MOVIE REVIEWS: 'Children of Men' and 'Thr3e'




Below: A review in the Friday, Jan. 6 Oregonian.

During that evening's "Cort and Fatboy" broadcast, I also geeked out -- hard -- on the bleak, beautiful, and stunningly well-made "Children of Men."

I sat next to my pal Dawn Taylor at the "Children" screening, and she had a similar dropped-jaw reaction to the film. Go. See it now. In the best theater you can afford. You won't be sorry. Anyway...
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There's a solid business idea behind the new "FoxFaith" studio imprint. Spurred by the blockbuster success of "Passion of the Christ" and that horrible "Narnia" movie, Fox wants to tap into the contemporary-Christian movie marketplace. Like-minded viewers can safely buy tickets to FoxFaith films, knowing they won’t be ambushed by sex, splatter or cursing. It's guaranteed family-friendly entertainment.

Which is great. But that doesn't make it any less weird that one of the first FoxFaith releases is a family-friendly serial-killer movie.

"Thr3e" gives its critics way too much ammunition by being less than half of "Se7en" in all respects. It adapts a novel by Ted Dekker, the contemporary-Christian Dean Koontz. The story's a dopey good-vs.-evil parable: A seminary student (Marc Blucas) is menaced by a serial bomber who speaks in "Saw"-style riddles about forgiveness.

The lead actors are semi-appealing, and the final twist is amusingly ludicrous -- even if the movie's informed by a 5-year-old's understanding of mental illness, up to and including putting crazy people in funny hats:



Unfortunately, the filmmakers failed to replace sex, splatter and cursing with sharp dialogue, characters and plotting. All that's left is a tame variation on the usual serial-killer art direction and a hilarious number of "A-Team"-style explosions in which no one is killed. It's offensively dull.

By the numbers (The Oregonian, Jan. 5, 2007)

Cort and Fatboy (Jan. 5, 2007)

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Posted: Sat - January 6, 2007 at 09:41 PM        

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