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Our Man Kent Episode 2 (2026) TEASER Apr 26, 2026

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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.

Man of the Night (2026) Apr 19, 2026

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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.

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Our Man Kent (2026) TEASER Apr 12, 2026

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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.

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Old Rugged Cross (2016) Apr 05, 2026

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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!

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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.

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Not a Fan. (2011) TEASER Mar 29, 2026

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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.

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It Ain't Worth It: Athletes for Abstinence (VHS, 1986) Mar 22, 2026

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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.

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A Race of Giants: Our Forbidden History (2015) TEASER Mar 15, 2026

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Much of what we know about history is a lie. The biggest lie of them all, both literally and figuratively, is the coverup of the existence of giants. Primary sources such as the Bible (heard of it?) speak of a race called the Nephilim. These larger-than-life offspring of angels and human women have been depicted in documentaries such as NOAH by Darren Aronofsky. Nephilim were said to have been destroyed in the Great Flood, but a race of giant people supposedly persisted on Earth into contemporary times. If this news comes as a surprise to you, there is one group to blame: the evil Smithsonian Institution, whose alleged purpose is to destroy the remains of giant skeletons so the lie of evolution can persist. Fortunately, some brave souls like the creator of A RACE OF GIANTS boldly proclaim this history and were able to sneak it past the censors. The documentary teaches us a few things: 1) that throughout North America, the bones of giant humans and even fossilized remains of their giant tools (pause) have been found and then lost through a series of unfortunate coincidences or outright archaeological malice; 2) that the legend of Big Guys has existed in many ancient cultures for a reason, because sometimes guys are really tall; and 3) that certain findings, such as the famous Guadalupe Woman skeleton embedded in rock formations inappropriate for the generally accepted carbon dating of Earth, supposedly go as far as to disprove the very concept of evolution. Without coming across as overtly Christian, A RACE OF GIANTS makes the case for the young earth creationism described by the Old Testament in a compelling, albeit confusing and roundabout way.

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Faraway, So Close! (1993) Mar 08, 2026

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Wim Wenders's intriguing and often baffling sequel to WINGS OF DESIRE reunites several actors from the original but places them in a shifting narrative that can be difficult to follow. At times FARAWAY, SO CLOSE! even transforms into a straight mafia crime thriller, a tonal detour that feels sudden and disorienting. In many ways it is clearly a sequel, tying off threads from the first film and expanding its angel mythology in ways that feel almost like fan service. We revisit Damiel, the former angel now living as a human with his trapeze artist wife Marion, happily running a pizza place called Angel's House. The film even repeats the musical cameo idea from the original. Where Nick Cave performed live in WINGS OF DESIRE, here we get a performance from Lou Reed. But other additions feel like they belong to a completely different cosmology. Willem Dafoe plays Emit Flesti, whose name reversed reveals his nature as "Time Itself." The character functions almost like a demon, tormenting angels who have fallen to the human world. These ideas add intriguing layers to Wenders's angel lore, but they also make the mythology far more complicated than the elegant framework established in WINGS OF DESIRE. That earlier film's bold choices, like casting Peter Falk as himself but secretly a former angel, ultimately reinforced its central themes. FARAWAY, SO CLOSE! often feels both too close and too far from its source. The film's ending highlights the tension. Cassiel is killed during an elaborate plot involving a hijacked barge, only for the tragedy to turn into relief when he is restored to angelhood. It raises an odd implication. If fallen angels can simply become angels again after death, the sacrifice at the heart of WINGS OF DESIRE begins to lose its weight. Still, this is not to say we did not enjoy watching FARAWAY, SO CLOSE! It is a fascinating and often strange expansion from one of cinema's most distinctive filmmakers, even if its ambitious ideas occasionally threaten the elegant foundation of the original.

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Escape from Hell (2000) TEASER Mar 01, 2026

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Sensationalist Christian filmmaker Danny Carrales has a talent for conveying the urgency of Jesus's teachings. It's one thing to hear the words that those who don't accept God's grace will be doomed to a life of eternal torture; it's another thing to actually see this happen to a guy who seemed like a pretty decent person but unfortunately dropped dead before he decided to accept Jesus. In an instant, he's floating above his body, traveling through a pillar of light, until the direction suddenly switches and he screams in terror as the sky around him turns to fire. This is an example of the high drama level of ESCAPE FROM HELL, cowritten by Danny Carrales and Michael Martin, the team who gave us the high-octane rapture movie THE GATHERING and also HEAVEN'S WAR, a CGI-heavy story of the eternal spiritual struggle unseen to humans. ESCAPE FROM HELL inhabits a couple of well-traveled Christian movie tropes. It takes place in a hospital, a frequent setting for faith-based movies, since it's a hub for souls entering and leaving Earth. Also, similar to Australian thriller TABERNACLE 101, the film's action largely concerns a scientifically minded explorer inducing a near-death experience in himself to prove the idea of life beyond death. Both films are like FLATLINERS for Christians, and both show that taking such a risk costs opening the door between worlds in very uncomfortable ways. ESCAPE FROM HELL is probably the more successful of the two for its tight structure, extremely laid-on-thick melodrama of family members crying while their loved ones' souls are experiencing eternal damnation, and weird, campy experimental techniques, like putting a sign saying "Ducks Be Not Proud" on the hospital roof so dying souls can read it before getting to heaven. Every collector of Christian films should have a copy of this VHS on their Bible study shelf, along with THE GATHERING and FINAL EXIT, the Carrales film we plan to watch next.

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City of Angels (1998) Feb 22, 2026

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Did Wim Wenders's WINGS OF DESIRE give a generation of angel films their wings? The seminal German film certainly inspired one major American box office hit: Brad Silberling's CITY OF ANGELS, a loose remake cleverly relocated to Los Angeles. Recently Boys' Bible Study has moved into full-time analysis of the Y2K angel boom in American cinema, and CITY OF ANGELS may be the most essential film of that wave, spawning countless imitations. One of the movie's main draws is its A-list cast. Nicolas Cage plays Seth, an angel stationed at an LA hospital, where he becomes unprofessionally enamored with heart surgeon Dr. Maggie Rice, played by Meg Ryan. Dennis Franz, fresh off his fame from NYPD BLUE, co-stars as Nathaniel Messenger, a hedonistic patient of Dr. Rice who is later revealed to be an angel who chose to "take the fall" and live as a mortal. The idea of angels longing to inhabit the world of flesh is a key trope pioneered by WINGS OF DESIRE, where the fallen angel was portrayed by American actor Peter Falk playing himself. CITY OF ANGELS expands on this idea by making the fallen angel a physically weak, unremarkable everyman, offering Seth a grim preview of the fate that may await him if he gives up eternity for love. After an emotionally intense courtship that unfolds across planes of existence, Maggie and Seth commit to each other, and Seth rejects immortality in order to experience human love and sex. He gets to do this exactly once before a cruel twist of fate, seemingly engineered by a mischievous God, befalls the newly mortal couple. CITY OF ANGELS lays its melodrama on thick and can feel like a tedious watch more than 25 years later, but it remains a well-made artifact of an era when nondenominational angels dominated the airwaves and lived vividly in the public imagination. Humans live briefly, angels live forever, and movies exist somewhere in between.

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