A Movie That Might Change Your Life . . .

Great Debates
21

When I got up this morning, I thought to myself, “You know what would really complete my spiritual journey in this life? A poorly-written, poorly-made movie starring Z-list actors and based on a preposterously literal interpretation of the Revelation and Paul’s epistles.”

Er . . . you may wanna qualify that as “what some Christians believe.” Lots and lots of Christians don’t believe in the Rapture or a literal reading of the Revelation at all, kiddo.

BTW, the Washington Post covered the opening of the movie on the front page this morning. The liberal atheist media strikes again, I guess.

22

“I’m here, Huckleberry!” (points to who gets the reference) :slight_smile:

My wife wants to “know what all the shouting’s about.” So we’re going soon, probably this weekend. I’ll bookmark this thread and post my comments.

Good to see you again, FoG. Here, have an IBC? :smiley:

23

Most of the positive “reviews” are puff pieces from Christian groups. BTW, I’m sure the movie message boards on the net appreciate the flood of “5-stars” and “10 out of 10!” reviews that have hit them lately. It’s kind of suspicious when one day the the Left Behind “Readers Comments” page at Yahoo has 5 responses, and the next day it has over 50, all of which are “5-stars”, and signed by obviously Christian posters(judging by their overly-pious names).
Even the reviews that admit that the film is poorly made, with second(and third) rate actors and cheap special effects, give the film “5-stars”, because the MESSAGE to all us sinners must get out!
What do they do when they see a movie that actually IS of high quality-faint from the excitement?

24

I wonder why FriendofGod and his fellow believers insist in insulting the God they claim they serve? Do you think the King of the Universe, the Author of all Creation is well-served by crappy art that actually trivializes the message of salvation? In the past, God’s majesty and the suffering of Jesus have been painted by Titian, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Giotto, Tintoretto, and many others.
His glory has been proclaimed by Mozart, Haydn, Bach, and so on. Who do the 21st century Fundies offer? Kirk Cameron.

In addition, the express purpose of the series and Cloud Ten Productions is to use this story to bring people to Jesus. How many intelligent people will really fall for a preposterous science fiction scenario like “Left Behind”? If you people really want to use film to evangelize, you need to stop preaching to the converted. The most powerful Christian movie I’ve seen is “Tender Mercies” where Robert Duvall plays an alcoholic country music star who gets saved and dries out. It’s a story of transformation and redemption and Jesus is definitely an important factor in the movie. If you people want to save souls, why don’t you try to turn out works that show the transformative powers of God’s love in the here-and-now?

The Left Behind series is a huge success, and I’m sure that Tyndale could have negotiated a deal with a big studio to put out the movie. Instead, it’s a cheap production being four-walled by local churches. I’ll probably rent it this weekend (and why they released it on video on first is beyond me-it will kill the theater revenues).

25

goboy makes some good points. I have always thought the highest expression of the creative spirit is religious art, whatever one’s religion. (I don’t know where an admitted “atheist for Jesus” like me fits into that, but I’m hardly creative so it really doesn’t matter!) What we have to remember is that there has always been bad religious art. The Titians and Bachs were the works people saved. And there is some value in earnest, versus callously commercial, religious art. Without passing judgement on the motivations of the producers of “LB-The Movie,” I think we should view it as we would folk art. A prolonged Grandma Moses painting. Except I can’t stand Grandma Moses.

26

It shouldn’t take long for this to balloon out to 150, 200 messages. :slight_smile:

My concern with “Left Behind” isn’t the trite religious message; it’s the fact that it stars ex-cast members of “Growing Pains.” There’s a reason that show was cancelled.

I agree with Goboy; on one hand, we’ve had some of the greatest masters of art in human history devote their greatest works to the glory of God - Michaelangelo’s life’s work alone could leave you breathless. Or Bach’s music. Does anyone not recognize da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” and not see the genius in it? But today, we offer up some rejects from “Growing Pains” who couldn’t get jobs anywhere else in a C-grade movie whose major impact on my life would be setting me back eight dollars. Didn’t we insult God enough with “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar”? Don’t tell me Andrew Lloyd Webber wasn’t punishment enough.

A movie’s quality is different from its message. “Fargo” didn’t have a message but it was a terrific movie. “The Godfather” had a negative message, if anything, and it was a masterpeice. Having a good message does not mean the movie is necessarily good, as evidenced by much of the cloying crap aimed at children these days.

Next thing you know we’ll have “God!” the sitcom, starring some recycled old sitcom hacks.

(THEME MUSIC/CREDITS)

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY - MARY (played by Judith Light) sits on the couch watching TV. GOD (played by Michael Gross) enters through front door stage left.

            GOD
    Hi, Mary, I'm home!

            MARY
    Hi, Lord! Hard day at work?

            GOD
    Well, it was slow in the morning, but this
    afternoon I got to smite some heathens! More
    power, ar-ar-ar-ar-!

(Laugh track)

            MARY
    That's nice!

JESUS (played by Jaleel White, `Urkel,’ comes from upstairs.)

             JESUS
    Hi, Dad! Holy Spirit and I are gonna go
    out and walk on the pool!

             GOD
    Okay, Son, just watch out for our next-door
    neighbour, Moses - remember what happened last
    time when he parted the pool!

(Laugh track)

             JESUS
     Okay, Dad! Here, Holy Spirit, c'mere boy!

Enter HOLY SPIRIT (played by the dog from “Married With Children”)

So what do the real critics say?

For what it’s worth (and I don’t always listen to the critics,) “Left Behind” is off to a bad start on the Tomatometer. As has been said, this movie does not reflect the beliefs of most Christians. We don’t all believe in this Rapture thing or that the UN is conspiring against us.

27

Hey, Ender,

I think you’re wasting wit on FoG. Went right over his head.:rolleyes:

28

[hijack]

Does anybody know if the Omega code made any money? Did it break even at least?

[/hijack]

29

According to its entry at the IMDB, it cost $8 million to produce and had grossed, as of March 2000, $12.61 million. By now, you can probably add a bit more from home video rentals. Looks like it made a little bit of money, although with Hollywood’s creative accounting methods, it’s probably still in the red.

30

Sure hope it didn’t, Freedom2…profit is an incentive to make a sequel.

And by definition, shouldn’t movies about the end of the world never spawn sequels?

31

Funny you should mention that, Max.

Meggido: Omega Code 2

Hey, on the plus side, it has Udo Kier in the cast.

32

Hey FoG Welcome Back. Nothing to add on the movie, I’ll probably see it at some point though.

Awww…give me something hard. Val Kimer as Doc Holiday’s character in the movie Tombstone (starring Kurt Russell)

33

Just wanted to point out that production cost quotes do not normally include marketing costs. In addition, a significant chunk of the gross receipts goes to the theaters. Thus, ‘creative accounting’ or no, there is little chance that ‘The Omega Code’ broke even on its theatrical run.

A useful rule of thumb I picked up from, IIRC, Film Comment magazine, is that on average, theater receipts have to be double or more the the production cost to reach break-even. YMMV.

Oh yeah, “Left Behind”. I’ll probably wait for the video.

34

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a7977122642.htm

That’s a link where you can read the WSJ’s article about the movie. They are doing some unique and interesting things to get it into distribution.

I’ll have to give them credit for that at least if they succeed. Although…I haven’t decided where I come down on how I feel about their tactics yet.

35

I’m trying to see even a hint of playful sarcasm there, but no.

:eek:

36

Apparently there’s trouble in Paradise; according to The Dallas Morning News, authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are suing the producers of the movie:

Can’t Christians just get along?

37

Thanks for the info on Omega Code.

Just for kicks I went to http://www.moviephone.com to see if it was even playing in NJ. (Omega Code only played in 2 theaters here)

Surprise!! Surprise!!!

Left Behind is the 4th most requested movie and is in 10 theaters this weekend.

So I have a question. Is my moviephone most requested movie section regional specific? (my zip code is stored in my browser for it) or is this a nationwide thing?

While I have a feeling that the LB message Board is clicking away over and over again on their movie, I give them credit for bumping it up on the most requested list.

38

Nice to see the Fundies taking hints from the Scientologists on how to make crap* seem popular.

*I use the word “crap” based on my opinion of the book. For all I know, the movie could be a cinematic gem, but I ain’t holdin’ my breath.

39

Ah, I see the heretics are at it again. :slight_smile:

Well, nothing short of a nuclear device will get myself or my family in to see this tripe. We’ve already suffered through enough awful stuff in one movie this year. ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and my mom had the best comment on this turd: I told her the title and she busted out laughing. “But dear, couldn’t you tell by the title?” Mom is a lot smarter than I give her credit for. )
My son would brain me, and my wife would probably never speak to me again.

40

This movie was awesome.
If you insist on heresy, I will attempt to get a pile-on-pantom pit thread started:)