Running Time: 100 minutes
Directed By: Michael Tolkin
Written By: Michael Tolkin
Main Cast: Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny, Kimberly Cullum, Darwyn Carson, Patrick Bauchau
Click here to view the trailer
STUDYIN' ABOUT THAT GOOD OL' DAY
Man, I REALLY didn't want to get into a whole religious discussion, but this movie really gives me no other alternative. Pardon me if I step gingerly around the subject at hand and give generic opinions to the real bullet points of "The Rapture".
The film stars Mimi Rogers as Sharon, a swinging, single, telephone operator who is growing fed up of her boring, listless existence. Together with the extremely sleazy Vic (Bauchau), she goes to clubs and hot spots, in search of foursomes, where she and Vic pretend to be a couple and swap partners. One night, she meets Randy (Duchovny), who's sporting a wicked mullet, which may be why she kind of falls for him. Putting Randy on the back burner, we continue to watch Sharon's downward spiral and her turn toward Christianity, which comes when a couple of door to door religious apostles come knocking to tell her about the good word. After giving it some thought, she decides to ditch Vic, marry Randy and turn her life around, giving the bulk of her love to God and Jesus Christ. However, when Randy is murdered during a shooting at his workplace (via a disgruntled ex employee), Sharon begins to get visions that she's to meet God in the desert and await her ascent up to heaven, via the rapture. Sharon and her little girl Mary (Cullum) spend upwards of two weeks without food or any sort of appropriate shelter, in the desert, awaiting God, but he stands them up. When Mary begins begging to just die so that she can go reunite with her daddy, Sharon begins to consider this option.
Oy vey, where to begin, where to begin....How about I begin by telling you what a pile of crap this movie was? Yes, that's that ticket! I don't know if this was ever in theaters, but if it was, Tolkin should've been ashamed to present this epic mess on the big screen. What it DID resemble was one of those straight to video pieces of garbage, that used B-list actors and some harmless sexual situations to lure potential renters at the local Blockbuster. Apparently, what we have here is a director with a statement to make and therefore I'm forced to sit through a terribly boring plot and bad acting for 100 minutes of my life.
SPOILER ALERT!
Look, I believe in God and Jesus Christ, but do I show up for church every Sunday morning? No. Do I pray over my pizza before woofing it down? No. Do I try to convert total strangers to believe what I believe and they too can be saved? No. I hate Bible banger people, who know no other lifestyle than to force their faith down your throat. I don't want to hear it, keep it to yourself; I'll do what I do, you do what you do. Therefore, I hated watching Mimi Rogers portray this holly roller, just the type of person that is so proud of their religion that they too must be committing sin just by being THAT up front about it. Then, toward the end, the Sharon character kills her daughter and turns her back on God, because so many bad things happened to her. And I'm supposed to be all "Yeah, you tell him Sharon, he totally messed up your life!"? Is that SUPPOSED to be my reaction? Yeah, God messed up this characters life, it couldn't have been the idiocy of the character - no, never....
Wow. I didn't mean to be THAT forceful with my thoughts. Look, I just didn't like it and that's that. I gave a few reasons and if you don't agree with my thoughts, just chill - because I know religion is a hot button issue and it's a hard thing to agree on. Chalk my dislike up to the cheap movie making and forget my religious disliking of it.
RATING: 3/10 Ummm a '1' and '2' seem too low, so that's my justification for a '3'. I suppose there are a few moments where time doesn't drag as much as others, but let's just suffice it to say that it's a bad movie.
MOVIES WATCHED: 766
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 235
November 21, 2013 5:42pm
I've been looking forward to you doing this ine, as i wondered what you would make of it..
ReplyDeleteIt was one that was difficult and fairly expensive for me to get.. it is only available on R1.. and i couldn't get it online anywhere, so i had to wait 'till I first bought a R1 player, then import the disc from the USA.
Thing was, I wasn't really looking forward to it... Not being a person of faith, I read it was about fairly fundamentalist Christian belief and feared I was going to be 'Bible bashed' (In the USA you say Bible banged do you? To a Brit that sounds very err... rude).
Well, it was in a way, but somehow i enjoyed it.. and I don't fully know why.
I think I may have chosen to deliberately misunderstand the whole film and seen it as a condemnation of religious fundamentalism.
I THINK what we are supposed to see is a defense of religious extremism. She looked, to us ignorant outsiders like a nutter, but the film wants to tell us that she was right.. the rapture happened and she got her true reward for her strength of faith.
OK, to me, (and I think Amanda may agree), that is a horrible message for a film to have.. That whatever you do- including child sacrifice (I guess they were referencing Abraham in the Bible), is OK as long as you do it in faith.
As I don't want to believe that, I made a choise to see it the other way..
May I be allowed to speculate here...
So, Andrew, as an obviously reasonable Christian, I think I can understand why you didn't like this film. It has taken your belief and made something distasteful out of it. This view of your God and your faith is not one you share. A case of 'with allies like this, who needs enemies'
I don't know.. sorry if I have misrepresented your thoughts... Please correct me.
Amanda, I rather look forward to your views - either here or on your own blog
Ray
Yeah, you know what Ray, I think you hit the nail on the head and pinpointed something I didn't even realize. I think sometimes people take their relationship with God to unbelievable levels, whereas I just treat it pretty casually (sorry if that sounds terrible). I don't consider myself any better than anyone else because I'm a believer and I certainly wouldn't push my views on others - I hate when people do that, it's despicable, in my view.
DeleteI'm honestly not really sure how we're supposed to see her. Whether we're supposed to sympathize with her or if the film is a satire of christianity....Just something that I didn't take to at all.
Hey there,
ReplyDeleteWhile looking for 'Report' (1967), I stumbled across this blog that is doing the exact same thing I'm doing.
I bought my dad the book in it's first addition back in 2003 because it contains a movie close to the family. My great grandfather was the writer of 'Walkabout', so anything to do with the book and film, we take notice.
I used to sit there and just go through it hours on end. Don't know why but the book fascinated me? For some reason, it just never occurred to me to actually watch all the films. Until earlier this year.
I'm documenting mine on Letterboxd. Currently I've been through 90, so I've got a long way to go yet. Also I have included all subsequent film additions to the later editions of the book. It works out to be 1154 films all together.
Are you just working from a particular edition?
Sorry to text your eyes off, but I've not really got in touch with anyone else doing this.
Take it easy!
Dave.
p.s. I started following you on Twitter. (@sootster)
Dave
DeleteWelcome. Yep, I'm just working out of the 5th edition of THE BOOK (Indiana Jones cover). I have another, makeshift list lined up for when I'm finished and that list DOES contain the movies from the other editions.
Followed you back on Twitter. Please shoot me a link to your Letterboxd blog and I'd be glad to give it a plug and check it out myself.
Thanks again for stopping by. Hope you'll come back!
Phew, I'm a bit relieved you didn't mind me trying to look into your mind a second guess your motives. a bit cheeky of me, but i thought I could see where things were coming from.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the makers of the film wanted us to sympathise with her.. that they were on her side. Why do I think that? Well, if she was being got at - if Christianity / Christians were being 'got at'.. they would have had a good ending with her just sitting there waiting.. and still waiting for the rapture to come.. and nothing happeneing - thus showing she was wrong. But they didn't - they chose to show she was right.
OR..and i will take another guess if you don't mind.. an ending you might have liked... The last trump came.. and she sat there glowing with smugness, and God says to her "WHAT? What have you done in my name? You think I'm like that?"
You really seem to be taking off for comments lately don't you? Well done. I can remember times when I was the only person here.
Ray, I would never take anything you said in an offensive way, so feel free to let fly and say whatever you wish....
DeleteAnd yes, I'm proud of all the comments and I meant to reply to your email, but I'm in the midst of a busy week and just never got a chance. I usually get your emails on my phone and it's super hard to reply to an email from my phone.
Rough week to work at a grocery store, in the U.S.
..and only to get worse I guess (at work). I hate being in shops this time of year, with all the bad tempered crowds.. so actually working there..You have a great deal of sympathy!
ReplyDeleteFor me, the Thanksgiving time is worse, because literally everyone is going to the grocery store in preparation for their big meal AND you have the added bonus of the black Friday sales (not sure if you're aware of this, but Black Friday is this thing in the states that takes place Thanksgiving night/the Friday after and it's basically every store offering their biggest sales of the season, just in time for Christmas). I work in a store that has both a grocery and general merchandise, therefore I have been chosen to participate in the Black Friday sales, and it's going to be hectic.
DeleteIf I can get through these next three days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), it should be smooth sailing from there. Plus, I'm off on Friday and Saturday, so it'll be a nice, little break.
Ah, yes.. I had forgotten Thanksgiving, which was silly of me, as you did mention it before.. and no, it is not an event here as you correctly assumed.
ReplyDelete(In the past I have know Americans who have expressed surprise (because it is such a major holiday/celebration) that we don't 'do' the 4th July.
Err.. I've no idea why...
I'm forever astounded by the stupidity of others...
DeleteThanks for the clarification Ray
I thought I would add a comment to this post which is rivaling your Airplane post for number of comments. I think I have said this before, but I am an atheist so was already kind of dreading this film since it doesn't exactly tackle any interests of mine. But after watching this movie, I was just blown away in the worst way. I think the main character in this is one of the most annoying people in the history of cinema. And then she was right the entire time??? I started to wish she was pointing the gun at me toward the end of the movie...
ReplyDeleteWow, this one is running away with comments isn't it? I hadn't really realized. Glad to know someone agrees with me.
Delete