I'm in Love with a Church Girl (2013) Directed by Steve Race

Mehhh, the movie isn't THAT bad but it's a pretty pointless one in my opinion.

Nothing original and very predictable from start to finish. In other words, why should you even ever bother to watch this movie? The answer is; Don't. It really isn't a very good, convincing or heartfelt movie that is bringing any good entertainment and has some nice uplifting messages and a good moral to it. Because it's all so very predictable, none of the messages ever come across as anything convincing and never work out as anything realistic enough.

The movie itself is really to blame for this. It messes up some very simple and basic stuff, within its already very simple and basic story. So I guess this is supposed to be a movie about redemption and change through faith but the problem with the story is that its main character already was a redeemed and changed man, way before he 'met' God and his other new big love; 'church girl' Vanessa. Sure, the Ja Rule character (yo-yo-YO!) once was a punk and high level drug dealer once but when we are first introduced to him he's already a changed man, who has gone legit. Becoming religious had absolutely nothing to do with this! So how does religion change and affects and changes the Ja Rule's character life and personality? Well, it mostly just makes his mother in law happy, which also makes her accept him as the new boyfriend of her dear, sweet, good church going daughter but aside from that; I really don't know.

If you truly want to become serious and critical of things, you can even say that this movie promotes a life of sin. It makes no secret about it that the Ja Rule characters once was a big time drug dealer and you don't become a big time drug dealer by being a perfect gentleman, so to speak. But it's never an issue for the movie. After all, he accepted God in his heart, so all is forgiven now! Basically it's telling you; you can lie, you can steal, you can use violence, you can have sex out of marriage, drink and do all the drugs you want to, as long as you accept God afterward that's all fine and no problem. It also teaches you that crime DOES pay. After all, the Ja Rule character is living in an insanely large house with seven bedrooms, driving big expensive cars and whatnot, all paid with criminal earnings obviously. And while the feds and IRS are all after him, like a bunch of bad and evil mustache twirling James Bond-villains, he never gets caught and the movie wants you to be happy about this as well. Since after all, he believes in God now, so he's a good boy who deserves to live like a millionaire, while his old homies, who were nothing but his henchmen and aren't believers by the way, do have to go to jail (Oops! Spoilerrrrrr) and presumably loose everything.

But OK, that's perhaps all reading a bit too much into things. After all, this never becomes a very deep or thought provoking movie, so why should you take things so seriously. But really, there are plenty of other problems with this movie as well.

The acting is perhaps the most obvious one. I have never liked Ja Rule, not as a singer and not as an actor. I do admit that he seems to have improved his acting since his atrocious "The Fast and the Furious" appearance but he still isn't really the type of actor you should get to play a lead role. But none of the actors impress much in this. This is of course also all really due to the script and the poor dialog in particular.

Also the romance falls flat, which is of course a pretty essential ingredient for a romantic movie, which in essence, this movie still is. I was never really feeling the love between Ja Rule and Adrienne Bailon and with all respect but it's hard to imaging that a tough guy like Ja Rule, who had plenty of girls already, would ever fall for such a good and plain girl like Adrienne Bailon. Her character really isn't a very sparkling one and I would even call her a bit of a bore. And no, it's not because she doesn't want sex but there just seems to be nothing fun or special at all about her. That goes for both her looks and personality.

Some people make it sound like this is the worst movie in the world but it really isn't though. Even as a faith-based movie this hardly is the worst thing that I have ever seen. It isn't exactly a very effective or original movie but it at least isn't as laughable or as annoying as some other religious movies, that attempt to send out nothing but positive messages and praise the Lord and spread the word but without really knowing how. Most of the these movies always seem aimless to me and I also never really understand who they are made for exactly. That's also the case with this movie and I therefor also can't recommend it to anyone but it isn't the train-wreck you perhaps would expect it to be.

4/10

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