The Man from Earth: Hollow, Pretentious, and Poorly Directed

This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard!  

Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss a movie neither of them had heard of before: The Man From Earth! John Oldman says he’s lived for 14,000 years, but his coworkers aren’t so sure. So ensues a film of debate regarding time, materialism, and spirituality. Philosophical pretention abounds! Strap yourself in and tune in now!

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 34-minutes discussing a series of Summer Blockbusters that may or may not be – as Melvin puts it – “Not”busters, or films that flopped at the box office in contrast to their exorbitant budgets, and why that may be. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• Shirleon, “There [are] a few moments where, like, it’s charming.”
• Melvin, “Let’s just get out of the gate. Like, this is a poorly directed film.”
• There are many interesting things within the film, but the package fails to bring anything together.
• Shirleon and Melvin discuss other movies set in one room that are more visually stimulating and offer better performances.
• Pretentious is a weighty word to use in art criticism, so Melvin first colors what he considers “pretentious” as it relates to film-making before, then, calling The Man From Earth pretentious.
• Discussing the depiction of materialism in the film, and Shirleon does some live fact-checking.
• How the film dives into religious concepts but continues to have nothing to say about humanity, truth, or anything of importance.
• Melvin shares his one note-header, “Athiests make bad movies to!”.

Recommendations:

• The Fast & Furious Franchise
• Stopmotion (2023) (Movie)

The Man From Earth is Not Rated. It features David Lee Smith, Tony Todd, John Billingsley, Ellen Crawford, Annika Peterson, William Katt, Alexis Thorpe, and Richard Riehle. Directed by Richard Schenkman. The Man From Earth is available here.

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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

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Clayface – Kinda Fanfiction. Kinda Incel. DC. – Cinematic Doctrine: A Movie Review Podcast Hosted by Christians

MOVIE DISCUSSION: Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss the new-DCU's latest outing: Clayface! The two share its similarities with other body-horror classics, how it stands as another villain-without-its-hero comic-book film, and if James Gunn is haunted by his own words, [paraphrased] "We only greenlight good, finished scripts".Topics:Editor's Note: No Patreon Exclusive discussion! But, I do intend to trim this episode down from its original 1:37:28 length, so if you want to hear the UNCUT version, tune in on Patreon here!Kathryn kicks things off with a compliment sandwich.Melvin wasn't a fan, and he thought the last 20-minutes were genuinely brutal to sit through.The soundtrack feels uninspired, and the two wonder what an artistic approach would sound like.Melvin, "Did you feel like you were watching a 2000's origin story [comic book movie]?"There's a ton of movies that Clayface is evoking, and its always dangerous to remind an audience of better movies.Talking about James Gunn's response to a Thread asking ironically, "Who asked for Clayface?"Kathryn & Melvin agree: it's ironic that Clayface released a week-or-so after You Can See Everything.Melvin thinks the ending is an outright disaster.Kathryn notices the end culminates in Clayface kind of being an amalgamation of other Batman villains.James Gunn has reiterated a belief that a reason for the film industry's decline in success is due to one big thing: films moving into production without a finished script. Melvin has thoughts…Recommendations:Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't (YouTube Channel)THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: Remake 1+2 (2022 – 2025) (Video Games) Support the showSupport on Patreon for Unique Perks! Early access to uncut episodes Vote on a movie/show we review One-time reward of two Cinematic Doctrine Stickers & PinsSocial Links: ThreadsWebsiteInstagramLetterboxdFacebook Group 

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3. Dawn of the Dead (1978) – How Social Structures Rise & Fall 01:04:57
4. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 – Retconable 01:26:46
5. Pet Sematary (1989) – w/ Dreadful Digest on The CliffsNotes Adaptation 01:11:45