Reaction & Review | I'm Not Ashamed

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a Christian drama from 2016. That movie is "I'm Not Ashamed".

Now, before I get into this movie, I do need to stress my own personal beliefs, when it comes to religion. And I'll be up and honest when I say that I am not a very religious person. I did use to go to church back when I was a kid, but I slowly grew out of it, because I was mostly bored throughout it anytime that I would have to attend services. And I never really went back to it since. Now I am not going to shame anyone's religious beliefs, because everyone has their own beliefs on what they believe in. It's just not for me, personally.

Now with all said, why exactly am I covering a movie that has something to do with Christianity? Well, there is a particular reason, which I'll get to in a moment. But when it comes to these kinds of movies, I wanted to avoid certain obvious picks. A most popular choice would be the "God's Not Dead" series. I absolutely refuse to watch those movies, because I remember seeing a trailer for the first one, and it was just straight-up 100% propaganda. And I sincerely doubt that the sequels are gonna be any better. Hell, the very fact that this series has, at least, 3 sequels, plus a fifth movie that's in production, makes me question on who's demanding these sorts of movies?

But anyway, setting aside a film series that I'm never going to watch, let's get into the reason why I wanted to cover this movie. And really, it has to do with the film's really strange premise. You see, this movie's based on a true story centered around the Columbine High School mass shooting that happened in Columbine, Colorado in 1999, where at least 10 students were murdered, and many others were heavily injured. Now I am not going to go into massive detail about everything that happened back then, you can go look it up yourself if you really want to know the details.

Now one of those students that was killed during this horrific tragedy was someone named Rachel Scott, who is the main character for tonight's movie, and was also one of the very first students that ended up getting killed. And the strange thing about this, at least for me anyway, is the fact that, instead of making some sort of documentary about the Columbine events, they center it around this one character. And, just by looking at the cover for this movie, it makes me think that this movie might be heading in a direction where it's going to push it's Christian message centered around a real life tragedy.

Now, who knows? Maybe this movie might actually surprise me and be halfway decent. I have my doubts about that, considering that nobody has said a positive thing about this film. But again, I am somewhat curious if this movie will still be interesting or not. So the only way I'm gonna find out how good or bad this movie could possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "I'm Not Ashamed".

5 minutes later

So, let me see if I understand this. Because Rachel's father left their family, which was played out VERY vaguely, mind you, the mother tells Rachel and the rest of her children that they're going to pray every morning for what they need because their Dad's not around anymore to financially support them. So...are they required to pray EVERY morning for what they need? I get this is a christian movie and all, but sometimes, prayers don't always work. You kinda have to put in the work yourself if you want to financially survive. And again, I shouldn't be complaining about something like this in a christian movie, but the very fact that this film's barely started, and it's already unloading with it's christian message, is almost making me dread the rest of the movie. And it's almost 2 hours long, too. This might actually hurt, guys...

11 minutes later

Well, guys, I believe I can confirm this much, so far. This movie is boring as shit, the acting is terrible, and this music is even worse. You guys, thankfully, can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this music that tries to pass itself off as "christian rock music" is fucking terrible. I'm hoping, maybe, that this movie will actually do something interesting soon. But as of right now, I'm having strong doubts about that.

20 minutes later

Wow...so this movie just blatantly came out and said that the reason why the Columbine shooting happened was because our two male characters, who I'm going to assume are suppose to be the actual shooters, were playing an FPS game. And one of them joked about the fact that what they were playing would be what would happen if they were at Columbine. So in other words, those gosh-darned violent video games are the reason why the mass shooting happened in the first place. It's nice to see that this movie isn't insulting whatsoever. You can TOTALLY tell that just by the fairness and subjectiveness that this movie is giving out. Totally subtle, I assure you! God damn...that scene was just fucking painful as shit.

11 minutes later

OK, I kinda have a stupid question here that I know I'm not gonna get an answer to, but I want to ask this anyway. So one of these guys, who, again, I'm going to guess is suppose to be one of the shooters, is bitching about the fact that he hates the school, and he hates the people there...and what I want to know is where the fuck is this guy's parents? Are they not even, slightly, aware of what their kid is going through or doing? I mean, he's been drawing something, like, knives in his journal, AND the fact that his journal cover is covered with Nazi symbols makes me wonder if this kid's parents know of anything as to what's been going on with their child. Does he even HAVE any parents? I'm really curious now, and I have a funny feeling that this movie's not going to explore ANY of that whatsoever. At least it would make for a slightly more interesting story than what he have currently going on in this movie. Not 'good', mind you, but at least somewhat more interesting.

18 minutes later

Wait, so Rachel's crying in her car, after she found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with her best friend...even though, earlier on, her stepdad took the car keys away from her after he found a bottle of beer in the car. So basically, she shouldn't have access to her car, even though she was just in her car crying. You know, guys, I would like it if this movie were to be more consistent with it's continuity. Because then, it would show me that the filmmakers actually cared. But they didn't, and it makes a really bad movie just a little bit worse.

13 minutes later

OK, I kinda have another stupid question that I know I'm not gonna get an answer to, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. So, Rachel is publicly talking about who she is and why she's a christian. And she's doing all of this in her classroom...at a public school. Now this may just differ from school to school, but I could've sworn that anything related to God or Christianity wasn't supposed to be talked about during school. I know that the school that I went to did just that, and anything related to Christianity, such as a cross or something was supposed to be covered up. Granted, I understand that I'm trying to put logic into a movie that seems to be allergic to it, but it's just something that came to me, you know?

18 minutes later

Wow...this movie couldn't even get it's own history right. You guys know how I mentioned earlier that Rachel Scott was the first person that was killed during the Columbine shooting? Well, apparently, this movie forgot about that simple fact, because the person she was just talking to ended up getting killed first...and she's still alive! Barely, anyway. Jesus Christ, this movie is clinically fucking retarded that it almost hurts to watch! Thankfully, there's only about 16 minutes left in the movie. Don't know if they'll be any better or not, but I'm hoping that they'll make this movie faster to get through, because this movie's pacing is just horrible.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "I'm Not Ashamed". And thank God, this movie is fucking done. I'm gonna go ahead and shut this shit off...OK. Well, as I stated earlier, I'm not a very religious person, but if there IS some sort of deity out there, then I can give thanks to them that I never have to watch this horrifically offensive movie ever again. But now...I get to finally talk about this movie...oh fun!

Well, actually, before I start talking about this movie, let me start off by saying this. I don't claim to know Rachel Scott. I don't know what she was like in real life right before her death. I never knew who she was, because I was about 7 or 8 years old at the time that the mass shooting actually happened. Hell, I've never even heard about this incident until I started doing research on this movie. So overall, I didn't know a thing about her, and I'm never gonna really know what she was like in real life. But...I will say that, if I were her parents, and if I were viewing this movie from their set of lens, then I would be HORRIBLY offended by how my daughter was portrayed in this movie. And then, after all that, I would sue the filmmakers of this movie for character assassination. Because I sincerely doubt that my daughter would be this openly preachy about her being a christian. Now again, I want to make this perfectly known that I don't know what she was really like outside of this movie. It's very well possible that this may have been what she was really like, and it's very well possible that the filmmakers got her parents permission in order to make this film about her. HOWEVER, I am not here to judge Rachel Scott, as a person. I am here to judge how her character was written in this movie, and, apart from what I already mentioned, I am not going to make any comparisons with her real life counterpart. But, and again, this is just more of a personal thing, if it were my daughter, and THIS is how she was portrayed in this movie, I would've fucking sued the filmmakers asses to high heaven, unintentional pun aside.

So, let's set aside my personal grievances, and let's get into the movie itself, shall we? Let's start with the writing. I was originally just gonna write this thing off as a boring, preachy, unnecessary message about Jesus Christ, God, and all that shit. And if it were just that, I may have given this movie lesser slack than what I'm about to give it. However, the movie is also really offensive. Aside from one stupid moment where the movie tries to 'quietly' say that video games were one of the things that motivated these assholes into wanting to commit this mass shooting, it's not until towards the very end of the movie where it gets REALLY offensive. So, right after Rachel Scott is killed, the movie shows archived footage of the real life events of the Columbine shooting. Then after that, it shows Rachel's car, which is somehow STILL there, even after the shooting had occurred. We then get to see the other students placing flowers, messages, and everything else around her car as they're giving out their thoughts on what a great person she was and how much she touched their lives. Which then all leads to her funeral scene. And by that point, this is where the movie truly got offensive. How, you may wonder? Well, it's simple, really. It's all about HER. And why is that offensive? Because if she got an entire funeral dedicated to her...then what about the other victims of the shooting? Don't they get ANY kind of special treatment? The answer to that is, obviously, no, because the movie is centered around Rachel Scott, and no one else. Oh sure, the movie tries to shoehorn in their names around a plot-point where Rachel mentions the number 13, but she doesn't really know what that really meant to her, and it's so forced and contrived that it was all just a set up, just so we can have the exact number of victims being labeled inside her journal. Basically, it's this movie's way of saying "Hey, to all of those victims of the shooting? Well unfortunately, we don't have the budget, or the time, to dedicate it to your lives. Instead, you all get a consolation prize by adding in your names in a journal to one of the other victims, who we'll dedicate an ENTIRE movie to, because she believed in God and Jesus, and none of you else did. So...sorry."

But in all seriousness, this movie is fucking insulting on a whole host of levels. Not just to anyone who is a christian, but to all of the other victims of this horrific tragedy, because this one person was more important than ANYONE else, and they only get a mention by name towards the very end. And that is bullshit. Now, beyond all that, what about our actual story? Well, like I said earlier, most of it is the same tired Christianity shit that I probably would've said that it's overplayed and preachy, if not towards the very end where it got really offensive. But then there's plot points that don't really get explored enough. For instance, at the very of the beginning of the movie, a much younger Rachel Scott sees her Dad leaving with his bags before getting into his car, which happens very late at night. And then she asks her older sister if their parents are getting a divorce? Like, how the fuck does she even know that? At no point, during this scene, did we ever see her parents getting into a fight via verbal or physical abuse. She just...asks it out of the blue. I mean, there's no context to it. For all we know, he might've just been leaving to go out of town or something. Perhaps maybe if this movie had actually given her Dad some dialogue, such as him and the mother getting into some sort of disagreement or fight, then maybe it might've made things more clearer. Now yes, they do mention on the very next scene that the father did leave the family, but at no point was there ever signs of a divorce that was happening between the two parents. Now yes, I understand that this is sort of trivial, but it still didn't really make a whole lot of sense, because there was barely any dialogue. And the dialogue that young Rachel Scott did give out didn't really make much sense because of the lack of context that wasn't provided in that scene.

Another thing that didn't really make sense to me were the mass shooters themselves, Eric and Dylan. Now you could easily write this all off as they're just fucking nuts, and that would be the end of it. However, there are a couple of things about them that really bugged the shit out of me. Now I know that there might be someone who's going to compare them with their real life counterparts, however, much like with the real life version of Rachel Scott, I am going to focus on their characters in this movie, and leave their real life counterparts out of this. Now one of the big things that bothered me about them is the lack of parenting. Because throughout this entire movie, we never get ANY mention of these guys parents. And the reason why I bring them up is because if they WERE present in this movie, then maybe they would've had some sort of idea as to what's been going on with their children before the mass shooting ever happened. Now I don't know if the actual shooters actually had any parents, but the very fact that they're not even mentioned at ALL bothered the shit out of me. What also bothered the shit out of me was when during the bit where there was a class presentation going on, and it was after where Rachel Scott was talking about herself and why she is a christian. Because after that, the teacher then shows a video from Eric and Dylan, and the tape shows something about them involving guns. And right after the teacher stops the tape, one of the two, don't know if it was Dylan or Eric, says that this would make the world a better place. Now if you ask me, that should give you a warning sign right there to, maybe, try and make contact with their parents about their behavior, OR put out some sort of investigation out on these kids, and maybe get them to see some sort of psychiatrist to get them to talk about their mental health. Now again, I know that I'm trying to put logic into a movie that is totally immune to it, but at least it would make your movie look a little bit less stupid.

What's also stupid is the dialogue. Now setting aside the obvious christian message about Rachel being disconnected with her faith in Jesus Christ, trying to find the re-connection with him, and acting depressed whenever something bad happens in her life, such as when she catches her boyfriend cheating on her with her best friend, she also mentions on two or three occasions that she doesn't know where her life is going to end up. She doesn't know if she is ever going to college or get married, and she even mentions that she feels like something big is going to happen that's gonna start with a chain reaction. Well, if this movie weren't centered around a real life tragedy, then MAYBE you shouldn't have been this fucking obvious with your dialogue, considering that the viewers who already know about this tragedy knows what's going to happen to her at the end. And even then, for people who didn't know about this tragedy could also see what's going to happen from a mile away, because this movie's telegraphing is a fucking joke! And since I keep mentioning Rachel Scott, why don't we touch upon the characters, shall we? Our characters are boring, shallow, flat, and mostly lifeless. That's pretty much it. Nobody has any real defining character trait, and that includes Rachel Scott. Everything that's centered around her in this movie is boring as shit, because it's either about her wanting to get into a relationship with Alex when she tries to audition for a play, or trying to connect her faith with Jesus, and it's boring as fuck to watch. What hurts it the most is the runtime of this film. This movie clocks in at around an hour and 52 minutes long. And I'm gonna tell you guys, watching this movie almost felt like it was 3 hours long. And it is so fucking boring that I was just waiting for something interesting to happen when our mass shooters finally decide to pull the trigger on this mass shooting. Do you know how bad that is that the more interesting elements in this movie center around the mass shooters themselves, rather than the main character, whom we're suppose to be following for almost 2 fucking hours?! That is fucking horrible on every single god damn level! Now if this movie were about an hour and 20 minutes long, then this movie would feel less painful than it already was. But the fact that it almost runs for 2 hours is what brings the pacing of this movie down to to a screeching halt.

My god...guys, I have not felt this fucking pissed about a movie in a LONG time. And as a non-christian, this movie OFFENDED me in ways that I didn't think were even possible. Mind you, it takes a LOT to offend someone like me, but this movie certainly did just that. Holy shit. Now...I'm gonna try to move past the writing, because it's obviously that fucking horrible. What about the acting? Well, I hinted at it earlier that the acting was terrible, and yeah...it's fucking terrible. Nobody in this movie put in any actual effort. And mind you, I wasn't really expecting much from this movie, when it came to it's acting, but I was at least expecting the acting to be kinda decent from it's cast. And not a single one of them tried. Everybody in this movie phones it in. And it makes sense, especially when you're given a script that is so horribly written that I wouldn't expect any of these cast members to make it work at all. And, surprise surprise, none of them fucking tried. The acting is dull, wooden, and it feels almost soulless. Which is rather ironic, considering that this movie is centered around Christianity, and there isn't even a shred of soul in this movie to be found here. So yes, the acting in this movie is terrible from across the entire board.

I want to touch upon camerawork next. Because, this is something that REALLY bugged the shit out of me when it comes to this movie's camerawork. Most people may not notice this, but for someone like myself, I couldn't help but notice it. You see, it was right around the 50 minute mark of the movie where I started to notice the camera was just moving on it's own. Now what exactly do I mean by this? Well...for some odd reasoning, whenever the camera is trying to focus in on two different characters, it seems to be always slightly moving or jittering around to where it feels like someone was filming this movie with either their camcorder or their phone, and I don't know WHY that is. And the worst part about that is that it's like this throughout almost the ENTIRE movie. Now if it was filmed on a professional film camera, then why does it have a problem trying to focus on our characters when it's so busy moving around almost all the time? It really makes no sense to me, and it probably would've been easily fixed if they actually had a fucking stand for their camera! That way, we wouldn't have had any of these awkward camera movements. Guys, I'm gonna tell you something. A few months ago, I reviewed a Troma movie called "Redneck Zombies". And that movie was entirely shot on video and was only made for about $10,000. That thing had more professional camerawork, and was actually able to focus on our characters properly, despite it's low budget. This piece of shit, however, was made for $1.5 million dollars, and it's camerawork looked liked it was filmed by Michael J. Fox. Process that for just a moment! How fucked up is it when your movie has a million and a half dollar budget, and you have camerawork that looks to be fudging around most of the time during filming? I don't know what the hell this movie's budget went into, but I can probably safely say that this movie's camerawork wasn't one of them.

Now setting aside the awful camerawork, lighting here is fine for the most part, and the sound-mix is also perfectly fine. The music, however, sucks. Mostly because, like I said earlier, the christian rock music that they use here sounds like shit, and the rest of the music that they use here isn't that good either. The score here is also incredibly forgetful, too. So yeah, the music in this movie is fucking horrible.

So...when all is said and done, guys, am I able to recommend "I'm Not Ashamed"? Fuck no! This movie is shit from top to bottom in terms of everything here, outside of a couple of technical aspects. Our story here is offensive to christians, non-christians like myself, and to all of the victims of the Columbine mass shooting, including Rachel Scott, because I still believe that she was severely bastardized when someone was writing her character counterpart in this movie. The acting is terrible, the music is terrible, and the camerawork is some of the most amateurish shit I've seen from a movie in a long-fucking-time! And do you want to know what the worst part is? Well, for me, anyway. I said at the start of this movie that I wanted to avoid the "God's Not Dead" series, because I knew that they were easy propaganda from the moment I saw the trailer for the first movie. Well, as I was struggling to try and get through this horrific movie, I found out that the company that made this movie are ALSO the ones that put out the "God's Not Dead" series". So...even though I said I wanted to avoid them, I kinda sorta ended up reviewing one of their movies anyways. And no, I am NOT going to promote the studio's name, because I don't want people getting curious about what else this studio has churned out. My guess is that it's more of the same like this movie. And if that IS the case, then I've seen everything that I needed to see from this studio. Because from here on out, I am officially banning all of the movies that this studio has already put out, and all future ones that they've both put out, and will continue to put out. They will NEVER be covered for Reaction & Review. And as far as I'm concerned, I think that's a total blessing, considering that this movie has none of that whatsoever. Now...I need to go cleanse myself after watching this fucking abomination. And since I just mentioned "Redneck Zombies", I'm gonna go pop in my DVD copy of that movie again, because I need to feel happy after dealing with soulless shit like this for almost 2 hours.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.