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A God Movie, by Josh Long

11 Nov

my-son

If you’ve heard about Jarod O’Flaherty’s new film My Son, it’s probably for one reason. The film is making headlines because it’s a Christian film produced by a church in Burleston, TX; a film the Motion Picture Association of America slapped with an “R” rating. The stir over such an anomaly has spread as far as the major news networks. The situation raises lots of questions. Should a Christian film be rated “R?” How should Christians respond to ratings? Is it a publicity stunt? Is the church that produced the film being persecuted? Is the film even worth seeing, and does it stand out from other Christian films? Or from other films at all?

[...]

Episode 92: The Exorcist

30 Oct

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In this episode, Tyler and Josh are joined by Reed Lackey to discuss William Friedkin’s The Exorcist.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:47- Intro, Halloweentimes shirt
00:04:00- BP Top 50 Horror, MTOL Amazon store
00:06:30- Podcast Awards
00:08:00- Reed Lackey
00:15:40- What scares us
00:31:15- The Exorcist
01:32:50- Episode wrap-up

DOWNLOADABLE MP3

On The Exorcist, by Reed Lackey

22 Oct

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Let me put all my cards on the table. The Exorcist, the 1973 movie with all of that gushing pea soup, is my favorite movie of all time. But before you write me off as a demented lunatic or worse, I’d like the chance to tell you why that is. So please… sit down, try to relax. Grab a milkshake.

[...]

Episode 89: with special guest Bill Oberst Jr.

8 Oct

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In this episode, Tyler and Josh are joined by actor Bill Oberst Jr. to discuss his life, faith, and unique career.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:48- Intro, This Is Stuttering
00:03:05- Podcast Awards
00:05:30- October schedule
00:06:30- Bill Oberst Jr.
01:16:00- Episode wrap-up

DOWNLOADABLE MP3

The Eyehole, by Robert Hornak

12 Sep

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In Kurt Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse-5, the Trafalmadorians have abducted Billy Pilgrim and put him in a glass-domed cage on their planet, on display like a zoo animal.  Trafalmadorians do not live in the now, they live on their entire timeline at the same time.  A being that is dead is dead only from a certain point on, but he is alive at all points before that, so not really ever dead.  Trafalmadorians do not understand Billy’s ultra-limited way of thinking about time.  When I read the following description for the first time years ago, I felt I had a perfect analogy to help me understand the difference between the way God sees time and the way I see time:

There was a lot that Billy said that was gibberish to the Trafalmadorians.  They couldn’t imagine what time looked like to him.  Billy had given up on explaining that.  The guide outside had to explain as best he could.

The guide invited the crowd to imagine that they were looking across a desert at a mountain range on a day that was twinkling bright and clear.  They could look at a peak, or a bird, or a cloud, at a stone right in front of them, or even down into a canyon behind them.  But among them was this poor Earthling, and his head was encased in a steel sphere which he could never take off.  There was only one eyehole through which he could look, and welded to that eyehole were six feet of pipe.

This was only the beginning of Billy’s miseries in the metaphor.  He was also strapped to a steel lattice which was bolted to a flatcar on rails, and there was no way he could turn his head or touch the pipe.  The far end of the pipe rested on a bi-pod which was also bolted to the flatcar.  All Billy could see was the little dot at the end of the pipe.  He didn’t know he was on a flatcar, didn’t even know there was anything peculiar about his situation.

The flatcar sometimes crept, sometimes went extremely fast, often stopped – went uphill, downhill, around curves, along straightaways.  Whatever poor Billy saw through the pipe, he had no choice but to say to himself, “That’s life.”

Episode 88: with special guest Robert Hornak

11 Sep

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In this episode, Robert Hornak returns to discuss his life and faith.

DOWNLOADABLE MP3

Episode 86: This Is The End

16 Jul

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In this episode, Tyler and Josh discuss Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s This Is The End, as well as Michael Tolkin’s The Rapture.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:48- Intro, Comic-Con Meetup
00:03:24- This Is The End
01:14:00- The Rapture
01:50:45- Episode wrap-up

DOWNLOADABLE MP3

The Son of Man and the Man of Steel, by Reed Lackey

3 Jul

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Let me start with one of my favorite jokes from The Simpsons. Homer Simpson, suspended severely high above the ground, folds his hands and says, “I’m not normally a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me Superman!”

[...]

Revival, by Reed Lackey

25 Jun

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I read Twilight. Once. I also saw the first movie. After this, I and the franchise parted ways for mutually exclusive reasons that don’t need to be detailed here.

When I saw the trailers for Warm Bodies, my first thought was: “Oh… now zombies have a Twilight movie.” However, loving zombie films as much as I do and bolstered by a striking number of positive reviews, I gave it a viewing. And—cutting to the chase—I absolutely adored it.

WARNING: SPOILERS

[...]

Episode 83: with special guest Joshua Moore

29 May

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In this episode, Tyler and Josh are joined by actor/comedian Joshua Moore to discuss Christian comedy.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:45- Intro, Reed’s Top Ten, MTOL Store
00:02:55- Help Will Gray
00:03:35- Joshua Moore, interview segment
00:47:35- The Josh Moore Show on Kickstarter
00:50:20- Comedy and Christianity
01:22:18- Episode wrap-up*

*In this section, Tyler mistakenly states that the article about Star Trek: The Motion Picture was written by Travis Fishburn.  It was actually written by Reed Lackey.  You can read the article here.

DOWNLOADABLE MP3

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