Change Your Image
bargen
Reviews
The Nativity Story (2006)
Finally, a Christmas film without Santa Clause.
While in Hawaii recently, I had a chance to preview The Nativity Story, in its complete form, which, surprisingly, turned out to be quite a good film. I guess as a Christian, I am going to be seen as biased. And that's fair, however as a filmmaker as well, I will say that the majority of Christian or Christian based films I have seen are quite simply lower grade movies. That's why, this one in particular was very refreshing.
The story itself of course I was familiar with having grown up hearing it every Christmas time. And, surprisingly, I think it translates very well onto the screen. I was surprised at the humour they were able to bring out (mainly with the Three Kings storyline) and I was actually quite impressed with the movie in general. It was nice to see actors of the correct age and race. Jesus was not white, despite what some may say.
The movie was not perfect, few are. It was obviously PG friendly as there were a few things that were toned down (I guess babies in that day didn't have umbilical cords), but do we really need to see that? No, not really. All in all it was a very enjoyable film that hopefully makes its way as a holiday classic for years to come.
The Visitation (2006)
When will we see a decent Christian film?
If I were someone who only watched Christian films, I would say its good. However, as someone who watches a lot more secular movies, I would have to say its mediocre. I did read the book several years and was very impressed with it, as well as many other of Frank Perretti's books. This film however, like most Christian films today, didn't do much for me.
As with many films, there were parts of it I liked, and parts of it I loathed. First, I will start with the likes. For the most part the acting was decent, especially in the way of Edward Furlong. This guys is actually good, give him some good film roles already. And Randy Travis can do more than sing, who knew? Although I must confess I was a bit disappointed with Martin Donovan's acting. Still the film was relatively well shot, and the plot moved along decently.
But now we come to the bads, and there are a lot of them. Alright, first let me say, I am not a horror fan. I'm fairly wimpy when it comes to scary films, so I was expecting to be a bit shocked or perhaps even scared at parts. This was not the case in any way. I could see several parts where they were trying to do this, but they failed miserably. The script itself was a bit sketchy at parts, some special effects were lame. Overall though, I was disappointed, escpecially because I knew there was so much potential coming from the great source material it had.
Left Behind III: World at War (2005)
The Best of the Series but.....
To be honest, when I went into this movie, I wasn't expecting much. I had seen the first two, and was modestly satisfied. Yet, as the film began to roll, the first 20 minutes really impressed me, especially for Christian cinema. However, as the plot started to get weighed down by unnecessary drama and bad acting, I grew disheartened.
For me there were several parts that were a tad ridiculous, such as the gun toting 60 year old president (who at least was well acted) but didn't even think that "hey! if were going to go on a mission to investigate a secret chemical factory, they might have some surveillance equipment there!" However, as a film, I have seen a lot worse (Fat Albert anyone?) and a lot better. Yet, even this film in the end did work for me, because A) of my faith, B) most of the action sequences, especially the ones at the start and C) the acting of one of the lead characters, portrayed well by Lou Garrett Jr.
Obviously, Christian cinema is always going to be just that. Cinema that only appeals to the Christians. I'm still hoping to one day see someone who will be able to branch the two (Passion of the Christ came close I suppose, but thats a whole other story).....