Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Twilightfa
Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.
Justina
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
strangenstein
This review contains spoilers.Kudos to director James Barden for his ambitious -- albeit truncated -- retelling of the life of Jesus. The idea is immediately compelling: What would happen if Jesus came to earth NOW, for the first time, rather than 2000+ years ago? According to Mr. Barden, not much would change: Religious leaders would still despise Him, the masses would flock to Him, and, ultimately, scripture would be fulfilled.There is a lot of talent involved here, both in front of and behind the camera. John O'Banion brings a true warmth and sincerity to the role of Jesse (Jesus), while Ramy Zada brings depth to his portrayal of the conflicted Jude (Judas). Jeff Corey and Richard Herd add gravitas. As I mentioned earlier, The Judas Project is ambitious, which ultimately leads to some problems. Trying to fit three years of ministry, teaching and miracles into 90 minutes is tough. Many of the highlights of Jesus's life are merely touched on or glossed over. There just isn't enough time to fully develop all the characters and story lines. Still, the main three story points -- Jesus's relationship with the disciples, His relationship with the religious and world leaders, and His crucifixion -- are well realized. Be prepared, as the crucifixion is gruesome. (These scenes are what gave the movie its PG-13 rating.) Forget the naysayers and simply enjoy the movie for what it is. This is low-budget film making done well.
v_babe10
I have to say that I am shocked at the last review for this film. I thought that it was an amazing piece and was very moving. The whole message and point behind this film was to help us understand the motives and events that shaped Judas' betrayal of Christ. Many people, even those that don't know much about the religion or the teachings of Christ, know who Judas was and that he was ultimately the one who betrayed Christ. But little is known of why or how one could do such a thing. This movie makes the tale more heartbreaking and thought provoking than anything else I have ever seen. It humanizes some of the characters in a way that many people may not have viewed them before.I strongly suggest that anyone who is already a believer, is just coming into their faith, or even those that have decided that it isn't for them see this movie. It is truly eye-opening and gives one a better understanding and view of characters we think we already know.
Ibanezz
I saw this originally when it was released to theaters here in 1994 (why does IMDb say 1990?). A friend who worked at a local theater told us about this "really controversial" movie about Christ. Being a movie geek I was surprised that I hadn't heard of it, but figured that it was a small indie movie that didn't get much publicity. Since the theater allowed her to bring herself and three others to a flick for free, she and I grabbed our significant others and checked it out.This movie was one of the greatest movie experiences of my life.Seriously.Sunday night, opening weekend. There are 6 people in the theater, including us. We missed the first minute or two and had to play catch up to figure out the premise. Lucky for us the second scene set up the rest of the movie perfectly.If you have the movie you must watch this scene. If you don't have it, run to the DVD bargain bin of your local Wal-Mart and dive in. I'll wait.Okay, the scene shows "Jesse" and "Jude" talking in a small restaurant. The camera is only showing one of them at a time, sitting at opposite ends of a table. They're discussing the miracle that happened the night before. After a couple of these one-shots, the camera shows the entire table, and there's this large bearded lumberjack looking guy sitting between them. There was no set up that there was anybody other than Jesse and Jude there. I remember saying out loud something like, "where the hell did THAT guy come from?" and the rest of the movie became a MST3K experience. There was so many bad decisions in this movie, from casting to acting to writing to music and so on that I find it hard to believe that anyone could take this movie seriously. I understand the whole "good intentions" thing, but there has to be some semblance of talent to pull it off, especially a story which people know so intimately.After the movie ended the four of us (there was only one guy left other than us) stood around in the parking lot for two hours, smoked a lot of cigarettes and kicked around our own version of the movie. Today I got the idea of how I could possibly come up with that version of the movie, which is why I'm visiting this site.I must admit, when I watched this movie on DVD a year or so ago, it didn't seem as bad as it did originally. The director/writer/music guy was sincere as to how he wanted to see this movie done, but he just didn't have the ability to pull it off.The best way to watch this is the way my friends and I originally saw it: totally obnoxious. Have a few drinks, get loose and throw it in.I only rated it a 9 out of 10 because my toe got stepped on really hard that night and it hurt. Otherwise it would rate a 10.Spoiler Warning! Jesse gets crucified.Betcha didn't see that one coming.
FilmLabRat
In spite of some professional shortcomings (and sexism), this movie was creative and interesting... definitely giving food for thought and characters and adaptations for amusement. Good attempt to translate story of Gospel to today's world. Use of special effects was a bit distracting but not without artistic warrant to depict supernatural transformations, etc. Music was also original (style from the '80s but not bad) and appropriate.
