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Christianity Today Movies is an award-winning website devoted to film reviews, interviews and commentary, all written from a biblical perspective. Our mission statement is "to inform and equip Christian moviegoers to make discerning choices about films through timely coverage, insightful reviews and interviews, educated opinion, and relevant news—all from a biblical worldview."
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Christianity Today Movies is a department of Christianity Today magazine, which is published by Christianity Today International.
Awards: Evangelical Press Association, Award of Excellence, 2005
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The Christianity Today Movies staff:
Mark Moring
Online Managing Editor/Music & Film
Mark has been a film buff since his preschool days when he saw The Deadly Mantis, a 1957 black-and-white movie he now recognizes as one of those lame horror flicks best suited for Mystery Science Theater. But the film, starring a giant praying mantis that snacks on humans, gave young Mark so many nightmares that he immediately recognized the power of the silver screen. Since then, Mark has seen his favorite movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, about 75 times. He can annoy you to death by quoting every single line of Raiders dialogue ("Asps. Very dangerous. You go first"), which proves he's really grown up. Mark, wife Nina, and sons Pete and Paul often quote movie lines during the course of their conversations at home.
Our Reviewers:
Carolyn Arends
Carolyn has a lot of skeletons in her movie closet. She's not particularly a fan of the Star Wars movies or even those Hobbit films (please don't tell the others, they'll roll their eyes and ostracize.) She can recite unseemly quantities of dialogue from a canon of tour bus classics like Tommy Boy, So I Married An Axe-Murderer and This Is Spinal Tap. She is a card-carrying fan of the Screwball Comedy (What's Up, Doc? comes to mind). Not a very promising resume for a serious film reviewer. And yet, claiming a love for language, a passion for story, and a fascination with art as the lie that makes us see the truth, Carolyn offers up her opinions on movies great and small. In addition to writing film reviews, Carolyn is a recording artist, author, wife, and mother of two young (certifiably adorable) offspring whom she blames for her love of all things Pixar. Carolyn blogs at her official website and resides in Vancouver, BC.
Russ Breimeier
Russ, who is also Online Associate Editor at CTI, remembers Star Wars as the first movie he ever saw at the age of four. His parents encouraged him at an early age to read the reviews of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert and help decide what movie the family would see for the weekend. It's only natural that Russ would grow up a self-proclaimed media junkie and eventually end up reviewing films. Russ' favorites include the sweeping blockbusters of the last 25 years (Indiana Jones, Star Wars), and he also enjoys looking for modern parables and Christian themes within movies. In addition to writing film reviews, Russ is also the director of Christian Music Today, ChristianityToday.com's online music magazine.
Peter T. Chattaway
Peter studied history, religious studies, and film at the University of B.C., so naturally, he loves Bible epics more than any sane man should, and he counts Charlton Heston movies among his favorite guilty pleasures. The first film Peter remembers seeing is Herbie Rides Again, but it was the original Star Wars that got him excited about film. For years, Peter has said his three favorite films of all time are Lawrence of Arabia, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and an obscure British flick called The Family Way. He is also an avid soundtrack collector, and he is especially fond of films like Fantasia, Koyaanisqatsi, and 2001: A Space Odyssey which minimize dialogue in favor of music and images. Peter also reviews films for Books & Culture and CanadianChristianity.com.
Lisa Ann Cockrel
Lisa lives at the movies. Literally. Her apartment sits above a circa 1920s movie palace and her kitchen windows look out over the marquee that advertises the theater's mainstream and independant fare. Lisa's own cinematic tastes lean toward the offbeat pics like Bottle Rocket, Muriel's Wedding, Harold and Maude, and All the Real Girls. She's a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the associate editor for Today's Christian Woman magazine.
Camerin Courtney
Perhaps because her parents got her name from a movie actor (screen star Cameron Mitchell) or because she grew up in a movie-loving family, Camerin—managing editor of Today's Christian Woman magazine—has been a movie fan for as long as she can remember. In fact, one of her favorite amenities of her suburban Chicago apartment is the art-house theater two blocks away. A fan of indie and international flicks, Camerin's friends accuse her of only watching movies with subtitles—to which she replies, "Nyet! Ce ne vrai pas." She will admit that one of her favorite movie sub-genres is quirky international flicks with dancing, a la Strictly Ballroom, Billy Elliot, and Shall We Dance?
Todd Hertz
Long long ago in an Illinois town far far away, Todd saw The Empire Strikes Back in a theatre when he was only three years old. Seeing the opening Battle of Hoth, and specifically the frighteningly monstrous AT-ATs, is officially Todd's first memory of life. This only set the stage for a lifetime of imagination and wonder (see: geekiness). Empire is still Todd's favorite movie among an eclectic faves list that includes sci-fi, action, western, comedy, drama, and horror films.
Josh Hurst
Talented, handsome, and modest to a fault, Josh Hurst obsessively writes about music and film at his website, Reveal. Though his friends call him a film snob, Josh prefers to think of himself as having broad cinematic horizons and sophisticated tastes. His favorite films of all time include the Three Colors trilogy, The Royal Tenenbaums, Almost Famous, Raising Arizona, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, though he'll always have a special place in his heart for the silly sight gags and punny wordplay of Airplane! and Top Secret! When he grows up, Josh wants to be just like Jeffrey Overstreet.
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey writes our "Film Forum" column, posts in-depth reviews of films and music at Looking Closer, and has also written about film for Books & Culture, Paste Magazine, and Image. Jeffrey works at Seattle Pacific University. He is co-founder of the Faith and Film Critics Circle, an association of Christian film critics, who post their annual film awards every February. Presently, his favorite filmmakers are Krsysztov Kieslowski, Michael Haneke, Robert Bresson, Peter Weir, Jim Jarmusch, and Paul Thomas Anderson. His favorite films include Wings of Desire, Three Colors: Blue, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a curious little art-film trilogy called The Lord of the Rings that you really should check out sometime. Regal Books will publish Through a Screen Darkly, Jeffreys book about faith and film, in late 2006, and Auralia's Colors, the first novel in his forthcoming fantasy series, will be published by WaterBrook Press, a Random House imprint, in 2007. He can be reached at LookingCloserReview@msn.com.
Our Contributors:
Ron Reed
Ron spends way too much time in theatres. In movie theatres, you'll find him in the audience, from the start of the first trailer until the last credit has rolled. In "that other kind of theatre," he'll be one of those people up front, waving their arms a lot and talking loud. He started Vancouver's Pacific Theatre in 1984 so he could act in any play he wanted, and he's ended up a playwright as well. While there's nothing wrong with a decent sermon now and then, it's stories that feed Ron's spirit, mostly. Alarmingly eclectic, his favorite "soul food" movies include Tender Mercies, all three Lord of the Rings films, The Year Of Living Dangerously, American Beauty, Magnolia, The Son, A Walk To Remember and Bad Lieutenant.
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