“Courageous” Joins the Please Ignore Our Terrible Movie Club

Will Leitch
·Editor

We welcome you back to our regular feature, Please Ignore Our Terrible Movie, which showcases films that studios, fearing the PULVERIZING BRICKBATS OF CRITICAL CONSENSUS, refuse to show to critics before it opens. This is a pain for critics, but you shouldn't care about that: What matters is that it's a surefire sign that the movie stinks, the studio knows it, and they're trying to keep it hidden as long as possible to sell a few extra tickets.

The first members of the club so far: "Apollo 18," "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star" and "Shark Night 3-D." So let's test our thesis, just to make sure. How'd those movies do on Metacritic?

*** "Shark Night 3-D." Metascore: 24.
*** "Apollo 18." Metascore: 21.
*** "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star." Metascore: 9.

We heretofore formally induct TriStar's "Courageous" into The Projector's Please Ignore Our Terrible Movie club. Now, this is a somewhat controversial selection, in that this is one of those movies that probably shouldn't screen for critics. From the director of "Fireproof" with Kirk Cameron, "Courageous" is another production of Affirm Films, a division of Sony Pictures that focuses on Christian "inspirational" films. "Fireproof" is the most famous, and the most widely derided of these films, but it's worth noting that not all of Affirm's films are as overtly Christian as "Fireproof" or, apparently, "Courageous." Their biggest success so far has been "Soul Surfer," about one-armed surfer Bethany Hamilton, a movie many didn't even realize was a Christian one. There isn't much upside to showing a movie like "Courageous" to critics, who, to their own detriment, have a history of being less than open-minded about films involving faith.

That said: Some of those "action" scenes look awfully cheesy, and "Soul Surfer" was screened for critics (and didn't do horribly), so we have to include it.

So! Welcome, "Courageous," to the Please Ignore Our Terrible Movie club. We hope you'll forgive us.

PLEASE IGNORE OUR TERRIBLE MOVIE
2011 Class
"Apollo 18"
"Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star"
"Courageous"
"Shark Night 3-D"