CommentsXp Best movie ever!

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

gpeltz So here we have, Bless the Child (2000) Directed by Chuck Russell based on a Novel by Cathy Cash Spellman, and brought to screen by Thomas Rickman. I enjoyed it, so, Spoiler Alert ahead. Reminiscent of movies like The Omen (1976) and The End of Days (1999) plainly stated, stories about the anti Christ as a child. In The movie, Bless the Child we have a twist. The movie could be called the anti Omen. The child of beauty here is Cody played by Holliston Coleman, Her mother Jenna, Played by Angela 'Bettis, abandoned the child to her older sister Maggie played by Kim Basinger. Six years pass, as the young girl Cody is brought up in a loving environment.From out of nowhere, Jenna returns to claim her child. She is married to a wealthy charismatic cult leader Eric, played with as much sleaze as can be mustered by Rufus Sewell. What follows is a fairly taught game of cat and mouse, as the cult Eric leads is investigated for child disappearances and murders. Agent John Travis, played by Jimmy Smits leads the investigation. On the good side, the movie is well acted, intelligently and entertainingly written. If taken on a cult of evil, vs the forces of good, without the supernatural flourishes, it would have done well enoughOn the negative side, I could relate to someone not wanting to have to be force fed morality. The movie is unashamed to move into the realm of the angelic. it is unabashedly pro a loving deity; For if there be demons, there must surly be angels. Effective cinematography, Editing and sound, An effective score composed by Christopher Young. All top rate production values. Eight out of Ten 'It's entertainment" Stars.

freezageeza1966 There's nothing really about this film that hasn't been seen or done before,but certainly has been done better.It's a familiar good vs evil scenario. With the return of the Christmas Star,hanging in the night sky,Kim Bassinger returns home from work to find her drug addicted sister holding a new born baby girl.Sister promptly dumps the child and disappears leaving Bassinger to care for the baby. Skip forward several years and we find the child being brought up quite nicely and attending a Catholic school for special needs kids.The girl apparently has a form of autism but in reality is extremely gifted in ways nobody yet realises.........except for the Devil/Occult worshippers apparently hunting for any child that was born on the date the Christmas Star appeared years before.Getting the picture?.... Yep and so begins the battle to save mankind from the Devil......again... There's nothing particularly bad about this movie.It's just,well....average. There's very little or no tension from the story and the actors just seem to be going through the motions just to get payed at the end.Even Rufus Sewell,normally pretty good at playing bad guys tends to nibble the scenery rather than chew it!! Jimmy Smitts investigating FBI agent doesn't seem overly concerned or have any urgency about the fact that young kids are being kidnapped and turning up dead,and Bassinger just doesn't show her character any conviction to be believable.If anything,what really lets this movie down is the particularly bad special effects (just see the rats and you'll know what I mean).The movie could have probably done without them.I can look past average acting and overly familiar plots,but bad effects stick out a mile and do this movie no favours. That said,this movie is still watchable.There was nothing here that made me want to switch it off,but if you've seen the likes of The Omen,Excorcist,Rosemarys Baby etc,then you've probably seen the best of this genre out there and will want to give this a miss.

culmo80 Let's be honest, Kim Basinger isn't the greatest actress out there and this film is just further proof.I liked the premise of this film and here are spoilers:There's a young girl born to Kim Basinger's sister who was born under the same star as Jesus. Kim's sister is a drug addict and promptly leaves the baby with Basinger. As time goes by, it becomes clear the girl is not quite normal. At first, its unclear whether she is evil or good, but that suspense is quickly dispelled as we see the girl bring a dead bird back to life and other acts. Well, it turns out there is a cult that worships Satan but poses as a self-help group. The leader of this group knows that anyone born under the aforementioned star is blessed with special gifts from God. He seeks to either turn the child or kill them, which he does to several children. At some point, Basinger's sister turns back up under the influence of the cult and they kidnap the girl, but Basinger gets the help of FBI Agent Jimmy Smits to help. There are some chase scenes and a few fight scenes and a final confrontation at an old church.The general plot line is decent, but some of the acting is terrible. Some of the dialogue is just dumb:Like when Basinger pulls a gun on the cult leader and says "I've never shot a gun before!" Why would she say that?Or when she goes to the police and says her (adopted) daughter has been kidnapped and the stereotypical uncaring police officer blandly says "calm down..." Really??Iam Holm is in this film, but don't blink because you'll miss him. He plays a wheelchair bound former priest who battles evil cults and tells Basinger about the cult. That's really the extent of his role.If they had made this movie without Basinger and really worked through the plot and took more time with it, this would have been a good film, but as it is...eh, you can find better.

callanvass Bless The Child is an excruciating experience, to go through. There is no suspense to be found, and the actors are often slumming it, and to be honest I didn't blame them. Bless The Child often feels like a straight to video production, featuring an A-list cast. Kim Bassinger can be a credible actress, but here she is overwhelmed with crappy material. Are we really supposed to believe That Basinger's fatal gunshot wound in the end, can be healed by an angel, just like that?. I believe in god, but that was too far fetched for my liking. It's also very slow for the most part, I often found myself having trouble, paying attention to the silly plot. Bless The Child was a movie, I avoided for years, due to all the bad reviews, but I needed something to rent, so I thought why not?. I also found the kid abuse to be extremely unpleasant. Dangling a kid off a high roof, is supposed to be invigorating?. Bless The Child is one of the worst Horror/Thriller's i've seen in recent memory.Performances. Kim Bassinger is OK, but often looked bad, due to the terrible script. Her character doesn't give us enough information, nor does it have enough development, to make us care. For her age, she certainly looks good, though. Christina Ricci gets 1st rate billing, but is barely in the film. Jimmy Smits is OK as the cop, but has done this part, before. Holliston Coleman is the best actor in the film, and that's pretty bad. For her age, she gives a remarkably steady performance, I was quite impressed. Rufus Sewell gives an amusingly hammy Satan worshiping, performance. Angela Bettis is OK as Jenna, but overdid it in some scenes. She did good in looking strung out, though. Bottom line. This movie certainly needed some blessing, because I was bored senseless with this movie. It's as bad as you've heard, believe me. Not recommended, there are much better films of it's type out there.1/10