Saving Christmas

Kirk Cameron is an interesting actor whose career has consistently spiraled out of control ever since he put his devotion above his talent. I can respect someone who values their faith, but when it supersedes whatever is needed to make a good movie, it might be better to just stay away from cameras. Religion is all about spreading a message, I do understand that, and a lot of times, so is film. However, film amounts to more than just a message. You need a lot of technical jargon and a good crew that understands cinema to make a good movie. It's the same argument I make with every religious film, and so I make it again here. Let's take a look at Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas.

Kirk plays himself here, I guess you can consider it a fictional version of himself, as he hangs out at a Christmas party going around and... saving Christmas for those grumpy people that hate Christmas.... but are at a Christmas party. How? Well, basically by reaffirming them that all these terrible Christmas decorations and gifts and lights and colors are about Jesus, so it can be the real Christmas again. Phew. How terrible it could have been! Dodged a bullet there!

The Bible is a notorious source that people use to manipulate to their will all the time. The sheer fact that it has so many elements that contradict itself acts as a weapon that Christians use to defend their every action... ever since the dawn of time... or so it would seem. So obviously, Kirk can lay a bunch of Bible goop to explain every non-christian Holiday tradition. Its like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding where Gus explains how everything originated in Greece. Exactly the same actually, only this movie is trying to be more serious about it. I use to have a book called Where To Find It In the Bible, and they'd have things in there like television. Well, obviously there isn't television in the Bible, but you can translate anything you want however you want to maybe, possibly, sort of sound similar to what television is? In a poetic or maybe symbolic way? Bottom line, Mr. Cameron doesn't win any awards by doing this to Christmas traditions.

So the story is insanely typical as far as religious-themed films go, how about that technical jargon? Well, I found some of the editing to actually be put together more professionally than a ton of religious films these days. Particularly in the opening sequence and some of the dramatic reinactments. The music was mostly Christmas themed, so that's fine, but the real world stuff was terribly lit and especially horribly acted. It was confusing actually. There was a huge difference in filming styles cutting in and out throughout this movie, ending with a dance number... because why not? Adding in the fact that this film was unsure what genre it even was makes this a completely strange and unnecessary film that doesn't add or change anything.

Christmas movies, whether religious or otherwise, often have an issue getting off the ground and becoming memorable... And the same applies here. I just find this as a no good example of a Christmas film you should avoid.