Facing The Giants (2006) + Fireproof
(2008/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
B-/C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Features: D
The cycle
of none-too-good Christian features continues to roll on and joining the poor,
obvious and even embarrassing list are two duds by Writer/Director Alex
Kendrick. Facing The Giants (2006) and Fireproof
(2008) are two highly silly, formulaic, predictable, tired and weak stories
that play like bad TV movies, but with an overly basic approach to the
Christian religion that is no match with what a Tyler Perry is doing with the
same material.
In the
case of Facing, it is as bad as its
formulaic counterparts on football (especially the one its title is way too
close to for its own good) but with a totally unknown cast and every silly appeal
to pity and feigning what hanging out and what the behavior is supposedly like
in a way that borders on condescending.
Then there are scenes that should work like one guy helping another
learn how to punt a football. It is so
bad and drawn out that he would have to be blind to fail the many times he
does. That is the epitome of how bad
this is.
Fireproof is even worse because of its
really bad acting and intents that seem far more shady than anything in Facing.
Forget the melodrama that is slipping in supposed lessons on faith,
there are scenes of people being angry that are some of the phonies we have
seen in years. The feature may even set
records for such scenes and would be guaranteed Razzie Awards if it were
“secular” plus this seems a good few generations down from the few good fireman
films (Ron Howard’s Backdraft) and
seems to wants to be Ladder 49 (the
2004 John Travolta film) as if this were some backhanded rebuttal of
Scientology. That film was not about
anything like that.
Worst of
all is the lead, one of the worst actors of the 1980s and beyond, Kirk
Cameron. Yes, The “growing pain” himself
is all grown up and the acting is worse than ever. I am no fan (surprise) but I expected he
would at least become a better actor if his career continued in some capacity
outside of his TV faith show. However,
this goofy tale of a marriage in trouble (when they yell at each other, you
cannot image how they ever got together) that can only be saved by faith. I guess love was not good enough. Neither is the script. Cameron looks bored, the rest of the actors
do little better and this becomes unintentionally funny with the bizarre faces
Cameron keeps making. He seems unaware
of them. Maybe he should hire Tyler
Perry to hel… never mind.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image comes from HD shooting in both cases and
though Facing is the older
production, it actually looks better in comparison and though both have noise,
this is not as bad. Fireproof is loaded with motion blur and soft images throughout,
badly shot and editing throughout, but certainly not good enough for
Blu-ray. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix in
both cases is on the weak side with little soundfield (even when there are
fires in Fireproof, where they sound
harsh) and sounds too much towards the front speakers. Facing sounds a little more naturalistic, but
not by much. Extras on both include deleted
scenes, audio commentary tracks and BD Live functions. Facing
adds Outtakes & Bloopers, trailer and three featurettes, while Fireproof adds a Music Video,
Jokes/Pranks, odd Love Dare promo and five featurettes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
