StretchyChurch

Well, immediately after writing my last post about not posting, I watched a movie called One Night with the King, which, as many of you know, is the story of Esther from the Old Testament. Let me give you my thoughts…

Pros

• It’s got a pretty good cast, with Sallah/Gimli as Mordecai, Gaius Baltar as Haman (minus the stuttering, plus a throaty vocal), Lawrence of Arabia as Samuel (no they didn’t mix up the OT timeline–it’s backstory), and Denethor as Prince Admantha (with the same long hair!). It’s also got Omar Sharif, which I have to admit is pretty impressive.

• The special effects are pretty good. Lots of CG shots of Babylon that actually look pretty real.
• Overall the production quality was pretty good. It didn’t totally feel like a low budget Christian movie.
• The ladies will love King Xerxes with his big, well-oiled pecs! (This picture doesn’t do him justice–you’ll just have to see the movie. Oh, and just for fun, here’s what Xerxes looks like in 300.)
• There’s a forced reference to the coming Jewish Messiah.

Cons

• There’s a forced reference to the coming Jewish Messiah.
• On the one hand Esther comes across a bit too much as a happy-go-lucky American . On the other hand, even though the character shows courage by going to the king unbidden, she comes off as kind of a wimp whenever she’s around Haman.
• Everyone does great British accents (because for most them it’s their real accent), except for Esther and Xerxes.
• The movie is actually pretty hard to follow (even for someone who knows the story).
• The ending is really cheesy. Esther has this necklace with a jewel that projects Stars of David all around when held up to light. In the end, it turns out that only Esther can see the stars. Haman can’t see them. Xerxes can’t see them. But wait–at the last moment Xerxes reveals he actually can see them. And they all live happily ever after.

There’s one more thing I have to mention–and it’s a bit of a “Yikes!” factor. In the end credits, I discovered that the movie was produced by Matt and Laurie Crouch. Matt Crouch is the son of Paul and Jan Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Yikes! (I guess that’s where they got their budget….)

Anyway, all in all it wasn’t a bad movie. It was good production quality (so it didn’t feel cheap) and the story is a good story (the story has been around for thousands of years, after all…). And the cast was really good. I just wish they hadn’t made it so confusing by adding all kinds of unnecessary “motivation” to the characters.