this is stuff you like and if you're gonna spoof something you've got to have
knowledge but you've also got to have heart. today's topic is the patron
requested Jesus bro or as some of you may know it "that movie with the cinema
snob and Obscurus Lupa and Nash and the Nostalgia Critic and really just a
whole bunch of people that you know from the internet so cinema snob fans welcome
if you like the video stick around and subscribe and meet new and interesting
people in the comments section. in the last video I did an introduction to the
weird world of pureflix and I'd recommend you watch that if you're
unfamiliar with the genre that Jesus bro is spoofing but if you're short on time
the important thing to keep in mind is this pureflix movies are often
low-quality frequently inexplicable occasionally creepy and borrow the outer
trappings and cultural reference points of American evangelical Christianity
without actually seeming to understand it on anything other than a very
superficial level. in the last episode we took the example of old-fashioned a
supposed Christian alternative to going to see Fifty Shades of Grey that was in
itself completely illogical undeniably creepy and borrowing from a cultural
phenomenon namely I kissed dating goodbye that it didn't really seem to
understand. and this is our inspiration. there are lots of movies made by people
from the internet and the quality is variable and spoofs are always a risk
because you want to be like Galaxy Quest but you might just end up like Scary
Movie number 394 or whatever they're on now but I think this one turned out
pretty well so the plot of Jesus bro goeth thusly Rick Whitehead is an angry
internet atheist with a huge following of a sassy black Christian friend who
chuckles a lot. when Rick was eight and angry Jesus impersonator broke his
plastic toy and now he's an atheist. just go with it. he has a girlfriend of three
years 11 months and two days called Elizabeth who is a Christian which she
never told him which seems like a pretty big omission but just go with it,
anyway he wins atheist of the year doesn't propose to Elizabeth and instead
acts like a twerp she gets mad they break up he drinks 100% proof alcohol
and has a near-death experience with Santa Christ who tells him he needs to go
and spread the good news to his atheist followers and then he'll get Elizabeth
back high jinks ensue including Rick meeting up with his estranged brother
discovering that he has been gifted with a power. the power to make anyone who
disagrees with him spontaneously combust and you know
that's not even stupider than let there be lights conversion by touch just go
with it, he also meets the devil at the end it turns out Santa Christ and the
devil had a bet and various things happen which means the rapture oops
but eventually God the Father turns up and winds back time and sorts it all out
and hey lesson learned about not being a jerk
marry me Elizabeth the end if you are perplexed by the number of times I said
just go with it in this summary then that's fair but as I explained in my
previous video about pureflix they borrow the trappings of American
Christianity and then stick them haphazardly to plots that don't make a
lot of sense most of the time. because of this Jesus
bro is a movie that, if you're not familiar with the work of the cinema
snob or the work of pureflix or preferably both, is...okay a bit weird I
mean you can probably tell it's a parody but the jokes aren't gonna be as funny
because you don't have that familiarity with the context. but then again that's
how parodies work the good ones are funny even if you only have a
superficial understanding of the conventions of the genre and the bad
ones aren't funny even if you do have an in-depth understanding of the genre
unless hey that thing happened in another movie is sufficient humour for you
I mean having some jokes like that is fine but if most of your jokes are like
that or just straight-up ripped off scenes from another movie then mmm it's
probably just gonna be awkward. Jesus bro contains a lot of the dumb cliches and
weird production tricks that you would expect if you've ever watched a pureflix
movie covering our mouths while outdoors to make ADR easier sassy black
friend, heavy-handed exposition, put-upon christian girlfriend, randomly leaving
out important life details aka bad communication between the characters
obnoxious atheists illogical plots or timelines "I'm dark but honest" well that
one's more of an internet personality cliche but I'll allow it and of course
people who aren't Christians making ridiculous assumptions about
Christianity. although on that last one you sometimes see comments under Brad's
reviews like "how does this character in the movie not know anything about
Christianity?" but well I live in the UK which is more secular than the US but
there are loads of people here who have no understanding of the nuts and bolts
of Christianity beyond very basic stuff so yeah I know characters making
ridiculous assumptions about Christianity seems kind of stupid but I
see it quite a lot so that's one of the cliches that feels
less ridiculous to me. anyway I like Jesus bro it's funny and it's ridiculous
and it is as I said the good kind of spoof which actually bothers to tell an
interesting story while making fun of things rather than the bad kind where
they let the story take a backseat to making reference jokes because reference
jokes are what the kids like these days right? it takes as a starting point a guy
with a very fixed set of opinions on the world and everything in it and ends with
a guy who isn't quite sure what's going on but gosh darnit he's gonna be a good
person while he can there is an honest-to-goodness character
arc and it's pretty well done - this is helped by the fact that the acting is a
lot better than a lot of pureflix movies that probably sounds like I'm
damning it with faint praise but I don't think most of the people involved are
professional actors so you know that's actually pretty good and the movie can
be funny and poignant at the same time which is more difficult to do than it
looks my very favorite scene is Elizabeth and
Rick in the restaurant when she breaks up with him it feels very real it has
emotional resonance and honestly I wasn't really expecting that. I've never
seen Allison act before outside of her reviews where she sort of plays herself
and the channel awesome anniversaries where well but she really sells it and
to extend the metaphor I buy it ultimately though the movie hangs on
Rick and David Gobble is really good I often have a problem watching movies on
my computer because I don't get into them the same way that I would if I were
watching them on my TV but I didn't have that problem here I believed in the
characters as daft as that sounds in a movie where everyone act completely
inexplicably for the sake of comedy but there we are this is stuff you like not
stuff that can be a hundred percent justified in a completely rational
fashion so if you have watched Jesus bro let me know what you thought about it in
the comments and if you're new here say hi and be welcome. I will be back next
month with another episode so all that remains to say is thank you to Anders
who specifically requested this review and to everyone who voted for it and
I'll see you all next time