Ron Howard has been doing his best Opie impression while running around claiming that his upcoming movie, “Angels & Demons,” is not anti-Christian or anti-Catholic.
Howard is in denial and perhaps a bit distracted by the box-office.
In the film, the Catholic Church and the Vatican are depicted as secretive, conspiratorial, ignorant, and violent.
Brown is the same author, and Howard, the same filmmaker, who brought us “The DaVinci Code,” a blatantly anti-Christian book and film.
If people of faith buy tickets for “Angels & Demons,” it will put more money into Brown’s and Howard’s already bulging pockets and send a message that this kind of content is acceptable and, regrettably, profitable.
On the first page of "The DaVinci Code," Brown claims that the book is based on fact.
He also claims some “facts” in “Angels and Demons.” For example: “Christians got Holy Communion from the Aztecs” and “got the name for ‘Satan’ from the Islamic language, [sic] which they considered dirty.”
The Rev. Bernard O'Connor, a Canadian priest, indicated that a “production official” had told him, “Like most of us, Brown often says that he would do anything to demolish that detestable institution, the Catholic Church.”
Howard and his ilk often point out that the movie and books are fiction and that folks shouldn’t get exercised. But Brown continues to suggest that his anti-Christian ideas are based on facts.
Maybe getting exorcised is something Brown and Howard might contemplate.
Beyonce’s ‘Obsessed’ has zero surprises
On another movie note, Beyonce Knowles’ new film, “Obsessed,” illustrates a couple of things: 1) the lady is loaded with talent; and 2) lack of originality is an epidemic in Hollywood.
The story has been told a gazillion times before, more often than not with Michael Douglas playing the lead role of terrorized philanderer.
Unfortunately, “Obsessed” makes no attempt to twist the story structure or alter the inevitable climax.
The end result? Zero surprises.
Audiences always have been fascinated with tales of irrational home wreckers.
In “Antony and Cleopatra,” the Egyptian queen toys with the married Roman general. In “Gone with the Wind,” Scarlett O’Hara flirts nonstop with sweet Melanie’s spouse, Ashley Wilkes. And in the 1980s film, “Fatal Attraction,” Glenn Close’s Alex character goes after already hitched Michael Douglas’ Dan with a vengeance.
Using the same plotline with a multicultural twist, “Obsessed” clawed its way to No. 1 at the domestic box-office, taking in more than $28 million.
Still, the movie ends up being a typical exploitation film and becomes so exaggerated it inadvertently transforms into one of the campiest films to hit theaters this year, complete with a double beauty catfight.
Beyonce will make a lot of money off of this pic, but she’d be wise to jump genres as quickly as her sparkling stilettos can carry her.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A. in media psychology, is a media analyst, teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University, and professor at Trinity Law School. Visit: Newsmax TV Hollywood:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NMHollywood.
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