Crappy film

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Blistering performances.

As somewhat of an Agnostic who have nothing against Christian movies on principal, I still found this to be a offensively bad, poorly made and biased propaganda piece that did the complete opposite of what it tried to do.The film centers around a small group of different people who find themselves on a forest road in the middle of nowhere, only to find that the main road they are traveling has been closed down due to a storm. Instead they all detour to a side road to find a diner to take shelter in, only to find out that the guy owning it is in fact Jesus. Then he starts to grill them about their hidden dark pasts in an attempt to rekindle their faith.Now this concept in of itself could maybe have worked if it was played subtly. For example, if it was left ambiguous whether or not this man is truly Jesus or not. Perhaps have the protagonists open up about themselves in believable ways by their own will to create an actual on-screen relationship between them, and to give real weight to their decisions to change their ways. Instead, we have Jesus practically forcing his way into their minds and threatening them with eternal damnation, while acting like a straight up sociopathic serial killer and stalker.I can't stress this enough, this is the single worst portrayal of Jesus on film I have ever seen, even worse than Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, and that portrayal was intended to be bad for the sake of comedy. He plays on people's pains and fears to manipulate them, going as far as to force a girl to forgive her sexually abusive dad with threats of eternal damnation and an awful future life, and literally demands the people in the diner to bend to his will. I thought Jesus was supposed to love everybody and ask people to love him back on their own free will?It doesn't help that the protagonists in this movie are all bland stock characters with dull, lifeless acting bringing them to life either. We got our obligatory straw Atheist, the bickering couple contemplating divorce, the troubled girl who is losing her faith due to trauma and the born again Christian who is basically already in Jesus' good graces. But she is ordered to leave her boyfriend anyways because it amuses Jesus and because her boyfriend isn't Christian. None of them feel like real people except for the straw Atheist character, who surprisingly seem to act somewhat rationally to begin with outside of being a massive jerk, before eventually succumbing to the granary.Gluing this story of abuse and misquoting of religious text together is also some really shoddy technical work, that at times is at the levels of a home movie. Cheap stock thunder effects, tons of noticeable continuity errors, an obvious home camera that is carried by the camera operator most of the time, and a sound designer that thinks panning dialogue entirely to the left speaker is somehow a good idea. It looks and feels cheap and amateurish, even for a low budget production.In the end it's hard to even describe what happens in this movie, because it is just really an hour and a half of incredibly uncomfortable or ridiculous interviews with paper thin characters being interrogated by some sort of being claiming to be Jesus. Quite frankly, if it wasn't for the fact that Satan appears in the movie towards the end (named DeVille, because it's that sort of movie) I would have expected the big final twist to be that this is Satan pretending to be Jesus or something.At the end of the day, the movie is terrible not because it is Christian, but because it's a movie that tries to scare non believers and people like me, who find themselves caught between camps, to repent. Hell, the film itself states this outright. As such, it not only ends up as an absolutely dreadful viewing experience (unless you riff it the entire time), but also a disservice to religion as a whole. It unknowingly paints Christianity as an evil force that is only marginally better than the alleged damnation you would face otherwise, rather than the positive force in somebody's life it's intended to be.The only positive thing I have to say about this is that it is at least not A Little Piece of Heaven with Kirk Cameron.

"Hank, do you really think that you're going to save, let alone restore your marriage, by putting your wife's wishes above mine? She wants to break up your marriage, Hank. I want to save it."That... is a line stated unironically by Jesus in this Christian film by Christians for Christians. I have to suppose that neither the writers nor any producers nor the director nor the actors nor the camera man, nor anybody else involved in this production stopped and said "that doesn't sound like something a good person would say".Some people talk about production values. I'm ready to set that aside in the case of a well done story or, where it's a part of discussion or meditation on a topic, a well done discussion or meditation. This was not well done as a meditation or a discussion.The matters being touched upon include the problem of suffering, the problem of Hell, and biblical atrocities. That would be all well and good if this movie was at all interested in any of those things beyond coming up with a quick excuse for the almighty. These are questions that have to be struggled with, not just passed off.I imagine that lack of intellectual depth is why Jesus says things that, if anybody had given half a moment to think about, would be far more at home in the mouth of a deceiving demon than a true wise healer.And, the characters are similarly lacking in depth. Matters such as an identity crisis and severe abuse exist only for the Jesus character to pass them off as less important than himself, thus adding to the feeling of an evil Jesus.As to the acting... well, in the part of Jesus I suppose that soft voice might have worked better had the writing not given him such evil to display. But, as it is, it sounds far less like compassionate wisdom and far more like a being that's desperate to seem compassionate despite the, again, evil he's speaking.It's a shame because the premise has potential for the intent. This could have been done much better. It would have taken people who are more ready to struggle with their theology.Christians, if Jesus ever says the things to you that he said to these diners, it's not Jesus and you tell that being "Get thee behind me".

**Possible Spoiler Alert** Some reviews say this movie stinks... that the characters are flat, etc. However, what I think is that this movie is like an "Unplugged" album in music. It is stripped down intentionally to get the message to the viewer.I think it is really FUNNY how many negative - I mean RABID REVIEWERS - have submitted their tantrums in lieu of a review of this movie. What the movie is about is disclosed in the movie description. GROW UP - Jesus still loves you no matter what you say about him.They are like the real-life Officer Deville from the movie. Trying to keep others away from the simple, family friendly message shared in this movie.I personally loved this movie. Quiet, simple, and straightforward. Love Marchiano's performance.

I rated this movie an honest 4. The only reason it has such a high score rate is because 90% of the Earth's population believe in God and more than 2 billion in Jesus. But if you're a atheist or agnostic you should skip this one because it's nothing more than a cinematographic summarization of the Bible, including the naive, child-appropriate story telling, fight between God and the devil and so one. Bad acting, bad directing, scripting, effects and everything related to cinematographic art is bad. The way the main character talks will remind you of a very passionate priest or pastor or Jehovah's Witnesses on a Sunday morning. The only thing I liked was the initial idea: a horror-like movie where you gather a bunch of people in a diner on a bad weather and things happen... but despite a classic film where people die in terrible pain and horror, this time only good and wonderful things take place. But besides that, there is no action, no story line, the characters are weak and flat, the ideas and philosophy are STRICTLY religious and the dialog disputes "don't stay in court". As an agnostic, I always like a good religious dispute but I was deeply disappointed this time. If you have one chance to face God what questions will you ask him? I have a bunch of them prepared and ready but non were heard in this film, nothing to upset the All Mighty, nothing to make the watcher think more than she/he should. If the biblical dialogs were more elevated and smart it would have made a good religious documentary. If you would take the whole religion idea out, it could have been a good movie.