Vatican Paper Reviews Avatar

Yahoo Movies has the story of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, review of Avatar.

L'Osservatore said the film "gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature." Similarly, Vatican Radio said it "cleverly winks at all those pseudo-doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium."

"Nature is no longer a creation to defend, but a divinity to worship," the radio said.

Pope Benedict XVI has been very outspoken regarding our stewardship of the earth but obviously warns about some kind of neo-paganism. We don't want to go around worshiping it.

In a recent World Day of Peace message, the pontiff warned against any notions that equate human beings with other living things in the name of a "supposedly egalitarian vision." He said such notions "open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man's salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms."

The pope explained in the message that while many experience tranquility and peace when coming into contact with nature, a correct relationship between man and the environment should not lead to "absolutizing nature" or "considering it more important than the human person."

Overall, the review says basically what I've heard a lot: great effects and little substance to the plot and characters. Many conservative bloggers have been speaking about how this movie is thinly veiled criticism of U.S. imperialism, greed, and the Iraq war along with the themes of environmentalism.

Book of Eli

So, a new Denzel Washington movie is set to release in January 2010. The Book of Eli is a post-apocalyptic action film. The year is 2043 and Washington's character (Eli) is traveling through the remains of civilization with a book that contains knowledge that could redeem society.
Now, from the trailer and what people have been buzzing about, this book appears to be the Bible. Lots of explosions and Washington killing and maiming people.



My questions are what happened to end civilization and why wouldn't people know what the Bible is? Might be interested to see how the Hughes brothers (directors) answer this. I wonder if he's got all 73 books in that Bible. Is Eli a reference to Elijah?

Robin Hood is Catholic of course

Check out the new trailer for Ridley Scott's Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe.
Towards the end, Robin kneels beside a fallen soldier and makes the sign of the cross.





I'm interested to see how the movie portrays the Church. In the movie, Robin has just returned from fighting in the 3rd Crusade. Of course there's King Richard and Friar Tuck as well.

Babies!

We all know babies are cute. Well, now they have their own movie!



Babies is a documentary film by Thomas Balmes, depicting the early lives of four infants growing up in Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco and Tokyo, respectively. The film is scheduled to be released in the United States by Focus Features on April 16, 2010.

Thanks to Gretchen at SimonPeters.org for the video.

Official Narnia: Dawn Treader pics

See here at Facebook!
And become a fan of Vernacular Catholic while you're at it.

Atheist Actor - Religious Films

I saw awhile back that atheist actor Paul Bettany was doing a film about Darwin called Creation and I also noticed he is in an upcoming movie called Legion about a biblical apocalypse and angels battling demons for mankind and control of earth and a woman pregnant with the new messiah, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now I see that he is doing the movie adaptation of a graphic novel called Priest about a priest who disobeys the Church to hunt down the vampires who kidnapped his niece.


Seems like the theme for Legion has to do with God abandoning humanity or outright destroying it, Priest is about a rogue priest out for vengeance. Creation sets up Darwin's crisis of faith juxtaposed with his wife's devout Christianity. According to wikipedia, "Darwin explains her refuge in religion as her reaction to [their daughter's] death."


These movies aren't due out until 2010, and the commentary by me here is speculation, but you can find trailers for Legion and Creation. My guess is that these are the anti-religious, or specifically anti-Christian, drivel that one would expect but I'm waiting to read some reviews closer to a release date. I am holding out hope for Creation to have a redeeming end since it was produced by Mel Gibson's Icon Productions. We'll see. Overall I just find it very interesting that this atheist actor is tackling so much religious content, albeit seemingly from a negative viewpoint. Seems like Hollywood just might still hate us.

Katie Holmes' Daughter in Catholic Preschool

This report comes via American Papist who cites UK Daily Mail.

Katie Holmes has won a battle with her Scientologist husband Tom Cruise to enrol their daughter Suri in a Catholic pre-school.

The Church of Scientology has always been a bone of contention between the couple and Tom wanted three-year-old Suri to be raised a Scientologist.

But last week Katie enrolled the toddler at the Catholic Charities Yawkey Centre For Early Education And Learning in Boston, Massachusetts.

The family are living in the city while Tom, 47, films his new movie, the spy comedy thriller Wichita. Katie’s mother also flew in for her granddaughter’s first week at the pre-school.

‘Katie has been listening to her parents who are devout Catholics,’ I’m told.

‘She is not convinced by Scientology and has told Tom that she wants Suri to be educated as a Catholic – as she was.

‘They had been having huge problems agreeing on her school. To say they were having arguments is putting it mildly – but Tom came around to the idea in the end.’

Holmes, 30, has not been seen at the Church of Scientology for more than
five months.

But Cruise, who was also raised Catholic but converted to Scientology in 1990, remains an ardent follower.

However, the decision does not seem to have upset the couple's relationship.

Good for her!

Mel Gibson's Edge of Darkness

Looks like crazy Catholic actor, Mel Gibson, is going back to some of his acting roots as a tough revenge-seeking detective in his new movie Edge of Darkness. Yahoo Movies has the trailer.

Love the last line in a Bostonian accent, "You had better decide if you're hangin' on the cross or bangin' in the nails."

The Dawn Treader!

Pics of the Dawn Treader from the next Chronicles of Narnia movie!
Looks pretty cool. More pics can be found at Narniafans.com here.

The Stoning of Soraya M.

I saw the trailer for this movie awhile ago and it's apparently showing now in limited theatres. I saw that Jim Caviezel starred with the always amazing Academy Award nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (you'll recognize her when you see her), but had no idea that the producer, Stephen McEveety, is a devout Catholic who has also been involved with the movies Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, The Passion of the Christ, and Bella. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee's Catholic Herald has an article here.

The film, based on the book of the same name and inspired by events that took place in 1986 during the reign of Ayatollah Khomenini, tells the story of Soraya, a woman who lived with a womanizing, abusive husband for 20 years.

In his quest to leave her for a 14-year-old girl, the husband turns her two sons against her and ignores his daughters as if they do not exist. When she refuses to divorce him, he falsely accuses her of adultery. She is tried and convicted. The villagers in the small Iranian town bind her arms and legs, bury her up to her waist and bombard her with rocks for hours until she bleeds to death.

Only her aunt, Zahra, is brave enough to stand up for her and speaks out against this atrocity. She unexpectedly meets up with a passing journalist played by Jim Caviezel (“The Passion of the Christ”) when he stops in the village to get his car repaired.

After weaving him through the story, which he puts on tape, she unravels the political components that combined to make this tragedy happen the day before he arrived.

What McEveety really wants to do with this film is have it "serve as a mirror for victimizers, who regularly abuse women or children all over the world,” he said. “I think that certainly someone in an abusive relationship will take one thing from the film that no one else would take – especially about the role of victims, particularly women as victims. For some reason, this movie gives them some kind of meaning to their experience.”

RIP Patrick Swayze

Apparently he was born and raised Catholic. I didn't know this. His movies ran the gamut and some of them were awesome! Red Dawn was one of my favorite movies in the 80s. Let's face it, this guy was iconic, even if most will recognize him for some pretty cheesy movies.

Until the age of twenty, Swayze lived in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston, where he attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic School

I was wondering if he was Catholic and it wasn't until I saw this on Wikipedia that I saw any mention of it. It's my understanding that he struggled with alcohol abuse at points in his life and that he also had some association with Buddhism and Scientology. It is a familiar story that fame, money, celebrity culture, and Hollywood corrupts individuals. But many times we've also seen people's struggles bring them back to the One True Faith. We can only hope and pray that during his courageous battle with a horrible cancer that Mr. Swayze came to realize the love and comfort of Christ and had the time to confess and receive Anointing. Let us pray for the repose of his soul.

Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day

The long-awaited sequel to the very violent and obscenity-ridden Boondock Saints released 10 years ago. Boondock Saints is about a pair of Irish-American Catholic brothers who turn to vigilantism for a variety of reasons I won't spoil. While not suitable for family viewing, many Catholics really like this movie and it's become quite the cult classic.
Here's the recently released trailer for the sequel. Needless to say, the more sensitive among you may want to skip this due to lots of people getting shot and cussing!

You Have To Be A Real Man If You Want To Become A Priest

The quote from the title is by John Cardinal O'Connor, and he couldn't be more right. In today's society it seems that the definition of what a man is or should be is in direct conflict with what God wants men to be. Real men know sacrifice and humility and devotion and kindness and respect. This is the year of the priest. Let's pray for our priests and pray for our young men to discern their vocation, to listen for the call, and answer it if it comes.
Here's a great video for nypriest.com created by Grassroots Films (the company behind the fantastic Fishers Of Men).

Abortion Documentary

A new documentary entitled Blood Money attempts to expose the motivation in this country behind legalized abortion. As the title implies, a lot of it has to do with making money (surprised?)! Also featured are Roe V. Wade, Planned Parenthood, the scientific fact that life begins at conception, and how abortion affects women who have had one. Lifesite News has an article here.
Watch the trailer: