LEFT BEHIND

Freestyle Releasing

Rated PG-13

Running time: 110 Minutes

















Click below to watch a movie trailer of Left Behind.



In Freestyle Releasing's Left Behind, Nicholas Cage is an airline pilot - who is one of the few people left behind after millions of people disappear all over the world.

In this Christian film Directed by Vic Armstrong, and based on the Left Behind book series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, is based on the "end times" described in the Bible and that the people who believed in Christ have been Raptured and taken up to Heaven. While they never used the word "Rapture" in the movie, the characters in the movie - especially Cage - did discuss that this must have been the circumstances of what had happened to the missing people as there was a religious connection to all of them.

While the event was not graphic, I thought it was very suspenseful for me when the event happened, and I got the chills at it's suddenness. I was also crying as all the people left behind, especially the mothers, were worried about their loved ones. This was especially heartbreaking to me with the events happening in the middle of a shopping mall.

With the loss of millions of people all over the world, the world goes into chaos for various reasons. While the First Responders did their best during the end of the world to restore order, it is a shame that the First Responders were not also called during the Rapture. Of course, if they were, the world would have been even more chaotic. Events like this is what CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) was created for - to support First Responders. I know my CERT team would be out there doing what they can to help, but I would feel just as sad for them if they were not called up to the Rapture. The theme for both the movie and for CERT is, are you ready?

It is amazing how Christians help run and stabilize the world in their jobs. Christians in control of vehicles like cars and planes suddenly disappearing in flight can cause a lot of damage. It makes me sad that while children disappeared, their mothers/parents did not. There is a definite loss in the second half of the movie without the children in the world. It seems a shame that a lot of apparently good people were left behind to suffer the end time, despite their love for their families. While most of these good people are still in shock, a few of them, like news journalist Chad Michael Murray pull together to calm people down and get through this event.

I felt that the Christian message was pushed over the top from the beginning and that many of the lead "Christians" in the movie were not likable. Even Cage's wife Lea Thompson was pushing it when she was talking with her daughter Cassi Thomson who is home from college for an unsuspecting Cage's birthday. If I had written the movie, I would have had the lead Christian characters act as normal people interacting with the other characters and slowly revealing their beliefs during their relationships. As to the film itself, Left Behind felt more like a Hollywood disaster film to me - especially with Cage's runaway airliner, and Armstrong who is known mostly as a Stunt Coordinator rather than a Director - rather than an end time movie.

Although the Left Behind authors LaHaye and Jenkins liked the movie - most of the reviewers, including some of the Christian reviewers, that I have read did not like the movie. I think the movie would have taken a different tone if Ashley Tisdale was able to work out her schedule to be able to play Cage's daughter.

It is curious that I saw this movie near the season of the end times at the end of the liturgical year.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 110 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Left Behind.




Pancho
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