The Masked Saint [2016]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]

We are continuing to fail in our efforts to acquire "The Unexpected Bar Mitzvah" but we haven't given up hope entirely. Today we had to default to this film after an attempt to watch a different film about Christian time travelers fell through, but this was a solid back up. "The Masked Saint" is based on a true story of a wrestler who's also a preacher and how he tried to turn around a failing church in the Midwest while also beating up dudes on the side. This movie really wants you to know that Jesus and going around punching people are not mutually exclusive and that somehow they can come together for the greater good . . . or something. The message isn't totally clear.

Our main character, whose name I don't remember so I'm just going to call him The Masked Saint, even though that makes him sound both conceited and dead, is a wrestler who gets very injured during a fight with his nemesis who doesn't play by the rules, The Reaper. He takes this as a sign to retire and moves to a nowhere town to try to save the church there. After going door to door and having everyone very reasonably shut him out and a failure of a speech where he said 'faith' twenty times, things start to turn around when he starts sticking up for people like the town battered housewife and the town prostitute. With the help of a black lady lifted from the Stephen King "Magical Black Person" handbook, he remembers his former glory as The Masked Saint and uses this as inspiration for both his church and a side career of vigilante justice. This alienates him from his family and congregation, I guess because fighting bad guys leaves little time for writing sermons. He redeems himself with a cage match against The Reaper where the fighting is planned and televised and therefore more appropriate than stopping criminals. Everyone suddenly likes him again. I'm not totally sure this movie had an arc of any sort; people just feels things and then they don't. 

Overall this movie is pretty amusing. It's got a decent production value and the acting is mostly earnest and not comically exaggerated or poor but the weak writing and the odd premise make for so many strange moments that you will definitely laugh. 

Quotes:

Robber: "Who are you?"
Saint: "The good guy!" *punches him in the face*

Spoon Rating: 5