THINGS TO COME: BELIEVE ME & LEFT BEHIND

Two trailers for faith-based movies showed up in my inbox today. Here’s the synopsis for the first one entitled Believe Me:

Sam (Alex Russell) stands on stage as thousands of fans go wild. Smart, charismatic, handsome, he moves them with his message, and when he calls for donations to his charity, the money pours in.  Only thing is, Sam doesn’t believe a word he’s saying.  Just months earlier, Sam was a typical college senior focused on keg stands, hookups and graduation. But when a surprise tuition bill threatens his dream of law school and leaves him thousands of dollars in the hole, he’s forced to think outside the box. He convinces his three roommates they can make a killing on the gullible church crowd and the guys start a sham charity, campaigning across the country, raising funds for a cause as fake as their message.  For Sam, embezzlement is easy compared to getting attention from the only person he cares about. When Callie (Johanna Braddy), the tour manager and Sam’s love interest, finally discovers the guys’ ruse, it’s Sam's moment of truth.  On the final night of the tour, before a packed auditorium and alone in the spotlight, Sam must decide what he really believes.

Here’s the trailer…

So, basically, Believe Me is kind of a Millennial take on the old Steve Martin vehicle A Simple Twist Of Fate, just with an overt pro-Christian storyline.

The other movie, which we’ve been awaiting for almost two years now, needs little introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, Left Behind starring Nick Cage…

Okay, so Catholics don’t believe in Left Behind’s premillennial rapture premise, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a film like this. It’s Nick Cage for crying out loud.

Now the interesting thing is, both these movies come out within a few weeks of each other. One is designed to start out seemingly making fun of the faith, but slowly teach a lesson about it. The other is designed to teach a lesson about the faith, but is all but predestined (see what I did there) to end up causing people to make fun of it.

Which movie do you think will probably get some actual mainstream press coverage?