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New on DVD September 10, 2019: Positive Live Action Movie Meets Less-Positive Releases…

Photo Courtesy of IMDb © Disney Enterprises

ALADDIN (2019)

Quality:
****
Content:
+1 Moderately questionable elements. (Discernment required for young children.)
ALADDIN is a spirited live action remake of Disney’s classic 1992 cartoon with Will Smith playing the role of the blue genie, who helps a kindhearted Arab street urchin win the heart and hand of a beautiful princess. Beautifully put together, the live action ALADDIN is as wonderfully entertaining as the original cartoon, with many positive messages celebrating truth, honesty, justice, compassion, courage, humility, freedom, family, and doing the right thing.

ECHO IN THE CANYON

Quality:
****
Content:
-2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.
ECHO IN THE CANYON is a documentary about the famed folk-rock scene of the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles in the late 1960s and the influence that bands like The Byrds, Beach Boys, and the Mamas and the Papas had on future generations of rock musicians. Containing some wonderful concert footage, ECHO IN THE CANYON has a strong Romantic worldview with pagan elements as the stars sing some songs and discuss their younger hedonistic lives, with discretion, but the movie’s focus is mostly on the creative process and the magic of the music.

THE DEAD DON’T DIE

Quality:
**
Content:
-4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)
THE DEAD DON’T DIE is a droll horror comedy starring Bill Murray as the sheriff of a small town faced with handling the beginning of the zombie apocalypse caused by oil and gas fracking in the Arctic, which throws the Earth off its axis. No amount of good comedy can ameliorate the depressing, misanthropic, politically correct story and the anti-capitalist, environmentalist messages in THE DEAD DON’T DIE, which also contains lots of strong foul language and extreme violence.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM

Quality:
***
Content:
-3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)
The third JOHN WICK movie, subtitled CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM, shows the former assassin fighting off hordes of assassins sent by the High Table, a global council of crime lords who rule the criminal world, because John Wick violated the High Table’s rules in Chapter Two. Starring Keanu Reeves in the title role, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM has some jaw-dropping action and martial arts fighting, and enough character development to keep viewers engaged, but too much of the violence and mayhem is particularly brutal, in an abhorrent way.