Obvious Child [2014] / Think Like a Man Too [2014]

As part of my contribution in our parish's participation in the Archdiocese of Chicago's Campaign "To Teach Who Christ Is," I've decided to forgo seeing (and therefore reviewing here) one or two movies a weekend and instead contribute the money I would have spent to the campaign.

I'm trying to be strategic about this, picking movies that would "hurt somewhat" to miss, that is, films that are not "so bad" that I wouldn't see them anyway nor movies that I really would need to see/review or else my blogging effort would cease to be worthwhile.

As per my custom, I will try to provide links to usual line-up of reviews that I also consider as I write my own.

This week I chose to not see:

Obvious Child [2014] - MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (O)  ChicagoTribune (3 1/2 Stars)  RE.com (3 1/2  Stars)  AVClub (B)

Think Like a Man Too [2014] - MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (O)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RE.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (D+)

To be honest, both were kinda no brainers.

Obvious Child [2014] is a "comedy" about a young woman deciding to have an abortion, basically a "pro-abortion rights" response to the far more positive (and more pro-Life) films like Juno [2007] and Knocked Up [2007] where young women, finding themselves pregnant nonetheless decided to give their children a chance at life.  Obvious Child [2014] is a film about a woman, who, finding herself unexpectedly pregnant, decides to tear her developing child up and (in pieces) out, as she goes on with her own (apparently "more important") developing life.  Ha ha ...

Think Like a Man Too [2014], sequel to Think Like a Man [2012], continues to invite women to act as stupidly as (some) men (sometimes) do.  Bridesmaids [2012] falls into this genre as well.  Borrowing terminology from my seminary days, these films assume an "anthropology" that is fundamentally "disordered."  Are men really like those portrayed in the Hangover [2009, 2011, 2013] series?  Of course not.  But the very basis of Think Like a Man (and other "women's oriented" stories like it) is that this is the way "men" "are" / should be.  Again, ha ha ... but behind the laughs is a really depressing assumption and certainly not a Catholic / Christian one.