Movie Review - Bible Based: Rapid Fear

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

A Run For the Money

Plot Overview

saplings Bank robbers James Storer (Peter Kent), Chris, Mark and Bailey (Erich Thrill) lead police Detective Tremaine (Steven Grives) on a merry chase through highway, water & forest but lose out to his helicopter. James gets ten years, Chris & Mark eight each, and Bailey's on the run. The money is in limbo (“I lost it.”) Right.

mischievous boy
w/sling volunteers needed A condition of James's parole is that he lead a youth intervention program rafting down the rapids. His charges are: Nick Morelli, 17 (Guy Edmonds) in for robbery and violent assault, Toby Muffit, 16 (Vanja Matula), Bree Dennis, 17 (Helen Christinson), Joel Mortinson, 16 (Craig Marriott), Callum Kennedy, 17 (Remi Broadway), and Daisy Zaba, 17 (Belle Shootingstar.) “You're not going to be juveniles much longer,” he tells them. Coincidentally their terrain is near where the money got “lost.”

James has Chris and Mark (“They were in prison together”) transport the inflatable rafts to the launch point and then await the rafters downstream, although they are also, “just doing what you said, scaring the lads.” The idea seems to be to frighten some sense into these wayward youth, but it gets overdone (“a lot of bad stuff's gone down here.”) Members go missing, equipment gets trashed, the valley gets flooded, and rumors get started. There's talk of a decommissioned insane asylum somewhere in these parts, whose “wackos” were “just set loose.” It sounds like Switzerland in an Upton Sinclair novel where:

every Swiss, whether of German, French, or Italian descent, was an armed soldier ready to fight the invaders of his country, from north, east, south, or west. Every road was guarded day and night, and stores of food had been sunk in immense watertight caissons in the icy depths of mountain lakes. Every pass was mined, so that avalanches could be loosed upon invaders, and more important yet, every one of the great railroad tunnels was stocked with dynamite and could be destroyed by the pushing of a button. So the Axis would be cut in half, Germany would get no guns from Milan and Turin, and Milan and Turin would get no coal from Germany. (332–3).

The youth figure they're in a “government-funded extermination program” to save the expense of their incarceration.

Ideology

busing James Storer was the quintessential Mr. Self-Discipline. He went into the bank alone three minutes before closing when the till is most full and left with the loot five minutes later without drawing undue attention to what he'd done. Two confederates had enough confidence in him to laze about against the car outside while this took place—and a third had it covered from a distance. Storer calmly talked one of the juveniles into removing a knife from his throat on their trip. He endured twelve hours of interrogation from Tremaine without giving up the location of the money, and torture by his buddies. Social worker Liz (Dragista Derbert) was Miss Moderation. She drove the bus neither fast nor slow. She kept her eye on the kids in the mirror but mostly she watched the road. She was firm but not fanatical in confiscating Nick's smokes. When she traipsed downstream looking for Toby, she knew when to stop for the night and set up camp. When she was bound and gagged in the derelict loony bin, she didn't waste her screams on an endless forest but kept her voice moderate and steady waiting for someone to stumble into range.

money bags graduates A student of the wisdom literature—and we're all supposed to study it—might recognize in this story the theme of, (Eccl. 4:13-14) “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.” The juveniles who never had a break in life are going to wise up from completing the program. They are better off in that case than the “old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished” where he's living like a king on an island, not subject to extradition. His tons of money don't buy him respect, for his speech has been corrupted from ten years in the joint. Back when he robbed the bank, he was so polite that Nicole the teller said, “Thank you,” when he was done robbing her. Now when one of the juveniles asks him to “say the magic word” before the lad complies, he says, “NOW!” And while his family friend on the outside “becometh poor,” i.e. loses his influence, he has not kept up with fashions either. He'd complimented the teller on her blouse, but now he wonders if miniskirts are still in vogue. How is he going to get a girlfriend if he's confused by feminine signals? Yeah, those poor kids who've got their heads on straight are better off than he.

Storer is seen to be able-bodied when he's running hell-for-leather from the man. He got a college degree while in the joint. His approach to life is that, “armed robbery is the easy way out. It's a lot harder to use your brains to make a living.” Be that as it may, it's not excessively difficult to work for one. Miss Moderation did just fine and they two had the same job.

A Christian's temperance being a fruit of the Spirit is listed in (Gal. 5:22-23) “But the fruit of the Spirit is … temperance: against such there is no law.” Webster defines “temperance n 1: moderation in action, thought, or feeling: restraint.” Miss Temperance violated “no law.” Mr. Self-Control did for an easier life. Some misguided Bible translators have taken to substituting the latter for the former. Beware.

Production Values

“” (2004) was directed by Geoff Cox who also appeared in cameo. Its screenplay was written by Wendy Pavey. It stars Steven Grives, Peter Kent and Craig Marriott. Belle Shootingstar & Helen Christinson made an impression going after each other; the men were disappointing.

flute and drum horn playing MPAA rated it R for language but not for violence that seemed subdued for some reason, perhaps from having a female playwright. It was filmed in Queensland, Australia (South East) and made to look like America in a halfhearted way. The scenery was breathtaking but the rapids looked tame; although, to be sure, the water doesn't have be roiling to be dangerous. Geoff Cox was director of photography, and I must give him—or the cameraman—kudos for elegant shots using dutch angles, low angle, expert framing, and distant vistas. The editing, however, was often clunky moving too abruptly from scene to scene. The orchestra sounded like it consisted of one horn and a drum. The bird song was looped. Runtime is 1¾ hours.

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

This one is not for the schadenfreude, sadists look elsewhere. It's pretty upbeat with lessons to be learned. You could almost call it family-friendly if you could shrug off a modicum of swearing. Scenery was nice and the river adventure engaging. I liked it although it had technical drawbacks.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Two and a half stars out of five.