Mighty E

Oh, Mr. Raimi - you're so hit and miss with your career these days. You dazzle us with brilliance with "A Simple Plan," your originality of tongue-in-cheek horror/comedy in the Evil Dead pictures is incomparable...but this? "The Gift?" An enormously cheesy and underdeveloped script leaves a normally quite outstanding cast (with the noted exception of the always terrible Keanu Reeves)completely dry and useless for well over two hours of what appears to be nothing more than a study in American movie cliches. (And I love how they miscast Katie Holmes as the cruel Southern belle well outside of her age and acting range just to squeeze in a nude scene for the 18-24 demographic to get their butts in the theatre seats...) The only nail hit on the head in this ridiculous waste of time are the abhorrent white trash characters - I've lived in the South and...well...that's pretty much how it is down there!

The title alone dragged me to the second screening of this biopic on Abbie Hoffman at the South by Southwest Film Festival this week - and I was continually surprised, tickled, and even enraged by the unfolding of this fabulous story. I don't know when this remarkable film will be released to regular audiences, but when it does, check it out. Steal it!

I am a firm believer in the freedom of speech, but I am nevertheless very frequently dismayed at those who would choose to abuse this very precious of American freedoms, such as those responsible for the film, "Stigmata." I could begin to criticize it's awful script, seemingly plotless until it's final moments - or it's unnessecarily MTVesque photgraphy and editing, playing like a really long and pointless music video rather than the narrative film that it is SUPPOSED to be...but more than that, I am forced to comment on it's strikingly offensive and ignorant attack on the Catholic church, the Catholic faith, and dare I say Catholics in general. This film portrays the faith and the Church as nothing short of evil, and delivers the final blow with a series of title cards at the film's finale that attempt to "prove" to its audience that there was some major conspiracy in the late 1940's that would disprove the validity of the Catholic faith. As a Christian historian, I can assure anyone that this film did not consult a single competent historian or theologian in an attempt to validate it's ludicrous and utterly ignorant claims against the church. Not only is every "fact" a complete fallacy, but this picture is a deeply personal and offensive attack. Just imagine the backlash from a film that so violently condemned Jew3 or Muslims! There would be riots, but this attack is acceptable? A terrible film, and I condemn all who were involved with it's production.