Fake Preacher" was begging for me to like it...or at least something about it. I love movies about preachers...I love independent films...I love LOW, LOW budget films...I tend to like African-American films...I wanted to enjoy "Fake Preacher."

I didn't.

Not at all. Zip. Zero.

In fact, the only mildly entertaining aspect to this film was the fact that the star (or "Fake Preacher") actually bears an amazing resemblance to my ex employer, himself a con artist who was a smooth talking African American with good looks, attitude and a willingness to lie, cheat in the name of "good works."

Other than that amusing fact, we have director Juney Smith's 13th film (low budget arena), and no signs of artistic growth at all. I tend to be fairly merciful when it comes to low budget films, but there's a point where mercy is pointless. Giving this film a C-, or even a D, would be assigning it a certain degree of artistic value. It has none.

The "story" (written by Smith), is about a Harlem con man who is acting as a televangelist (truly the worst scenes in the film...how we are supposed to believe that anyone would give money to anyone who "acted" so horridly as a man of God is beyond me) when God calls him to start his own church. In reality, he and his money-grubbing wife are using their parishioners, keeping most of the cash until he makes the mistake of sleeping with two parishioners, one who becomes obsessed.

Everything about this film is horrid...from the stilted dialogue to the awful camera work to performances that simply fail beyond words. I'd love to tell you who actually plays the preacher, but I didn't sit through the credits and IMDB doesn't do anything beyond list the cast (no characters). Suffice it to say everyone in the cast is horrid, and the only cast member with even a bit of history is Vida Guerra, a hottie with no evidence of acting talent.

"Fake Preacher" makes films like "Leap of Faith" look utterly brilliant. I like "Leap of Faith," but it's definitely not brilliant.

I've heard repeatedly about the incredible selection of Netflix. There's such a thing as "too much." The mere fact that they include this film in their selection is evidence they may be working with too much of a cash base...this is frivolous spending! Sadly, this was my last film from Netflix...thanks for the memories!

© Written by Richard Propes

How We Rated This Film TC Candler -     Richard Propes -  No Stars F Jacob Hall -

TC Candler's Comment

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Jacob Hall's Comment

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