Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Cinema Veritank

Hard to believe a movie produced by the fertile mind of Rick Santorum would be a critical and commercial flop.

The power of prayer has failed to save The Christmas Candle, the new release from Rick Santorum's faith based film studio, EchoLight.

The Christmas Candle, set in the fictional English village of Gladbury and billed as "a timeless holiday film for the entire family", attracted widespread critical scorn as well as dismal box-office results, having grossed just over $1.6m (£988,000) after two weeks on release.
Yes, nothing spells box-office like Dickens without the, uh, Dickens but all the schmaltz as well as a ton of preachiness.

By now it's pretty clear that your openly religious movies make money only when they come with a heavy dose of torture-porn.

If there's a silver lining...okay an additional silver lining...it's that Ted Cruz's "Life with Father" is going to be a very very limited direct-to-video release.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

7 comments:

StonyPillow said...

The Santorum Movie’s 80% rotten AND 20% fresh at the same time. Sounds about right. On the other hand, it’s not a comic book spinoff, it’s not a right wing vengeance fantasy, nobody’s killed in slo-mo, and it doesn’t have the obligatory nudie scene.

Hollywood is ruining America by tilling the minds of the gullible to make fertile soil for propaganda.

feralcrj said...

aliens, he needed aliens! and porn... you know, no simple stripping of clothes, but the stripping of flesh the xtians really go for...

gah!

devout, the new black hearted!

Anonymous said...

I did it. I didn't pray to the Jebus for its success. All part of my "War on Christmas".

Montag said...

This is a production debut equal to Jack Abramoff's "Red Scorpion."

Now, if Bishop Santorum had only included guns, commies, Jack Abramoff and Dolph Lundgren in his little Christmas homily, he might have had a flop, but at least he'd have an excuse.

kingweasil said...

I cant believe this didn't work out for ole rick..."The film's quality has received negative reviews, with the New York Daily News describing it as a "Dickens-meets-Sunday-school movie", and that it was "as artless as the setup [was] muddled".The New York Post referred to it as a "throwback, made-for-TV-style film" with a "cheesy climax". The Arizona Republic referred to it as "resolutely stiff and hollow" what a shame...

pansypoo said...

butbutbut it was explained to jon stewart i think. the rite thinks sending obama 'back' to kenya is AWESOME joke.
funny like richard cohen.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, as with Spinal Tap, the Japanese release will save the venture.