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CHRISTIAN MOVIE REVIEW: The Road (2009)

The Road

  • GENRE: Horror / Adventure
  • ACTORS: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Garret Dillahunt, Michael K. Williams, Molly Parker, Bob Jennings, Agnes Herrmann
  • RATING: R
  • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Violence. Cannibalism. Bad language and questionable situations. Nudity.
  • INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie features cannibalism as a prominent theme. Needless to say, this film is not for everyone. Completely inappropriate for children, most teenagers and many adults.
  • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) The end of the world is a filthy place. No one has enough to eat. Some choose to eat what others would starve before eating. A man and his son prove that evil is never far from home. And by the way, they don’t have a home, either.
  • REVIEW: A while back, when I reviewed another film, I remarked,

    if I had to sum up the mood of [SHERLOCK HOLMES] in one word, that word would be “filth.”

    Actually, I stand corrected. I had no idea what real filth was before I saw THE ROAD. “Dark theme” doesn’t begin to describe the world in which this film takes place. It literally looks like no one has taken a bath, or cleaned anything in the world in the 10 years since a bad case of armageddon broke out. A lot of things are left unexplained in this movie[1. Though events may be explained in the book.] For example, what happened, and what in the world is going on??? How and why did the human race get mostly exterminated? I mention these points in passing, though they really don’t detract from the story. The story itself is mostly plausible, given the underlying premise that most plant and animal life is gone. Whether human beings would sink to the decree of depravity shown in the film is a legitimate point for discussion. This film is at it’s essence the story of the relationship of a father and his son. It shows how they react to the extreme violence and evil on “the road,” and how they deal with their own evil. Though I would hope for better from human nature, I’d be hard pressed to prove that the outcome of the world would be otherwise, given the circumstances presented. Only a speck of hope is allowed to penetrate the dark world on the road. That speck of hope never grows. From a Christian point of view, I wouldn’t argue that this movie presents a Biblical view of the end of the world, or even of the last days. If you are intent on proving THE ROAD has some relationship to the end times as described in the Bible, you could probably find support for your point of view. I think the safer premise is to view THE ROAD strictly as a work of fiction.

  • RECOMMENDATION:[2. If you wonder why zombie themes and horror films have space on a Christian website like K_Line Christian Online, please see my blog post on point] 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. That being said, many horror movies present these elements in a gratuitous, non-essential manner, purely for shock value and depravity. THE ROAD certainly has graphic violence, gore, language and other questionable elements. There’s even a bit of nudity.[3. The presentation of nudity is not sexual] Yet I wouldn’t call these elements completely gratuitous or non-essential. For the most part, these elements are important in advancing the story, though they did carry shock value and depravity. I liked the movie for it’s strong moral message. That moral message is mostly presented in the father’s increasingly and shockingly BAD behavior. The father faces a situation not unlike that of Job, in the Old Testament. That is, when the the world falls into a complete state of ruin, can a man remain good? And Godly? In the case of Job, we know the answer is “Yes.” Of course, the film makers don’t tell us if the father in this movie was ever a Godly man. Though we do see a reference to prayer presented in the film. You’ll have to wade though the violence in “The Road” to see if the anyone retains their virtues when this world falls apart.
  • 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.



MOVIE REVIEW: 2012 (2009)

2012
2012

  • GENRE: Action, Science Fiction Disaster
  • ACTORS: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson, Chin Han, Patrick Bauchau, Thomas McCarthy
  • RATING: PG-13
  • PARENTAL NOTE: I believe the movie makers think this movie is suitable for older children. I do not. Limited bad language. Extreme violence, though individuals are not shown being killed, except at a distance. Movie portrays mass killing.
  • INTENDED AUDIENCE: Intended for older teens and adults. Many people will be put off by depiction of mass killings.
  • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) This film shows the full power of the Sun[1. More precisely, a rare alignment of the Sun and the rest of the solar system] unleashed against the planet Earth. Guess which one wins. Oh, and the human race is inconveniently caught in the middle of this cosmic battle of Biblical proportions. All of this was supposedly predicted a few centuries back in the Mayan calendar.
  • REVIEW: This movie depicts the annihilation of the better part of the human race. A typical horror movie kills off a few dozen to a few hundred people. OK, the zombie genre often implies mass zombification, but it’s usually left to the imagination, and who’s counting? 2012 manages to kill off billions–and seeks to show as many of the deaths as possible, either individually or en masse. The one redeeming point of this film is the spectacular special effects. Again, it gives a spectacular presentation of a disaster of Biblical proportions. The special effects bump up my rating by two stars, but there isn’t much else to recommend the film. The “science” part of the science fiction is pretty thin. The plot would be silly if not so tragic. The moral of the story is apparently, that there is nothing like the end of the world to kill off inconvenient third parties and re-unite a family.
  • RECOMMENDATION: Many people will be highly offended by extreme violence. In fact, it’s not really my cup of tea. Unless you are drawn by the special effects (which are, in fact breathtaking), save yourself the 2 hours and 38 minute viewing time.
  • RATING (out of 5 stars):