The Moment After (1999)

Unless you're a devout Christian and want your beliefs confirmed, avoid this like the plague. The dialogue makes the old Dragnet TV show seem lively and realistic, people have the most unbelievable reactions to incredible events and even within the Christian viewpoint, the movie simply makes no factual sense. In the "damning with faint praise" department, I guess it takes a talent of some kind to make a movie about a supernatural event like "the rapture" and manage to wring all tension, wonder and drama out of it.Truly awful movie that my wife rented thinking it was an actual sci-fi movie, rather than the di-fi (divinity fiction) it so clearly I and wanted to be.

The Moment After is once again a Christian conception of what will happen here on earth when the believer types are suddenly whisked out of this plain of existence to another dimension. As there is as much speculation about these prophetic events and some out there hold that the Rapture is not even going to happen, the writer's imagination can run wild with possibilities.I don't think all that much imagination was put to use here though. The film focuses on two FBI agents, David A.R. White and Kevin Downes who are among the many checking out and filing all the missing person cases that have mushroomed all over the globe.Pretty soon though Downes and White are put on the trail of a messianic Jew played by Brad Heller who when the Rapture does occur suddenly decides he's the guy looking to convert his people. The New Testament does say that before the Second Coming all the Jews in the world will be converted. That makes him one dangerous fellow, especially to the forces of the world government who are not liking people like Heller. In fact Christians who didn't make the Rapture cut are following this guy as well.The Moment After is a sincere, but rather flat attempt offer a future vision of persecution of Christians for spreading the word. The people behind the film are evangelicals, down to the players who are veterans of the Christian film genre. It all gets done so often. In fact as evangelical tools they can be suspect because the speculation varies so that if they are continually shown at churches, Sunday Schools and such venues, I wonder if it doesn't confuse more than uplift.

This movie is not suppose to be like Hollywood movies. Some of those movies are good also. It is a specific evangelism tool. I have seen a lot of evangelism movies and this is my favorite so far. There are others that deal much more with the horror, but this one took it at another angle. It is still evangelistic, but that's what it is suppose to be.

I have loved this movie from the moment I watched it the first time. It is an awesome witness for how things will be once we are out of here. The movie is thought provoking and well done. David White, Kevin Downes and Brad Heller are favorites--have seen other Christian movies they have been in.