Why are Christian movies usually really bad?

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Socreta93

Senior Member
Jul 28, 2015
2,244
324
83
#1
I've like a couple (I can Only Imagine, The Case For Christ) and other ones like Passion Of The Christ and Chronicles Of Narnia. But Most Christian moves like those from the Kendrick Brothers, Gods Not Dead franchise, all of those are just really bad. Bad acting, bad directing, bad script, really cheesy and really cliche. And many of those movies have a reasonable budget. So why is it that most Christian movies are just plain terrible and unwatchable? As a Christian I love movies, and I would love to see more movies about my faith, but I want them to be good. I don't understand why they aren't?
 

Roughsoul1991

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2016
8,784
4,451
113
#2
I've like a couple (I can Only Imagine, The Case For Christ) and other ones like Passion Of The Christ and Chronicles Of Narnia. But Most Christian moves like those from the Kendrick Brothers, Gods Not Dead franchise, all of those are just really bad. Bad acting, bad directing, bad script, really cheesy and really cliche. And many of those movies have a reasonable budget. So why is it that most Christian movies are just plain terrible and unwatchable? As a Christian I love movies, and I would love to see more movies about my faith, but I want them to be good. I don't understand why they aren't?
I like Hacksaw Ridge or passion of the Christ. In my opinion it is probably these Christian directors have many filters but often times in life we do not have the filters. People's lives are messy and we often try to put a Christian now on top the the story. Yah it may be great for kids but to adults it just feels like acting or fake.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
25,713
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#3
There is also, Do You Believe? I really enjoyed that :)
It starred Lee Majors and Sybill Shepard among others.


Another one I saw recently and really liked was All Saints, from 2017.
It was a true-life inspired movie of a failing Anglican church being
saved by a temporary pastor and a group of Burmese refugees :)
 

TabinRivCA

Well-known member
Oct 23, 2018
12,245
9,974
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#4
Ben-Hur, my all time favorite movie, I watch it every Easter.
 

tourist

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2014
41,243
16,252
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Tennessee
#5
Ben-Hur, my all time favorite movie, I watch it every Easter.
I love this movie too and have seen it quite a few times. I first saw it when it actually came out into the theaters. Loved the chariot race. Loved the ending too.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
25,713
113
#6
I love this movie too and have seen it quite a few times. I first saw it when it actually came out into the theaters. Loved the chariot race. Loved the ending too.
Is that the ending where he is given Christ's robe?
 

shittim

Senior Member
Dec 16, 2016
13,605
7,643
113
#7
I've heard it taught about ministers. Listen for the message, not the messenger.
 

SoulWeaver

Senior Member
Oct 25, 2014
4,889
2,534
113
#9
Preachiness is known to murder art.
Some of it is amateur acting, but I think it's a lack of faith that expresses itself through preachiness in art.
If God is true and the world is bad, and you tell a story about events in the world without an agenda just how it is, you don't need to shout standing on a soapbox, the truth will naturally reveal itself and take place during the story. I like The Devil's Advocate with Keanu Reeves, of course completely fictional setting but great representation of good and evil. And give me some chariot races please.
 

cv5

Well-known member
Nov 20, 2018
18,130
7,208
113
#10
I've like a couple (I can Only Imagine, The Case For Christ) and other ones like Passion Of The Christ and Chronicles Of Narnia. But Most Christian moves like those from the Kendrick Brothers, Gods Not Dead franchise, all of those are just really bad. Bad acting, bad directing, bad script, really cheesy and really cliche. And many of those movies have a reasonable budget. So why is it that most Christian movies are just plain terrible and unwatchable? As a Christian I love movies, and I would love to see more movies about my faith, but I want them to be good. I don't understand why they aren't?
Any movies made by non-Spirit filled believers always end up peddling unbelief, heresies, doubts and mockings. Seen it dozens of times. Total waste of time.
 

tourist

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2014
41,243
16,252
113
69
Tennessee
#11
Is that the ending where he is given Christ's robe?
No.

What happened earlier was that Ben Hur was a Roman prisoner who was dying of thirst and Jesus saw him and gave him a drink of water. Later, when he was a free man he saw Jesus being led to be crucified. Both his mother and sister had leprosy. He found them in a leper colony and gave them each a hug. At the ending, the shed blood of Jesus was going down a stream made by the rain and it passed through the colony. All 3 were in the little stream and both mother and sister were healed by the blood of Jesus.

There was a movie based on the book The Robe. Richard Burton played the lead character of a Roman Soldier and won the robe. Just by touching the robe started to affect his life and he ended up becoming a Christian and was subsequently executed by the Romans.
 
S

Scribe

Guest
#13
You will never capture the Spirit Filled life by acting it out in a drama. It will never be authentic. The Spirit will not cooperate with that. The Spirit will only be involved in the reality moment.
1 Cor 1:2 ...it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
25,713
113
#14
Preachiness is known to murder art.
Some of it is amateur acting, but I think it's a lack of faith that expresses itself through preachiness in art.
If God is true and the world is bad, and you tell a story about events in the world without an agenda just how it is, you don't need to shout standing on a soapbox, the truth will naturally reveal itself and take place during the story. I like The Devil's Advocate with Keanu Reeves, of course completely fictional setting but great representation of good and evil. And give me some chariot races please.
I just watched The Matrix again the last few days :) I do not know how many times I have seen it, but it has been many :giggle: I thought I might not want to see it again for that reason, but actually really enjoyed/savored/appreciated how well each of the actors played their respective parts. Keanu was not just good in that role, but excellent. I have thought from my first viewing of it that it was very much like a metaphor for the world we inhabit. Twenty one years ago, that movie seemed quite ground breaking. It was certainly mind blowing :D:giggle::D
 

Subhumanoidal

Well-known member
Sep 17, 2018
3,643
2,856
113
#15
The disadvantages of Christian movies is there are limitations on topics and subject matter that secular movies don't have. Secular movies have full allowance of creativity in every avenue. Christian movie makers have to follow much stricter guidelines, some because it may cross a biblical border, but also many to pacify other Christians.
And while it is possible to make quality movies within this smaller spectrum, it takes top writers, actors and directors to make it work. Something Christian movies typically don't have. And even within the secular community, and all that they have available, it's rare to see that done well.

For a Christian movies to push the boundaries, even in a way to show the bad guy as a bad guy, often risks pushing it too far. For instance in the 90's a movie came out staring Carman, a Christian wannabe Rocky movie. While his opponent was this loud, ego-centric womanizer. So to establish this they showed him with scantily clad women sitting around him. And they showed him filming a 'commercial' for an in movie product called 'Whoop @ss'. This required the character to say the product name over and over and over, while holding the can with the name printed on it. As well as showing him getting drunk. Many Christians were offended for they had taken their children to see the movie, not expecting these things.
Not only did it backfire and upset many Christians, it came off as cheesy and didn't really set him up to be the bad guy they were trying to get across. He came across more as a professional wrestlers character, than a professional boxer and genuinely bad person.
So those are the kinds of things out of their control.

The thing i think also turns many off is nearly every Christian movie i've ever seen interjects a scene about preaching and it changes into more of a break from the movie, than a scene in the movie. And done so in a way that is more about tickling emotions more than anything more sincere.
For example i recently put a movie on on Netflix. Some random movie i came across. Riots breaking out and roving bands of people going house to house murdering people. One man has prepared his family for such types of events and they manage to escape into the woods. It all seemed a good movie, then i began noticing small things they were saying and doing. Eventually i realized it was a Christian movie. It was edgy subject matter, showed some violence related to the story and put the subjects in a situation that seemed genuinely tense. I was surprised it was Christian. It was too good. And i figured out it was Christian because they kept slipping in small things. You realize they are a Christian family, but due to the events, one of them begins to question God. And it shows these disagreements and discussions that seemed natural to the film. But near the end they started stacking up on the preachy-ness. And, in true Christian movie fashion, they took a break from the movie to make a drawn out 'spiritual' scene and get preachy. And on top of that it was done in such a cheesy manner, making it more awkward. If they'd stuck to those smaller interactions it would've been good and still gotten a message across.
And that's what makes them so bad. It's a niche target group, which makes it unable to become better. Because the rules that restrict it and force it to conform to that niche group.
Think about B movies. Those are targeted towards fans of B movies, not the average big budget movie goer. It's a niche group and thus can't grow.

Even in the 80s with Christian rock and metal, so much of it was so cheesy with it's lyrical delivery. Same thing with Christian movies.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
25,713
113
#16
You will never capture the Spirit Filled life by acting it out in a drama. It will never be authentic. The Spirit will not cooperate with that. The Spirit will only be involved in the reality moment.
1 Cor 1:2 ...it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

The Gospel of John :)
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
7,173
113
#17
cos they just acting and its not based on real life. what you want to do is watch documentaries or movies based on real life stories, not those that are made up. Kendrick brothers, Gods not dead are made up stories.

these are true ie. Corrie Ten Boom the Hiding Place, Joni, Nefarious, Graham Staines, All Saints, Faith like Potatoes, Noble

and the one about the country music singer, what was his name.....He had a song...
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
7,173
113
#18
I could only Imagine
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
7,173
113
#19
Its like how most christian fiction is usually bad. Why read christian FICTION when you can read real life testimonies.
 
Jul 20, 2019
1,228
882
113
#20
I've like a couple (I can Only Imagine, The Case For Christ) and other ones like Passion Of The Christ and Chronicles Of Narnia. But Most Christian moves like those from the Kendrick Brothers, Gods Not Dead franchise, all of those are just really bad. Bad acting, bad directing, bad script, really cheesy and really cliche. And many of those movies have a reasonable budget. So why is it that most Christian movies are just plain terrible and unwatchable? As a Christian I love movies, and I would love to see more movies about my faith, but I want them to be good. I don't understand why they aren't?
I have tried to watch a couple on Netflix, both had bad acting, bad script, one scene even had a so called christian deliberately deceiving his boss, amongst other inanities. I wondered why they were so bad too.