LEFT BEHIND
Left Behind clearly wants to be the first of many
Left Behind
“Either I’m going crazy, or the entire world is insane.” Not only can Nicolas Cage deliver that line like no one else in moviedom, but he does a version of it in every third or fourth film in which he stars. This time it’s in Left Behind, based on a series of popular Christian novels set during and after the Rapture.
For those unfamiliar with this nuttiness, Cage is a 50-year-old actor who’ ll do just about anything. His credits in recent years include a fiery demon ( Ghost Rider), a thousand-year-old mage ( The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) and an ex-con seeking vengeance after a kidnapping ( Drive Angry, Rage and Stolen).
The Rapture is the belief held by some Christians that the end of the world will begin with an event that whisks true believers off to heaven, leaving all their worldly goods behind, including those little fish bumper stickers. Also left behind, the majority of humanity that picked the wrong deity or chose none of the above.
Cage plays Rayford Steele, an airline pilot whose wife recently became a born-again Christian. This has placed strain on the family, since both Rayford and daughter Chloe (Cassi Thomson) are secular types. Thirty minutes into the movie, when the Rapture occurs, Rayford’s co-pilot disappears, and so does Chloe’s little brother.
Up in the air, the movie turns into a modern version of a ’ 70s disaster flick, as panicked passengers of every colour, race and creed (well, except one) turn on each other. This leaves Rayford and flight attendant Hattie (Nicky Whelan), who are also having an affair, to try to keep everyone calm until they can find a safe place to land. They’re helped by a hunky journalist (Chad Michael Murray) who just met and fell for Chloe at the airport when she came to meet her dad.
There’s less drama on the ground as Chloe tries to figure out what happened. Looting starts quickly, thanks to the fact that those left behind include everyone of a pillaging persuasion. Also, bank robbers.
Longtime stuntman-turneddirector Vic Armstrong manages the pacing well enough, although writers Paul Lalonde and John Patus (who also worked on the previous Left Behind movies) leave plot holes big enough to handle a jumbo jet.
Left Behind clearly wants to be the first of many; after all, there are 16 novels in the series on which to draw. But it carries with it the whiff of a TV movie, from the mostly B-list cast to the so-so special effects, and a score that sounds as though it was cut and pasted from another film.
This movie is opening on about 30 screens in Canada, but some 1,750 in the U.S., where it’s courting the converted. They may fill the seats for a while, but the drama and entertainment value are probably too thin to reach a wider audience. Then again, you should never underestimate the Nicolas Cage fan contingent, who might yet swell the film’s coffers. Because either he’s crazy or we are.
Left Behind opens wide on Oct. 3.