Four good movies you probably have not watched: I've had such a streak of good Netflix films lately, I thought I'd recommend them. Two of them were religious, so you'll probably only appreciate them if that's your thing. Ostrov (The Island) is a Russian movie that does a good job of capturing the feel of Orthodoxy. The Gospel of John is no work of art, but I like how Christopher Plummer's narration follows the last gospel almost word for word. Plus, Henry Ian Kusick gives a joyous quality to Jesus' words, in contrast to, say, the heaviness of Max von Sydow in The Greatest Story Ever Told .

Religious folks and great literature fans alike should enjoy two movies based on novels by my favorite author, Fyodor Dostoevsky. The first one is a BBC miniseries, Crime and Punishment starring John Hurt. And my favorite of the bunch is a 2003 Russian production, The Idiot. The movie is based on a less well-known Dostoevsky novel. When guys like Mel Brooks call someone Prince Myshkin, they're referring to the main character in the story.

Dostoevsky's stories are probably more meaningful to Christians, but you can't be one point behind Tolstoy in the Western Literature ratings by appealing only to people of faith (Human Accomplishment). Godless Freud claimed that The Brothers Karamazov was the best novel ever written.

The actors really stand out in this production. One inconsequential note: this is a mini-series that takes up four DVDs.