Mercy Rule

Mercy Rule is a family values film by the husband and wife Christian team of Kirk Cameron and Chelsea Noble. That it went direct to video speaks volumes about the faith the studios had in this one. In fact Kirk Cameron filmed an introduction to this film that says this is family entertainment.

I do have to say that this does avoid being hit over the head with direct Christianity. Still the message is obvious, if you've got faith you'll come out on top.

In this situation I rather think it was Cameron's eloquence before his town council that saved the day. Not an amen or a hallelujah and nobody spoke in tongues.

Two crises are confronting the family. The first is son Jared Miller having to learn that being on a Little League team requires team work. A lesson hard to enforce I'll admit when they hear about star players and some of the eight figure contracts they have. Still on the field teamwork does count.

The second is Cameron's family business founded by his father and it's a junkyard. Back in the day those folks did not deal with environmental regulations, but Kirk has to. His opponent who is environmental lawyer and activit James Bladon gets to take over businesses and companies due to his encyclopedic knowledge of business regulations. He's a sly one Bladon, his takeovers are all in the name of saving the environment. He's as hateful as any Snidely Whiplash villain from one of those 19th century morality plays.

This may not strictly speaking be a religious right epic, but it sure is an attack on the environmental movement. The reasoning here is the same that makes the same sex couple villains because they deliberately go into a Christian bakery with malice aforethought to put them out of business because they'll refuse to bake a gay cake. Just why Bladon wants to control Cameron's junkyard is never made clear.

Mercy Rule is not religious propaganda, but it's right wing propaganda and pretty heavy handed propaganda at that.

This was touted as a Christian family movie, having been made by a prominent actor who has starred in successful Christian movies in the past. My wife and I decided to watch it with the greatest anticipation of a good hour or two well spent. To our amazement, there was hardly any mention of God or of God's word at all in the movie. The content and themes were as secular as it can get. What has the lead character's craving for nicotine, and the tattoos on the arms and palms of the baseball coach have to do with Christianity? We are still bewildered as to what this movie is trying to achieve and what morals it is trying to promote. This is certainly one of the most disappointing movies that we have ever watched.

I don't know what to say. I have projectile vomiting due to the motion sickness inducing camera work, and I'm more than a little freaked out by the way Kirk Cameron tries to get his message across. Instead of painting a picture of hope and light, through which religious views should be relayed, Cameron draws from his own holier than now vision of himself, missing the point completely. From the beginning of the film there is a constant droning of horrible background music, uninspired camera angles which make even the baseball more boring than it is, as well as drowned out camera filters which have a slight vignette. This is not how you bring a message across. You can't combine scenes of a conversation with the added montage of a baseball game, single baseball game. Pardon my writing for being a little archaic today, this film has just angered me to no end. There is no continuity, there is no message here that anyone would want to hear, and I'm frankly insulted that I can't give it a 0. Kirk, take my advice, if you're looking to create a family film, you should create a film that is good for the entire family. It should be easy to swallow without going into too much detail, the message should be clear as well as fun to get to. The dramatic element should be heartfelt and genuine , not in your face and boring, coming through like a lecture on insurance premiums. I'm going to have an aneurysm, so I'm going to stop this review immediately. If you want a good religious message it's more fun just to go to church than to watch this movie. I'm done.

Realistic people come to a film like this with sane expectations. It's low budget and it was made with the stated purpose of simply being an enjoyable film for families to watch together. In that, it succeeded.

This is, to keep it real, a movie made for Christian families, or at least for families with some sense of faith and God. It's not an evangelistic movie but is certainly one written from the Biblical world view.

The music was a bit much at times. It reminded me of Ron Howard's 1991 movie, "Backdraft" where a very good soundtrack by Hans Zimmer was overused and left me a bit worn out mentally.

And there are other things that I would have "tweeked" if Kirk Cameron would have had the decency to call and ask me before he wrapped up production. (Some of you reading this may need to be told that I am being sarcastic here.)

But compared to the incredibly immoral and filthy garbage that families have to weed through in order to find decent family viewing, this movie was a very nice piece of work. My wife doesn't like movies, but she found this to be more than just tolerable and we heard her LOL several times. That was worth the price of admission for me right there.

It's just a simple movie about persevering through trials. But I liked all of the low-paid actors (again, keeping things real) and I believe they made you love or hate the characters they played, accordingly.

One thing I was VERY happy NOT to see was some spoiled brat kid that needed smacked (it seems like nearly every "family movie" has that obnoxious teenager in it and this one did not, thankfully).

I would recommend this for family viewing. Absolutely. Other thoughts:

1. Not enough Tim Hawkins. That guy is just plain hilarious.

2. Another happy ending? I want to see a "family movie" where the family loses it's business, loses their home and still remains faithful.

3. One of the best overall casts in a low-budget Christian movie since the 2002 Rich Christiano film titled, "Time Changer".

4. Great video production. As mentioned, the music was a bit much at times (except the drastic change at the end when the little league title game is over, which was a nice change).

5. A lot of people simply hate Kirk Cameron for expressing his beliefs and convictions. But I like Kirk. And I think that will have a lot to do with whether a person likes or dislikes this film.

So, watch it and enjoy.

So this film is available on Netflix streaming and I wanted to see a Kirk Cameron movie. I know Cameron is a vocal Evangelical Christian and I was interested to see if this movie was religious based...

Anyway, its far worse than I could imagine. It's basically a rallying call against environmental regulation.

Kirk Cameron's son is on a little league team and he desperately wants to be the team's lockdown pitcher. That's the A plot, and it's more or less harmless.

But the B plot... oh man. Kirk Cameron's family runs a scrap business that's being investigated by the government for it's environmental practices. The way the portray this government "lobbyist" is something you'd see on Fox News. He's this slick, black suit wearing, elitist lawyer, who desperately wants to tear the family business down. Kirk Cameron even says in the film, "You're worse than a corporate raider, you're a civic raider!"

Disgusting anti-environmental propaganda.