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A Dog’s Journey [video] POST

A Dog’s Journey [video] (2019)

Who is the target audience for Precious Moments from hell, or at least from a bad country song?

 Pokémon Detective Pikachu [video] POST

Pokémon Detective Pikachu [video] (2019)

When they announced The Lego Movie, this is basically the movie I thought we were going to get.

 Aladdin REVIEW

Aladdin (2019)

It’s the story you know already, almost exactly. They say the lines and sing the songs, the same songs, almost exactly. It’s a good story and they’re good songs. There are no spoilers in this review because how could there be?

 Tolkien REVIEW

Tolkien (2019)

“One of my strongest opinions,” J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in a 1971 letter, “is that investigation of an author’s biography … is an entirely vain and false approach to his works.”

 Zac Efron&#8217;s Ted Bundy is <em>Extremely Wicked</em> &#8212; but there are other things he should be, and isn&#8217;t POST

Zac Efron’s Ted Bundy is Extremely Wicked — but there are other things he should be, and isn’t (2019)

The real Bundy could be charming, but an honest film about Bundy and Kloepfer’s relationship could just as easily be called Super Weird, Emotionally Abusive and Threatening.

 Hesburgh REVIEW

Hesburgh (2019)

Patrick Creadon (I.O.U.S.A.) offers a compellingly attractive if one-sided portrait of a figure of exceptional gifts, astonishingly diverse accomplishments and extraordinary influence.

 Why Mary Magdalene gets a bad rap POST

Why Mary Magdalene gets a bad rap

A reader of my review of Mary Magdalene offers an impassioned defense for the medieval Western view of St. Mary Magdalene as a penitent with a notoriously wanton sexual past, a profligate adulteress or harlot.

 ‘The Redemption Project’: Convicts, Victims, Confrontation and Forgiveness ARTICLE

‘The Redemption Project’: Convicts, Victims, Confrontation and Forgiveness

The prison setting and the word “redemption” in the Ludlumesque title are vaguely evocative of the most popular prison movie of all time, The Shawshank Redemption. A prison sentence, though, is seldom a redemptive experience for anyone.

 Avengers: Endgame REVIEW

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Running just over three hours long, Avengers: Endgame builds to a denouement with a valedictory air akin to the last act of Peter Jackson’s similarly sprawling The Return of the King, except that it comes at the end of 22 movies instead of three movies.

 Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and <em>The Divine Plan</em>: Filmmaker Robert Orlando (Interview) ARTICLE

Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and The Divine Plan: Filmmaker Robert Orlando (Interview)

Anyone who directs a movie about the converging efforts of Pope St. John Paul II and Ronald Reagan to take on the Soviet Union is someone I’m interested in talking to. But Robert Orlando isn’t just anyone to me.