read the first chapter online , and it looks like a basic marriage counseling kit.  The first chapter says stuff anyone could tell you about having a good relationship; ie. be patient and don't fly off the handle every time your partner does something you don't like.  Easy stuff, but sometimes having a book to remind you helps you put it into practice.  Best of all, its cheap, only $9.99.

So go see Fireproof!  Don & I can't make it this weekend so we're going to shoot for next weekend and a review about a week later.  Enjoy!

(The Love Dare Book)
(Kirk Cameron on Today , via Scandalist )





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Mikel Wisler Continues his exploration of the state of Christian Cinema

Continuing the series we linked to last week, Mikel Wisler has part 2 of his exploration of the state of Christian Cinema. He has some really good points on the different approach to visual media by Catholic and Protestant denominations of the Church. He also has some really good things to say about the "experiential" nature of film; specifically, the way that a film is much more than what can be described in a simple plot summary. He also makes some interesting comments on two prominent Hollywood Christians; Ralph Winter and Scott Derrickson. He is very charitable to both, in different ways. Derrickson (Director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Hellraiser: Inferno & the forthcoming remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still) he praises for making mainstream Hollywood films that have Christian values, if not a explicit Christian message. Winter, on the other hand, I think he unfairly praises. Sure, Winter has produced some great films on the Hollywood side of things (X-Men, X2, Captain Ron, Star Trek III-VI), but he's also made some real stinkers (Fantastic Four, X-Men 3, Inspector Gadget), so he hardly has a perfect record. When it comes to Christian movies, he unfortuatly tends more to the stinker side than to the great side. Of the Christian film's he's produced (Left Behind, Hangman's Curse , The Visitation , Thr3e , House), only one (The Visitation ) managed to avoid being so awful as to make me curse the day I watched them. Seriously, Thr3e is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Ever. (Cin-Posium Blog) Subscribe to the SuperCandid Podcast, the number 1 podcast for Christian movies Subscribe to the SuperCandid Blog Save This Page

The Plot for Flood 2: Ike's Revenge?

Everyone remembers Flood, the documentary about a the efforts of a Church community to save their building from Hurricane Floyd.  Well, with the recent Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico & Flordia that movie has been on my mind a lot.  One story in particular reminded me of that film.  I hope that someone got some video of this, or else maybe friend of the show Tom Swift (director of Flood) could make it into a fictionalized story.  It is just crying out for a movie!

Community members take refuge in a Bolivar Island Church, where they have to survive not only the wrath of Hurricane Ike, but also the danger of a stranded lion.  Essentially, a man was trying to evacuate his lion from the local zoo, and he was caught in the storm.  Desperate for shelter, he found the Church, built on high ground.  Fortunately the other refugees were welcoming to him and his deadly pet, and they rode out the storm with the lion.  Reports indicate that the lion was quite calm, and was content to eat pork roast instead of its fellow survivors.  The capper on the story is the National Guard soldiers who delivered supplies after the storm; upon spotting the lion they leapt out the door.  

Read the full story on The Weather Channel's website.  

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Congrats to Pray 2 on their Premiere!

We'd like to extend a special SuperCandid congratulations to friend of the show Matt Mitchell, writer and director of Pray.  Although we shared our candid opinons on his first film. Mr. Mitchell was kind enough to write in with his own generous words about the show.  We're hoping to be able to put together an interview with Matt soon, and we're looking forward to reviewing Pray 2: The Woods really soon! 

That's actually why I'm writing this, to congratulate Matt on the premiere of his sequel at the Carmike Cinemas in Morrisville, North Carolina.  Matt offered us tickets to the premiere, but unfortunately we are unable to travel to North Carolina.  Sorry to miss it, and good luck with the sequel!  We're looking forward to reviewing it.


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Shadowmancer Film Adaptation (UPDATED WITH BIG NEWS!)

Shadowmancer, G.P. Taylor's novel that is often called the "Christian Harry Potter," is slowly being made into a film.  I haven't read the novel yet, but I've heard high praise from the usual Christian suspects, and it was apparently popular enough to spend 15 weeks on the bestseller list in England.

Not many details on the film, but the Telegraph does have a short piece about the Taylor's perceived shunning by the BBC, which he (Taylor) attributes to his being a Christian.

As far as film details go, nothing new here, just a one line mention.  However, given the rate at which novels/comics are being made into films these days, I wouldn't expect it to take that long before we start hearing more concrete information.

NEWSFLASH:  As you might note in the comments, G.P. Taylor has kindly left us a comment about the status of the film adaptation.  He tells us that David Kirkpatrick, former head of Disney & Touchstone Studios, and Martha Cotton, who seems to be best known for producing NBC Nightly News in the mid to late 80s, are producing the film adaption of Shadowmancer through their new Boston-based studio, Plymouth Rock Studios.  Hopefully we'll hear more soon!

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Facing the Giants on TBN this Sunday

Facing the Giants, the runaway hit Christian film that is soon to be followed up by Fireproof, is airing this Sunday on TBN, commercial free.  Although, aren't all TBN programs commercial free?  I don't know.  

As usual, you can watch TBN live online at their website, which means that if you've been wanting to see Facing the Giants and don't want to pay for it, this is your chance.  7:00 PM PST on Sunday, 21 September.  Be there!


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Mikel Wisler on the state of Christian Cinema

Mikel Wisler, who you might recall wrote one of, if not the first review of Fireproof that we linked to way back in July, has an interesting article on the state of Christian Cinema.  He talks a lot about the stereotypical "proselytizing" movies, such as Left Behind and The Omega Code, and compares Fireproof quite favorably to them.  

I'm really interested in seeing Fireproof, but I am concerned that it is not making as big an improvement on movies such as Left Behind as it might seem.  Those films were awful movies, designed to "reach out" to non-Christians but appealing only to Christians willing to overlook those flaws.

Only time will tell, and fortunately, for Fireproof that time is soon.


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Cloud Ten branches out with The Genius Club

I could really care less about Cloud Ten's movies, considering that they've made their name on bad Christian apoclaypse movies, in no less than 2(!) franchises that I've been forced to watch at Church from time to time, but they are, to their credit, trying to branch out.  For instance, they are distributing a movie called The Genius Club, which has been languishing without a distributor for some time.  


Why do I care?  Mainly because Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) is in it!  (She's the one on the far left)


Besides that, the premise sounds interesting.  To quote the offical site:
"Seven geniuses, with IQs over 200, are plucked from their lives on Christmas Eve to try to solve the world's problems in one night. If they fail, the world will come to an end. The group attempt to solve world hunger, war, cancer, terrorism, rush hour traffic, jerks, and finally the meaning of life. By morning, the group finds redemption in themselves and quite possible the world."


Not a bad story, and I can see how a Christian message might be in there, even if the synopsis doesn't mention it.  The trailer looks ok too, especially with the ranting, raving and bald Tom Sizemore as the terrorist leader.  Maybe I'll have to give Cloud Ten another chance.  


(Video Business)
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Rosie's Miracle

The Winchester Star has a short article on a short film, Rosie's Miracle.  The film, directed and financed by Connie Lamothe, is about a 7-year-old's quest to cure her dying brother.  Lamothe describes the film as being about a typical blue-collar family, but with a Christian message.  No idea if we'll ever hear more about this, but I'm always a fan of short films, even though they are nearly impossible to see outside festivals.  Good luck to the producers and cast! (The Winchester Star) Subscribe to the SuperCandid Podcast, the number 1 podcast for Christian movies Subscribe to the SuperCandid Blog SuperCandid Mux-Tape, with music featured on the podcast Save This Page

I don't really care if they label me a 'Jesus Geek'. *cough*

Jon and I are always cracking jokes that we're the greatest Christian movie podcast on the internet, and we're not lying because we're the only one that reviews only Christian movies. We have our niche and it's super-small and comfy. However, there are other good Christian podcasts out there. We've sampled several, but very few seem to 'stick' in our podcast rotation... but I have good news, there's one worth checking out. The Jesus Geeks are a couple of guys from the Pacific Northwest with a love of Christ, Internet memes, films, Sarah Conner, fancy book learning and most importantly, podcasting. Their shows alternate between serious theological or Christian-lifestyle discussions, and ramblings about current news stories, sci-fi, comic books and awful awesome YouTube videos of lost Christian rock bands*(see below). Anyway, give them a listen tell them SuperCandid sent you. They won't know what you're talking about. Maybe tell them John Stamos sent you. That's kind of impressive, right? If John Stamos listened to my show, it would make my day. Maybe Jon would let up on his Clive Owen man-crush if Stamos were all ears... *(Welcome to below) Subscribe to the SuperCandid Podcast, the number 1 podcast for Christian movies Subscribe to the SuperCandid Blog SuperCandid Mux-Tape, with music featured on the podcast Save This Page

Pendragon: Sword of His Father

We've been following Pendragon: Sword of His Father for a little while now.  Well, the film's official site reports that a DVD might be available as soon as November, and you can go there to watch the newest trailer for the film.  I've been praying for them to have success in finishing this project, and now I've started praying that it will be as good a movie as it looks like it could be! In the meantime, The River Bend Telegraph has an interview with filmmaker Chad Burns, about the challenges of making a low-budget epic film.  It is an interesting interview, and it further piques my interest in this movie.  I can't wait! (River Bend Telegraph)

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Sunday School Musical

Wow.  I never thought I would see the day.  But it happened.

Someone made Sunday School Musical.

There are no words, only the sound of cash registers ringing in Christian bookstores across the nation.

At least, that's what they are hoping I guess.

I have no idea if this movie is any good, but it is certainly lacking in the originality department.  I suppose it could be very well done and have a completly unique take on the whole thing, and, in concept, I think that a Christian musical is a great idea.

But the title, and packaging, and everything else about this, just screams rip-off cash-in by greedy opportunists who smell money.

This is not what the Christian movie industry needs if it wants to be taken seriously by Christians or anyone else.

Just look at this. Look at it!


(Christian Film News)
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