Saw a screening of Saved! last night. It had gotten good buzz, and the previews looked decent, so I went in with a positive attitude. And yes, while it's better than the recent crap I've had to see (Raising Helen, Soul Plane), it was somewhat of a letdown. They give away most of the funny parts in the preview. It attempts to make Jena Malone's confused teenager a better arguer on Christian faith than her pastor. They try to make Mandy Moore's ultra-religious character the villian, but it's hard to feel bad for her when there's a scene near the end with her crying and praying to God about what to do so that the audience realizes that she is in fact doing what she thinks is right in the eyes of God. Not a bad movie, just not particularly good.
And while my posts too often argue the merits of the Beach Boys, the film's opening with a terrible cover version of "God Only Knows" by Mandy Moore was a travesty. Not only did she suck all the feeling out of the song, but she had the audacity to turn it into a sing-a-long ("God only knows what I'd be without you... COME ON EVERYONE!"). I'm tempted to say something to her about it when she comes to TRL on Thursday... but I think we can all guess how likely that is.