Church Ball

It was a rainy night when my wife and I stepped into the recently opened Century 16 Theatres near us. Our daughter had sent us out for a night at the movies after we'd gone out for dinner. Of the 16 screens there was almost nothing suitable for viewing. A lot of "R" rated horror type junk, a lame remake of Disney's THE SHAGGY DOG and CHURCH BALL. I had recently heard director Kurt Hale on the local KSL Movie Show talking about the film. The host made the mistake of mentioning a comment that LDS filmmaker Richard Dutcher had made about the type of films that the HaleStorm people were turning out killing the theatrical interest of many for LDS themed films. This hit a nerve and Hale flashed back with: "All we need is another STATES OF GRACE out there!" He was referring to Dutcher's latest film which has unfortunately done poorly. While I think that there is room for both in depth drama and light comedy showing the LDS culture, I find the HaleStorm films, including CHURCH BALL, to be only mildly entertaining. Dollar for dollar there is no question that the technical quality of what is up there on the screen comes out far ahead under Dutcher's hand. The HaleStorm films seem like a glorified "roadshow". There are some laughs but little that has lasting value. I look forward to seeing what they can do as they shift their efforts from Mormon themed comedy to remakes of Dotty Dayton films such as AGAINST A CROOKED SKY. My guess is that they are not going to be able to match the $10 million that the 1975 original took in, even with the inflated admission prices of today. Hope that I am wrong! P.S: My wife said that CHURCH BALL was better then she thought it would be.

Trot out every stereotype and misrepresentation you've heard about semi-devout Mormons, and you'll see they've all starred in this ridiculous excuse for a film. Finally Kurt Hale's fortunes have changed (thank goodness) and hopefully it will be a long while before we see any of his features in theaters.

The cinematography was amateurish (I think they used a camcorder for some of the basketball scenes). The plot was limp and very unfunny. You really didn't understand why anyone did anything. It was like I had sand in my eyes, and a 300-pound lady was sitting on my face, it was that painful.

The only reason I didn't give this movie a negative rating was because the scale won't let me.

I was not expecting much going in to this, but still came away disappointed. This was my least favorite Halestorm production I have seen. I thought it was supposed to be a comedy, but I only snickered at 3 or 4 jokes. Is it really a funny gag to see a fat guy eating donuts and falling down over and over? What was up with the janitor in Heaven scene? Fred Willard has been hilarious with some of his Christopher Guest collaborations, but this did not work. They must have spent all the budget on getting "known" actors to appear in this because there was no lighting budget. It looked like it was filmed with a video camera and most scenes were very dark. Does it really take that much film to show someone actually shoot and make a basket, as opposed to cutting away and editing a ball swishing through a basket? I try not to be too critical of low budget comedies, but if you want to see something funny go to a real Church basketball game instead of this movie.

The movie lived up to my expectations from the perspective of making light the saying 'No blood, no foul.' I appreciated the message developed along the way to reinforce the 'would-be, should-be' true purpose of the program.

I ask my Elder's quorum president every year if they'll be having a recreational league based team this year. If so, to sign me up. (They been the region champs three years in a row.) I think the story line could have been developed further. The hotrod/eaten scenes were cheesy.

Not great, but I think anyone that has participated in church ball will feel that they got their money's worth.

It was dumb, but so much of it was true, and it had a good heart and a good ending. It seems to be a part of the gender to compete. And even when we don't compete, we watch. The younger guys play video games. I remember helping to take the rims down in the Stake Center because the basketball players would be trying to get the Relief Society and other groups to hurry up whatever their activity and get out of the Cultural Hall, even when the other groups had it reserved long in advance. The guys felt that they had a permanent reservation on the gym. And recruiting was true even for the youth teams. There were so many high school players playing on church teams, that the schools finally put out a rule against it.