It appears that there is a new version of the film based on the Left Behind books to be released on October 3. For those not familiar with this series of best sellers, they are based on the Rapture that supposedly will occur at the ‘end times’ as foretold in the Book of Revelation, when the true Christians will suddenly be all taken up to heaven before Jesus returns to destroy the evildoers (i.e., those left behind) in years of bloody warfare. Or something like that, it’s all a bit confusing. But one thing that is sure is that there will be blood. Oh yes, lots of blood. The books revel in it.
The Rapture is a nutty idea that I wrote about back in 2005 (see here, here and here) when there was a sudden spurt of interest in this strange topic.
Even the remotest chance that I would watch the film when it came out just to laugh at it has been eliminated by the fact that Nicholas Cage, an actor I find intensely annoying, is starring in it.
For what it’s worth, here’s the trailer.
There are some celebrities who seem like they would be fun folks to have a beer with. Nick Cage is not one of those IMHO, but I have enjoyed several of his movies. Given his recent financial difficulties, his participation in this may well be more a matter of necessity rather than a project he truly believes in.
As far as nutjob Christians and their “end times” goes, I wish they would just hurry up and get raptured and leave the Earth to us heathens.
Thanks for saying this--I’ve always found Nick Cage to be whiny and pretentious. Even if I wanted to see this movie (which I certainly don’t), his presence would make me stay away.
Come on now. Cage’s work in Fast Times At Ridgemont High was fantastic!
All you need to know about Nicholas Cage:
http://www.cracked.com/funny-118-nicolas-cage/
I have a close friend who was raised in a fundamentalist environment. He recalls that when he was young, if he came home from school to an empty house (he was one of four kids) he would panic that the Rapture had happened and he’d been left behind. This was a real and terrible fear to him. All I had to fear was nuclear annihilation! He had both fears! Such a terrible thing to do to children. Thank goodness he was able to reject all that (well, not the nuclear fears, maybe). You know what initiated his disbelief? Taking a bible scholarship class at a Christian college.
I actually find Nicholas Cage entertaining, in a campy, overzealous kind of way. I think I’ll watch this…when it shows up on basic cable.
It could be unintentionally hilarious. The last version, starring Christian gadfly Kirk Cameron, was pure comedy gold.
Once upon a time I worked at Blockbuster Video. I was working one day right after September 11, 2001, and a couple came in and asked very seriously, “Do you have a copy of the movie Left Behind? Because we’re in the Rapture, right now!” I assisted them with a large internal head-shake for myself and I wonder what that couple thinks now, I hope they look back on it and laugh at themselves, but I find it more likely that they simply moved the goal posts once more.
The Book of Revelations, more properly The Apocalypse of John, should be titled The Book of Revenge.
I like that somebody at least points out how cruel the Rapture would be. Of course, all us evil people left behind totally deserve worse.
But jeeze, who would be so dumb as to not figure out the Rapture had just happened? Yeah, right, movie Nic Cage.
There’s a TV series coming out based on the same premise -- The Leftovers -- but it looks to be rather more a serious exploration of such an event.
Apparently the guys behind this film were the guys behind the Kirk Cameron one as well.
Here’s an interesting point though, the film was shot in Louisiana and so consequently was able to claim government funded film subsidies, but wouldn’t this then mean that government was directly funding an obvious sectarian message?
The horror. The horror.
http://37.media.tumblr.com/7b922ab2cf404ac7ac80d49ac2e02d41/tumblr_mv7l8kzlCg1qb5gkjo2_500.jpg
You know someone’s acting career is circling the drain when the person takes roles in religious movies. Lou Gossett went from Oscar winner to “left behind” featured cast member.
The can bite my left behind.
For those who haven’t seen it already blogger Fred Clark has a great deconstruction of the Left Behind books and miserable “Rapture” ideologies behind them here :
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/category/left-behind/
Well worth reading as are the comments there.
The only Nicholas Cage movie I have enjoyed is The Knowing, but mostly for the parts that don’t have his face all over them. But then, I have a thing where (almost) everyone dies at the end, and there is no surprise happy rescue to be had (see: 2012 and those horrible ark ships).
This movie seems eerily similar to Stephen King’s The Langoliers, though probably without the happy ending.
If you don’t like Face/Off you don’t like movies.
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As long as there are millions of True Believing Rapturists willing to pay the price of admission, there will probably be a succession of such treacly offenses.
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#12 left0ver1under
Lou Gosset has always been a devout Christian. He has given his talents to many other Christian dramatic efforts in the past, even concurrently with his successful career in Hollywood. The dearth of roles in Hollywood for a mature intelligent black man surely has nothing to do with his decision to partake of this project. Most actors will agree that it is better to work at their craft than not.