Thursday, November 8, 2012

Nicholas Cage Reboots Left Behind Series

When I was a teen, I read through the entire Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.  Not only did I read it but I believed it was actually going to happen.  Well, clearly not exactly like that because once you make a firm prediction about the end times the bible says it is automatically wrong, but I thought it was a reasonable approximation.

I even read some of the Left Behind for Kids series but found them to be horribly written and boring.

In 2001, Kirk Cameron of so little fame starred in a film adaptation of the first few books.  It was not well received among critics.  Here's just a sample review from James Berardinelli of ReelViews
"Cheesy. Silly. Moronic. Dull. Plodding. Torturous. All of those words can easily and accurately be used to describe Left Behind, an exceedingly poorly made motion picture that purports to offer a Biblically influenced approximation of what the so-called "End Times" might be like. In fact, Left Behind is less interested in telling a compelling story than it is in preaching. I really can't see anyone who isn't an evangelical Christian finding anything the least bit engaging about this motion picture. Left Behind will probably gain some support from its core target group, but the average movie-goer will likely find the experience of sitting through Left Behind to be tedious at best. As propaganda, Left Behind probably works; as a feature film, it's an abject failure." Link

Looking back and re-watching the films is a multiply painful experience for me, due in no small part to the haunting realization that at one point I thoroughly enjoyed them.

But now, Cloud Ten Pictures has announced that its upcoming big budget reboot of the series will star none other than Nicolas Cage.  The man who brought us such thrilling classics as The Wicker Man, Next, and Knowing.

Some material just writes itself.  I thought we would never see a popular Christian Apocalypse movie that deserved more ridicule than Kirk Cameron's, but hopes are riding high.

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