I am just getting so tired of it, you know? From the very first trailer we saw for it months ago, Steve Carell’s new comedy Dinner For Schmucks looked absolutely hilarious. It truly looked like a genuine comedy, funny because it’s funny and not funny because it’s full of shocking, revolting sexual humor. And because nothing in the trailers seemed to indicate it being filthy (as they typically do), Katie and I had been making plans to go see the movie on opening day.
However, as we do for all our movies now, we checked Plugged In Online (read more about the site here) before we headed off. Turns out, it is just like almost every other comedy coming out today: full of sexual vulgarity. No I don’t mean a few innuendos, I mean saturated with exaggerated sexual humor designed to make you laugh because of how uncomfortable you are, simultaneously introducing images and situations to your mind that you never would have had up there otherwise.
So as for me and my house, we will not allow ourselves to put this movie into our minds, a place where dialogue, images and situations can be recorded for a lifetime.
Check out the Plugged In review for the movie here.
July 31st, 2010 at 9:17 am
I remember blogs being records of the things you do. You’re trying to make a blog entry about not doing something, based on someone else’s opinion.
Can I reserve both of you for an upcoming dinner date? My career depends on it.
July 31st, 2010 at 9:30 am
Not trying, did.
My blog entries are about what I am thinking, which often includes stories about what I am doing. Which, by the way, is very much the norm; most of the blogosphere agrees with me in practice.
Oh, and I very much am doing something. I am taking someone’s advice (which is always based on opinion, but considered an admirable thing to do when coming from a credible and *experienced* source) and being proactive about what I allow and don’t allow into my brain.
July 31st, 2010 at 9:18 am
We’ve pretty much given up on movie watching, although even with saying that I acknowledge that you guys are in a different generation than us and so it’s probably a bigger deal for you to refrain from seeing movies. Aside from all other considerations (money, time, crowds), scriptwriters have forgotten how to be funny. It’s sad that we’ve come to this point that only vulgar humour is “funny”.
July 31st, 2010 at 11:07 am
Look up the work “schmuck” at dictionary.com and look at the original meaning. The vulgarity was in the title all along. I didn’t know what it meant either and I’ve used this word countless times thinking it meant “goofy” or some other version of less than intelligent. Granted the slang is what I expected, but still…
July 31st, 2010 at 5:19 pm
So proud of you for making such wise decisions. We must protect our minds and our hearts. How can we ask the Lord for a clean heart, but live in such a way that we allow such garbage to enter our minds!
I KNOW I won’t be seeing it. It is hard to find good, clean comedy anymore.
July 31st, 2010 at 9:33 pm
I’m tired of the same old jokes I heard in high school, in the locker room, and the Navy making it into television and movie scripts as though somebody is creative!. Way to go Brandon & Katie!
August 1st, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Hmmm, it is very sad to see that movies are becoming so trashy!! If you want good, clean humor, watch the Andy Griffith Show! It’s funny and innocent.
Proud of you guys for standing up for what God desires!
August 1st, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Matthew 12:34-35. If we choose to watch something we know is bad, we allow those images and words to be stored up inside us. We are choosing not to focus on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8)
Do we commit sins to make sure they really are sins? Or do we take God’s word on what sin is. If someone we trust says a movie is bad, should we go see it anyway so that we can know for sure that it is bad? (Romans 16:19)God wants us to be ignorant of what is evil.
August 2nd, 2010 at 4:04 pm
I was excited about this one too. My wife and I aren’t prudes, but we have our limits as to how much crudeness we can take in a 2 hour period. There’s a fine line between a few locker-room jokes and lengthy digressions into content that I’d be ashamed to share with our Savior.
“40 Year Old Virgin” and “Superbad” cured me of my desire to stay up on current lowbrow comedy. They just went too far and it sounds like this one does, too.
August 5th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
amen!