Oversold: Hosea in the modern world

Both Peter Chattaway(who writes for CT Movies) and The Bible Films blog are reporting on Oversold, a modern take on the book of Hosea. CT Movies has an interview with Crissy Morgan, internet-launched and now reformed porn star who stars in the film as an exotic dancer. This is the second re-telling of Hosea I've seen recently, the first being Redeeming Love, which some women at my church have been studying.

Oversold is a 30ish minute short film, which you can download directly from their site $5. The trailer looks decent, but it is hard for me to shake the feeling that the acting, as well as the sleezy goateed villain, is reminiscent of the type of "story" that is usually featured and often parodied in porn films. We've already got a couple of movies in our chute to review, but hopefully we'll get to this soon.

The plot summary on CT Movies does give me one bit of pause;  it describes Morgan's character on who "who yearns to break free from the sordid life that enslaves her."  My understanding of Hosea was that Gomer, Hosea's wife, had no desire to reform her ways.  It was Hosea's love for her despite her continual sin that was the picture of God's love for his people.  Changing that seems to change the nature of the story. 

(Bible Films Blog)

(Film Chat Blog)

(CT Movies Interview)

(Oversold official site)

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Great News! (I guess...) More Left Behind movies on the way

It's the most popular Christian book series I can remember.  Its already spawned several successful movies, and one of the most unusual video games ever.  

Well, you might have wondered why there hasn't been a new Left Behind movie in a while.  You might also wonder why such popular books would be relegated to no-budget direct to video affairs.  So did co-author Tim Lahaye.  Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins refused to put their names on the movie, Alan Moore-style.  So much so that Lahaye sued Cloud Ten pictures over what he said was a breech of contract over the length, budget (and probably an unspoken dispute over quality).  The lawsuit has held up production on any further Left Behind movies.  

At long last, the lawsuit is settled, in a rather unusual way.  LaHaye has been granted the rights by a judge to remake the Left Behind movies with a new studio.  However, if he does not exercise these rights in a certain length of time, then the rights will revert to Cloud Ten and they will be able to continue their series.

I'd say that this is actually kind of a slap in the face to the authors, since it places restrictions on them and gives the advantage to the film company who was being sued in the first place.  Anyway, one way or another we're getting more Left Behind movies.  Maybe we should finally review the earlier movies so we can be ready.

(News Blaze)
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Episode Twenty Nine - The Wager

This week we tackle the latest Randy Travis masterpiece 'The Wager'... Michael Steele (Travis) has it all, fame, fortune, but in a strange turn of events, his world comes crashing down on him. This is his story of loss, love and things unseen. Or something. We had a time deadline looming and a bizarre set of circumstances clouding the show. Also, Don had his mic on the wrong setting. Enjoy awkward pauses and poor audio! *** Here's the new Bon Voyage album cover Don mentioned. *** The intro and outro musics can be heard in their entirety on our muxtape. ***

You can find out more about the Jesus Anime that we talked about at the website for the project, and the video we're talking about is right underneath this.

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supercandid@gmail.com Contest Win your very own (preowned/SC reviewed) copy of 'The Oath of the Desormeau'! Just leave a comment on this post naming your favorite Christian film. If you do not have a blogger account, you can comment anonymously, but make sure to leave your name. Also, it would help to leave your email address. We will randomly select an entry and announce the winner on our next episode. Apparently, Duckbill is really, really, really on the ball, and entered the contest before we even made a post about it. Nice job!

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ps.  Sorry for the late post, but I didn't realize that Don was so on top of things. *** Direct Download Save This Page

Jonah: A Veggietales Movie for Free

Remember when we reviewed Jonah: A Veggietales Movie?  Maybe you were dissapointed because you wanted to see the movie but couldn't afford the $8.50 price tag? Be dissapointed no more, because thanks to the wonders of Hulu(where I get my Battlestar Galactica fix every week), you can watch it for free!  Enjoy! Save This Page

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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Treasure Blind

Here's a fun looking film that I heard about over on the Reelcast blog.  

It's called Treasure Blind, about a cab driver who discovers a map to Civil War gold.  The only problem is that the map is written in Braille.  Apparently too lazy to find a book on how to read Braille, he enlists the help of a blind child to search for the treasure.  I added the lazy part, but there might be a more reasonable explanation in the film.  

You can watch the trailer at the film's website, here.  The trailer is way to oblique about the film's story, featuring almost no dialogue from the film and lots of enigmatic title cards.  I'm not a fan of trailers that leave you confused, and the official synopsis on the site is even worse, making little or no sense.  I do think it is kind of a fun idea, since braille was originally invented as a military code.  

Still, the film looks like it could be lots of fun if done well.  I'm a sucker for these National Treasure type stories, but I insist that they be done in a fun way.  What good is a treasure hunting story that's dour and serious?  Or maybe its just difficult and needs a deft storyteller to pull off a serious treasure story.  Who knows?

All I know is that I want to see this film, although the $24 price tag is a bit steep.  We're trying to limit our spending on the podcast, as it doesn't pay very well.  Maybe I can talk don into splitting this with me.  

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NBC's Kings

Ian McShane, best known as the Al Swearengen from HBO's Deadwood, has been cast as whatever character is representing King David in the pilot for NBC's Kings. Kings, written by Heroes writer and co-executive producer Michael Green, is a re-telling of the reign of King David in a modern setting. (if that link doesn't work try the Google Cache version). The pilot will be directed by Francis Lawrence, director of I Am Legend and Constantine, two films that turned out to be much better than they looked, and he seems to have a deft hand on weaving religion into stories well. The pitch sounds promising: Set in present day, "Kings" centers on "a regular small-town guy who gets mixed up with the upper crust social and political elite of a monarchy and eventually would become the new king," Green said. "It's a Cinderella story and a story of struggle for power." The plot of the soap, which will feature magical elements, loosely parallels the story of the biblical David, a shepherd boy who went on to defeat the giant Goliath and become Israel's second king. " I'm guessing that McShane's casting means that it will be eschewing the familiar "David and Goliath" story to be more focused on his reign. As great as David and Goliath is, it is more than over-done and the rest of David's reign has plenty of meat for a juicy soap opera. It sounds like it could be a sort of organized crime tale, Sopranos-esque perhaps. Unless they go all out and make it a alternate universe where America is ruled by a king? And there I go, assuming it will be set in America. Who knows at this point? Heroes success, McShane's TV cred and Lawrence's directing skills all point to this as having good chances of being picked up for a series. Lets hope so, because un-sold pilots usually disappear into nothingness and I'd like to at least see this take on the Bible. Anyone have any other Bible stories they'd like to see brought into the modern day? I think Jeremiah could work well as a story in the modern US. Save This Page