Saved! (2004)

You won't be disappointed!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I was christened, baptised and confirmed as a Catholic, taught righteousness by nuns at school. Then at a certain age I started asking why, or more importantly withdrew my blind faith. If God wants to punish me then fine, you're not my kind of God anyway. That's basically the central theme in this film, how all mainstream religions are nothing like the ideals set out by the leading texts they're founded on. This film is irreverent only in the satirical way, you can't preach morals if you make and break them at will.There is an interesting section of the film when the virgin birth is sort of questioned. Earlier examples would be how many Greek heroes were the sons of Zeus as his mortal father had been away fighting the past year. It's just a fun film, so if you are religious you can watch and laugh at so many apostates condemning themselves to eternal hell.Is it funny or strange how religions always have this sadistic element to them.

Ratings: Comedy: 09 Acting: 10 Satire: 09 Relevance: 09Having watched Juno and agreed to its rating on IMDb (about an 8.00 at the time), I was sceptical on what this movie would have to offer. Boy, was I surprised!The plot is well crafted and the humour very biting. The acting is flawless, whether it be Malone, Moore, Martino or Culkin. Malone does deserve special mention though, as she shines throughout.Juno made the topic of teen pregnancy heavy. Saved! treats it in a lighthearted manner and still gets a lot of messages across.Watch it - it's cute and great at the same time.

"Religion is a mind control, you're kept in place with your beliefs. They've made you into human cattle, it's easy to heard the sheep." - Eigh8t the Chosen One, Government.I waited about a month to write a review of Saved! because I wanted to collect my thoughts and ideas slowly and efficiently. not being religious and having only minimal knowledge to say after I watched the film, I felt I needed to think a bit more about this one. Surely there was more to say than the four paragraph review I planned out earlier but cancelled.The best thing with Saved! is it's a satire. It takes old, high school comedy film roles and modifies them to fit its premise. Usually in the high school comedy genre, the villain is the pretty, self absorbed, world-revolves-around-me-not-you-losers cheerleader. In Saved! the villain is the biggest Bible gripping, God lover of them all. Now that's funny! Besides being religious and very Christian based, Saved! is also a coming of age film that gives incite on the topic of religion to people like me who have little to no knowledge. I've never been religious and don't want to be for one reason; it causes nothing but problems. We've had so many wars fought over religion and people still say it is harmless. Some may find solace in it, but I certainly don't. I hate fighting over political and religious topics with people. It is not worth losing a friendship.I also hate people that try to push religion down other's throats. I say if you're very religious, you've "spoke" to God, and you believe it is the right path, more power to you. But if you do all of that, and try to force me into doing it too by preaching to me some sayings and getting me to "confess to the lord" then we got a problem. When I have a problem, I don't turn to the Bible. I get up off of my ass and fix it myself. Not wait for God to do it. I believe in God. I believe there is someone that created us, loves us, and really believes in us. But that is the extent. I am not an avid church goer, I in fact set foot in a church about two weeks ago for the first time in nine years to go to a friend's confirmation.On with the film, Saved! focuses on a group of Seniors at American Eagle Christian High School. We have the good girl Mary (Malone), the big Christian Hilary (Moore), her handicapped brother Roland (Culkin), and the goth, Jewish, bad girl Cassandra (Amurri). After being told be her boyfriend Dean (Faust) that he may gay, Mary decides to try and "get rid of" these horrible feelings by having sex with Dean. When Dean is sent to get saved, Mary realizes she is pregnant and is trying to cope with adulthood, her boyfriend's sexual orientation and her school issues all in one.I'm a Christian. I do little to practice my religion. I celebrate Easter and Christmas very lightly and, like I stated above, I'm no avid church goer. I absolutely despise people who are against gay marriage which is why I don't practice my religion. Being gay is nothing bad. It's we as a society who hate different people and chose to mock them to a point of suicide or hatred of who they are. Christians are incredibly naive for believing gay marriage in "unethical." I have numerous gay friends boy and girl and no they do not "hit on me." They are normal and accepting. As we all should be.Google "Christians are (space}" and see what lovely rep they get. They are called; hate filled hypocrites, annoying, ignorant, narrow minded, weird, delusional, mean, jerks, bigots, and a load of other things. I want no part of a religion that is mocked by a whole slew of people. It isn't worth it.Saved! is wonderful with its witty humor, life lessons, and lively cast. know I complained a lot in my review, but it's my honest views on religion. Some people use it for good, some for bad. I enjoyed so many performances in the film mainly by Amurri and Culkin, respectively. While it isn't as funny and as out there as Kevin Smith's Dogma was so to speak it combines comedy film elements with its own which makes it a riot and a good time.Starring: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Eva Amurri, Heather Matarazzo, Chad Faust, Elizabeth Thai, Martin Donovan, and Mary-Louise Parker. Directed by: Brian Danelly.

In a Protestant Christian school, the fanatic and wealthy Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) and Mary are best friends. Their friendship ends when Mary gets pregnant, after having sex with her gay boyfriend trying to "save" him, and questions Jesus' will. Meanwhile, the rebel Jewish Cassandra dates Hilary's brother, the crippled Roland (Macaulay Culkin), and together with the newcomer son of the local pastor, Patrick, they become the new friends of Mary, supporting her situation.There are other issues, such as the idea of de-gayification, and we see at least one obvious picture of George W. Bush (which reminds me of the film "Jesus Camp").What drew me to this film originally (I stayed because it's a good movie) are the two leading ladies. This film treats us to Mandy Moore's nipples... no bra? It must be cold in Vancouver... though, she could have cut the mullet. And I used to have a crush on Jena Malone, but I'm not sure why... must be a "Donnie Darko" thing.I strongly urge people to get the DVD of this film. It comes with two commentaries. One is a Jena Malone and Mandy Moore commentary, which is very much girl chatter, but has interesting tidbits: like, we find out that Mandy is a good shot. Cassandra is "not smoking real cigarettes" -- but what are they? And we hear more about the film's music, notably "Whoomp" and the "Exorcist" theme.I didn't listen to the other commentary (yet).