Bearserk wrote:The wish to add the pictures into the DB is there, but the will to start grabbing the images isn't
Just keep the sound off while you're doing it! That might help.
Bearserk wrote:Been a while since I saw The Boss Up There, but it didn't strike me as a very good movie, so the news that it actually got some awards comes as quite a surprise, but then again I my eyes may have been a bit coloured by the fact that it was a churchy film as you call it.
As mentioned, I'm no fan of religion in general, and of Christian evangelicals in particular, especially in real life. But frankly, based on these two pictures, I think ME does as good a job with their films as anyone could expect. At their core, these are simple root-for-the-underdog stories that underpin countless
non-religious movies, but when the "inspiration" is the self, or a network of family, friends or coworkers, or just the will to survive—anything but Churchy intervention—I think people are far more tolerant of a film as a whole. I think ME also knows the value of
not pounding the pulpit with an iron fist, as it turns too many people off, even liberal churchgoers. These movies target a particular audience, that's for sure, but they usually star well-known Hong Kong entertainers (often with careers in non-religious TV series and movies), most of whom are Christian, some of whom are not, so they have some ability to play "outside the fold", as BOSS UP THERE clearly did.
The kind of "religious" movies that
really bother me tend to be made in the United States: heavy-handed crap like those awful LEFT BEHIND movies, that pathetically try to marry Hollywood action spectacle to their ridiculous end-times theories. True life tales of people that overcome adversity are generally worthwhile in my book, especially if those people
aren't celebrities (a key reason I generally don't like American biopics like WALK THE LINE, etc.). If the motivation is religion, however, I have to take it with a big, big grain of salt, depending on how preachy it gets.
That said, my impression is that ME probably moved away from overt religiosity in later films. BOSS UP THERE has those "weepy" scenes once Athena Chu gets into the rehab clinic, which are a bit much to take if you're a non-believer. In reviewing the picture, though, I couldn't honestly criticize these sequences on the basis of my personal distaste for and distrust of evangelicals and group healing. This was a religious movie, after all, aimed at religious people, and as such, it delivered the goods. My personal dislike for religion had to stand aside, which for me is a very difficult thing to do sometimes. TEAM OF MIRACLE has it's "spiritual" moments, but I can barely recall anyone whipping out a Bible or gathering together for group prayer. I suspect ME is simply trying to straddle two markets with more recent pictures. Could be wrong, though.
Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:36 am
by Christian charity groups, as Athena Chu is in this movie. To me, these pictures have the same kinds of flaws I'd find in "regular" movies, and those are largely related to story, pacing, production value (BOSS UP THERE is shot on video, which looks a bit on the cheap side, but not bad). I don't think one of these would ever move me to convert, but there are definitely moments that move me, although I suspect the church groups for whom their largely intended get a lot more out of them. 
