Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night

The wonderful truth about this movie is it's focus on what Christmas is all about...the birth of the Christ child. The night sky effects where the shepherds were mesmerized watching the host of Angels knowing that something miraculous was taking place for all humanity to praise throughout all generations for the common folks and people of all classes and backgrounds is what is so humbling and fulfilling. This miraculous birth took place in common surroundings and not in a five star hotel is what was so beautifully portrayed here. The message is clear that Christ, the savior was born for all men as the three powerful kings came to a humble area to behold the Christ child...King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Music is so uplifting . After losing my mom I needed to hear joy. This filled me. This gave me hope. I didn't expect anything more than to feel again for at least a while. And I did. This is spiritual. This is religious. And it is warming and wonderful. I feel sad for those who were expecting a traditional form of storytelling and felt the need to write mean things. I was told by so many this would sooth me and that's exactly what it did. The voices are just wonderful. If you need some calm this season - or any time- and you just need to feel connected to something bigger than you this will do it.

"A young mother labeled impure. A shepherd boy considered "unclean". A never-before-seen performance from Andrea Bocelli highlights seven music performances and two beautiful new monologues." I don't get all the review-bombing here considering all the features were spelled out in the tag-line. Overall, I really enjoyed the films and the musical performances. Even the speaking/monologues were great. I felt they provided great natural breaks to the film that added a different pacing that I really enjoyed. The messenger has such a unique feel given that it is a short film from years before the show's release. If I didn't know Shepherd & Messengers were separate films, I never would have noticed given how perfectly the two are woven together here. I found it to be an amazing and accurate portrayal on the Christmas story without feeling like an under budget rendition of the virgin birth.

source: Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night

If you want a typical movie experience, this will NOT be for you. This was my first Fathom event and first Chosen special in theaters. I loved it! I usually do not like to watch music videos but this was amazing because it was an opportunity to worship! There were at least eight music videos that performed wonderful Christmas and worship songs by various music artists. If you have seen previous Chosen Christmas specials, you may not like this since they mentioned it was a combination of who specials which I thought worked well together. If you want a different experience from your typical movie screening, this is for you!

I came to watch the story of Jesus and little did I know what I was coming to see. The Jenkins family (director) and his wife talked way too long to try to tell us why they did this and how it will make you feel, and the story of the story behind the story. Then... made it more a video clip of musicians for most of the 'movie'. Mrs Jenkins I was ready to walk out with you going on and on. Worst experience in the cinema. Finally when the story of Mary & Joseph started it had my attention and sadly that didn't equate too much of a story other than her being pregnant and then giving birth - that is it - oh and more music clips.

Christmas With The Chosen will instantly become a new Christmas Classic! I personally cut to the chase and fast forwarded to watch The Shepherd and The Messanger movies interwoven. It was SEAMLESS & INSPIRING. It had it all; past, present & future. All of Dallas Jenkins projects related to this The Chosen effort have been truly divinely inspired. You can literally see and feel it. Goosebumps galore! 👏🏿👊 So glad it was on Amazon Prime so I could get directly to the movie. 😀 Even though I'm a liturgical musician I wasn't interested in the co-mingling of the genres in this instance. There's a time and place to play holiday music but this is not one. I rated 9 out of 10 for that very reason. Fast Forward first 28 minutes and go back and listen at another time.

I thought the short film was okay, although the accents are cringe worthy considering the characters are speaking English. If the show/series is in English, just speak standard English sans exaggerated accents, as opposed to English with some supposed Hebrew or Aramaic accent. The short film on the Christmas story, and the music video by Andrea and Matteo Boccelli were well-acted and the Boccelli and Maher performances were good. Other than that, this is just a waste of time: Dallas Jenkins is pushing season 4, which apparently can only be viewed in theaters and then his wife gives a long sermon on the bank of the Jordan River. In between all of this, there are continuous promos and music videos. It just was not a true movie.

Took my dad to see this tonight. Movie started at 6:30 pm with the typical 20 minutes of previews. First up, a recap of The Chosen series, then two more movie trailers, then three music videos, then a recap of the first three days of creation, followed by two more music videos, followed by us leaving the theater. I made the mistake of not reading the previews before going to see it. I was hoping for a nice Christmas story and instead felt like bible camp. Some other reviews said that the movie wasn't even an hour long. I mean, we know how it ends but we could have done without the music videos and bible lesson.

First off, I will say I am a big fan of The Chosen series. But here's the problem. This was billed as an awesome combination of The Messengers and The Shepherd. As I am familiar with both, I agree, this sounds great. In fact I bought tickets for my whole family thinking this would be a lovely Christmas experience, like going to a living nativity. Now, the movie itself was great. I would have given it 9 stars. But the rest of the "production" was filler. I don't know if they were trying to give you your money's worth or what. But they didn't need to. In fact, the movie itself was probably 1:30. That's PLENTY. Ok, so for the fillers, I pull my review down to a 6. The music videos on the front end went on for too long. After the 4th one, my family is like "is this all this is?" Guys, I'm losing them. I enjoyed a couple of the videos, but geesh it went on forever. And the dudes at the end singing opera in tuxedoes. I was tapped out. And then, they had to add even ANOTHER one during the rolling credits. So now you may wonder why I pulled it further all the way down from a 6 to a 1. It was the speeches. First it was Dallas and Amanda telling how excited they are for what we are about to watch. Then it was Dallas telling us, "there will be tears. It really came together nicely." I'm down to a 5. Then there was Amanda before the movie on the Jordan, and one of the writers after the movie at the dead sea. Both of these speeches were completely contrived. So contrived that I cut the last 4 stars. You know when you listen to a qualified biblical preacher, and he consults the bible, and puts it into words that really touch your heart, and you feel that feeling of awe and amazement, and conviction, and JOY overtakes you, and a tear wells up in your eye? Yeah, it's as if Amanda loves that too, and she covets what the preacher does, and wants to do that to too. But unlike a qualified preacher that frames the word of God with his words, she framed her own contrived words of "awe inspiring" drivel about the molecules of water flowing blah blah blah. And the whole speech was delivered as if the audience was going to get that joyful feeling. But it did not "work". And there's a reason it didn't "work". Because it was contrived. Contrived with that goal, and not simply letting the Truth of God do the work. The writer's speech after the movie was in a similar vane. At one point, I even felt like I was being hit with a "cold-reading" technique. Something like, "that dark feeling looming over you that you don't know where it comes from, or maybe you do know."....Ok man. Just stop. Look, I am not writing this to be harsh. Or maybe I am. I was disappointed in how it came across to my guests and had the exact opposite effect I was hoping for. But I am also writing it to be instructive, that perhaps it makes it back to the team. You need to humble it back down. Take yourselves off the screen. It isn't about you, is it? The ride home from Christmas movie night with my family was not, "how lovely was that"....it was, "what the heck were those speeches going on about?". It was a turn-off, to the point of quite honestly overshadowing the lovely movie completely and entirely.