kirk cameron Tagged Articles at Cinematical

"Man, this is gonna tick off the devil."

There are movie trailers, there are epic movie trailers ... and then there's this new trailer for a movie called C Me Dance, which is brought to us by the folks behind Praise Band: The Movie. Yes, like Kirk Cameron's box office champ Fireproof, C Me Dance is another one of those Christian-themed blockbusters -- and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that -- except, well, you go ahead and try to explain what the hell (no pun intended) is going on in this flick. There's a pretty girl and she just wants to dance, but then the Devil shows up and fights this girl's overweight father out in front of the house. What in God's name is ... wait, let me stop there.

C Me Dance will apparently arrive in theaters this Friday in 14 states, and if it's not playing in your area then you can fill out a form to make sure it does. Oh, and this isn't an April Fool's joke either; C Me Dance has an official website and an IMDb page ... so there! 4 out of 5 Doves! And check out this marketing note from the website: "This movie is a chick flick with a manifested devil. This will attract a wide demo of men and women." Why, because women like the chick flick stuff and guys are the devil? I'm all for feel-good movies, except when the "good" is removed, thrown at a wall, burned and buried so no one can ever find it. But maybe I'm being a little too harsh -- check out the trailer below and see if you can figure out what's going on.

C Me Dance hits theaters on April 3rd.



[Thanks Patricia!]

When we were kicking around ideas for year-end superlative Cinematical Sevens, I was proudly tasked with chronicling the year's finest in big-screen mayhem, violence, destruction and other such shenanigans. When I was kicking around ideas for said feature between me, myself, and I, there were too many titles to leave off the list, so instead of highlighting only a mere couple of movies, I've opted to sort these puppies out by specific manner of cinematic excess.

So there.

1. Most pervasive destruction - The Joker may have terrorized Gotham to the tune of a destroyed hospital, a wrecked helicopter, a sunken SWAT truck, a toasty fire engine, and a golden district attorney, but even he can't top the Cloverfield monster's swath of destruction across the real-life Gotham. Statue of Liberty? Gone. Brooklyn Bridge? History. Central Park? Adios. And that's not including all the Hollister stores that our protagonists might've fled to. (On a smaller scale, though, Inside's lady in black terrorizes a pregnant woman on Christmas Eve to the point of all but painting every last wall in her house with the blood of her victims. Gotta love the French!)

Here are this weekend's box office success stories in the indie film world:

1. Frontrunners (Oscilloscope)
2. Rachel Getting Married (Sony Pictures Classics)
3. Fireproof (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
4. Religulous (Lionsgate Films)

Caroline Suh's documentary Frontrunners (pictured), which follows four teens running for elective office at a prestigious high school in New York City, had its world premiere at South by Southwest and was acquired for distribution by Oscilloscope, founded by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, in July. Opening at one theater in New York, the film earned $7,400 over the weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, the third highest per-screen total among limited releases. That's a very good accomplishment for the fledgling Oscilloscope.

Jonathan Demme's drama Rachel Getting Married expanded from 27 to 69 theaters in selected cities across the country (including mine) and increased solidly to a per-screen average of $10,464. It's earned more than $1.75 million so far. I saw it on Saturday and was disappointed by its utterly ordinary, overly familiar dysfunctional family routines and excessive padding for what is a very thin story, but a ton of people showed up for the early afternoon screening, so I guess everyone loves weddings and the promise of battling sisters working out all their problems in a single weekend.

On the "pro" side of religion, Fireproof, a drama starring Kirk Cameron, added even more theaters (up to 905 now) and dropped very little, percentage wise, totaling more than $20 million in four weeks of release. On the "con" side, Religulous, a doc by Larry Charles featuring Bill Maher, dropped a few theaters (to 504 locations) yet still burst past the $9 million mark, a remarkable performance for a documentary.

Lionsgate, best known for their gruesome horror films, has decided to start rocking it JC-style, and are dipping into the Christian entertainment market. The studio will be distributing three direct-to-DVD documentaries based on best-selling non-fiction books: The Case for Christ, The Case for a Creator, and The Case for Faith. The books, written by Lee Strobel, have sold a combined 8 million-plus copies and won several awards. The first of these documentaries, The Case for Christ, will be released later this year and Lionsgate has arranged for the "Christian publishing giant" Thomas Nelson, the world's # 6 overall publishing house, to distribute its materials. The studio hopes pairing with Nelson will also help with the releases of upcoming "faith films" like Church Boy -- the story of gospel singer Kirk Franklin, and a feature film adaptation of a painting called The Christmas Cottage. I've officially heard it all with that one. A feature film adaptation of a painting? What's next, Mona Lisa's Revenge?

Major studios have been moving more and more into "faith-based" material lately. For example, Sony Pictures has been successful with their Kirk Cameron-starring adaptations of the Left Behind series, but the trend really kicked into overdrive after the huge success of The Passion of the Christ, and divisions started sprouting up everywhere. Christopher told you about Fox Faith last year, and Jessica recently told you about one of their upcoming projects. In December, The Weinstein Company announced their desire to get into the religious market as well, a story Erik brought you here. Lionsgate president Steve Beeks says his company already has "established a stronghold" in the African-American faith-based market through its partnership with Tyler Perry, and that "Lionsgate is making a concerted effort to expand its leadership in the faith-based category."

For those who don't remember, author Anne Rice underwent a big religious conversion about ten years ago, and swore off vampirism in favor of writing about Jesus. She went so far as to give interviews saying that she would never write another vampire book even if it meant financial ruin. Apparently, her change in lifestyle hasn't deteriorated her writing ability -- those I know who have read Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt say its an interesting book with Rice's distinctive flair. Hollywood, which is all a-twitter lately with Jesus material, despite the bomb of The Nativity Story, is also apparently interesting in continuing its on-again-off-again relationship with Rice.

IGN is reporting that plans are underway to bring Christ the Lord to the big screen, toot sweet. A company called Good News Holdings, backed by a man named George Barna, is going to produce the film and shoot it in Israel. The next issue of course, is one that IGN put succinctly: "It remains to be seen whether the production will be a legitimately artistic venture, a la Mel's Passion, or a strictly subcultural cheesefest like the Kirk Cameron-led Left Behind." I'm sure that shingles like Fox Faith will probably be eager to jump on the project whether it's the former or the latter -- I mean, did anyone see The Sin Eater? That was Kirk Cameron-city. The piece also reports that a casting search is underway to find a young Jesus, but no other solid about the project is available at this time.