Released a few months before 'Mean Girls', though frequently compared against it, this Canadian comedy involves a girl at a devout Christian high school who begins to associate with the social outcasts after circumstances cause her to realise how shallow her previous friends were. And her situation could hardly be more zany; after her boyfriend confesses that he is gay, she has a vision and comes to believe that Jesus wants her to sleep with him in order to turn him straight, however, all this leads to is his parents shipping him off to a religious institution for treatment, while she ends us pregnant. Quirks along the way include her old friends subjecting to her an exorcism (!) - set to the music from 'The Exorcist' no less - after they notice her acting differently, and a wheelchair-bound Macaulay Culkin frequently poking fun at his condition. The film does not manage to sustain this zaniness throughout with the final act coming off as rather preachy; the results of all the pranks that go on are a little easy to predict too. For the most part though, this is an amusing teen comedy, very much propped up by the unusual choice to set it inside a very exclusive Christian school where 'saving' another person's soul is the most exciting thing that many of the teens dreams of. Jena Malone is (as always) great in the lead role and her voice-over narration is excellent too.

Mary, is a good Christian girl whose friends are Hillary Faye (Alpha Christian and leader of a group called the Christian Jewels) Veronica, a Vietnamese girl adopted by a black couple and Tia is a girl who wants to be in the clique but is mostly ignored When her boyfriend Dean comes out to her, she has sex with him to save him from gaydom. That's where her life begins to go topsy turvy, she is later befriended by a Jewish student and "resident heathen" Cassandra Edelstein and Roland, Hillary Faye's brother who is wheelchair bound.With the layers of her world coming undone, she struggles with the world she grew up in vs. the world she is trying to adjust to I wanted to call this an Evangelical Mean Girls, which is the spirit of the film. However, it is also something all its own with that similar undercurrent.

This movie is very entertaining, especially if you have interacted with fundamentalist evangelicals at some point in your life. In the U.S., there is still a hostile debate between fundamentalists and atheists in the south on the issue of evolution, which made the 'Creationism' poster in the back of the classroom both realistic and hilarious. There are 17-18 year old's in this film with some very interesting beliefs about homosexuality, prayer, etc. Every goofy part of Christianity is touched on, ripped apart, and sometimes re-hashed in later scenes. I viewed this film with my relatively conservative Christian parents, and they still found it quite enjoyable, relating some of the 'crazies' to people they've met in churches and Christian colleges. A few scenes in this movie reminded me of instant classics like Breakfast Club, Ferris Beuler, etc. I especially liked the ones between the preacher's son and Jena Malone's character. The almost- kiss in the mall was memorable. Mandy Moore does a great job being the "Mrs. God" character. Her throwing the Bible was probably one of the funniest movie scenes (I've known a couple Christians who did this to people they were trying to convert).The only reason I don't think this film was bigger or perhaps higher on the IMDb scale, is because it focuses just a little too much on hyperboles of dumb Christian behavior. I'd argue that the same plot and actors with a slightly different tone (less cheese, more realism) would have made this a classic teen film like Mean Girls or Juno.

"Religion is a mind control, you're kept in place with your beliefs. They've made you into human cattle, it's easy to heard the sheep." - Eigh8t the Chosen One, Government.I waited about a month to write a review of Saved! because I wanted to collect my thoughts and ideas slowly and efficiently. not being religious and having only minimal knowledge to say after I watched the film, I felt I needed to think a bit more about this one. Surely there was more to say than the four paragraph review I planned out earlier but cancelled.The best thing with Saved! is it's a satire. It takes old, high school comedy film roles and modifies them to fit its premise. Usually in the high school comedy genre, the villain is the pretty, self absorbed, world-revolves-around-me-not-you-losers cheerleader. In Saved! the villain is the biggest Bible gripping, God lover of them all. Now that's funny! Besides being religious and very Christian based, Saved! is also a coming of age film that gives incite on the topic of religion to people like me who have little to no knowledge. I've never been religious and don't want to be for one reason; it causes nothing but problems. We've had so many wars fought over religion and people still say it is harmless. Some may find solace in it, but I certainly don't. I hate fighting over political and religious topics with people. It is not worth losing a friendship.I also hate people that try to push religion down other's throats. I say if you're very religious, you've "spoke" to God, and you believe it is the right path, more power to you. But if you do all of that, and try to force me into doing it too by preaching to me some sayings and getting me to "confess to the lord" then we got a problem. When I have a problem, I don't turn to the Bible. I get up off of my ass and fix it myself. Not wait for God to do it. I believe in God. I believe there is someone that created us, loves us, and really believes in us. But that is the extent. I am not an avid church goer, I in fact set foot in a church about two weeks ago for the first time in nine years to go to a friend's confirmation.On with the film, Saved! focuses on a group of Seniors at American Eagle Christian High School. We have the good girl Mary (Malone), the big Christian Hilary (Moore), her handicapped brother Roland (Culkin), and the goth, Jewish, bad girl Cassandra (Amurri). After being told be her boyfriend Dean (Faust) that he may gay, Mary decides to try and "get rid of" these horrible feelings by having sex with Dean. When Dean is sent to get saved, Mary realizes she is pregnant and is trying to cope with adulthood, her boyfriend's sexual orientation and her school issues all in one.I'm a Christian. I do little to practice my religion. I celebrate Easter and Christmas very lightly and, like I stated above, I'm no avid church goer. I absolutely despise people who are against gay marriage which is why I don't practice my religion. Being gay is nothing bad. It's we as a society who hate different people and chose to mock them to a point of suicide or hatred of who they are. Christians are incredibly naive for believing gay marriage in "unethical." I have numerous gay friends boy and girl and no they do not "hit on me." They are normal and accepting. As we all should be.Google "Christians are (space}" and see what lovely rep they get. They are called; hate filled hypocrites, annoying, ignorant, narrow minded, weird, delusional, mean, jerks, bigots, and a load of other things. I want no part of a religion that is mocked by a whole slew of people. It isn't worth it.Saved! is wonderful with its witty humor, life lessons, and lively cast. know I complained a lot in my review, but it's my honest views on religion. Some people use it for good, some for bad. I enjoyed so many performances in the film mainly by Amurri and Culkin, respectively. While it isn't as funny and as out there as Kevin Smith's Dogma was so to speak it combines comedy film elements with its own which makes it a riot and a good time.Starring: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Eva Amurri, Heather Matarazzo, Chad Faust, Elizabeth Thai, Martin Donovan, and Mary-Louise Parker. Directed by: Brian Danelly.