(IMAGE: Timed Out Productions)
Shoreline Entertainment. 2021. Adventure/Drama. 113 minutes.
RATING: 1.5 / 4
Faith-based films from a contemporary Christian worldview seldom veer too far from an established formula, so any time one does, like God’s Not Dead (atheist professor debates religion, gets killed by God and repents as he dies) or Samson (he’s like a Marvel superhero, but biblical!), it gets attention, and sometimes reaps great rewards from a fanbase thirsty for new-but-safe stories. Black Easter‘s plot will certainly make folks take notice, but whether or not they buy into it remains an open question.
Dig this: mouthy young genius Ram (Morgan Roberts) is working on a teleportation device, little suspecting that his boss Ahmed (Gerardo Davila) is a secret Muslim terrorist who wants to use the technology for bombings. But when the device turns out to be able to transport items in time as well as space, Ahmed gets a better idea: he’ll send assassins back to 33 AD to murder Jesus shortly before the crucifixion, and thereby prevent Christianity from ever happening. And just so you don’t misinterpret, Ram, in one of his many, constant voiceovers, reassures us, “Don’t be judgmental or hating on Muslims. Ahmed is an extremist. There’s a big difference”
Many questions might arise from this premise. Like, even if Jesus were to die a night or two early, would his Disciples not continue to preach his message? And if you’re a fundamentalist believer, for whom this movie is primarily aimed, how do you reconcile the idea of scripture being inerrant and unchanging if time travelers can change it? Rest assured, the movie does attempt to find answers, and they involve three separate timelines, in which changes made in the past take effect on a convenient time delay, and Ram again frequently weighs in with voice-over explanations. Honestly, time-travel rules are all made up anyway, so who cares if they’re different here so long as they stay consistent?
What true believers might care about is the use of an obviously fictional premise to even suggest that in another reality, the events of the New Testament could conceivably be retroactively altered, which by implication would change the Bible. That’s not likely a problem for most viewers, but there’s a reason the faith-based formulas don’t color outside the lines too often.
A mash-up of Back to the Future Part II, Loki, Terminator, and Rosencrantz and Jesus Are Dead probably shouldn’t work, and it arguably doesn’t. But one thing’s for sure: it’s never boring. Writer-director Jim Carroll, a Dr. Phil protegee and marriage counselor, never quite hits the right balance of Mel Brooks-style absurdity with sincere Jesus love and life-threatening suspense, but his breakneck, madcap pace never lets up once it starts in earnest. He also rather ingeniously incorporates the faith-based film trope of the guy who lost his family and is now mad at God, in a way that’s novel and not distracting to the larger story.
The acting ranges from adequate to…less than that, with Jesus Himself (Jason Castro) unfortunately resembling Jason Schwartzman in a glued-on fake beard. The budget for biblical costumes clearly wasn’t large, though all the actors forced to emote in ancient languages do so passably. Jesus, of course, can see the future, so not only can he speak languages like English that aren’t invented yet, but he can also discuss the specific plot points of Mel Gibson’s movie about him.
One might – unkindly – suggest that Ram’s constant need to explain the plot over and over speaks ill of Carroll’s intended audience’s intelligence. Or, perhaps, that of the money men he had to pitch it to. But presuming it’s aimed at an audience that generally avoids movies offensive to their beliefs, we might assume they haven’t yet overdosed on the cliché of the movie starting, then freeze-framing as a narrator says something like, “You may be wondering how we got here…” and flashes back to however many days or weeks earlier. At least Chris George’s suitably bombastic score adds the appropriate gravitas, or absurdity, depending what sort of viewer you might be.
Because, rest assured, there will definitely be an audience for this movie that is not the intended one. And perhaps Carroll, using skills learned from his mentor, will deftly pivot like Tommy Wiseau and claim he always intended to make a spoof. In the meantime, as the latter might say, you can pray, you can laugh, you can express yourself. Just please don’t hurt each other. And please don’t pay too much for a ticket. Unless you really, really want the sequel that’s teased at the end. So…maybe?
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