Posted on 08/08/2006 1:05:33 AM PDT by balch3
AgapePress) - Although funnyman Will Ferrell's new movie, Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, finished first at the box office this past weekend, the comedy was not a winner as far as Christian movie reviewer Ted Baehr is concerned.
Baehr, publisher of Movieguide.org, is waving the yellow flag over the film about a dim-witted NASCAR racer with a gung-ho, win-at-all-costs attitude. According to Associated Press (AP) reports, the Christian media reviewer describes Talladega Nights as "a racist, bigoted work that ridicules the Bible Belt, Southern white men, Christianity, Jesus Christ, the family, and American masculinity."
The Movieguide review of Talladega Nights describes the film as "politically correct," in that it ridicules faith, family, traditional values, Southerners, white males and other ideas and groups that are fair game to those who share typical liberal notions of what is "PC." The review also notes that Ferrell's movie contains "lots of blasphemous and borderline laughs," along with "strong sexual references, excessive foul language and strong homosexual content."
Baehr is particularly incensed over Talladega Nights' satirical references to Christianity, such as the lead character's prayers to "baby Jesus" and his "running around ... mocking God" at different points in the film. "A couple of scenes in the movie are just extremely blasphemous," the movie analyst observes; yet he feels this kind of anti-Christian bigotry gets a pass in Hollywood, while other kinds of religious bigotry are denounced.
Baehr points to the recent incident involving producer, director and actor Mel Gibson and the anti-Semitic remarks he allegedly made during his arrest on suspicion of drunk driving. "If we take the position that what Mel Gibson said is religious bigotry," the Christian film reviewer contends, "then [much of the content in Talladega Nights] is religious bigotry too."
It is a simple case of "what's good for the goose is good for the gander," Baehr insists. "You need to be balanced in all of this," he says. "Now, if we're worried about Mel Gibson apologizing for his anti-Semitism, I think it should be equally just for Will Ferrell to apologize with his writing partner for his anti-Christian bigotry."
Although Talladega Nights did well with moviegoers this past weekend, Baehr believes the movie will probably be overtaken and passed when the more meaningful and faith-affirming film, World Trade Center, debuts this Wednesday. He predicts that next week, the fact-based film on the 9/11 disaster will replace Ferrell's anti-Christian comedy as the nation's number-one movie.
At least it wasn't a cartoon depiction of muuuhamhead (Pigs be inseminating him)!
Proof why satanic Hollywood should be ground zero for the doomsday asteroid/comet.
Why anyone would pay to see a Will Ferrell movie is beyond me. His schtick, while sometimes funny on SNL (I saw a few minutes here and there) is so OLD.
The movie is near-perfect, and actually very sweet, in places. If giving people Southern accents (uh, 'cause they're playing Southern characters?) is making fun of them, then you got me.
It's a BROAD comedy. For all the complaints we might have about the content of movies these days, think of how horrible they would be if bozos like this guy Baehr were in charge. This is one of those guys who either MUST find something to denounce and be offended by, because otherwise he won't have his (self-created) job, or he never saw the movie in the first place.
The audience I saw it with was teenagers, middleagers and oldsters, and they were laughing their butts off, for most of the picture. Either they were a cross-section of middleclass America, or I somehow wandered into the Great Sinners Only showing at the Cineplex.
Anytime a movie makes you laugh so hard your face hurts, and you leave feeling pretty good overall about things, then it wasn't bad or "evil."
If these Christian film critics hated this movie, it must be better than I thought.
See #5.
I saw it. These Christian film critics need to stop wearing starched underwear and stop living by the book and have fun once in a while. Life is too short to be trying to live as rigidly as they live.
Agreed, Big-time.
Let me tell you, I accidently went to a "Great Sinners Only Showing" once, I had to bathe in Holy Water. You didn't want to know what The Lion King was doing to bambi.
Stop living by the Book? No way Jose.
Stone him! Stone him!
You will find some of the Freeple on this thread would be very comfrotable in Saudi Arabia. Heck, they might even sign up to be the moral police.
As a kid, I thought Amos and Andy was funny, and to this day I wonder why some found it offensive. Were they poking fun at black people or did they have funny characters who were black? Eddie Murphy seems to make far more offensive characterizations than Amos and Andy did, yet his humor is accepted and "edgy."
Andy Griffith plays to southern stereotypes, but no one complains about Ernest T Bass.
If you went to see this movie to be entertained, you probably were. If you went to this movie to be offended, you probably were. Funny how that works.
Incidentally, I've seen comments that this particular photo may be a Photoshop. I doubt it but anyone with conclusive evidence please let me know. It certainly is in CHARACTER with Hillary's Leftist/NARAL/Planned Parenthood stance....
Ping.
ping
Well said.
The Christians who want to break down the church / state barriers of separation and start legislating what people are to do are exactly the same as their Sharia enacting brethren in the Islamic world.
Same mentality and, if enacted, same barabric, backward-looking result.
The entire reformation was about a personal relationship with God and individualism and not the political authority of the Catholic Church.
I am honestly not sure if there is really much of a difference between selling indulgences and using self-righteous pomp to sell newspapers.
These battles to save the hearts and minds of children to set them upon the path of good moral citizens don't exactly start in the movie theater either.
Lastly it should be remembered that it is not up to Ministers (like some smaller version of the Papacy) to dictate what entertainment the flock can and cannot watch, hear, see.
That could easily describe Islam.
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