C Me Dance

There seems to be an unwritten rule within the Christian community that any film made with a Christian theme must be "gushed" about as if it is a cinematic masterpiece. A quick scan of Christian-oriented entertainment sites indicate that this film has been consistently rated 4 to 5 stars.

This is ridiculous because this film is embarrassingly bad. This misleading bias also means that terrible films like this will continue to get made.

The fact that these films get laughed at in the secular world is usually dismissed as "anti-Christian sentiment". The sentiment is not "anti-Christian", it's "anti-terrible films".

"Christian-themed" movies can (and should) be as good as any other film genre out there. But just like a building, a film requires good planning and skilled craftsmanship. If a local community built a church and it fell down, they would not be standing around saying "Oh what a wonderful church!". They'd be asking "what went wrong?" and resolving to never do it again.

No building is excused from the rules of good construction, and no film genre is excused from the rules of good film-making. As an (incomplete) list of principles:

1 - All characters (and especially the lead characters) must have a journey. In this film Sheri has a minor journey (though an implausible one - her response to contracting leukemia is as tepid as if she'd merely missed a TV show), her father and all the other characters are two dimensional puppets. (Their unsurprised reaction to the physical appearance of Satan is absurd. No matter how devout you are, if Satan really appeared in physical form you'd still be shocked to some extent.)

2 - "Show, don't tell". The film regularly stops for inane preaching and pointless exposition. If meeting Sheri has really changed a character's life - show it. Having the character sit on a couch saying "Oh, you've changed my life" is no more convincing or meaningful than them saying "Oh, I've grown two extra arms". The act of "showing" is simple. Before the "change" show me scenes of the character's behaviour. Then have the transformation. Then show me the character afterwards.

3 - Every moment of a film must either advance the plot or develop a character (ideally both). If you can't demonstrate what a given moment of a film is achieving, cut it.

There are some superb Christian-themed movies out there, eg. "The Apostle" with Robert Duvall. There are also dozens of truly superb subjects on Christian themes which could be made. 1 - A son raised in the church leaves so as to have "freedom", only to discover the real cost of this meaningless freedom (ie. a modern "prodigal son"). 2 - A skeptic who believes that Christians are "mindless drones" slowly falls for a Christian girl he works with and gradually discovers the true nature (and the causes) of his hostility. 3 - A Christian "faker" (someone who only claims to have faith so as to exploit the community for personal gain) is exposed and loses everything. Despite this he begins a journey to true redemption.

If you are a Christian and you are angered by this comment then I'm sorry. But if Christian films are to have any value at all then there needs to be an objective attitude towards quality.

My new favorite movie. This movie is a really interesting superhero movie about a girl who has powers but is also a ballerina. Ballerina by day, girl who converts you with her powers to become Christian by night.

So... apparently this is a Christian film. Granted I watched drunk a friend had me watch it and then asked two questions, one was this a Christian film, and two was it a bootleg. And I have to say I would answer I suppose Muslim as it presents faith as good but Christianity as depressing and yes the editing is horrific, the cuts are utterly nonsensical it feels like 3 films smashed into one. Sadly I knew the answer was yes and no which is why he posed the question, but seriously the two main protagonists in the film suffer horribly and only convert people through magic which is never explained or even attempted to be explained. The antagonist in this film literally do nothing they take no action that affects the plot even remotely and yet the ending is still this sober confused jagged mess. I don't even know if it was intended to be happy, sad or bittersweet and thus is not any of them it is just a melange of wondering where any of the charter arch went to along with the story and any semblance of meaning whatsoever.

Let me get this out there, this is not a movie for me. This is a movie made for the born again Evangelical crowd and unless you are part of that crowd you will probably hate this movie as well.

There is so much *wrong* with this movie. The dialogue was seemingly written by somebody who never wrote proper dialogue before. It's almost like they programmed a computer with some of the most popular scripts and it just muxed them all together in a meaningless way. Nobody talks like people in this movie talk. It felt like a bad sitcom in places where I guess they were going for levity but it just fell flat.

The acting is sub-par. Christina DeMarco who plays the main character is so wooden in most of her scenes that she could have been replaced with a puppet and I doubt anybody would have noticed. Greg Robins was okay, he's not going to win any awards for his acting but at least he's acting.

The main issue, beyond all that, is that due to some unexplained reasons she's now able to convert with a touch. That's right, even if you didn't want to be converted she can turn you into a Christian forever. And the movie plays this off like it's a good thing. But hey, forget free will. It's not like that isn't the cornerstone of choices where Christians are concerned so long as they win in the end.

This is a bad movie made by and for very stupid people.

As a Christian actor, I find that some Christian directors don't allow their actors to really act--especially if the actor is a Christian. Putting too much into the character "takes away from the message!" (worst excuse ever). I have to agree with Voxhumana. I wish I could meet you and shake your hand. Thank God for the filmmakers who are not afraid to let artistic excellence and talent shine. It makes the message even more effective!! My hat's off to you sir/ma'am. I promise you this: if you see a film written and/or directed by this Christian filmmaker, it'll have more than one dimensional characters and a strong solid plot, conflict, resolution and climax! Bless you for your candidness!