Expiate the Weinsteins

Rating: 1/10 (27 March 2008)

I was just wondering what would happen if a couple of Christian film makers produced a film where a Jewish character was portrayed as a hypocritical fanatic who was willing to kill people in a crisis and use the bible to justify it. I think we'd know what would happen. There would be unkind comparisons to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, or worse, Mel Gibson (Gee, what happened to HIS career lately?) after which the aforementioned film makers would be run out of Hollywood on a rail.
Yet the Weinsteins can make a film portraying a Christian in such an evil and cartoonish way, and it's perfectly acceptable.
That was just one of my problems with this film. The others are too numerous to list. First, there is the typical portrayal of small town folks as stupid bumpkins easily led and manipulated. They do the most illogical things in a crisis. No one ever thinks of turning on a radio or a TV and trying to find out how widespread the crisis is, or using a cell phone to try to call out.
Then there is the ending. I am going to tell you the ending in the hope you don't see this. After putting all of our sympathies with the few survivors who don't follow the Christian fanatic, they run out of gas in the mist, and choose to kill themselves rather than be killed by the monsters. Except when the protagonist survives, the army shows up and drives back the mist, meaning he killed his kid for nothing. Yes, the Weinsteins give one last flip of the bird to anyone who invested any sympathy to the heroes of the film.
Can't blame Steven King for that part, his ending actually was more upbeat, at least allowing the potential the heroes survived.
I have seen a lot of bad movies, made with a lot of heart and a little sloppiness. This is an expensive movie which insults its viewers.