Left Behind - The Movie

Rating:
Summary: It's A Movie, Not A Book!
Review: No wonder the secular world isn't flocking to the churches! After reading reviews from so-called Christians, I wouldn't either if I were not a believer. But, I am, and I just wish the Body of Christ would show a smigin of compassion. I have never read the Left Behind series of books, but I had no trouble following the movie. We get so hung up on our intellectual high-horse that we fail to distinguish between the two very different mediums of literature and film. If so-called Christians who love to find flaw with anything and everything (like the Pharisees and Saducees of Jesus'time) would let a little love in their hearts, there would be no bickering about whether the film is like the book or not, etc. I became a Christian thanks to the ministry of Hal Lindsey back in the early '70's, and I am here to say that this movie can be used as a great witness tool. I could feel the Holy Spirit move as I viewed this marvelous film. We Christians just need to take the energy we spend putting things down and use it to spread His Word!

Rating:
Summary: Love the movie
Review: Hi Readers!

I gave the movie four stars. If you read the books first (like I have) then it's a lot clearer, but you also know what's going to happen. But if you haven't read the books yet, and this is to all those first timers, then you HAVE to pay close attention! Don't let anything get away! It was an amazing movie. The theatrical release should be even better!

Enjoy, and get out there to see the movie in theatres!

Rating:
Summary: What the?
Review: If you are going to buy this movie because you liked the books, don't bother. Left Behind - The Movie doesn't hardly follow the story line of Left Behind - The Book. I was severely disappointed. I didn't even finish watching the movie. Cloud Ten felt it necessary to change not only the smallest of details, they pulled entire scenes straight out of their butts and incorporated them into this flick. If I hadn't read the book I would have had no clue what was going on, but since I did read the books the movie lacked everything. I'm not talking about production flaws or poor acting or low budget. I think the production was decent along with the acting as well. The story itself is what was ruined for me by the film makers. All in all I thought the film was a poor representation of the authors' hard work. Tiz a shame, really.

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Summary: LEFT BEHIND THE MOVIE
Review: I have to say after reading the first four books in the Left behind series, the movie is the worst adaptation ever made. The name of the movie is the only thing that the books and movie have in common. If you read the books, don't view this movie. If you must see the movie understand it only touches on some main points and changes the sequence around dramatically. The left Behind series is outstanding, and a must read but the movie should be burned. Read the books, or the audio books but this movie is S-T.

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Summary: Review of Left Behind by CA Perry
Review: First off, let me state my minimal credentials. I have read the first 4 books in the Left Behind series and frankly, I know what makes a good book-adapted movie because I have seen so many bad ones. So far, my favorite book has been "Left Behind" and I was extremely excited when I heard that it was being made into a movie. Overall, the movie is not bad, but it is really not that good either.The Bruce Barnes character seemed contrived and underdeveloped. Further, when he cries to God in the chruch I was totally unmoved because it seeemed so...phony. The realization that he had not been a true Christian in the book was thoughful, profound and soul searching. The realzation in the movie was at best an " Oh, crap, I guess I was wrong..HMM Ok,well NOW I will be a real Christian this time. No really, I will, I mean it...". It really lacked any serious contemplation and sincerity. I am sorry to say this, but simply, it was just really bad acting. Infact, all of the characters fall short of REALLY expressing their transformation from non- Christianity to accepting Christ in their lives. Overall,there was much less character developement than there should have been. The book made you feel like a part of the character's lives and if you are a Christian, it made you connect with them and test your own faith--which is good. All very moving stuff. The movie made me question nothing except why they made this movie. I am trying not to be too harsh because it was not all bad, and I realize that movie adaptations from books are not usually as in depth, as the books themselves, but the movies should at least try and capture the ESSENCE of the book. Just following the plot line, which they did ok, is never enough. CA

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Summary: Hey, I think the movie was fine
Review: When I first saw this movie (at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa a couple weeks before the release) I was severely disappointed and super-critical of the movie's lack of dedication to the books. Of course, I understood that there were constraints on time and money, and books are almost always better than their adaptations, but still, it was not what I had expected. In other respects I enjoyed the movie, but as far as faithfulness to the book was concerned, I was somewhat depressed.

However, upon a second viewing (two months later) I realized that it was, in fact, a fairly decent movie. This time I saw the movie more distant from my biases (having read all 7 Left Behind books in the course of two months just prior to watching the movie the first time) and though it was no Academy Award winner, I enjoyed the movie a lot speaking strictly from a "movie-watchers" point-of-view. In short, I was entertained. In that respect the movie did its job. Of course, so much more is expected of this movie, being Christian-related, that it seems to be under a more critical light than perhaps is right. Ultimately, this film is not expositing the Bible in the teaching sense. From what I can gather from the vision for this movie, it is meant to be a tool, a way to send a message to Hollywood, but also to the non-Christians who are in our lives. In fact, I would think that the emphasis for any Christian film would be to expand and glorify God's kingdom. True, this movie definitely needs "follow-up" as people have mentioned, and is not necessarily an evangelistic film (Like say "Jesus"), it can definitely be one of many ways to start the discussion "So... who DO you think God is?" Even regardless of the movie's lack of mention as far as the Gospel goes, it is always our personal responsibility to spread the Gospel wherever and whenever, movie or not.

In short, I liked the film from a sheer "let's go watch a movie" standpoint (although as a fan, I enjoy the radio drama more in terms of faithfulness to the series). I also think that it definitely has the ability to be used for evangelism both on a large scale (this February) and individually.

Oh yeah, to the fellow who spoke concerning the pre-mil position: The timing of the rapture does not make one pre-mill. In fact classic pre-millenialism sees the rapture after the tribulation as well. Actually, to be more specific, in classic pre-mil, the rapture and the second coming are the same event, meet Christ in the air and immediately come down with Christ. This is also called pre-millenial, post-tribulational. Left Behind adopts the view of pre-millenial, pre-tribulational (which I hold as well). Perhaps you need to investigate the reason for your eschatological views (at the least, your views on the millenial kingdom, or lack of one if that is your view). Also, I am wondering what you (mbrown3) mean by your statement which seems somewhat insulting. I know many excellent exegetes who hold a pre-mil pre-trib conclusion (far superior in intellect than I), why must such unloving comments be made on this public board? My e-mail is [e-mail] in case you would like to discuss it further, although my brain has a half-life of a week for remembering stuff I studied, so you might wanna hurry.

Rating:
Summary: Surprise! It's actually not a hunk of rotten Velveeta...
Review: After renting the Omega Code, which quickly turned into an impromptu recreation of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 by myself and my younger brother, I was hyped to sit down for yet another bout of so bad it's funny cheese. The CGI effects at the beginning, looking as though they were rendered on a 386 Packard Bell, seemed to be the beginning of more fun than even Casper Van Dien (the DeNiro of his generation) and evil rabbi Michael Ironside could provide. Much to my surprise, despite performances ranging from OK to pretty weak to laughable, the movie actually is good for more than just some unintentional laughs. It's not The Deer Hunter, but it's a huge step up from The Omega Code. If Christian film continues to evolve at it's current pace, we may have some genuinely good Christian films out there sooner than I certainly would have ever thought. As for the quality of the presentation on disc, the transfer is surprisingly pretty solid, with occasional artifacting, and the audio is definitely serviceable (though only Pro Logic). Actually a good effort from such a small, low-budget company. I've seen Disney, Universal, etc do much worse in terms of image and sound on DVD.

Rating:
Summary: great movie
Review: I very muvh enjoyed this movie. If you will look at the rest of my reviews i have written 2 other reviews for the " left behind " books. I thought that the movie was excellent, but in my opinion rayford stelle was much younger than they portray him in the biiks, and Nicolea Carpathia didn't have the middle-eastern look that you wou;d expect him to have. But all in all i thoroughly enjoyed seeing the people you hear about and picture from the books.

Rating:
Summary: Great family film- with guidance of course...
Review: I usually don't watch movies of books I've read- it is almost always a dissapointment, however, I watched this movie with an open mind and didn't expect it to be as good as the book- I was not dissapointed. On it's own it is a good movie- my children loved it and learned SO much from it! It was really nice to see a Christian based film with a large budget for once! I hope the movie industry takes note that we (Christians) are paying big bucks for truthful family entertainment. I would still suggest the viewer read the book series- no one should miss out on these entertaining and well written books. The movie actually spurred my children to begin reading "Left Behind: The Kids".

Rating:
Summary: This is not a bad Christian film!
Review: Okay let me start by correcting another writer that the book in the Bible that the movie is based on is called "REVELATION" not "REVELATIONS" as the writer called it! There! Now that this is off my chest let's talk about this film. Most movies put out by Christians are tacky and cheesy (i.e., Judas Project, Thief In The Night series, Appocalypse). This movie however has strong performances and a decent script. Kirk Cameron is a lot better than I had expected as Buck. The suspense is there and I think they did a good job of setting up the storyline. I had not read the series prior to the movie and I thought it was very easy to follow. Viewing the film actually inspired me to read all the other Left Behind series books. Though they have their faults, I do believe that future films would be great! I think this movie lacked all cheesiness that is so frequent in other films of this genre and I do believe that God will use it for His glory. I reccommend it strongly. It is not Chariots of Fire but it is well worth your time!