{"id":5812,"date":"2015-02-06T11:03:55","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T16:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=5812"},"modified":"2015-02-06T18:04:26","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T23:04:26","slug":"weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html","title":{"rendered":"Weekend TV movies: &#8220;Megachurch Murder&#8221; + &#8220;Christian Mingle&#8221; + &#8220;Cloudy with a Chance of Love&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Megachurch Murder<\/em> airs on Lifetime on Saturday (2\/7) @ 8:00 PM ET.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Megachurch Murder: Oh Happy Day\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aTNyQ82E5rE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> Said to be inspired by Shakespeare\u2019s <em>Hamlet, Megachurch Murder <\/em>tells the story of turmoil in a\u00a0 modern African American church that is set in motion when Hannah Spears (Shanica Knowles), the alcohol-abusing daughter of Hamilton Spears (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), the church&#8217;s idealistic founding minister, suspects that her father&#8217;s bike accident was no accident.\u00a0 As she probes for the truth she realizes that her own mother (Tamala Jones) may be involved in a conspiracy to seize control of her father&#8217;s church.\u00a0 The film also stars Michael Beach, Romeo Miller, Corbin Bleu and Dawnn Lewis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mini-Review:<\/strong> Aside from the sheer ballsiness of comparing this second-rate <em>Matlock<\/em> episode to Shakespeare, I found precious little to be impressed by here. The mystery is lame &#8212; with the solution being forthrightly presented to our heroine. It would have been nice if the would-be Nancy Drew actually figured something out for herself. While the film provides an easy check for murder victim Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the biggest surprise in the whole thing is that Theo Huxtable is now old enough to have a young adult daughter.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Christian Mingle<\/em> airs on UP TV on Sunday (2\/8) @ 7:00 PM ET.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Christian Mingle - The Movie\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-RrNzkHndMs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv3972801804MsoNoSpacing\"><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> Despite her own lukewarm Christian faith, Gwyneth Hayden (<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422188124208_9559\">Lacey Chabert<\/span>), a talented ad executive searching for &#8220;Mr. Right&#8221;, signs up with the dating site ChristianMingle.com. The film also stars <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422188124208_9555\">Jonathan Patrick Moore, John O\u2019Hurley, Morgan Fairchild, David Keith Stephen Tobolowsky, Saidah Arrika Ekulona and <\/span>Corbin Bernsen (who also wrote and directed).<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv3972801804MsoNoSpacing\"><strong>Mini-Review:<\/strong> The pick of the weekend film litter has a nice message about being true to one&#8217;s faith &#8212; while also not judging those who come to it in different ways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv3972801804MsoNoSpacing\">Sure, it&#8217;s use of the actual Christian Mingle as a marketing tool is a bit cheesy &#8212; but then again <em>Pirates of the Caribbean<\/em>&#8216;s\u00a0 creative hook was a Disney ride and that ended up being a really fun blockbuster film franchise. Although <em>Christian Mingle<\/em> is far from blockbuster material, it&#8217;s lead characters are likable and it&#8217;s always fun to see <em>Seinfeld<\/em>&#8216;s John O&#8217;Hurley bring a comic character to life (in this case a dubious creator of a hair-growing product). <strong>Recommended.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Cloudy with a Chance of Love<\/em> airs on Hallmark Channel on Sunday (2\/8) @ 8:00 PM ET.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=h-BVliHwjFY<\/p>\n<p><strong> Synopsis: <\/strong><span id=\"yiv3922234320\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1423233348645_6071\">Love is in the air at a local San Diego TV station when Debbie (Katie Leclerc) ,\u00a0 a young and idealistic meteorologist (Katie Leclerc) meets Quentin (Michael Rady), a charming news director with dreams of climbing his way back up to the network level.\u00a0 Gregory Harrison and Stacey Dash also star.<\/span><\/span><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mini-Review:<\/strong><em> Charming with a Chance Fluff<\/em> also would have worked as a title. And I honestly like good fluff &#8212; when it well done. Unfortunately, the writing here seems a bit lazy to me as the film somehow manages to mix its romantic fluffiness with a cynical (but trite) view of TV news. Gregory Harrison&#8217;s vain, teleprompter-dependent anchorman is, at this point, a lame stereotype. And, no matter how cynical you are about the medium, the lengths one station exec is willing go to trap Deb into long-term contract stretches credulity.\u00a0 And, I must say, the idea that modern TV newsrooms put their program rundowns on a white board adorned by post-it notes is just plain silly.<\/p>\n<p>While the film message about the importance of being yourself no matter what pressures are placed upon you is fine, its delivered via a rather dull film.<\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Megachurch Murder airs on Lifetime on Saturday (2\/7) @ 8:00 PM ET. Synopsis: Said to be inspired by Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet, Megachurch Murder tells the story of turmoil in a\u00a0 modern African American church that is set in motion when Hannah Spears (Shanica Knowles), the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,31,1],"tags":[7906,7905,35,5810,3446,7893,7900,7891,3394,1445,7890,7898,7897,7904,6786,1753,7895,7903,7899,7892,7901,7896,7902,7894,5130],"class_list":["post-5812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-movies","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love","tag-megachurch-murder","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-christian-mingle","tag-corbin-bernsen","tag-corbin-bleu","tag-david-keith-stephen-tobolowsky","tag-dawnn-lewis","tag-gregory-harrison","tag-hallmark-channel","tag-ichael-beach","tag-john-ohurley","tag-jonathan-patrick-moore","tag-katie-leclerc","tag-lacey-chabert","tag-lifetime","tag-malcolm-jamal-warner","tag-michael-rady","tag-morgan-fairchild","tag-romeo-miller","tag-saidah-arrika-ekulona","tag-shanica-knowles","tag-stacey-dash","tag-tamala-jones","tag-up-tv"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Weekend TV movies: &quot;Megachurch Murder&quot; + &quot;Christian Mingle&quot; + &quot;Cloudy with a Chance of Love&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weekend TV movies: &quot;Megachurch Murder&quot; + &quot;Christian Mingle&quot; + &quot;Cloudy with a Chance of Love&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Megachurch Murder airs on Lifetime on Saturday (2\/7) @ 8:00 PM ET. Synopsis: Said to be inspired by Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet, Megachurch Murder tells the story of turmoil in a\u00a0 modern African American church that is set in motion when Hannah Spears (Shanica Knowles), the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-06T16:03:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-06T23:04:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Synopsis: Said to be inspired by Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet, Megachurch Murder tells the story of turmoil in a\u00a0 modern African American church that is set in motion when Hannah Spears (Shanica Knowles), the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2015-02-06T16:03:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-06T23:04:26+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html","name":"Weekend TV movies: \"Megachurch Murder\" + \"Christian Mingle\" + \"Cloudy with a Chance of Love\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-02-06T16:03:55+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-06T23:04:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/02\/weekend-tv-movies-megachurch-murder-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-love-christian-mingle.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Weekend TV movies: &#8220;Megachurch Murder&#8221; + &#8220;Christian Mingle&#8221; + &#8220;Cloudy with a Chance of Love&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5812"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5856,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions\/5856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}