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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): ★★★★★

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CHRISTIAN MOVIE REVIEW: Dead Awake (2010)

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

  • GENRE: Horror / Supernatural Thriller
  • ACTORS: Nick Stahl, Rose McGowan, Amy Smart, Ben Marten, Kim Grimaldi, Brian Lynner, Justin Marxen, James Serpento, Jack Mishler, Shane Simmons
  • RATING: R
  • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Bad language, questionable situations, and violence–none of which are extreme or pervasive. A view of death is presented which most Christians will view as contrary to Christian beliefs.
  • INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre, and may not be appreciated by others.
  • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) This is another movie in which you are not sure who is dead and who is alive.1 The main character in the movie works in a funeral home. He fakes his death as part of a bet to see if anyone comes to his funeral. Or is he really just “faking” his death?? He meets up with his old girlfriend from 10 years ago, when they were seniors in High School. They have issues.

  • REVIEW: My chief grievance against this movie, is that it has some of the elements of a sappy love story. Some might call it a horror chick flick. But if you can get past this obstacle, Dead Awake isn’t a bad film. There are some “dark themes.” In fact, a good deal of the film is shot so that only a few colors are discernible, with of the rest of the screen mostly a washed out gray. Both characters and their surroundings are creepy. One dark scene tumbles after the next, as we try to sort out who is alive, who’s dead, and who is just plain stark raving mad. The action builds slowly–too slowly for the taste of some, I’m sure. But the story is laid out very methodically, so that the conclusion generally makes sense.
    .
    As mentioned above, a view of death is presented which most Christians will view as contrary to Christian beliefs. Not good. But this is fiction, after all. We don’t know much about the role faith plays in the lives of any of the characters. But for the most part they are shown as good people with good values. One of the main characters quotes from the Bible, and accurately describes a Bible story. I can’t say this reference really boosts the value of the film from a Christian point of view. But these days, it’s nice to see ANY Biblical reference in popular culture which is presented in anything other than a negative context.
  • RECOMMENDATION:2 This is a horror movie. Many people will be highly offended by every movie in this genre because of the questionable elements mentioned above. However, if you are a fan of this genre–I recommend watching this film.
  • RATING (out of 5 stars): ★★★★★

MOVIE RATING SYSTEM:

Start with zero (0) out of five (5) possible STARS

  • Add one STAR if it looks like the movie was made by professional film makers–not 4 or 5 guys with a camcorder.
  • Add one STAR if the film has a story, theme or plot (optional for horror and/or zombie movies); or if the movie makes any sense.
  • Add additional STARS for special effects, acting, good moral message(s), realistic zombies, scariness,
    interesting theme or plot and the like.
  • Subtract STARS for extreme bad acting, COMPLETELY awful themes/messages, overall INCREDIBLE trashiness, graphic and persistent lewdness, and the like.

FOOTNOTES:

  1. See After.Life for another movie film in which the central question is similar ↩
  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 ↩

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CHRISTIAN MOVIE REVIEW: Awake (2007)

The movie reviewed here is not for children.

    Awake, the movie
    AWAKE

  • GENRE: Thriller
  • ACTORS: Hayden Christensen, Lena Olin, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Christopher McDonald, Thomas A. McMahon, Sam Robards, Poorna Jagannathan, Steven Hinkle, Charlie Hewson
  • RATING: R
  • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Some bad language and questionable situations. Cutting of flesh in a hospital operating room setting.
  • INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre, and may not be appreciated by others.
  • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) A rich man goes into a heart transplant operation immediately after his late night wedding. You are supposed to be asleep during this type of surgery. See if you can guess from the title if this was the case in this movie.


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