Amazon.com's big "Spiritual" DVD sale

Your friend and mine, Don, wanted me to let you know about a "Spiritual" DVD sale that is going on, RIGHT NOW, at Amazon. This sale features many film's we've reviewed on the podcast, including The Ultimate Gift, One Night With the King, Saving Sarah Cain, The Last Sin Eater, The Passion, The Visitation, The Gospel Road, and Thr3e.
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Most of these are in the $8 range, although some like The Passion are up to $15(for the special edition).  I should mention that many of the DVDs on this page are not Christian, and some are downright anti-Christian & anti-intelligence (ie. What the Bleep do we Know?), so don't take this as a blanket recommendation.  However, I can highly recommend The Agony and the Ecstasy the fantastic film about Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.  It stars Charlton Heston as Michaelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II.  Heston is awesomely crazy, and Harrison is exasperated by mad painter who, if Harrison can force him to actually work, will paint the greatest painting of all history. 

Spiritual DVD Sale on Amazon
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Fireproof in 60 Seconds!

Fireproof  has posted a 60 second version of the movie on their website.  It is, in many ways, awesome.  I'm even tempted to say that it highlights the best parts of the movie (Kirk Cameron, the action scenes), while leaving out the worst (the comic relief).  It is great.  I guess it will be on the DVD that's coming out soon, so maybe someone will rip it and post it online after that.

It should be the first video that plays on the site, but if not then it is the one on the far right of their videos on the front page.  You may have to enter an email to view it, but feel free to put in supercandid at gmail dot com if you don't want to subscribe.

I wish there was a way to embed this video here.  I truly do.  But I can't.  The fact that I can't is a huge missed publicity stunt on the producers part.  The best I can do is this banner.




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Come What May signs with Sony!

Another day, another tip from Awaken Pictures! I should just give him posting access.  (Seriously, if you're interested, drop me a line) Today's tip is that Come What May , which is our next movie up for review and which I just watched last night, has been picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures!  Congratulations to Advent Film Group and the makers of Come What May .  Sony, you may recall, distributed Facing the Giants and Fireproof , so they are no strangers to the Christian film market.  I think its safe to say that Come What May  will be showing up in your neighborhood Christian bookstore and favorite DVD retailers soon.

EDIT:  I added the link to the Christian Cinema story that I forgot to put in.

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A Life

A new Christian movie called A Life is coming soon on DVD.  

Don't know much about this movie besides the trailer, but it is coming on DVD December 8.  Based on the trailer, it is hard to make a good guess on what the movie is like.  Defiantly a tear jerker, but the trailer has very little actual footage, with a lot of text cards and Bible verses instead of scenes from the film.  We'll see I'm sure.  

(Official Site) 

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Friday Wrap up & editorial

This is the new idea that I have to try to do something different with this blog, an original essay each Friday. The topic will be either related to the week's news, or it might be completely random. I don't know, or really have any idea at all. I just wanted to try to bring more content to the blog that isn't just news items.

So this week I want to share a few thoughts on the pricing of Christian movies. These days, most new release DVD movies will debut at about $20, with some big-box stores having specials to lower the cost as loss leaders. After a few months the price drops to $15, and it usually stays there for a while. If the film has been out for a long time and sales are slipping then it will often drop to $10 or so. I often have the bitter feeling of lost money when I walk into Best Buy or Circuit City and see a movie I paid $20+ for on release in their $10 bin. But I suppose I got my value by having it then, being able to watch it when I chose.

Some film studios eschew this format in order to retain a perception of value in their titles. Disney's animation titles are the best example, and if you ever see them for less than full retail count yourself lucky. The maintenance of higher prices is done for a couple of reasons. First, it keeps the marquee Disney films from ever being thought of as cheap, the idea being that if something is expensive than it must have some sort of intrinsic value. This is true for their fabled "vault" films, as well as the Pixar titles that are perpetually available. The other reason is the reason why they get away with it; there is always a market for Disney films. As long as people have children, there will be new audiences for Disney films. A film like The Matrix will eventually reach a point where most of the people who might want to buy will own it. A Disney film has new customers being made in maternity wards every moment of every day.

Christian films have a similar pricing scheme, but different reasons. You will very rarely find a Christian film at below full retail price of $15-$20, unless it is a really old catalog title being re-released on DVD from VHS. Some of the film's we've reviewed, like the excellent Power Play, are like that, most likely because they are over 10 years old and have already re-most of their costs in home video sales. Newer films, especially any made after the advent of DVD, are still higher in couped cost. Even some older films, like the End Times set that we mentioned earlier, are released at high prices. Why? In this case I think(bear in mind I have no way of knowing), that the smaller market dictates higher prices. That End Times set won't be showing up on the shelves of CostCo or Wal-Mart, and most likely only a handful will ever be made when compared to a Hollywood release. The smaller number drives up the per unit cost of producing the DVDs, which drives up the cost. Also, these are older films that will generally only appeal to a certain type of audience that is likely pre-disposed to purchasing them, not unlike the Disney films.

The whole problem with this is introducing new audiences to the films, no matter if the audiences are Christian or non-Christian. Especially an older set such as this End Times set, which features much lower production values than many new Christian films. I can't imagine anyone seeking out this set other than someone looking for a nostalgia fix of 80s Christian films that they sat through in youth group meetings. On the other hand, Christians like a good bargain as much as anyone, and a set of adventuresome films from a bygone era might attract impulse buyers if it was listed at a lower price. Sales of books like Left Behind indicate that there is a huge market for Christian post-apocalyptic fiction, and these films would appeal to someone who has seen Tribulation Force 3 times and can't wait for the next sequel. But at $62? or even a single film for $15? Never going to happen. I'm sure that these aren't that cheap to produce, but I have a hard time believing that the producers can't get a deal where a $8 DVD wouldn't break even. And for $8, I'll try almost anything that even remotely appeals to me.

I'm sure I'm not alone.

Weekly Wrap Up:

Monday, 9 June: We talked about The Master Plan, a pseudo-Christian film that could have some interesting perspectives on faith.

Tuseday, 10 June: Some info on the really good looking Wait Your Turn.

Wednesday, 11 June: My vote for worst DVD deal of the year, aside from a box set of M. Night Shamylian movies, the $62 End Times DVD set.

Thursday, 12 June: A news item on Matchmaker Mary, a new film that is being distributed by Pure Flix, the makers(or at least distributers) of The Wager.

End Times Box Set

You might have noticed that we at the SuperCandid Podcast don't care much for so-called "end-times" films. Its not to say that I haven't seen many of them; being a sci-fi fan of apocalyptic movies like Mad Max, The Terminator and I am Legend, I used to watch a lot of end-times movies in search of some great Christian sci-fi.

Unfortunately, the only decent Christian sci-fi I've seen so far isTime Changer(podcast episode), and even that is fairly silly. Movies like I am Legend, a Hollywood production, have Christian themes without becoming as involved with so-called "prophecy" as Christian films.

However, I'm always willing to give more a try, so I was fairly excited when I saw that Christian Cinema is carrying a special 5-movie set of end-times films. The film in this set that I've seen before is Final Exit, a really low-budget film a only bout 3 people in purgatory awaiting judgement(odd that it gets play with evangelical audiences with that concept). Final Exit has a lot of elements that are borrowed by "hell-house" productions, and some truly bad effects, consisting of mainly a smoke machine and colored lights. I might be remembering it wrong, but it's been years since I saw it.

The others are all new to me: End of the Harvest, which use the creation story to tell the story of the end-times(sounds interesting), Escape from Hell, another judgement experience like Final Exit, The Gathering, where a man has visions that Jesus' return is imminent, and Years of the Beast, which begins during the tribulation.

Some of these sound like they have interesting concepts, especially End of the Harvest(although I smell a plot twist in that one), but some of them like Escape from Hell and Final Exit have almost nothing to do with the end times!

Then, the real kicker: this set costs $62. How can they justify that? That's essentially $12, about $7 more than any of these is worth paying for. Even if one or two were really good, you're still paying full price for the rest of the set. What kind of deal is that?

If this set was like the one's at Wal-Mart or Best Buy sell for $10, then it would be a bargin of classic Christian sci-fi. As it is, it's 5 bad movies for one high price.

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Last post for a while

I'm leaving tomorrow to serve our great nation in our great national endeavor overseas. I don't know if I'll be able to update often or at all, but we'll see. I'll leave you with this article that Christianity Today has about Fox Faith. We've written previously about Fox Faith and some of the filmmaker's problems with the label. I've had a lot of problems with Fox Faith, particularly, as a film lover, with their awful DVD features. But cheap, poorly produced DVDs aside, they also have a string of uneven releases. Their biggest hits were One Night with the King and The Ultimate Gift, although neither made their budgets back in theaters. They've also had a string of (deserved) flops with The Last Sin Eater, Thr3e and Love's Abiding Joy(full disclosure, I haven't seen Love's Abiding Joy). So their two latest films, The Redemption of Sarah Cain and The Final Inquiry, are either confirmed as direct-to-video(after TV in the case of Sarah Cain) or in limbo(which is too bad for The Final Inquiry since it actually looks interesting, sort of a 1st Century The Case for Christ). Anyway, the article doesn't make judgments, so I'll feel free to. I predict that Fox Faith will, barring a huge, The Passion-level hit, simply fade away and be absorbed back into the more general Fox Family label. The most blatant attempt by business to cash in on Christians will be a failure and people will predict the death of Christian films. Meanwhile films like Facing the Giants(distributed by Sony) and End of the Spear(distributed independently) will continue to prove that a measure of quality will be rewarded more than a "Christian" label. My proof of this? As the article points out, and I have noticed, the Fox Faith website is woefully out of date and just awful in general. They obviously don't care. And maybe we'll get better DVD releases. (Christianity Today article) Save This Page

Moses, Moses....MOSES!!!!

Do you know what the world needs? What cinema needs? A movie version of the story of Moses! Boy, wouldn't that be a great movie! Imagine all the miracles, plagues, the epic story of a people rescued from bondage and taken to the Promised Land. All wrapped around the fascinating character of a Jew who was raised in Pharaoh's court, only to return to challenge Pharaoh himself in an epic power struggle between the gods of Egypt and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

Well, now you can get your wish. Promenade Pictures is starting a 12 part series titled "Epic Stories of The Bible." Naturally, you don't get much more epic than the Exodus, so their first film is The Ten Commandments. This story takes the unusual tactic of focusing on the relationship between Moses and his half-brother Ramesses and the film is almost unique in having an all-star cast of actors. Even more unusual, the film is animated! How crazy is that! Watch the trailer at the bottom of this post.

You may have noticed my sarcastic tone...not...uh...not again. Ok, I'm more than a bit skeptical about this film. It is being released in September 2007, supposedly in theatres, but most likely you'll see this on DVD. This is the 3rd film titled The Ten Commandments to be released in the past 2 years. The first and most famous is the 2006 tv-miniseries version starring Dougray Scott, entitled <The Ten Commandments (read the review over on Bible Films Blog(he also does a good job of overviewing most other Moses films recently) Also in 2006 was the supposedly awful The Ten Commandments: The Musical, starring Val Kilmer. This was basically just a DVD of the stage production.

So what does the new The Ten Commandments have that these others don't? How about really bad CGI(looks to be somewhere below Saturday morning cartoon CGI(think ReBoot and Beast Wars)? Or a has been actor phoning it in as Moses's voice(Christian Slater)? The best moments in the trailer simply remind me of the better stuff in films such as The Prince of Egypt(which is even name dropped in the trailer). The actors make a big deal in the trailer about how this film "humanizes" Moses, but that is the tactic taken by just about every adaptation of this story, from the The Ten Commandments (50th Anniversary Collection) all the way to the Moses (The Bible Collection) from 1997. This one just seems to be a cash-in by some studio looking to line it's pockets by simply rolling out another cheaply produced re-make. This actually reminds me quite a bit of what happened with Inspired By The Bible Experience: New Testament and The Word of Promise: New Testament Audio BIble (Tnew Testament Audio Bible). Pretty much identical products, with identical concepts. Why are there two? Because someone saw the first one( Inspired By The Bible Experience: New Testament in this case) and thought they could throw together a rip-off and cash in on customer confusion.

The story of Moses is really done to death. Even Battlestar Galactica did a version of it( )! If you don't have anything new to say don't bother! At least stuff like The Decalogue and The Ten take a new tactic on this story by transferring it to a new setting. This film has a lot of work to do for me to like it.

Ok, on top of all its other obvious problems, I'm now mad that The Ten Commandments website is so bad. It has a link to embed the trailer but instead of just giving it to you it demands your name and email, and it has now been 45 minutes since I provided that and I still haven't received the embed code. So chalk up another victory for Christian movies with awful website design. You'll have to go there to see the trailer.

Since I can't embed that, I'll post this youtube video instead. Warning, it does feature one cuss word.

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The Second Chance DVD

One of our favorite reviewed films, The Second Chance, was recently granted another price drop. It's a steal at $12.99. Save This Page

Episode Twelve - The Passion of the Christ

Eh... The ending was too predictable. *zing!

Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' reviewed by the last two Christian's on the planet who had never seen the film. It's about the final 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ. Maybe you've heard of Him. So ready your sticks and stones and give it a listen!

We have a special guest this week, as Jon is training for a trip overseas. Our mutual friend/hetero-lifemate Justin, a history major focusing on the Greeks and Romans, joins me with some great historical commentary on the film. Justin is about the most clean cut guy you'll ever meet... and harbors an odd fascination with epic power metal. It takes different strokes people...

It's THE PASSION so what else can I say in this little blurb? Music, news and more...

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Notes:

The audio was jacked up AGAIN on this episode, and for that I apologize. A defrag of my hard drive is upcoming! As is the purchase of a new computer... eventually! I didn't think it was as bad this time, or at least not bad enough to redo the whole show. We now have affiliate links all set up though! So YOU can help us buy a new microphone just by using the links! For example... you click on our Amazon link to the right... and buy anything after clicking that link (not just DVDs) and we get a small kickback. If you dig the show, feel free to use the links as it's been all no-budget so far. Maybe I'll eventually pick up a grammar book and actually make some sense.

We at The SuperCandid Podcast in way condone illegally duplicating media. The burned disc that Justin spoke of has been long out of print. "Those industry fat cats try to put a price on my music, but it wants to be free." - KK Slider Right? Just spreading some fantastic music, that otherwise would go unheard.



Tegan and Sara are both identical twin sisters AND lesbians. Just to clarify.

'Deep Throat' is often cited for it's massive success as an independent film. The budget was around $22,000, while the revenue has been estimated anywhere from as low as $100 million to as high as $600 million. I wasn't just being dirty.

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Here's another link to NewReleaseTuesday.com. No, they're not paying us to promote them, I just REALLY love the site! You get free stuff, just for blogging about your favorite bands and making friends and what not. You can also find lots of music news, forums, interviews, blog posts, artist details, album reviews and much more.What's not to like? The people running it seem to be really kind and enthusiastic, so please check out the site and tell them the SuperCandid Podcast sent you! They'll have no idea what you're talking about.



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Jon wanted these included... and I can't blame him... taken with a sense of humor, they're pretty good. Also, Jon will be blogging about his take on 'The Passion...' in the near future. Stay tuned.





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Listener Feedback: An anonymous listener commented on our last show, specifically about the Chick track 'Angels?' that Jon mentioned. Apparently, there is a film called 'Hot Chicks' that is a series of 9 Chick tracts... brought to life! It looks hilarious... so much so that I already ordered a copy. I'm sure you'll hear more about the film here in the future... in the meantime, a link!

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Golden Calf! Justin chose 'Unia' by Sonata Arctica, which as he mentioned, twice, has gone GOLD IN FINLAND! And some game called 'Halo 3'... never heard of it.



And Don's mixture of HD-DVD goodness... The Host, 300 and Hot Fuzz.



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We launched a new website! And you're looking at it right now!

Email: SuperCandid@gmail.com

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