Salvation Boulevard

A good dark comedy but I have to remember just because the cast is great doesn't mean the movie will be. I say B-
"I am the anointed servant of God and I tell you to be silent!" Deadhead turned born-again-Christian Carl (Kinnear) is friends with the pastor of his local mega-church Dan Day (Brosnan) and is invited to accompany him to scientist Dr. Paul Blaylock's (Harris) house for a discussion. When a terrible accident happens Carl finds himself fingered in the incident and does everything he can to prove he is innocent. Things aren't always easy though. Having never seen a preview for this I was excited for this based off the cast alone. While I will say this is a good movie and a very dark comedy I was a little disappointed. The main flaw this had was that the movie had a good idea but had only ten minutes of it. There was a lot of repeating going on and a few scenes that seemed like they were only put in to increase the running time. I have to say that Brosnan and Kinnear played very similar parts to the ones they played in "The Matador" (which is a better movie) but it seems to fit them. It...

A lot of FUN!
Purchased this flic for $1.99 on sale not knowing what to expect. While watching the opening credits I saw Marisa Tomei was in it (I love her). Was very pleasantly suprized by the movie and the plot, this is not a movie for the hard core "reborn" christian audience as it pokes fun at the whole televangalist world. Religious insanity is the theme and it is done amazingly well and is very, very funny. Cannot say much more without being a spoiler but as they used to say in the Life cereal commercials "try it you will like it".

Satirical broad strokes get at something important.
Watching Salvation Boulevard, I realized that satire was never going to be the funniest form of comedy. Ever since Swift penned A Modest Proposal, whatever laughs there are in these dark artistic works have been nervous and mixed with horror and revulsion.

So it is with "Salvation Boulevard," not the darkest comedy I've ever seen, but plenty dark, disturbing, and sometimes violent. But in the service of deflating piety, hypocrisy, and egomania, the atmosphere feels entirely appropriate.

The movie starts with a debate between Pastor Dan Day (Pierce Brosnan) and atheist Peter Blaylock (Ed Harris). Having watched similar debates between various clerics and religious apologists and the likes Richard Dawkins and the late, great Christopher Hitchens, the script and direction gets the tone mostly right and mines the hubris and false confidence (of both parties) for laughs. The scene also serves...

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