"Left Behind" was a popular series of books that I actually managed to read in comic book form at first at least. Yeah, they certainly don't hold up looking back. Having seen the awful Nicolas Cage version, this is much better, but it's still a bad movie. That is how below the bar things have been set for my entertainment. I was actually giving credit to Kirk Cameron for making a better movie. Then that same year, he made "Saving Christmas" which was ranked as the worst movie of all time on the IMDb. Hey, at least he isn't as bad here. The first ten minutes of this story seem pointless and feature horrible CGI.It's weird, because it looks like the sequels are actually minor improvements. I recall watching Cameron on "Growing Pains" where he actually seemed decent. He seems to be getting worse all the time. I guess there wasn't anything that offensive in this movie. It's just quite stupid. The movie ends with the villain shooting two people and then brainwashing everyone into thinking they did it to themselves. Shouldn't there be security cameras or something around? Why was Buck (Kirk Cameron) unaffected? We see a scene where a priest actually prerecords a message saying that he knew this would all happen. Yeah, I guess he just didn't want to warn anyone about it. I've heard of religious people who mock this series too. Yes, I am religious (Christian) and this is a poorly done film so stick with the classic Jesus movies. *1/2

Left Behind (2000)* (out of 4) Reporter Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron) and pilot Rayford Steele (Brad Johnson) are shocked with several passengers from the plane go missing with only their clothes left behind. Once back on land their shocks continue as millions are people are missing including Steele's wife and son who he always made fun of for their religious beliefs. Soon the reporter confirms their worse fear.I haven't read the novels that this film is based on so I can't compare the two and I understand that many religious people hold them and this movie in high regard. I'm not here to bash religion or anyone's beliefs but this movie was pretty darn horrible from the start up until the very last frame. I'm sure many will say everything in this movie is true and a warning for us but Cecil B. DeMille made some of the greatest and most entertaining religious pictures out there but he wasn't afraid to change things in order to make them more entertaining.I think the biggest problem with this movie is that it was made on such a low-budget and it contains so many bad things that it just never stood a chance. I mean, take a look at the horrid CGI at the start of the film as various planes fall from the sky. Things don't get any better once the "story" sets in because the performances and the direction are so awful. There are countless scenes where family members are crying because they realize that their loved ones are gone. Do these scenes make the viewer cry with them? No, we're actually laughing at them because of how poorly acted and staged they are. I mean, the scenes with the clothes just laying there like someone had set them out for work the next day was laughable enough but throw in actors who can't cry right and the scenes are even worse.Obviously this movie is meant for Christians but not for a second do I believe you have to be one in order to enjoy a movie like this. No matter what your religious beliefs are you should be able to find a movie entertaining. LEFT BEHIND is awful in every way imaginable. In fact, I'm really shocked at how big of a following this movie has because of how poorly made it is. Even if you believe the message it's giving, it's hard to get past the bad acting and various other issues. Is there anything good here? I'd say it's badness is so incredibly awful that the film remains entertaining throughout simply at how many laughs it gives you. Unintentional laughs certainly isn't what the filmmakers were going for but that's the only thing they were able to deliver.

I have seen this movie 5 times and get more out of it each time. I am addicted to the Left Behind series-I'll be honest. This film was generally based on Book 1 pretty well, unlike the 2014 reboot which only covered one section of the book to start the new franchise. This movie features a strong willed independent atheistic Chloe Steele, and that is how the book depicts her. However, the book says she is blonde haired, here the movie goofed up. Ray Steele is well played, and the Antichrist role was spot on from the books. The attack on Israel by Russia and her allies is pretty well depicted. However, some things are narrowed down to quicker lengths, and Buck did not know the charter pilot until later in the book. 6 out of 10 stars

. . .of attempting to create a story of an apocalyptic scenario based on Biblical prophesy (not many movie makers go into that too much), the result is somewhat bland and one dimensional for different reasons. Anyone who has read the Book of Revelation (And I wouldn't advise it. It's very dark and depressing), it contains a vision of the world at it's very worst. It describes events as being a nightmare of war, pestilence, disease, human rights abuses, economic collapse, famine, natural and man-made catastrophe on a global scale--suffering that there is no escape for anyone from. It even speaks of people having to indulge in cannibalism to survive. While some of these kinds of events are taking place now and have happened in the past, the Book of Revelation speaks of a world where just about every aspect or system of society and civilization just breaks down all at once. It's a world no one could really imagine as they are events that have never occurred that way, all at once, in human history. There's no common frame of reference to compare it to. Sorry, I'm not trying to make everyone depressed or anything. It's just that this series of movies (and there are a couple other religious produced "end of world" type movies that have the same kinds of flaws as Left Behind) fails to touch the level of pain and despair that just about everyone would be experiencing in a real Biblical Apocalypse. Everyone in the movie just seems to be so much in control and pretty well behaved. They aren't confused, in despair or spiritually lost or suffering in a real, deep or profound way. They basically make the right decisions and pretty much remain on the right road. Their choices are between right and wrong where I feel that many choices in those circumstances would be between wrong and less wrong. It also doesn't depict the various ways in which society has fallen apart, the series of tragedies happening to people around the world, the riots, war, disease, etc. that would be happening. It doesn't depict the horror and terror. I suppose making a movie that could grasp the events in the Book of Revelation may just be an impossibility but there are alternative movies that may not be based on Biblical prophesy but are able to grasp the kind of pain people would be in much better. Movies like "The Road", "Blindess" or "Contagion" come closer. Even shows like "The Walking Dead" do a much better job at touching on how people truly behave and what their experience would be in a more real believable way. Left Behind also has it's own born-again Christian agenda which I don't mind too much but it gets heavy handed, arrogant, self-righteous and preachy in spots. I would never say to someone, 'Don't bother watching this movie.', just don't expect too much from it unless you are looking for a false sense of security.