Chasing the Star

This came up as suggested for Christmas, and oh how I wish it hadn't. I have no idea what the point of this movie was. Each of the magi except for balshazar were made out to be irreverent and.regretful. Herod's portrayal was more appropriate for a psycho thriller. It felt as if at least 70% of the movie was flashbacks about each of the magi's individual and quite pathetic pasts. The acting wasn't worthy of B grade. Some characters had lovely accents, but most sounded like mechanics or truck drivers, completely off from the characters they portrayed. There were also quite a few pointless plot elements that were just stupid and inappropriate, and in some cases cruel and mean. It felt like the writers and directors of this film were disturbed or really wanted to put out a dark drama, but for some reason chose something sacred to defile instead. I am all for introducing humanity into modern day retellings of historic and biblical events (hello, The Chosen). But this was beyond awful. The never ending dark and sinister music, the teenage angst style behaviors of people who were supposed to be wise men... it was all just really bad. The cover image of this movie showing the beautiful star and 3 camels needs to be scrapped, because it reflects nothing of this movie's dark and sinister tone. That image is deceiving.

I cannot fathom in my wildest dreams why anyone would give this more than a couple of stars. The acting was horrible, the fictional story completely implausible, there was no passion, no inspiration, and no resolution to the drama invented for the story. You will not see the magi get anywhere near Christ. The films spends most most of its time telling the backstory for each of the three magi, all of them traumatic and completely without anything that would draw a viewer to them. Did I mention it is completely fictional? Oh, and don't miss the references to Herod's incest with his sister. Ugh. A really gross waste of time.

...where do I begin? Either a High School project or a 2nd year college exam. The language is awful, it's a mixture of old and new English, the filming is all modern motion, and the settings...oh myy, more like 19th century than first century. This movie could have been a great retelling but apparently it must have had a very very low budget. A waste for actress Yancy Butler, she must have donated her time. I hope someone else decides to remake it with better dialogue, acting, and sets, and most of all, heart.

I admitt, I like it. Yes, it is far to be a great movie and accuracy is not exactly its basic virtue. But it has the gift to propose a new perspective about a very familiar story. And it represents a puzzle of personal stories, touching and dramatic in some measure. And it does a reasonable job in this sense. In essence, no surprises because, from the first part, you know the tone and the vision and the idea of director about manner to tell the story. The big problem - the didacticism of the dialogue between Archangel Gabriel and Devil and the actor in the role of Archangel . But that are only details. The result - it represents more than a Christmas film but a nice portrait of vulnerability and reconciliation with yourself.

Unique telling of the Magi story, which has been overlooked both spiritually and cinematically. The movie takes us with The Three Wise Man as they reveal their own faith journey on their way to Bethlehem. Strong performances by Bello Pizzimenti and Taymour Ghazi. Rance Howard isn't on the screen long but like a true pro he doesn't have to be and he makes the most of it.