A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Bless the Child

Date Viewed: 8/13/00

Details:

Kim Bassinger

Jimmy Smits

Christina Ricci

Director: Chuck Russell

Score: 1/2

The Review: Yet another entry in the "one child is destined to save the world from Satan" genre: a mix of pseudo-religious mystical bullshit, mutated Satanism, mutated Catholicism, lifestyles of the rich and demented, goofy SFX, and blindly devoted (and overly frantic) mother-love. Not too bad, though, for all that.

Bassinger is the (single) mother of a young girl who seems to exhibit several mystical powers (offering evidence of her Christ-like connection), but who is being tracked by the agents of the powers of evil (or is it Evil?). The analogy is so strongly drawn that there's even one scene on top of the tallest building in town, echoing Luke 4:5. These resonances can be a bit overpowering, but let no one say they are too subtle to be missed by the average audience.

One of the web-reviewers of this movie (on IMDb) brought up a concept that I'd like to consider using on occasion: "for genre fans only." Although not a fully parallel rating, it's clear that some movies have very specific target audiences, and that if you're not among the blessed -- or cursed -- your opinion varies radically. This even applies to sub-genres of humor. Much that I use frequently the phrase PRMBS (see above), I tend to enjoy this genre of the "thinking man's supernatural / paranormal fantasy horror / adventure" (even though this category must sound like an oxymoron -- or I do), so I am more lenient in judging the entries against others in this cluster. You will see this in my rankings, over time; mea culpa. Comparing absolutely against all other movies of the year, however, this will never rank highly, and shouldn't.

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