The Hall of Infamy

I didn't like it as well.

The library e-mailed to tell me that my copy of God's Not Dead has arrived.

I hope you don't enjoy it.

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Trog

OK, pretty good choice for a crapfest HoF nom. Predictable, crap acting (except from Crawford who was decent), horribly designed monster, and I hate that the "monster's" grunt sounds like that scrawny decapitated orc from The Two Towers. But at least it really tried to HAVE a plot, no matter how predictable.

= 14/100. Just barely under the maximum to get rounded to a full star.

Yeah, the same here. He'd discover the locking mechanism (that I was staring at each time the film cut to him) or he'd find something really obvious. A long, long set up with absolutely no pay off, because the filmmakers didn't even realise they'd set something up.

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Yokaaay, Takoma's replacement pic, Krampus, ABSOLUTE SHIT. So shit that I want to thank Takoma again for choosing a different movie, partly because there is nothing redeemable about this movie. I've seen Brett Kelly movies that look like works of art when compared to this. It;s trying to develop a completely jumbled and thick story when I just couldn't care about the characters at all, because the acting sucked, the subplots were just thrown together and the director's attempts at making the horrific or personal scenes cool with constant overlapping.



I just have to watch Organ, post my review for my nom, and then I've got my reviews for all nine noms.

I noticed no one's been reviewing my nom. Are they having trouble finding mine, too? If so, I'll think about changing my nom too.

I have a link to your nom. I'm just watching the nominations in abc order (I generally do this in Halls). I'll watch Krampus next and then your nomination.

This thread is gold!

This review contains spoilers

Good lord, where do I even start? Perhaps with explaining that when I talk about Christians in this review, I'm not talking about those respectful people who show tolerance for others, other points of view, religious beliefs, privacy and space. The Christians I'll be talking about are the troubled ones who feel so threatened by everything around them that they make our life a misery. They're so uneasy with their beliefs that their paranoia concerning science, politics, education and biology has become something of a burden for everyone who just wants to live their life in peace and harmony. These Christians are combative, rude, intolerant, ostentatious and egotistical. They gather in large groups, but out in the world there always seems to be one making life hard for the other 95% - including other Christians who would just rather practice their religion like a peaceful person meditating instead of a proverbial bull in a china shop.

God's Not Dead is a fantastical film that in no way resembles the real world. In this film all Christians are peaceful, wise, happy and lawful citizens, while all atheists are violent, stupid, unhappy and awful people who are deceitful and horrible. In this film all Christians have a life full of meaning where everything that happens to them is carefully guided by a God that pretty much intervenes in an inexplicable way with their lives. In the world this film projects, Islam, Buddhism and all other religions are a bunch of baloney that people are forced into - making them unhappy. In this film all atheists are out to get Christians and make them forsake their religion, because all atheists hate Christianity and have no tolerance for it. In this movie it's the job of all Christians to turn the entire world into a world of Christianity. In this movie if an atheist will just listen for a few more minutes, then surely he'll immediately decide to be a Christian.

This film does tell a story where atheists are kind of silly, and Christians sensible. It starts out at a university, with a young Christian guy, Josh (Shane Harper) being advised not to take on a philosophy course, despite him needing the points to go towards his graduation - the professor, Radisson (Kevin Sorbo), who lectures tries to get all of his students to forsake their religion, because he's an avowed atheist. In the meantime, a young student, Ayisha (Hadeel Sittu), is being taken to uni by her Muslim father Misrab (Marco Khan), and he's forcing her to wear her niqaab (in one of the film's more unintentionally funny moments, he even interjects to say she's not wearing it enough, even though it's on perfectly.) Another plot line has an atheist journalist, Amy Ryan (Trisha LaFache) taking an unusual stance against a Christian duck hunter Willie Robertson (a real hunter, playing himself), where, once again, the journo is rude and intrusive but the hunter and his wife are peaceful and happy. Her boyfriend is also an atheist, so when she tells him that she has cancer, he just doesn't care.

You must be getting the gist by now. I'm sure if you checked out all the jails in the U.S. you'd find they're full of atheists, because all Christians have that faith and love in their life that makes them sensible, loving and wonderful people. Atheists are just full of hate, stupidity and unhappiness. For nearly 2 hours, this lesson will be force fed to you every moment. There is not one moment it's not. At university Radisson forces Josh to take up the lectern to prove the existence of God, thinking the young guy will make a fool of himself, but Josh starts winning over everyone in the lecture hall with his strawman arguments and misrepresentation. Meanwhile, Radisson just gets more and more angry, threatening Josh - and is not able to refute his arguments. Radisson has a Christian girlfriend, Mina (Cory Oliver) who is an evangelical Christian and he treats horribly. He has atheist guests over for dinner, and they all mock her as she cries. In the meantime, Misrab catches Ayisha listening to Christian gospels and he beats her before throwing her out of the house.

In real life, the dinner guests would have been polite. In real life, the professor would have well and truly learned by now to respect his student's religious beliefs. In real life, there are Christians who go on and do horrible things, and lead unhappy lives, and there are atheists who are wonderful, compassionate and giving people who are happy. In real life, statistically, a person who prays has around the same amount of fortune, coincidence, happenstance and meaning regarding the events that happen to them. In real life, there should be respect and privacy, and that also means not making a public spectacle out of your religious beliefs, and those of others. I don't mean hide it away - I mean you don't intrude on people's personal matters. Never, ever, should one religion be favoured over all others - and as such educational texts should steer well clear of religion. Religion should be kept out of the classroom, politics and government. The human race as a whole could well and truly benefit by an end to the fighting that conflicting religions passionately light up like a match to a tinder box.

While the main plot unfolds, a subplot drives forward with a pastor of a church, Reverend Dave (David A. R. White), and a minister from Ghana, Reverend Jude (Benjamin Onyango) who try to literally drive themselves towards a holiday destination. It is in this strand that God decides to intervene in events directly - and the film contradicts the principle of free will it uses to try and win an argument in the lecture hall. It's put forward that God continually messes with the mechanics of their hire car so these two don't leave until exactly when he wants them to (going so far as to have the car work perfectly, until mysteriously it doesn't.) He wanted these two to be on hand for the moment where he decides to brutally and painful murder Professor Radisson by having him run over. (Sorry - spoilers). You see, only then, when smashed, bleeding and dying, does this Christian 'education' win him over to their side, and he finally relents and admits that God does indeed exist. Radisson is therefore saved at the last possible moment (and also, unfortunately, is dead) - and both the Reverends, I kid you not, smile and feel good about all this over his corpse. A great thing just happened. You can see pretty easily where this reasoning can lead you - where brutal death can be seen as a religious necessity and on the face of it, virtuous, righteous and a happy event. It is the most dangerous and horrifying moment of the film.

If you have some kind of obsessive problem with gay people, chances are you're suppressing a side of yourself that tends towards that area - and if you have some kind of obsessive problem with atheists, chances are you're not really fully sold in a fundamental way to what your religion is teaching you. It sometimes comes down to understanding what religion really means, and a tendency for religious people these days to need the world to slow down a little, for we live in a dizzy spin by interacting with modern life. Appreciating the very meaning of life is even harder under today's circumstances. Fundamentalists of all religions have it the most clear-cut, but when reason and science conflicted more and more with their ideas they saw reason and science as an enemy attacking their beliefs - and, of course, anything that attacks their beliefs is anti-God, evil and the work of cunning devils trying to upend the will of their God. What they don't get is that many scientists are religious, and the greater majority of the atheists among the scientific community simply don't care, and don't mind. The whole idea of people educated in the sciences actively hating and trying to bring down Christianity is a fantasy that needs tearing down.

I thought it a step forward, though, that they'd include a young Chinese student who is obviously gay. I would never have expected that from a Christian film like this. I'd also think it terrifically funny if an atheist made their own 'atheist movie' - and I'm openly pondering how Christians would take that. For however much God's Not Dead is offensive, deeply offensive, I don't think there was one person who protested, threatened, violated someone or spewed hateful bile. If the shoe was on the other foot, then these Christians become apoplectic at the attempt at humour - they are so intolerant of others that I consider them deeply irreligious, disrespectful of their own God and so nervous about their delicate religious thinking that they have no faith after all. If there is a God out there - I have absolutely no doubt at all, that this God considers us as all equal despite what religion we choose to follow, or whether we believe in this God or not. If this God did care for light and darkness - and the difference - we should be judged on how we respect our fellow human beings, how we treat them, and how we think of them. If hateful because of our belief, then I'd say you've done wrong by the very God you pretend to worship.

I found God's Not Dead to be deeply offensive - and one of the most offensive films I've ever seen. Technically, it's obvious there have been many worse films made, but this one is so off-colour, disrespectful, hateful, inane, ridiculous and irresponsible that it's one of the worst films I've ever watched - if not the worst, which I will decide after the recency bias towards it has faded after a passage of time. That it made massive profits just makes it all the worse. In my imagination, people are called to account for what they've done in life when they die, and if that is true then the makers of this film would have a black mark against their name. It's not in the same category of people who have committed heinous crimes - but as far as cinema is concerned, it ranks alongside The Eternal Jew quite comfortably. One day, the Christian right in the United States will commit a crime, and instigate a period, which will be regarded as one of those dark periods of human existence. This film is another signpost on the way there.

@SpelingError - I know this is the second time in a row I've done this, but I can't help it. You're nomination has gotta be the winner. There can't be anything worse than God's Not Dead.

What's the best link for Lust For Frankenstein? If someone can message me the link, I'm in the mood for some naughty Frankenstein.

The Duck Dynasty guy is in God's Not Dead?? That might be the most offensive part. Blech.

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I did just now

Thanks.

Except for maybe the sequels (which I have like zero interest in checking out).

I sure hope nobody ever nominates one of those in a future Hall of Infamy...

That link doesn't seem to be working for me. Do you have another?

I don't think God's Not Dead is as bad as Manos or Going Overboard.

I really hope the sequels are called God's Still Not Dead! and God's Still Very Much Alive And Kicking, Thank You For Asking!.

Sent another. It's the only other link I know about.