Left Behind III: World at War

President Fitzhugh played by Lou Gosset Jr. is a troubled man. He has helped the anti Christ come to power and rule the world without realizing it. Nicolae Carpatia rules the World with an iron grip and kills anyone who gets in his way. After the assassination of the vice President who worked for the militia and information about a deadly virus from Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron)and the Christian Group Tribulation Force, The President switches sides and fights Nicolae. But can he win? The LEFT BEHIND MOVIE SERIES keeps getting better and better from the Best Christian movie company in the World-CLOUD TEN PICTURES! The acting and production design have improved greatly.

Left Behind is a great name for these series of films. They should be left behind, in the darkest most inaccessible place on earth. If you pick up a movie at the rental store with the words Kirk Cameron and Left Behind you are about to waist 1 1/2 + hours of your time on a movie that is so boring being in traction with a broken leg is far more exciting and a we bit less painful. I am not sure if the producers were trying to camouflage these films as real drama but what they got was a dramatized religious Sunday school movie. The films are preaching the word of god and trying to put those words in a dialog of a normal dramatic film. What they ended up with was bad acting and an even worse script. Is it bad Directing or a combination of many things? Why was the acting so bad in so many scenes? I seen many of these actors in other films have great or at least above average performances. I actually chose to watch the first Left Behind film from beginning to end and because of a holly roller relative I was forced to watch most of the second and third movies. It's obvious that Kirk Cameron is a very religious person and that's great but if he is going to push his religious beliefs on people through the films he is involved with then those films should be advertised as religious films and not something else.

This movie stands alone, but is third in a series about the possible end of the world. The weapon today is...biological warfare!

Blond, handsome, charming Nicolae Carpathia (played by Brad Pitt's one time roommate Gordon Currie) had charmed the US President Fitzhugh (the distinguished Lou Gosset Jr) into disarming "in the name of peace". (Yes, like Hitler in 1930's who pretended peace as he rapidly rearmed. We haven't learned...)

And in an early scene, great editing and effects punctuate this question: Will Carpathia attack the US??? Gossett, not above pulling a gun to get info, will strike...but how can he attack back?

The US has no real weapons left.

Here, the small, very new Cloud Ten Productions shows how quickly they are learning to put together good films. (Even the first 2 "Left Behind" movies do not have the sophisticated editing, directing, scripting of this movie...)

Let me first say that I received the "Left Behind Trilogy" as a Christmas present from my brother who, like me, has a strange love of really bad film. I watched all three movies in a row, totally uninterrupted other than leaving for much needed cigarette breaks. Never have I ever seen such unmitigated crap in my life. As a Christian, I have to say I have rarely been this offended. That being said lets get down to the film. The first two films: Crap. The third: Crap, but not quite as crappy and here is why. The production value was surprisingly good as was the photography. Big props to the folks who free-lanced on this film and managed to walk away with their creative souls intact. Now for the not so great. EVERYTHING ELSE. The acting, the writing, the browbeating of message. Just when I wasn't so sure that this was a Christian film, the script gladly supplied me with yet another prayer moment. The only time I've ever seen this many prayers was at an Irish Catholic funeral for a priest. A small little piece of advice to the religious right filming community; try subtlety. It make so much more enjoyable for the viewer.

This movie starts off with the President of the United States, "Gerald Fitzhugh" (Louis Gossett Jr.) sitting at his desk in a bombed out White House lamenting the day he gave up America's sovereignty to "Nicolae Carpathia" (Gordon Currie). The film then backtracks a bit to an assassination attempt upon him which manages to kill the Vice-President, "John Mallory" (Charles Martin Smith). It's at this point that we learn there are two groups who oppose Nicolae Carpathia: (1) The militias who intensely dislike the surrender of America's sovereignty and (2) Christians who refuse to accept the leadership of the anti-Christ. Naturally, Nicolae wants both groups destroyed and he comes up with a plan to discredit the first and another plan to decimate the second. Now, as far as the overall film is concerned I have to say that this turned out to be a major disappointment. Not only does it substantially deviate from the book but the last fourth of the movie was simply too preposterous to be believed. Along with that, I didn't think the movie flowed very smoothly from one scene to the next. That said, if there is going to be a fourth film in this series I would hope that it is made with a view towards reality and Biblical accuracy. Below average.