Six: The Mark Unleashed
After the somewhat scathing replies I got regarding my review of the Christian film, Gone, I am somewhat reluctant to step up to the plate again. Regardless (or irregardless if you want to annoy people), I will now attempt to convey my thoughts on a film I viewed today.
Six: The Mark Unleashed is a futuristic end-times thriller focusing on the coming one-world government and the ubiquitous “mark of the beast” which must be taken in order to live in society. Those who take the mark become drones of “The Community”. Those who do not are hunted down, imprisoned, and given an opportunity to cooperate, lest they be tortured and beheaded. Naturally, the worst consequences are saved for those who claim Christ as their Savior.
Six stars Stephen Baldwin (the youngest of the Baldwin brothers), David White, Kevin Downes, Eric Roberts and Brad Heller. Baldwin became a Christian recently and he is involved in several ministry-related projects. Can you imagine what holidays must be like at the Baldwin household, especially with ultra-left brother Alec? Anyhow, I digress.
I don’t want to give away the plot, though it is rather thin. You’ve got some bad guys. You’ve got some good guys. Some of the bad guys get worse. Some get better. There is a lot of end-time dialogue, most of it quite cliched. There is some decent acting. As prisoner Luke, Baldwin is on death-row for professing belief in Christ and refusing to take the mark. He handles the role well, despite the lack of a good screenplay.
David White has made several films of this nature and it was good to see him as an anti-hero for a change. Usually he is the guy that ends up getting saved.
Anyhow, let me get to the rant part of my commentary, with bullet-points to make your reading experience more enjoyable. Here are some lessons I learned from viewing Six: The Mark Unleashed
Prisoner 1: You seem depressed.
Prisoner 2: I usually get depressed when I am getting ready to be beheaded
In all honesty, Six wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t good. I enjoyed Stephen Baldwin much more as the foul-mouthed Michael McManus in The Usual Suspects. The DVD does have a few extras on it, such as a blooper reel. I think bloopers should be standard on every DVD. 😉
I would like to see Christian filmmakers deal more with everyday life issues and explore how a real faith in Christ plays into those issues. The end-times script is a dead horse. Can we stop beating it, please?
Dear Joel,
While all are certainly entitled to their own unique opinions that does not automatically make them correct. I pray for you and that you might see the truth and the light. If you profess any faith at all openly or privately I suggest you rethink what you are professing. You wrote this review not in a sense of objectivity. You wrote this with all the condescension and lip curled “Billy Idol-esque” disdain and hate that shines through clearly in spite of how you half-tried covering it. I pose question to you being that if you claim any faith walk with the Lord why would you be so negative or ugly? Were you afraid your “cool buddies” in Hollywood may see that and you’d be embarrassed? Remember that while those such as yourself may try to say there is no God or that we are a “bunch of lunies” who should cut out this nonsense, I say to that if there is no God when I die and pass then at least I have done no harm to anyone…BUT playing the Devil’s advocate or the other side of the coin I reply “What IF THERE IS and all in the BIBLE IS TRUE? What if there is Hell? What if there is Heaven? What if there are fallen spirits? Any many more I could ask…what are you going to do at that time when it really is too late? I wonder what sort of review you will write then?
The biggest lie of all and most clever, too, I must admit is how Satan got the majority of the world to think there is no God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Angelic Host, Satan, Demonic Host, etc. Many all through the centuries have said they don’t believe in God or the Devil and all that implies and entails. I say to them all in past, present and future times that is okay if you don’t BUT that does not alter the fact that both factions believe in you.
For all human certainties we are willing to believe in the oddest and strangest of things, but we refuse to let in the one thing that makes life worth living. To stop taking yourself to such highly edified heights and make others the focus to help them is one of the greatest joys in the world. I know God is real. I know the Devil is real, too. You will say I am crazy and a fanatic…I say thank you to that because it is true. I have seen things I can’t explain that is not in the normal realm of existing. I have seen the light and the dark forces; either you believe or you do not. No one makes you nor wants you to. Satan wants to hurt and tear asunder that which God ordained righteous and man should not put so much on ourselves personal worth in platitudes encompassing that Satan wants us. It is true that he does want us and anything God created to be perverted, but it has NOTHING to do with Satan’s need for companionship or wanting company. The root cause is that he still to this day and until the end of days will strive with one goal in mind-drag enough souls into that cesspool he will be bound into and chained for a thousand years and eventually touching the flames themselves. He wants this to be designed to harm God but he can’t. But, in the meanwhile he does cause misinformation and lies to be told causing many to doubt; some even renounce their faith.
And, you know I do not serve or love God because I am supposed to do it. I don’t do it because I am afraid of what will happen if I don’t. It makes sense to me and feels right. Worship of God, Messiah, and the Holy Spirit is a blessing that just goes to the core of my being and I know it is correct as a decision. I hope you one day can do this, but time is short. I don’t know when, where, or how it will happen other than that which is written all in the Scriptures and caution all not to let hearts be troubled or grieved. What will be will be. Nothing can or will change that. The only thing that can change is what side you choose to be on; just assuredly you can begin on one and switch to the other, but choose wisely. There will come a time in the world that the option to change your mind, politics, and side will be allowed. I pray that you, dear Joel, have made your peace with your Creator and Father. I pray you spared any torment and not to be deceived by the plots and plans that yet have to be unleashed upon this world. I don’t deny that I am terrified momentarily by the prospect, but I try to remember that I am the daughter of God, child of Christ, taught of the Holy Spirit, and part of the Body of Christ. I am a proudly humble woman walking the world to share the news with other peoples unreached and my mission field is everywhere I am. I can then quieten my heart that I be not afraid for fear is not of the Lord. It is from the Enemy.
I beseech you, Joel, to think how you speak to and of the followers of God. He will tolerate only so much and making fun or persecution of those that love God will profit you nothing and one day you will have to answer for the crimes you committed. Others will have to also. There is a day of reckoning coming with such utter force and finality that nothing like it has been witnessed before in the history of the world or man. Think before you open your mind to put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper. Think how hurtful you are being to others and how it possibly could harm a person’s faith with God.
For you to say that a dead horse has been beaten to death with the talk about the end of days is blasphemous. That is same as saying God is dead and HE MOST CERTAINLY IS NOT. I urge you to understand and truly process what I am about to say because it is VERY IMPORTANT: YOU JOEL will be held accountable for all you have written or commented upon in realms of this sort. Judgment will be rendered and carried out by God made worse on the counts of causing others to lose hope, faith, trust in God. If you cause others to stumble for any reason when they are trying valiantly to live righteously then it will be all the worse for you because you will have had power in that you could have made a positive difference.
Joel, my friend, my brother in humanity and hopefully the Body of Christ, I ask you to give your heart and soul over to Christ. I beg you do so before another minute goes by because you are not promised the next second. You can die at any moment and be totally lost without any way to get to Christ. Looking cool in Hollywood or with your literary colleagues is not worth it in the end; do you really want to find out the hard way? If this was a lie then why have millions of people all over the world and cultures speak of this in some fashion? What about those who have had near death experiences? I don’t care what others say because for my reasoning there have been many, many, many more to outweigh rebuttals of them not existing-that the experience is drug related or other modes. The maority say the same things with all sorts of people who are Christians. I just don’t think it is a risk worth taking and if this helps people betterlive, then why oppose it? But, acting as you have in this column review of the film and the whole movement of Christianity shows where your thoughts lie presently. I challenge you to step out and dare to be different in that you become a born-again Christian. I know you cannot offer any proof that there is not a God, Christ or Holy Spirit. When you do please let me know won’t you? I should ever so much be interested in that study proving that…we are warned of false teachers, false lovers, false preachers, etc. of the Lord in the end days.
Joel do you really and truly want to be among those counted as having denied Christ and who will perish in fire for eternity? Do you want to be separated from God? Or, had you rather party with the Devil because of what a fun guy he is? I already know my choice but yous is still open if it has not been made.
Earlier I said it seemed like you had no faith or one that was of such inconsequential quality by how you spoke purposely and purposefully condescendingly on this film; I stand by that and if I am wrong then I offer deepest apologies. Forgive my confusion in this because Christ told us that we’d know a tree according to the fruit it bore. The fruit of your tree is suspect. I pray I am wrong and will humbly ask your forgiveness if this is so….but I don’t think I am.
You may want to begin asking the big questions and working them out. If not you will have a long and lonely road ahead of you in this life and the afterlife, too. Good luck and may the Lord bless you today and always.