Kirk Cameron Saving Christmas reviews are bad but fans love the new religious movie. On Friday, Cameron premiered his new film titled Saving Christmas, which is almost a documentary explaining why Jesus Christ should be prominent during the holiday season.
Kirk Cameron‘s Saving Christmas‘ reviews are in, and most critics say the movie has failed to deliver. In Saving Christmas, Cameron sits in a beautiful living room, next to the perfect Christmas tree, sipping hot chocolate.
Cameron immediately goes into a very interesting and lengthy monologue about the war on Christmas. The Touched by an Angel actor looks at the camera and says:
“They don’t want us to love Christmas so much and celebrate it the way we do.”
Cameron goes on and on about the fact that Jesus Christ needs to be put back in Christmas “because he is the reason for the season.”
During his sermon-like talk, Cameron reveals that the Christmas tree, Santa Claus and gifts are elements rooted in religion and; therefore, Christians should not lose touch with the holiday’s roots and true meaning.
But most of the film actually takes place inside of a parked car, where Cameron joins his imaginary brother-in-law, Christian White, who is another version of Kirk Cameron, played by director and co-writer Darren Doane.
Christian leaves his wife’s holiday party because he is angered by what Christmas has become.
The two men sit in an SUV for most of the film where Kirk Cameron schools White. Cameron says:
“Guess what?. It’s all about Jesus.”
He goes on to support his theory with fun facts like God made trees for us to the decorate, he made snow and he was born on December 25th (experts say otherwise). Cameron also stated that Santa Claus was named after the fourth-century bishop St. Nicholas.
Many critics say the film would have been decent if it was 5 minutes long instead of 80 .
Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas movie is also being blasted for the low-quality production:
“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.”
But then; again, this movie is for Christians who are already fan of Kirk Cameron’s work, and many of them who have seen it, were thrilled.
A critic’s opinion is simply that. An opinion, and therefore, unreliable! I choose my own movies and decide for myself whether or not I like them.
We just got home from the movie. He definitely did not say that Jesus was born on Dec 25. (I’m not a huge Kirk Cameron fan, so I’m not saying this just to defend him. Also – I’m not angry or on a tirade or anything – which often is hard to “hear” in print. I do appreciate that you started with “hated by critics, loved by fans.” That makes sense, and seems at least a half-way attempt not to just sound 100% negative.)
I don’t remember him saying that God made snow, but I guess that’s a pretty irrelevant point. And he really said that trees are important symbols throughout the Bible – not simply that God made them for us to decorate. (The critics [not just you] seem to be oversimplifying things in the movie to make them sound stupid.) A different critic said (twice) that Cameron said things like “it’s OK to be materialistic as long as you don’t max out your credit cards.” That’s really not what he said.
A point (about materialism and gifts) that was briefly/barely touched on in the movie (which, had it been emphasized more, might have helped get the point across) is that charitable giving is highest during the Christmas season, and that people are moved to help others more than usual at this time of year. That reminds me of the ALS ice-bucket challenge. People who like to criticize said that MANY people did the challenge (maybe just to get attention on Facebook) but didn’t give money. But no matter how many people did the challenge instead of giving money, it’s still true that WAY more money was donated to ALS research in a matter of weeks than ever before. Similar to how there’s more giving and helping others near Christmas, even if people in general are “too focused” on things other than Jesus. And helping others is what we’re called to do.
Sure, the production quality wasn’t amazing. But that wasn’t the point of the movie. If you want to see the good in it, you’ll see it.
Last point – I’ve always heard that “Santa Claus was named after the fourth-century bishop St. Nicholas.” The way you stated that after saying that Cameron said that Jesus was born on Dec. 25 made it sound like something you were disagreeing with, or… I’m not sure. You just sort-of threw it out there. I’m not Catholic, so I had never heard the (cool) story behind Nicholas’s role in defending Jesus at the Council of Nicea. I had always just heard that he was very generous, gave gifts, and helped poor people. Anyway, after hearing that story (which of course I looked up when the movie was over) I think Santa is even cooler than I used to think. He reminds me of Jesus’ passionate display of indignation at people turning the temple into a marketplace. When people were trying to discredit Jesus, Nicholas said, no, he was who he said he was, and he was with God from the beginning.
It boils down to this: if you let your children go through the holiday season thinking it’s just all about gifts, then yes….you miss the beauty of it.
But if you teach your children what it’s really about then Christmas is really pretty cool. In Bible times, by God’s command, people had month long (or 40 or 50 day long – and sometimes longer) feasts and times of remembrance for important things. And many religions (including some Christians) still do. If you think about it, Christmas is the ONE time that the majority of Western Christians spend an entire month focusing on something that is SUPPOSED to be all about Jesus. That’s pretty cool.
It’s up to us to teach our kids what it’s about, and I’m glad we took our teenage children to the movie.
The movie will help our household (and I’m sure many others) to remember to focus more on Jesus this Christmas season and in the future.
You called him “the Touched By an Angel actor”, but, as far as I can tell, he was a guest in one episode back in 2001. That’s a pretty obscure reference. He would be better described as the “Growing Pains” actor, but that might not conjure up the negative (read Christian) overtones you were implying.
Who is Kirk Cameron?
I’m a Christian…. I have not desire to see this. These movies are embarrassing. Not for the message but for the quality. Is there not a better acting Christian in the business than Kirk Cameron? And who cares by the way? Kirk – why don’t we put Christ back into world hunger, poverty, and sickness. In a sick way Kirk, you just cashed in on a sentiment that I’m sure your movie hates. Christ in Christmas – He was born in a cave, as a bastard to a mother who could have been stoned for being pregnant with no husband (She was married, but only after God convinced him it was the right thing to do to marry her). His birth caused a crazy king to murder children. You don’t see the Slaughter of the Innocents Hallmark Keepsake on too many trees, especially not white middle class Kirk Cameron’s. Christians get hung up on the wrong things. I’m pretty sure Jesus himself said that since the world hated him, they will hate his followers as well. Lets spend more time loving and caring for the world instead of being angry cause they have somehow stolen Christmas.
Most of the Christmas traditions were practiced long before Christianity began. They were pagan practices that the church adopted over the centuries.
It’s a sad day when people take a movie that someone makes that is positive and uplifting and uses it and can just find every negative thought about it they can fine and still call themselves Christians. Kirk Cameron is funny. Critics are simply just that. Low and bored and have nothing better to do in life but overly dramatize their obvious personal feelings of Christianity vs. people who don’t believe. Those that do believe can choose to be offended but then they choose to take the fun out of life. CHRISTMAS WAS SPECIAL TO SOME OF US. ALL HE IS TRYING TO DO IS SEND A MESSAGE TO KIDS AND FAMILIES THAT CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT JESUS, LOVE, FAMILY, AND SIMPLY THE GIFT OF LIFE AND DARING TO ENJOY THE GIFT THAT THROUGH HIS BIRTH WE WERE BLESSED WITH THE ABILITY TO ENJOY OUR LIVES. THROUGH HIS BIRTH WE WERE BLESSED WITH THE FORGIVNESS AND THE PEACE OF IT. A MESSAGE A SIMPLE AS THAT. DON’T READ INTO PUTTING A PERSON DOWN FOR TRYING TO DELIVER A POSITIVE MESSAGE AND THEN CALL YOURSELF A CHRITIAN. ” TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD WANT TO BE TREATED” ONE OF THE 10 commandments. Think before you act people don’t be ugly.
“TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD WANT TO BE TREATED” is not one of the ten commandments. Good thing you’re Christian enough to know the tenets of your religion.