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Moment After (The)
R1 - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (7th January 2010). |
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The Film
 "The Moment After," directed by Wes Llewellyn, is a movie I can identify with. It deals with testing the faith of man kind in times of great peril. It reminds me of the line from season 2 of "Lost" (2004-2010), “is it because you need to look down the barrel of a gun to find out what you really believe?” In times of great crisis, it is then that we really find out who we are. While in this film, the people of the world are forced to look at their lives after the rapture, I was forced to look at my life after watching it. It was as though my faith in film was being tested. Just to make it clear, I hated "The Moment After." It is possible one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and gave me one hell of a headache. After reviewing the film "The Theory of Everything" (2006), another movie from Affirm Films, I have decided that what we have here is a studio much akin to The Asylum. For the uninitiated, The Asylum is a studio that shamelessly rips off big box office movies and brands them with similar names, ala "Transmorphers" (2007), "AVH: Alien vs. Hunter" (2007), and "I am Omega" (2007), just to name a few. However, what The Asylum does is, at least in my opinion, funny and is some ways charming. They are so unapologetic that I have a few movies of theirs in my collection solely for the novelty. Affirm Films seems to have a much more insidious motive. Instead of tricking your grandma into buying you "Snakes on a Train" (2006) instead of "Snakes on a Plane" (2006), they are ripping movies off in the name of religion. "The Moment After" is a terribly sleazy knock off of the already sleazy novel "Left Behind." Here, the film opens with the occurrence of the rapture. All of a sudden, millions of people all over the world disappear, leaving behind their clothes. All the unbelievers are left behind and are given a period of time to repent. The main strain of the story follows FBI agent Adam Riley (David White), who seems to lack any sort of knowledge concerning the Christian faith. Adam is given the job of investigating the disappearances occurring all over the country. The other main narrative strain is that following rabbi Jacob Krause (Brad Heller), whom upon hearing the news of the rapture, becomes a Jew for Jesus faster than you can say “Isn’t this intolerant?” Krause runs around the country, converting non-believers as he goes. As the story progresses, the United States government in run by evil atheists, shutting down churches and charities. Also, they join a global economy and start implanting microchips into people’s hands so they can keep track of them. Seriously, this is less reasonable than the manifesto of a paranoid libertarian. The government tells Adam to hunt down Krause, labeling him a terrorist, but ends up doing “what is right.” Aside from the terrible direction, acting, music, cinematography, and not to mention message, the movie is pathetically tapping into the fears of the faithful to get its point across, and in doing so, totally alienated me from what it was the film was trying to say. The film spends so much time denouncing Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Atheism, that the whole thing felt like it was trying to bully me into believing the message. Sorry Llewellyn, mission not accomplished. Maybe when the rapture happens and I’m left behind, you can take your crappy movie with you.
Video
"The Moment After" continues the tradition of Affirm Films by offering an abysmal 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that is justified by the already terrible film. It’s not like this movie was made in the 80’s, so why does it look like it was? And why does it look like I’m watching a VHS? In this day and age, there is no excuse for picture quality that is so bland and noisy, I don’t care how low your budget is. But in the end, it just goes to show you that a good film is hardly what these people had in mind.
Audio
The film is offered in both English and Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, and maybe it’s because the video was so bad, but the sound here wasn’t that terrible. It is far from good, but it was adequate, and easily the thing that took the most amount of care to produce (aside from maybe the actual DVD case). All the dialogue was decently clear, and the music never drowned out the characters. Of course, the track lacks any sort of punch when it comes to any of the “action” scenes, so I’ll just say the mix is about as exciting as mud. Oh wait, never mind. Sometimes mud bubbles. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired and Portuguese.
Extras
"The Moment After" offers a few extras in the way of two audio commentaries, and a batch of preview bonus trailers. They are discussed further below: First up is the feature-length audio commentary featuring writer/director Wes Llewellyn and co-writer Amanda Llewellyn. The married couple banter about in a manner that can only be explained as “Oh my, dear, can you believe we made this movie?” The two just reek of negative authenticity, and at the same time have nothing interesting to say about this movie. The most buzz worthy clips you’ll get are along the lines of “Now we shot this in our living room.” Next up is the second audio commentary, featuring cast members David White and Kevin Downes (a fellow FBI agent in the film). While the two attempt to break the film down, talking about the pacing and inner conflict of characters (both of which are non existent in the movie), the two at least seem as though they are having a good time. They drop a few anecdotes that weren’t that funny, but were somewhat interesting, and a welcome addition to a DVD completely devoid of anything that was worth a damn. Also included are some bonus trailers, and they are: - "Affirm Films Action Collection" which runs for 2 minutes and 43 seconds. - "Inspiring Movies From Affirm Films" which runs for 2 minutes and 45 seconds. - "Faith Like Potatoes" which runs for 1 minute and 45 seconds. - "Ice Castles" which runs for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. - "The Note" which runs for 5 minutes and 7 seconds.
Overall
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