Change Your Image
no-logo
Reviews
El laberinto del fauno (2006)
Huge Disappointment
A lot of the user comments for this films contain the word beautiful, and on the surface it is beautiful, but like a lot of beautiful things it is sorely lacking any sort of substance.
Unlike the fantastic Devil's Backbone which used the war as a backdrop to the story, this is a film about the war with a tacked on fantasy sub plot. I was looking forward to learning about the pale man who appeared in so much of the promotion for this film, only to discover he had a bit part at best. It was incredibly frustrating sitting through the war segments waiting to get back to the labyrinth and as a result both sides of the story seemed half baked.
It could have been a great war movie or a great fairy tale but ended up being neither.
Left Behind III: World at War (2005)
Christian propaganda masquerading as an action movie.
I first read about the Left Behind series a few months ago and made a mental note to check it out since I have an interest in the way religion is used to control people in our ever more hate filled world, so imagine my surprise and joy when I found a copy of Left Behind : World at War in my local library, nestling innocently among the big budget action movies.
Now as a movie it's extremely poor. The acting is straight out of an elementary school production and the "special effects" would have looked dated in the early 90's. Being the third part of a series the story would be unintelligible to anyone who hadn't seen or read about the other Left Behind movies, and even with my prior knowledge it was still pretty laughable.
On the religious front, I don't think anyone who wasn't already filled with the spirit of the lord would find anything in the movie to convince them to change their ways. How are you supposed to fear the Antichrist when he's got a comedy Russian accent, and the worst of his powers are some pitiful CGI?
However, my main problem with this movie is the blatant attempt to try and dupe people into believing that it's a big budget action movie. Upon picking up the box and reading the spiel I immediately noticed something odd...nowhere on the packaging was there a mention of the true nature of this film. To someone not in the know it would appear for all intents and purposed that Left Behind : World at War was no different from the latest Tom Clancey. Nor, on the copy that I rented did it say anything about it being the third in a series.
Considering the whole premise of the series is that the Antichrist has deceived the whole world, I find it extremely hypocritical that the film makers tried to deceive me TWICE before I even got the to counter! If you're so firm in your beliefs then why not be honest about it?
The simple fact is, had this not been a "Christian" movie with the built in fan base that goes with it, I seriously doubt it would ever have seen the light of day. If Cloud Ten were hoping that I'd see the error of my ways and give myself to God, I'm afraid to say I would have died of boredom and/or laughed myself to death before I ever had the chance.