Change Your Image
hdm93050
Reviews
A Thief in the Night (1972)
MST3K Material
First off there is nothing wrong with studying Daniel, Revelation, Matthew 24, Isaiah and other prophetic scriptures. There is also nothing wrong with making a film such as this to attempt to present the gospel message. So my qualms with this movie are not in either its sincerity or aspirations. As a Christian, though an amillenialist, I believe there will be a great tribulation and I believe Christ will return as he said as much. So even though I have disagreement with this film about the rapture that is not why I rate this movie so low.
No, what makes me rate this movie so low is not its sincerity or its message, but rather its lack of production values, awful script, mediocre acting, and pitiful FX. This movie ranks down there with some of the cheesiest scifi fodder of the 1950s. No, this movie ranks down there with Plan 9 From Outerspace. This movie failed to age well and was probably dated by the time they made a sequel.
The apocalypse genre film producers could have learned how not to make an end times film from this, but they failed. The Left Behind Series, The Apocalypse series, and the Omega Code series all failed to learn from this because they addressed the FX problems and the dated look problem, but their scripts are still poor, and their acting is wooden.
There are great Christian films, with extremely low budgets, but this film is not one of them. I'm surprised the MST3K crew never lampooned this one.
Padenie Berlina (1950)
A Birthday Present that Answers the Age Old Question....
A Birthday Present that finally answers the age old question of what to get the man who has everything. This film was presented to Stalin on his 70th birthday and is the archtypical Stalin Film. It is intriguing insight into the mindset of the man who ruled and terrorized 1/5 of all humanity and 1//2 of Europe by the film's 1949 release date. The acting, especially the Aliosha and Natasha love plot tied in with Stalin is poorly acted but makes all sense when you look at how Aliosha looks to Stalin for advice, because truth be told this film is a romance for Stalin. The special effects and lighting are excellent for a 1940s film and it is shot in a grand scale that matched the efforts of Kolberg, Gone with the Wind, and the 1926 Ben Hur.
The best parts of this film are the impressions of Churchill and Hitler. Minus Churchill speaking Russian, they have his lisp and mannerisms done exceedingly well. Hitler and Goering provide great charictatures and are humorously well done. At best its an intriguing insight into the delusions of madness that Stalin subjected his people to and at worst its a 2 hour festival of unintentional humor. I'd recommend it for any historian.
Tribulation (2000)
Not as bad as people have said
This movie is NOT nearly as bad as what people have said about it. I agree it is a movie made especially for Christians, and its ideas on the rapture are debatable, but beyond that its about finding God and overcoming your doubts as are the rest of the films in the series. The thing about the tree with Eileen's name on it. Its about knowing God in a very uncertain world. These films, although overtly are about the rapture and tribulation they are more subtly about knowing God and his redemption. Plus this film might be Gary Bussey's best role ever. A rare gem in the midst of a sea of B films. This film is something that I would recommend for any Christian struggling with their faith. It is not for everybody. The script was strong in places and I will agree it was a low budget production, but I would recommend it.
Batman and Robin (1949)
Without the somewhat racist overtones of 1943, this is one of the better ones
This set of serials was incredibly low budget as were all the serials. The dialogue was sort of stilted, but this film was truly Batman Begins. I mean think about it, its the first version with Vicky Vale of Picture Magazine, The first Bat signal, first commissioner Gordon. It wasn't the campy cheese product of the 1960s. It wasn't the far fetched plots of the 1990s movies. Lets face it this serial was incredibly low budget but somehow its still better than every movie 1990s batman live action movie except Batman (1989). The remote control machine is a bit dated, but I'm thinking that the idea has something to do with the fact that TV-the televiewer- and the remote control machine- your remote- were new items in the households of millions and so even the idea of radio waves stopping transportation and electricity isn't that far off. Its far more believable for instance then that horrible mind reader that was on Batman Forever. So if you want ****ty batman flicks watch the dreadful returns, forever, and robin flicks. If you want a good evening of entertainment and good fun watch the New Adventures of Batman and Robin.