User reviews

I can't understand all the glowing reviews here.

Ever watched a local capoeira "fight"? That's how bad the choreography is in this film.

There's also a bunch of annoying scenes with an entitled hateful karen, but supposedly that all turns around when karen manages to lift a tree that the buff warriors collapsed trying to lift.

At best it's half interesting, so half the stars

I knew nothing of the story here. It was certainly worth telling, but especially at the beginning it came across very stagey. The acting was only adequate, with timing and delivery amateurish at times - as these are experienced actors I would have to blame the director and script. It wasnt helped by the cinematography, that used wide shots for many of the speaking parts, emphasising the sense of a stage production. They also made a historical goof with the japanese character complaining about americans trying to open up japan - that only happened 30 years after the events here. But the scenery was lovely

I could've enjoyed it more if it was an short documentary and not a film. Alot of time wasting events added which were unnecessary.

Wow incredible film

still awe-struck. i can't give away the ending.

go see it. out of words.

I saw this film in the theater last weekend and LOVED IT.

I agree with a previous poster that the very curious thing about the people who gave this a '1' is they don't say ONE KIND WORD.

I guarantee you the people who gave this wonderful film a '1' are:

1) Fired crew members, caterers, actors, etc. They have some axe to grind and are taking out their vengeance on this beautiful film

2) Anti-Christ bigots. Need not say more.

3) Angry people who hate the world passed them by and take out their frustrations on educated people who know their history better than they do.

4) Jealous movie critics who've never picked up a camera.

Christian missionaries came to Hawaii and put the fear of God into a people that were otherwise living a very peaceful, natural existence..much like the indians of North America before the expansion westward. Christian missionaries were the worst thing that could have happened to these people's culture...they literally used the fear of God in order to exploit the islands' sandalwood for exportation and for molding its inhabitants into compliance...and yet movies like this are mana for modern day Christians.

Using fear to conquer and subjugate a people in order to use them to your own ends is about as far away from Godly as you can get, let alone something to rejoice in, but here we are.

Reading through some of these fake reviews (anyone who gave this a 5 or higher), are absolutely crazy did they pass around a tablet in church group for people to vote, or did they find christianimdbreviews dot com lol

anyways I watched this movie so you don't have to, avoid bad acting, bad script, bad set, not worth your holy time.

ANY RATING ABOVE A 3 IS FAKE.

I am by no means a Tim Chey fan, as in many of his films I find too much evangelism - every other sentence is Jesus - often unnecessary. I know he's a former atheist, blah, blah, blah. However, with "The Islands" he came up with an extraordinary story that just had to be made known to the general public. This is a powerful woman's story about extraordinary courage. It is one of the best films of 2019. Go check it out. I'm done.

Where did the high reviews cone from? Has to be people associated with the 'film'. It's like a group of Bible bashers have got together on an island and made a low budget film for fun. Terrible all round. Apart from the scenery.

The movie goes much deeper that the title suggests. How can God allow his faithful servants to suffer? Why does He appear to be silent? Why does He not interfere? Why does He not help these Baptist missionaries spread the Christian faith? It is this same question not only the viewer, but the characters struggle with. Does the silence imply God does not exist? The characters, including the Hawaiian leader, are persecuted while facing these questions. And we follow them as they struggle with these questions. Yet, in face of all this, chilling, literally awesome manifestations of the suffering Christ are shown, where He speaks to us. Is it imagination, is it real to the characters?

The movie is excellent to NOT give an answer to these questions, although it is somewhat suggestive. It offers these questions to the viewer, to think of these profound questions himself.

It's rare to encounter a movie which takes such an approach, and dares to address such deeply evangelical themes in such a way to confront the viewer and deeply disturb him.

Why are we not sharing our faith in Jesus with others? We can watch the Super Bowl, yet miss the ultimate Super Bowl of knowing Christ our Lord.

Haunting and incredible film. Highly recommended.

Quite enjoyable as a farcical romp. Mira Sorvino drew me in and her performance showed huge range from almost no emotion at all to over the top crazy happiness, mayby her agent told her she was doing comedy. Take a sip every time an Islander has a full face of makeup and finish your drink when you spot absolutely mismatched hair extensions.

Seriously the best historical film of the modern area with great acting and emotional rollercoastering all the way through. The incredible faith component really propels this film. I would give it a '10'+. See it yourself....

(RATING: 4 out of 5)

THIS FILM IS RECOMMENDED.

IN BRIEF: In the hands of a master filmmaker, Tim Chey has made a beautifully crafted but preachy historical drama.

GRADE: B

JON'S REVIEW: As a non-religious person, I found The Islands to be incredibly thought provoking. The movie grapples with the heavy theme of faith. The movie centers heavily around Kapiolani's character, including voice-overs.

Aside from the plot and themes, the directing, editing, acting, and cinematography are all top notch in this movie. This is a gorgeous movie that shows the time and effort that the director put. Teuira Shanti-Napa deserves much praise for her fantastic portrayal of Chiefess Kapiolani. The Hawaiian/Polynesian actors do a great job with speaking in Native Hawaiian. The movie shows the age and time period of the movie incredibly well with sets and costumes that appear authentic to the period. The only downside to this movie is perhaps its length. For some audiences, the movie could be repeating the points too much and it can be a slow beginning.

Overall I would recommend The Islands to any audience member that is a fan of Chey or a fan of the themes of faith. The movie took much care to show the struggles of faith in the face of oppression.

So amateur, primitive acting, poor scenario, couldn't even continue watching it felt board

Just saw the film on Wednesday night.

.....looking solely at the film, it was done excellently. I dont know many of the details about the Hawaiian history, etc. but I got the sense that they were well researched and accurate. The acting even though in Hawaiian was outstanding. With regard to the way the film was shot and edited, again I think the editor did an excellent job. He used some special effects which I thought were really effective.

Surprisingly, I cried during this movie which doesn't happen that often. (Im a guy and the last time was Good Will Hunting when I was 14). It wasn't during a "religious" moment either. It was at a point that simply showed the love of a friend for another. It was done so well that it had that effect on me.

Because of people's biases and beliefs, you may hear conflicting things about this movie but as an objective viewer, no matter what you believe, its a good, powerful film. Glad my friends took me to see it.

The acting in this movie is amateur at best, its like watching a kindergarten play on the screen.

If you cannot tolerate 90 minutes of christian missionary propaganda and bashing of pagan beliefs and practices to glorify christianity over paganism then this movie is not for you. Anything that conveys that faith in one religion is more powerful than faith in another is nothing but sacrilege.

The only reason I rated this a three is because I know more than half the cast, otherwise it would be less. The story is a cute story, but poorly scripted. The incorporation of the Hawaiian language was great and so beautiful, but toooo long and good many monologues. The filming was subpar. The colouring was totally inconsistent throughout the film and the framing was hard to follow to see who was even speaking. The acting was cringe. There were too many pauses in between characters speaking. We would have walked out within the first 10 minutes if we didn't know everyone and wanted to just see our friends.

......I saw 'the islands' too at a special screening and I sobbed like a baby..........The acting is amazing, and the ending was brilliant. For me, all my guesses were incorrect. Everything that happens in this movie in unpredicted. The last half hour itself was highly unpredictable, and it had a powerful, powerful message. When a scene was meant to be dramatic, they did a great job at it. I don't know about everybody else, but the twist near the end left me sobbing like nothing I've ever felt.......it was the entire mystery of life revealed to my soul. You must watch this film. In fact, forget climbing Mt. Everest, just watch this film. You will feel that same high. The message the movie sent kept me thinking for a while. The amount of courage and bravery was inconceivable, there was barely any faults or anything wrong with the movie. For an independent film with no Hollywood involvement, they did an incredible, stunning job. ................I absolutely guarantee this movie to anybody who enjoys historical and action, but much more importantly faith and God. One of the best, or maybe even the best movie of the 20th century.

I'm not usually the type of person to leave negative reviews on anything. Mama always said if I don't have anything nice to say, keep quiet. However, this movie was no where near what the critics are saying it was. I understand that 98% of the people reviewing are probably Christians, but OMG this movie was just about faith and that's the only reason it's receiving good reviews. The acting was horrible, the story was dry and in the end, the Hawaiian people left their imaginary Gods to accept the imaginary God of their colonizers. Maybe I'm just upset that the colonizers were going on about how barbaric the Islanders customs were and meanwhile, the Americans were still practicing slavery back in the U.S. it was hypocritical to me, and not life changing in any way shape or form.

This movie 'THE ISLANDS' is POWERFUL and life changing. Why is that? Because it does not compromise the Word of God and it is so real. The Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. And again, this movie gives you the Word of God straight up. I highly recommend this movie for everyone but especially those who are looking to grow up in Christ and are ready to sacrifice all for Christ like this Hawaiian queen did in 1821. Run, don't walk to see this film.

This movie screams low budget AF. Although even with low budgets, films can be spectacular. I saw this film the other week when it opened in Hawaii. This movie was so horribly cheesy, with horrible acting, dialogue, and fight scenes. The fight scenes are reminiscent of films 100 years ago. I along with others in the theater were laughing at many parts of this movie. Notice how the YouTube videos of this movie's trailer have comments turned off. Also notice how there's no audio dialogue in the trailer. If there was, I guarantee more people wouldn't see it.

I'm not a Christian, but I still related well with this film after a special screening that my friend took me to. This island queen was so brave facing the majority opposition at the time and the filmmakers are so brave to make this film. Almost heroic.

There are many ignorant and uneducated people who can't get above their religion, culture or race and this is what this island queen did. As I said, I'm not a Christian, but bashing people who believe in Christ seems very fashionable today unfortunately.

A powerful movie, even brutal in deeds, but slowly developing into an enduring story of love and belief. Based on true events of Hawaii's belief changes from their volcano god Pele, to Christianity in the 1820's.

I am a Christian, I love Jesus and I love the Bible, but this movie is bad. The acting is bad, so bad that I can't really comment on the plot of the movie because I couldn't concentrate long enough to follow it. Its like trying to watch a movie with someone scratching their finger nails against blackboard. The 10 star reviews have to be the product of the mothers of everyone involved in the making of this movie, that only a mother could love. I am so sick of these cheesy grade D faith based movies; whatever happened to Christian movies like Ben Hurr, A man for all Seasons and the Ten Commandments.