Six: The Mark Unleashed

I saw Six The Mark Unleashed tonight. It wasn't too bad. It was too preachy and it had some places where it didn't follow logically but hey, for an ultra-low budget movie I've seen a LOT worse. It's definitely WAY above Asylum grade.

I am a Christian and I very much support independent Christian cinema. I am also a Sci Fi nut. I enjoyed an attempt to merge the two.

Did it succeed? Not exactly, but then it didn't really fail either. I think a higher budget would really have helped. There really weren't any special effects. Just a bit of cool CGI stuff would have helped with the suspension of disbelief. They also were too heavy handed with the scriptures and it was disappointing that they didn't have any good people except Born Again Protestants. They didn't have any Catholics, Jews, Muslims, etc.

The guard who locks in the head of Tom Newman into the guillotine - looks just like the character Scotty from Star Trek (James Doohan). Is it he? Thanks. I happened to see this movie on TBN late one night when I was up by myself. I'd heard about it first on Jack Van Impe Presents, and was pleasantly surprised to catch it that night. I was so impressed that I got online as soon as I could to buy it. We have three teens and a younger one too that I thought would benefit from seeing it. It seems like a privilege to own such a well-made movie with such an excellent message. I am especially thrilled with the sincere characters of Christian believers; they are like what a true believer will have to be like during those grievous days of the Tribulation. And, who needs any other Baldwin family performers when we have Stephen!?!

I saw this at the 2004 Greater Orlando Christian Film Festival. Most Christian movies have a well-earned reputation of being terrible on just about every level from acting to directing to writing to production. They look like your average church youth group with a dv camera ran out and shot a movie. As such I was braced for more of the same but Six (not sure why it is named that) actually is a cut above normal Christian films. The writing, while not always the smartest, definitely keeps you guessing what will happen next. I had some issues with things that didn't make a lot of sense, such as why in a prison where they are executing prisoners if they don't convert to the antichrist, they are allowing the inmates to have Bible studies and write Bible verses all over the walls. It seems contradictory at best. Also the backstory is given short shrift as to how or why the Leader came to power. There is some mentioning of purges and that's about it. Other issues have to do with things that happen for no apparent reason. Like there is a character that recalls how he got saved. So we see him driving his car along a road mocking a large group of people that are walking for some inexplicable reason to some unexplained or unrevealed destination, and then he gets yanked out of the car and beat up. This scene has no context. Just because it is a flashback does not mean that within the flashback, context is optional. So that's the bad, or what I can remember of it. Now for the good. Six has some of the best acting that I have seen in a Christian film, notably on the part of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Tom Newman. He delivers his lines in a nice deadpan way and never goes over the top. Stephen Baldwin(!) has a great turn as the prophetic Luke. Baldwin puts that menacingly creepy little whisper delivery that he used in The Usual Suspects to great effect here with his moments opposite Morgan. Writing, directing, and starring is Kevin Downes as Jerry the hacker. Downes does an admirable job and in all of these roles but is best at his ability to hold back the film from spiraling out of control into the realms of the ludicrous with his even direction. While it has a solid Christian thriller vibe, it doesn't ram the "you're going to hell" message down your throat. It's more complex than that and expects its audience to think critically. While not a big screen level of quality (this is to be excused because it isn't being made with a massive budget), the movie is definitely the equal of your normal made-for-tv fare. Firmly anchored if not always rock steady, Six is a film that you can watch and not be embarrassed with if you are a Christian. 3.5 stars of 5.

This movie is the secret love-child of a Jack T. Chick tract and one of those "heartwarming" Christian propaganda anecdotes that have been circulating on the internet since the nineties. You know, the ones in which a mean, cynical atheist makes fun of a poor, oppressed Christian using a pompous, verbose argument which sounds impressive because it contains big words, but doesn't actually make any sense, and gets his come-uppance when his "argument" is "refuted" by some emotive sound-bytes from the Christian.

There is in fact a scene exactly like this somewhere in the first half of the movie, which is all that I could endure before flipping to the end of the DVD to see if anything exciting happened. Nothing did.

As science-fiction, the movie is ludicrous and unbelievable. It sets up a completely implausible and illogical view of the future. Setting aside the gimmick of the "implant" (which has a powerful, magical effect on your *brain* in spite of being implanted in your *hand*), why is someone in a maximum security prison run by a society which apparently practices rigid censorship allowed to have a bible, supposedly a heretical work? Why are the prisoners allowed to decorate their cells with beautifully and neatly executed graffiti of biblical quotations? Where do they get their art supplies? How did the evil implanted stormtroopers manage to massacre huge numbers of people in armed attacks if they appear to value personal self-preservation above everything else, including *defending the very survival of their society*?

The evil society is simply not believable, because it is a caricature of everything that modern fundamentalist Christians disapprove of blended with symbolism from the Book of Revelations. Are we supposed to be disturbed by the drones because they are sexually promiscuous? With *gasp* partners of both sexes? Oh, noes! The horror! I bet they've also massacred half the planet!

If you are the sort of person who reads those chain letters and thinks "Oh wow, that is such a well-reasoned argument! Let me forward this to everyone in my address book!" then you will probably adore this movie. If you are the kind of person who thinks "Who sent me this crap *again*?", then I suggest you stay away.

With such recognizable stars as Stephen Baldwin and Eric Roberts in it, Six, The Mark Unleashed has quite a bit more production values in it than you normally get from a Christian film. Note the producer is Paul Crouch, Jr. of the Crouch family of Trinity Broadcasting Network so it's not like they're short of funds.

The creative end of this film is Kevin Downes and David A.R. White who are the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon of the Christian film world. Note their respective credits, you'll find it almost exclusively in that genre.

Both of these two are getting a little old to be playing juveniles although Downes has quite the baby face, just like Matt Damon. They're a couple of petty criminals who get caught with some stolen items, but more important than that, they're caught with a counterfeit mark. The mark of course is the mark of the anti-Christ and it's a computer chip planted for thought control. That's an automatic death sentence.

In prison they're tossed in with Jeffrey Dean Morgan who neither buys into the thought control of the world 'Leader' who's come to power or with the Christian apocalyptic theology. He's a former cop and that makes him a good candidate to infiltrate the Christians and kill a new 'prophet' with the shegetz name of Elijah Cohen. Morgan's ex-wife Amy Moon dreamed up this assignment. Morgan escapes with White and Downes who has now become a believer. The rest of the film is what happens to the three of them.

Baldwin and Roberts lend their names to this project in strictly minor roles for box office. Usually these films immediately go to the Christian television circuit with a limited if any kind of run on the big screen.

If you're a believer this film is better than average, if you're not the story will be silly and trite. Reviews for these kind of films are wasted because the audience is a built in one, dictated by religious beliefs. Kind of like a Star Trek movie in that way.