Saved! (DVD)

I still have my Entertainment Weekly with the teaser on the front cover asking "Is SAVED! The Anti-PASSION?" Curious enough while Saved! does offer a lot more to talk about considering the current social climate and the subjects it tackles the movie was a word-of-mouth hit that certainly didn't get the attention it deserved seeing how Gibson's Passion of the Christ dealt in God-like numbers.

One thing is or certain is if the movie had been released with one of its endings in which Mandy Moore's character ends up shooting up the school Columbine style then it may have gotten a little more attention, but within what EW described as the script suffering from about 200 rewrites the movie was toned down to a PG-13 rating. This rating decision is reiterated in the commentary with Brian Dannelly (director/co-writer), producer Sandy Stern and co-writer Michael Urban as they stress that it was always meant for a PG-13 rating seeing how they wanted to make sure teenagers could see a movie about teenagers.

Saved! offers up a mixed bag of goodies all centered around a private Christian high school, American Eagle, in which good girl Mary (Malone) gets herself into a bit of moral and religious trouble as she gets pregnant trying to "save" her homosexual boyfriend from eternal damnation because it is what Jesus "told" her to do.

While this scenario offers enough trouble it doesn't help that queen bee bible-thumper Hilary Faye (Moore) is the school watch-dog making sure to do her best to save everyone while at the same time condemning all non-followers of Jesus.

Saved! is not your average teen comedy as it doesn't use sex to fall back on for laughs, it finds its power and ability to keep an audience captive as you are so easily pulled into the lives of the characters on the screen and you truly feel for them and the situations they find themselves in. Not only does this movie manage to raise a few religious eyebrows it will also have you thinking, with one great line delivered by Jena Malone in reference to all religions, "They all can't be right, but they can't all be wrong," this while she testing the heeling powers of a crystal... good stuff.

As far as DVD extras go, I would avoid the deleted and extended scenes along with the bloopers, there isn't much there. Instead check out the commentary with Jena Malone and Mandy Moore, it offers a lot more than the other one, and shows you just you the difference between a true actress in comparison to one of our recent pop princesses turned actor. Don't get me wrong, Mandy Moore has her best performance ever in this one, but it only takes about five minutes into the commentary to hear the difference between the two of them.

Another great feature is the Saved! Revelations section in which you get a taste of "What they were really looking at?" "What was behind Roland's comic book?" and "What did they really say?" It is a great feature that beats out deleted scenes any day.

If you couldn't tell I am whole-heartedly recommending this film, it is sure to open your eyes and will rouse some conversation no matter what viewing crowd you're in.