Always a Message, but Where is the Storyline

My husband and I went to the new Left Behind, which stars Nicholas Cage. This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

It is a movie based on a Christian book, supposedly written by Christians and … it’s pretty awful. I was glad we didn’t pay for it. Some friends paid because they wanted to go.

The first part of the movie was embarrassing to sit through because it portrayed Christians as nut jobs. This is reiterated so often that we began to sink in our seats expecting people to just “know” and start hurling popcorn and supersized colas at us.

My problem withnthe movies negan withnthe books. I never did buy the whole idea that the raptured left their clothes behind in the book. Immediately problems with suspension of disbelief — and I’m a Christian!

After a period of chaos in which the female lead, Chloe, proves her prowess at self-preservation, the message suddenly switched to “the nut jobs were right”. The rest of the movie felt like I was being beaten over the head with the theology I already believe. I’d love to run down the stereotypes, but I don’t have time. There’s WAY too many.

The Kirk Cameron/Brad Davis version of this movie was pretty good — a little low budget, but it made you care about the characters. This one — completely devoid of humanity or a soul or even really a plot. Conversations are stilted, situations are contrived and personalities are one-dimensional.

Nicholas Cage gets to land a plane in a crisis, by the way! Oh, yeah! Stereotypes! Nicholas Cage landing a plane that’s about to crash … who could have foreseen that coming?