It's no stranger to compare the qualities of different religions than it is political parties, goods, or cars.

When your "religion" is based on trolling another religion and you don't really believe in the creature you pretend to worship, that's a pretty good start.

I was comparing the reason for his reputation to Turan's, not necessarily saying that the way they review is exactly the same.

Dowd is like the AV Club's Kenneth Turan. He occasionally takes a bit too much pleasure in ripping apart mainstream films particularly beloved by devoted fans and has therefore somewhat unfairly garnered a reputation for being unduly harsh in his grades.

I think there were clearly signs that she wasn't exactly a fan of being pious, but the film also pretty strongly suggests her family inadvertently helps push her right into the arms of Old Scratch.

It's essentially an indictment of religious fanaticism (which is the initial catalyst for all the horrors that follow) while also suggesting that there are much worse forms of religion out there. Tonally it's odd and repellent, which seems to be the director's goal, but it's certainly well-crafted.

I would say he seems BEMUSED. When a reporter mentioned to him that the Satanic Temple was promoting the film he said "I'll just say it's nice to have fans and leave it at that."

You're basically right, I was just trying to be succinct.

Yes, I realize that Satanists are basically mentally juvenile atheists, but the point is that the film does them no favors.

SPOILERS

It's pretty hysterical that the Satanic Temple is promoting this film, considering that it's not even close to pro-witchcraft and its director is bemused at best by their endorsement.

Great interview. Hardy is one of our best actors right now and it's great to see him get recognition for The Revenant—even if the movie itself wasn't my cup of tea, he and DiCaprio (and Domnhall Gleeson too) were fantastic.

Ronda helps Snoop Dogg make some cement shoes for hillbilly informants in Dew Glugging Snitches.

Oh, I'm not commenting on CTE's take on it (which I think is slightly reductive but certainly not entirely lacking in truth). I've just always thouht those two songs were more humorously alike than people realized.

Same band, wrong song. That's "Sweetness" and it's awesome.

Let's get real though: Train's "Drops of Jupiter" is the exact same song with cloying earnestness replacing the cheesedick humor.

Eh, it's a gripe but a minor one. This movie was about wish fulfillment in every way—for both fans and certain cast members—in order to wash the taste of the prequels out of everyone's mouths. We'll see a little more original content in Rian Johnson's episode now that the new story has been set up, I imagine.

Yep, they even gave Han a winking meta laugh line about that in TFA: "So it's just a bigger Death Star."

Yes, the actors sold the scene (and Han's iconic standing didn't hurt) despite the lead-up to it being horribly underwritten.

I don't care how much Abrams and Kasdan botched the moment—and botch they did—I can't get that image of Han falling into that pit out of my head. It was just emotionally gutting.