I came across this while looking at the list of worst movies ever. I am wondering for those who have seen this (and made it through its entirety), whether this is really as bad as they say? I am not overtly religious so was wondering how "preachy" the movie gets.
shareIt's genuinely awful. And I don't mean that in the "so bad it's good" kind of way. It's horribly written, shoddily produced, and insanely boring. As to how "preachy" it is: it's just a long, boring sermon with lousy visual aids. And the message is terrible. I wrote a review that gives more detail on the message, so I won't beat it up here, but as a believing Christian I was appalled. Take that for what it's worth.
shareYes. Its beyond awful.
shareIt really depends on two things. The first is do you like this kind of movie and secondly are you of the evangelical type of Christian? If the answer to both of these is yes, then this is the movie for you. On the other hand if you answered no to either or both then your mileage may vary.
It's rather preachy and it's pretty bad. There's a whole lot of filler in it, it's barely 80 minutes long and the last half is more or less taken up with a dance scene, them sitting around the table and 10 minutes worth of outtakes and credits. Many of these scenes are then shown in slow motion with voice over to pad the movie out even more. Without all these slow downs, the actual movie would barely be an hour long.
I kid you not, it's basically an informational TV video blown up for the big screen. As a work of cinema, it essentially is not cinema at all because there is almost nothing cinematic about it.
shareIt looks awful.
shareThanks for all the responses everyone. One of my family members (who is a devout Christian) wanted to watch this at our family get together in a few weeks. The majority of us are semi religious at best so I will try and convince her otherwise.
shareMaybe not for you at this time. If this movie had been devoid of the Christmas party wrap & just had the narration and visual aids scenes and been part of a bible study, I would've loved it. It's very intriguing and makes you think as a Christian about things in the bible I've never thought about. It's also good if you know anyone who hates Christmas who is a Christian because all of the Pagan stuff & commercialism. I know several families who don't celebrate Christmas for those reasons. This would be good for them. If you do watch this movie, don't watch it for entertainment, watch it like a bible study lesson.
shareA lot of the claims Cameron makes in this movie are not supported by Scripture and seem wobbly at best. He says materialism at Christmas is OK because that's when Christ came to us in a material body. (I'm not paraphrasing, he actually says that.) He gets the Nativity scenes from Matthew and Luke mushed together and gets them all wrong. He makes all sorts of claims about St. Nicholas that are not backed up by history (in fact, Christian authorities agree that there's a very good chance St. Nicholas never existed at all). He says stacks of presents are great because they're like the skyline of Jerusalem. (Again, not paraphrasing.) The movie is mostly Cameron sitting in a car talking to a friend and lecturing him about Christmas and his friend agreeing with him and telling him how brilliant he is (not kidding), with some "comedy" scenes that have nothing to do with the rest of the story and are not funny at all. This really is an ego trip for Cameron, and this movie offended many Christians.
The movie is badly and cheaply made, and feels padded. A much more thought-provoking film for the season would be the documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?" that's available out there.
"Value your education. It's something nobody can ever take away from you." My mom.
It's genuinely a terrible movie; as a work of cinema it's a total fail. Even if you ignore the dialogue and messaging entirely, the whole production reeks of amateur hour. There are scenes in it that are literally out of focus, lol.
shareYes.
Yes it is.