Extremedays

I saw Extreme Days with my church group last night and had a mixed opinion of it. I did enjoy it, and it was entertaining, but there was definitely an element that only kids in a church group would get. For example, when one character notes among the girl's qualities, "She's smart, she prays like, 100 times a day, she's President of student body", all the kids heads nodded as they said to themselves, "Oh, that's how they'll tie in the Christian element." It is bothersome that there is always a hidden agenda in movies like this. Christians can produce quality cinematic art, but too often the pieces are focused on conversion, and the subtler it gets the more obvious and offensive it becomes. The plot twists ("curveballs" in the trip, as the movie calls them) were interesting and helped carry the story around, and the extreme sports and music were good, but it was too obviously low-budget and intended to appeal to and convert young teenagers.

The movie makers need to come to the realization that if they want a movie to appeal to the youth of this generation, the stereotypes of gen-Xers do not identify with our generation and they need new ideas, not "another teen movie".