Left Behind (feat. Nicolas Cage)

For those of you who don't know, Left Behind is a book series about the end of the world as imagined by some Christians. It was also a movie series in the early 2000s, starring Kirk Cameron. So this 2014 film is a reboot, too soon. While Leah Thompson is named in the opening credits, but she only appears in one short scene. This film does star Nicolas Cage as a non-christian, sinning commercial pilot who has to deal with a _the rapture_ happening on his plane. His daughter, also a non-christian, is played by Crissi Thomson. Don't worry, by the end of the film our heros know God is real.

I don't think it's bad for a film to have an evangelical intent. However, the bar is pretty low for Christian Films, and I think the makers of Left Behind knew that. So they let a lot of things slide, making this movie with a pretty good premise turn out pretty bad.

And it became pretty clear to me what the writers, pretending to know what it is that turns people off of Christianity, think it must be like for a sinning non-christian. It's not the preaching and the glorifying of God that turns people off. It's the polarization and the hypocrisy. Speaking of polarization, I don't see why any film needs to be explicitly Christian unless it's meant to be viewed only at church. It's not like anyone sets out to make "secular" art.

After all, religious themes exist in every other form of media. We've seen how Christian Rock turned out. While just as good as other music, pretty much any band could call their music Christian so they could exploit a decidedly separate industry. Do you think Michelangelo would have painted so many religious things if it wasn't for the money? So what's the point in dividing Christian Films from Secular Films when almost every story contains some form of allegory.

So what was wrong with Left Behind? None of the characters were believable. In fact, all the sinning non-christians were caricatures. There seemed to be little effort put into making this movie believable or good. But obviously main agenda here wasn't to make a good movie.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Birdy
6. Wild at Heart
7. Joe
8. Dog Eat Dog
9. Color Out of Space
10. Mom and Dad
11. Peggy Sue Got Married
12. Zandalee
13. City of Angels
14. Bangkok Dangerous
15. Drive Angry
16. Lord of War
17. Gone in 60 Seconds
18. Matchstick Men
19. Vampire's Kiss
20. Con Air
21. Face/Off
22. The Boy in Blue
23. Honeymoon in Vegas
24. Amos and Andrew
25. Moonstruck
26. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
27. Bringing Out the Dead
28. The Family Man
29. Knowing
30. It Could Happen to You
31. 8mm
32. Looking Glass
33. Between Worlds
34. Left Behind
35. Ghost Rider
36. The Humanity Bureau
37. Next
38. The Weather Man
39. 211
40. The Croods

Knowing (feat. Nicolas Cage)

In this 2009 film, Cage plays yet another Joe. This one is a college professor, really struggling with the death of his wife. His son is exceptionally smart (movie kid smart) and wears a hearing aid because he hears weird sounds that nobody else can. Their house is huge, shabby, and awesome; the kind of house you'd want to have if you were an astrophysicist.

For those of you who don't remember, the late 2000s was a big time for the apocalypse. People thought the world was going to end in 2012, because that's when one of the old calendars ended. Of course, this premontion turned out to be of less consequence than the Y2K "virus". But in its day, this movie was intended to be scary.

That said, Knowing is a high-budget, fully actualized bad movie, better than Armageddon (as a point of reference). Joe finds the prophecy, and he especially cares about death and loss because it's something close to his heart. He teams up with the prophet's daughter, who turns out to have terrible coping skills, and doesn't help anything. But what can be helped? Some people are trying to stop the end of the world, others are trying to survive it, but most people are freaking out as hard as possible. As if there were anything they could do about it.

And it's hard not to spoil the story, but I will say there are aliens involved. They don't cause the pending apocalypse, but they do have a hand in keeping the "human spirit" from going extinct. In fact, there's a really huge scene with Nick Cage and the Aliens and an orchestra, which would make a great clip for an inspirational video if you were to ever give a presentation at your local church camp or dystopian coorporate job.

At just over two hours long, I admit to watching some parts of this film on high speed. It was too long and too stupid. Despite its daytime tv dialogue, vacuous characters, and boring story, Knowing was pretty well made, especially entertaining for those desparate for a thrill.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Birdy
6. Wild at Heart
7. Joe
8. Dog Eat Dog
9. Color Out of Space
10. Mom and Dad
11. Peggy Sue Got Married
12. Zandalee
13. City of Angels
14. Bangkok Dangerous
15. Drive Angry
16. Lord of War
17. Gone in 60 Seconds
18. Matchstick Men
19. Vampire's Kiss
20. Con Air
21. Face/Off
22. Honeymoon in Vegas
23. Amos and Andrew
24. Moonstruck
25. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
26. Bringing Out the Dead
27. The Family Man
28. Knowing
29. It Could Happen to You
30. 8mm
31. Between Worlds
32. Ghost Rider
33. The Humanity Bureau
34. Next
35. The Weather Man
36. 211
37. The Croods