from Film Forum, 10/04/01While the church-funded film Megiddo: The Omega Code 2foretells the apocalypse for mostly-Christian audiences across the country, another church-funded film opened with a very different story. Extreme Days follows a group of young people on a high-spirited road trip that stops along the way for a variety of extreme sports.
Michael Elliott was surprised that the movie was not a packaged sermon: "What makes Extreme Days somewhat unique is the fact that it is being distributed by Providence Films, a group specializing in entertainment for the Christian market. There's no 'end times' story here. No apocalyptic struggle between the forces of good and evil. There's not even any major proselytizing going on as the characters' faith in God is only directly mentioned a few times." Still, he describes it as "an uneven production at best. There are scenes that work very well, such as the diner 'spoons' challenge between Jessie and Bryan. And then there are scenes that don't work very well, such as the kung-fu spoof between two groups vying for the same campsite. Showing that bad taste knows no religious boundaries, director Hannah includes an extraneous scene wherein the boys demonstrate their level of maturity by igniting their own flatulence." Conclusion? It's "a somewhat innocuous film offering some pretty cool sports footage."
Movieguide calls it "a fun, fairly unstructured movie which looks better than many of the movies on the Disney Channel. It has strong moral messages and positive references to prayer and God. It clearly has a Christian sensibility and worldview."
Focus on the Family's Bob Waliszewski says, "This film, while containing a few nuggets of truth, is really more about having good clean fun. And in today's climate, the idea that it's possible to have good clean fun is a message teens need to hear more often."
