East Carolinian

Issue date: 10/16/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: MCT

Fireproof

Stars:
Kirk Cameron

Synopsis:
Lt. Caleb Holt (Kirk Cameron) is a firefighter who has been married to his wife, Catherine Holt, for 10 years. Before you know it, they start growing apart and start divorce proceedings. That is until Caleb's father asks him to try a 40-day experiment before he gives up on his marriage, called "The Love Dare."

Caleb accepts the dare hoping that it has nothing to do with their newfound Christian faith and the viewer watches Caleb go through a change of heart. In the end, he takes an old firefighter adage of "never leave your partner behind"-which he applies to his marriage.

The Good

If you can sit through the first 30 minutes of the movie, then you are in for a treat. The dialogue gets better and the acting improves. The viewer is drawn in and even begins to care about the characters. That is exactly the recipe for a good movie. If you are like me, you will find the humor in the bad acting and dialogue and actually enjoy the movie. There are tearjerker moments that would make the manliest of men choke up.

The independent film's production budget was $500,000, but earned $13 million at the box office. In order to keep production costs down they used church members to act as cast and crew. Oh, and did I mention that Kirk Cameron also worked for free?

The Bad

The first 30 minutes of the movie are almost unbearable, combined with bad acting on all actor's parts and horribly written and performed lines. (You get what you pay for). Sitting there makes you wonder how this movie even got to the big screen.

The Ugly

There are a lot of first-time actors, which yields first-time results. When it comes to the "fighting of the spouses" scene, the acting seems forced and unreal. Since the rating is PG and cussing is non-existent, it is hard to pull off a good marital fight.

Verdict

If you want a good laugh and a good movie, go out and see this independently produced feature film. If you don't like it, your grandmother will.

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