eric coomer

October 10, 2011

Movie Trailer of the Week - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

It's rare that a movie trailer makes me cry. This one did. Maybe it's that it's about 9/11. Maybe it's because I'm a dad and the boy reminds me of Jackson. Maybe it's because I recently lost my father. Maybe it's just the wee hour at which I saw it. Whatever it was, this is a trailer that should be seen.

It's pretty much without a doubt that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close will be nominated for Oscars. It opens on Christmas day.

October 3, 2011

Movie Trailer of the Week - Catechism Cataclysm

It seems to me that Christians are finally being better represented in film with multi-faceted three dimensional characters. Scroll down the blog and you'll see that over the past few months the trailers of the week have included Blue Like Jazz, Higher Ground, and Machine Gun Preacher. Soul Surfer was an enormous success. Several other upcoming movies about Christians look promising, such as The 5th Quarter starring Aidan Quinn and Andie McDowell.

This week's trailer is a comedy called Catechism Cataclysm starring Eastbound & Down's Steve Little as a priest who embarks on a canoe trip right after dropping his Bible in a toilet. I'm definitely not saying this is a "Christian film" (you can tell that from the line below the title on the poster), but it is nice to see a clergy represented as a real and flawed human -- something that was commonplace in the days of black and white film (A Man Called Peter, The Bishop's Wife, Boys Town, Bells of St. Mary) -- and we can hope that there is some truth in the movie.

I think this looks like a gem. The trailer is charming, which is good because the poster makes it look like it would probably be a horror movie about exorcism.

Here's the official synopsis: Father Billy (Steve Little), an eccentric young priest, is forced to take a sabbatical by his superiors when he is discovered telling inappropriate parables to his flock. Billy tracks down his high-school idol Robbie (Robert Longstreet), who begrudgingly agrees to a canoe trip. On the water, the two men reminisce about Billy's days as the keyboardist in a Christian band and Robbie's as a guitarist for a metal band. When night approaches, they realize they have lost their way--and that's when things get weird.

Check out the trailer:

Catechism Cataclysm hits theaters on October 21 and On Demand October 26.

Arrested Development returns!

I knew about the movie, but as of last week, there was no new news. But at an Arrested Development reunion (I wish I could've gone to that!) yesterday at the New York Festival, show creator Mitchell Hurwitz said ten episodes will air on Showtime, each one focusing on a different character and leading up to the movie in which the entire cast will reunite during the opening scene.

Plus, Will Arnett tweeted:

"I’m peeing with @batemanjason at the moment..and we can confirm that we are going to make new AD eps and a movie."

Jason Bateman replied with:

"It’s true. We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ’13. VERY excited!"

Looks like I need to get Showtime...at least I do next year! Now, if only we could get somebody to greenlight the Anchorman sequel.

September 29, 2011

Movie Trailer of the Week - American Teacher

This looks like an excellent documentary. It's a subject very close to my heart as my wife is a high school teacher and my mom is a retired elementary music teacher. Let's hope this film ushers in some change...not to be a pessimist, but somehow I doubt it.

September 28, 2011

The Worship Experiences Blog

I've started a separate blog where I (and hopefully other people soon) will write about experiential worship and ways to incorporate it into church services. Check out the Worship Experiences Blog.

This is something that's very important to me, but I haven't really nurtured it lately, so it's a nice outlet. I led a workshop on this stuff a couple weeks ago for an Aldersgate Renewal Ministries worship conference and was really encouraged that interactive worship is something a lot of people are interested in, but just don't know quite how to go about doing.

So, in addition to this blog, I'll be posting there from time to time with ideas and things I've done in the past.

I'd like to get other folks to write for the worship experiences blog as well, so if you're interested in this sort of thing, please email me at eric(at)ericcoomer(dot).com.