While reading the Washington Post’s review of the Left Behind movie that starts today, I couldn’t help thinking that this was a superb opportunity for a wave of Dopefests across the nation. The Post’s Desson Howe describes the movie as “a blundering cringefest, due to unintentionally laughable dialogue, hackneyed writing, and uninspired direction.” My warped mind had a vision groups of Dopers all across our great land, going in to see this movie, and laughing in all the wrong places.
Oh sure, they’d probably throw a whole lot of us out of a whole bunch of movie theatres, but it would be worth it.
Of course, we may have to move fast; this turkey may be gone by next weekend. (It will then have a long second life of being shown on VHS at fundie church retreats, but I think most of us want to miss that.)
So, does anyone else think this idea has something to it, other than as a depraved fantasy?
RTF, for some reason your link didn’t work for me. Is this a new movie? Who is in it? I ask because not two weeks ago I saw a Left Behind DVD starring Kirk Cameron. I don’t know if that one was made-for-t.v. or something. Anyway, I have recently heard ads on the radio for the new movie and wondered about it.
Grand Dopefest that it would be, I don’t know if I’ll be able to shell out the cash for such crapola.
(Hmmm…I did go see Battlefield Earth…maybe it’s not beyond me.)
Yep, it’s a Fundie Film. Here’s some of what the Washington City Paper had to say about it:
*The movie advances a vision of humanity’s fate that many Christians–not to mention non Christians–will find ridiculous, but it cloaks its nuttiness in familiar thriller-flick conventions… *Left Behind makes the end of days look dowdy and dull.
I’m sure it is a bad film, but is it bad enough? I mean, this thing had better suck real bad if I’m even going to sneak into it after watching O, My Brother, Where Art Thou? for a second time.
Sounds like when several of us that worked at Biosphere 2 went to see Bio Dome during its brief theatrical run. We were the only ones laughing because the only things remotely funny were inside jokes. We weren’t certain but we knew the producers had a pretty good spy.
The idea of it strikes me as sort of humorous. But actually going to a theatre and laughing at the movie seems to me to be somewhat disrespectful of the beliefs of others, and not a way to advance any cause except having fun at someone else’s expense.
I’m a member of my school’s Baptist Student Union. No, I’m not Baptist (hell, the president of the club is catholic), but a lot of them are incredibly . . . well, conservative. To the point of associating it with ignorance. The stereotypes play out so wonderfully it’s almost funny.
I’m fairly certain we’ll watch it . . . ::shudders:: and they’ll treat it as fact.
As a matter of fact, this is the same movie. It was released on video/DVD back in October. It was supposedly a marketing scheme to get Christians to see it, then get church groups together to watch it. I, and most of my friends who have seen it, found it quite disappointing. For all the hype, it does look like a made-for-TV flick.
well, i enjoyed the movie and thought it was well done. BUt that is my opinion. I guess Christians would have a different view then non-christians.I guess because it is something I believe will happen.thatis why I enjoyed it.
It’s not just Christians and non-Christians, maidenunicorn; it’s not like all Christians see eye-to-eye on this. Having known the Lord for thirty years, for instance, has left me with a low opinion of so-called Christians who have turned anticipation of the ‘end-times’ into a profitable cottage industry.
Since there are no comparable economic gains to be made from calmly stating that we’ve been through this many times before, and that in all likelihood we’re nowhere particularly close to the end of days, just as was true for the past dozen times we’ve been through this, it’s clear that the very economics of the matter are what keep conservative Christians in a lather about the Last Days.
I’m afraid many of your leaders have been willing to play with your head for money. Sorry about that, but wake up and smell the coffee.
I think MSTie-ing this movie would be a lot of fun. And the more like-minded people to Mstie it with, the better. In other words, I’m with RTFirefly – it’s a Dopefest waiting to happen.
Of course, if we really Mstie-ed it right, it would be loud and raucous. We’d almost certainly be kicked out of a movie theater. So, this lets out a big screen venue.
Also, Montfort and Peta have a point – I wouldn’t want to support this bizarro franchise in any financial way. So, that lets out buying or renting the video or DVD.
Hmmm. How about this. We borrow it from the library and view it at some Doper’s home, where we could be as raucous as we wish. After the ‘movie’ is over, we take up a collection to pay the library’s lost video fee; take the tape out in the back yard and smash it to bits with baseball bats. That way we have our fun AND take one of the loathsome things out of circulation. A good deed, see? If we do this at my house, then we can go in the hot tub afterwards. Whaddaya think?
I think it calls for some sort of drinking game. We could decide to take a drink every time the movie gets excessively preachy, but alcohol poisoning becomes a real possibility at that point.
if it’s playing at the local multiplex I’m sure you cold buy a ticket for a different movie and walk into the LB movie ‘by mistake’. This happens to rated R films all the time.
DoctorJ, does a ‘googolplex’ of this sort show 10[sup]googol[/sup] movies on different screens, or does it just seem that bad?
Anyhow, the discussion, as I see it: DoctorJ’s (and Zebra’s) solution is simple and efficient. The ushers aren’t going to care if you go into the LB movie on your ticket for some other movie, and the LaHayes and Jenkinses of the world never get a cent.
However, Jess’s solution gets about a thousand style points from this reviewer; it has a wonderful sort of “What would Zaphod Beeblebrox Do?” ring to it. As Jess has already pointed out, under her scheme we don’t pay to see it, we take a copy out of circulation (and have a great time making sure it stays that way!), and, best of all, wind up in a hot tub afterwards. It’s hard to argue with that.
So now we just need a mid-Atlantic Doper to find the abomination in his/her local library. Keep your eyes open, boys and girls!
RTF (and others), if you want something really laughable, read Tim LaHaye’s latest book, Mind Seige. No, it’s not part of the Left Behind series. In fact, it’s allegedly non-fiction. But it is so ridiculous that it’s laugh-out-loud funny. Well. It would be if there weren’t people out there who would actually take him seriously, that is.
“Look! Behind that bush. It’s a secular humanist!!!”
(Disclaimer: I did not pay for this book – I got it for free as a review copy.)
I’m Catholic and I think it’s fiction. The idea that people would be able to predict what’s going to happen when Christ comes again (assuming, as I am, that he is) is laughable, to say the least:) IMO.
But whatever gets you through the day, I suppose:)
