Sorry, this movie sucks

Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely Fantastic

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

There is a worldwide food crisis. GNN TV reporter Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron) interviews scientist Chaim Rosenzweig in Israel about a surprising Eden-like harvest. Without warning, the country is attacked by an overwhelming enemy air force. The planes are destroyed by an invisible force. Rayford Steele leaves his family behind in Chicago to fly a plane from New York City to London on short notice. He's having an affair with flight attendant Hattie Durham. Back in NYC, Buck is contacted by his source Dirk Burton who warns him about a coming global currency, a crisis and a conspiracy by humanitarians Stonagal and Cothran. Buck takes the flight where people starts disappearing leaving behind their clothing.This starts off badly with some pretty awful CGI. Not only does it look cheap. It looks really silly. Other problems continue throughout the movie. The writing, the acting and everything else are all pretty bad. People act in unrealistic ways. It is so unnatural that it becomes incredibly awkward. Obviously there is a apocalyptic conspiracy that is central to some believers. I try not to judge it unless it's done poorly. This is done very poorly with very simplistic unreal world politics. This is a movie that relies on the words faith-based. One must have faith to believe in the logic of this movie. There is more unreality here than the most ridiculous zombie TV show.

Lord, I haven't read the Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins novel, but I have suffered through the movie, and it is abysmal! "Left Behind" concerns the Rapture, or when Christians are called to Heaven by God. Amateurish tripe at best, this risible, one-dimensional, religious saga strictly preaches to the choir, with performances as lackluster as the subject matter is bland. You'd think that an epic about Biblical prophecy dealing with Armegeddon would pack more punch, but it barely registers. Kirk Cameron of "Growing Pains" fame toplines a forgettable cast as a globe-trotting journalist with GNN (Global News Network)who starts out covering a miracle in the Israeli desert where crops are growing. Suddenly, the Iraqi Air Force launches the surprise attack on the Israelis, only to endure abject defeat. Brad Johnson is the one actor here who seems to know what he is doing, but this is far and away one of his least memorable turns. The rapture scene itself is hilarious nonsense. During a jet-ride on a 747, a mature lady asks our stalwart hero Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron)to check the lavatory to see if her husband is in there. Next to her on the seat once occupied by her spouse is a crumpled suit and tie without a body to fill it up. Johnson is cast as a philandering pilot who wishes that he had paid more attention to his wife when she took up church-going. Meantime, Buck and two girls--one of whom puffs away on a coffin nail, track down a conspiracy with the villainous Nicolae Carpathia (Gordon Currie) out to control the world. "Partition " director Vil Sarin generates little momentum in this sluggish tale and none of the leads conjure up an ounce of charisma. This low-budget release appeared initially as a straight-to-video movie with little to recommend it. Ironically, even some Christians have blasted it for the nonsense that it is. "Left Behind" has no conviction.

I'm about 40 minutes in, and it's easily my favorite awful movie. The writing is so deliriously bad. The filmmakers should have had a non-delusional person look at the screenplay. I wouldn't be shocked to find out there was a key-grip or two fired for voicing their opinion on this horrendous script. Kirk Cameron's wife is really beautiful. Kirk Cameron is a tool. I don't believe in any of the hogwash that this movie depicts, so that might be part of the reason that I dislike it, but ultimately the content is no reason to give a bad review, like the people who gave Noah bad reviews because they were Christian dopes and actually believed it was based on real events.

. . .of attempting to create a story of an apocalyptic scenario based on Biblical prophesy (not many movie makers go into that too much), the result is somewhat bland and one dimensional for different reasons. Anyone who has read the Book of Revelation (And I wouldn't advise it. It's very dark and depressing), it contains a vision of the world at it's very worst. It describes events as being a nightmare of war, pestilence, disease, human rights abuses, economic collapse, famine, natural and man-made catastrophe on a global scale--suffering that there is no escape for anyone from. It even speaks of people having to indulge in cannibalism to survive. While some of these kinds of events are taking place now and have happened in the past, the Book of Revelation speaks of a world where just about every aspect or system of society and civilization just breaks down all at once. It's a world no one could really imagine as they are events that have never occurred that way, all at once, in human history. There's no common frame of reference to compare it to. Sorry, I'm not trying to make everyone depressed or anything. It's just that this series of movies (and there are a couple other religious produced "end of world" type movies that have the same kinds of flaws as Left Behind) fails to touch the level of pain and despair that just about everyone would be experiencing in a real Biblical Apocalypse. Everyone in the movie just seems to be so much in control and pretty well behaved. They aren't confused, in despair or spiritually lost or suffering in a real, deep or profound way. They basically make the right decisions and pretty much remain on the right road. Their choices are between right and wrong where I feel that many choices in those circumstances would be between wrong and less wrong. It also doesn't depict the various ways in which society has fallen apart, the series of tragedies happening to people around the world, the riots, war, disease, etc. that would be happening. It doesn't depict the horror and terror. I suppose making a movie that could grasp the events in the Book of Revelation may just be an impossibility but there are alternative movies that may not be based on Biblical prophesy but are able to grasp the kind of pain people would be in much better. Movies like "The Road", "Blindess" or "Contagion" come closer. Even shows like "The Walking Dead" do a much better job at touching on how people truly behave and what their experience would be in a more real believable way. Left Behind also has it's own born-again Christian agenda which I don't mind too much but it gets heavy handed, arrogant, self-righteous and preachy in spots. I would never say to someone, 'Don't bother watching this movie.', just don't expect too much from it unless you are looking for a false sense of security.