MOVIE NEWS
Look Out, Hollywood! Here Come the Rotten
Bananas!
By Dr. Ted Baehr
Publisher, MovieGuide Magazine
CBN.com
HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) -- This year’s Oscar® nominations celebrated
Clint Eastwood’s movie Million Dollar Baby and movies like
Kinsey and Closer this Sunday, but they aren’t
getting any kudos from leading Christians in Hollywood.
On the contrary.
The Christian Film & Television Commission’s entertainment
magazine, Movieguide Magazine, founded by Christian media teacher
Dr. Ted Baehr, named the three movies among the worst, most immoral movies
of 2004. They, and 17 other movies, have received Movieguide's
Rotten Banana Award for the Most Unbearable Movies of 2004.
The 20 Worst were selected not because of entertainment value, but because
they contribute to an immoral culture which is anti-human, anti-God and
opposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
“Some people think that Jesus Christ never lived while others think
that the New Testament is not historically reliable,” Dr. Baehr
said in a statement. “Modern historical research by many top scholars,
however (like Dr. J. P. Moreland of Biola University and Dr. Gary Habermas
of Liberty University), has shown that the New Testament documents are
reliable witnesses of the truth, and that Jesus Christ was an actual historical
person who died for all of our sins and rose from the dead because he
is the only begotten Son of God.
“When Hollywood makes anti-Christian, immoral movies like Kinsey,
which advocates a hedonistic, perverted lifestyle no matter who it hurts,
and Million Dollar Baby, whose hero commits murder and euthanasia,
Hollywood thoroughly undermines the Moral Law of God and the teachings
of Jesus Christ, which are the foundations on which western civilization
is built.”
Baehr added, “Movies like this also destroy the moral and spiritual
purity and intelligence of millions of people, including many children
and teenagers who may see them.”
Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, pointed
out, however, that 18 of the 20 movies on his list made very little money
at the box office, in the United States or overseas.
“This shows that our biblical standards of excellence and purity
match the moral and spiritual standards of the mass audience and most
moviegoers,” Dr. Baehr concluded. “The public, especially
Wall Street and Madison Avenue, should pressure the major media conglomerates
to stop making these kinds of movies.”
The movies receiving the Rotten Banana Award for Most Unbearable Movies
of 2004 are:
Kinsey
Fahrenheit 9/11
Saved!
Million Dollar Baby
The Motorcycle Diaries
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
What the Bleep Do We Know!?
Team America: World Police
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
Seed of Chucky
The Door in the Floor
Sacred Planet
The Manchurian Candidate
A Dirty Shame
Vera Drake
The Woodsman
Closer
Paparazzi
Bad Education
Tying the Knot
Dr. Baehr cited Saved! for its negative, politically correct
view of young Christians; Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11
for its gross distortion of facts in an election year; The Motorcycle
Diaries for its false glorification of the political terrorist Che
Guevara; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for its immoral
occult worldview; What the Bleep Do We Know!? for its unscientific,
New Age philosophy mocking God’s universe; Vera Drake for
its pro-abortion message sanctioning the slaughter of innocent children;
The Manchurian Candidate for its incompetent, politically correct
mangling of an anti-Communist masterpiece; Tying the Knot for
its politically correct, inaccurate defense of evil homosexual activists;
and, The Woodsman for its positive, bleeding heart portrayal
of a pedophile.
Runners up included the pro-euthanasia movie The Sea Inside
(which is also up for an Oscar® Sunday), Dogville starring
Nicole Kidman, Eurotrip, The Dreamers, and The Life
Aquatic starring Bill Murray.
On a positive note, Dr. Baehr announced the winners of the $50,000 John
Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prizes for Inspiring Movies & TV on
Thursday, Feb. 24, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.,
at the 13th Annual MOVIEGUIDE® Faith & Values Awards Gala and
Report to Hollywood.
Winners of the Grace Award for Most Inspiring Performances in Movies
& TV, the Best Family Movie, and the Best Movie for Mature Audiences
were announced Thursday during a live TV show, following a banquet in
honor of the winners and nominees.
Read the list of winners for the Best
Movies of 2004.
At the Gala, Dr. Baehr also gave his annual economic analysis of Hollywood,
which consistently shows that moviegoers prefer morally uplifting, family
friendly movies with Christian values.
Go to www.firstcutlive.tv
or www.movieguide.org
to see the live Internet telecast of the Awards Gala and Dr. Baehr’s
annual report.
For more information on the Awards Gala and Dr. Baehr’s report,
and to buy a copy of Movieguide’s annual issue with the
Best and Worst Movies of 2004, please call 1-800-577-6684.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine: For more
information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide
Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org.
Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing
parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives
and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best
at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an
online subscription to its magazine version, at www.movieguide.org.
The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative
articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise
consumers.
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