Film Comment: This Is the End

Collect up at least one hundred film actors, singers, and entertainers at a wild drug and alcohol fueled party, then start the end of the world, complete with giant monsters and demons. The Earth cracks open and people fall into a burning Hell. Have the actors portray themselves, thrown into this situation.

This Is the End (2013) has a cast filled with big name celebrities: Jamez franco, Seth Rogan, Jay Baruchel, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Dany McBride, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, The Backstreet Boys, and many others.

When the trouble starts everyone runs outside as the world begins to burn and explode around them.  Too dumb, selfish, cowardly, drug-addled, gluttonous, etc. to “escape” some do not even notice the disturbance.  But they soon will. The six main protagonists run back into the “safety” of the house.

The guys tell themselves they will survive because they are “good people,” but they realize that they are not.  The film does not show any of these people in a good light.  They all realize that they are damned.

The film, a comedy with some undeniably hilarious moments, features violence, gore, impalement, decapitation, penis jokes, nudity, profanity, cannibalism,  homosexuality, demons, intentional blasphemy, obscenities, betrayal, alcohol and drug abuse, self-righteousness, taking God’s name in vain, urination, vomit, obscene gestures, discussion of intent to rape in the presence of the intended victim, masturbation, demonic possession, prayer for the death of another person, sexual slavery, cowardice, self preservation at the expense of other’s lives.  Did I forget anything?

The supposedly ”happy” messages of the film are:

1.     Self-sacrifice confers instant entry into Heaven.

2.     In Heaven, we become angels.

3.     In Heaven, you can have anything you want, even a dooble.

4.     There is no need to be a “Christian” to enter into Heaven.

5.     Heaven is just another wild party.

6.     The Rapture looks like an alien abduction with a beam of light pulling the person up into the sky.

This highly offensive film intends to offend in every way imaginable, showing a contempt or disregard for any conventional understanding of propriety or morality.  It made me wonder.  The actors, portraying themselves, know that they are damned.

In the film, they are facing evidence which, at the very least, proves that God and the supernatural are real.

These are extremely talented, supposedly very intelligent comedians who have gone out of their way to intentionally offend nearly everything related to Christianity and the End Times.  Should not this film prod these actors into actually thinking about their real-life situations?

To some, or most of the actors, I am sure that this was all just a big joke.  Perhaps they are like many people and do not believe anything at all.  Post-modern moral and intellectual relativism at its logical conclusion.

…………………………………………

This is an end of the world film where the Earth is not merely damaged, but is actually destroyed.  Two other prominent films of this type are When Worlds Collide (1951), which depicts the chaos which erupts when a planet the size of Earth is on a collision course with our planet.  The other is Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012), a surprisingly tender and bittersweet love story.  Either of these two films would be an infinitely better use of your two hours than This Is the End.

Film Comment: Paul: The Emissary

The film, Paul: The Emissary, was produced in 1997 by TBN Films (Trinity Broadcasting Network) for broadcast on TBN.  It is a fictionalized recounting of the life of Saul of Tarsus (modern Tersoos, Turkey),who became known as Paul the Apostle.

Saul was a highly intellectual Pharisee who made his personal living as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3).  He was very zealous and ambitious and participated enthusiastically in persecution of the rapidly growing Jewish sect known as “Christians.”

Paul: The Emissary depicts numerous events from Paul’s life: the stoning of Stephen (Acts 6 and 7); Saul’s conversion experience (Acts 9, 22, and 26); Paul’s beating and imprisonment; , Paul and Silas confront the slave girl possessed by a demon (Acts 16:16-21); an eartquake releases Paul and Silas from their chains (Acts 16:25-35); Paul’s appearance before Festus and Agrippa (Acts 25:13-26, 32);  and others.

There are problems with the film which are quite obvious. 

1.     The acting is very uneven, but the actor who portrayed Paul is the highly accomplished and respected Garry Cooper (over seventy-five film and television credits), so the main character of the film is powerfully depicted (with a British accent!).  Some of the other actors are clearly less skilled than Cooper and numerous regional and national accents are on display.

2.     The special effects are quite rudimentary and detract from the film.  The computer graphics are quite obvious.

3.     The brutality of the world in which Paul lives is clearly shown.  While not as graphic as many horror films, there is gore, which might offend some viewers.

4.     Paul, in prison, writes his letters while alone, which he may have done, but he is known to have used a scribe named Tertius (Romans 16:22)  I believe that he used a scribe because of his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7)  which I think may have been carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful condition afflicting the hands and wrists.  Untreated, the condition causes pain and numbness in the wrists and hands and can eventually render the hands useless.  Carpal tunnel syndrome would make handwriting very difficult.  Paul seems to almost laugh as hto his writing very “large letters.” (Galatians 6:11).

Paul: The Emissary is a well-intentioned and doctrinally orthodox short film (only 54 minutes) which I am sure you will enjoy because you are familiar with the main points of the story, but I doubt that it will have much appeal to unbelievers. 

You Have to Have Faith

If you have seen many vampire movies you know the often repeated scene where a scared out his wits victim grabs a crucifix and holds it up to ward off an advancing vampire.  Of course, the vampire grabs and crushes the crucifix, and then says, "You have to have faith!" Then the biting begins.

There is a story in Acts 19:13-16 where two unbelieving Jewish exorcists attempted to use the name of Jesus as if it were a powerful magic incantation.  Their idea was to use the magic to cast a demon out of a possessed man.  Instead of being cast out, the demon had its slave beat the two men and chase them away.


"Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew,and chief of the priests, which did so.  And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." Acts 19:13-16