Future Tense [1990] & Alibaba [2002]

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

We started the loosely conjoined Evangelism trilogy a few weeks ago with "Without Reservation" and tonight we finally continued with part two, "Future Tense." This short film focused on the rapture and one particularly religious college student's determination to save his family before that day, which will definitely happen in their lifetime. After doing some sick™ bike tricks, he goes to a recording booth to make a teary recording about how his family needs to find Jesus so they can join him in heaven during the rapture. We are then treated to a full scenario of the rapture where the distressed family tries to find the college student and his really little brother who have been saved. They watch a bunch of news pundits debating whether or not the rapture has happened. Then we go into the head of the college student who imagines the journey to heaven like being at an airport where he's the only one with a ticket to heaven (even though we all know heaven is reached via stairway). He tries to call his family over but his little brother is the only receptive one; probably because he's young enough to be influenced.

After that, we watched "Alibaba," an animated Indian movie with mid-90s graphics that tells the story of how Alibaba found a cave of treasures, bought a bunch of stuff, and got pursued by forty thieves. Someone might be tempted to call it an "Aladdin" rip-off, but there are not nearly enough comparisons to make it valid. The plot is thin and Alibaba himself is a really unlikable protagonist, but the details are wild. For one thing, the film is not in English but three or four songs in it are, and they are all so out of place. The forty thieves have a really weak rap they do whenever they are coming. There's a "Whole New World" rip off song that plays while Alibaba and his donkey float around on a rock, making us believe they are in love. The movie also has moments that feel a little out of place for a kid's movie. Alibaba's brother gets decapitated by the thieves and they put his head on a stick, and there is a scene with a dancer who has nipple tassels.  Overall, we got a few laughs, but India has made better films.

Spoon Rating: 3.5