Why does every movie about good and evil have to be about God? Maybe it's my complete lack of a religious upbringing, but I never notice these things until someone else (usually from a Catholic family) points them out.

I don't think this movie is forcing anything down your throat. You can choose to interpret it that way or not. My boyfriend sympathized with PSH's character and thought

***spoiler***

he should have lived.

I disagree. It's forcing a Christian moral framework down your throat. There's a lot of divine justice involved. God's not mentioned, but that's left to the churches.

Most people think morality is solely derived from religion. Most people are ignorant rubes. Viola'!

That movie's message is that certain actions (sex, drugs, divorce, drinking) are depraved and immoral and if you do those things, you will die and go to hell. It's a very clear message and there's no room for interpretation. Sure sounds familiar...

Yes, and the fact that the movie SPELLED OUT its moral dilemmas in such graphic and biblical detail at every turn left even less wiggle room for those with more artistic interpretations.

Plus: they showed a load of tits. I thought their reasoning was: "People will never think we're brainwashing them if we put a load of tits in it."

And yes, this is how my mind works.

I just saw Th!nkfilm's "The TV Set" the other day and Matt's take on the company is spot on.

Good cast, reasonable direction, but not a clue on how to weave a narrative. I too detected something of an agenda (although I'm not prepared to say it was religious in nature) in so much that while having high personal aspirations is laudable, being compliant and staying in line is better.

Power to the Sheeple...

I had a bad feeling about this movie, which sucks because I love Philip Seymour Hoffman. I think he's brilliant.

Meh I'll skip it.

Um: Bullshit?

ThinkFilm has released "The Aristocrats," "Awesome! I Fuckin' Shot That!," "Zoo," "Where the Truth Lies," "Strangers with Candy," "Palindromes," "Lake of Fire," "Fuck," "Gerry" and dozens of other films that refute your guess about their nature/intent. It's an entirely secular outfit run not by christians but jews -- like all of show biz, banking and geopolitics (joke).

And if you'd seen the whole of "Devil" and found out what happens to the Ethan Hawke character you'd see your assumptions about the intent are just plain wrong: bad deeds don't all go punished in this film. Rule of thumb: It kinda helps to consume the entire work of art in order to formulate a theory about it...

As I said, Vic, I wasn't reviewing it, hence I get a pass on having an opinion not based in fact. Of course, you're free to call it ill-informed.

Hawke isn't punished, but he is REDEEMED at the end, you idiot. He doesn't need to go through jail, because he's submitted to GOD's JUSTICE.

Talk about sinister.

Now: THE ARISTOCRATS, and FUCK are both oddly veiled attempts to challenge a culture of obscenity. They're hardly without a message.

Look at some of the other movies they've produced. Like the gospels, for example, and I think you'll find there's something fishy going on.

Also: whether the founders are Jewish or Scientologists is immaterial to me. I'm looking at the ideology in their movies. Not their racial background or spiritual credentials.

Vic (@8), shh! Don't bother Matt with actual facts, he's on a roll!

ThinkFilm also distributed "Protocols of Zion", a documentary on post-9/11 anti-Semitism, which is very crafty of them, because perhaps the last group you'd expect to release such a film would be a secret Christian company, which is exactly why they released it -- to throw Matt off the trail! But no, he's too clever!

But I'm not so easily fooled, Matt! I find it more than a little bit odd that you've shoved blatantly religious words like "God", "Jesus", and "Christian" down our throats in your post and comments. My theory is that you're actually a Christian yourself, trying to get us to convert to your religion by intentionally using these words! Also, I happen to know that you've been faithfully attending services at First Presbyterian Church for several months.

Bless you, tODD. Bless you sinner.

Now, Matt: easy with the name-calling...

I never said you had *reviewed* the mo-fo, but that you had a theory based on partial knowledge.

As for your explanation...

SPOILERS AHEAD

Hawke isn't *redeemed* -- he runs away with a bag of money and escapes the mess that's almost entirely of his own creation: the adultery, the botched robbery, his father's wrath, etc. He submits to nothing; he's scott free and blameless and enriched by sheer happenstance.

END SPOILERS

And I'm dying to hear how "Zoo," which hopes to make us all understand bestialists, or "Where the Truth Lies," which was released with an NC-17, fit into your vision of the company.

Th!nkfilm's vision: "Let's show the audience how sinners live like animals."

marisa tomei is hot.

wait, what?

I don't necessarily cotton to the conspiracies (because I am completely ignorant of ThinkFilm), but I do know I was excited to see this film from the preview. Then, in the last couple weeks, I've had 3 different sets of friends on 3 separate occasions all walk out of this "piece of shit" and get their money back. Never in my life have I seen this kind of exodus from a movie.

So, netflix it is.

I think the shit quality of the end product is proof of the conspiracy theory.

How do you get your money back?! can you just ask the theater?