CHRISTIAN MOVIE REVIEW: San Andreas (2015)

The movie reviewed here is definitely NOT for children, and probably not for many other people either.

  • GENRE: Thriller / Action
    • ACTORS: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, and Alexandra Daddario
    • RATING: PG-13
    • LENGTH: 1 hour, 54 minutes
    • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Violence. Lots of implied killing–mostly non-graphic.
    • INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre, and may not be appreciated by others.
    • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) The San Andreas Fault makes a major split, devastating big parts of urban California. A helicopter pilot rushes to save his daughter and almost ex-wife.
    • REVIEW: One word for this movie: Ridiculous. OK, two words: Ridiculous, ridiculous. Many movies ask us to suspend the normal rules of heaven and earth. For example, to pretend that zombies or ghosts exist. Such an exercise seems a reasonable tradeoff for watching a fictional story. But this movie suspends the rules of human nature. That is, human being don’t behave (I hope) as suggested. To summarize, with a few spoilers included, Dwayne Johnson’s character apparently abandons his job as a rescue pilot to go in search of his daughter and almost ex-wife. He steals his work helicopter, a truck, and airplane in search of his family. The scenes of earthquake and tsunami disaster look convincing to me. But watching the portrayal of thousands (or maybe millions) of people being killed in a natural disaster isn’t what I consider wholesome entertainment.
    • RECOMMENDATION: This is a thriller movie. Many people will be highly offended by every movie in this genre because of the violence, and other questionable elements. Good computer generated imagery (CGI). Too good, really.
    • RATING (out of 5 stars):

Midnight Mass (2021)

  • GENRE: Horror
  • ACTORS: Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford, Kristin Lehman
  • RATING: TV-MA
  • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Bad language and questionable situations. Violence. Extreme anti-Christian portrayal and message.
  • INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre. I was ultimately offended by the content and message. I am not easily offended.
  • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) This is a 7 part, one hour each, mini-series. It portrays the conflicts between good and evil in a way that might provoke meaningful reflection in Christians. EXCEPT, in the end, the series broadly concludes that God is just the sum of all the molecules in the universe. God and Christianity are at best portrayed as a feel-good experience which ultimately means nothing.
  • REVIEW: Bible Verses are quoted by the bushel-load, but almost exclusively by an evil character who misuses them to promote evil. I realize that Satan himself quoted scriptures when tempting Jesus Christ. So in principal, I’m not opposed to the idea that evil people people misuse God’s Word. But it is not fair to portray this use as the primary or exclusive worth of scripture. 1
  • RECOMMENDATION: 2 This is a horror movie. Many people will be highly offended by every movie in this genre because of the graphic violence, gore, language and other questionable elements. In this case, even if you are a fan of this genre, you may still be offended. I was.
  • RATING (out of 5 stars): Zero (0). Use the 7 hours it takes to watch this mini-series for something more productive.
  1. Atheists are not the intended audience of this blOg. However, I think atheists will generally appreciate this miniseries confirms their worldview.
  2. If you wonder why horror films have space on a Christian website like K_Line Christian Online, please see my blog post on point

CHRISTIAN MOVIE REVIEW: Ben-Hur (2016)

  • GENRE: Action / Adventure
  • ACTORS: Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Rodrigo Santoro, Nazanin Boniadi, Ayelet Zurer, Morgan Freeman
  • RATING: PG-13
  • LENGTH: 2 hours, 5 minutes
  • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. No bad language or questionable situations. But there is the violence. This film does not have extreme or gratuitous violence.1 The violence will be too much for very young children or the squeamish of any age. What you might call “XTV” (Extreme Trampling Violence). That is, men and their horses get run over by horses in the chariot race. There is a sea battle scene in which men are killed–some set afire. Also, Rome’s armies are shown battling the barbarians. Again, all disturbing images for the very young or squeamish.
  • … Read the complete review

  1. In my opinion, the violence is neither extreme or gratuitous. Of course, this is a subjective standard, with which others may disagree. There is no gore–disembowelments; lingering shots on dismemberments, or the like. This is an action / adventure film, not a horror film.

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