Unbroken — 4 out of 5 stars

ONE WORD REVIEW: Powerful!

SUMMARY: A U.S. Olympic athlete turned WWII Airman survives a plane crash, 45 days on the open sea, and the remainder of the war in a Japanese prison camp… all the while remaining unbroken.

DETAILS: Based on the true life experiences of Louis Zamperini, Unbroken tells the story of a U.S. Olympic athlete turned WWII Airman (Jack O’Connell) who survives a plane crash in the ocean, 45 days on the open seas, and the remainder of the war in a Japanese prison camp. Zamperini continually hears his brothers words of encouragement though all of his trials, beatings, and torturous experiences. In the end he remains unbroken and eventually chooses to forgive his enemies. This screenplay, written by Joel & Ethen Coen (and others) contains several scenes that portray strong themes of faith and redemption, including a “crucifixion” scene, and a beautiful baptism scene where Louis and all the prisoners ultimately receive their redemption. Directed by Angelina Jolie, the story doesn’t cover the entire novel by the same name, but certainly is an inspiring telling of Zamperini’s early life.

SCORE: 4.0 out of 5 stars

RELEASE: 2014
RATING: PG-13

Rebellion of Thought — 4 out of 5 stars

ONE WORD REVIEW: Mine

SUMMARY: Two stories woven together… Post-Modernism explored and my personal journey away from the traditional church.

DETAILS: I haven’t watched this film in a few years and I realized that I come across as rather egotistical…. imagine that happening when someone puts themself into their own film!

SCORE: 4 out of 5

RELEASE: 2007

RATING: NR
DOCUMENTARY

Stained Glass Rainbows — 4.75 out of 5 stars

ORIGINAL POST: 13 MAY 2014

FINALLY! After nearly 7 years of working on this film I was able to watch the first assembly of the entire project… all 3 hours and 20 minutes. Now I need to cut it down to 90 minutes or less, add b-roll, music, clean up the audio, etc. etc. It was a great feeling to watch the final credits roll as Brian Healy of Dead Artist Syndrome sang “Angeline”. Wow… what a long time coming!

SCORE: 3.5 out of 5

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UPDATE: 20 JULY 2014

I was able to sit and watch the 1:46 version of SGR (v3) with Karen. It was great to watch it at this length and in a single sitting. Still too long, but heading in the right direction.

SCORE: 4 out of 5

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UPDATE: 22 JULY 2014

We had a private screening of this work-in-progress version (v3.1) of the film at the Paladin studio. It was very well received by the small gathering of friends. Chris & Missy Martin, Heather & Hambo Myers, Pete Kulenek, Will Musser, Dan Fellows, Whitney Henderson, my Mom, Karen, Chase, and I watched it. It’s great to get some encouraging feedback at this point. The disappointing part of it was I had sent out 26 invitations, mainly to pastors and NOT 1 pastor showed up to watch the film. Sigh…

SCORE 4 out of 5

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UPDATE: 9 AUG 2014

I watched my film again with the Klint family during the middle of the day. Remind me never to do this again. Constant interruptions from kids, distractions, etc. I’ve only had a couple of follow up conversations and people seemed to like it, but boy was it rough getting through it. Meanwhile, James Burgess is editing on the film right now and we’ll hopefully have a good cut of it in the next few weeks.

SCORE 4 out of 5

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UPDATE: 13 AUG 2014

Brad hosted a small screening of the film with Fred Jolly, John Moline, and Beck. There was some good conversation that followed, but unfortunately I had to step out early to do a radio interview with Keith Giles about the film for his blogtalk show Subversive Radio. Brad had some good ideas for trying to push each end of the spectrum toward dialogue about this topic.

SCORE: 4 out of 5

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UPDATE: 1 OCT 2014

Much tighter, but still dragged 3/4 the way through… more tightening to do. (the next day, James Burgess and I went through the entire film shot by shot and removed 6 minutes of footage… new running time 85 minutes).

SCORE: 4.5 out of 5

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UPDATE: 9 AUG 2014

The Film is done! Even tighter & better!

SCORE: 4.75 out of 5

RELEASE: 2015
RATING: NR
DOCUMENTARY

God's Not Dead — 1 out of 5 stars

ONE WORD REVIEW: Ugh...

SUMMARY: Another "Christian Film" to help Christians feel better about being Christians 

DETAILS: Ugh… I don’t even know where to start. How many unconnected characters can we jam into one movie? Lots. Will everyone come to Jesus? Of course! Can we kill off our main antagonist? Yes, but not before he accepts Jesus as his Savior. Can we turn “witnessing to our friends" (via text message) into blatant self-promotion of the film? Yes! Can we tack on Christian Celebrity in a totally meaningless fashion that is in no-way connected to the storyline? Absolutely. I would like to continue this rant, but I feel the need to go vomit! It’s film’s like this that make me never want to be connected to the Christian Film Industry and why I refer to myself as a follower of Christ who happens to be a filmmaker and not a "Christian Filmmaker".

SCORE: 1 Star out of 5

RELEASE: 2014
RATING: PG