Beckman

As a faith-based film, taking into account that this is an action thriller and dips into Christian themes, I thought the film was good. Actors David White, William Baldwin, and Jeff Halley delivered great performances. The action scenes were very good.. but you will notice that all the action scenes take place in a home, warehouse, etc. and you never once see a car chase with vehicles being damaged, shot at, colliding with one another, etc. which leads into realizing the filmmakers had a limited budget for the film.

I am a Christian, and I used to be a filmmaker that made a faith-based police drama called "Streets of Harvest" and a faith-based supernatural horror film called "The Great Altar." I feel at times we try so hard to push the gospel message into these movies without realizing who are target audience is. (Example: We want to speak the language of the culture to reach the unsaved, but we constantly create a product that only speaks to members of the local church) Well.... Why bother saying you're trying to reach the unsaved if your only audience is Christians? I'm not discrediting these films, but I feel a lot of Christian movies are like that including "God's Not Dead," "War Room," "Facing The Giants" and "Heaven Is For Real," where the film is only catering to the Sunday morning church crowd, and leaves several non-believers turned off.

With "Beckman" I feel this is a good example, at the very least, a step in the right direction to make a faith-based film that appeals to non-Christians without coming across as too preachy. So because of that, I enjoyed this film.

My issues are that, and hopefully I'm wrong, but I feel "Beckman" will only be remembered as a rip off of 'John Wick,' and 'Taken.' If you're looking for originality, you won't find it here, which is sad because there was an opportunity for this to be original and not just a copycat of other action thrillers. Even the pacing for this film, and the way it's edited, makes you feel like they were trying really hard to copy 'John Wick.' Because of this, some viewers may watch 30 minutes of it, then try to find something else to watch or say, "y'know, i'd rather watch John Wick 3 rather than this."

This is just my opinion, but maybe this would make a better plot for a faith-based film, maybe even a sequel or spinoff: Eric Beckman is an assassin who abandons the network, becomes a devout Christian / reverend at his local church, but the agency tracks him down and takes both his adopted daughter and church staff hostage; saying that unless he completes one more assignment, they'll kill his daughter and staff, and he's put into a circumstance where he feels he's going against God, but he also wants no harm to come to his congregation. This leads him on a mission to rescue his daughter, hide his church staff and ultimately going after the higher ups of the Network. Yeah, it may seem cliche, but at the very least, you're not deliberately copying what another filmmaker did.

Anyway, I still believe this is a film worth seeing. Give it a shot rather than passing on it because it seems like a copycat. If you're like me, you're proud of your Christian faith, and you love action thrillers, you should see it. It will have its detractors, but I think it's still worth seeing.

BECKMAN is weird. It's weird in concept, and it's weird in execution. Not because of the filmmaking or anything, but because of precisely how...normal it all is. Unless you knew David A.R. White on-sight or were a Pure Flix obsessive (I'm sure they exist), nothing about this film would indicate that it's from the same people that brought you such classics as GOD'S NOT DEAD and GOD'S NOT DEAD 2: THE QUICKENING. By all measurable standards it just seems like another one of those DTV action flicks that, in this particular instance, apes JOHN WICK. Frankly I think that's kind of an achievement in and of itself, a Pure Flix movie that just seems like...a movie.

The story, of an hitman-turned-preacher (David A.R. White) struggling to escape his violent past after his adopted daughter is abducted by a monologue-loving cult leader (William Baldwin) and his mercenary army of assassins and human traffickers, isn't terribly original (obvious nods to TAKEN, JOHN WICK, and MAN ON FIRE abound), but those are fairly solid potboiler plots and they're effectively recreated here. The inescapable hand of evangelical Christianity that normally pervades Pure Flix's output is kept to minimum here, and the film's much better for it. Sure you could argue that its message of forgiveness and nonviolence is at odds with the unending stream of violence and mayhem, but then again this isn't a movie that you should think about too hard. The religious themes aren't any more pervasive than, say, MEAN STREETS; which might be Pure Flix's attempts at securing a more mainstream audience, but also could be a sign that they've learned the art of subtlety (I hope it's the latter).

Action, performances, cinematography, score, editing, directing. All of these things aren't really that much more than average, but I think when the bar's set so low that has to count for something. My brain still refuses to 100% accept David A.R. White as a gritty action hero but he does give a solid, if somewhat one-note, performance and is fairly believable in his plethora of set-pieces. William "No Not That" Baldwin, Jeff Fahey, and Burt Young (whom I'd hitherto thought had passed away years ago) are all tasked with little more than making glorified cameos, but they're all consummate professionals and Baldwin is at least an effective baddie. The rest of the supporting cast are likewise uniformly solid.

There's a pseudo-DIY quality to the low-budget filmmaking that's rather endearing. Clearly these people didn't have the same money or resources that Chad Stahelski and Co. have, but dammit if they don't try. The fights are well choreographed and staged (and surprisingly bloody in places), and director Gabriel Sabloff has a strong sense of style that helps elevate the otherwise unremarkable material in many places. It helps that Sabloff is no stranger to these things, a veteran of both low-budget action movies and Pure Flix dramas, he clearly knows how to stretch a low budget. His love of DSLRs and gimbals might take a little getting used to, but it never detracted from the viewing experience and actually gave the film a bit of a (possibly unintended) personal touch. Will Musser's score, with its clear overtures toward Vangelis and Jóhann Jóhannsson, is an effective mood setter and helps set the film out from the rest of the DTV crowd.

To decide how to rate this movie, I was entertained to an average level. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. Most of the acting was on the cringe side, so beware of that. Felt like it was based on another movie that starred Keanu Reeves. If you have nothing better to do and want to waste an hour and 30 minutes, knock yourself out.

After reading the storyline I thought, this HAS to be a comedy. Ex hit man turned preacher has his daughter kidnapped. The moral dilemma he must face. I am an ex hit man, I must kill these people and rescue my daughter but wait I am now a preacher, what ever shall I do !!! Should I pray for her return ? Should I turn my bible into ninja stars and smite these unholy heathens !!! Unfortunately this is not a comedy, how ever you might get a laugh out of it.

Have you ever had a question about something that happened on screen and thought to yourself "you know what would answer that? Punching and shooting!" If so, this is the movie for you! There is no plot hole, poorly written dialogue, or weakly developed character that can't be solved with a silly hand-to-hand combat, or shoot-out. Having said that, this isn't a 1 star movie. One star movies make me mad at them. I compulsively have to finish a movie, once started, so truly terrible movies make me furious at them for wasting my time. This is a silly, brainless, fun little romp to watch with your friends for a larf. Don't misunderstand me, it is by no means a good movie. It sets up the story with short ~90 second clips in the very beginning of the movie, which is completely unnecessary. It also spends zero time with natural, or even passably good dialogue, and only volunteers sentence tidbits that advance the shaky plot. Every fight or shooting scene features people fumbling to find a trigger, or their fists to give the protagonist a chance to fight everyone one by one. This movie also features the all-too-familiar "hero gets shot, stabbed, breaks both legs, looses his sight, or gets set on fire" only to go about his business with a slight limp. I would be reminisced if I didn't mention that I would have picked up on exactly ZERO religious anything throughout this movie. Reading the other reviews, and looking at the protagonist's other IMDB credits, I see that he has apparently contributed a lot of Christian (pro Christian) content. This must have been a conscious deviation, because this movie has no proselytizing whatsoever. Really and truly, there is no more religious undertones in this film, than in Winnie The Pooh (that is to say, none at all.) Watch this with you buds (of any gender) and make a drinking game of it. It's silly, not terrible.