Church People

I like being supportive of faith-based films and I love a good comedy, and Church People is both! Making the Gospel the main thing is important whether you're a small church or a mega church and bringing that message with humor makes it all the more memorable.

I am sure there are tons of talented christian artists, and faith is a unending provider of great subjects. So why do we keep getting these terrible movies?

Where are the christian movie makers and writers that would put faith as part of a great film, or even just a good film. A film that doesn't need to preach, a film that could allow people of faith to be self-mocking without being deriding or self-satisfying without being indulgent. Or films that could still tackle issues without being endlessly militant. It can be done, see for instance the french "coexister" or "of god and men", very different but equally great, or even Terence Malick's "the tree of life".

And maybe it is not an issue with artists but with financing and distribution, but whatever the cause, this is another good premise wasted on a very very poor result.

Needed some tweaking in editing. A countdown clock to the day/hour/minute would have added a sense of urgency as well as comedy. Characters were nice written and stereotyped for some laughs. The base is SO there but needs some refining in the script as well. Great message :)

I really wanted to enjoy this. What a waste of a good premise. After 20 years in a church like the one portrayed here, I thought it might be worth a viewing.

Fellow Christians, please stop giving bad movies high scores simply because they have Christian themes. All that does is encourage more bad Christian movies.

Much of this movie felt like it was written at a church staff retreat after a night of sleep-deprivation. The plot was formulaic and the punchlines easy to see coming. The characters had no depth and their quirks were more cringe-inducing than endearing.

It was sad to see Donald Faison's life sucked out of him with this role.

You could see his eyes closing over a little more each time he was onscreen. The cheesy exit of his character was so lame I'm suprised they didn't take him out to the pasture shoot him afterward.

A popular youth group pastor at a megachurch in greater Los Angeles (Thor Ramsey) struggles with the assembly losing the point with their perpetual gimmicks while possibly romancing the pastor's daughter (Erin Cahill) and dealing with an unexpected girl from his past (Andriana Manfredi).

"Church People" (2021) is a fun satire with snappy dialogue related to the typical happenings at a large, popular fellowship. Ramsey works well as the protagonist with winsome Erin Cahill offering quality support, along with Manfredi. The only other flick I've seen Erin in is "Boogeyman 3" from 13 years prior; she's reminiscent of Karen Allen. Meanwhile the senior pastor (Michael Monks) is reminiscent of Jack Hayford, who passed away a couple years after this was released.

Stephen Baldwin is on hand as a 'weird' greeter with the uncanny gift of the word of knowledge. There's a great joke involving him near the end.

The flick really won me over at the midpoint with the laser tag sequence and the hilarious meeting of the two females. As for the climax, it revolves around self-crucifixion and is actually moving.

The movie runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village, which is in the high country 25-minutes northwest of Malibu, a 45-minutes drive from Hollywood to the east.

GRADE: B.