Visual Bible - Acts (1994)

HORRIBLE!!!

Too bad you can't rate with negative stars! They dressed the assylum up in bath towels and let them go grinning through the Book of Acts. You'd have to be nuts to buy this one, let alone watch it! I'm writing a letter to Luke to express my condolences!! June 27, 2008

Low Budget & Strangely Directed

This video dramatises the Book of Acts (NIV translation). Though it has a large cast, it's quite an amateur production overall. Fortunately, most of the major characters - and some minor ones - are acted out well. Paul and Peter are both quite convincing, as are Tertullus and Festus. But much of the casting is mere "amateur dramatics" - especially the extras. Before ordering this product, be aware of the following 4 peculiarities...

1. In certain scenes there's sudden, spontaneous laughter and the source of the humour is not obvious. Did the early apostles have "in" jokes? The chuckling is not uproarious, but it's still a bit weird.

2. Although most scenes are properly acted out, for several passages Luke simply 'narrates' the story to his friends as he lounges around on a ship or reclines on a beach. For this reason, we never get to see interesting characters like Aeneas, Dorcas, Sapphira and her husband Ananias, Apollos, Paul's nephew or the seven sons of Sceva. Actually, one of Luke's own friends/shipmates dictates the lines of Paul's nephew as Luke smiles at him. I don't know what's going on there! There are other scenes where Luke is depicted proofreading his own scroll, which seems genuine enough.

3. Several place-names are mispronounced. Sometimes it's by omission of the final syllable (as in "Derbe" and "Mitylene"). Elsewhere, the pronunciations may be right or wrong but they sound unfamiliar to someone who's listened to several audio Bibles (eg. I've never heard "Cnidus" pronounced the way it is in this movie).

4. There are two farcical scenes in Chapter 18. When "the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul" (v17) the other actors barely lay a hand on him! They merely tug gently at some of his clothes. Hardly a first century "beating"! Are they afraid they'll be sued for injury? Also, as Paul leaves the synagogue at Corinth, he raises his voice saying, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles" (v6). The Jews can be seen shouting abusively at him. Yet apart from Paul's own voice, which is clearly heard, there's TOTAL silence in the synagogue! Extremely poor directing in my view.
June 21, 2008

the Book of Acts

A nice interpretation of the Book of Acts with the scriptural readings of the entire book as told through the eyes of Luke. May 6, 2008

acts

this is an amazing dvd for all christian people around the world don't miss it April 14, 2008

Book of Acts

I think the creators of this did an amazing job. It is word for word the Bible, and it is acted out well. I use it for a Bible study, as much as for entertainment. April 11, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...