The List

Hidden from initial view .......................................

But soon you'll realize..........................................!!! This is not so much a mediocre mystery flick....................!!!! It is in fact a 100 minute advertisement for Christianity!!!!!!!! The plot started with an interesting premise, that of the disinherited son.

Then there was the shady secret society of southern segregationists which peaked my interest for a while.

But then the plot twisted and the god bothering started.

Poor old Malcom McDowell he really should be in better than this.

Please keep your preaching to the pulpit and out of the picture house.

It started out with an interesting premise. I always like Civil War stuff and ancient secret societies. The more the film progressed, the more I realized that this was a B movie at best. In the latter half, it quickly became a C movie, then D, then F, then "I wish that this wasn't a rental so that I could put it in the microwave!" I can't say that the acting in all cases was awful, just most. The writing, however... I never read the book. Maybe the book is well written. The screenplay was written by a 10 year old. It was ridiculously shallow, the dialog drab and uninteresting, the characters about as interesting as a 5 pound bag of fertilizer. I really hated this movie, as did my wife. I am a Christian and I have no problem with movies that promote or support Christianity. This movie did a great disservice to the cause. Awful, terrible, worthless. If you liked it, I strongly recommend Superman 4.

The IMDb plot summary in no way describes the essence of this film. It should have read 'Be prepared to be catapulted back to the prison of the 3rd pew from the back of your family's church at 8 years old, listening to the preacher drone on about God's will while all you can think of is getting back home to your Lego'.

It starts off well intentioned, building intrigue by planting some real and surreal clues such as Renny's 'how did the cut on my thumb heal so fast?' moment. It then slowly morphs into a Christian jamboree, sacrificing its plot completely in a wash of evangelistic-induced babble. I believe I counted the use of the word 'pray' about 53 times in a five minute span near the end. After the 31st, I tried to twist the context of the word to its synonym, 'prey'. Sadly, this little mind game of mine made the film at least bearable for the last 20 minutes. Plus it made me laugh whenever a character would say 'prayer' ('preyer' to me) as it became totally zany. Indeed, even my Catholic wife sunk in her chair from boredom, almost to the point of ending up on the floor.

For all the salivating Christians who ranked this film 8-10 stars, I suggest sticking with your theology-reinforcing safety standards like Circle Square, The Ten Commandments, anything from Narnia, Jesus Christ Superstar and the like. Stay away from more cerebrally challenging subject matter in films such as Jesus Camp, The God Who Wasn't There, What Would Jesus Buy, or the soon-to-be released Religulous.

Maybe Robert Whitlow's book is better.

When his wealthy father dies, "Renny Jacobsen" (Chuck Carrington) is alarmed to discover that he will get very little from the will. Even more surprising is the fact that his father was also a member of a secret society called the "Covenant List of South Carolina" which consists of old families from the Confederacy. Since he is the only male heir from one of these families he is then invited to join. But there is more to this secret society than meets the eye and Renny is about to find out all kinds of disturbing things. Anyway, rather than detail the rest of the story and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that what struck me most about this movie was that for a Christian movie there wasn't much spirituality and for a thriller there wasn't much suspense. At least I didn't think so. On top of that it started a bit slow and seemed a bit too vague in some places. But other than that I suppose it was watchable and I give it a rating of average.

I found the plot development weak in this movie. The evil power and it's enticements were not played out in any meaningful way, and some of the dialog was hokey.

I thought at first it was an art film, but felt at the end it was just low budget (not bad, just low budget). Some of the character motivations were doubtful and/or not fully developed.

Malcolm McDowell was at his best as a Southern aristocrat.

Turned out to be a religious film, and walked the 'prayer as magic power' line. I am not opposed to religious messages, but I have seen better ones. I thought the ending a little lame and incomplete.

The girl was cute!