More Than One Lesson

Why are Christian movies so terrible? That’s a question many of us have been asking now for decades. The answer is simple really. Low production values, inexperienced actors, inexperienced directors, but most of all, cringe-inducing screenplays that lead with their message. They become films designed to be sermons more than movies. In his new documentary, Reel Redemption: The Rise of Christian Cinema, Tyler Smith of course examines those aspects of Christian filmmaking but he also goes much deeper into the relationship between Christianity and Hollywood over the past century.

In this episode, Tyler discusses Drew Goddard’s Bad Times at the El Royale and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

In my recent appearance on the More Than One Lesson podcast we spoke about a lot of movies, so I decided for my next article I would write about a few sort of under the radar TV comedies.

Tyler was recently a guest on the Say Goodnight Kevin podcast to talk about his new documentary Reel Redemption.

In this episode, Tyler talks with MTOL reviewer Bob Connally.

David Zucker (one of the comedy geniuses behind Airplane! and The Naked Gun) stated in his “15 Rules of Comedy” that, “Two jokes at the same time cancel each other out. When an actor delivers a punchline, it should be done seriously. It dilutes the comedy to try to be funny on top of it. Likewise, if there is something silly going on in the background, the foreground action must be free of jokes and vice-versa.” There’s a scene about halfway through Man Camp where some of our characters find themselves in a bar fight that violates this very rule. The fight in the background is played for laughs as a couple other characters have a conversation that is also meant to be funny. It’s not that these are strict laws that must be adhered to, and if something works, then it works. But when you’re making your directorial debut with a broad comedy, you would do well to heed the advice of David Zucker. Unfortunately, first time director Nate Bakke did not.

In this episode, Reed and Nathan discuss Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat, starring Anna Paquin and Brian Cox.

In this episode, Reed and Nathan discuss Bong Joon-Ho’s The Host.

Tyler recently guested on the Geek 101 podcast to discuss Batman Forever and The Riddler. Click here to listen.