{"id":24776,"date":"2014-10-01T19:29:40","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T23:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=24776"},"modified":"2014-10-01T19:29:40","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T23:29:40","slug":"first-two-reviews-for-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/10\/01\/first-two-reviews-for-left-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"First two reviews for ‘Left Behind’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here are the\u00a0first two big newspaper reviews I\u2019ve seen for the Left Behind<\/em> reboot, which arrives in theaters on Friday.<\/p>\n

The movie\u2019s producers are urging real, true Christian fans of the Left Behind series to invite their unsaved friends to see the movie with them, suggesting it will be a powerful evangelistic experience. Neither of these reviewers seems to have gone forward for the altar call.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Bill Goodykuntz, Gannett, \u201cCage sleepwalks through terrible \u2018Left Behind'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Left Behind\u00a0<\/em>is a terrible movie, bad in almost every way, not even qualifying as so-bad-it\u2019s-good material. The film, directed by Vic Armstrong, is based on the series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, about the [premillennial dispensationalist]\u00a0Rapture, in which some people disappear, taken by Jesus, while others remain on Earth.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Cage plays \u2014 with as little energy as possible \u2014 Rayford Steele, a pilot married to Irene (Lea Thompson), but since she\u2019s gotten religion, as they say, in the last year or so, his eye has begun to wander. This makes for an awkward surprise reunion at an airport with his daughter, Chloe (Cassi Thompson), as he\u2019s flirting with a flight attendant (Nicky Whelan). While Chloe is there she runs into Buck Williams (Chad Michael Murray), a rugged, famous television journalist.<\/p>\n

As fate would have it \u2014 you can say that about pretty much everything that happens in this movie \u2014 Buck is on Steele\u2019s flight. Meanwhile Chloe goes home and argues with her mother; she\u2019s not any more comfortable with her mom\u2019s religious interests than her father is.<\/p>\n

Chloe heads for the mall with her little brother, and while they are shopping, poof! He\u2019s gone, just like that. So are some other people, at the mall and in other places, including the co-pilot on Steele\u2019s plane. It seems random, but Chloe and her father gradually begin to understand what is going on, thanks to Irene\u2019s proselytizing.<\/p>\n

Up to this point the film is a study of a family and its problems, and where faith fits in. It\u2019s heavy-handed as all get out, but it\u2019s trying. But once the Rapture actually begins, the film takes a major shift, and the focus becomes getting Steele\u2019s flight home safely. It\u2019s like it turns into Airport 1975,<\/em> and Cage is Charlton Heston.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Also, the co-pilot disappears, and the plane is running out of fuel, and one of the engines is damaged, and some of the equipment is malfunctioning and \u2026 You get the picture. All that\u2019s missing is Lloyd Bridges in the control tower saying, \u201cLooks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"EndBegins\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Elizabeth Weitzman, The (N.Y.) Daily News,<\/em>\u00a0\u201cNicolas Cage\u2019s thriller about the Rapture is so bad it\u2019s also a mystery: Why did he make it?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

This failed epic \u2014 really, an epic failure \u2014 would barely be noticed, were it not for former Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage taking on a Sharknado<\/em>-quality remake of a Kirk Cameron movie.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Cage plays a pilot on an aircraft that was seemingly shot in someone\u2019s basement. As Capt. Rayford Steele, he\u2019s as shocked as anyone when half his passengers disappear. Where did they go? Why are they gone? His deeply religious wife, Irene (Lea Thompson), could have told him. But being a believer, she\u2019s gone too.<\/p>\n

Fortunately his daughter Chloe (Cassi Thomson), a proud skeptic, is still around to help the survivors. So is investigative journalist Buck Williams (Chad Michael Murray). Journalists, after all, rarely take anything on faith.<\/p>\n

Instead, we tend to ask a lot of questions. For example, what has gone so horribly wrong in Cage\u2019s career that he is forced to accept any paycheck that comes his way? There\u2019s no reason he shouldn\u2019t make a religious movie, if that\u2019s what speaks to him. But why would he make such a terrible one?<\/p>\n

The script is barely patched together, the effects are laughably tinny and the performances are so stilted you\u2019d think this was everyone\u2019s first film. Honestly, Sharknado<\/em> star Ian Ziering would have done a better job milking this material than Cage, who simply seems confused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know you all want answers, and so do I,\u201d intones Capt. Steele.<\/p>\n

The sooner the better, please.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gannett’s Bill Goodykuntz says, “‘Left Behind’ is a terrible movie, bad in almost every way, not even qualifying as so-bad-it’s-good material.” While Elizabeth Weitzman of The Daily News calls it a “failed epic — really, an epic failure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-24776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-left-behind","tag-left-behind"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst two reviews for 'Left Behind'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gannett's Bill Goodykuntz says, "'Left Behind' is a terrible movie, bad in almost every way, not even qualifying as so-bad-it's-good material." 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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