To decide how to rate this movie, I was entertained to an average level. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. Most of the acting was on the cringe side, so beware of that. Felt like it was based on another movie that starred Keanu Reeves. If you have nothing better to do and want to waste an hour and 30 minutes, knock yourself out.
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staunton-gary26 September 2020
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leesimon-2635731 January 2021Have you ever had a question about something that happened on screen and thought to yourself "you know what would answer that? Punching and shooting!" If so, this is the movie for you! There is no plot hole, poorly written dialogue, or weakly developed character that can't be solved with a silly hand-to-hand combat, or shoot-out. Having said that, this isn't a 1 star movie. One star movies make me mad at them. I compulsively have to finish a movie, once started, so truly terrible movies make me furious at them for wasting my time. This is a silly, brainless, fun little romp to watch with your friends for a larf. Don't misunderstand me, it is by no means a good movie. It sets up the story with short ~90 second clips in the very beginning of the movie, which is completely unnecessary. It also spends zero time with natural, or even passably good dialogue, and only volunteers sentence tidbits that advance the shaky plot. Every fight or shooting scene features people fumbling to find a trigger, or their fists to give the protagonist a chance to fight everyone one by one. This movie also features the all-too-familiar "hero gets shot, stabbed, breaks both legs, looses his sight, or gets set on fire" only to go about his business with a slight limp. I would be reminisced if I didn't mention that I would have picked up on exactly ZERO religious anything throughout this movie. Reading the other reviews, and looking at the protagonist's other IMDB credits, I see that he has apparently contributed a lot of Christian (pro Christian) content. This must have been a conscious deviation, because this movie has no proselytizing whatsoever. Really and truly, there is no more religious undertones in this film, than in Winnie The Pooh (that is to say, none at all.) Watch this with you buds (of any gender) and make a drinking game of it. It's silly, not terrible.
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jeremiah_dansereau24 March 2021At this point I have figured that David A.R. White is somewhat of an action movie fan. And that some of his movies are simpily his rendition of movies that he saw. For Example: Revelation Road: Mad Max Black Rider: The Book of Eli Jerusalem Countdown: 24 The Mark: Die Hard sinerio.
This time its John Wick's turn... Beckman follows a former Underworld Assassin who leaves his former life and becomes a Christian, then after his adopted daughter is kidnapped by a human trafficking cult, Beckman goes on a killing spree, to avenge his daughter. In my opinion Pure Flix has really gone downhill in the past few years, the action was ok, the effects were horrible, the acting was horrible, and the lession was horrible. The movie is suppose to promote forgiveness, by portraying Beckman killing human trafficers as negative, saying, "Killing these people wont bring her back"; well guess what; killing those scumbags, would stop them from ruing anyone elses lives. In Conclusion; Beckman Sucks, Watch Taken, or the Equalizer instead. -
ccosgrave-7908723 September 2020After reading the storyline I thought, this HAS to be a comedy. Ex hit man turned preacher has his daughter kidnapped. The moral dilemma he must face. I am an ex hit man, I must kill these people and rescue my daughter but wait I am now a preacher, what ever shall I do !!! Should I pray for her return ? Should I turn my bible into ninja stars and smite these unholy heathens !!! Unfortunately this is not a comedy, how ever you might get a laugh out of it.
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leftbanker-122 September 2020Just no. Stop. Stop making these hyper-violent movies with a story that looked like it had been ad-libbed as they were filming. If I had a dollar for every recent film about a retired contract killer, I could hire a contract killer to...to do something. I'm sort of the non-violent type so I'd probably have him make balloon animals. Watching someone make balloon animals would be a few steps up from this lousy movie.
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reubenseldo16 October 2020Goddamn! How long are we going to let David A. R. White milk religion and dupe naive christians into thinking that he has an agenda beyond making money for his own gains?
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Christinekj221 August 2022Watched this on a recommendation for bad movies and it did not disappoint. This movie made absolutely no sense. No backstory was ever explained and the constant time jumps made it impossible to follow. Montages of David A. R. White pulling aggressively into various driveways and taking down multiple men twice his size are punctuated with a huge amount of violence...for a film that prides itself on being edited for "family viewing". I guess DARW really wanted to cosplay as Keanu Reeves while sprinkling in the Bible in some random places.
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gregorija13 February 2021For those who like suspense and action movies, check this out for sure! There's plenty of movies like this that are just empty shoot em up, chase the bad guys, blah, blah, blah junk. This movie has the drama, action and suspense along with a good spiritual message. A must see for all!
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psxexperten25 September 2020No words can describe what a piece of poo this is. The unbelievable content aside, the production/post production quality is beyond horrendous. Story - abominable. Acting - laughable. Concept - WHAT THE F....??? Stay away, don't corrupt your spare time with these amateurs. As enjoyable as getting teeth pulled If you can find anything exciting or even mildly interesting in this $25 budget movie, you must be living a really dull life. Like watching paint dry.
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BECKMAN is weird. It's weird in concept, and it's weird in execution. Not because of the filmmaking or anything, but because of precisely how...normal it all is. Unless you knew David A.R. White on-sight or were a Pure Flix obsessive (I'm sure they exist), nothing about this film would indicate that it's from the same people that brought you such classics as GOD'S NOT DEAD and GOD'S NOT DEAD 2: THE QUICKENING. By all measurable standards it just seems like another one of those DTV action flicks that, in this particular instance, apes JOHN WICK. Frankly I think that's kind of an achievement in and of itself, a Pure Flix movie that just seems like...a movie.
The story, of an hitman-turned-preacher (David A.R. White) struggling to escape his violent past after his adopted daughter is abducted by a monologue-loving cult leader (William Baldwin) and his mercenary army of assassins and human traffickers, isn't terribly original (obvious nods to TAKEN, JOHN WICK, and MAN ON FIRE abound), but those are fairly solid potboiler plots and they're effectively recreated here. The inescapable hand of evangelical Christianity that normally pervades Pure Flix's output is kept to minimum here, and the film's much better for it. Sure you could argue that its message of forgiveness and nonviolence is at odds with the unending stream of violence and mayhem, but then again this isn't a movie that you should think about too hard. The religious themes aren't any more pervasive than, say, MEAN STREETS; which might be Pure Flix's attempts at securing a more mainstream audience, but also could be a sign that they've learned the art of subtlety (I hope it's the latter).
Action, performances, cinematography, score, editing, directing. All of these things aren't really that much more than average, but I think when the bar's set so low that has to count for something. My brain still refuses to 100% accept David A.R. White as a gritty action hero but he does give a solid, if somewhat one-note, performance and is fairly believable in his plethora of set-pieces. William "No Not That" Baldwin, Jeff Fahey, and Burt Young (whom I'd hitherto thought had passed away years ago) are all tasked with little more than making glorified cameos, but they're all consummate professionals and Baldwin is at least an effective baddie. The rest of the supporting cast are likewise uniformly solid.
There's a pseudo-DIY quality to the low-budget filmmaking that's rather endearing. Clearly these people didn't have the same money or resources that Chad Stahelski and Co. have, but dammit if they don't try. The fights are well choreographed and staged (and surprisingly bloody in places), and director Gabriel Sabloff has a strong sense of style that helps elevate the otherwise unremarkable material in many places. It helps that Sabloff is no stranger to these things, a veteran of both low-budget action movies and Pure Flix dramas, he clearly knows how to stretch a low budget. His love of DSLRs and gimbals might take a little getting used to, but it never detracted from the viewing experience and actually gave the film a bit of a (possibly unintended) personal touch. Will Musser's score, with its clear overtures toward Vangelis and Jóhann Jóhannsson, is an effective mood setter and helps set the film out from the rest of the DTV crowd. -
purplepopcorn-2173124 September 2020As I know a lot of Christians think because AR White is in it that it's going to be ok for their family and kids and it's NOT!!! I would NOT recommend for kids or anyone!!! This is one of the WORST movies I have ever seen!!!! It was HORRIBLE he was supposed to be showing how having God in your life changes you and instead he goes right back to killing people left and right... HORRIBLY I might add... it's detailed like crazy with the killing... you even see him shot a man and the built goes through the mans back🤢🤢.... The many man "Beckman" is supposed to be a Christian and fallowing God and he makes a movie where he kills people like crazy!! It's disgusting!!!!!! He kills at least 4 guys in less in 10 minutes even after he is a Christian and he does this!!! And then a woman takes a knife and cuts his face just for fun.... This wasn't even a enjoyable movie. We didn't even finish it, it was so bad!! I NEVER want to watch this EVER EVER again.... David A R White REALLY let me and my family down!!!! The only thing good that can out of it was my kids didn't see it... 🤢🤢🤢 this was completely disgusting. It was worse then most worldly movies... I don't like to just want anything especially ones with killing and this was way over the top!! If you don't like to see things like this then don't get this movie you will regret it some as me... I couldn't even finish the movie it was so Gruesome I couldn't finish it....... please please don't watch this... it's NOT A FAMILY MOVIE!!
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oceanrisingproductions23 September 2020As a faith-based film, taking into account that this is an action thriller and dips into Christian themes, I thought the film was good. Actors David White, William Baldwin, and Jeff Halley delivered great performances. The action scenes were very good.. but you will notice that all the action scenes take place in a home, warehouse, etc. and you never once see a car chase with vehicles being damaged, shot at, colliding with one another, etc. which leads into realizing the filmmakers had a limited budget for the film.
I am a Christian, and I used to be a filmmaker that made a faith-based police drama called "Streets of Harvest" and a faith-based supernatural horror film called "The Great Altar." I feel at times we try so hard to push the gospel message into these movies without realizing who are target audience is. (Example: We want to speak the language of the culture to reach the unsaved, but we constantly create a product that only speaks to members of the local church) Well.... Why bother saying you're trying to reach the unsaved if your only audience is Christians? I'm not discrediting these films, but I feel a lot of Christian movies are like that including "God's Not Dead," "War Room," "Facing The Giants" and "Heaven Is For Real," where the film is only catering to the Sunday morning church crowd, and leaves several non-believers turned off.
With "Beckman" I feel this is a good example, at the very least, a step in the right direction to make a faith-based film that appeals to non-Christians without coming across as too preachy. So because of that, I enjoyed this film.
My issues are that, and hopefully I'm wrong, but I feel "Beckman" will only be remembered as a rip off of 'John Wick,' and 'Taken.' If you're looking for originality, you won't find it here, which is sad because there was an opportunity for this to be original and not just a copycat of other action thrillers. Even the pacing for this film, and the way it's edited, makes you feel like they were trying really hard to copy 'John Wick.' Because of this, some viewers may watch 30 minutes of it, then try to find something else to watch or say, "y'know, i'd rather watch John Wick 3 rather than this."
This is just my opinion, but maybe this would make a better plot for a faith-based film, maybe even a sequel or spinoff: Eric Beckman is an assassin who abandons the network, becomes a devout Christian / reverend at his local church, but the agency tracks him down and takes both his adopted daughter and church staff hostage; saying that unless he completes one more assignment, they'll kill his daughter and staff, and he's put into a circumstance where he feels he's going against God, but he also wants no harm to come to his congregation. This leads him on a mission to rescue his daughter, hide his church staff and ultimately going after the higher ups of the Network. Yeah, it may seem cliche, but at the very least, you're not deliberately copying what another filmmaker did.
Anyway, I still believe this is a film worth seeing. Give it a shot rather than passing on it because it seems like a copycat. If you're like me, you're proud of your Christian faith, and you love action thrillers, you should see it. It will have its detractors, but I think it's still worth seeing. -
michaeljkarras18 December 2020I have been a David A White fan for years. This movie was surprising full of action which was well done, especially on such a low budget. I know many Christians seem to not be big fans, but I am not in this camp. David A White's character Beckman, who was a contract killer, changed when he had an encounter with God and then help a girl named Tabitha, portrayed by Brighton Sharbino, who was attempting to flee from a cult. When the leader comes and kidnaps her back into the cult, Beckman goes on a crusade to do whatever it takes to try and get her back. He even goes against his newly founded faith, and goes back to his old way of life. But along the way he has to choose is he the same old Beckman, or has his relationship with Christ, really changed him inside. Although this movie was far from perfect, I do feel it was worth watching and I would give it a 7 out of 10.
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amydvannewkirk17 September 2021Well we just finished this movie after giggling at the trailer and imagining David A. R. White thinking himself a blockbuster action hero. Ooof.
The script was abysmal, the acting was sub-par, but the puffs of blood after every gunshot like they were done by the MS spray-paint effect was a nice touch.
Just get a different haircut already. -
richrichlewis25 September 2020David AR White's and Pureflix worst movie ever. I don't recommend anybody watch this garbage. If you are expecting a Christian movie you won't find it here. Far too much violence, blood and killing. This is a sad day for Pureflix.
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Jim_Nightshade12 October 2020Horrible, just plain horrible, 'nuff said. As other reviewers have already stated, doesn't even rate being called a "B" movie, heck quite honestly it doesn't even rate direct to video!
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Stanlee10730 September 2020Cue the dialogue "I'm beck-man, Aaron Beckman" (*cough*...James Bond). Now you can imagine what type of film this will be.... The protagonist goes from hitman to a preacher & then hitman again after a girl under his charge is kidnapped... It is like they took the worst elements from Taken & John Wick made a film and this is essentially this what you got. It is inoffensive and a throw away film. Some might say it should be more thrown-away than it being made in to a film. It is adequately acted but will not win any awards.
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LordCommandar27 September 2020First off only ignoramuses would think that this is Christian film, that's just asinine. This was an action movie center around a man seeking redemption, vengeance and a struggle with being someone of faith without hypocrisy or contradiction. So all you self righteous zealots go sell all your goods and give to the poor. Back to the movie, a bit too long get to the point but this was a Taken, John Wick and a Boondock Saints surrogate. Good time killer. 3 stars for the effort. BTW, William Baldwin sucks major ass as an actor.
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shafieehtc5 June 2021100% copy of John Wick. Awful script. Very bad game.
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iahoops25 September 2020Interesting movie - this certainly isn't for small children as there is plenty of violence. But for us "seasoned' adults - I liked the movie! I found this action movie entertaining and keep in mind Christianity deals with forgiveness, redemption, and second chances. There's plenty of those things !!!!
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severelybaffled24 April 2021This movie is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It says it's a Christian movie and it seems like it was trying to be message about mercy. When the only person who is shown mercy from the preacher is the cult leader at the very end. You could say, "this is just a realistic struggle of a man and his own inner demons." Christian movies should be about salvation. People have said, "Oh I hope this reaches the kids that like stuff like this." All this is, is a badly done version of the violent movies they've already watched. There is no clear message to be learned. This movie is worse than worldly things, because it poses as a movie that teaches Christian values. I really don't see how this movie would reach any unbeliever.
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amorech20 October 2020Well, I was a bit surprised by it!!!! The message the makers of the movie are trying to convey is very clear, which is very good. At times, it was a bit scary and dark, but is worthwile watching!!! And to fit so much action in an hour and a half movie is quite impresssive!!
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fdhbejta12 October 2020It is a time filler, that's about it. Side note: though it wasn't anything to write home about, it is by far the best PureFlix production.
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aeongale22 September 2020You like action? It has action, some right at the start so your attention span stays intact. Pretty good action too I might add. You like a good story arc? Well, it's alright, hitman turned preacher rescuing a girl from a spiritual guru with some underworld intertwinings. If Baldwin's cult was fleshed out more earlier on it would have been better. He's not really much of a menacing villain, he's a bit of a pacifist but could at least been more threatening psychologically. The padding out of the story between the action makes it just average, the potential was dropped.
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phillymoviereviews6 June 2021#BECKMAN is a direct-to-video 100% unapologetic knockoff of #JohnWick. No detail was left un-copied; someone is definitely getting sued here. That said, I absolutely love John Wick and therefore didn't hate Beckman. Give it a watch if you are curious. @PHLFilmCritic.