Boys' Bible Study

Boys' Bible Study
  • 4.9 (88)
  • FILM REVIEWS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Ash, Scott, and Julian are innocent angel babies incapable of doing wrong. They invite guests from Hell to watch and critique the best contemporary Christian movies. God wants you to listen to this podcast!

  1. 1D AGO

    The Devil's Advocate (1997) TEASER

    Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! $5 pledge gets you bonus episodes and $20 enters you in our monthly handmade DVD mailing program "Bootleg Bible Study"!   http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Perhaps the best of the 1990s films fixated on pop Christian themes (that we affectionately call "angelslop" or, if more appropriate: "devilslop"), THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE is a wildly entertaining film that despite being firmly secular, manages to hit a ton of tropes we associate with the Christian film genre. Keanu Reeves stars as Kevin Lomax, a small town defense lawyer with an impressive undefeated winning streak. He's scouted by Al Pacino as John Milton, the head of an acclaimed New York City law firm, who wants to change Lomax's life by adding him to the roster. Eagle-eared viewers may recognize the name John Milton as a reference to the author of legendary Bible fanfiction Paradise Lost. This might be your first indication that Pacino's character is the devil himself, that Reeves's character is about to make a Faustian bargain, and that the legal system is about to be used as an allegory for Christian morality. This is the most 1990s trope imaginable, an era when filmmakers were obsessed with elevating the mundane by showing it as a backdrop between the battle between angels and demons. Another distinctly 1990s decadence is needing the movie to be "smart, sexy, funny" — when THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE does rarely jump the shark into groan-inducing campiness, it's when the film attempts to flatter the viewer's sense of sophistication. However it's still a welcome nostalgic departure from mainstream movies nowadays that openly market themselves as slop from a trough for the lowest bidder. But it's the smart writing and impressive production design that makes THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE's heavy handed tropes and conservative morality feel delightfully predictable instead of tediously formulaic. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

    2 min

  2. MAY 3

    The ButterCream Gang: Secret of Treasure Mountain (1993)

    This sequel to what is now regarded as one of the most beloved Christian films of all time (THE BUTTERCREAM GANG) misses the mark by messing with the original formula. Released only one year after the original, THE BUTTERCREAM GANG: SECRET OF TREASURE MOUNTAIN feels like a completely different series by focusing on a GOONIES-style adventure subplot instead of the friendship between the ButterCreamers. The original idea of the ButterCream Gang is that they were a group of neighborhood boys who do good deeds; the new generation now admits girls (woke much?) and seems to have forgotten entirely about helping the community, save for a lemonade stand fundraiser here and there. Several original cast members returned for round two, yet SECRET OF TREASURE MOUNTAIN picks a new boy named Eldon and introduces conflict based on his insecurity over not being seen as a "hero" among the band of do-gooders. Fortunately for Eldon, an opportunity to gain some much-needed recognition arrives when he stumbles upon an old document, written in Spanish, that appears to be a treasure map on what is now the property of beloved neighborhood figure Mr. Graff. Conveniently, a Spanish archeologist named Dr. Almodovar has recently come to town and can help the children follow the map to a mysterious treasure they hope will raise the funds to save Mr. Graff's property. Little do Eldon and the ButterCreamers know that Dr. Almodovar is actually a descendant of a Spanish conquistador, seen in a flashback at the beginning of the film, attempting to find hidden gold cursed by monks. This is the first Christian movie we've ever watched attributing to monks the ability to put curses on things, but sure enough, Eldon follows the trail to a mysterious local monastery. Can Eldon's pure heart outsmart the conniving Dr. Almodovar and put the gold to good use, preventing Eldon from falling to the curse that has harmed everyone else who tried to snatch it? SECRET OF TREASURE MOUNTAIN has the bones to be an entertaining family film, but its haphazardly paced writing strips away the real story of friendship that made the original BUTTERCREAM GANG become firmly entrenched in millennial Christian nostalgia. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: http://twitch.tv/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

    1h 28m

  3. APR 26

    Our Man Kent Episode 2 (2026) TEASER

    Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! $5 pledge gets you bonus episodes and $20 enters you in our monthly handmade DVD mailing program "Bootleg Bible Study"!   http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy We continue our immersion into Rev. Kenya Cagle's AI-generated world of secret agents, advanced technology, and an evil white nationalist conspiracy with episode 2 of the AI action series OUR MAN KENT. The past few weeks on our show have been dedicated to delving seriously into Rev. Cagle's AI work, an experience that has been alternately exciting and really tedious. As lovers of DIY film, it's pretty clear that generative AI video is here to stay as the new "folk media" form. Despite a strong anti-AI sentiment from many creatives, another tribe of auteurs finds AI to be cheap, accessible, and capable of building fantastical ideas from the ground up. The same creators that in the past would dress up as a secret agent can now embed their face onto an AI avatar and have him do death-defying stunts for them. This is a bittersweet moment because the charm of low budget live action films is their imagination of trying and failing to recreate Hollywood plots using only the equipment in your garage. On the other hand, AI as a folk media form creates bizarre scenarios and surreal humor that can be captivating, when the video itself isn't constantly warping and nauseating to watch (which is frequently.) OUR MAN KENT lets Rev. Cagle's writing (his strongest quality) shine and takes care of the set pieces, which are dreamlike and even nightmarish. Cagle's author stand-in Agent Kent Cag takes a "drone phone" call in a pool, AI generating the scene as a tableau of unsmiling young women lining each side like palace guards as Cag speaks monotonously to his nagging AI girlfriend, Tasha. Afterwards, Cag goes on a date with a beautiful young woman, only to not notice her drugging his drink, which AI generates as a giant horse-sized pill that fizzes up his entire glass in the least covert attempt at subterfuge ever. OUR MAN KENT is a fascinating watch because Rev. Cagle is closer to realizing his larger-than-life cinematic ideas than ever before, but the generations fall short in ways so off-puttingly bizarre that they frequently make us laugh out loud. Despite this, it's a fascinating piece by a Christian director because its black pride storyline is much more progressive than our usual fare.

    5 min

  4. APR 19

    Man of the Night (2026)

    For the first time on this podcast, we watched a feature-length AI film, a venture we wouldn't have embarked on if we didn't already trust the creative spirit of the great Kenya Cagle. In fact, none of us on the show had ever even watched an AI feature before, Christian or otherwise. Ethical questions aside, the discontinuous style of AI video, with warping lines, uncanny movements, and constantly changing character models, makes watching for an extended period of time a disturbing experience like a dream you can't wake up from. MAN OF THE NIGHT is a real nightmare of a film, the plot of which concerns a high school basketball star named Damien who is killed by his very evil girlfriend, only to be resurrected by her years later using dark magic. Damien remembers being in Hell, and now feels out of place, a walking corpse who kills on command for his evil witch ex-girlfriend, who has total control over him. Meanwhile, Damien's sister, who was a little girl when he was killed, has grown up and become the police commissioner of New York City, but she is remarkably incurious about a string of murders centered around her old family home. When she discovers the dark secret of her undead brother, it's nearly too late -- she is clinically insane and in psychiatric care, but pulls out of it for one last dramatic showdown where her police force accidentally kills Damien before learning the full story. It's an intense plot made even more intense (and borderline unwatchable) by the hallucinated guts and gore of AI generation. Even watching a movie like this feels like an athletic endeavor -- truthfully, we probably wouldn't have put ourselves through it under any other circumstances. That just goes to show how much we love the Rev. Kenya Cagle, MBA. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: http://twitch.tv/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

    1h 24m

  5. APR 12

    Our Man Kent (2026) TEASER

    Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month!   http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Have we discovered the first great piece of AI filmmaking? We'd like to believe we are the first Christian film podcast to cover the OUR MAN KENT series, since installment one was released less than two weeks ago and currently has fewer than 100 views. AI seems to be the current artistic focus of auteur Kenya Cagle, an extremely prolific faith-based film director proven capable of creating live-action films such as our favorites THE BOY WHO SAW CHRIST and THIRTEEN MONTHS. AI in Cagle's hands is possibly a way to quickly iterate on fantastical sci-fi ideas, and hopefully not a full replacement for his live-action work, which we love. Despite personal artistic qualms about generative AI's use in art, t's undeniable that AI allows Cagle to pursue sci-fi ideas he probably couldn't pull off in live action. OUR MAN KENT contains depictions of futuristic technology such as "drone phones," "guardian angel" drones that serve as personal robotic bodyguards, and Kent's AI girlfriend "Tasha" (whom he communicates with via commands, like Alexa). These tools are deployed by protagonist Kent, a Black secret agent combating systemic anti-Blackness. In this installment, when an evil scientist cancels a university's African American Studies program, Kent's boss (the "Supreme Being") offers him a lucrative opportunity to defeat the scientist and save history. The medium of AI video adds a bizarre, uncanny tone to the piece; character movements and animations such as car rides are unnatural to the point of nauseating, but they add a character that at times makes it delightful to watch. While generative AI's impact on the creative process remains controversial among film fans, and for good reason (critiques of resource usage and creative plagiarism are valid), from a philosophical standpoint it's clear that AI doesn't mask Kenya Cagle's creative spirit. The singular, weird vision of his live-action films is highly present in OUR MAN KENT, allowing the medium to extend his message, even if it makes the film hard to watch at times. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: http://twitch.tv/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

    3 min

  6. APR 5

    Old Rugged Cross (2016)

    ANNOUNCEMENT: a new perk is available on our $20 patreon tier! BOOTLEG BIBLE STUDY is a monthly physical media series where we send you handmade and custom-edited DVDs of faith-based films curated and assembled by BBS cohost Scott. Sign up by EOD Sunday April 5 to receive the first DVD "MURDER BIBLE"! Any signups after that date will be automatically enrolled for the May 2026 drop and beyond. Thank you for your generous support! https://www.patreon.com/c/boysbiblestudy Happy Easter! Three days before the resurrection miracle that defined Christianity, Jesus died on an Old Rugged Cross for the sins of podcasters everywhere. Therefore, it felt right to review OLD RUGGED CROSS, a drama about two pastors fighting for hearts and minds in a small town, by beloved auteur Donald James Parker. Parker, a frequently reviewed filmmaker on this podcast, had an insanely productive streak from 2014–2016, during which he wrote ten feature films, sometimes directing and starring in them. These include his famous GRAMPS series as well as the legendary THE UNEXPECTED BAR MITZVAH, some of our favorite movies we have ever watched in the faith-based genre. OLD RUGGED CROSS is a reskin of some of Donald's favorite topics, and although it lacks some of the explosive novelty of THE UNEXPECTED BAR MITZVAH (a film that prominently featured an Orthodox Jewish family arguing about Tim Tebow), OLD RUGGED CROSS keeps the viewer engaged with an entertaining story and dialogue so unmistakably Donald it boggles the mind. For example, OLD RUGGED CROSS's three main characters are groan-inducingly on-the-nose: Parker himself plays the pure-hearted Pastor "Evan Shepherd," his evil rival is the scheming Pastor Luke "Wolf," and his love interest torn between the two holy men is "Anita Rock." Seriously. Some other tropes from Parker's work are presented well here: Pastor Shepherd observes a Saturday Sabbath, as Jewish people do, because this is more biblically accurate. Also, Shepherd is portrayed as being so devout a Christian as to alienate his wife and daughters, a biographical aspect of nearly all of Parker's self-cast characters. Why this very specific creative choice? Parker's expressive performance as Shepherd and the jaw-dropping dialogue of his script combine in a pleasing way that makes OLD RUGGED CROSS one of the most solid and entertaining entries in Parker's filmography, a real compliment considering his catalog contains some of the most legendary contemporary Christian films of all time. If your name happens to be Anita Christianfilm, look no further. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on X: https://x.com/boysbiblestudy

    1h 40m

  7. MAR 29

    Not a Fan. (2011) TEASER

    Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! www.patreon.com/boysbiblestudy This millennial-coded 2011 DVD Bible study series uses Facebook lingo, which was very en vogue at the time, to encourage people to upgrade their relationship with Jesus from casual to committed. NOT A FAN, the brainchild of minister Kyle Idleman, uses a clickbait-style title to grab your attention: what do you mean you're "NOT A FAN" of Jesus? What Idleman means is that on Facebook at the time, you could click a thumbs up to "become a fan" of something you liked, a shallow and performative gesture that serves as a metaphor for going through the motions of Christianity without participating with your full heart. Going to church every Sunday is meaningless without loving the process. To illustrate this, Idleman released a serial drama of 6 DVD study episodes about fictitious Eric Nelson, a cutthroat executive and "pleasure seeking rebel" who commits his life to Christ after a stress-induced heart attack. These episodes were condensed to a feature film, which we watched this week, with interstitial sermons narrated by Idleman himself. Nelson's family, shocked at his sudden transformation, does their best to keep up with his newfound enthusiasm but doesn't exactly love the life changes. The Nelsons go from a McMansion in the suburbs to a humble farmhouse, and Eric goes from the boardroom to the soup kitchen. They stay devoted to their patriarch and go along with what he says, but don't really "feel" the love and resent the new Christian austerity. A not-so-shocking tragic ending gives the Nelsons new perspective, and the entire family learns to be Followers of Jesus, not just Fans: people whose devotion to Christ has caused them to take on great sacrifice and inconvenience. Idleman basically says that if you're not feeling the burn of Christianity in your life, you're probably not going hard enough. NOT A FAN is delightful for its now-extremely-dated branding and vocabulary, but is overall a total slog, with constant scenes of death and suffering that don't do a good job of "selling" the Christian lifestyle to casuals. But then again, this DVD is for the Followers, NOT the Fans. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: http://twitch.tv/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

    3 min

  8. MAR 22

    It Ain't Worth It: Athletes for Abstinence (VHS, 1986)

    A team of the world's top athletes has weighed the pros and cons and concluded: sex really ain't worth it. On IT AIN'T WORTH IT: ATHLETES FOR ABSTINENCE, a whimsical 80s VHS tape with obligatory hip hop aesthetic influence meant to appeal to the youth, former pro basketball player AC Green tells teens that sex is an unnecessary temptation best handled by just saying no. Green's career spanned 16 years in the NBA, during which he set the record for perfect attendance with 1,192 consecutive games played. This earned him the nickname Iron Man, which fans mockingly shifted to Iron Virgin in response to Green's proud claims that he remained a virgin bachelor throughout his entire NBA career as a devout Christian waiting for marriage. Green was surely aware of jokes at his expense, but he held firm to his convictions and spent his career running youth ministries, using his celebrity to connect with Christian teens. While that is a nice sentiment, materials like his tape IT AIN'T WORTH IT provide glaringly inaccurate statistics about sexual health topics like contraceptives and also refuse to acknowledge the real reason teens have sex: because they are horny. Green's thesis seems to be that teen sex culture is purely a result of media influence and social pressure, ignoring that biological processes begin in adolescence that make people actively want sex. There are good reasons for teens to manage these impulses until they are more mature, but the clumsy testimonies of Green and his teen cohorts instead rely on fallacies such as claiming everyone who has sex will get AIDS and that condoms fail 50 percent of the time. Unfortunately for Christians, the message remains laughable and feels as if they themselves are asexual (as opposed to abstinent.) If Christians can't relate to sexual desire, they will never reach teens on an authentic level with an abstinence message. Also, although an original rap song seemed to be a requirement for youth media in the late 80s and early 90s, here it does little to help the abstinence cause. It simply ain't worth it. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: http://twitch.tv/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

    1h 24m
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4.9
out of 5
88 Ratings

About

Ash, Scott, and Julian are innocent angel babies incapable of doing wrong. They invite guests from Hell to watch and critique the best contemporary Christian movies. God wants you to listen to this podcast!

Information

  • Creator
    Boys' Bible Study
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    325
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Boys' Bible Study

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