Since the dawn of time, humans have strived to build vast civilizations on earth. Rulers have sought to leave their mark on history by making advances in construction, culture and technology and by taking as much stuff from their neighbors as possible. The civilization series depicts this struggle from the Stone Age through to the modern era and beyond.

The PC versions of Civilization have given me more than a few bouts of ‘one more turn’ fever over the years. They are compelling classics that are epic in scope. But what of the trimmed down version for consoles and mobile devices? I played Civilization Revolution 2 on the iPad to see whether it could recreate the complex joy of the PC experience.

The game starts as all Civ games do. You control a group of wide-eyed settlers looking for the perfect spot to found their first city. Once the foundations of your soon-to-be great civilization are laid, it’s time to turn to the serious business of world domination. Explore your surroundings, choose technologies to develop, train units, and build municipal buildings for your city. The choices you make determine how quickly your civilization develops, scientifically, culturally, financially and militarily. Each of these four areas can lead to victory, so it is important to decide where to focus your efforts.

You encounter rival civilizations along the way with which you can trade, swap technologies or fight. Most of the fighting occurs as a result of direct competition for land. Everyone is vying to found their cities in the juiciest spots, and this is where friction arises. There can be rewards in combat - If you manage to capture all three enemy capital cities, you win the game. But it also comes at a great cost - war is expensive, after all. Get bogged down in a long, protracted war and more peaceful civilizations will outstrip you in other areas of the game.

Though stripped down from the PC version, Civ Rev 2 manages to pack in a lot of features. Games can last for many hours and there is great pleasure in seeing your people rise from stone huts to build great wonders and powerful cities. There is a lot of replay value with many civilizations to choose from, each with their own bonuses and special troops. You earn achievements for winning in various different ways and unlock new civilizations to play with. There are also a variety of scenarios to play through that change the gameplay up, such as focussing solely on the space race, or defeating barbarian hordes.

Thank you Riverdale Ave. Books for sending us this e-book to review!

When Micky Neilson was eight months old he was kidnapped by his schizophrenic father and lived as a nomad in the desert.  He didn’t attend school until the seventh grade and his only socialization with other kids was in Boy Scouts. Although Micky thought his father’s stories and notions were strange, he loved him regardless.   

Sometimes Micky and his father would take refuge in Mormon churches, but religion didn’t last with Micky.  His life was pretty rough with being asked to steal or even point a gun at someone from a distance.  Before he was a teenager, he was in a foster home and would continue his relationship with his father via letters.

Micky goes into detail about his experience at different foster homes, jobs, serving in the Gulf War and even his love life.  As a gamer I found his experience at Blizzard Entertainment to be the most fascinating, though his pranks as a teenager are pretty hilarious as well.  I like the prank where he swapped out his boss’ telephone number with a customer's and had a new hire at the telemarketing company call him.

Some of the language in the book is a bit much for children to read and there is some mature content in terms of the war experiences and Micky’s first time with a prostitute.  There are also several references of drinking and partying.  Though Micky got baptized as a teenager his faith didn’t last long and he dabbled in using the Ouija board with his friends on several occasions.  

Microsoft has celebrated the anniversary of the backward compatibility feature for its Xbox One consoles by adding a fan favorite to the list of available games. Anyone who owns a physical or digital copy of Skate 3 by EA Black Box can now play the classic 360 game on their Xbox One or Xbox One S console. Check the ‘games’ screen of your console for more information on this and other available backplay titles.

When backward compatibility for Xbox 360 games was announced at the E3 segment, there was an instant demand for Skate 3 to be among the available titles. The third installment of this cult EA skateboarding series instantly became the most popular yet upon its release in 2010, plus the game had something of a revival in 2014 after YouTube boosted its popularity. It rose to become one of the most demanded titles in fan forums for the backplay feature, and is a very welcome addition to the growing catalog of compatible 360 games.

Grab a copy if you missed it the first time

Backplay is available to any Xbox One owner - if you didn’t own a 360 game originally, you can still pick them up for just a few dollars in second hand gaming stores or online. Research Team at Frugaa (a leading coupon provider in the USA) saw a sudden surge in searches for deals on Skate 3 games right after the update was announced, and the game also became a featured product on Amazon’s front page for a short time, because of the boom in demand.

Not only is the game included in the list of compatible titles, but you can get to all the DLC extras as well! From extra tracks and courses to fun merchandise and additional tasks, many of the add-ons have been free to Xbox 360 users for some time and can be added directly from the menu when you load up the game. Some versions of the game include all of the extra features within the disk - these can be ordered online or found in most gaming stores.

Thank you No Starch Press for sending us this book to review!

No Starch Press has been publishing kid friendly programming books for a while and my kids have learned a lot through them.  My son went through the Ruby Wizardry book and didn’t like all of the typing involved.  Thanks to this book, he loves making games with Scratch.  Scratch is a beginner friendly programming language that uses very little code.  All of the programs are assembled by dragging and dropping code blocks.  

My son isn’t much of an artist; even when asked to draw simple shapes, the pediatrician said that he isn’t a Picasso.  There is a downloadable resource pack that includes all of the images and source code to reference if you get stuck.  There is also an image file of the completed program to use as a reference if your game is broken.  Throughout this book we have used all of the file types at one point or another.  When the computer was accidentally turned off we were able to restore a program close to where my son left off.  This saved us from further tears and frustration.

The games my son made were fun to play and well-polished (when using the included artwork).  In this book you’ll learn how to make an Asteroids, Snake, Break-Out, and platformer style games.  There is a maze game as well as my son’s favorite:  a Fruit Ninja clone.  My son truly enjoyed this book from start to finish and often completed multiple chapters in one day.

In total there are nine chapters and 256 pages of content.  It didn’t take long for my son to finish this book and we look forward to more written by Al Sweigart.  The list price is $24.95 but I have seen it for less than $15 on Amazon.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the most family friendly games we have reviewed in 2016. More reviews can be found on ChristCenteredGamer.com! Each game is given a gameplay score for the overall gaming experience and a moral score for how suitable it is for younger gamers. The Amazon and Humble Store links will benefit Christ Centered Gamer by giving us a small % of the sale.

If you find this guide or site useful please consider supporting us via Patreon or donating through Paypal.

Another great way to support us is to

Follow Us

Thank you Daniels Murphy Communications for sending us a screener for this special!

It has long been debated about the effects of video games on the human brain.  Do they make people more violent?  Can they be addicting?  Are there practical uses for them?  The BBC’s special Your Brain On Video Games which premiered on the Science Channel on November 1st, 2016 set out to answer all of those questions.

More and more violent video games are coming out every year and despite the bad press they are receiving, they only account for 5% of the games that are released.  There are 1.2 billion people in the world who play video games and a majority of them are over thirty-five.  Many of them have been gaming since their childhood and video game addiction is only attributed to less than 1% of them.  Gamers who play extended gaming sessions every day (on the tune of 20 hours a week) did not scientifically qualify as addiction through both the use of personality tests and brain scans.  According to Valerie Voon from University of Cambridge, one of the indicators of video game addiction is requiring instant gratification in many real life scenarios.  

Many professors including Craig Anderson and Doug Gentile from Iowa State University and Brad Bushman from Ohio State University have studied the effects of playing violent video games and how they raise levels of aggression.  Their findings indicated that after playing a violent video game the aggression level of college aged students showed an increase between 4-9%.  Studies have also revealed that gamers are desensitized to real world violence after playing violent video games.  

Despite the desensitizing and slight aggression level increases there is no direct correlation of video games influencing violent crimes.  In fact, many of the professors featured in the special believe the opposite.  They believe the routine activities theory is taking place where less opportunities are available for potential criminals since they are too busy playing video games instead of committing crimes.  

Thank you Lionsgate for sending us this DVD set to review!

This is the first time my kids have watched Power Rangers and they enjoyed this series.  My son more so than my daughters, though they related with the female rangers.   This collection ends in a cliff-hanger and is missing the holiday episodes so I wouldn’t really consider it complete.  However, the less than $10 asking price is still pretty reasonable for twenty episodes and seven hours of entertainment. 

The first episode introduces the high school students soon to be the next generation of Power Rangers.  Troy, who becomes the red ranger, is good at handling adversity and is a martial arts expert.  Gia, with her calm demeanor, morphs into the yellow ranger.  Emma is Gia’s best friend and appreciates nature; she transforms into the pink ranger.  The nerdy, but likable Noah becomes the blue ranger.   Last but not least is Jake, who is strong, has a crush on Gia, and turns into the black ranger.

The character development is decent and held the interest of my daughters while my son likes the battle scenes with the insect-like alien invaders.  The special effects are cheesy and make Sharknado look like Avatar.   Each episode features a new insect-like invader with a different method to thwart the Power Rangers and to take over the world.  Thankfully, their plans get squashed every time until the final episode.  I won’t know the result of the epic battle until the next season of the Super Megaforce Power Rangers.

Thank you No Starch Press for sending us a review copy of this book!

Python is a powerful programming language that is used worldwide and is a valuable skill to know for a hobbyist or anyone pursuing a computer science major.   In Python Crash Course you’ll learn basic coding concepts, troubleshooting skills, and how to make games, manipulate data, and deploy your programs.  The example scripts show how to code for both Python 2.X and 3.X.   The recommended and free editor, Geany, is user friendly and works well.

The first half of the book talks about variables, lists, loops, if statements, dictionaries, while loops, functions, classes, and working with files.  Each of the twenty chapters has about twenty or so pages with helpful examples to teach you how to use the concepts they are teaching.  The beginning coding examples aren’t that memorable, but they get you familiar with the basics required for the advanced projects in the second half of the book.  

My favorite project was making the Space Invaders type game.  The source code has all of the graphics needed and is available for troubleshooting purposes.  I ran across an issue in the eleventh chapter where the printed code is incorrect and the source code had corrected code that successfully compiled.    The printed code was "print(question)" when the proper code should have been "print(self.question)."  

From chapter fifteen on I could no longer compile my programs using cloud services like Dropbox or One Drive.  If I compiled my programs locally they worked just fine.  This is not the fault of the author; I just thought I would spare someone some frustration if they use cloud storage for saving their work.  

Thank you Gifted Custom Art for sending us a product sample to review!

GiftedCustomArt.com’s founder Kevin West is a professional artist that grew up in the Boys and Girls Club as a child.  He considers it his second home and worked there as a part-time teacher until he was diagnosed with stage three cancer.  After he beat the cancer, he knew that God had bigger plans for him and wanted to share his passion for art with kids and adults alike.  After seeing his daughter paint an astounding self-portrait of herself using his paint-by number concept, he knew he was onto something big.

The painting kits sell for a promotional price of $99.95 and includes a 16” X 20” canvas that come pre-printed with an outline of your image marked with which color to paint the different sections.  The photo submission guidelines give tips on ideal file submissions and restrictions such as copyrighted photos are not permitted.  For best results the image must be close up, high resolution, and only featuring one or two people/subjects.

Thank you Fruit-Full Kids for sending us a Golden Rule plate to review!

Fruit-Full Kids began unexpectedly when a mother offered a kindness award for her kids to get along after a day of bickering.  She didn’t expect her offer to make a difference, but God had other plans! When her children behaved the rest of the day, Laurie Canata, gave one of her kids a different plate than the others.  Following that day her kids were excited to see who would get the special plate.   And thus the idea for unique Christian/Bible verse themed plates was born!

At the time of this article there are sixteen different plates to choose from and they sell for $6.95 individually or $19.95 for a set of three.  There are plates for several fruits of the spirit including love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Biblical principles like the Golden Rule (Matt 7:12), being a Fruitful Follower (Mark 12:30), and a Gracious Giver (2 Cor 9:7) are also available in plate-form.  Last but not least are holiday themes plates with Christmas (Luke 2:11 & Luke 2:14), Thanksgiving (Ps 136:1), and birthday (Ps 139:13-14) plates available.  

The dishes themselves are high quality with colorful and attractive artwork on them.  They are made from non-toxic BPA free melamine.  The plates measure nine inches in diameter and are dishwasher safe.  My biggest complaint is that they are not recommended for microwave use.  Given that my kids often need to re-heat leftovers, they don’t get as much use out of these dishes as I would like. However, in the past couple of weeks that we have been using the plate, it has held up fine and the design is not scratching or fading away.     

ZORP (Zombie Oblivion Response pack)
Developed by: Carl Sommer
Price: $35

Thank you Wonky Rhino Games for sending us a review prototype!

ZORP is a table top strategy game that utilizes fun weapons like flame throwers, grenades, cars, and bazookas against hordes of zombies that are blocking the way to a cure.  Up to four players can play and there are only nine turns for the humans to make it to the limited number of cures available.  One player controls the zombie hordes while the rest focus on clearing a path to the coveted cure.  

Each turn has two movement phases and one action phase and they can be taken in any order.  After all of the humans take their turn, the zombie master gets to move all of the zombies and play an event card if applicable.  The possible zombie events include super zombies, explosive zombies, zombies armed with slingshots, and resurrecting zombies.  

Thank you Well Go USA Entertainment for sending us this DVD to review!

My Many Sons tells the true story of Don Meyer (played by Judge Reinhold), the “winningest coach that nobody knew.”  In 2009 Don Meyer passed Bobby Knight’s NCAA winning record and held it until 2012.  Coach Meyer’s dedication and work ethic helped put Lipscomb University on the map and because of him, they were able to move up to division one basketball.  Despite the university offering to double his salary, coach Meyer refused to coach division one basketball since he was investing more into the students than basketball skills.  

Besides teaching the students valuable basketball maneuvers, he taught them to be accountable, respectable and to clean up after themselves and to pick up litter.  Like many coaches, Don threw verbal taunts like calling them numb nuts. No other foul language was used in this film though.  On a few occasions he got physical with them and had to apologize for his actions.  He was not an easy man to get along with and was known for culling the weak links from his team relatively quickly.  After his first month at Northern University in South Dakota, Don only had seven players left on his team!  

Though his team didn’t lose very often, they found out that coach Meyer took to their losses pretty well. He didn’t rub it in any further since they did a pretty good enough of a job to themselves.  Don promised to be there for his students when things got rough and he kept his promise.  During his near fatal car accident, his students return the favor and visited while he was recuperating in the hospital for nearly two months.  When he was released, he showed up at work the next morning! 

While not perfect by any means, Don Meyer was a faithful and self-less man that wasn’t shy about his faith and work ethic.  He has touched the lives of many and his story is a good one that’s worth seeing.  Even though I’m not into basketball, I enjoyed this sports-themed movie that tells a great story of perseverance.  This ninety-eight minute film can be yours for less than $12 on Amazon.

Thank you Magic Sketch for sending us a review sample!

My kids love to draw and go through a lot of construction paper and scurry off with all the pens in our house.  Of course they like video games too and primarily use their tablets to play them.   The problem with tablets is that they don’t last too long before needing to be recharged again.  The Magic Sketch is a durable tablet like device that allows kids to draw, trace, and play games in beautiful rainbow colors.  There’s only one button on it and it’s used to clear the screen.  The battery life is estimated to last seven years and is easily accessible and replaceable.

There’s plenty to do with the basic bundle that includes sixty stencils, four styluses, three stamps, and one roller.   The website says it’s $29.95, but after you factor in the $7.95 processing and handling fees, the final total is $37.90.  For all that you get it’s a pretty good deal.

The stencils have three different focus areas including learning, drawing, and games.  The learning stencils include math problems and letters of the alphabet to practice on.  The drawing stencils have step by step drawing, complete the picture, and tracing templates.  The favorite among my kids are the game stencils.  The game cards include mazes, word finds, connect the dots, tic tac toe and hang-man templates.  The stencils are easy to use and slide in and out of the top layer of the Magic Sketch.

Thank you Cinedigm for sending us a DVD to review!

In-Lawfully Yours is a Christian themed romantic comedy that stars and is produced by Corbin Bernsen.  Not only does it have a unique love story, there’s a positive message about God’s love and redemption.  This is another Christian movie that pleasantly surprised us with some funny moments and a good story.

Upon receiving the news of her father-in-law’s illness, Jesse went to inform her husband, Charlie.   Once she tracked him down, she caught him in the arms of another woman.  Divorce paperwork and the death of his father soon followed.  Charlie’s mother, Naomi, takes the loss pretty hard as she lost her daughter six years prior.  Packing up and moving out of her mostly empty house is not something she’s looking forward to, but her son is pushing her so she can move in with him.  Prepping to leave this small town behind she starts packing her things with Jesse’s help.

Jesse is from New York and is not familiar with how quickly rumors spread around small towns.   Besides the humorous and unwelcome treatment she gets at the only restaurant in town, Jesse is also treated rudely when visiting the local church for the first time in her life.  She has many faith questions and learns the hard way that it’s not proper to interrupt the pastor during his sermon to ask them.  The pastor, Ben, is her widowed ex-brother in-law who still wears his wedding ring. 

At first the relationship between Ben and Jesse is awkward, but it doesn’t take long for them to realize that it has some potential.  However, before things get too serious Charlie comes back into town stating that he wants to fix his marriage.  Is Charlie truly changed, jealous, or is he up to no good?  To find out Charlie’s true intentions and the future of Ben and Jesse’s relationship, I recommend watching In-Lawfully Yours which can be yours for less than $15 on Amazon.

Thank you Air Bud Entertainment for sending us a screener link!

Reality singing shows like American Idol and The Voice are enjoyed by many humans.  With the help of Evolution treats, dogs have gained the ability to talk, sing, and enjoy competing in their own singing show titled Pup Star.  The contestants must sing original songs and are judged by canine judges with similar names and personalities of their human counterparts.  The judges’ names are Blake Sheltie, Dog Gnarly, Lady Paw Paw, and Simon Growl.  There’s plenty of silliness in this tale of love, revenge, and perseverance.

Tiny is a Yorkie who loves her owner, Lou.  Sadly, Lou lost her mother recently.  Lou and Tiny sing together and encourage each other to follow their dreams.  Tiny competes in Chicago’s audition’s for Pup Star and gets the golden bone and a chance to compete in the finals that take place in New York City.  Lou has to get her father’s permission to take her there though.  Sadly, the trip planning gets postponed due to Lou running into a truck and breaking her arm and Tiny getting dognapped by Roland, the greedy owner of Happy Ranch kennel.  

In the kennel Tiny learns that Roland only releases dogs that have a reward on them and that if they’re not claimed within a year they’ll be put down.  A dog named Charlie is nearing his execution date but has an escape plan and begrudgingly takes Tiny along with him.  As Tiny and Charlie travel to New Orleans, New Jersey, and New York they learn about love, friendship, and infusing their experiences into the songs that they sing.

Charlie has a bone to pick with the current Pup Star champion, Bark, and wants to pay him back for stealing his music without giving him proper credit for it.  Along the way Tiny gets to meet Charlie’s love interest and her personal idol, Emily Rose.  With all of the help and support of friends Tiny has what it takes to dethrone Bark, but needs to get past Kano the bounty hunter that’s after her.  I’ll leave the rest of the movie a surprise as it’s worth checking out.

Thank you Cinedigm for sending us this DVD to review!

Many of us have lied or made mistakes before.  Fortunately for us, our misdeeds are not recorded in the Bible.  Luke 22:54-62 recounts Peter denying that he knew Jesus three times, just as Jesus predicted.  After Jesus’ resurrection He restores Peter by having Him affirm him three times in John 21:15-19.  The movie Peter: The Redemption depicts Peter living his final months in a Roman jail and refusing to confess to burning down the city under Nero’s rule.  Despite being given several opportunities to recant his faith, Peter holds firm and refuses to deny Jesus any more in his lifetime.  Unfortunately, several other Christians are persecuted and tortured as a result.

There are many bloody and uncomfortable scenes as Christians are seen getting beaten and bloodied.  For this reason, younger children should probably refrain from seeing this film.  Fortunately, the scenes with them being set on fire are not shown, but the screams of torture still hit home.  Many popular actors are in this ninety-minute film including John Rhys-Davies as Peter and Stephen Baldwin as Nero.  

Besides the story of Peter’s strong faith, there is a budding romance between a dedicated Roman soldier named Martinian and a palace servant, Suzanna, who is tending to Peter’s many wounds.  Suzanna is a Christian and is treading on thin ice as Nero detests Christians and enjoys using them as torches to illuminate his garden.  To make matters worse Nero takes a liking to her and his wife is extremely jealous.

I won’t spoil this movie, but unlike many Christian films out there, Peter The Redemption tells a good story about faith, love, forgiveness, and perseverance.   Not all of the believers keep their faith as some of the prisoners recant to regain their freedom.  However, others die for their faith and those strong Christians inspire unlikely individuals to become saved and get baptized in Jesus’ name.   

Thank you Broadgreen for sending us this DVD to review!

The fourth chapter in the book of Matthew mentions Jesus going into the wilderness to be tempted and fasting for forty days and nights.  The Bible tells about three of the temptations, but the movie Last Days In The Desert uses some artistic license to add many more.    The beginning of this hour and thirty-eight minute movie is a bit slow starting as it shows the “Holy man” as He’s referred to wandering aimlessly in the desert.  You’ll see Him sleeping and hear Him praying for guidance to His Heavenly Father and even laughing at the wind blowing sticks around.  Later on in the film He laughs at a fart too.

While He’s never called Jesus, Satan who is also played by Ewan McGregor (He's Jesus too) refers to Him as Yeshua.   Satan takes on many forms, but is most often identical in appearance to Jesus.  One of the forms Satan takes on is that of a topless woman whose hair covers the otherwise  would be seen nipples.  

During Jesus’ fasting in the desert He happens upon a nomad family that is struggling emotionally.  Their mother is deathly ill while the adolescent son and father barely communicate and cannot relate to one another.  The father is a skilled carpenter and wishes for his son to live in the desert with him, but the son longs to set his own destiny in Jerusalem.  The mother wishes for him to fulfill his dreams as well, but the family cannot afford an apprenticeship for him.  

Satan offers a wager to Jesus to fix this family and even tells Him of their future had Jesus not crossed paths with them.  I found it odd that Satan could see the future, but Jesus couldn’t in this film.  Jesus was able to foresee many events including His own death (Matt 26:2), betrayal (Matt 26:21), resurrection (Matt 16:21), coming of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26), and even the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 19:43-44).  Even though Jesus is perceived as weak (despite eating) and doubting of His abilities, there is a decent story about humanity, family, and relationships in this film.  Just don’t expect much Biblical content because much of it goes against God’s word.   

Thank you Allied Integrated Marketing for providing us with two tickets to the show!

C.S. Lewis is a well-known author who has penned many great Christian themed works including The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and plenty more that I have yet to read!  Though he grew up in a Christian household, he did renounce his faith and defended atheism for a while.  The play C.S. Lewis The Most Reluctant Convert is based off of his letters and autobiography, Surprised by Joy.  Max McLean’s performance and retelling of C.S. Lewis’ early life is absolutely brilliant and worth seeing if there’s a performance near you!

The play has a slideshow in the background that would animate and bring forward portraits of people in C.S. Lewis’s life as they were mentioned.  Unfortunately for us, there was a technical malfunction that caused an unplanned intermission and the play was resumed with a still image for the remainder of the performance.  Some of the people talked about were C.S. Lewis’ father, his mentor William T. Kirkpatrick, and his theist friends (Owen Bartfield, J. R. R. Tolkien, Hugo Dyson) that made him question his materialist views.

It was fun seeing C.S. Lewis’ transforming views going from believing that there was no God behind the universe, and if there was it would be an evil God, to acknowledging that the hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men.  Of course C.S. Lewis didn’t dive fully into Christianity, he took many baby steps and slowly gave God the reverence and respect that He deserves.  At first he would only refer to God as “Spirit” stating that He had to earn his title of God.  His prayer life had to grow as well as he first thought prayer was the equivalent of sending letters to a nonexistent address.  

Since this play ends at C.S Lewis’ conversion it begs the question of the possibility of a sequel.  I personally would look forward to it or any other productions from Fellowship For Performing Arts.

Thank you BH Impact for sending us this DVD to review!

Most Christians are familiar with Mary’s role in submitting to God’s will and bringing our savior into this world.  She agreed to carry the Lord’s child knowing that her future marriage and life would be endangered as a result.   Because of a dream Joseph received from the Lord, he knew that her pregnancy was indeed a miracle and continued the engagement knowing that his reputation would suffer as a result.  The movie Joseph and Mary doesn’t focus on the angelic visit and begins with Joseph (Kevin Sorbo) crafting a wooden cradle for their future baby.  

While the Bible doesn’t specify the ages of Mary and Joseph, I’m willing to bet that they were much younger than the actors used to play their roles in this film.  I’m also willing to wager that they were not Caucasian either.   The miscasting continues in the temple scene with Simeon and Anna. Their actors are much too young for their roles.  Both of them were promised to see the Messiah before they died and Anna was in her eighties when she saw baby Jesus.

The acting is still decent regardless of their ages and the main story of the revenge seeking rabbi, Elijah, is pretty good.  King Herod’s taxes are causing an uproar and people who resist paying taxes are made examples of.  Rebekah’s husband, Aaron, is killed in front of her despite Elijah’s attempts of appeasing the tax collector.  The husband’s dying wish is that Elijah takes care of his wife and he does so.  Her oldest son grows fond of Elijah and they become a family.  That is until Herod demands the deaths of young male children.  Rebekah vows vengeance on the soldier that carried out Herod’s orders on her family and she pressures Elijah into killing him on her behalf.

Elijah refers to the Deuteronomy 19 verse 21 which states a life for a life and an eye for an eye for agreeing to kill this legionnaire.  Joseph is trying to convince Elijah to forgive the man and have compassion on him instead.  As Jesus grows up and speaks in the temple, Elijah is convinced that there’s something different about this child and starts to believe that He’s the Messiah.  Can he accept Christ’s teachings and learn to forgive?  I’ll leave the rest for you see for yourself in this hour and twenty-two-minute film.

Thank you Public Media Distribution for sending us this DVD to review!

The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) book written by Roald Dahl came out in 1982 and the ninety-minute film adaptation was released in 1989.  This 2016 version has been digitally restored and comes with a before and after special feature so you can see the difference in real time.  Another added bonus is a documentary on Roald Dahl.  

The rest of this timeless classic remains the same where a young orphan girl named Sophie is woken up in the middle of the night and sees something peculiar.    There is a giant wandering around the town and is blowing something into the windows of her neighbors.  After she’s been spotted, the giant reaches into the orphanage, grabs Sophie, and takes her to his world of giants.

Sophie is afraid that the giant will eat her, but unlike the others, BFG does not eat humans.  He shares with her some of his other foods which are quite different from our world.  One of the beverages he offers her has the bubbles going down instead of up and as a result instead of burping, this drink causes the drinker to whizzpop/fart.  Needless to say that this song and other flatulence based humor in this film brought smiles and laughter out of my children.

The dated visuals are noticeable, but don’t detract from the story of friendship and courage.  There is also a good message about not judging people by their appearance and tolerating language mishaps.  Overall, my family enjoyed this film and look forward to watching the live action remake.