For the first time in a very long time I’m finally coming in here with a movie review! Because I actually did get into the theater in the current state of things, hooray! xD
Hope you guys enjoy!
Infidel
Synopsis:
An American is kidnapped while attending a conference in Cairo and ends up in prison in Iran on spying charges. His wife goes to Iran, determined to get him out.
The Good Stuff:
- Story
The plot of this whole movie actually hung together really well. Things were set up believably, tension built at a good pace, and it was really just a good and interesting story. - Message
The theme was really well done in this and I didn’t think it went over the top at all, they did a nice job making the story and theme interweave with each other. Plus, stuff about persecution in the middle east and the Iranian underground church? That’s some stuff that needs to get out there that more people need to know about. It carries a lot more weight than just the average American Christian drama movie. (Also the credits! Just in case you were thinking this was some white-Christian propaganda piece, I’d say easily 3/4 of the names in the production credits are Arabic.) - Exciting!
Can anyone show me another good Christian movie with a car chase and a prison break? Yeah, didn’t think so. - Soundtrack
Smaller element here, but I thought the soundtrack was really good throughout. I mean except maybe for the scene with the weird drums for some reason but hey. - Not gratuitous
There was violence, but for an R-rated movie with torture involved, it wasn’t taken nearly as far as I feared, which was great. There’s some kicking and punching around, some explosions and shooting, but nothing goes over the top on this front and I was grateful for that. - Enjoyable
Overall it was just a really cool, good movie with a good message and I had a good time watching it. An excellent excuse to go back to the theater.
The Bad Stuff:
- Language
There was… quite a bit of language throughout this. I’d say this is the main source of the R-rating. A lot of F-bombs from the main antagonist mostly. Didn’t ruin it for me, but certainly be warned. - Random fumbles
I mean it wasn’t a perfect movie. There were one or two plot elements that should have been tweaked, a moment here and there that landed weird. It’s not perfect, even if I think it’s a step above most Christian film. - Ending
Mainly just a plot gripe here, but I thought it ended a little too suddenly for my liking. Would have liked a little time to unwind and see aftermath instead of hopping out directly after the climax. But oh well.
Overall:
An enjoyable, exciting, well made movie with an important message, but definitely one for older audiences.
And those are my thoughts on Infidel!
Have you seen the movie? Plan on seeing it?
Talk to me below in the comments!
~writefury
writefury 
Kewel! I like war-ish movies with Christianity in it, when done well (not that I’ve seen many, but). The thing that most often seems to get messed up is that they—the movie-makers, presumably—misunderstand Christianity and present it as something it isn’t, whether to make it sound better or worse. That frustrates me so much, esp. if it ends up a popular movie and lots of people are watching it and those who don’t know better possibly getting misled. >_< How do they do with that here?
I really recognize that guy on the cover.
Yeah same, seriously. Honestly in this one I’d say it’s interestingly not much of a… dynamic aspect? They didn’t feel the need to make this a conversion story for anyone, it’s just the people who are already believers (mainly the main character) having his faith taken to extreme levels and being tested, but still holding strong. (And they didn’t explore it as much as I liked because it ended too soon, but interestingly enough he does have a moment of “wow, what I did at the beginning of the movie was kind of prideful and foolish” which was a lot more self-aware than most christian movie protagonists I feel like.)
Anyway. It’s less presented as some… multi-level marketing thing, and more like the source of this character’s inner strength and peace and it’s cool.
Oh yeah and the guy on the cover is Jim Caviezel. He played Jesus in the Passion of Christ.
Him doing promotional interviews was mainly what sold me on this movie tbh. (Please look up his interview on Fox News on youtube. I’m really hoping they haven’t taken it down by now. xD)
Well cool. And YAY for self-aware Christian protagonists, wow. That’s infrequent and very awesome.
Ahaaa I thought it might’ve been him, when I read his name, but couldn’t remember for sure. I looked up the interview (still there!—a five minute thing if that’s it) and yeah. Somebody’s passionate. ;D It’s so amazing when Christian celebrities don’t cover up their Christianity.