Fireproof (2008)

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 9/22/08 at 1:56pm

Kirk Cameron is back on the big screen! I can't believe that no-talented hack from "Growing Pains" is still acting. Doesn't he have savages to baptize in some small, third world country???

This movie, from the trailer, looks terrible. Kirk Cameron plays a firemen and his marriage is falling apart. There's something stupid about him saving his partner, but not his marriage.

The poster/logo looks stupid.



Just thought I'd share.
Fireproof trailer

[The Ghost of Kringas]

Posted: 9/22/08 at 9:35pm

I just saw a commercial for this and almost fell out of my chair when I realized it was going to be shown at honest-to-god movie theaters.

I bet he dies at the end.

[The Ghost of Kringas]

Posted: 9/22/08 at 9:39pm

The blog entry about the movie is grotesquely beautiful.

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 9/22/08 at 9:54pm

He'll die after fixing his straight, Christian marriage. That way, it's "ironic".

My friend and I bought thought it was a terrible TV movie, but it's a real movie?!

I hope it bombs. That way, Kirk can do what he loves best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of90cKxSeuw

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 11:06am

It opened fourth at the box office this weekend. I'm not kidding.

[Q]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 11:12am

Marrying God and film-making . . .

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 11:13am

Sure is a lot of hatred for someone as innocuous as Kirk Cameron! A lot of hatred on these Boards.

Posted: 9/29/08 at 11:19am

Mari said...

Oooooooo...that movie looks good. A tear Jerker for sure. I don't want to wait until fall!!!
March 12, 2008 6:11 PM
CitrusMom said...

I know. I can't stop watching that trailer and no matter how many times I watch it, I cry every time. If it's anything like "Facing the Giants" it should be AWESOME. I can not wait to see this movie and what happens!!!
March 13, 2008 7:55 AM
Ana said...

I watched the trailer the other day. It looks so sad. I don't want to cry
March 15, 2008 8:21 PM
CitrusMom said...

It looks like it has some sad parts, but hopefully it ends great. Have you seen "Facing the Giant"? Everyone I've watched that movie with cries, but at the end it's SO GOOD... they're tears of joy.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 11:24am

I'm still disappointed in Kirk's "The Way of the Master" series. It was NOT the kind of movie I was expecting.

Posted: 9/29/08 at 11:24am

This reviewer loved it!
If you are one of the thousands of people who saw Fireproof when it opened this weekend, you have already formed an opinion about it. According to Fandango, 436 out of 630 reviews netted it a Must Go status.

I’m not a professional movie reviewer, but my husband and I, the couple we went with, and the overwhelming majority of people who were in the packed theater enjoyed it as well. The message - never leave your partner - came across loud and clear, and the light moments interjected by the neighbors and the fellow firefighters were quite humorous.

Yes, there is an overriding Christian theme and numerous referrals to the Love Dare, but anyone who knew anything about the move beforehand knew that going in. These themes are clear in every one of the trailers and advertisements that I’ve seen for this movie.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and will recommend it to anyone who is married or thinking about getting married. No, I will not trick them into seeing it as one angry Oh, No! reviewer noted happened to him. Evidently, his friends tried to use it as a tool to expose him to Christianity, and he was offended by that.

If you invite non-Christian friends, tell them the overriding themes of the movie. Don’t try to trick them. That will only serve to upset them and maybe turn them off even more if they are offended by the “trick.”

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 11:28am

"Ah mean, ah walked right back out to the box office and bought another ticket and went home. Because I want to support Kirk, y'all."

Yes, I'm mocking the accent. I'm tired of being polite.

[blueroses]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 11:29am

I hear Kirk and his buddies climb up a tree and rescue a Crocoduck! Fun for the whole family.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 1:04pm

You rock!

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 1:08pm

Amazingly, the Onion AV Club didn't like it

Reviewed by Scott Tobias
September 28th, 2008

In the history of marital discord in the movies, has there ever been a blander conflict than the one between firefighter Kirk Cameron and his goodly wife Erin Bethea in the dismal Christian-themed melodrama Fireproof? Granted, not every couple can shout boozy insults like George and Martha in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, but one with real problems—be it adultery, poverty, substance abuse, value systems, whatever—should be a minimum requirement. Basically, the problem with Cameron and Bethea's marriage is that he's pissed off because his wife actually expects something from him, like extending a little kindness to her or washing a dish every once in awhile. He's like a gardener who never supplies a drop of water to a plant, then rages petulantly when the plant wilts. And when Cameron gets in a rage, out comes the baseball bat.

Fireproof gets hung up in a lot of Promise Keepers hoo-hah about reaffirming marriage as a covenant with God rather than a contract filed at City Hall, but that's just a cover for two fundamental points about the movie: Cameron acts like a childish jerk, even in the reconciliation phase, and the underlying reason is that he—and the movie—hates women. When he consults his father (Harris Malcom) and his mother (Phyllis Malcom) about his failing marriage, he gets so enraged by her attempt to give advice that he kicks her out of the room and consults his father directly. Dad advises him to hold off on the divorce and gives him a book called "The Love Dare," a 40-day, baby steps program to win back his wife. Small gestures, like holding his tongue when Bethea makes him angry or doing something nice for her, eventually give way to more grandiose gestures until he presumably weakens her defenses.

As in most Christian narratives, the hero starts out agnostic and winds up embracing the Lord with full-on born-again fervor, but the absence of God has no evident bearing on what's wrong with this marriage. Had the film not included sequences of Cameron saving people in the line of duty—an occupation that's useful in supplying many cheesy metaphors—he would come off as an irredeemable villain, quick to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. (A scene where he wallops his computer—source of his obsession with boats and Internet pornography—with a bat is a marvel of unintentional hilarity.) The best he can do on Day 40+ is bring his ailing wife a damp cloth and a bag full of Chik-Fil-A. What a catch!

A.V. Club Rating: F

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 1:16pm

People only like this because it reaffirms their Christian belief.

I'll start worrying once Cameron/Fireproof is nominated for an Oscar.

Updated On: 9/29/08 at 01:16 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 1:17pm

It's so easy to poke holes in their Christian believes.

Posted: 9/29/08 at 2:29pm

Hmmmm. It might be worth $8 to see Kirk Cameron wrestle with internet pornography.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 4:16pm

A lot of hatred on these Boards.

Moulin Rouge

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 4:31pm

"A lot of hatred on these Boards. "

A lot of hatred in their "religion." James Dobson's Focus on the Family prominently plugged the film. The Baptist Press urged readers: "Get your church behind it. Mark the weekend of Sept. 26-28 on your calendar. And go see it."

The film must be avoided at all costs.

Updated On: 9/29/08 at 04:31 PM

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 6:20pm

Do you think this is true?

From the IMDB page:

"Kirk Cameron, a fundamentalist Christian evangelist, refuses to kiss any woman other than his wife under any circumstance, so to film a scene in which his character in Fireproof (200 kisses his wife, the filmmakers had to dress Cameron's real-life wife, Chelsea Noble, as the wife character (played throughout the rest of the movie by Erin Bethea) and shoot the kissing scene in shadow so the difference between Noble and Bethea would not be as evident onscreen."

Come on! It's calling acting!

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 6:34pm

Indeed it is

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 6:35pm

A lot of hatred on these Boards.

Moulin Rouge

BIG difference. I actually saw Moulin Rouge! Updated On: 9/29/08 at 06:35 PM

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 6:41pm

Kirk Cameron is mentally unbalanced. Has been for quite a long time. He needs to be institutionalized. Or, at the very least, removed from the public eye.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/29/08 at 6:52pm

I thought he had been.