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Left Behind - The Movie

Left Behind - The Movie

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $15.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Omen meets Growing Pains
Review: Take a poorly written, mediocre source, add in some ... actors and the look and feel of a Lifetime television production and what do you get?

This movie.

The theology is shaky at best, the characters wooden and undeveloped and the dual, but interwoven plotlines are ludicrous. The director made no effort to evoke any personality from his actors. They are merely instruments advancing toward a goal. The newsboy/secret agent drivel completely fails and Nicolae/Anti-Christ bit is about as subtle as a daisy cutter bunker bomb. There's no point in watching more than the first 30 minutes or so. You can figure out the end of the movie yourself, and probably guess the trite dialog with astounding accuracy.

You would be much better off with "The Omen" or "Rosemary's Baby" with excellent scripts, direction and performances rather than this clunker which leaves you hanging for the obvious sequel based on yet another book in this overwritten series.

"Left Behind" isn't just the title, it is an instruction of what to do should you encounter it in the rental store.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Disappointed.
Review: I loved the cast, but so much of the "meat" of the story was "left behind" in the book. There was not enough time spent on character developement which is so essential to the story. While reading the books, I did not want to finish one unless I had the next one there to start on. I do not get that feeling with the movie. I mean if the Sci-Fi channel can do a 20 hour mini-series on aliens, surely there is someone out there who could do justice to the Left Behind series.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not bad
Review: The sad part about writing reviews for material such as this is that you need to start with a disclaimer concerning your religious affiliation. Ok. I'm not a Christian. Haven't been one for years. I read the books for the surrealist aspect of reading books by people that take End Times Prophecy seriously - as opposed to people that find it all a bit silly - such as the writers of The Omen or Rosemary's Baby.

I was impressed with this movie because it took a lot of the fat out of the book. Sure there were enough sermons to keep the funamendalists happy but, unlike the books, the sermons took a backstage to the action as Buck slowly realizes that Nicolae Carpathia (a still amusingly obvious name) is the anti-Christ. There's enough conspiracy theory and strangeness to keep audiences going and it doesn't hit you over the head with an agenda like the books.

I stopped reading the books at book 3 because I was bogged down with the poor writing style, the overabundance of sermons, the constant flashbacks and the way in which most of the important stuff happened "off-camera" so to speak. As in "did you hear the WWIII started?" - "oh that's bad, but I'm trying to witness to this guy over here" - "ok" --- fifty pages later "wow - that was some war, eh?" - "couldn't tell you - i was too busy trying to keep the reader up to date on the plot developments from the second book".

WIth the movies you can't do that and they seem to be off to a good start.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The DVD Case Is Worth More Than The Movie
Review: Poorly written, bad acting, miserable plot. The special effects where really interesting, I had a hard time concentrating they where so special. This is a xtian movie - I felt cheated after the purchase. My suggestion - only if are very deeply xtian.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: Like a lot of others I was very disappointed. I'm on book 8 at the mo' and my wife is rabbidly awaiting book 10(!) We got the DVD on noticing it in the local Christian book-shop. No arguments, we just bought it as we loved the books. It's a good film, not badly acted - bit dodgy on the special effects, but . . . Well right from the off you notice the differences. Buck is a TV journalist, most of the action takes place in the US, with no proper European/UK scenes. Chloe's story-line is all wrong etc etc . . . Things happen in the book as they don't happen in the film. I think it was the director who said - in the extras - that they felt the weight of expectation due to the fact that so many had read the book/series. Maybe so, but it didn't stop him or the writers & producers producing a sadly lacking movie with little or no relevance to the book, except maybe in the character names. I'm not gonna buy the Trib Force movie, as I can only imagine what they've done to that one(!)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Left Behind
Review: I started reading the series when a friend introduced me to them. I got the movie when it first came out and found I really did enjoy it. The movie follows the first book very closely so if you read the book the movie is not disappointing.

Not being a big Kirk Cameron fan I was surprised he made Buck Williams pretty good.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: disappointing
Review: If you've been spoiled by Hollywood's special effects then this movie will be especially disappointing concerning that department. I found the acting to be adequate. I expected a lot more, unfortunately I'm not a fan of Christian movies since they don't necessarily have the money to make spectacular movies. So I was disappointed, even though I'm a Christian myself. I think that they should have waited to make this movie until they have raised more than enough money. After all you can't make a great movie if the resources aren't there. The movie just doesn't match the essence in the series. I like the audio cd series much better.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Movie is okay, but doesn't present good Gospel message
Review: Like most other Left Behind fans, I thought it was cool that they were making a Left Behind movie. When it came out on video first, I thought it was stupid. (Who'd go to see Spider-Man in theaters when you could buy it on DVD first?)

The movie itself does appear rather cheap. The airplanes look a little too obviously CGI. The sets aren't primo. But for a smaller movie company like this one, it was alright.

My main beef with the movie is this. They failed to present the Gospel message of Jesus Christ (the whole FOCAL point of Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins' novels) in a clear and concise manner. Jesus Christ's name was mentioned, by my count, once. Not good, not good. The operative words are "faith" and "God". Both key words, but none are more key than Jesus. The only Way is through God's Son Jesus, and this movie doesn't make that clear enough.

If you're a Left Behind fan, you bet you'll wanna see it. If you're not...well, I'd recommend watching this only if you follow it up with the sequel, Tribulation Force.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The World Hangs in the Balance
Review: Based on the best-selling book of the same title, "Left Behind" looks at the events of the rapture which is told in the book of Revelation. The movie centers around the lives of Buck Williams, played by Kirk Cameron, and Rayford Steele, played by Brad Johnson. Rayford is a commerical airline pilot on his way from New York to London, and Buck is a reporter for GNN, a world-wide news agency, who happens to be on Rayford's flight. Suddenly, people begin to turn up missing. All that is left is their clothes, jewelry, etc. No trace of the people can be found.

After landing at O'Hare in Chicago, Rayford learns the sad fact that his wife and son are part of the missing. Rayford often felt strange when his wife was talking about events in the Bible, but now he's wondering if she had been right about things. He finally begins to read his wife's Bible, and soon he realizes the truth; the rapture has indeed occured. Still filled with grief, Rayford, along with Bruce Barnes, the assistant pastor of the local church who was also left behind, both accept Christ into their lives.

Meanwhile, Nicolae Carpathia, played by Gordon Currie, has taken control of the United Nations and has promised to restore world order. Many see him as a savior, but Bruce and some others know him for who he really is. Buck has been witnessed to by Rayford and Bruce, but he still has some doubts. He is summoned to the United Nations to cover a Carpathia press conference and he then discovers that everything Bruce and Rayford had been telling him is true. He then accepts God into his life. Nicolae manages to brainwash everyone at the press conference except for Buck, who knows the real truth of what really happened.

I enjoyed this movie a great deal. Having read each book in the series, I was pleased to see that the movie followed the book so closely. The acting is very good, and the stroyline really makes the viewer think. I recommend this movie to anyone who has read the books or enjoys good thought-provoking films.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: overall, true to the book
Review: Overall, this movie was true to the book, but to get the most out of it, listen to the audio edition or read the book first. Unlike what "Jay" thinks (earlier feedback), this book/movie is NOT about destroying ones religious opposites. It is a movie about what happens to those who did not believe in Jesus when He came to the earth again to take his followers to Heaven.


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