Kirk Cameron has been promoting his new movie "Saving Christmas" with a diligent social media campaign but the Christian themed film has earned a dubious designation as the worst-rated movie on imdb.com.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
The rating comes from stars awarded by imdb.com users such as this commenter who posted the following review:
"This movie is horrendous on so many levels - patronising to Christians, incredibly bad plot and direction, the acting and dialogue is as comfortable as a dentist's visit. I suspect the whole thing is purely a desperate attempt by Cameron to pander to under-educated Christians in an effort to earn their hard earned dollars. Either that, or it is just a giant ego trip for him. I had no preconceptions before I went to watch this, and left confused as to the amount of utter garbage wedged into what seemed like an eternity of boredom. Even worse, he is asking his Christian supporters to bear false witness by skewing the votes here and on rotten tomatoes. Hypocritical? I'll let you decide."
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Other reviews were equally unflattering but it's unclear if the writers were all people who just happened to see the movie and hate it, or if they could have been motivated by the deliberate attempts to drum up positive commentary (Pro tip: that works approximately never).
This review, titled "This movie shattered my faith," seems more comical than earnest:
"I was a devout Christian until I watched this movie. I can no longer believe in God because I can't believe that he would allow someone to make this garbage in his name… I am now exploring Satanism. Thank you Kirk Cameron.
I don't even know where to begin. This is the most intellectually draining movie I have ever seen, it was even worse than God Is Not Dead. The acting was poor. The premise was bland. Every other word out of Kirk Cameron's mouth is a lie.
Please do not go and see this movie. I don't want it to ruin your life like it has mine. And for the love of God don't let your children see this awful movie."
Cameron isn't letting the smack talk get him down.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
"I am so excited that nearly 100 new theaters will be getting Saving Christmas beginning Friday!" he posted on his public Facebook page this week. "And thanks to your incredible support, nearly 200 of the original theaters will still have Saving Christmas showing for a fourth week! Be sure to check the theaters list here: http://www.savingchristmas.com/theaters and then enjoy the film with your family and friends this weekend!"
Cameron has nearly 2 million Facebook fans and many of them are posting nice messages about his movie, including Darleen McAndrew-Gillmore:
"I just want to say that seeing that movie has totally changed how I view Christmas! I was a single mom with 4 children with barely enough money for food. So when Christmas came around, I gotta be honest, I hated it. I hated how I felt like I had to buy all these gifts and with no money. My youngest never even had the chance to believe in Santa. I always told her that was a story made up so people could get things. Deep down it was because I couldn't afford to get a bunch of things. I made it more about Jesus instead of the gifts. But honestly one year I didn't even put up the Christmas tree because I felt like it was all being lost to commercialism. This film has opened my eyes! I took all four of my children to this movie and had a long talk after about why I didn't like Christmas before. They understood This Christmas will be different! Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for changing my view."
