War Room (Movie Review)



Release Date: August 28, 2015
Starring: T.C. Stallings, Priscilla Shrier, Alana Pitts, Karen Abercrombie, Michael Jr., Alex Kendrick
Rated: PG
Running time: 120 minutes
Released thru: TriStar Pictures




The Kendrick Brothers are back….and hold on, they’re not done with their preachin’ message yet.

There’s no denying that they’re an unstoppable force in the Christian film market right now. Their first film, “Flywheel” was made for a paltry $25,000. “Facing the Giants”, “Fireproof” and “Courageous” soon followed. Essentially one in the same message, their films deal with repairing the structure of broken homes. Now, they’re back with their fifth film “War Room” and the plot is about, you guessed it, repairing a broken home through the power of God and Jesus Christ. This film can be essentially “Fireproof 2”, however with a completely different cast and focusing on a different family.

Their latest effort centers on the Jordan family, who have been married for 16 years. Tony (T.C. Stallings) is a pharmaceutical rep while his wife Elizabeth (Priscilla Schrier) is a home sales agent. However, their home life hasn’t been that great lately as they always fight and care more about their work that they are too busy to take an interest in their daughter’s life. In steps grace in the form of Miss Clara (Karen Abercrombie) to help fix this broken marriage. While getting ready to sell her house, Clara introduces Elizabeth to her war room, as she calls her favorite room in the house. The answer, Clara states, she needs to do is to go home, empty her closet, and fill it with Biblical verses and notes the faults she finds in Tony. Simply put, the message Miss Clara is trying to teach is by putting your faith in God, all your problems will simply go away.

The movie simply solves a problem to this answer in an hour, but Alex Kendrick doesn’t seem resolved by this, for he forces the movie to go on for another hour until all the story threads wrap up in order to push the film towards the two-hour mark: the whole things feels like a made-for-the-week Lifetime movie drama.  Kendrick, who also has a brief part in this movie as one of the bosses at the pharmaceutical firm, makes this movie all about God front and center with no apologies. It’s a heavy-handed message that engulfs the movie so much that it doesn’t empower the movie enough breathing room. Both the acting and directing seem to be forced. At least their previous effort "Courageous" was a miniscule step up when it comes to Christian filmmaking. Despite some of the film’s very comical moments, the movie’s overall theme becomes too forced and contrived to be taken seriously.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

He Named Me Malala (Movie Review)

Image
HE NAMED ME MALALA  Release Date: October 2, 2015 (Limited), October 9, 2015 (Wide) Starring: Malala Yousafzi Genre: Documentary Rating: PG-13 (for thematic elements involving disturbing images and threats) Running time: 87 minutes Malala Yousafzai, the young girl from the Pakastani Swat Valley area, is the primary focus of Davis Guggheim’s latest documentary. She was the girl that was shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to suggest that women should be allowed to go to school and have a chance at a descent education. She survived the assassination attempt, but suffered permanent damage to the left side of her face. The movie does work as a documentary, and it’s an important one that everyone should see, but it feels to me that it only scratches the surface of the context. The movie’s title “He Named Me Malala” has both a influential and political meaning: her father named her Malalai who, from Afghan folk lore, rallied the locals into fighting the B
Read more

MarvelChats - Ms. Marvel (1x06)

Image
  It’s the last of the “Ms. Marvel” chats as we look at the finale. We’ll break down the visual look of the episode, as well as the acting and storyline now that the action has been brought back to Jersey City. Plus, we’ll talk not only about the Captain Marvel tease at the end and what it means for next summer’s sequel “The Marvel” but also THAT other surprising revelation. Lot of identity crises in the episode fittingly called “No Normal”. What will the future of Ms. Marvel hold and does this set her up to be a future member of the “Young Avengers”. Plus, a touch on the announcements Marvel has planned for it’s upcoming return to the San Diego Comic Con event and our possible thoughts on where Phase Four is heading.
Read more

Kindergarten Cop 2

Image
KINDERGARTEN COP 2 Running time:  100 minutes Rated: PG-13 (for language and violence) Distributed by: Universal 1440 Entertainment @2016 Release Date: May 17, 2016 (DVD premiere) Twenty-five years after we were graced with the presence of the Arnold Schwarzenegger action/comedy “Kindergarten Cop”, someone goes and makes a sequel that no one really wanted. Not only did we get it, but we got a half-assed dog of a movie whose script could’ve literally been done by a kindergartner….in crayons. Yes, Universal’s direct-to-video distribution is responsible for this latest debacle. Instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger this one around (who wisely turned down a role or even a cameo appearance for this one), we get Dolph Lundgren as a no-nonsense FBI agent Reed. He and his partner Sanders (Bill Bellamy) have just taken down an Armenian dealer. and now they need to acquire a flash drive containing the downloadable names of those placed under the Witness Protection Program. Thanks
Read more