The inimitable Anthony Sacramone from First Things has provided a great piece of comedy writing regarding the new Rocky movie, Rocky Balboa. It seems as if this latest attempt to milk this tedious Hollywood franchise will spawn as many parodies and late night joke as the last 3 or 4 manifestations. But under the black comedy category:[I]t seems that Sylvester Stallone has taken a page out of Mel Gibson’s Passion playbook in marketing the latest iteration of Rocky to evangelicals. Pastors and religious leaders have been mailed "Faith-based Resource Guides," along with DVDs and glossy inspirational tickets—meant both to promote the opening of Rocky Balboa and to emphasize the extent to which the Italian Stallion’s story is Bible-based: Jesus was the master storyteller! He used short, simple, everyday stories that packed a punch. Use these powerful Rocky Balboa resources in December and January to punctuate your sermons and talks!"One small difference between this movie and the message of Jesus was that "large crowds followed Him" (Mt.4:25), i. e., he didn't have to scramble for market share. I won't go into the rather large differences which most probably exist between the Gospel of Jesus and this or any of the Rocky films .
You can't make this up, folks.
2 comments:
Yo, Pauli!
I went to the resources. And I could bring myself to look deeper. It is a bit too cynical for me. I may netflix it when it comes out on DVD. If I don't forget about it.
I do recall that when I was play football in highschool the rocky stuff was quite influential.
The first Rocky movie is a great story and a great movie. The 2nd isn't so bad. The third might tie with a half-a$$ed sequel like "Ocean's Twelve", but beyond that I would suggest anyone "be scared, be VERY scared!"
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