NOW SHOWING AT A BLOG NEAR YOU

I haven’t been doing much over at Aleteia lately, but not to worry, others have easily taken up the slack. Tom Hoopes, for instance, is surprised to find that he can name at least 12 great movie priests from the past 4 years.

One of the priests Tom mentions is Fr. Lantom from Netflix’s new hit series, Daredevil, whose positive portrayal is just one of the many reasons behind Tor’s Leah Schnelbach’s extolling of the show’s religious virtues in her article, Daredevil, Catholicism, and the Marvel Moral Universe. It’s also what’s provided the impetus for Matthew Archbold to provide his take on Catholic superheroes over at the National Catholic Register.

Back at Aleteia, Emily Stimpson ponders our Walking Dead culture. The Walking Dead, as I’m sure you know, is just one of the many mega-popular sci-fi/horror/fantasy shows raking in the ratings right now. But is that necessarily a good thing? Over at Catholic Fiction.net, Nito Gnoci is of the opinion that modern Science Fiction has been derelict in its duty to properly address the shortcomings of Scientism. The folks in the combox are not quite so sure. In related grousing, Fr. Dwight Longenecker believes fantasy films are killing fantasy.

Oh well, at least the good father liked the new Star Wars trailer. Speaking of which, so did SQPN’s Fr. Roderick, a lot. If by some chance you haven’t seen his reaction yet, jump on over to YouTube and watch it, it’s worth the trip. It just goes to show how much that film series has come to mean to so many of us. If you need a little more proof of that, then stop by Catholic Skywalker’s place where he has some thoughtful ruminations on fathers and sons and Star Wars.

Not all movies are as well received as Lucas’ brainchild, however. The recent Internet horror flick Unfriended, for instance, currently sits at 60% on Rotten Tomatoes and received a blistering 1 star out of 4 from Roger Ebert.com. Leave it to the ever-charitable Fr. Dennis Zdenek Kriz from Fr. Dennis at the Movies, though, to find enough redeeming qualities in it to bequeath the movie 4 stars.

You know, when it comes to redeeming qualities, there are little to none to be found in demons. But that’s kind of the point in Bat out of Hell, the new animated project  praised by Darwin Catholic. Based on the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, the story involves a low level demon named Bat who gets the boot from Hell because he’s not very good at his job. That’s pretty tough, being the biggest loser out of a bunch of losers.

And finally, while it’s not really movie or television related, given our tastes in entertainment around these parts, I’m sure we can be forgiven for linking to Thomas L. McDonald’s discovery of the earliest known depiction of a witch riding a broom over at God and the Machine.

Hope that gives everyone some nice Sunday afternoon reading. See you next time.