Left behind is based on the first book of the popular bestselling series about the end of the world as told in the bible. When I first heard the words apocalypse, end times, good vs. evil and Anti-Christ my first thought were of books and films like the Omen or The stand by Steven King. What I got in the book was badly written fundamentalist fear based propaganda. The film is not much different from my experiences with the book.
The story stars Kirk Cameron (The kid from growing pains) as "tough" guy reporter Buck Williams and Brand Johnson as polite Rayford Steel who cheating on his overly Christian wife. It begins with Kirk reporting in Israel as the nation is about to be attacked by the Russians. The Russians? Some one's trapped in the cold war days. Anyway there reasons for waging war is for fertilizer. You read that right. They risk world war 3 for Fertilizer. Doom seem to be unavoidable as badly done CGI planes fly over the "holy" land but at the last seconded a strange force destroys all the planes. Killing all those men who dared anger God by joining the Russian air force. Then we moves into the to the true holy land. America! Ware we meet Brad Johnson character. His wife has become a born again Christian which seems to have caused trouble in the family. In the film they betray it as the family is having a hard time accepting what she has to preach (Believe me, there will be preaching in this film) but in real life it would more likely be along the lines that people cant stand having some one ells trying to enforce religion down our Throats.
She throwing there son a Christian themed birthday party, Poor kid, but that no good sinning non-believing father of there has to go to work and fly a plane. As he dose this he is having a little romance with the flight attendant. Non-right winged Christian Characters go on to be betrayed like this in the books and the films. The true believers in Christianity are betrayed as happy, good and moral. Those who do not are portrayed as immoral, unhappy, angry, or even naive.
He flys his plane that happens to have Kirk on it when half the passengers disappear only leaving behind there cloths. In one night all born again evangelical Christian who believed the bible is the literal truth and Jesus is the only way to heaven disappear along with all children under 12 years old. Planes with out pilots crash, cars with no drivers pile up on the streets causing a massive death toll to rise and parents mourn for the lost of there missing children. You think a loving God who cares for humanity would at least take people when they were not driving or flying anything that could get people killed! So thousands of people are killed in cars and plane crashs then sent to hell forever because they did not accept the God who just got them killed in the first place. As the story moves on our "heroes" discover that people were rapture in to heaven and now it's up to those who were left behind to convert the rest of the world to Christianity and battle the Anti-Christ.
Okay. One thing I usually cant stand in movies is when I am being preached at and Left behind the most preachy film I have ever seen in my life. Get prepared for endless lectures from the Characters about how great God and Jesus are, How the bible the only truth and that it some how not God's fault that people are going to the hell he made for not being Christian. All the born again Christian characters are uninteresting and charters who were more complexes become uninteresting the moment they convert to Jesus.
The acting and casting is just bad. I can't really get myself to believe that Kick Cameron is a big tough reporter. The guys still looks like the kid from Growing Pains. The movie is just the beginning of films that are all motivated to promote fear and some bigotry to those who don't buy into this particular brand of Christianity. Ideas promoted in left behind are the reason why we have problems in place like the mid-east to begin with. The simply message of love all as you love your self that Jesus taught is replace with a message that benefit mega churches and politicians.
To top it all off we can't even have decent acting, realistic characters and good special effects. Leave it to fundamentalist Christians to screw up there own end of the world movie.
That why I give this holy message a 1 out of 10
The story stars Kirk Cameron (The kid from growing pains) as "tough" guy reporter Buck Williams and Brand Johnson as polite Rayford Steel who cheating on his overly Christian wife. It begins with Kirk reporting in Israel as the nation is about to be attacked by the Russians. The Russians? Some one's trapped in the cold war days. Anyway there reasons for waging war is for fertilizer. You read that right. They risk world war 3 for Fertilizer. Doom seem to be unavoidable as badly done CGI planes fly over the "holy" land but at the last seconded a strange force destroys all the planes. Killing all those men who dared anger God by joining the Russian air force. Then we moves into the to the true holy land. America! Ware we meet Brad Johnson character. His wife has become a born again Christian which seems to have caused trouble in the family. In the film they betray it as the family is having a hard time accepting what she has to preach (Believe me, there will be preaching in this film) but in real life it would more likely be along the lines that people cant stand having some one ells trying to enforce religion down our Throats.
She throwing there son a Christian themed birthday party, Poor kid, but that no good sinning non-believing father of there has to go to work and fly a plane. As he dose this he is having a little romance with the flight attendant. Non-right winged Christian Characters go on to be betrayed like this in the books and the films. The true believers in Christianity are betrayed as happy, good and moral. Those who do not are portrayed as immoral, unhappy, angry, or even naive.
He flys his plane that happens to have Kirk on it when half the passengers disappear only leaving behind there cloths. In one night all born again evangelical Christian who believed the bible is the literal truth and Jesus is the only way to heaven disappear along with all children under 12 years old. Planes with out pilots crash, cars with no drivers pile up on the streets causing a massive death toll to rise and parents mourn for the lost of there missing children. You think a loving God who cares for humanity would at least take people when they were not driving or flying anything that could get people killed! So thousands of people are killed in cars and plane crashs then sent to hell forever because they did not accept the God who just got them killed in the first place. As the story moves on our "heroes" discover that people were rapture in to heaven and now it's up to those who were left behind to convert the rest of the world to Christianity and battle the Anti-Christ.
Okay. One thing I usually cant stand in movies is when I am being preached at and Left behind the most preachy film I have ever seen in my life. Get prepared for endless lectures from the Characters about how great God and Jesus are, How the bible the only truth and that it some how not God's fault that people are going to the hell he made for not being Christian. All the born again Christian characters are uninteresting and charters who were more complexes become uninteresting the moment they convert to Jesus.
The acting and casting is just bad. I can't really get myself to believe that Kick Cameron is a big tough reporter. The guys still looks like the kid from Growing Pains. The movie is just the beginning of films that are all motivated to promote fear and some bigotry to those who don't buy into this particular brand of Christianity. Ideas promoted in left behind are the reason why we have problems in place like the mid-east to begin with. The simply message of love all as you love your self that Jesus taught is replace with a message that benefit mega churches and politicians.
To top it all off we can't even have decent acting, realistic characters and good special effects. Leave it to fundamentalist Christians to screw up there own end of the world movie.
That why I give this holy message a 1 out of 10