User reviews

What a original and fresh take on Jesus. Can you imagine the son of God crashing a high stakes poker game? Shot in a film noir style with a quintessential femme fatale and other well drawn characters. Jesus Comes To Town reinvents the classic poker game where winning and losing could have spiritual consequences. The direction from John Iskander is innovative, confident and a lot of fun. This film has a great sense of humour and I'd love to see what Iskander could do with a longer format. The acting, cinematography, sound and art direction - overall production value - is state of the art. I would highly recommend this film.

Overall, Jesus Comes to Town is a clever little film. There are some good lines and some good looks. The characters all interact with Jesus in different ways, as you might expect. For example, one of the characters reacts badly and cannot bear to be in the same room as him.

Whatever you think of Christianity, I don't think you can deny that it provides philosophers, musicians, comedians, and filmmakers with a great deal of material to work with. In this case, the filmmakers have picked up some of the concepts and cleverly blended them with a modern world setting involving the game of poker. The result is well worth a look.

I note that the game of poker also gets a mention in the science fiction shows Star Trek and Babylon 5 (which is how I ended up here, via Claudia Christian). In particular, I'm thinking of the Star Trek episode "The Corbomite Maneuver".