Friday, September 30, 2011

THINGS TO COME: THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM

With movies like Warrior and Machine Gun Preacher hogging all the attention around the Christian blogosphere right now, it would be easy to overlook some of the really low budget religious themed offerings popping up on the festival circuits right now. For instance, there’s Kevin Smith’s Red State which, truth be told, just sounds too stupid to even talk about. But there’s also Todd Rohal's The Catechism Cataclysm, which creeps into limited release on October 19th and VOD one week later. I have to admit, the title sounds promising, but with a theme song entitled “GOD WILL F*** YOU UP”, I’ve got my doubts.

Basically, The Catechism Cataclysm tells the tale of the world’s most infantile priest who, after being forcefully sent on leave, tracks down the loser he used to idolize in high school and convinces him to go on a canoe trip. Buddy comedy mayhem ensues for awhile until two Japanese girls named Tom and Huck show up with their mute pal Jim and things start to go really, really weird.

Look, I like priest comedies as much as the next Catholic. Even some of the ones that are purposely antagonistic towards my religion, like Father Ted, can have some funny moments. So I don’t want to dismiss this movie right away. But when you’ve got folks like Steven Rea from the Philadelphia Inquirer saying things like “It seems hopelessly without a point - unless the point has something to do with dropping a Bible into a dirty toilet.” and Leslie Stonebraker of the New York Press musing that “rather than use this premise as a set up for bible satire, the film relies on diarrhea jokes and uninspired buddy-bonding to carry us through an ill-plotted tale of damnation and redemption” then, well… let’s just say I’m not optimistic. Oh well, at least Bless Me Father is streaming on Netflix.

7 comments:

PaperSmyth said...

I sorta hope my husband doesn't know about Bless Me Father being available. Sorta. :)

If anyone can handle this new movie, you can. I hope you'll let us know how it goes. You know--after you get yourself unburied from all the other stuff you are obligated to do.

EegahInc said...

"If anyone can handle this new movie, you can."

If it features a guy in a rubber monster suit, sure. But some of these some of these low budget indie mumblecore comedies take a stronger man than me to sit through.

PaperSmyth said...

Hey, don't be pressured by me. We all have our limits. Catechism Cataclysm would be waaay beyond mine.

I just figured you might find something else to poop on in addition to Legion.

What's your favorite scene from Bless Me Father? I'm partial to the overheard confession where the congregant is arguing with the pastor about why they can't eat chicken on Fridays but can eat eggs.

EegahInc said...

I'm only half way through the series (I only saw a few back in the 80s) so I don't have a favorite yet. Anything with the Mother Superior is gold though.

Rocket Scientist said...

Where do you find these movies!

EegahInc said...

After blogging about movies for awhile, they start to find you. Which, given some of the promotional material showing up in my email, isn't always a good thing.

Rocket Scientist said...

I am waiting instead for THIS movie:
http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2011/10/release-kraken.html