Saving God
Reviewed by Kyle Prohaska
"...dramatic enough to bring tears, and intense and gritty enough to keep you planted in your seat."
Story Summary:
Armstrong Cane (Rhames) served 15 years in prison for manslaughter. Towards the end of his sentence, Armstrong reforms and finds God in his life. Now, out of prison, he serves God as the Pastor of his community church.
As he works to rebuild the community he left behind, the ex con meets Norris (Murphy) and recognizes a young man headed down the wrong path. Lured into the depths of drugs and violence by local dealer Blaze (McDermott), the troubled teen is pulled in opposite directions.
While battling to keep on the right path, Cane fights to save Norris from a life of drugs and violence, but the ultimate question remains: Can people really change, or will the demons of their past overcome them?
Review:
Saving God, the new film from Cloud Ten Pictures, is surprisingly good.
Cloud Ten Pictures isn't known for many films, and the films they are known
for have received more negative than positive reviews (especially from
non-Christians). Saving God is a step in a new and better direction for
C10, and I couldn't be happier.
The story ended up more complex, dramatic, and well played than I expected.
Only a half hour into the film I already had the thought in my head, "Yeah,
this is a good film." The main reason wasn't because of the story,
because the strength of the story for me is determined once the film is
over. What really sold the quality of the film, and sold it quickly...was
THE ACTING. Every character turned in a performance that was powerful,
real, raw, and above all, believable. Believability in the acting of Christian
films has often been a problem. In Saving God, make no mistake, it isn't.
The chemistry between every character is very apparent on screen.
The casting was the best it
could've been, especially for the role of Blaze. I found myself seeing
this typical stereotyped bad guy (because
of the haircut and tattoo) but underneath came a tragic story of a man,
trapped in his own choices, longing to return to his family. The other
surprise on top of all other performances was the role of Norris. The performance
given was very surprising, of a quality I wasn't expecting. The performances
in the film across the board are top notch, from the main cast, to the
supporting cast. The standard Christian dialog made cheesy by other films
is not spoken here. The dialog in the film is real and any "Christianese," is
spoken profoundly and with purpose and meaning, often inspiring a change
in the story, so it is not distracting or out of place.
This film is dramatic enough to bring tears, and intense and gritty enough
to keep you planted in your seat. Cloud Ten really has a winner here, especially
in Christian film. I find it to be the greatest Christian film I've ever
seen (excluding anything that involves a bible story specifically). In
terms of a faith-based film, it's at the top, without a doubt. A wonderful
blend of story telling, excellent acting, and a solid message, makes Saving
God something that will undoubtedly become a well known film in the faith-based
arena.
MPAA rating: PG-13 for thematic material involving drugs and some violence.
WATCH THE TRAILER:
Kyle
Prohaska is
the CEO of Praise
Pictures and the writer/director/producer of their first feature film Standing
Firm. Find out more about the film at the Standing Firm website.
Starting at the age of twelve up until the present, Kyle now has almost a decade
of experience in almost every well known piece of video/image related software
and web creation techniques. He is also the founder of the website Christian
Film Trailers.
