Deceived

I gave 'Left Behind' a chance and didn't get 30 minutes into it. In that movie the acting was horrid and the situations strained to become credible. So, it was with great reluctance that I came to 'Deceived'. This time the acting wasn't horrid and the situations didn't try so hard to beat me over the head. In fact, this was no better or worse than an average X-files episode including the speculative ending. The Christian message was inserted here and there but it seemed to become part of the story rather than try to take over the story. There are logic gaps that need explaining. It was nothing too distracting though and if you accept this as a standard B-pic you can actually sit back, relax and be entertained.

It's a shame this film couldn't maintain the edgy intrigue of its first twenty minutes or so. Instead, it unravels to the point where the title might refer to the viewer who was expecting some kind of payoff for investing their time in watching it.

The idea of the signal and the question of its origin is a sturdy enough hook to hang a plot upon. The story is not the problem, but the means that are employed to tell it certainly are. The first sign of trouble is when the military shows up at the observatory. Naturally a storm soon follows - is there some rule in Hollywood that people must always be trapped in remote locations by thunderstorms? Once the debate about the signal starts...it goes on..and on, for almost the entire movie. For folks who are stuck in a tense situation far from anywhere and who don't trust each other, the characters act remarkably calm and there is far too much talking and too little action. One of the biggest mysteries is why for such an important character - she's the only one with overt psychic ability - the part of Vasquez is so woefully underwritten. It seems that she has only two lines in the whole movie - a total waste of a very fine, sultry performance by Ramona Milano.

Gossett Jnr is passable as the army honcho - it's not like he hasn't had previous experience in such a role - but the only other solid acting comes from Judd Nelson, who gives a workmanlike performance as Jack (not Jake!) Jones. He valiantly tries to carry the film for its duration, but the tepid script sinks his efforts. It doesn't help that Michelle Nolden's performance as the devout love interest fails on practically every level. Most of the other leads fall into stereotype - feisty female reporter - or caricature - the preacher who likes his food.

Basically, this film is such a disappointment that you might be well advised to send a signal of your own to the TV set - and watch something else!

I agree with the over reviewers, stay away from this movie at all costs. Putting aside the "Christian propaganda" aspect of it, this movie just doesn't have anything compelling going for it. The plot is meanadering and uninteresting, the characters are archetypical and flat, and the acting is so bad you want to throw objects at the screen during certain scenes. When you factor in the obviously overt religious agenda ("Maybe prayer IS still relevant to modern life...") there is just no doubt that this film will ONLY be of ANY enjoyment whatsoever to the 5 people out there that actually want to hear this apocalyptical Christian babble. If you don't need a lecture on how to be saved and feel compentant to leave evangelism out of your cinematic experience then walk, no, run from this movie at all costs.

The script is bad, the acting substandard and melodramatic, the budget was probably way up in the 4 or maybe 5 digit range. Even so, I've seen worse. Just because it happens to offer the perspective of a Christian doesn't make it as horrible as so many other reviewers seem to think.

There are other movies that preach "New Age" beliefs and aren't treated this poorly. Is it possible that people are letting their beliefs taint the reviews just a little? Yes this IS a bad movie, but some people actually do enjoy watching them. Why not just enjoy it for the poor qualities you would judge any other film?

As for whether its Sci-Fi, I've seen Ghost, The Flintstones and The Mainitou listed under Sci-Fi. Unfortunately an argument could be made for their inclusion. Now if there were an accepted category of Christian movies I might agree with moving this there. There isn't, so why quibble? Again just look at it like any other B movie and get off the Anti-Christian rhetoric.

Well, it can be truly horrifically bad, as in "Battlefield Earth". Or it can be stupidly cheaply exploitatively bad, as in "Attack of the Giant Leeches". Or, it can be painfully embarrassingly bad as in "Face the Music". "Deceived" is innovative in that it creates a new kind of bad, cheap certainly but in a preachy posing altruisticaly bad way. It's as if the actors, most of whom are at least competent, sacrifice themselves for the good of the cause, saying words and performing actions that must have caused their thespian guts to wring themselves inside out. Still they trooped on and we have the result. There's enough camp to make it watchable, sort of, and of course with this kind of thing there's always curiousity about just how far down the road to "Plan 9..." it will go. The answer is quite a ways.