Review of Left Behind (2014) by Johnny F — 22 Sep 2016

It's predictably dumb. The performances aren't good but also aren't awful. Nicolas Cage plays it completely straight, Chad Michael Murray does what is required of him fairly well. Lea Thompson (from Back To The Future), William Ragsdale (Charlie Brewster from the original Fright Night), and Jordin Sparks (the singer.

She plays a hystrical crazy lady) amount to less than 10 minutes of screen time. Cassi Thomson is the only one I feel comfortable saying was bad here. Martin Klebba (The little person pirate from Pirates of The Caribbean) was the actor I'd say did the "best" job ("best" being used very loosely).

The film is more-so boring and slow than anything else. Most of it takes place on the plane that Nicolas Cage is piloting. The first and last 30 minutes is where there are some sermon-y parts (what do you expect, this is a Christian film), but the middle 40 minutes or so is just people panicking and trying to figure out what's going on (There's also some lame "action" scenes here and there that feel out-of-place here and kind of cheap).

It honestly feels like there are more parts where nothing is going on or people are trying to solve the "mystery" (Even though anyone who's walked into this film already knows what's going on) than there are parts preaching about God, Jesus and deliverance.

What's most disappointing is that there is basically zero plot, and very little character development. We're just stuck with these people on a plane that's slowly losing fuel and is trying to find a place to land (Really, not much happens in this movie).

There is no villain or opposing force either. In the end, Left Behind is indeed a bad film....it's not painful, offensive, or so bad you want to gouge your eyes out. It's also not nearly silly nor dumb enough to make fun of either.

That makes for a film that is boring, slow, but watchable. Honestly, The original Left Behind is actually the better film (and I really hate saying that).