God's Not Dead is a good example of the culture wars, and the main media's inability to even pretend to objectivity.
Rottentomatoes.com:
Tomatometer: 17% (from the critics)
Audience rating: 83%
Cost $2 million
Box office to date: $60 million
Tell me what indie film that nets 30x its $2 million budget wouldn't be the DARLING of the Hollywood media...unless it happens to portray Christianity in a positive light?
[url]http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/17/gods-not-dead-review[/url]
The Guardian's review: "Ban this sick filth"
Hell, the Variety review ([url]http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-gods-not-dead-1201142881/[/url]) begins with mocking the idea that Christianity is under attack in the US...hardly even up for debate? Does the line "...The movie’s risibly myopic worldview..." suggest the review is about the movie, or the subject?
I personally haven't even seen it yet (waiting for netflix dvd) so I don't know if it sucks or is great. Every "Christian" movie I've ever seen post-1970 (not many) have invariably sucked so my expectations are pretty low. But the coverage itself is interesting, if entirely expected. I'd ask the Variety review if - believing Christianity isn't actually under attack - if he'd even read his own text?
EDIT: ok, I finally saw it. I like Kevin Sorbo, and thought his acting was decent. But wow, it really was a stinker of a film (like most overtly-Christian ones are, frankly). It was ham-handed, unsubtle, and the characters were largely caricatures. I still believe that the Guardian review was ridiculously tendentious and only peripherally about the film itself, but I have to agree with at least the superficial conclusion: this was a pretty bad movie, and its simplistic recitative did little to advance any sort of sympathy or understanding of a faith-based viewpoint in today's culture. Sad.
Rottentomatoes.com:
Tomatometer: 17% (from the critics)
Audience rating: 83%
Cost $2 million
Box office to date: $60 million
Tell me what indie film that nets 30x its $2 million budget wouldn't be the DARLING of the Hollywood media...unless it happens to portray Christianity in a positive light?
[url]http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/17/gods-not-dead-review[/url]
The Guardian's review: "Ban this sick filth"
Hell, the Variety review ([url]http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-gods-not-dead-1201142881/[/url]) begins with mocking the idea that Christianity is under attack in the US...hardly even up for debate? Does the line "...The movie’s risibly myopic worldview..." suggest the review is about the movie, or the subject?
I personally haven't even seen it yet (waiting for netflix dvd) so I don't know if it sucks or is great. Every "Christian" movie I've ever seen post-1970 (not many) have invariably sucked so my expectations are pretty low. But the coverage itself is interesting, if entirely expected. I'd ask the Variety review if - believing Christianity isn't actually under attack - if he'd even read his own text?
EDIT: ok, I finally saw it. I like Kevin Sorbo, and thought his acting was decent. But wow, it really was a stinker of a film (like most overtly-Christian ones are, frankly). It was ham-handed, unsubtle, and the characters were largely caricatures. I still believe that the Guardian review was ridiculously tendentious and only peripherally about the film itself, but I have to agree with at least the superficial conclusion: this was a pretty bad movie, and its simplistic recitative did little to advance any sort of sympathy or understanding of a faith-based viewpoint in today's culture. Sad.
