MOVIE REVIEW: Rapture

While house hunting, a couple ends up stranded in a remote location of central California when their car and everything electronic suddenly dies. Teaming up with some strangers they meet along the way, they begin walking through a nightmare landscape as UFO objects begin to appear in the sky, using electrical bolts to kill every human they can find. The terror is increased when they realize that there are unidentifiable beings by the hundreds also walking around targeting people, and a strange new disease that seems to eat flesh quickly killing everything it touches. As they watch their world go insane, one of them becomes convinced that the apocalypse, as predicted in the Bible, has come, and starts trying to convert the others, much to the chagrin of those who prefer a more logical solution to the events around them.

Released in 2014 to streaming platforms and onto DVD, and with a cast of lesser-known actors, this is mainly a character study about disparate beliefs coming together in a time of disaster. Something of a horror film, with some violence, gore, and scary scenes, this is not for younger children. Whether or not the events depicted are indeed supposed to be the long-awaited rapture that Christians have been predicting for two millennia is not clear. The only thing that is clear is the absolute dedication and devotion to their particular ideologies that these people hold to. Sometimes these can bring courage and peace, other times despair and rage. However, the end makes clear which one is still available when all other hope has proven to be in vain.

 

MOVIE REVIEW: Jesus Revolution

 

In the year 1968, when the hippie movement was in full swing across the US, the pastor of a traditional church named Chuck Smith meets a young man named Lonnie Frisbee. The unlikely duo ends up working together to turn Smith’s slowly dying church into a place where the younger generation can come to learn the message of Jesus. An instant success, the church attracts a young man named Greg Laurie and his girlfriend Cathe. The couple has been experimenting with drugs but have changed their minds about the value of that life when Cathe’s sister almost dies of an overdose. Hesitant at first, they both end up accepting Jesus as their savior, and are drawn into the life of the community of young believers.

This is an excellent film with standout performances by Kelsey Grammer as Chuck Smith and Jonathan Roumie as Lonnie Frisbee. It covers the beginnings of what came to be called the Jesus Revolution (given that name by Time magazine and thus the name of the film), that ended up spreading across the country and spawning hundreds of new churches within the five years of its occurrence. But most of all, it is a story of a young man who is struggling to find something to believe in and a mission for his life. In the midst of all this, the private lives of all the people involved come into focus, the bad sides as well as the good, and give this a depth that is not usually present in a historical drama, making it all that much more involving. Though it received mixed reviews from the critics, it was the surprise box office hit of the 2023 summer, taking in over twice as much money as it was forecasted to, and ending up at the number three spot for the top movies of its debut weekend. An excellent one, even for those who don’t care about religion or Christianity, it is great for families as well as date night.