Perhaps riding on the heels of the well executed and sensitive, Sixth Sense, comes the newest wannabe in the paranormal gaieties, Bless this Child.
Alas, Bless the Childis just that, a wannabe; it is not in the same league as "Sixth Sense." It reveals that Jesus, presumably, has returned to earth in the form of a little girl (Holliston Coleman) who is abandoned by her drug addicted mother(Angela Bettis) and raised from an infant by Aunt Maggie ( Kim Basinger).
Things are going swimmingly for Maggie raising her niece until one day her younger sister and her evil husband, both practitioners of the occult, return to claim the child. Things do perk up here, though, as an occult expert FBI agent ( Jimmy Smits) enters the picture. And then all hell breaks loose in a Devil vs. God scenario.
According to some reviewers, it's not the acting, it's the plot that renders the movie less than wonderful. However, there are worse things to look at than Kim Basinger and Jimmy Smits, and the action is non-stop.
It is directed by Chuck Russell, and rated R for violence, drugs and,( here we go again), brief language.
It starts Thursday at Diamond Cinemas