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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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Man on Wire
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Slumdog Millionaire
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Momma's Man
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Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
73
Frost/Nixon
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
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Hunger
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Black Balloon, The
67
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Appaloosa
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Eden
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59
We Are Wizards
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55
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55
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54
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51
Morning Light
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34
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34
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31
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28
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27
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xx
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xx
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Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Jesus Camp
Magnolia Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some discussions of mature subject matter
Starring
Becky Fischer,
and
Mike Papantonio
A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement. This documentary, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors of the critically acclaimed "The Boys of Baraka," follows Levi, Rachael, and Tory to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids on Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in "God's army." (Magnolia Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Heidi Ewing
Rachel Grady
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 23, 2007
Theatrical: September 22, 2006
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
84 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
TV Guide
Ken Fox
The fact that Pastor Fischer would probably consider the film an accurate portrayal of her mission may be the most terrifying thing of all.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Scott Brown
As a documentary, Jesus Camp could lose its haunted-house score and contrapuntal Air America refrains and still deliver its message: that, here and elsewhere, fundamentalism is no longer content with a separate peace. It wants the meat.

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
It makes an unsettling case that America is fast becoming the thing it professes to hate.

83
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
This team has succeeded at making a film that opens a subculture without programming our responses to it.

80
Empire
Owen Williams
Funny, sad and horrifying. Anti-fundamentalist rather than anti-Christian, this deserves to preach to more than just the converted.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marrit Ingman
It's a call to arms, a call to pick sides in the deepening cultural, political, and spiritual schism between the two Americas of the 21st century.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Neva Chonin
At heart, all documentaries aim to be important films. Few actually pull it off. Minor flaws and all, Jesus Camp is among the year's most important films, if only because it forces us to learn about an America we seldom see and seldom want to see.

75
Chicago Tribune
Jessica Reaves
What Ewing and Grady have accomplished here is remarkable--capturing the visceral humanity, desire and unflagging political will of a religious movement.

75
Premiere
Sara Brady
Doesn't function particularly well as a documentary; it lacks a strong editorial point of view and doesn't really comment on the evangelical movement so much as it just portrays a selection of people and their views.

75
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
What most interests the directors is the way young minds are shaped by adults with clear moral and political agendas.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Jesus Camp is not a "hatchet job." The filmmakers did not go in with an anti-Christian agenda and use selective editing to prove their point.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
I felt depressed when I realized all 87 minutes had passed without one word about forgiving sin or reaching out to the image of God in neighbors who don't think as you do.

75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
It's almost impossible not to respond emotionally to this fascinating, sobering and all-too-brief exploration of the politicized religious right and its hopes, dreams and power.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Cinematic dynamite.

70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Jesus Camp doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive survey of the charismatic-evangelical phenomenon. It offers no history or sociology and only scattered statistics about its growth. It analyzes the political agenda only glancingly, centering on abortion but not on homosexuality or other items.

70
The Hollywood Reporter
Sheri Linden
A fascinating glimpse of kids' role in the evangelical movement's political agenda.

70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Whether you are a religious, churchgoing person or not, if you are the least bit liberal or tolerant in your world view, this has got to be one of the most unnerving films of the year.

63
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
If we are in the midst of a culture war, as many people proclaim in Jesus Camp, then the left should be concerned. The right's Christian soldiers appear to be extremely well trained.

60
Film Threat
KJ Doughton
Jesus Camp works nicely as a time-capsule document confirming the impact -- and popularity -- of American evangelism.

60
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Often funny (just listen to Becky fulminate against Harry Potter), but it's also a scary.

60
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
A frightening, infuriating, yet profoundly compassionate documentary about the indoctrination of children by the Evangelical right.

58
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Why do Ewing and Grady feel the need to tip their hand by underscoring it all with creepy ambient music or by using Air America host Mike Papantonio as a Greek Chorus expressing the voice of reason?

58
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
By gilding the lily so shamelessly, Ewing and Grady guarantee they'll preach only to the converted.

50
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
It's a glimpse into a world most secular, metropolitan liberals never see, and it's likely to induce howls of both terror and hilarity from big-city audiences.

50
Variety
Ronnie Scheib
May shock many viewers, especially political liberals.

50
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Hamstrung by its polemics.

30
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
A snapshot, to be sure, but scattershot as well.
30
Village Voice
Rob Nelson
The doc these kids would make with flea market camcorders couldn't possibly be as ugly as this absurdly hypocritical critique of the far right's role in escalating the culture war. The classier indoctrination to which Gap-shopping urban Democrats subject their kids might look damn spooky, too, but it probably wouldn't sell.


The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
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