Your opinion on Christian movies.

[Okami]

The Left Behind books are based on terrible theology. That already makes for a bad movie adaptation, Christian or not.

[Sheenar]

Most Christian movies (ones made and marketed to the "Christian" audience) that I have seen are just plain cheesy and preachy and not good storytelling. They're formulaic and predictable and just plain bland.

Note, I said most. 2 that I can think of that do a better job and tell a more enveloping/rich story are To Save a Life and Faith Like Potatoes. Cheesy in places, yes --but they paint a more realistic picture than most of their genre.

Compare these to Narnia, LOTR, The Prince of Egypt. A good movie should involve a story and world that envelops the viewer and sucks them into the world --where they get lost in that world --and relate and actually care about the characters and what happens to them.

This is why I think many artists/musicians/etc. leave the "Christian" market --it tends to pigeonhole them into a set and specific mold and formula --which doesn't mix well with creativity and well, making real art. These people are still believers, but want to be free to fully express their God-given talents (like, if your songs don't expressly mention Jesus or God 's name --even if they have Christian themes, your album won't likely be sold in Christian bookstores).

[Nate]

this may sound crazy and I m listening to the comments but the fact is were the ones putting down christian movies have you ever heard the phrase dont judge a book by it cover same should be applied to christian movies

Sure, okay. Most Christian movies are bad because they have terrible theology, present Christianity as a magic genie that will fix all your problems, have unrealistic characters, and are very hostile to opposing beliefs. That's literally the opposite of judging it by its cover, it's judging it by its content. Its content is bad. Putting Christianity into a thing, even if you think Christianity is good and true, doesn't magically make a movie good. It can still be bad even if it's advocating a belief you think is good!

If the movies (God not dead, Left behind) above does not convince you in Christians nothing will.

If God's Not Dead and Left Behind are the pinnacle of Christian film, then let's just bury it and declare it dead right now, because Christian entertainment is obviously complete garbage that needs to rot.

But see, the best part is, those terrible movies you mentioned aren't the best of Christian movies. In fact, they're the worst. There's plenty of much better Christian movies that have been mentioned in this thread! While I haven't seen them, people that I respect have mentioned titles like To Save a Life and The Mission. And that's not even counting movies with Christian themes, such as Narnia and LotR and Prince of Egypt which have been mentioned multiple times.

That harsh I know but this could be the very reality why dont have good christian films.

Because people think we should accept stuff of extremely poor quality just because it says "Jesus" a bunch and says God exists? Yeah, I agree, that very well could be the reason why we don't have good Christian films, because people think that movies that are complete trash are actually masterpieces because they say Christianity is true. If you can get people to give you glowing reviews of how amazing your movie is without actually putting in effort or creativity, why would you bother? In fact, I'd say you're spot on, people like you are exactly the reason why we don't have good Christian films.

Like an old saying if you dont like it make something out of it.

If I go to a restaurant and they serve me vomit on a plate and I say "This is vomit, your restaurant is disgusting and awful" I cannot imagine the sheer audacity they would have to have to respond "IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT WHY DON'T YOU MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF IT?" No, sorry, I paid them money for a delicious (or at least an edible) meal and if they can't deliver it that makes them a crappy restaurant, and I am under no obligation to do their job for them.

Thanks all for answers still trying to get a grip why christian movies have had a bad rap.

It has been explained to you multiple times why they have a bad rap, if you haven't understood by now then I don't know what to tell you.

[Midori]

Nate, I think you can find ways to state your beliefs while still considering the feelings of your readers. This aggressiveness is not very convincing. At least, if I was on the receiving end of it, I would feel absolutely no motivation to change my views. In particular, this method of multi-quoting lots of parts of my post and returning each sentence with a paragraph would overload my linguistic processing abilities and make it quite difficult for me to think rationally. I would be hurt. Please think about my (hypothetical) feelings. And then the real feelings of your reader.

[mechana2015]

this may sound crazy and I m listening to the comments but the fact is were the ones putting down christian movies have you ever heard the phrase dont judge a book by it cover same should be applied to christian movies. If the movies (God not dead, Left behind) above does not convince you in Christians nothing will. That harsh I know but this could be the very reality why dont have good christian films. Like an old saying if you dont like it make something out of it. Thanks all for answers still trying to get a grip why christian movies have had a bad rap.

The reality of why we don't have good christian films on a regular basis is because christian films expect to be judged based on their cover. That's the problem. They expect to be loved and successful based on their status as a Christian thing, rather than their status as a piece of artwork. The problem is that the community surrounding Christian art is lazy, expecting films to check boxes off to meet criteria to qualify fr success in their target audience. Artists who want to do good work don't want toor need to check those boxes and therefore aren't considered to be making Christian art by the American christian evangelical community.

Christian culture is addicted to mediocrity. They're addicted to 'good enough' instead of great. You can spot Christian art from miles away often because it's five to ten (or twenty) years behind what's being made currently and often a lazy imitation of something in addition to that.
That is another core problem. Excessive criticism is not an issue.
The problem is ignoring the critics because what's been made is 'ok' or 'covers the bases', or worse, attacking them because 'they just don't get it' or 'I made it for God so you can't complain'.a

[Peanut]

The reality of why we don't have good christian films on a regular basis is because christian films expect to be judged based on their cover. That's the problem. They expect to be loved and successful based on their status as a Christian thing, rather than their status as a piece of artwork. The problem is that the community surrounding Christian art is lazy, expecting films to check boxes off to meet criteria to qualify fr success in their target audience. Artists who want to do good work don't want toor need to check those boxes and therefore aren't considered to be making Christian art by the American christian evangelical community.

Christian culture is addicted to mediocrity. They're addicted to 'good enough' instead of great. You can spot Christian art from miles away often because it's five to ten (or twenty) years behind what's being made currently and often a lazy imitation of something in addition to that.
That is another core problem. Excessive criticism is not an issue.
The problem is ignoring the critics because what's been made is 'ok' or 'covers the bases', or worse, attacking them because 'they just don't get it' or 'I made it for God so you can't complain'.a

This is all very true. I would like to add a little bit more since I think the issue is a bit more complicated then just simple laziness. First of all I do think there are Christian artists who are well meaning but because of low budget and/or restrictive expectations are prevented from producing a good product. Christian products do not get the same amount of money pumped into them which leads to lower quality acting, directing and screenwriting. This also explains why we see such a discrepancy in quality from Secular produced Christian movies (like The Mission, Ben Hur, Prince of Egypt, The Ten Commandments) and Christian organization produced movies (like Fireproof, The Omega Code, and most of the Left Behind movies). This is not necessarily a result of laziness since Christian organizations don't always have the money to make a high quality production and most of Secular film industry isn't going to give you money to produce said movie unless they know you will make money from it because its either already made money (like with The Chronicles of Narnia adaptations and every adaptation of the story of Moses) or are a respected name in film already (see The Passion of the Christ and Noah as examples). Added on top of the money problem is the restrictiveness that prevents anyone from taking real risks. Christian culture has been programmed to want all of their media to be clean and pretty like nice little plastic nativity sets. Because of this most Christian artists seem to be a bit to afraid of pushing the envelope or having any real violence in their movies because they fear the backlash and subsequent loss of funding. Whether this is a fear grounded in reality or the artists minds I honestly cannot say. The Passion of the Christ is probably the poster child for edginess and controversy in a Christian film but its ability to weather the ultra conservative backlash might of had more to do with Mel Gibson's name then anything else. However it could also have been because of Mel Gibson's ability to sell the idea of showing a realistic depiction of the crucifixion to remind everyone that there really is a reason why Crosses weren't used in Christianity until after everyone who had actually seen one had long since died. Either way, the fear is there and it would probably take some sort of indie film getting super big to cure it or something.

Finally I think, regardless of laziness, the exploitative pieces of Chrsitian media deserve to be an entirely separate category because they are perhaps the most damaging and disturbing part of this problem.. This is where I go into my The Bible miniseries and Son of God rant not because I'm particularly angry at whoever is responsible for them but because I marvel at the shear exploitative GENIUS that they display (and yes genius in this case deserves to be in all caps). The Bible miniseries is to me the lesser of the two evils here since it in and of itself isn't really exploitative and is not lazy in the bit. What was exploitative though were the comments from the show's creators which claimed that the entire series was built around showing God's love. The end product clearly wasn't about showing God's love and I'm not just saying that because of the violence and scenes where killing in God's name was done (which are sort of odd choices for a show about God's love when you think about it). I'm saying this because the show really didn't have a unifying theme at all throughout it besides "let's do some cool looking versions of some Bible stories." I'm all for that but the lie still sticks in my mind especially since I think I know the real reason why they said it. The truth is, where a miniseries like The Bible is making most of its money is from the subsequent Bible studies and other products that have been produced around it. The only way for them to sell such products was to get enough people hooked into the show that it would become enough of a topic of conversation that Pastor's would have to pay attention to it. And that is exactly what has happened. However none of this is nearly as impressive nor ingenious as Son of God. I have not watched Son of God but I plan to watch it while I finish The Bible miniseries. In fact I will watch it right at the same time while I'm watching it not because I'll have it on in the background but because Son of God IS The Bible. Son of God is a movie made entirely from the episodes from The Bible miniseries focusing on Jesus with some scenes added and others removed (there is no Obamasatan in this movie!). That's it. I don't know whether the creators of The Bible or someone at the History Channel was responsible for this marketing masterpiece but whoever they are they should have a statue raised in their honor and songs should be written praising their GENIUS. They literally managed to sell the same car, the exact same car not the same model, to us twice. They did it and they made $67,800,064 from it. Just wow.

I say all of this to say quite simply that Christian media is really bad and probably needs a major clearing out before anything is going to get fixed. Until then we'll just have to rely on Hollywood getting occasionally interested in things to get truly good movies like Ben Hur, The Mission, Prince of Egypt and so on.

[Zeke365]

you make good point and based on the argument I m getting and on the comments I m reading correct me if I wrong you would rather Hollywood make a Christan film then someone you did not know about because of the industry has a bad rap. I will give a perfect example I could make christian movie best budget, best storyline, best everything but because it was not produced using Hollywood effects and all that you would immediately dismiss it saying it the worst movie every made, but if Hollywood would do the same movie I did you would rave that Hollywood would do something like it.

the fact is you really do not want Christan movies. I could give a list of good Christan movies right now but you would already condemn them at the start (that sounds judgement and I sorry about it) so what what the point. If you want Hollywood to make the perfect christian that impossible and unrealistic in all standards it not going to happen in my opinion and based on the comments this exactly what you want to happen. If you want a list good christian movies here a list of my own

1.House
2.Rust
3.Undifendited
4.Derous Calling
5.Saving God
6.Blick of eye
7.God question
8.Misson Air
9.Jerusalem Countdown

that name few deny them all you want but I see the good in them.

If you want a movie with bad acting that laughable at most go see pray by crossshadow productiosn (not saying there bad company) then compare to others

[mechana2015]

you make good point and based on the argument I m getting and on the comments I m reading correct me if I wrong you would rather Hollywood make a Christan film then someone you did not know about because of the industry has a bad rap. I will give a perfect example I could make christian movie best budget, best storyline, best everything but because it was not produced using Hollywood effects and all that you would immediately dismiss it saying it the worst movie every made, but if Hollywood would do the same movie I did you would rave that Hollywood would do something like it.

Incorrect. Entirely.
If a movie was made independently that had the 'best' storyline and great character writing and development, and a good enough budget for good actors or good unknown actors who don't cost a lot, and either the smarts to avoid special effects they can't afford, or the budget to do the effects right, I would be fine with it. 75% of my (and most other people) problems with christian movies lie in their scripts, which is sadly the least money intense part of a film. Amazing films can be made with one decent camera, some good actors and a great script.

I don't care if it's made in Hollywood, I just care that the movie is made with quality in mind, not trying to check off a list of requirements to make the film 'christian'. It could be made in a backyard in the middle of nowhere for all I care.

[Davidizer13]

you make good point and based on the argument I m getting and on the comments I m reading correct me if I wrong you would rather Hollywood make a Christan film then someone you did not know about because of the industry has a bad rap. I will give a perfect example I could make christian movie best budget, best storyline, best everything but because it was not produced using Hollywood effects and all that you would immediately dismiss it saying it the worst movie every made, but if Hollywood would do the same movie I did you would rave that Hollywood would do something like it.

If you're doing a staid family drama set in the real world, which is in the realm of most Christian movies I've seen, what would quality special effects do to improve it? Would Facing the Giants suddenly become a much better movie if big, expensive CGI effects got shoehorned into it or it had perfectly choreographed car chases, but everything else remained the same?

I think I brought up Primer before, but it's an example of how you can do without much of what any movie has, Hollywood, Christian, or otherwise, if you have a good script and a concept, and the wherewithal to give it a realistic edge. It only cost seven thousand dollars, not even a tenth of a percent of the budget of anything in either the Christian or "secular." It tells a way-out-there sci-fi story involving time travel, but barely does any effects beyond a touch of set building and creative editing, and it's carried completely by the writing, fitting all these strange ideas together, and the atmosphere, the feeling that something is going out of the characters' control. No special effects necessary, just a wild idea and a method of showing it to us. And on top of that, the writer is a Christian.

But that's just a bunch of no-names, right? In that case, I present for your consideration, The Twilight Zone. One of the best shows on TV ever, thanks to some equally great writing by a few of the best sci-fi writers of the time, a rotating stable of guest stars giving powerful performances, and again, little to no special effects. As fantastical as the stories get, the weirdness the series is famous for is less in how they look, but more about how they feel. Most of them are set on modern-day Earth, but with some sort of twist intended to bring out a truth about ourselves or a comment on society. All it takes is atmosphere, writing, and the people to sell it.

Funding is not the problem. The lack of special effects are not the problem. What is required of Christian film-making to move beyond what it's seen as, is a willingness to try something completely different. How many Left Behind ripoffs do we need about the Tribulation? Why do the stories tend to be so formulaic when we have the whole of Christian experience to draw from? What does being a follower of Jesus, sanctification, grace, etc., really mean beyond the church, and what might that mean in X situation? Making the best Christian art we can make requires the imagination to ask questions like that, and the bravery to follow those answers and let God actually work us instead of copying what's been done before by Christians or a watered-down version of what the world has to offer. I want to see movies that do that.

If I get some time, I might take cruise Netflix with your list and see what I like, and hopefully they're doing what I think should be happening: making movies good not just for being Christian, but good movies, period. That's all I want, and I don't see why this has to be so hard for Christians to do.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

A lot of Christian movies suck because they're about the apocalypse and the end times and are just overall really pisspoor theology. Out of curiosity I looked up Jerusalem Countdown. It looks so horrible. Smh.

[Nate]

What the plot is definitely helps a lot in how good a movie is. This is why Joseph: King of Dreams, despite being done by a lot of the same people that did Prince of Egypt, really only gets a "Meh, it's alright, it looks nice" from people, while Prince of Egypt gets a "Wow this is seriously a great movie." The story of Joseph just isn't as epic or interesting as the story of Moses. Even though most of the same very talented crew worked on both movies, the one with the less interesting plot wasn't received as well.

[mechana2015]

The list and their availability on Netflix. For the record I'm not spending extra money to see movies, perhaps someone here with the DVD service can see more of these.

1. House looks like it has potential, but I'd lean towards the book first, since the film is Netflix DVD only from what I can see, and I don't have the DVD service.
2. Rust looks like it could have potential, but is again, hard to find, netflix DVD only from what I can see.
3. Undifendited - I have no idea what this is, cant find anything by this name.
4. Derous Calling Did you mean Dangerous Calling? If so, no netflix at all. Looks like it could be either embarrassingly bad or surprisingly good.
5. Saving God - Netflix DVD only, could be good, given the actors involved. Has potential. All hinges on the story and execution.
6. Blick of an Eye - Blink? If thats the case, which one? There are two in the Christian movies database. Rapture movies are... really usually pretty awful so that one raises my concern to start with, its on Netflix though streaming though. The other one seems like it could be... possibly ok but likely seems like it would be ragingly xenophobic. It doesn't appear on netflix at all.
7. God question- Not on any netflix form. Plot seems... I'd not have high hopes if I found this.
8. Misson Air - On Netflix streaming. The story could range from horrible to good, so we'll see when I have time to watch it.
9. Jerusalem Countdown - Netflix streaming avaliable. Looks... not promising. This is the kind of movie where I'm pretty concerned that they couldn't pull in the sort of budget needed to do it well.

Just for a quick reference also -
1.House - House 4.7 IMDB score, 27% Audience Score on Rotton Tomatoes. 0% Critic score on RT.
2.Rust - 56% RT score. 5.8 IMDB.
3.Undifendited - No idea.
4.Derous Calling - Dangerous calling has a 4.5 IMDB, and 64% Audience on RT.
5.Saving God - 57 % RT Audience Score. 5.9 IMDB score.
6.Blick of eye - Rapture movie 5.1 on IMDB, 61% Audience on RT. Other film makes no appearances on either site.
7.God question 6.9 on IMDB. Does not appear on Rotten tomatoes.
8.Misson Air 100% Audience Score on RT, 6.1 on IMDB.
9.Jerusalem Countdown 38% Audience score on RT, 3.8 On IMDB

[Okami]

1. House looks like it has potential, but I'd lean towards the book first, since the film is Netflix DVD only from what I can see, and I don't have the DVD service.

1.House - House 4.7 IMDB score, 27% Audience Score on Rotton Tomatoes. 0% Critic score on RT.

I saw House as a teen because I loved Ted Dekker and that at the time was among my top three favorite standalone books of his. Written alongside Frank Peretti, it was a gripping story I had a hard time putting down.

I was SO EXCITED for that movie. It had a great potential!

What we got was what felt like a cheesy, subpar offshoot of what should have been something epic in my mind and I was embarrassed I ever hunted it down at Blockbuster.

I can't really comment on the acting and whatever anymore because this was seven years ago and I saw it once. I can say, however, that they tried, that I wanted it to be good, but judging by the book...it was bad.

It was mostly faithful to the book, but did not do it the justice it deserved....they tried, but I remember just kind of wishing it was over. The same could be said of Thr3e, another Dekker book made into a movie in 2006. Had potential, was devastatingly awful...

It had great potential, House did... There could have been amazing art made out of amazing source material. But it left me feeling wanting. I'd say the scores it's gotten are pretty accurate.

And I hate to say these things because of how hyped I was back then. As I said, it's embarrassing now. I have nothing against the attempts at good Christian art, but seriously, how many of the same ol' same ol' types of titles does one have to sift through to get to real gems? Yes, House was different...but it wasn't any better... *sigh*

[Zeke365]

then let me ask you this how is the christian movie industry suppose to survive?

[Ante Bellum]

By - get this - making good movies.

[Peanut]

They're surviving just fine. Really. The point of any movie is to make money and the christian film industry, despite being rather subpar, has done enough to make money. This goes back to a lot of Mech's points about how Christian culture tends to be addicted to mediocrity as long as something has a "good message" (or more specifically a safe message that conforms to the conservative norm and doesn't necessarily question the views of its audience). So instead of getting actual pieces of media that could influence people or at worse be good conversation starters we get stuff that's laughably bad and an embarrasment.

[Zeke365]

I would like to thank everyone on this debate and you have given me quite a clear incite on what you want in a christian movie. I will stand in defense of the low budget movies weather you see them negative or not I see some really good ones and the good in them.

[Xeno]

It's not a debate when the movies can demonstrably be shown to be bad. You can like them if you want, but that doesn't change that they are objectively not good.

[Ante Bellum]

Except people aren't criticizing movies based off the budget. Their issue is with bad movies regardless of budget. If you'd been paying attention to anything anybody was saying, you'd know this. You're not standing by low budget productions, just low quality.

[Okami]

I think the majority of us believe very much so in the Christian movie industry. The problem is that the industry isn't truly thriving, but opting to survive on the bare minimum - as it's been said, catering to an audience addicted to mediocrity.

Low budget is fine. Lots can be done and we're all seen it done...better. This thread has already mentioned that in posters before me. Don't get me wrong, certain Christian movies get themes right...but themes do not equate movies in and of themselves and it's just a muddled mess.

As much as I might love Facing The Giants, each time I watch it I become more disappointed. So I prefer to simply look back on the themes I respect out of it rather than watch it...which kind of defeats the purpose of it being a movie, huh?

I've only seen To Save a Life once, but it's one that despite the cheesiness in it I want to see again. It dealt with mental illness, and I deal with mental illness daily. I want to see characters that I can relate to in movies, that give me a real, true sense of hope. I want to know that God can help, but I don't want Him handed to me like life and faith are always easy. I don't want to see God treated as a vending machine anymore. As much as I want characters to be real, I want God portrayed Biblically even more.

Even the low scores won't stop me from trying out the Blue Like Jazz movie, though...which even after all this time I have yet to see...because being my favorite book, it's worth a shot.

[Nate]

As I said before, a movie can have good things in it and still be bad. One of my favorite internet reviewers, MikeJ, makes a point in his Shameful Sequels series to point out when terrible movies have genuinely funny jokes or touching moments. The movies are still bad, but they have good jokes or good character moments at a couple of points...but the movies are still bad.

Nothing wrong with low budget movies either. Clerks is a great movie and was shot for less than 30k. Or, if you want a more Christian-friendly movie, Napoleon Dynamite was shot for only $400,000 and was received very well. You can make good movies with low budget, and I don't think anybody here would say a movie is bad solely because it's low budget. Usually when somebody uses "low budget" as a criticism, they usually mean that the special effects, actors, or cinematography are poor quality. It is still possible though to have an excellent quality movie that is low budget, as long as the people making it know what they're doing.

[Xeno]

As I said before, a movie can have good things in it and still be bad. One of my favorite internet reviewers, MikeJ, makes a point in his Shameful Sequels series to point out when terrible movies have genuinely funny jokes or touching moments. The movies are still bad, but they have good jokes or good character moments at a couple of points...but the movies are still bad.

Nothing wrong with low budget movies either. Clerks is a great movie and was shot for less than 30k. Or, if you want a more Christian-friendly movie, Napoleon Dynamite was shot for only $400,000 and was received very well. You can make good movies with low budget, and I don't think anybody here would say a movie is bad solely because it's low budget. Usually when somebody uses "low budget" as a criticism, they usually mean that the special effects, actors, or cinematography are poor quality. It is still possible though to have an excellent quality movie that is low budget, as long as the people making it know what they're doing.

MICHAEL BAY used SPECIAL EFFECTS on TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES.

It's not very effective...


QUENTIN TARANTINO used GREAT SCRIPT on PULP FICTION

It's super effective!


Poster's Note: TMNT (2014) had a budget of $125 million, grossed $485 million. Pulp Fiction had a budget of $8.5 million, grossed $213.9 million in 1994; with present day money, it was made with $13 million and grossed $336.4 million. While TMNT (2014) grossed slightly more overall, the vast difference between cost and grossing nearly the same amount, is a testament to better movie making.

[Yuki-Anne]

you make good point and based on the argument I m getting and on the comments I m reading correct me if I wrong you would rather Hollywood make a Christan film then someone you did not know about because of the industry has a bad rap. I will give a perfect example I could make christian movie best budget, best storyline, best everything but because it was not produced using Hollywood effects and all that you would immediately dismiss it saying it the worst movie every made, but if Hollywood would do the same movie I did you would rave that Hollywood would do something like it.

the fact is you really do not want Christan movies. I could give a list of good Christan movies right now but you would already condemn them at the start (that sounds judgement and I sorry about it) so what what the point. If you want Hollywood to make the perfect christian that impossible and unrealistic in all standards it not going to happen in my opinion and based on the comments this exactly what you want to happen.

Okay, I'm quoting this post even though it was a little while ago because it so thoroughly missed the point that I was shocked. It seems you find it impossible to accept when people don't like the same things you do, even if they list objectively good reasons for it. And you're determined to believe that those of us who dislike Christian movies in general are overly influenced by "secular" society or whatever (you seemed to indicate as much in another of your posts).

The Transformers movies have Hollywood effects. I do not like them.

Fireproof does not have Hollywood effects. I do not like it.

This is not to say that they are the least bit similar, but it is to say that Hollywood effects have nothing, LITERALLY NOTHING to do with this conversation. If a film is well-made and interesting, people will like it. If it is badly made and/or boring, people will dislike it. And nobody has stated any impossible standards, unless you believe that making an interesting movie with identifiable characters, with believable special effects (if actually necessary) is somehow impossible. What exactly are YOU looking for in a movie? Because you seem pretty heavily biased toward Christian films. What exactly is wrong with DISliking Christian films?

Example: you cited Fireproof as an example of a good Christian movie. I actually really hated it, and my reasons have nothing to do with it being a Christian film. Mostly my reason is that we're thrown into the plight of this thoroughly unlikeable married couple having marriage difficulties. I did not and could not like the main characters. I was given no reason to, because right away we are thrown into their fights and horrible attitudes toward each other. But there was nothing about the characters that really stood out positively. Also the "plot twist" at the end ( SPOILER: Highlight text to read: who could POSSIBLY have spent all that money to get necessary medical equipment for the wife's mom? Surely it was the perfect doctor guy and not the husband who was trying to so very hard to win back his wife... WHAT'S THIS?! THE HUSBAND SPENT ALL THAT MONEY TO GET HIS WIFE'S MOTHER NECESSARY MEDICAL CARE, THE VERY THING THEY HAD FOUGHT SO HARD ABOUT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FILM?! I AM SO INCREDIBLY SHOCKED!) was completely predictable. The movie seemed like a 90-minute ad for the book The Love Dare. Is it a good book? Sure, probably, I haven't read it. But I disliked it because it was cliched and the characters were completely unlikeable. Plus it placed the responsibility for fixing the marriage squarely on the husband. Someone I know had problems because his wife used this movie as ammunition in their fights and refused to acknowledge any of her own responsibility in fixing the marriage. So there's that personal element.

A Christian movie I DO like is Luther. It's good. It's well-acted, well-made, interesting, with likable characters going through identifiable conflicts. It's made by Lutherans (because obviously). AND IT IS NOT A BAD FILM. Seriously, check it out.

Seriously, none of us are saying a blanket CHRISTIAN FILMS ARE BAD BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT MADE BY HOLLYWOOD. Hollywood makes PLENTY of stinkers, many of which I WILL judge by their covers, with impunity (50 Shades of Grey, anyone)? Because we aren't saying we hate Christian movies because they are Christian. We hate bad movies, because they are bad; a lot of Christian movies happen to fall under that category.

[Thunderscream872]

Christian movies are allot like this picture. It's horribly bad, but because there's a Bible verse reference and it has a "good" message, Christians are so quick to give it a pass.

I would seriously love for Christians to start making movies that don't suck, but as long as they keep putting the message of their story first, and throwing everything else out the window, they never will. Most of the time the message isn't even good from what I can tell.

I don't watch "Christian" films on a regular basis, nor do I have any desire to subject myself to that. I think most of you guys outlined the reasons why they're bad pretty well so I'm not gonna bother with a long post. Nate summed it up really good earlier--they're like (bad) sermons in disguise with a few cheesy jokes thrown in here and there.

Oh, and it has nothing to do with budget. The Transformers films have huge budgets, and I still don't like them; and that's coming from a Transformers fan. The special effect are good, and they can even keep me entertained for a little while, but it doesn't change the fact that they're bad movies. You can pour all the money you want into a film, but if the script, acting, story, etc. all suck, then so will the movie.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Seriously though. Everyone go watch Romero.

[Peanut]

Romero is good, The Mission is better. In fact, MSP, why haven't you watched The Mission yet?

[Yuki-Anne]

Oh, another good Christian movie: Amazing Grace, the biopic about William Wilberforce. That was a fantastic film. You can tell I like well-made period pieces.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Romero is good, The Mission is better. In fact, MSP, why haven't you watched The Mission yet?

Good question. Though I think I may have and I just don't remember it.

[Zeke365]

The reason I brought this up was to get some incite on the christian movies and to show that there are some good ones out there I was trying my best not to be judgmental on the matter but does appear that way. As for christian movies weather you see them as cheezzy or not, I do like them and don't think their chezzy at all. I have already given you a list before so check that out (same ones but gave trailers to each one). As for my argument I bring it to a close.

1.Saving God https://vimeo.com/50854438
2.Dangerous Calling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBeKcCd15Xk
3.Rust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QFi5rYNBro
4.Do you believe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi_6WmtcKhA
5.The Hallway (movie I made) https://vimeo.com/102980579

[Okami]

I think you're entitled to your opinion, Zeke.

Hey Fire, sorry your thread kinda got hijacked. How has discussion answered or not answered your questions towards matter of opinion on Christian movies? Is there anything more you would like to have discussed? If so, what would you like to have continued? I haven't enjoyed a thread like this in a while!