God's back -- and Pure Flix has got him! Gabriel Sabloff's film, REVELATION ROAD: THE BEGINNING OF THE END, hits DVD

TrustMovies watching a Christian movie? Yes, indeed. He tries to do this at least once yearly, just to note what those proselytizing folk of a certain faith are up to, film-wise. Whether it's something like Alleged (which attempts, poorly, to counter Darwinism) or What If... (which tells, and pretty well, a Christian-themed fairy-tale/fantasy), it is interesting, if generally depressing, to watch faith trump reality time and again with nary a nod to actual history, science (which, unlike "faith" and those "scriptures," grows and changes over time), psychology or for that matter poor, tired humanity itself.

This year's watch is a little movie with a very long title -- REVELATION ROAD: THE BEGINNING OF THE END -- far too lengthy to fit most movie marquees, so I am guessing that it must be god's will that it's going straight to DVD (and Blu-ray soon after). Note to film buffs: Do not mix this one up with either Reservation Road or Revolutionary Road, or you'll be in for a big surprise.

Directed, co-written and edited by Gabriel Sabloff, shown above, and starring David A.R. White (below, who is evidently Christian film's current go-to guy for leading roles) and Brian Bosworth, the former football player and short-time movie action star, who now seems to have graduated into villain roles (which, if this film is any indication, prove a better fit than did his attempts at playing hero during the 1990s).

Mr. Sabloff brings a professional eye to the visuals and gets decent performances from his actors. He hasn't staged the film's biggest action/gunfight scene very well, however, so that we don't at all believe that the threesome of two good guys and a gal could possibly survive the onslaught from a biker gang headed by Bosworth (shown sneering below).

This scene, which takes place at a roadside gas station/
convenience store, introduces us to the "family" that takes in the character Mr. White portrays, a man who clearly has been some kind of assassin or government operative and is now trying to live down his past. In these movies, the best way to do that, of course, is to become a Christian, so the store owner, played by the always capable Ray Wise (below, who often wipes the floor with the actors who surround him) goes into "conversion" mode.

By this point you will have noticed that rather a lot of bizarre storm and lightning effects have dotted the screen periodically, indicating, perhaps, god's wrath. (Or perhaps his goodness: He's so damned inscrutable, that god. Sometimes I think he must be, well, Asian!). All this leads to -- that's right -- The Rapture, a staple of these Christian films. As shown here, though it doesn't hold a candle to the version in the movie of that same name by Michael Tolkin, it still has its charms.

As does this entire, silly little film -- which will "convert-some-more" the already converted and leave the rest of us to chuckle and/or snicker, depending on our tolerance for fantasy passing itself off as religion. Or is it the reverse? In any case, those who enjoy this sort of thing will have more in store, as the finale leaves the door wide open for a sequel (or three) -- in which Logan White (pictured below), the lady who plays Bosworth's naughty-but-nice daughter, is sure to have more to do.

Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End, from Pure Flix, hits the street on DVD this Tuesday, March 12, with a Blu-ray version expected the month following on April 16.