Please don't spend money on this.

Great Film overall

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

So, my teenage daughter and I decided to watch this on DVD one lazy Sunday afternoon. We had never heard of it before deciding to watch it. My wife must have picked up an unopened copy of it at a thrift store or else somebody gave it to us for Christmas. Anyhoo, it started out slow, like a movie on the Lifetime channel, but we decided to give it a chance. It had a professional look to it (lighting,sets, etc.), so I thought. maaaayyybbeeee it would find its legs somewhere in the second act, after all, why would someone spend all this money on a pointless production?? Sadly, those legs never unfolded. The principle actors gave good performances, but the supporting actors were weak. The story lacked dramatic turns of any kind. There were many "WTF" story moments where either my daughter or I would shout, "What"? or "I don't get it"?, "That's so lame"!, etc. But the biggest irk was the obnoxious and misplaced use of prayer as battle against the evil forces coming from who-knows-where. The filmmakers must have really had very little respect for Christianity to abuse it in this manner. The viewer has no choice but to conclude that Christian practice is as fictitious and ridiculous as this story/film within which it finds this very absurd expression.

My wife and I just finished watching this and we both agreed that it was ultimately disappointing. The main problem we had with it was that the story was disjointed and didn't come to a persuasive and satisfying climax. I can't agree with most of the comments made previously. The acting was OK, the sets were ... fine, though not superlative as most previous reviewers thought. And yes, if you want a film that doesn't have a lot of vulgarity, violence, or gratuitous sex, then this would be a good choice. Unfortunately, the main problem here was the story. It was a confusing mix of a supernatural "thriller", a romance, a courtroom drama, and a "faith story." I'm still not exactly sure what happened in the end.I was disappointed because I wanted this story to work. It does has an element of religious faith in it and I was hoping that people of faith would be portrayed in a fair light, not as muddle-headed fanatics as so often occurs in films. Unfortunately, while the film portrays people who have some kind of faith fairly, they are not fully fleshed-out human beings, and so in the end fall into tired stereotypes (thus, the ex-missionary who spends most of her time doling out platitudes and praying). Too bad, because there was some promise here.

Things I learned from "The List".A decent cinematographer, a hot girl who can act and Malcom McDowell couldn't stop this movie from sucking.Blockbuster won't give you your money back.Even when he reads the script and says "Ugh! Really?!", Malcom McDowell still tries.Chuck Carrington desperately needs acting classes.Hire a writer.Jesus hates me too and punished me by making me pay $ 5.50 to see this movie.When making a movie, you don't need an ending. Just leave everything unexplained, unresolved an uninteresting enough so that the audience falls asleep BEFORE the ending. Genius.Any random landlord can cure death just by drawing a cross on a window. So make friends.Your maid can sing you back to life.Chuck Carrington still needs acting classes.Your roommate will hate you and make fun of you if you bring home this movie.Apologies will not be accepted.

You want to know the real problem with "Christian" films? There are two: first, they usually come with sermons attached (of one kind or another), and sermons generally don't mix well with entertainment. Sermons and entertainment tend to be at odds with each other. And the second problem is that a cut-and-dried world view tends to permeate such movies to the extent of making them all too predictable.This film is generally well made (Malcolm McDowell does a great job as the slightly-unnerving and ultimately sinister leader of a 150-year-old secret society), and it starts off promising, but in the end it suffers from both of the aforementioned issues.Because of its nature, it's the kind of movie that usually gets very high ratings from people who passionately go for its whole world view, and very low ratings from people who simply don't.On the positive side: it's a generally fairly well-produced movie with a PG rating, which is rare these days for a film for grownups, and it does seem to generate a decent enough amount of suspense... particularly if you haven't figured out it's basically a "Christian" film (oops, kinda spoiled that part a little bit). Down side: it ultimately becomes a bit formulaic and slightly "preachy." Still, not an awful movie. I've seen better, and I've seen worse. I give it a 5.