Rockin' Reverend

Director - Scot Michael Walker (Delphis, The Holly King)
Starring - Scot Michael Walker, Alisha Revel (Day 5, Murder Made Me Famous), and Robb Hudspeth (Pot Zombies 2: More Pot Less Plot, Silent Red)
Release Date - 2013
Genre - Comedy
Tagline - "Don't be a douche"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I've been on a good roll lately.  I've been able to check out some pretty awesome films recently.  Typically, when I watch a bad movie they roll in threes.  Lucky for me, after I watched the almost unwatchable Night Shift I was able to check out the phenomenal Lunch Ladies short and every movie since has been amazing.  I was looking through my review stack when I saw Wild Eye's release of the religious comedy Rockin' Reverend.  I had just watched Severin's release of The Devil's Honey and thought I would keep this non-horror marathon rolling.  I tossed it in and was pleasantly surprised.  Though the film was awesome it just doesn't really fit into Wild Eye's catalogue.  Either way, I'm glad they released it because it was a funny indie flick.

     The film follows struggling actor Robert (Walker) who is forced to go to church which his smoking hot girlfriend Valerie (Revel).  Once there he realizes that the preacher is nothing more than a showman putting on a show.  With fear of his ex-wife moving his son out of state he decides to become a man of the cloth so he can be entitled to the ties to the church that the followers donate.

    

      The Rockin' Reverend is far from perfect and shows several flaws common among indie flicks but it does something most indie comedies cant...which is make the audience laugh.  The acting in this one is great.  The cast shows a lot of dedication and effort applied to their performance.  At times they are a little underwhelming or showing inexperience but they were able to pull through.  The characters are very well written which really helps them with their performances.  The story for this one is funny and clever on several levels.  In fact, I could easily see this film becoming one of the non-cannon National Lampoon or America Pie films.  The humor is scattered throughout the film but the last leg of the film does have more dry humor that honestly isn't that funny.  The film slows way down and just plays out almost like an unwitty dramedy.  It almost feels like the writing team was burned out as the story came to an end.  Plus, the movie is just too long for the story we have.  It could be edited heavily to fix these slow points.  Finally, this one isn't a bloody one for ya to sink your teeth into.  Instead, it was a slick comedy that questions society.  Overall, The Rockin' Reverend was pretty fucking funny.  The film does drag on a bit and could use a heavy editing session but is still enjoyable for what it is.  Check it out.