MATT CROUCH NEEDS TO BE FIRED!!!!!
Well it seems that yet again TBN and Gener8Xion Entertainment makes yet another failed attempt to be a legitimate film company with legitimate films. I give you One Night with the King.
The movie, with all of the pre-hype, all of the pleading for christians to come out to see the movie - wherever it could be found anyway, for all of the rallying around the christian movie flag pole, TBN once again proved that it still seems that it cannot successfully be successful in Hollywood, the one place they want so desperately to be.
It isn't so much that they made a complete crap fest of a film, but it only proves to me that they direction should be seen as the cause and not the effect of their recent failures to their projects to date. Let's face it, it was only some years ago that TBN made their impact with The Omega Code, a semi-Sci-Fi channel, bad B movie film with characters that even Ed Wood would be embaressed to write. But the difference is that the Omega Code film actually made money - but it was the last time it made money as well.
Please understand that this is NOT a slam about TBN or its visionary - Matt Crouch, but I have to say, based on his prior history, I question his talent abilities and his overall direction when it comes to backing then making certain projects.
In this day and age where CGI and violence is king, it's going to be hard to compete with projects like Shrek, I am Legend, Enchanted. Unless you have a great cast, and not a cast that most have never heard about or seen in over 40 yrs, you're going to have a hard time in competing in the entertainment marketplace.
TBN and Gener8Xion Entertainment says that they want to get a foothold in the dark world of Hollywood and make the theatre the new church. Well, I personally have a major problem with that as theatres is a place to gather to be entertained - NOT preached to. If you wish to preach your sermons then a movie theatre is the wrong place to do it. if you want to entertain AND place a small tiny little message within your film, fine, so be it, but leave the holy roller message where it belongs - church! When I buy my ticket, order my popcorn and sit down next to my girlfriend the last thing I'm expecting to see and listen to is a sermon - that's NOT what I paid my $9.50 for actually with ticket, with popcorn, soda and candy, X 2, we're talking about $35.00 then yeah, I want adventure - Johnny Depp sailing to the ends of the world while looking like Keith Richards. I want to see Michael Myers come home on Halloween looking for another victim and feel my gal clinging hard next to me anticipating the next fright. I want to see something moving like Shindlers List that teaches us never to forget. But what I don't want is a sermon and it appears most christians and non christian alike have decided the same with the mess TBN and Mr. Crouch has decided to put out.
If this was a legitimate Hollywood Studio Matt Crouch would have been handed his papers and his career would have been over with. But when you are second in heir to the TBN empire, then one can simply state that "we just didn't do it" when it comes to his attempts at movie making. It almost seems like the guy is learning as he goes - but at donors expense, this is what makes this all even more troubling.
Look, I'm all about free enterprise, but this is terrible folks. With so much revenue and potential on hand, how in the world is Matt Crouch, TBN, and Gener8Xion Entertainment making such major blunders???? I believe that it's because of LACK of direction and most importantly, TALENT. I've been in the movie business for over 24 yrs and I can tell you that although no one can predict success, you can predict certain outcomes when you make a movie. The statistics are there to show how much revenue one will earn with ones product. But it seems Mr. Crouch is not paying attention to what others are telling him and that's the bad news. The good news is that with the recent success of Mel Gibsons The Passion, the opportunities are there to tap into the revenue and audiences that want to see this stuff, the bad news is Matt Crouch is not listening.
What's the answer? I honstly don't know, other than fire the man, I would say for starters, better scripts. I've watched a great deal of TBN/ Gener8Xion Entertainment films and I can tell you from my tired mind from listening to bad dialouge, they have a major problem with scripts. The second issue is talent. How in the world can you expect to compete in the entertainment marketplace and have a movie that stars.....uh....well....nobody??? Now, when I say that I say this by meaning how can you have a major film with no A list stars attached??? It's mass suicide. And don't tell me that you can't afford it, simply look at the wonderful little movie called "Little Miss Sunshine". Nuff' said.
I personally believe that if TBN is serious about changing its ways they will make the necessary changes to become a serious company, but until then, until they decide that they WANT to compete in the Hollywood marketplace things will remain the same and you can expect more of the same failures to come out of Gener8Xion Entertainment and TBN and most importantly Matthew Crouch - which most of the blame should be laid at.