To Save a Life

Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: January 22, 2010

6.8	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Ratings

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TomIFeb 1, 2010

An instant cult classic. Think "Left Below" with the cast of "Saved by the Bell". I caught this after it showed up on Metacritic because I knew the users section would be flooded with irate apologists. A form of backlash I saw popping up An instant cult classic. Think "Left Below" with the cast of "Saved by the Bell". I caught this after it showed up on Metacritic because I knew the users section would be flooded with irate apologists. A form of backlash I saw popping up almost immediately on the NYTimes review. Here it is in a nutshell: Everything is broken down into the simplest, after-school special, watered down, Hallmark card terms. Don't be fooled, anyone giving this above a 3 or so without being ironic is suffering from the delusion that these reviews weren't entirely objective and free of bias. All that said, and I say this without any anti-Christian agenda; if you don't mind throwing the money down for Rocky Horror level unintentional laughter then you'll have a good time.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful

jimmytancrediMay 29, 2011

Itâ

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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ColetheoMay 25, 2014

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It was up and ridiculous really, I tried giving it the benefit of a doubt because it was a movie that spoke out against bullying, and I admire that, but the only thing about it is is that the message almost get's smothered under the Christian undertones (or overtones as the case of this movie), meaning that by the time Jake the main aresehole that ignores the guy that saved his life for the lead arseho- ahem, female becomes a christian, there is a scene of a "hip-priest" reading a bible passage almost every 5 minutes throughout the rest of the movie. Also, regarding how Roger saved Jake, he sees a car going approximately 4 miles an hour and what does he do? Jump and push him out of the way instead of telling Jake to get his arse out of the road and stop staring at that butterfly, that's what I would've done! Also, the movie shamelessly exploits school shootings to forward the plot of this movie, in Rodger shooting himself due to bullying, now why is he bullied? Because he has a permanent limp. Now what in the blue barnstorming bloodbaths would motivate you to pick on someone with a limp? You may as well just pick on someone with a heart defect, or someone with a tumor that causes them visible pain.

Also, let's go into the characters themselves, NONE of them go through character development before the point that Jake meets them, almost as if they were created at that exact age specifically for them to interract, and bond with Jake, the only hint of childhood-characterization in this movie is what happens to Jake and Roger, but I'll sum up the characters in the most short and sweet way I can:

Jake - Arsehat basketball playing jock turned obnoxious christian

Roger - Person getting picked on for no apparent reason that commits a suicide relevant to the plot of the movie for like 18 minutes spread out across the movie

Chris - the "hip-priest" I mentioned earlier that secretly thinks Jake is a bumbling drunk (he's not wrong)

Doug Moore - Blatant Arsehat that you can tell is bad the second you see him that looks like Will Ferrel

Johnny Garcia - Depressed teen that makes very suspicious drawings

Amy Briggs - Self-righteous carjacker that gets pregnant midway through the movie

Andrea WhoEvenGivesAHoot - Sickeningly nice once-depressed-but-turned-to-the-church-and-it-miraculously-made-everything-better-as-if-by-unrealistic-movie-magic teenage girl that has a puppy love story (if you could even call it that) arc with Johnny that's abandoned just about as quickly as it begins.
There are lot's of others, but I got tired of talking about these 2-Dimensional twits.

As if I wasn't expecting differently from a movie involving teens and bullying, there's also an obligatory drinking scene around the start, almost as if every teen is an alchohol-chugging puppy-kicking monster.

Eventually Jake takes his girlfriend the previously mentioned crazy carjacker Amy to a religious service where in WHATEVER order Amy tells Jake that she wants to go away because she doesn't want to be judged, then she sees a girl on stage and says that she's a crackhead, and that was the point that I gave up and threw the movie away.

Bad writing, bad plot, christian views being shoved down your throat, a suicide that *drives the plot* at the beginning but becomes irrelevant 30 minutes in, and is only brought up like once or twice in the movie, 2-Dimensional players that go through unnecessary character development that almost never elaborate on their past save for like 2 different characters, neither of which would be VERY important to the story if one wasn't a love interest, Andrea, and the other one Idon'tevenfuggingknow, shameless exploits on school shootings, and the uncanny ability of everyone in the movie to actually make you hate them instead of caring about them all roll together to make a poor-quality movie.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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