Salvation Boulevard
This is a one of those scripts that probably looked good on paper (literally) but then they shoot it and kinda fizzles out. It’s just not that funny. It’s not that making fun of McChurches lacks solid material, but for that there’s no need to make up anything, just stating facts is enough. A better view into this kind of thing is the documentary Jesus Camp, if you don’t get horrified by kids being indoctrinated.
The cast does a good job, particularly Greg Kinnear playing a milquetoast dragged into a Kafkian situation. Pierce Brosnan has a role made for him, and Ciarán Hinds has a bait-and-switch character. You’d think he’s one of those meshback southern stereotypes, but he’s actually the rational man. The women get crappy roles, even that girl from The Orphan.
When the best joke in the whole film is “Guzmán de Vaca” (actually pretty funny), it’s time to go see something better.
This is my place for ramblings about sequences of images that exploit the human visual limitation know as persistence of vision.