"Saving Christmas" Movie Review

[J.J.Gibbs]

Kirk Cameron's 'Saving Christmas' Belittles Christians

by Sunny Shell




On Friday, November 14, 2014 Kirk Cameron's "Saving Christmas" will be opening in select theaters across the country for only two weeks.



This movie is all about making fun of any Christian who doesn't think like or agree with Kirk Cameron and his company. According to Kirk and friends, one of the main purposes of "Saving Christmas" is to dispel the beliefs that most of our traditional Christmas practices e.g., decorating Christmas trees, feasting, mistletoe, gift exchanges, etc., are from pagan origins or fabricated myths about actual people who lived during the fourth-century—namely Saint Nicholas of Lycia, commonly known in the United States as Santa Claus.



"Our focus on December 25 came from the Roman holiday called Saturnalia. This was a pagan observance of the birthday of the unconquered sun. Saturnalia began December 19 each year...Many of our Christmas customs have their origins in Saturnalia, which was marked by feasting, parades, special music, gift giving, lighted candles, and green trees. As Christianity spread through the Roman empire, the pagan holiday was given Christian connotations."

~John MacArthur, The Miracle of Christmas, p. 50



From the Puritans in England during the 1600s to the early Puritans here in the States, celebrating Christmas in a pagan-like revelry was considered a sin and was therefore avoided altogether. Similarly, there are many Christians today who still hold this view and according to God, are free to do so. However, Kirk Cameron and his crew disagree and portrays the main character of this film, Christian White (Darren Doan) as one "who represents the typical white Christian male and he’s got a bad case of religious bah humbugs," because he feels common Christmas celebratory practices aren't about Christ, but about pagan and secular jubilees.



"One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor for the Lord and give thanks to God.



"The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."



~Romans 14:5-6, 22-23 (ESV)



In the trailer, another character rejoices saying, "the scales have fallen off" when Christian White is convinced by Kirk Cameron's character that "Everything you see inside of there, it's all about Christmas. It's all about Jesus." Of course, what's in "there", that is, the house, is Santa Claus, feasting, gifts, a Christmas tree, gifts, etc.



The makers of this movie belittle those who remain steadfast in their beliefs to abstain from Christmas celebrations. And by default, encourage others to do the same. To ensure I was clear regarding one of the main purposes of this film, Darren Doan who not only plays the lead character, but also scripted, produced and directed the movie, tweeted this to me the other day, "but the film does make fun of Wannabe Berean [sic] unimaginative Christians who need to lighten up."






Furthermore, to make matters worse, Kirk purports his movie "provides a biblical basis for our time-honored Christmas traditions and celebrations..." When I first read this on the movie's website, and heard him say it on a Catholic radio program (Busted Halo) he was recently interviewed on, I was confused by which Christmas traditions he could be talking about. I hoped he just misspoke and actually meant his movie provides historical Christian traditions rather than actually claim our "time-honored Christmas traditions and celebrations" are actually found in the Bible. So I asked him.







Screenshot from "Saving Christmas" website


I contacted Kirk through his website and also talked to a mutual friend who had Kirk call me to discuss my concerns regarding these claims of "biblical basis" for all our Christmas traditions.



This was tough for me because I used to be one of those who "blindly" followed Kirk due to his former and faithful work for the Gospel between the years 2004 - 2011. So I asked Kirk again and more specifically, "When you said our time-honored Christmas traditions are biblically based, you didn't mean things like decorating Christmas trees, Santa Claus, exchanging gifts, etc. are actually in the Bible, did you? You just meant some may have historical Christian foundations, right?" To my surprise he answered, "No, I meant they're all in the Bible. I know, I was surprised too when I read it myself." Kirk also shared that Christmas trees represent the Cross of Christ. When I asked him for the chapter and verse for his claims, he said, "Well, I'd rather not tell you because it's in the movie and I want you to see the movie."



Thanks to Brannon Howse of Worldview Weekend, I'm able to share this 30 second audio clip of Kirk's interview on the Busted Halo radio program that's hosted by a Catholic priest, Dave Dwyer. In this interview Kirk once again claims, "Saving Christmas...is all about understanding the biblical foundations to all of the celebrations and the traditions that we have at Christmastime; including everything from Santa Claus, to Christmas trees, to the nativity, to all the presents, to the celebrating and feasting and all that kind of stuff..."



Kirk and team are promoting this film as one that will frustrate atheists as he shared in his interview with TheBlaze, “I assume they’re going to get frustrated to see some of their best arguments deflated by this movie, because we take on some of the most commonly parroted myths about the origins of Christmas.”



Unfortunately, I don't think this movie will so much frustrate atheists as it will injure Christians.



While my family and I do celebrate Christmas in many of the traditional ways, we don't however, bemoan those who abstain. We truly believe all that's in God's Word and since there's nothing in Scripture about whether or not one should or shouldn't celebrate Christmas, we do what God says in Romans 14, we leave this decision to each person's conscience.



 

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[Dagvelia]

What a shame. To hear his testimony and see him deliver the gospel so solidly, to a misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the church, to inclusion of those who follow false gods. What a shame.

[Berean]

From what I've heard from Brannon Howse and others, this is a real stinker!  Then again, most "Christian" movies are, sadly.  


SAVING CHRISTMAS

Saving Christmas Movie Review




SAVING CHRISTMAS (2014)

Cast

Kirk Cameron as Kirk

Bridgette Cameron as Bridgette

Darren Doane as Christian

Director

Darren Doane

Writer

Darren Doane

Cheston Hervey

Family

Rated PG

80 minutes


Peter Sobczynski

November 14, 2014 | 14




Every holiday season sees a new influx of Christmas movies desperate to become the next big seasonal perennial destined to provide laughter, tears, humanity and healthy residuals for years to come. A majority of these films tend to feature characters who despair that the true meaning of the season has been lost, replaced with people more concerned with having the tallest tree, the biggest ham, the largest party and the most gifts. "Saving Christmas" falls along these lines, but I must say that it may be the first one, at least that I can recall, where that particular character is considered to be the bad guy who wants to spoil things for everyone else.

The full title of the film is "Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas," and, yes, the former teen idol turned conservative Christian evangelist/entertainer is front and center here playing himself. Set during a lavish Christmas party being thrown by his sister (Bridgette Ridenour), Kirk is rocked to his core when he asks about how brother-in-law Christian (Darren Doane, who also directed and co-wrote the film) is doing and Sis tells him that Christian just isn't really in the Christmas mood this year. This cannot stand, and when Kirk finally finds Christian, he is sitting out in his driveway so as not to ruin the party with his mood. He confesses to Kirk that he thinks that the true meaning of Christmas has been lost and that even the party going on in his own house is a symbol of how things have gotten so out of whack. "That money spent—how many kids could we have fed? How many wells could we have dug?"

You might think that most right-thinking people, even those who wholeheartedly embrace the season, would have little reason to argue with such sentiment, especially when delivered by someone who is taking pains to keep it to himself so as not to spoil the mood. Well, Kirk has something to say about that and it boils down to "You're all wrong—you drank the Kool-Aid." To his eyes, every gaudy symbol of the season that is putting Christian off has deep-seated religious roots, and only by venerating them in the most ostentatious manner imaginable can one be truly close to God. Take Christmas trees and Santa Claus, for example—even though such things are never mentioned in the Bible, Kirk uses cherry-picked Biblical details, a certain degree of extrapolation and no small amount of smugness ("Last I checked, God made the Winter Solstice") to prove his points with such stunning finality that Christian instantly realizes that he has been the jerk all along for "terrorizing" his family by not realizing, for example, that the giant stack of presents under the tree can suggest the skyline of the new Jerusalem.


For a good chunk of the running time, I was more flat-out baffled by "Saving Christmas" than anything else. Based on the poster and some suggestion that I heard that it would be about the so-called "war on Christmas," I was expecting the film to be a comedy about someone trying to regain the meaning of the holiday in the wake of monsters who would have everyone say "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays'" instead of "Merry Christmas." This might have resulted in an awful film—though perhaps no worse than most secular Christmas-themed films you or I could mention—but at least it would have been about something, and, in the right hands, it could have actually inspired some big laughs here and there. Instead, "Saving Christmas" is little more than a screed delivered by Kirk Cameron scorning everyone who doesn't celebrate the season as ostentatiously as he does, justifying his attitude with bits and pieces gleaned from the Bible, delivered in the most self-righteous manner imaginable. The result is perhaps the only Christmas movie I can think of, especially of the religious-themed variety, that seems to flat-out endorse materialism, greed and outright gluttony. (Towards the end, Kirk admonishes one and all to "get the biggest ham...the richest butter.")


Of course, it is all well and good for someone like myself to besmirch the film with secularly-oriented sass but suppose you are someone whose views align perfectly with Cameron's—would you find "Saving Christmas" to be a rewarding cinematic experience? My guess is probably not because this is a film that has been presented in such a cheesy manner that it is barely a step up from a home movie shot during last year's festivities at Casa Cameron (and considering the number of Camerons and Doanes in the credits, that may not be that far from the truth). Essentially, what one is getting for their hard-earned ticket money is roughly an hour of two guys sitting in a car in a driveway talking, very occasionally interspersed with brief storytelling asides that boast the production values of your average junior high pageant. Then, after realizing that 60 minutes does not cut it as a feature-length film any more, Doane and Cameron stretch things out to a still-anemic 80 minutes with such filler as two prologues, an endless final cookie following the equally endless end credits and an extended dance number set to a hip-hop rendition of "Angels We Have Heard On High" that may be the single whitest thing ever seen in a movie since Jill Clayburgh sang "Maybe I'm Amazed" in "An Unmarried Woman." (To be fair, I had hoped to ask some of the other attendees at the public screening I attended what they thought of it to see if they were satisfied with the slapdash proceedings, but, alas, I was the only person there.)


Doing nothing but preaching to the converted—literally and badly to boot—"Saving Christmas" is a terrible movie regardless of one's eschatological mindset. And while it may not be the worst Christmas-related movie ever (a title I believe is still held by the vile "Christmas with the Kranks"), it certainly does the genre no favors. However, if watching shoddily filmed presentations of shoddily constructed arguments justifying a self-absorbed perspective is the kind of thing that strikes your fancy, then it may indeed be up your alley after all. Those who are not of that mindset would be better served donating the price of a ticket to a food bank or shelter, where the money could do some real good during the season. You will be glad that you did.


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[PurplePuppy]

Kirk Cameron has gone off the deep end - he's made Christianity a laughingstock!  This is from an (obviously) non-Christian site:


Kirk Cameron explains how Jesus invented Halloween to mock Obama, or something


If there is anything Kirk Cameron is fond of, other than bananas, it is making up his own facts about things. Usually they are facts about evolution and such, but this week, he brings us his version of the history of Halloween. Which, um. Is not in any way, shape or form, the actual history of Halloween!



Now, I know what you are expecting to hear. For I too, have read the hilarious Jack Chick tracts about how Good Christian Children should not celebrate Halloween because of all the child sacrifice and whatnot.



Screen Shot 2014 10 22 at 11.11.16 AM Kirk Cameron explains how Jesus invented Halloween to mock Obama, or something



No, Kirk Cameron totally approves of Halloween, and he thinks that Christians should actually be throwing the “biggest party on the block” because Halloween is their holiday and it is time to take it back from the pagans who just straight up stoled it from them. You see, for far too long, silly historians (who are clearly in the pocket of Big Wicca) have been claiming that both Christmas and Halloween have their roots in ancient pagan holidays. Cameron asserts that no–both holidays were 100% definitely invented by Christians. Which, um, they were not, but whatever. There’s not much point in arguing with Kirk Cameron.



Via The Christian Post:



“The real origins have a lot to do with All Saints Day and All Hallows Eve,” the actor told The Christian Post. “If you go back to old church calendars, especially Catholic calendars, they recognize the holiday All Saints Day, with All Hallows Eve the day before, when they would remember the dead. That’s all tied in to Halloween.”



Moreover, the “Unstoppable” star went on to cite what he believes to be the meaning behind dressing up in frightening costumes on Halloween, clarifying the meaning of Oct. 31.



“When you go out on Halloween and see all people dressed in costumes and see someone in a great big bobble head Obama costume with great big ears and an Obama face, are they honoring him or poking fun?” Cameron asked.



“They are poking fun at him,” the actor said, answering his own question before comparing the concept of costumes to early Christianity.



“Early on, Christians would dress up in costumes as the devil, ghosts, goblins and witches precisely to make the point that those things were defeated and overthrown by the resurrected Jesus Christ,” Cameron continued. “The costumes poke fun at the fact that the devil and other evils were publicly humiliated by Christ at His resurrection. That’s what the Scriptures say, that He publicly humiliated the devil when He triumphed over power and principality and put them under his feet. Over time you get some pagans who want to go this is our day, high holy day of Satanic church, that this is all about death, but Christians have always known since the first century that death was defeated, that the grave was overwhelmed, that ghosts, goblins, devils are foolish has-beens who used to be in power but not anymore. That’s the perspective Christians should have.”



Now, as I mentioned, this isn’t at all true. We all know what the origins of Halloween are. And Christmas. We all know that the Catholic Church decided to put their holidays around the times of pagan holidays, in order to sway people who didn’t want to give up all their traditions and holidays into joining them. They were like, fine–you wanna celebrate Samhain? That’s cool, we will just replace it with another holiday about saints. You wanna celebrate Yule? That’s fine, how about we say that’s when Jesus’s birthday was and you can celebrate that too. See also, Easter.



I don’t see them going after Easter much though, because seriously how the hell are they going to connect eggs and rabbits to Jesus’ resurrection? There are only three mentions of chickens in the Bible and nothing about brightly colored eggs. Also, it says in Leviticus that the hare is unclean “because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof.” Gonna let some unclean thing come into your house and hide colorful eggs for your children to discover in the morning. I’m gonna say no. Not if you’re truly holy.



But hey, Easter is still like, seven months away or so. I’m sure Cameron has time to come up with something creative by then. I am not lying when I say I look forward to hearing it.
 

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[PurplePuppy]

Here's another one:


Kirk Cameron: Don’t drink the pagan ‘Kool-Aid’ about Christmas, historians ‘don’t know this stuff’

DAVID EDWARDS

12 NOV 2014 AT 14:09 ET


Actor-turned-fundamentalist activist Kirk Cameron this week urged Christians not to “drink the Kool-Aid” and accept what he said were lies that Christmas has its origins in pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice.



During an interview with Christian Post to publicize his movie “Saving Christmas,” Cameron said that he hoped that people would come to understand that traditions like the Christmas tree were only about the birth of Jesus Christ.



“I’m making ‘Saving Christmas’ because I love Christmas, I love everything about it,” Cameron said. “I’m a sucker for all of it, and of course the nativity, and there’s a lot of people who really want to put a big wet blanket on the celebration.”



“It starts this time of year. You have people who want to pull down nativity scenes, you have lawsuits showing up in schools that can’t have Christmas performances,” he explained. “It has to be winter break or holiday break or sparkle season … they want to take that out of Christmas so they don’t offend people who hate Christmas. And then we have a new group who are telling us, convincingly, that Christmas is actually a celebration of paganism.”



According to Cameron’s new movie, Christians only picked Dec. 25 as the day to celebrate Christmas because it was the day that Jesus was born. And even Christmas trees are based on the Bible, the movie claims.



“We don’t know this stuff, we kinda drink the Kool-Aid and believe pagans when they tell us they have ownership of these things,” Cameron insisted.



“I want people to walk out of the theater, and first of all, have heard the Gospel, the Good News that God came to remove our sins, died, was buried and overcame the grave,” Cameron added. “I hope people will walk out of there and throw both arms around their Christmas tree, and both arms around the gifts and their children and the feasting and say, ‘Christmas is all about Christ. We want to dive headfirst in telling the whole world this story of God and his kingdom and how they have been invited to join it.’”



But when it comes to his historical view of Christmas, Cameron is in the minority. Even groups like the ultra-conservative Liberty Counsel agree that it’s “important to know your roots.”



“A lot of things we do today have pagan and pre-Christian origins,” Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver told Christian Post in 2011.



Pagan High Priest Jason Mankey pointed out that the story of Jesus’ birth is not even free from pagan influences.



“When gods were born in ancient mythology their arrival was often marked by miraculous occurrences, these occurrences are mimicked in the New Testament with the Star of Bethlehem and angels heralding the birth of Jesus,” he noted. “This is not to suggest that the rest of the gospels depict Jesus as some sort of ancient pagan deity, they do not, but the birth stories in Matthew and Luke do, at least a little bit.”
 

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[J.J.Gibbs]

What an embarrassment this guy  has become! 

[J.J.Gibbs]

This past Friday afternoon Kathy and I went to see Kirk Cameron's latest film, Saving Christmas. The gist of the movie is that we need to "save" Christmas, not from secularists - but from Christians. Those Christians who think that all of the trappings of Christmas from the trees, to the lights to the feasting to Santa Clause do nothing but distract from the real Reason for the season, namely, Christ. Saving Christmas would have us to believe that all of these things that many believers distract from the Savior are really all about the Savior. Are they? Are Christmas trees really in the Bible and is Santa Claus really on our team after all? Are those believers who find these things to be unbiblical really just a bunch of legalistic sticks in the mud who should apologize and repent? And, what role does Post Millennialism play in Saving Christmas?



Radio program here

[PurplePuppy]

Oct 19, 2014 9:05:39 GMT -5 Dagvelia said:

What a shame. To hear his testimony and see him deliver the gospel so solidly, to a misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the church, to inclusion of those who follow false gods. What a shame.

Scary how many have turned from the truth, isn't it?  

[PurplePuppy]

Left Behind just sort of fizzled out and died, but it seems this stinker is the subject of a lot of scorn.  


Kirk Cameron Saves Christmas from Abominable Killjoys (Other Christians)


The Evangelical poster boy and erstwhile teen hunk of Growing Pains tells Christian fundamentalists that they need to lighten up in Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas.


In the poster for Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, a smirking Kirk Cameron—a hint of the 80 minutes of smugness to come—wields an enormous candy cane and clutches a glowing orb that contains a manger scene (this flaming ball is ostensibly Christmas). Gifts, ornaments, and hundred-dollar bills fly all around. As the tagline commands, Kirk Cameron is here to put the Christ back in Christmas.



Indeed.



“I love Christmas,” he begins in the film, smiling in an armchair. A department store piano melody plays in the background while he admires everything he can see. He loves the cookies, the crackling fire, the presents, the stockings, the Christmas tree, the fudge, the lights, and the hot chocolate. “It’s even a great time for growing out the winter beard!” he says.



After telling us more things that he loves—but especially hot chocolate—Cameron reveals the real reason we’re here. “Have you noticed there are some people who would love to put a big wet blanket on all of this?” he asks. “They don’t want us to love Christmas.”



What kind of abominable killjoy would be against loving presents and cookies? Atheists? Satanists? Gays?



No. In fact, the chief complaint of these holiday haters, according to Cameron, is that Christmas traditions from the tree to baby Jesus’s birthday, to Santa himself just aren’t biblical. “What are they going to do next?” he asks. “Tell us hot chocolate is bad? That the Druids invented it?”



And so, we learn first, Christianity’s poster boy is a serious cocoa fan, and second, Kirk Cameron hasn’t come to save Christmas from the obvious heathens—he’s rescuing it from other Christians.



Culture warriors like Bill O’Reilly and the gang at Fox News have long warned anyone who will listen that Christmas is under attack. Secularists, they say, inspired by overzealous local governments and led into battle by the ACLU (the official sponsor of the war on Christmas) have for over a decade fought to silence Christian carolers, outlaw manger scenes, and even rebrand beloved conifers as “holiday trees.” But they’ve completely overlooked the threat of an insider attack.



Who better to save Jesus’s birthday, from enemies both foreign and domestic than Growing Pains heartthrob, evangelist, and habitual firebrand, Kirk Cameron?





The other star of Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas is the unimaginatively named Christian White. Played by Darren Doane (also the film’s writer/director), White “represents the typical white Christian male and he’s got a bad case of religious bah humbugs,” Cameron told The Blaze.



The film’s plot revolves around White’s bad behavior at his wife’s Christmas party. He’s sullen and rude to other guests, leaving one high-fiving Pentecostal hanging. Ten minutes in and he’s so disgusted with Christmas—“the phony smiles,” “the bratty kids,” “the pretense and obligation,” ‘the commercialism”—he spends the evening sitting in his car in protest.



So Cameron, the hero and star of this Kirk Cameron joint, and a dutiful brother-in-law if there was one, leaves the party and his steaming mug of cocoa to counsel White from the passenger’s seat. His advice is simple: stop spoiling Christmas for the rest of us. “Guess what?” Cameron says, “It’s all about Jesus.”



Then one by one, Cameron knocks down White’s arguments with creative historical reenactments and expedient Bible reading. It gets a little weedy here, but for the highlights: Cameron addresses contentious subjects like the day of Jesus’s birth (he hints it’s the 25th, though most scholars disagree); decides Santa is “the man,” because St. Nicholas punched a heretic, making the jolly gift-giver “the defender of the faith” disgruntled Christians are looking for; and dismisses the pagan origins of traditions like Christmas trees with the explanation that God made trees in the first place and decorated a space with one once, plus the cross was made from wood, so…



What kind of abominable killjoy would be against loving presents and cookies? Atheists? Satanists? Gays?

Cameron’s habit of reclaiming everything for his particular brand of Christianity is convenient, but it isn’t new. In 2009, he distributed edited versions of The Origin of Species on college campuses, with a new introduction that questioned evolution and labeled Darwin a Nazi and misogynist. In 2012, he released Monumental, a documentary road trip where he retraced the Pilgrim’s steps to find unsurprisingly that the Founding Fathers not only were hardcore Christians (even Jefferson!), but that the health of the nation depends on a return to those roots.



The reconstruction in Saving Christmas is a lot easier to swallow for non-Christians because most accept that the holiday is a mash-up of traditions that has a religious meaning for the majority who celebrate now. And the meaning of the film—that fundamentalists should lighten up—is welcome, if unexpected from the erstwhile teen dream of Tiger Beat reader worship, better-known these days for his principled stances on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion. (In January, he railed against a televised mass wedding that singled the Grammy’s “all-out assault on the traditional family.” And he stood by former U.S. Representative Todd “legitimate rape” Aiken when other republicans called for him to drop out of the Missouri race in 2012.)



But this movie isn’t for non-believers. It’s preaching to a choir, one that will doubtless find some good rollicking fun in the junior-high humor of a dub-stepping Santa, or scenes with party guests played by Raphi Henley and David Shannon. The pair riff on pink slime, the New World Order, and even the War on Christmas™. “I saw it on Fox News, you know it’s true,” one says.



Still, you can’t please everyone. Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas will undoubtedly alienate a sizeable group of Christians who choose not to celebrate the holiday. Historically, the Puritans banned Christmas from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1659. But they weren’t alone: Quakers, Separatists, and Baptists also opted out citing the lack of any order in the Bible to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the pagan origins of many of the traditions.



Many Christians feel similarly today. Doug Wilson, author of God Rest Ye Merry, which Cameron called “my favorite book on why we should celebrate Christmas,” noted the controversy in his review of the film. “This is not about saving Christmas from the secularists, but rather from overly conscientious Christians,” Wilson writes. “This is not about saving Christmas from ‘them,’ but rather from ‘us’…I expect a pretty big ruckus.”



It looks like one has already begun. Though most people haven’t seen the film (it opens today in 400 U.S. theatres), some have already written about their concerns on Christian blogs and on Twitter. It stands to reason the controversy will swell after the release.



Sunny Shell, a blogger for Christian Post says the movie “belittles Christians.” “It’s marketed as a movie that will ‘blow atheists minds.’ Unfortunately, it doesn’t have anything to do with that,” Shell tells me. “It’s all about making fun of current Christians. If there is a war, it’s Christian on Christian. If you don’t believe exactly the way that Kirk Cameron and his group believe then you’re not a very good or learned or faithful Christian, you’re legalistic, or you don’t live in grace. And that’s awful. That’s not why Christ saved us, so we could go around telling everybody we’re better than they are.”



Shell says she spoke with Cameron, who when asked for a Bible verse to support his claims, said, “Well, I’d rather not tell you because it’s in the movie and I want you to see the movie.”



Multiple requests for comment from Cameron were denied by his representative.



Saving Christmas filmmaker Doane responded on Twitter to Shell’s charge that the film makes claims not found in the Bible (she has not yet seen the film). Doane tweeted, “the film does make fun of Wannabe Berean unimaginative Christians who need to lighten up.”



At an early screening at Liberty University, a Saving Christmas co-producer, one student left with a new outlook. “There was a lot of stuff that I had never really thought about before,” freshman Thomas Long said. “There are a lot of people back home that are kind of legalistic about Christmas …I will try to take (the film’s message) back home.”



So maybe the movie sways more conservative Christians to put up a tree and buy a few presents. The real Christmas miracle is that non-believers have escaped the focus of Kirk Cameron’s latest cinematic conniption. With Saving Christmas, Cameron manages to piss off the only group left to offend: his own.
 

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[PurplePuppy]

Saving Christmas is the solemn duty of this inept Kirk Cameron vehicle

By Jesse Hassenger@rockmarooned Nov 14, 2014 10:35 AM



D-

Saving Christmas



Director: Darren Doane

Runtime: 80 minutes

Rating: PG

Cast: Kirk Cameron, Darren Doane, Bridgette Cameron


Saving Christmas places Kirk Cameron, who used to be on the sitcom Growing Pains, on the front lines of the war on Christmas, fighting gallantly on the side of Christmas—which is something like enlisting Ralph Malph to lead fundraising efforts for the Koch brothers. The movie puts so much stock in Cameron’s star power, in fact, that it begins with him directly addressing the camera in a monologue nonsensically placed between production company logos, drinking “hot chocolate” out of a seemingly empty mug as he sets the scene with the vague language of a coded sermon. There’s lots of talk about how they think that and we know this, and how “all of us sense” that there’s something special about the Christmas season.



But back to that hot chocolate, existent or not: Cameron makes it clear that it’s no mere warm beverage but rather an absolutely crucial component of the holiday season, along with other frequently mentioned objects such as gigantic glistening hams and the swaddling cloth of baby Jesus. These emblems matter because Saving Christmas doesn’t take direct aim at nonbelievers, different religions, or dreaded secular humanists. Instead, it creates a whole new straw man in the form of Christian (director and co-writer Darren Doane), Cameron’s grumpy brother-in-law. (Christian is the only named character, which implies Cameron is playing himself—a suspicion driven home further by the fact that Christian’s wife is played by Cameron’s real-life sister, Bridgette.)



During a family party, Christian sits on the couch, staring uncomprehendingly into the middle distance and stewing over the excesses of the season before retiring to his car parked in the driveway. When bro-in-law Kirk comes out to see what’s wrong, Christian sputters through an inarticulate articulation of his disillusionment about the materialism, misplaced symbolism, and general lack of Christ in Christmas. As such, Saving Christmas zeroes in on a specific throwaway argument against the holiday; it essentially concerns how snarky comments about paganism and Christ’s actual birthday might eat away at real Christians and poison their feelings toward the holiday. In Cameron’s words, Christian’s been “listening to the wrong people”—and the guy from Growing Pains positions himself as a good-humored corrector, chuckling with maximum condescension as he challenges secondhand nonsense about druids and paganism with heavily narrated non-enactments of Bible stories.



The conversation between Kirk and Christian forms the rickety backbone of this semi-story’s sort-of-conflict. In other words, yes, much of Saving Christmas takes place in a parked car. When Cameron drops his Bible knowledge, the movie does magically transport elsewhere—at one point, for example, it intercuts shots of two men in a parked car with shots of a snow globe. Cameron takes full control of the narrative, which may be the reason the movie’s poster uses the possessive title Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas rather than the more accurate Darren Doane’s Video Christmas Card, and the film doesn’t match his sermonizing with visuals so much as the suggestion of visuals. It uses slow-motion and lingering, near-still shots to summon all the breathless momentum of a PowerPoint presentation (save for a baffling early moment where former music-video director Doane employs dropped frames and zig-zagging handheld camera for a simple indoor dialogue scene).



There is a tiny sliver of a point here, about why celebrating Christ’s birth in December can have symbolic value even without strict historical accuracy, and how Christmas iconography can grow and change over the years—material probably better suited for a niche documentary or a Fathom Event, but not unworkable as the thematic meat of a fiction film. Any meager narrative potential, though, gets lost in home-video-quality production and weirdo-on-the-subway-quality lecturing. Strangely, the movie does briefly parody war on Christmas paranoia by having a minor character rant about it alongside mentions of chemtrails, GMOs, Area 51, and the 9/11 truther documentary Loose Change. It’s either a quick flash of self-awareness or the kind of nonsense joke often attempted by people with a tin ear for humor.



Doane makes a case for the latter explanation when Christian’s hasty change of heart inspires a 20-minute, movie-ending victory lap. This sequence includes capering, mugging, more slow-motion, and, most egregious, a performance from a “hip-hop dance crew.” It doesn’t land as mirthful, in large part because the movie obsesses over iconography instead of people. By reclaiming Santa Claus, Christmas trees, hot chocolate, and ham as religious artifacts, the movie makes the tacit claim that any disdain for anything even vaguely Christmas is essentially equivalent to blowing your nose on the precious, precious swaddling cloth that Cameron goes on about. Without quite saying so, it turns non-Christians into an offscreen “them” who plant bad thoughts in good people’s heads—you know, sort of like the devil.



Preaching aside, though, Saving Christmas is a shoddy 80-minute feature that contains approximately 50 minutes of actual moving footage. When Cameron narrates that materialism doesn’t go against Christmas because it celebrates the son of God being made material himself, it sounds like a defense of any kind of cheap, poorly made holiday crap—this movie included.
 
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[PurplePuppy]

Seems the only person who has anything good to say about this bomb is Kirk Cameron!  


Hollywood Actor Kirk Cameron’s Message to Atheist Critics Who Bashed Him — and the Christmas Myths He’s Trying to Dispel

Nov. 16, 2014 7:13am Billy Hallowell


Actor Kirk Cameron is hoping to spread some holiday cheer in the coming weeks with the release of his new feature film “Saving Christmas” — a movie that aims to be doing exactly what its title says.



Cameron, who dropped by TheBlaze’s New York City offices Friday to speak with this author for an episode of the Freefall audio series, said that “Saving Christmas” takes on major myths about the holiday’s origins and that people will likely go into theaters “not knowing what to expect.”



Unlike his previous films — which have been documentaries that focus on American history and faith — “Saving Christmas” is a scripted comedy.



Through the film, Cameron is looking to dispel myths touted by believers and nonbelievers alike, while inspiring Christians who get too “legalistic” to take a second look at their holiday views.



“For those who have a legalistic wedgie … [it will] help them see that if your faith does not translate into joy and celebration over something as massive as God taking on flesh and splitting B.C. from A.D., then there’s something wrong,” Cameron told TheBlaze. ”All of the things that are keeping you so locked up about Christmas — you can put them down and I’m going to show you how.”



Listen to the interview below:







The movie is centered around a character named Christian White, a Bible-believing man who Cameron said has some serious qualms about Christmas celebrations — concerns that leave him unable to enjoy the joyous time of year.



“There’s another way to ruin Christmas and it’s to be so religiously uptight that you strangle out your ability to actually download your faith into stuff like fudge and decorations — and lights … and stockings … and music — and that’s what he’s doing,” he said of White.





From the purportedly pagan roots of Christmas to celebrations surrounding Santa, no critique of the Christian holiday is left untouched, according to Cameron.



“I’m going to give you the background story to Santa that is just going to thrill you,” he added.



Cameron also joked that atheists who spent time poking fun at the “Saving Christmas” movie poster back in August actually helped spread the word about the movie. Given a chance to respond to these critics, he was candid.


“Thanks for helping us to spread the word … you mocked the poster that we were hoping people would laugh at,” he said. “It was a take off on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1993 summer movie ‘Last Action Hero.’”



The actor and director, who also appears in “Saving Christmas,” said he couldn’t have predicted that the publicity from atheists criticizing the film would have been so good.



“Sometimes that’s the best way to avoid criticism. To enjoy the fun,” Cameron said. “This is a movie about joy and not being so serious about something that is beautiful and joyful.”
 
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[schwartzie]

Wow, this bomb seems to be setting new records!  

Keep storming! The gates of Rotten Tomatoes are falling!



You are A M A Z I N G! You just drove the Rotten Tomato rating to an all-time, soaring high of 94%!

Now the haters and atheists are coming out of the woodwork, attempting to hammer your good work (they rallied to drop your rating super low). They are attempting, once again, to ruin Saving Christmas for everyone. Look at their language, vulgarity, and spirit of hate. They can try to ruin a rating, but they can't stop you from going with family and friends to see Saving Christmas this weekend! If people continue to turn out, the theaters will hold the movie longer. YOU have the power, just like with Rotten Tomatoes, to keep Saving Christmas in the theaters.

Your support sends a very loud message. Films like Soul Surfer, God's Not Dead, Courageous and Saving Christmas are small lights in a dark world. Together, let's light up movie theaters this weekend and remind everyone this Christmas of the true reason for the season. Together, they can't stop us! Are you with me??

Rotten Tomatoes Reviews

[J.J.Gibbs]

He's got to be kidding!  Is he trying to recoup the losses from this bomb of a movie or what?





We saved Christmas.

Now, taste the glory!



BUY NOW



Limited Edition



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Saving Christmas Blend

Roast Profile: Medium-Dark



What better way to promote this bold declaration of the Christ of Christmas, than with a coffee as bold as Kirk’s witness and as warm and friendly as this Christmas season?



Inspired by the timeless flavors of the classic mocha java blend, our limited edition Saving Christmas Blend is a delicate balance of East African and Indonesian coffees. The subtle sweetness of the Indonesian beans is intimately paired with the robust earthiness of the African for a truly harmonious and memorable cup. It’s meant to be brewed in large quantities and shared with friends and family.

 

— About —


Saving Christmas Blend is the first offering from Kirk’s Coffee. Each 16 oz. package is roasted to order and shipped fresh! Learn more

 

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[PurplePuppy]

LOL!


Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas Is Now Officially the Worst Movie in IMDb’s History

December 4, 2014 by Hemant Mehta 

Congratulations to Kirk Cameron!


His movie Saving Christmas already required a campaign to boost its rating on Rotten Tomatoes… which failed, given that the film has a 0% positive rating.

And now, Cameron has the distinction of having the worst film on IMDb.

(By a longshot.)





The lowest rating anyone can give a movie, in case you’re wondering, is 1. Which means if 0 stars were an option, the score would probably be even lower.

Need a basis for comparison? From Justin to Kelly is #23 on the Bottom 100 list.

Cameron’s movie is worse than From Justin to Kelly.


Give it a few hours and I’m sure Cameron will complain about how he’s the victim of Christian Persecution. When he does, someone please remind him that God’s Not Dead has an average IMDb rating of 5 stars. Nowhere near the bottom of the barrel.
 
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