FREE VIDEO: Buddy Davis Amazing Adventures: I DIG DINOSAURS!

Family / Kids
26 min. / 2011
RATING 7/10

Buddy Davis is a musician, dinosaur sculptor, and children's entertainer. In this children's video Buddy invites along to go on a dinosaur bone dig to see how paleontologists find them and take them out of the ground, and then put them on display.

Davis really knows his stuff. Dinosaurs have long been promotional tools for evolutionists, but Davis will have none of that. He approaches the topic of dinosaurs and their fossils from a thoroughly Christian, creationist perspective. In a number of instances he contrasts the biblical position with the evolutionary one. So, for example, he explains that fossilization doesn't need to take millions of years – as he explains, they've even found fossilized teddy bears! And kids are also told about how elastic blood vessels have recently been found in dinosaur bones that shows they couldn't possibly be millions of years old. These animals aren't as old as they have been made out to be!

Our host is enthusiastic and energetic and keeps things hopping without it getting frantic. While I enjoyed this, I'd recommend it more as a kid's video than family viewing. I mean, parents won't be bored, but they likely won't want to watch this as many times as their children!

I Dig Dinosaurs! is the first of four in the Buddy Davis Amazing  Adventures series (so far) and it can be watched for free online here: www.answersingenesis.org/media/video/science/i-dig-dinosaurs/.

The others three episodes aren't online, but you can buy them at www.answersingenesis.org/store/ (just search for "buddy davis amazing").

Beyond the Mask

Christian / Action / Drama
103 minutes / 2015
RATING 8/10

William Reynolds is a 18th century assassin and the righthand man to the head of the East India Trading company. When the young assassin wants to leave his dark life behind his employer (played by veteran actor John Rhys-Davies) tries to have this loose end tied up, planting a bomb under Reynolds' carriage. Reynolds survives thanks to the warning of a passing vicar who ends up paying for his kindness by getting blown up himself. In search of a new life, and a new identity, Reynolds adopts the vicar's identity, and, meets Charlotte, a young woman who knows a lot more about God then this "vicar" does.

There is so much to love about this film, and this romance is a big part of it. It has the typical movie-plot instant attraction, yes, but no bodice-ripping whatsoever. As impressed as Charlotte might be by Reynolds' charm, she wants to know his heart – she finds it strange that this man of God so often speaks of Him as "if He were a distant acquaintance." So despite her heart saying yes, she will not pledge herself to him until she seeks advice from an older wiser head. So this has all the fun of the flirtation, and yet none of that falling-into-bed-with-a-near-stranger nonsense.

Of course, with their affair of the heart taking place just 20 minutes in, we know that the happy ending can't come yet. Reynolds old life forces its way into the new and he has to flee to the American Colonies, leaving his lady-love behind. There he decides he will make repayment for his former evils by doing heroic goods – he dons a disguise and a mask to fight the East India Company in its new endeavors in the Americas. Lots of daring-do and explosions follow.

Cautions

There is no sexual content at all, and while God's name is called upon, it seems to be put to appropriate use (being either directed to Him, or part of a discussion about Him).

A concern is violence. There is quite a lot, and while none of it is gory, there are men murdered, others blown up, and piles upon piles quickly put down by a punch or two from our reforming William Reynolds.

Conclusion

This is a wonderful film, with solid acting, an intriguing (if on occasion confusing) script, good special effects, authentic period costumes and sets, and a pleasant number of explosions. It is a family film, though because of the violence, for older children only, with a solid Christian moral. So, safe and enjoyable!

I don't want to praise it too highly, because it isn't a movie that will go down as a great for the ages. But it certainly is one of the best Christian films you'll see, and a cut above most any family film out there.

You can buy a DVD copy at Amazon.com by clicking here or rent it for online viewing by clicking here.

Logic on Fire

Documentary
2015 / 102 minutes
RATING: 7/10

Even if you don’t know Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones (1899-1981) you likely do know some of the people praising him in this documentary. The list includes John MacArthur, Iain Murray, Kevin DeYoung, Sinclair Ferguson, and RC Sproul, who say of him: “I believe that Lloyd Jones was to twentieth century Britain what Charles Spurgeon was to the nineteenth century.” Like Spurgeon, this was a man God used to stir up Britain. The joy in watching this documentary is to see what God did, and how He acted through this servant.

Another good quote from one of the interviewees highlighted how very different Lloyd Jones was from the pastors of his time and many of the celebrity pastors of our own.

…he wasn’t at all seeker-friendly. In fact he was seeker-unfriendly, because he felt that a non-Christian ought to be deeply uncomfortable in church. Because you actually want him to be uncomfortable because you need to realize your need for the Gospel.

The only caution I would offer is that while Lloyd Jones was generally Reformed, he got some notable matters wrong. For example, his views on baptism differed with those of the denomination he served – he seems to have opposed paedo-baptism, though not loudly. But that is an aside because it is his preaching, and his generally Reformed perspective, that are the focus here.

Both my wife and I really enjoyed this very polished production. It comes comes with 2 bonus disks and a small hardback book among the extras.  Logic on Fire would make a great gift for any pastor and anyone who enjoys Church history, or documentaries.

It can be ordered in Canada via the Banner of Truth US website BannerOfTruth.org/US.

Logic On Fire: the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones from Media Gratiae on Vimeo.