Post by StevePulaski on May 13, 2011 22:53:09 GMT -5
Macaulay Culkin, Eva Amurri, and Jena Malone in Saved!.
Rating: ★★★½
"Religion is a mind control, you're kept in place with your beliefs. They've made you into human cattle, it's easy to heard the sheep." - Eigh8t the Chosen One, Government.
I waited about a month to write a review of Saved! because I wanted to collect my thoughts and ideas slowly and efficiently. not being religious and having only minimal knowledge to say after I watched the film, I felt I needed to think a bit more about this one. Surely there was more to say than the four paragraph review I planned out earlier but cancelled.
The best thing with Saved! is it's a satire. It takes old, high school comedy film roles and modifies them to fit its premise. Usually in the high school comedy genre, the villain is the pretty, self absorbed, world-revolves-around-me-not-you-losers cheerleader. In Saved! the villain is the biggest Bible gripping, God lover of them all. Now that's funny!
Besides being religious and very Christian based, Saved! is also a coming of age film that gives incite on the topic of religion to people like me who have little to no knowledge. I've never been religious and don't want to be for one reason; it causes nothing but problems. We've had so many wars faught over religion and people still say it is harmless. Some may find solace in it, but I certainly don't. I hate fighting over political and religious topics with people. It is not worth losing a friendship.
I also hate people that try to push religion down other's throats. I say if you're very religious, you've "spoke" to God, and you believe it is the right path, more power to you. But if you do all of that, and try to force me into doing it too by preaching to me some sayings and getting me to "confess to the lord" then we got a problem. When I have a problem, I don't turn to the Bible. I get up off of my ass and fix it myself. Not wait for God to do it. I believe in God. I believe there is someone that created us, loves us, and really believes in us. But that is the extent. I am not an avid church goer, I in fact set foot in a church about two weeks ago for the first time in nine years to go to a friend's confirmation.
On with the film, Saved! focuses on a group of Seniors at American Eagle Christian High School. We have the good girl Mary (Malone), the big Christian Hilary (Moore), her handicapped brother Roland (Culkin), and the goth, Jewish, bad girl Cassandra (Amurri). After being told be her boyfriend Dean (Faust) that he may gay, Mary decides to try and "get rid of" these horrible feelings by having sex with Dean. When Dean is sent to get saved, Mary realizes she is pregnant and is trying to cope with adulthood, her boyfriend's sexual orientation and her school issues all in one.
I'm a Christian. I do little to practice my religion. I celebrate Easter and Christmas very lightly and, like I stated above, I'm no avid church goer. I absolutely despise people who are against gay marriage which is why I don't practice my religion. Being gay is nothing bad. It's we as a society who hate different people and chose to mock them to a point of suicide or hatred of who they are. Christians are incredibly naive for believing gay marriage in "unethical." I have numerous gay friends boy and girl and no they do not "hit on me." They are normal and accepting. As we all should be.
Google "Christians are [space]" and see what lovely rep they get. They are called; hate filled hypocrites, annoying, ignorant, narrow minded, weird, delusional, mean, jerks, bigots, and a load of other things. I want no part of a religion that is mocked by a whole slew of people. It isn't worth it.
Saved! is wonderful with its witty humor, life lessons, and lively cast. know I complained a lot in my review, but it's my honest views on religion. Some people use it for good, some for bad. I enjoyed so many performances in the film mainly by Amurri and Culkin, respectively. While it isn't as funny and as out there as Kevin Smith's Dogma was so to speak it combines comedy film elements with its own which makes it a riot and a good time.
Starring: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Eva Amurri, Heather Matarazzo, Chad Faust, Elizabeth Thai, Martin Donovan, and Mary-Louise Parker. Directed by: Brian Danelly.