Disappointed in Texas

Rating: 4/10 (23 May 2006)

I love going to movies, and can tolerate about anything and still find some level of enjoyment. I must say this is the first movie I've ever walked out on in the middle of the film. When I left, I felt not just disappointed but wronged. Perhaps the conspiracy here is not within the film but in the hype that would lead someone to pay good money for such a disappointment.
I'm not for sure even how much of the film I watched, at least an hour. If this was the first half, it moved painfully slow, the characters were difficult to connect with and the whole first hour was devoted to the setup of the crux of the film - you know, the part where catholics were duped and Jesus was a fraud.
I'm sorry, but the conspiracy this film hinges on is hard for me to find entertaining. If I were a Catholic, and I'm not, I would be highly offended by this characterization. When the film reaches the conspiracy crux, it comes across more as sermonizing, with a bit silly attempt to interpret history to develop its conspiracy theory. I know. It's just fiction, but put in a different context, say the Jews were duped about the Holocaust, it would be considered anti-Semitic, but if you make the same fictional assumption about the Catholics and Jesus, its now just fiction with no overtones? Even if it was not intended, it does smack of an attempt to discredit, or at a minimum, cast doubt upon Catholics and their beliefs.
Again, I'm not Catholic, but of all the things to develop a conspiracy on for entertainment purposes, surely something more interesting could be found. Overall, I'm just disappointed. Having great respect for the producer and Mr. Hanks, I expected much more from this film and don't understand the need to build such as powerful entertainment medium that promotes such a theory at the expense of a religious faith. I wished they would have been more forthcoming about the true entertainment value of this film, rather than letting the advertising hype mislead people into viewing this film.
Go if you like. Personally, I don't feel this film deserves your financial endorsement.