Powerful

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Christian films. They're so wretched that they've become a guilty pleasure for me, which is why this gets a ten. I have this awful tendency to hand out tens to movies which are so bad they cross the line into total awesome. It's a problem and I should try to stop, but I'm not there just yet.Over time and many, many terrible, pretentious films, I've learned that David A.R. White is the cream of the crop when it comes to the bizarro world of Xtian filmmaking. He also bears an uncanny resemblance to a very good friend of mine, but why should you care about that? I know you don't, I'm rambling. Anyhow.I saw the first 'Encounter' when digging through instantwatcher's Faith and Spirituality section looking for documentaries and soon after that I was hunting down these things like a junkie looks for a fix. The sanctimony drips from the screen, the awful dialogue sometimes ripped directly from the Bible so as not to offend the faithful, the preachy nonsense--all of that's on display here. It's sort of like watching a Jack Chick tract come to life, and in my opinion there's absolutely nothing bad about that. All these films lack are cartoon devils yelling HAW HAW HAW at the folks unlucky enough to burn in never ending hellfire. If you want to watch something so terrible that it might make you giggle, check out the wild and wooly world of Xtian film. Watch this movie! It's exciting, it's ridiculous, it MIGHT EVEN SAVE YOUR SOUL.But watch out for the characters named Deville! And no, I'm not making that up.

The first Encounter done two years before this one had something that I liked which was, one of the characters gets to challenge God with some really mind bogging question that many of us today would really like to ask, the question was "if God is love, then why did he order a genocide, by telling the Israelites to kill all living thing in Canaan?" This second Encounter mind bogging question was, "If it pains God so much to see innocent children die; why does he not stop it?"Like in the first the mind bogging question was answered not with skill of words but by saying the truth according to the scripture.The Encounter: Paradise Lost has the same bad cinematography as the first and a longer wait time till we see Jesus. I don't think this movie is anywhere as good as the first because it lacks the innocent adventure that the first movie possesses.Wrapped around the tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004, this movie's weak script and less impressive acting made it hard for me to keep awake while watching; I thought the cinematography in the first was bad, well because the first was shot in a confined area I didn't get to see a full dosage of what the cinematographer could dish out, well due to the success of the first movie the makers used more scenery and lot more cast and all we have is a washed up story that at the end I learnt nothing.The movie plot is broader than that of the first, it goes on for like 38 minutes before we get to the Jesus character, when we do see him he is again in an enclosed area with people this time there are 6. A couple who just lost a son, a drug dealer, his henchman, the drug dealer's wife and a police officer chasing down the drug dealer.The character Jesus comes into play and tries to save everybody, but like the first movie not everybody got saved and death which resulted from not following Christ also came to play in this film.The acting was more a mediocre than the one in the first, the movie lacked of good actors and the man who played Jesus (Bruce Marchiano) was like a king among slaves when the acting is considered. This movie is what makes many people stay away from independent films, badly produced, story line is weak and the movie itself is just boring with a capital B.Many great producers came about from making independent films, but this producer needs to go back to the drawing board and give us a better story. I wish I could un-watch this movie.www.lagsreviews.com

I love the guy who plays Jesus in this movie and the first Encounter movie. He has the greatest smile and is extremely believable in the role. I think it's so great that real Bible Christianity is finally being taught here. A Christian heroin addict dies and they show that she goes to heaven. Of course she would. Does the Bible teach that taking drugs is a bigger sin than the sin of doubt, worry, fear or lying, and no one doubts that those sins will keep you out of heaven. Thank goodness the blood paid for it all! I didn't mind the violence so much because, why sugar coat real life and the problems real life Christians face everyday!

Wow, I was highly disappointed with the Encounter 2. The pureness, simplicity, and intricate character development of the first film are missing here. Instead we have a pseudo-Christian film that wants so badly to be a secular Hollywood action thriller instead of a movie glorifying Christ. Why do we need such senseless violence and gun play in a Christian film? A girl overdoses on heroin but she still goes to heaven because she gave her life to Christ when she was fourteen? Huh, does that make any sense?? I left the first film feeling encouraged and uplifted. After watching this movie I wanted to repent. Don't waste your time on it.