Judas

A bad movie, this "Judas". Decidedly that, a terrible movie. It hurt my innards to watch the stilted interactions between the pretty, oh so pretty Jesus and his dark, troubled... I don't even KNOW what, Judas.

It hurt in a strange way, though... the kind of dull, stinging pain that makes you cry out in rage, rend your garments, roll on the floor in agony, then stand up, eat a handful of popcorn and resume watching the movie.

First of all, it's well-known that this movie butchers the Gospels, omits important events, and generally portrays the Savior as a dysfunctional imbecile who plays second fiddle to the troubled Judas (You can tell he's troubled, because he wears dark clothes!), and the only reason it was released at all was so ABC could hopefully ride the "Passion of the Christ" tidal wave and gain some decent ratings for a change. It's clear that the director and writers badly, badly wanted this movie to make an impact on the people, but these people have never heard of nuance, and instead practically force-fed the viewer the "proper" opinions. Never a good way to make a film.

Instead of echoing the poignant performances of "The Passion", the performances in this movie seemed to be channeling Johnathan Schaech's other "menacing, but misunderstood" character from the movie, "That Thing You Do!". I saw far too much of Jimmy in Judas.

I will say, however, that this movie could be a great ally in the fight for the right of gays to marry. Why, Jesus Himself was gay, according to this movie! The "dramatic" scene leading up to Judas' grumble of "Damn you, Jesus" was far too reminiscent of a lovers' spat in a Lifetime movie.

This movie is appalling. It is a deplorable attempt to show Jesus as a lunatic with disciples that are bumbling "bumpkin" idiots. Whoever made this film and put it on the air (especially 1 week after the Passion by Mel Gibson), is trying to sway christians and especially jews that Jesus was not the Messiah. Why would disciples be laughing, burping, sticking their stomachs out as if gluttons while with Jesus. Anyone who reads the bible knows that Jesus was in no way anything like that and neither were his disciples. This movie is a travesty. Completely disregards Jesus's sacrifice. Why tell the story and not tell it right? SInce when is Judas such a godly man? Sure he was human and he obviously felt guilty for turning Jesus over to authorities. But he hung himself because he knew that when Jesus died he was responsible for turning him in. He realized he was the Messiah and his guilt was overwhelming. Mr. Johnathon Schaech's portrayal of Jesus was mocking to Christians and Messianic Jews (jewish believers). This was the most deplorable depiction of Jesus I've ever seen. As a believer in Jesus as the Messiah, it made me sick to my stomach to see Jesus portrayed in such a manner. I close on a comment for Mr. Schaech, the casting director, producers and directors of this film that this was a horrible and ghastly depiction of Jesus and you should take a good look at the bible and realize how wrong you are about this man Jesus.

Scatterbrained, ill conceived, and dare I say it, blasphemous. What parts of scripture they added to the movie were either misinterpreted, misplaced, or dictated in a corny, lifeless manner. Then, as if it weren't bad enough to simply take scripture and do with it what you want... they decided to ADD scenes to the Word. Scenes such as Pilate and his wife making out while Flavius looked on, or Judas confronting Jesus about Jesus' soon to come death - where Judas used the expression "What the Hell" -- An expression -I've- never read in the gospels. As well, other colorful phrases were thrown in - perhaps an attempt to modernize the film??? And the additional scenes of Judas, lamenting over his decision to betray Christ... where he tries to convince the apostles to rescue Jesus... or where he screams in horror as the crowd calls to crucify Him. Funny how the scriptures say Judas hanged himself long before these events happened. All the while leaving out chief events - such as the anointing by the woman of ill repute.

As for the acting (or lack there of) -- You had Jesus, who was portrayed as a wimp, played by a soft-spoken, blond haired-blue eyed "actor" who would do better in commercials then in any movie. Judas was a mismatch of personalities - all poorly played - and for a while I got the impression they were -actually- trying to make him LIKEABLE! The betrayer of Christ... likeable... What were they thinking? The apostles were all over the place, and nothing like the bible describes them. And would someone -please- explain why in all of these "Jesus" movies, the Mary's and Martha's all seem to have British accents?? Where in the scriptures does it say they "hailed from Jolly ol' London"? And while they're sipping tea and eating crumpets none of the other characters have any accents, what so ever... interesting. And while we're explaining things... what was the deal with Jesus and Judas "wrestling" on the garden path and discussing becoming bandits?? What?? Where did - that - come from?

The movie generalized, stereotyped, blasphemed and over all invented areas of scripture, most of which had nothing to do with Judas himself.

Badly acted, badly produced, poorly cast and over all poor quality... simple as that.

If I were to give this movie a letter grade... it would probably be somewhere around the O's or Q's...

Sadly disappointed the acting was not convincing at all. The film does not sit together and is very inaccurate, it seems to lose focus on the main title character Judas, which by result misses out the point of the film in the first place.

This film does not leave you with any memories at all. There are a few laughs by the choice of dialog, You ask yourself several times 'Did they really say that? The plus side was the soundtrack was undoubtedly the best part of the film. Jesus of Nazareth still runs tops in the *Easter Must watch* joined by the more recent *superb* Passion of Christ.

Blaze

Jesus appears to be a surfer who's searching for but can't find the beach to go hang ten. Judas, dressed in black, is an emo who wants to get like totally rad against the Romans and hang ten all over their face. The rest of the cast are card board cut-outs; it's hard to figure out who is playing whom.

The movie appears to be well meaning, but it just goes all wrong. First of all, it takes all its source material from forgotten scripture, the Gospel of Gnarly. The writers come up with stuff that doesn't fit with known scripture, and to say the writer took poetic license is being nice. Jesus comes across as confused, wimpy, and suffering from severe sleep deprivation. Judas just yells and screams at him, so that they can launch a military campaign of two men to overthrow the Roman Empire.

Judas is always mad, and it makes no sense that Jesus would have called this guy as an apostle in the first place. From then on they bicker, with Jesus always sounding like a 1st grade teacher, and Judas sounding like a cross between Fred Flintstone and General George Patton. The fact that the acting is weak makes these awkward characterizations even more bizarre. Events from the passion are tossed and turned, out of context, and out of logical chronology.

This should only be viewed as a novelty, as a case study of just how far a story can stray from source material.