Python Hyena Bless the Child (2000): Dir: Chuck Russell / Cast: Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Rufuss Sewell, Christina Ricci, Angela Bettis: Stupid film that seems like a terrible ripoff of The Omen. The title suggests ability with Kim Basinger giving her second bad performance of the year. She raises her sister's abandon daughter not realizing that the tyke has special powers that consist of sitting on the floor in a trance spinning dishes on the floor. Jimmy Smits enters as a cop investigating child murders. What he should be doing is investigating parents who allow their children to look this foolish on film. A cult leader has married Basinger's sister because that is the only way that Basinger's life could get any worse. They attempt custody for which Basinger retaliates resulting in a climax that wouldn't be any more laughable than if it came straight from Saturday Night Live. Absurd plot with special effects that are about as dazzling as a second grade art class. Religious elements are blasphemous with horrible directing by Chuck Russell who previously made The Mask. Rufus Sewell is laughable as the cult leader as is Christina Ricci as some moron cult Gothic princess. Angela Bettis plays another of the film's imbeciles in Basinger's whiny sister. In one scene a homeless man is forced to dose himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. That is exactly what should happen with this film. Score: 1 / 10

freezageeza1966 There's nothing really about this film that hasn't been seen or done before,but certainly has been done better.It's a familiar good vs evil scenario. With the return of the Christmas Star,hanging in the night sky,Kim Bassinger returns home from work to find her drug addicted sister holding a new born baby girl.Sister promptly dumps the child and disappears leaving Bassinger to care for the baby. Skip forward several years and we find the child being brought up quite nicely and attending a Catholic school for special needs kids.The girl apparently has a form of autism but in reality is extremely gifted in ways nobody yet realises.........except for the Devil/Occult worshippers apparently hunting for any child that was born on the date the Christmas Star appeared years before.Getting the picture?.... Yep and so begins the battle to save mankind from the Devil......again... There's nothing particularly bad about this movie.It's just,well....average. There's very little or no tension from the story and the actors just seem to be going through the motions just to get payed at the end.Even Rufus Sewell,normally pretty good at playing bad guys tends to nibble the scenery rather than chew it!! Jimmy Smitts investigating FBI agent doesn't seem overly concerned or have any urgency about the fact that young kids are being kidnapped and turning up dead,and Bassinger just doesn't show her character any conviction to be believable.If anything,what really lets this movie down is the particularly bad special effects (just see the rats and you'll know what I mean).The movie could have probably done without them.I can look past average acting and overly familiar plots,but bad effects stick out a mile and do this movie no favours. That said,this movie is still watchable.There was nothing here that made me want to switch it off,but if you've seen the likes of The Omen,Excorcist,Rosemarys Baby etc,then you've probably seen the best of this genre out there and will want to give this a miss.

BA_Harrison What the hell happened to Chuck Russell? He made the most entertaining of the Elm Street sequels, did a cracking job on the '88 remake of The Blob, and gave us the excellent The Mask (which in turn gave us Cameron Diaz)—films that were pure unadulterated fun. But after churning out silly but entertaining Arnie actioner Eraser, his promising career seems to have slowly disappeared down the pan, a situation helped in no small part by this dire, end-of-the-millennium biblical horror. With Bless the Child, it seemed as though Chuck had forgotten everything important he had ever learnt about film-making.Unlike his previous movies, Russell fails to inject any originality or charm into proceedings, and the result is a lifeless and heavy-handed horror with woeful CGI, a movie designed for undemanding mainstream audiences; in short, it is the epitome of bland 90s popcorn horror. The plot is a weak rip-off of The Omen and the central performances are terrible: Rufus Sewell hams it up as an occult leader who tries to turn a supernatural little girl into a tool for Satan; Kim Basinger is unconvincing as the child's concerned guardian; and Angela Bettis proves thoroughly annoying as the girl's junkie mother. Christina Ricci, who is also fairly high up the cast list, is wasted in a completely pointless minor role.3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to four for Ricci losing her head and some dude getting knitting needles in his eyes.

culmo80 Let's be honest, Kim Basinger isn't the greatest actress out there and this film is just further proof.I liked the premise of this film and here are spoilers:There's a young girl born to Kim Basinger's sister who was born under the same star as Jesus. Kim's sister is a drug addict and promptly leaves the baby with Basinger. As time goes by, it becomes clear the girl is not quite normal. At first, its unclear whether she is evil or good, but that suspense is quickly dispelled as we see the girl bring a dead bird back to life and other acts. Well, it turns out there is a cult that worships Satan but poses as a self-help group. The leader of this group knows that anyone born under the aforementioned star is blessed with special gifts from God. He seeks to either turn the child or kill them, which he does to several children. At some point, Basinger's sister turns back up under the influence of the cult and they kidnap the girl, but Basinger gets the help of FBI Agent Jimmy Smits to help. There are some chase scenes and a few fight scenes and a final confrontation at an old church.The general plot line is decent, but some of the acting is terrible. Some of the dialogue is just dumb:Like when Basinger pulls a gun on the cult leader and says "I've never shot a gun before!" Why would she say that?Or when she goes to the police and says her (adopted) daughter has been kidnapped and the stereotypical uncaring police officer blandly says "calm down..." Really??Iam Holm is in this film, but don't blink because you'll miss him. He plays a wheelchair bound former priest who battles evil cults and tells Basinger about the cult. That's really the extent of his role.If they had made this movie without Basinger and really worked through the plot and took more time with it, this would have been a good film, but as it is...eh, you can find better.