May 16, 2025 • 16 mins
As summer nears, is a trip to the movies on your to-do list? Friday on Mornings with Eric and Brigitte, Focus on the Family’s Paul Asay of Plugged In will help us assess which movies should be family-friendly, which ones only mom and dad should see, and the ones that are not edifying for any of us.
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S1 (00:04):
You're listening to mornings with Eric and Bridget right here
on Moody Radio 89.3.
S2 (00:09):
We all love a good story, a good movie as well.
That bucket of popcorn on your lap or whatever your
snack is of choice, the dark room, and then you're
kind of raptured away right into a whole nother universe.
You experience that this week?
S1 (00:25):
Uh, no popcorn. We did not have popcorn this time.
We went right after lunch. No, I'm trying to think
of the time it was. Anyway, right after dinner is
when we went and it was the best experience ever
because we were very late. And the lady's like, well,
they haven't started that one yet. And so we walked
right in as the, as the, uh, trailer stuff was ending.
(00:45):
We missed the 30 minutes of trailers, thankfully, and went
right into watching the movie, which was perfect. And the
movie we saw was Thunderbolts. And then I was, you know,
I was so happy that I missed all that. And
then I was so happy with the movie. I was
surprised that, uh, is Marvel back, I guess is the question.
S2 (01:00):
That is the question. And someone who else has seen
that movie and has thought a lot about it is
Paul AC plugged in? Who is joining us? And Paul,
what was your take on Thunderbolts?
S3 (01:12):
You know, I think I think Eric's right. I think
I think it's a sign that Marvel has kind of
returned to what we've come to expect from Marvel, which is,
you know, some really good stories. One of the things
that I really liked about the Thunderbolts is that, you know,
in the last several movies that we've seen from the MCU,
it seems like it's gotten lost in a lot of
(01:33):
special effects the powers, the weird, murky stories. This one
was rooted in character, and we have some really. We
have some really problematic characters here. I mean, they're.
S1 (01:45):
Characters.
S3 (01:45):
Though, who.
S1 (01:46):
They are.
S3 (01:46):
Characters are characters and and they, you know, I think
most of them would probably be imprisoned in real life
because they've done some terrible things. Right. But they they
get together, they realize that they're not the best of people,
and they sort of bind together and become the heroes
(02:07):
that the world needs them to be. And it was
really rooted in just the people who we meet, these
imperfect heroes who somehow find the heroism inside them to
go forward and battle the bad guys, and sometimes even
the demons within to, to, to help the world make
a better place.
S1 (02:28):
You know what's interesting, though, is good stories. Don't they
deal with almost eternal truths? Not what the what the
culture says today. We have to deal with those those
truths that are just kind of they popped up all
of a sudden, and I think Marvel was trying to
deal with what was today's issue, not what our eternal
and thunderbolts went backwards, I think, and said, okay, what
(02:50):
are some really deep seated things that we need to
deal with? And I think that was part of the
importance of this story.
S3 (02:56):
I think that's a really, really good take because you're right.
I mean, the issues that are involved here? It's really interesting.
I've never seen a superhero movie, and you wouldn't really
expect a superhero movie to deal with the subject of
mental illness. But this kind of does that in a way. Uh,
not to give too much away, but you do have, uh,
(03:19):
the main bad guy here is actually something called the void.
But the void isn't just sort of this, this out
outside presence that is really scary and causes people to disappear.
We find that the void is sort of within us.
All right. And it talks a lot about battling, battling
your own despair, your own depression, your own lack of self-worth.
(03:42):
And a lot of the characters that we have here are,
are people who have made some terrible, terrible mistakes in the.
And the guilt and the sin of of those mistakes
haunts them. Um, and they have some great messages about
how to battle that, you know. And it really comes
down to now they don't have a Christian point of view.
You know, we would always say that the answer is God.
(04:04):
You know, to to turn to God. We know the
end of the story. We know that we are beautiful creations,
but they do have a nice message in that we
need to work together. You know, we need people in
our lives to help lift us up, which is pretty
biblical too. And that gets back to what you were
talking about, Eric, about those eternal truths. You know, I
(04:25):
when I was watching the movie, when I was reviewing
the movie, which of course does have some problems, I
kept thinking about the threefold cord that is not easily broken.
And that's kind of the message of this movie.
S2 (04:36):
And, you know, just in a previous segment, we were
talking about seeing and understanding the Bible as its overarching story,
this narrative and and seeing and understanding that God is
the author of that story. And so when a movie is,
you know, this enjoyable, a lot of times they are
dealing with concepts that we see in Scripture because, you know,
(04:58):
the Bible is talking about the human nature and of course,
the course, the divine, but also really getting to the
core of who we are as people. And so when
we see that in other stories, they're really kind of
just in a way, trying to replicate the stories that
we see in Scripture in a way.
S3 (05:16):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think when I see a movie
and I always have to sort of couch this, you know,
because I am because I am Christian, those messages are
going to resonate with me so much more powerfully. But,
you know, the reason why we we are Christians is,
I think that deep longing, that that deep understanding that
that we need meaning in our lives, that we need
(05:37):
a Savior, that we aren't perfect and that we need
some help to to become the people who who God
created us to be. And when you look at the
stories that work with us, it is all about those themes,
those really powerful themes, those universal themes. I think of
looking for meaning, looking for transcendence, looking for real truth
(06:01):
in our lives. And when you talk about the power
of story, I mean, movies are really powerful stories, and
they're so important because they impact us. You know, when
I look back on my own life and I think
about the things that have really shaped me, a lot
of those are stories, you know, even today, every, every,
(06:23):
every week I have a passage from The Chronicles of
Narnia that pops up in my mind because those stories
shaped me so strongly when I was a child. So
when we're talking about the power of story, we have
to be very we have to be very mindful of
the stories that we bring into our lives, because they
impact us more than probably you think that they do.
S1 (06:45):
Yeah. Well, Thunderbolt's made me laugh. It made me think.
It made me, you know, the void it's come to steal,
rob and destroy. But Christ has come to bring us life.
And there were themes like that just popped up throughout it.
I was like, wow, this is really good, but I'm
not taking my ten year old to it. So just
so you know, there are some issues with that movie.
It's it really makes me think. But just be careful
(07:08):
of who you're taking there. Now, let me just say
another thing. I missed the trailers, which means I missed
the Mission Impossible trailer. Thankfully, I didn't need to sit
through 30 minutes of that, so that was fine.
S3 (07:18):
But it's all Tom cruise running. I mean, that's all
you need.
S4 (07:20):
To know about it. Just he just keeps running.
S2 (07:22):
Jumping out of aircrafts.
S4 (07:23):
Jumping and running and jumping and running.
S1 (07:25):
But do they wrap this thing up well?
S3 (07:28):
You know what? I'm going to be very, very interested
to see if they do. We have not had a
chance to see it yet. Uh, but I tell you what,
these Mission Impossible movies, again, as you say, they're not
necessarily for your whole family. But when you're talking about
an action movie, man, these these Tom cruise Mission Impossible
movies have done it. Well, I think they have James Bond,
(07:51):
did James Bond. Um, and they're just so much fun.
So I'm going to be really interested to see what
happens with this. And again, even getting back to to
your earlier point, this is really this gets into some
bigger issues too, where you're talking about what are you
going to do to help the world around you? What
what will you sacrifice? And and so you can see
(08:13):
some of those elements within these Mission Impossible movies as well.
S1 (08:16):
Well, in a weird way, the importance of family also.
S3 (08:19):
Right, right. That's absolutely true. Because his team becomes sort
of this surrogate family for him.
S2 (08:25):
Mhm. Well, this is just some of the summer blockbusters
that are going to be coming to a theater near you.
And Plugged In is a great resource for you to
get connected to see is this, you know, who do
I take to this? Do I want to go? Is
this going to be worth our while? And you go
to Plugged In com they have reviews and upcoming they'll
have more and more reviews about these summer movies, including Superman.
(08:47):
That's coming out in a couple of months.
S4 (08:50):
Again, it's I know.
S3 (08:53):
I know, you know, I don't think that our modern
culture really knows how to do Superman very well. So
they're giving it another try. Uh, the director is the
guy who is behind the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Actually,
from from the from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And so
that makes me think that this Superman movie is going
(09:14):
to be a little bit different. Uh, the Gunn who
is the guy who directs it? He loves his outsiders.
And when you think about outsiders, Superman is sort of
that he's this alien who comes. He doesn't quite fit in. Uh,
it'll be interesting to see what he does with that.
S1 (09:30):
All right. You know, Superman is when you look at
the story, it was a story that was helping us
maybe understand who Christ was coming from the outside, in
a different family. Uh, he was there to help people.
I mean, it's a weird look at it, but it
really does have a Christ like qualities to it.
S3 (09:48):
It really does. And it was always meant to be
sort of that, that Messiah messianic type of figure. His.
His name? Um, Kal-El. You know, his Kryptonian name, I
think means something. If you translate that, it's it actually
means God with us. And so really, when you when
you see that, you do see those Christ like echoes. Uh,
(10:10):
so it could be pretty interesting to see what they
do with this particular film or not.
S1 (10:15):
We just don't know at this point.
S4 (10:16):
All right. Plugged in plugged in.
S2 (10:18):
Is a great place again to go. So you can
kind of preview that before you head out. Now Elio
is am I saying that correctly. That's a Pixar movie
coming out as well.
S3 (10:28):
Yes, yes I think it's Elio and it is Pixar.
When we talk about the the Marvel sort of returning
to form, it'll be interesting to see whether Elio sort
of helps bring Pixar back. Now, Pixar is behind some
of my very, very favorite movies of all time. You know,
they made Wall-E, they made up the Toy Story movies.
All these are really, really resonant movies. Uh, they've they've
(10:52):
had a little bit of a rough spot in my opinion, lately. Uh,
Elio looks like it might be a return to form.
It's about this little kid who, uh, is who is
mistaken by a bunch of aliens as the ruler of
the world. And so it'll be interesting to see what
happens with that, because the little kid, he's a bit awkward.
(11:15):
He's probably pretty low on the social totem pole of
his school. So, uh, it could be a great, great,
resonant story about about just just growing up and about, uh,
dealing with, uh, dealing when you're feeling a little bit different,
what that means. So I think that that could be
a really fun movie.
S1 (11:33):
You know, it's it's interesting. You said they could be
on their way back. We as a nation are very forgiving,
I think. And when you look at what has gone
on in the world of cinema, right, or even, you know,
who knows what movie gets awards these days because no
one's ever seen those. The all the awards are to people,
you know, we just want a good story. Some, you know,
(11:57):
a good story that captures us and enraptures us almost
and tells it in a way that will be interesting,
but also makes us think towards the end of it,
We haven't gotten that in the past few years in many,
many ways. And if these movies do that, people will
come back, I think.
S3 (12:13):
I think that's absolutely right. And and yes, when we're
talking about, uh, the again, it all comes back to
the power of story. You know what brings us to
the movie theater? What brings us back? What do we
want to see again and again? These are the stories
that resonate with us. You know, you can have you
can have great special effects. You can have fantastic artistry. Right.
(12:37):
And all that stuff is really great. And it helps
tell a good story, make it that much better. But
you need to start with the story. You need to
have that thing that resonates deep inside us, that speaks
to our need, that speaks to our longings, our deepest longings. Um,
that's one of the reasons why I think. I think
(13:00):
God talked in stories he Christ taught us in parables.
Those stories are so powerful because we're built to resonate
with them. And when we see a story that's powerful,
that speaks to our own life, uh, we will embrace it.
And it can it can change us. It really can. Um,
(13:22):
and those are the movies that we go to again
and again.
S2 (13:25):
They're going to be other major films coming out The
Fantastic Four, How to Train Your Dragon that are expected
to be blockbusters. But there's also a Christian film that's
coming out May 23rd, The Last Rodeo. What can you
tell us about this film?
S3 (13:39):
Well, talk about a really nice, simple story. Uh, this
is going to be up against some pretty stiff competition.
It's coming out the same week as Mission Impossible. It's
coming out the same week as as the new Lilo
and Stitch live action movie. Uh, but this has a
really nice message. It's about this. This 50 year old
former bull rider. His grandson gets sick and needs an operation. Uh,
(14:04):
and the bull rider decides, okay, I'm going to climb
back on a bull. First time in 15 years and
compete for a big cash prize in order to pay
for my grandson's surgery. Um, you know, the story doesn't
get much more simple than that. But. But it has
some really sweet messages built in. And when you talk
(14:27):
about sort of the surrounding trappings that make a story work,
I think that this has a lot of those, you know,
bull riding is very cinematic. It's very dramatic. Uh, Neal
McDonough is the star. He's surrounded by a pretty good cast. Um,
I think that there are it can feel a little
bit uneven, but there's some really strong acting here. And
(14:48):
and I love the messages that come through this film
about about sacrifice, about moving on, about the ability to the.
And actually it gets back to, to what we were
sort of talking a little bit about, uh, Thunderbolts. It's
about community and bringing people together. Uh, so I like
those messages. This is a PG movie, and it's sort
(15:09):
of presses that PG rating. There's a little more language
than you might expect in a Christian movie. Um, the
Christian message is a little more subtle than you might
see in some, uh, but it really is a very
strong story that speaks to faith, that speaks to family,
that speaks to what we will do for one another.
And I really liked it.
S1 (15:29):
Did you feel the next morning when you woke up
after watching it? Did you feel like harmed in some way?
Like like your muscles were tense from watching the movie.
That hurt. Oh, I didn't have a my shoulder didn't
hurt until I watched that movie about bull riding.
S4 (15:45):
No, I'm.
S3 (15:45):
Telling you, the people who climb on those bulls.
S4 (15:47):
Yeah. Wow.
S2 (15:50):
Amazing. All right, well, Plugged in again is a great
resource for you as a as a moviegoer, as a
father or mother, you want to check out what is
in theaters for its family friendliness. Plugged in is does
even actually more than movies, TVs and books and music.
It's a great resource for us all.
You're listening to mornings with Eric and Bridget right here
on Moody Radio 89.3.
S2 (00:09):
We all love a good story, a good movie as well.
That bucket of popcorn on your lap or whatever your
snack is of choice, the dark room, and then you're
kind of raptured away right into a whole nother universe.
You experience that this week?
S1 (00:25):
Uh, no popcorn. We did not have popcorn this time.
We went right after lunch. No, I'm trying to think
of the time it was. Anyway, right after dinner is
when we went and it was the best experience ever
because we were very late. And the lady's like, well,
they haven't started that one yet. And so we walked
right in as the, as the, uh, trailer stuff was ending.
(00:45):
We missed the 30 minutes of trailers, thankfully, and went
right into watching the movie, which was perfect. And the
movie we saw was Thunderbolts. And then I was, you know,
I was so happy that I missed all that. And
then I was so happy with the movie. I was
surprised that, uh, is Marvel back, I guess is the question.
S2 (01:00):
That is the question. And someone who else has seen
that movie and has thought a lot about it is
Paul AC plugged in? Who is joining us? And Paul,
what was your take on Thunderbolts?
S3 (01:12):
You know, I think I think Eric's right. I think
I think it's a sign that Marvel has kind of
returned to what we've come to expect from Marvel, which is,
you know, some really good stories. One of the things
that I really liked about the Thunderbolts is that, you know,
in the last several movies that we've seen from the MCU,
it seems like it's gotten lost in a lot of
(01:33):
special effects the powers, the weird, murky stories. This one
was rooted in character, and we have some really. We
have some really problematic characters here. I mean, they're.
S1 (01:45):
Characters.
S3 (01:45):
Though, who.
S1 (01:46):
They are.
S3 (01:46):
Characters are characters and and they, you know, I think
most of them would probably be imprisoned in real life
because they've done some terrible things. Right. But they they
get together, they realize that they're not the best of people,
and they sort of bind together and become the heroes
(02:07):
that the world needs them to be. And it was
really rooted in just the people who we meet, these
imperfect heroes who somehow find the heroism inside them to
go forward and battle the bad guys, and sometimes even
the demons within to, to, to help the world make
a better place.
S1 (02:28):
You know what's interesting, though, is good stories. Don't they
deal with almost eternal truths? Not what the what the
culture says today. We have to deal with those those
truths that are just kind of they popped up all
of a sudden, and I think Marvel was trying to
deal with what was today's issue, not what our eternal
and thunderbolts went backwards, I think, and said, okay, what
(02:50):
are some really deep seated things that we need to
deal with? And I think that was part of the
importance of this story.
S3 (02:56):
I think that's a really, really good take because you're right.
I mean, the issues that are involved here? It's really interesting.
I've never seen a superhero movie, and you wouldn't really
expect a superhero movie to deal with the subject of
mental illness. But this kind of does that in a way. Uh,
not to give too much away, but you do have, uh,
(03:19):
the main bad guy here is actually something called the void.
But the void isn't just sort of this, this out
outside presence that is really scary and causes people to disappear.
We find that the void is sort of within us.
All right. And it talks a lot about battling, battling
your own despair, your own depression, your own lack of self-worth.
(03:42):
And a lot of the characters that we have here are,
are people who have made some terrible, terrible mistakes in the.
And the guilt and the sin of of those mistakes
haunts them. Um, and they have some great messages about
how to battle that, you know. And it really comes
down to now they don't have a Christian point of view.
You know, we would always say that the answer is God.
(04:04):
You know, to to turn to God. We know the
end of the story. We know that we are beautiful creations,
but they do have a nice message in that we
need to work together. You know, we need people in
our lives to help lift us up, which is pretty
biblical too. And that gets back to what you were
talking about, Eric, about those eternal truths. You know, I
(04:25):
when I was watching the movie, when I was reviewing
the movie, which of course does have some problems, I
kept thinking about the threefold cord that is not easily broken.
And that's kind of the message of this movie.
S2 (04:36):
And, you know, just in a previous segment, we were
talking about seeing and understanding the Bible as its overarching story,
this narrative and and seeing and understanding that God is
the author of that story. And so when a movie is,
you know, this enjoyable, a lot of times they are
dealing with concepts that we see in Scripture because, you know,
(04:58):
the Bible is talking about the human nature and of course,
the course, the divine, but also really getting to the
core of who we are as people. And so when
we see that in other stories, they're really kind of
just in a way, trying to replicate the stories that
we see in Scripture in a way.
S3 (05:16):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think when I see a movie
and I always have to sort of couch this, you know,
because I am because I am Christian, those messages are
going to resonate with me so much more powerfully. But,
you know, the reason why we we are Christians is,
I think that deep longing, that that deep understanding that
that we need meaning in our lives, that we need
(05:37):
a Savior, that we aren't perfect and that we need
some help to to become the people who who God
created us to be. And when you look at the
stories that work with us, it is all about those themes,
those really powerful themes, those universal themes. I think of
looking for meaning, looking for transcendence, looking for real truth
(06:01):
in our lives. And when you talk about the power
of story, I mean, movies are really powerful stories, and
they're so important because they impact us. You know, when
I look back on my own life and I think
about the things that have really shaped me, a lot
of those are stories, you know, even today, every, every,
(06:23):
every week I have a passage from The Chronicles of
Narnia that pops up in my mind because those stories
shaped me so strongly when I was a child. So
when we're talking about the power of story, we have
to be very we have to be very mindful of
the stories that we bring into our lives, because they
impact us more than probably you think that they do.
S1 (06:45):
Yeah. Well, Thunderbolt's made me laugh. It made me think.
It made me, you know, the void it's come to steal,
rob and destroy. But Christ has come to bring us life.
And there were themes like that just popped up throughout it.
I was like, wow, this is really good, but I'm
not taking my ten year old to it. So just
so you know, there are some issues with that movie.
It's it really makes me think. But just be careful
(07:08):
of who you're taking there. Now, let me just say
another thing. I missed the trailers, which means I missed
the Mission Impossible trailer. Thankfully, I didn't need to sit
through 30 minutes of that, so that was fine.
S3 (07:18):
But it's all Tom cruise running. I mean, that's all
you need.
S4 (07:20):
To know about it. Just he just keeps running.
S2 (07:22):
Jumping out of aircrafts.
S4 (07:23):
Jumping and running and jumping and running.
S1 (07:25):
But do they wrap this thing up well?
S3 (07:28):
You know what? I'm going to be very, very interested
to see if they do. We have not had a
chance to see it yet. Uh, but I tell you what,
these Mission Impossible movies, again, as you say, they're not
necessarily for your whole family. But when you're talking about
an action movie, man, these these Tom cruise Mission Impossible
movies have done it. Well, I think they have James Bond,
(07:51):
did James Bond. Um, and they're just so much fun.
So I'm going to be really interested to see what
happens with this. And again, even getting back to to
your earlier point, this is really this gets into some
bigger issues too, where you're talking about what are you
going to do to help the world around you? What
what will you sacrifice? And and so you can see
(08:13):
some of those elements within these Mission Impossible movies as well.
S1 (08:16):
Well, in a weird way, the importance of family also.
S3 (08:19):
Right, right. That's absolutely true. Because his team becomes sort
of this surrogate family for him.
S2 (08:25):
Mhm. Well, this is just some of the summer blockbusters
that are going to be coming to a theater near you.
And Plugged In is a great resource for you to
get connected to see is this, you know, who do
I take to this? Do I want to go? Is
this going to be worth our while? And you go
to Plugged In com they have reviews and upcoming they'll
have more and more reviews about these summer movies, including Superman.
(08:47):
That's coming out in a couple of months.
S4 (08:50):
Again, it's I know.
S3 (08:53):
I know, you know, I don't think that our modern
culture really knows how to do Superman very well. So
they're giving it another try. Uh, the director is the
guy who is behind the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Actually,
from from the from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And so
that makes me think that this Superman movie is going
(09:14):
to be a little bit different. Uh, the Gunn who
is the guy who directs it? He loves his outsiders.
And when you think about outsiders, Superman is sort of
that he's this alien who comes. He doesn't quite fit in. Uh,
it'll be interesting to see what he does with that.
S1 (09:30):
All right. You know, Superman is when you look at
the story, it was a story that was helping us
maybe understand who Christ was coming from the outside, in
a different family. Uh, he was there to help people.
I mean, it's a weird look at it, but it
really does have a Christ like qualities to it.
S3 (09:48):
It really does. And it was always meant to be
sort of that, that Messiah messianic type of figure. His.
His name? Um, Kal-El. You know, his Kryptonian name, I
think means something. If you translate that, it's it actually
means God with us. And so really, when you when
you see that, you do see those Christ like echoes. Uh,
(10:10):
so it could be pretty interesting to see what they
do with this particular film or not.
S1 (10:15):
We just don't know at this point.
S4 (10:16):
All right. Plugged in plugged in.
S2 (10:18):
Is a great place again to go. So you can
kind of preview that before you head out. Now Elio
is am I saying that correctly. That's a Pixar movie
coming out as well.
S3 (10:28):
Yes, yes I think it's Elio and it is Pixar.
When we talk about the the Marvel sort of returning
to form, it'll be interesting to see whether Elio sort
of helps bring Pixar back. Now, Pixar is behind some
of my very, very favorite movies of all time. You know,
they made Wall-E, they made up the Toy Story movies.
All these are really, really resonant movies. Uh, they've they've
(10:52):
had a little bit of a rough spot in my opinion, lately. Uh,
Elio looks like it might be a return to form.
It's about this little kid who, uh, is who is
mistaken by a bunch of aliens as the ruler of
the world. And so it'll be interesting to see what
happens with that, because the little kid, he's a bit awkward.
(11:15):
He's probably pretty low on the social totem pole of
his school. So, uh, it could be a great, great,
resonant story about about just just growing up and about, uh,
dealing with, uh, dealing when you're feeling a little bit different,
what that means. So I think that that could be
a really fun movie.
S1 (11:33):
You know, it's it's interesting. You said they could be
on their way back. We as a nation are very forgiving,
I think. And when you look at what has gone
on in the world of cinema, right, or even, you know,
who knows what movie gets awards these days because no
one's ever seen those. The all the awards are to people,
you know, we just want a good story. Some, you know,
(11:57):
a good story that captures us and enraptures us almost
and tells it in a way that will be interesting,
but also makes us think towards the end of it,
We haven't gotten that in the past few years in many,
many ways. And if these movies do that, people will
come back, I think.
S3 (12:13):
I think that's absolutely right. And and yes, when we're
talking about, uh, the again, it all comes back to
the power of story. You know what brings us to
the movie theater? What brings us back? What do we
want to see again and again? These are the stories
that resonate with us. You know, you can have you
can have great special effects. You can have fantastic artistry. Right.
(12:37):
And all that stuff is really great. And it helps
tell a good story, make it that much better. But
you need to start with the story. You need to
have that thing that resonates deep inside us, that speaks
to our need, that speaks to our longings, our deepest longings. Um,
that's one of the reasons why I think. I think
(13:00):
God talked in stories he Christ taught us in parables.
Those stories are so powerful because we're built to resonate
with them. And when we see a story that's powerful,
that speaks to our own life, uh, we will embrace it.
And it can it can change us. It really can. Um,
(13:22):
and those are the movies that we go to again
and again.
S2 (13:25):
They're going to be other major films coming out The
Fantastic Four, How to Train Your Dragon that are expected
to be blockbusters. But there's also a Christian film that's
coming out May 23rd, The Last Rodeo. What can you
tell us about this film?
S3 (13:39):
Well, talk about a really nice, simple story. Uh, this
is going to be up against some pretty stiff competition.
It's coming out the same week as Mission Impossible. It's
coming out the same week as as the new Lilo
and Stitch live action movie. Uh, but this has a
really nice message. It's about this. This 50 year old
former bull rider. His grandson gets sick and needs an operation. Uh,
(14:04):
and the bull rider decides, okay, I'm going to climb
back on a bull. First time in 15 years and
compete for a big cash prize in order to pay
for my grandson's surgery. Um, you know, the story doesn't
get much more simple than that. But. But it has
some really sweet messages built in. And when you talk
(14:27):
about sort of the surrounding trappings that make a story work,
I think that this has a lot of those, you know,
bull riding is very cinematic. It's very dramatic. Uh, Neal
McDonough is the star. He's surrounded by a pretty good cast. Um,
I think that there are it can feel a little
bit uneven, but there's some really strong acting here. And
(14:48):
and I love the messages that come through this film
about about sacrifice, about moving on, about the ability to the.
And actually it gets back to, to what we were
sort of talking a little bit about, uh, Thunderbolts. It's
about community and bringing people together. Uh, so I like
those messages. This is a PG movie, and it's sort
(15:09):
of presses that PG rating. There's a little more language
than you might expect in a Christian movie. Um, the
Christian message is a little more subtle than you might
see in some, uh, but it really is a very
strong story that speaks to faith, that speaks to family,
that speaks to what we will do for one another.
And I really liked it.
S1 (15:29):
Did you feel the next morning when you woke up
after watching it? Did you feel like harmed in some way?
Like like your muscles were tense from watching the movie.
That hurt. Oh, I didn't have a my shoulder didn't
hurt until I watched that movie about bull riding.
S4 (15:45):
No, I'm.
S3 (15:45):
Telling you, the people who climb on those bulls.
S4 (15:47):
Yeah. Wow.
S2 (15:50):
Amazing. All right, well, Plugged in again is a great
resource for you as a as a moviegoer, as a
father or mother, you want to check out what is
in theaters for its family friendliness. Plugged in is does
even actually more than movies, TVs and books and music.
It's a great resource for us all.
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