The Shift
Kevin travels across worlds to reunite with the love of his life, Molly. When a mysterious individual known only as The Benefactor threatens Kevin’s survival, he fights to return to the world he knows and the woman he loves.
- Released:
- Runtime: 115 minutes
- Genre: Fantasy, Thrillers
- Stars: Sean Astin, Neal McDonough, Elizabeth Tabish, Jason Marsden, Paras Patel, Emily Rose, Nolan North, Kristoffer Polaha, Rose Reid, John Billingsley, Jordan Walker Ross
- Director: Brock Heasley
Comments
- payday-20919 - 21 June 2024
A bit slow, but not bad at all.
Given the budget and where it's coming from, this was never going to be an action-packed, special-effects heavy blockbuster style movie with hyperactive car chases and big explosions and snappy one-liners, but I appreciate it for what it is, and I think it's heart is in the right place: a low-key, sincere and well-meaning Christian allegory told through science fiction or urban fantasy.
The worst thing I could say about it is that it's a bit slowly-paced and low-budgeted for a modern sci-fi movie, and probably not likely to hold the attention of anyone raised on "mainstream" blockbuster fair like the rash of recent superhero movies. This is about the only reason I couldn't rate it an 8/10, but it's certainly much better than some of the other reviews make it out to be. (If you're unsure about whether the slow pace and low budget might put you off of the movie, I'd compare the pacing, production values, and such to the sort of thing you might have seen on a typical made-for-TV movie of the '70s or '80s, updated with a little CGI: if a classic episode of 'The Twilight Zone' seems a bit too talky and slow for you, you probably won't like this movie much better.)
There's a little mild violence here and there (though not a whole lot more so than you'd have typically seen on television about 50 years ago), and no adult language or nudity, which is a very nice change of pace. I'm not sure how well a movie like this will fly with younger audiences with shorter attention spans, but it's family-friendly enough.
It never struck me as "preachy" - the religious content is limited to an allegory on the story of Job with, a few Bible quotes on title cards between the acts of the story, a religious symbol or two, an unobtrusive use of a song, and the direct implication of divine and satanic intervention into the movie's setting - your mileage may vary, but to me is seems like it's not really the sort of thing that should be off-putting to a non-Christian audience: I might hesitate to recommend it to anyone who is easily "triggered" by this sort of material, but on paper, I see no reason that any general audience for material of the sort you'd find in, say, a typical classic 'Twilight Zone' story couldn't enjoy this movie. (Come to think of it, it might be interesting to see these folks try their hand at a fantasy/sci-fi anthology series of that sort, dedicated to this sort of allegorical storytelling!)
Personally, I found the Christian angle quite refreshing: with "mainstream" film-making being fairly heavily front-loaded with a very specific and very repetitive anti-Christian, anti-traditional, anti-nuclear-family formula, it's kind of nice to see something a little different. I would like to think that with a little more experience, Christian film-makers can find a solid, competitive niche in an otherwise heavily secular/New Age film industry that has been leaving more and more room for competition, and new ideas.
As for other aspects of the movie, the story is solid, and I never found the music, sound, lighting, effects, or acting off-putting in any way: it looks to me like everyone involved put their best into the production within the limits of the budget and the experience of the production team, and I can't really find anything to complain about in these aspects of the film.
I wish the studio, producers, director, cast, and crew well, and hope to see more movies like this from them in the future, with enough success to compete with the more cynical and shallow fare that the movie industry usually brings us: this isn't (yet) the sort of well-oiled, experienced, sophisticated movie-making machine that would be typical of "mainstream" Hollywood, but this isn't a bad effort at all.
In short, it might be a bit slow for audiences accustomed to something a bit faster, louder, gorier, sexier, and more over-the-top, and some members of the audience might be completely put off by any Christian content at all, but it's not a bad little movie, and I think it shows promise for what Christian film-makers could do with just a little more experience and resources. I found the combination of Christian film-making in the sci-fi/fantasy genre refreshing for injecting a point of view we don't see in these sorts of movies very often, I liked that that it was both wholesome and not at all preachy, and I look forward to seeing more from the folks involved in this movie in the future. - IAM4UK-2 - 3 May 2024
Allegory in an Unusual Package
Neal McDonough is ferocious at times, and insincerely charming at others. Given the role he's playing, that's on-target. The man has classic Hollywood looks and charisma, but never fit in to the Hollywood "scene," so he took a role like this and it works well.
Sean Astin is his usual likeable self, and that's very important for his character in relation to the protagonist. When something happens to their relationship, it hurts, because you have affinity for Sean.
As for the protagonist, Kristoffer Polaha plays a Wall Street guy who loses everything (it's supposed to reflect Job, but only superficially does) and then finds himself in an inexplicable predicament. He has to carry most of the narrative, and does a commendable job.
Liz Tabish is a favorite actress among fans of Angel Studios (she's Mary Magdalene in "The Chosen"), and she's lovely and charming in her brief appearance in this movie.
The production values are good, even with limited budget. The storytelling is handled competently, but many will find the actual story confusing. I followed it enough to enjoy it.
