Faith Under Fire

I do not know why, but it becomes very clear that a lot of religious films are having problems. What do i mean by that? Not many of them are very good at all, and trust me...i have seen quite a few over the years. It is like the film makers don´t want to spend the money making a good film, or great characters. Instead they just throw in a faith based story, and let the actors act, but without any passion for the story or the message of the film. This is something that have been seen in a lot of Christian films, and the pattern seems to repeat itself. I could easily mention a whole list of terrible faith based films, but there is actually one film that actually managed to do something right. This was a film that i did not expect to enjoy, but that film is called War Room, released in 2015. For being a faith based film, War Room actually managed to bring good acting, and a story that did have something to say. Directed by Alex Kendrick, this film tells the story of Elizabeth Jordan ( Priscilla C. Shirer ) and Tony Jordan ( T.C. Stallings ) who are having problems with their marriage. Nothing seems to be working as it should, and Elizabeth is worried that everything will eventually crash. But they are about to get help from an elderly woman named Clara Williams ( Karen Abercrombie ), who knows how to get this couple back on track. Even if i usually have a problem with faith based films, War Room is one of the few faith based films that i can accept, because this is not as terrible as most films are in this genre. It´s not one of the better drama films i have seen, but in the faith based section, i would say that this is one of the better ones. Even if it usually takes time for me to check out faith based films ( because i usually skip most titles ), i try to take a look at a few, just to see if i can actually be surprised. So i came across a film called Faith Under Fire that have actors Dean Cain and Kevin Sorbo in the cast. 90´s actors that everyone remembers, and i was curious to see if they actually managed to make a good drama film with Faith Under Fire. Is this a must see for the whole family, or is Faith Under Fire just as bad as The Trump Legacy turned out to be?

Fireman Tom Hatcher ( Nick Vlassopoulus ) is struggling with his personal life. He lost his wife, and his daughter Tiffany Hutcher ( Tenley Kellog ) is being treated for cancer. Tom knows that he have to go on, as good as he can. When everything seems to feel hopeless, a bit of hope suddenly strikes Tom, where he least expected it to come.

After seeing a film like Faith Under Fire, i realise that i might not have high hopes to see a film that´s actually good such as War Room. My biggest issue with Faith Under Fire is that this is supposed to be a film about cancer, that you are supposed to take serious. And if i could, i would take this film serious, considering this very sensitive subject. But this film have a very strange way to deal with the subject of cancer, by using very strange dialogue in awkward situations. Such as when lead character Tom´s family is standing in a parade and talk about funny pie situations, it is hard to laugh when the joke is horrible. I can understand that humour is needed sometimes, to make life easier. But if you can´t do comedy that actually works with the theme of the film, you might have to make some changes. If this is the best comedy ingredients they could match into this film, then they clearly missed the mark. If you think this is the only scene with problems, hold your horses, we got more problems coming your way. A perfect example of this is when we get a scene with lead character Tom is snoring, next to his cancer sick daughter. He makes the snoring so fake, that this is actually one of the funniest scenes in the film, and it was not even supposed to be funny. Now that is comedy gold for sure. There is more that i could mention, such as the ducks that seems to be everywhere. One scene Tom and his daughter are looking at the ducks in a park, and then suddenly the ducks are walking along the Cancer Center in another scene. How did the ducks know Tom is there? Or pehaps this town have unusually many ducks in this town ? In one scene a fireman is climbing a ladder, as they are doing training, trying to be funny, and i can´t laugh one single second, while the other firemen are laughing their heads off? The lead actor Nick Vlassopoulus as fireman Tom Hatcher is not a strong lead character, and that´s not a good sign for a lead actor. The actor that actually does make an attempt to do acting is Dean Cain ( mostly known from Lois & Clark TV series ) as Pastor Dan, and he is without a doubt the best character in this film. Kevin Sorbo as Doctor Robinson is at least ok, but not seen often. Fatih Under Fire is a cancer film with so many strange scenes, and so many different subjects thrown together, that it is hard to understand what the idea behind this film is. If this was supposed to lift up the serious issue of cancer, this film fails to do so. They say you can´t laugh at a film with cancer, but clearly you can with Faith Under Fire, since the cast seems to have a good time. Director Joel Paul Reisig have made one of the strangest faith based films i have ever seen, and that could be a good sign. But in the case of Faith Under Fire, it does not help the film become interesting, or good either.

Rating: D