SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

nightmarelyre As somewhat of an Agnostic who have nothing against Christian movies on principal, I still found this to be a offensively bad, poorly made and biased propaganda piece that did the complete opposite of what it tried to do.The film centers around a small group of different people who find themselves on a forest road in the middle of nowhere, only to find that the main road they are traveling has been closed down due to a storm. Instead they all detour to a side road to find a diner to take shelter in, only to find out that the guy owning it is in fact Jesus. Then he starts to grill them about their hidden dark pasts in an attempt to rekindle their faith.Now this concept in of itself could maybe have worked if it was played subtly. For example, if it was left ambiguous whether or not this man is truly Jesus or not. Perhaps have the protagonists open up about themselves in believable ways by their own will to create an actual on-screen relationship between them, and to give real weight to their decisions to change their ways. Instead, we have Jesus practically forcing his way into their minds and threatening them with eternal damnation, while acting like a straight up sociopathic serial killer and stalker.I can't stress this enough, this is the single worst portrayal of Jesus on film I have ever seen, even worse than Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, and that portrayal was intended to be bad for the sake of comedy. He plays on people's pains and fears to manipulate them, going as far as to force a girl to forgive her sexually abusive dad with threats of eternal damnation and an awful future life, and literally demands the people in the diner to bend to his will. I thought Jesus was supposed to love everybody and ask people to love him back on their own free will?It doesn't help that the protagonists in this movie are all bland stock characters with dull, lifeless acting bringing them to life either. We got our obligatory straw Atheist, the bickering couple contemplating divorce, the troubled girl who is losing her faith due to trauma and the born again Christian who is basically already in Jesus' good graces. But she is ordered to leave her boyfriend anyways because it amuses Jesus and because her boyfriend isn't Christian. None of them feel like real people except for the straw Atheist character, who surprisingly seem to act somewhat rationally to begin with outside of being a massive jerk, before eventually succumbing to the granary.Gluing this story of abuse and misquoting of religious text together is also some really shoddy technical work, that at times is at the levels of a home movie. Cheap stock thunder effects, tons of noticeable continuity errors, an obvious home camera that is carried by the camera operator most of the time, and a sound designer that thinks panning dialogue entirely to the left speaker is somehow a good idea. It looks and feels cheap and amateurish, even for a low budget production.In the end it's hard to even describe what happens in this movie, because it is just really an hour and a half of incredibly uncomfortable or ridiculous interviews with paper thin characters being interrogated by some sort of being claiming to be Jesus. Quite frankly, if it wasn't for the fact that Satan appears in the movie towards the end (named DeVille, because it's that sort of movie) I would have expected the big final twist to be that this is Satan pretending to be Jesus or something.At the end of the day, the movie is terrible not because it is Christian, but because it's a movie that tries to scare non believers and people like me, who find themselves caught between camps, to repent. Hell, the film itself states this outright. As such, it not only ends up as an absolutely dreadful viewing experience (unless you riff it the entire time), but also a disservice to religion as a whole. It unknowingly paints Christianity as an evil force that is only marginally better than the alleged damnation you would face otherwise, rather than the positive force in somebody's life it's intended to be.The only positive thing I have to say about this is that it is at least not A Little Piece of Heaven with Kirk Cameron.

kems-1 What a bad, bad movie... I am somewhat religious, don't bother too much about it, but love watching movies about the issues regarding religion.Not this one though... The storyline is actually fine, Jesus trying to convince a non-believer and others stepping off the right path, but the acting itself is so bad that it hurt my eyes and ears.The characters are weak, and while some of them are meant to portray a weak character, the acting itself is just so weak and without real passion and conviction. This movie is missing impact to a very large degree. It is quite like hearing one of these Christian rock groups that cannot rock, but only pop or more bland than that.And it seems rather much like propaganda, when it is that weak on the acting part. I loved The Passion Of The Christ and The Last Temptation Of Christ, along with more colorful movies such as Constantine, but The Encounter is a stale and bland tale, although it is quite good at addressing what it's all about.

Theo Robertson A dark stormy night . Rain and landslides have blocked a remote country road and a Highway patrolman informs drivers they have a long about detour . The only building in the area is a diner and a handful of drivers stop and ask for something to eat and drink . The person serving at the diner is called Jesus and informs them he can get them something to eat but the only drinks he can serve is water Yet another Christian propaganda film made because if you make enough eccelestical movies that will somehow prove there is a God and an afterlife . This isn't as bad as the poisonous bile that was THE MOMENT AFTER and its sequel but is far more minimalist and therefore tedious featuring effectively one set and a handful of not very good actors , it's no less simplistic than any other Christian movie pushing an agenda One internal argument Christians wrestle with is " If God exists then why does he allow bad things to happen ? " The whole function of THE ENCOUNTER is to gather a handful of literary devices and stick them in a setting where the argument can take place . There's no subtlety or sophistication to any of this . The audience are asked to literally believe this bloke behind the counter is the Biblical Jesus and the literary devices are used as a sounding board to ask " Well Jesus something bad is happening in my life so please explain to me why are you being so cruel ? " . There is no God so that will answer a few searching questions . Where I'll give this film some small credit and if I was present in this diner I'd be asking " Why do you allow so many atrocities to take place in your name ? " and this is effectively what one of the sounding boards ask and Jesus replies that he doesn't ask for actions like abortion clinics to be bombed . Fair enough and scripture doesn't ask for that but when asked about genocide against Canaanites which does appear in the Old Testament Jesus gets out of this by a rambling reply that he's a God of love . Yeah we've all heard about these priests wanting to share their love with choirboys haven't we ? The other arguments don't stand up to any scrutiny and it's amazing what you can get away with if you constantly say " God loves you " to an uncritical audience . One thing Jesus as seen here needs educating on is the selfish nature of human beings . We're merely vessels to carry our DNA in order to keep the species going . If you're on a sinking ship and you grab the only lifejacket letting someone else drown you're committing a selfish act but at the same time by surviving as an individual you're potentially helping the species to survive . We have an inbuilt survival instinct hence the amoral aspect of human nature . Likewise our obsession with sex . All this is easily explained - we're carriers of DNA , and a belief in God is merely simply down to cultural conditioning

mike-ryan455 The Encounter is a nice piece of independent Christian cinema. It doesn't star Sir Lawrence Olivier or boast a cast of thousands. The low budget production values clearly show but they don't distract. The cast is not sterling and the script could have used another draft or two. Still, the movie was decent and thoughtful and generally enjoyable.There isn't any violence or obscenity or sex in it. That's a welcome relief these days. You can actually sit down and watch it with the kids and not cringe.If you like a quiet Christian movie that will leave you feeling good and slightly more humble, this should fit the bill nicely.