Since it is Holy Week, I think it’s good to talk about religious movies. I’ve been a fan of religious movies since I was a little kid. I would always watch religious movies being shown on EWTN. I could still remember that the story of Our Lady of Fatima is being shown on EWTN frequently. Anyway, MSN.com listed the top ten controversial religious movies. Here’s the list:

10. “The Message (Mohammed: The Messenger of God)” (1976)
Religion: Islam
Controversy: It is considered heresy to depict images of God or Mohammed.
It’s 600 A.D. and Mohammed is receiving the word of the One True God, rather unusual during a time of still-widespread paganism. Mohammed sends messengers through the Middle East to spread his proclamations, and so begins monotheism and the basic tenets of Islam, including the five-daily calls to prayer and the obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca, known as hajj. So far, so good, but here’s the catch: According to the teachings of Islam, no images can be shown of the prophet Mohammed , his seven wives, his daughters and his sons-in-law, nor can the voice of God or any likeness of God be depicted. At all. The lead role, then, was an absent protagonist and the stand-in lead was Mohammed’s uncle (Anthony Quinn), who spoke lines and listened off-camera to a voice viewers never heard. Unusual, maybe, to non-Muslims, but it got the job done. “The Message” opened in the United States during the rise of the Black Muslim movement and some followers were so incensed that Mohammed would be shown on-screen that they took more than 100 hostages in Washington, D.C. “The Message” won an Oscar nomination for Best Musical Score, but its claim to fame? During filming, producers walked and the one and only Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi stepped up to finance the movie’s completion.

9. “The Pope Must Diet” (1991)
Religion: Roman Catholicism
Controversy: The Vatican — run by Goodfellas.
A bumbling parish priest (Robbie Coltrane) accidentally becomes pope, only to find that the Vatican is controlled by the Mafia. Coltrane finds himself in hot water when he discovers arms-dealing and black-market mechanizations among the papacy, and then has to make a run for it. Originally titled “The Pope Must Die,” the “t” was added for the U.S. market, to become “The Pope Must Diet,” and, wow, what a sleight of hand that was. Unfortunately, consensus was that neither the title nor the movie was funny. And talk about putting one’s PR foot in one’s PR mouth: That “t” added at the last minute to change the film’s title to something less offensive? It was in the shape of a cross.

8. “The Prince of Egypt” (1998)
Religion: Kemetic Orthodoxy (also known as Ancient Egyptian Mythology) and yes, there are modern-day worshippers.
Controversy: Egyptian mythology depicted in a campy manner, with admittedly false priests.
An animated version of the life of Moses as described in the Old Testament’s Book of Exodus, you say? More than 500 religious experts were consulted during the making of “The Prince of Egypt,” and it was met with mostly positive reviews, but there were elements that still managed to incite grumbling — and get it banned in Malaysia. Not only was God voiced by Val Kilmer, but a musical number involving two Egyptian high priests appeared to some to be an open mockery of the ancient culture and religions of Egypt, and were voiced by Martin Shortand Steve Martin, chewing scenery as utterly unfettered cartoon characters.

7. “Eight Crazy Nights” (2002)
Religion: Judaism
Controversy: Where’s the Hanukkah?
Adam Sandler lends his voice to this animated take of a young Jewish Scrooge; he hates the holidays and wants to ruin it for everyone else in town. On the first night of Hanukkah, Drunken Davey goes on a bender and ends up in jail, only to be saved by do-gooders, who put up with his violence and propensity to maneuver others into inexplicable mounds of fecal matter. What stops our boy? The ghosts of holidays past, of course. Neither a kid movie nor a frat-boy flick, “Eight Crazy Nights” became infamous as parents, relieved to finally have a Hanukkah movie to share with the kids, were blindsided by this potty-fest. And what was the claim to fame of “Eight Crazy Nights”? It was nominated for a Razzie Award for Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie.

6. “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” (1979)
Religion: The genesis of Christianity
Controversy: Some viewers believed the uber-message was that Christ was just “some bloke” and his followers were depicted as fools. “Biblical” and “satire” are not two words that many would put together willingly, nor is the phrase, “crucifixion kickline,” but Monty Python threw it all together, along with sight gags and dropped trou. In typical Python fashion, the six Monty Python cast members played some 40 different characters. It’s the Holy Land, some 30 years after the birth of The Man Who Would Be God, and things are chaotic. No wonder it was banned in Norway, Ireland and Italy. Simple, perpetually baffled Brian Cohen, played by Python regular Graham Chapman, finds himself a reluctant messiah due to accidentally blundering into a string of situations similar to the ones famously dealt with by Christ. With full frontal nudity.

5. “The Da Vinci Code” (2006)
Religion: Christianity
Controversy: The Vatican, Opus Dei and numerous other top-secret religious factions have suppressed the “divine feminine” and Christ’s true nature.
A film about how Goddess worship was squashed by the early papacy, but retold as encrypted messages throughout history by some of the world’s most renowned artists — plus, Jesus was a Baby Daddy. There was a lot to upset people about “The Da Vinci Code:” Tom Hanks in a mullet, conspiracy theories that would have made Mulder proud and the big reveals: Not only were Jesus and Mary Magdalene a couple — she’s buried under the Louvre — they had a child together and the descendants are French. The film’s producers were repeatedly asked by various religious groups to make statements to the effect that the storyline was fictional. “The Da Vinci Code” really riled numerous groups: Not only was it banned in China and Pakistan, but Catholic bishops in the United States went so far as to start their own Web site to rebut numerous plot points. Oh, and most critics trashed it.

4. “Dogma” (1999)
Religion: Christianity
Controversy: Including but not limited to: Foul-mouthed, fallen angels; a female descendant of Christ working in a pro-choice clinic; a muse-turned-stripper; and God played by a pop singer.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck joined director Kevin Smith for this look at fallen angels who figure out a minor loophole that will get them back into heaven — an act that will prove God’s fallibility and therefore, by extension, negate the existence of all mankind. “Dogma” was criticized for the way the Catholic religion was depicted, including casting that darned cheeky Chris Rock as a missing 13th Apostle and a disturbingly twinkly Alanis Morissette as God, but at least it wasn’t Val Kilmer (see “The Prince of Egypt“).

3. “Hail Mary” (1985)
Religion: Christianity
Controversy: The Virgin Mary as “Everywoman”; the Angel Gabriel depicted as a somewhat discomfiting walk-on; Joseph as a horn dog; the “divine story” in an everyday setting.
French director Jean-Luc Godard placed the story of the Virgin Birth in present-day France, sparking protests during its release. The devout were horrified that Myriem Roussel‘s “Marie” would be depicted as a regular girl who works at a gas station, claims to be a virgin and has a romantic — but chaste — relationship with Joseph (Thierry Rode), her sweet, taxi-driving boyfriend. Maybe it was showing Marie as a simplistic, average girl/child rather than someone more obviously meant for great things that outraged so many. Perhaps it was that she played mediocre basketball. Or maybe it was that the long voice-overs from Marie as she struggled to comprehend the division between body and spirit drove people to distraction with such an overlay of “philosophical lecture time” set to seemingly endless images of filtered sunlight, but the subject matter triggered picketing and protests wherever it was screened. In fact, it was deemed so offensive that Pope John Paul II officially condemned “Hail Mary,” sight unseen.

2. “The Passion of The Christ” (2004)
Religion: Christianity
Controversy: Extreme violence, perceived anti-Semitism, debated historical accuracy.
Yes, this is the one Entertainment Weekly rated No. 1 of the 25 most controversial movies of all time (but it didn’t inspire violence —- see “The Last Temptation” — so we’re demoting it by one). Director Mel Gibson‘s depiction of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, including the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem, with Latin and Aramaic dialogue, subtitled in English, didn’t sound like box-office gold to anyone. But “The Passion of the Christ” went on to set all sorts of records, including the most pre-ticket sales, the highest-grossing R-rated film in U.S. box-office history (it earned more than $370 million), the highest grossing foreign language film in the United States and the highest-grossing religious film worldwide.

1. “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988)
Religion: Christianity
Controversy: Jesus chooses the path not taken; scenes depicting him as fully human, exploring aspects of lust and other base human temptations.
Based on the novel of the same name, Martin Scorsese‘s “Temptation” follows the life of embattled Christ (Willem Dafoe) as Satan shows him what life might have been like had he not been crucified. Christ takes temptation for a ride around the block several times, including marrying and explicitly making love with Barbara Hershey‘s terribly earnest Mary Magdalene. At the end of his hot and heavy life, Christ rejects all temptations and time rolls backward to his crucifixion as he chooses the path not taken. Too little, too late for some: A French Catholic fundamentalist group protested the screening, fire-bombing a Parisian theater and badly injuring more than 12 people.

Out of the 10 movies, I have only seen 3 movies (Da Vinci Code, Prince of Egypt and Passion of the Christ). In fact, repairing a botched rhinoplasty is difficult than watching a movie. Have a blessed Holy Week everyone!