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All parent reviews for The Invention of Lying

Age
13
Average rating based on 17 parent reviews:
  • 59% say language is an issue
  • 41% say sexual content is an issue
Adult
October 3, 2009
 
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Your light treatment of the main theme of the movie ("Nothing is sacred -- including religion...") doesn't even begin to describe how ANTI-Christian/ANTI-Religion this movie is. It only masquerades as a comedy to try and mask the obvious attack on God, Christ, Religion, etc. If you really were doing your job...you would have had warnings all over the place about this in your review. I was truly offended by this movie.

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Parent of 15 year old
October 25, 2009
 
Awful, depressing movie
I hated this movie. Let's just say that I walked out when one man yells, "I say f*** the man in the sky." (The man in the sky, by the way, being God.) I'm shocked that CSM, which I usually have the utmost respect for, didn't make more of a point of warning parents about the absolute anit-religious theme in this movie. It basically makes people who believe in religion look like morons. I understand Gervais is an atheist, but people should know that this movie WILL offend people of faith.

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Parent of 10 and 16 year old
March 3, 2010
 
Blantant anti-God and religion message...Beware
Some cute parts in the movie and interesting points about the concept of lying, though the content is appropriate for adults, and confusing for children. Especially since the biggest message in the movie is, God and religion is a lie. Very strong anti-religion message, so beware.

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Parent
January 25, 2010
 
I really funny movie. I laughed so hard when he was announcing the ten commandments. I would recommend this movie for mature teens 13+, but not for anyone super religious that can not take a joke to save their life. Seriously people... its hollywood.

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Adult
May 3, 2010
 
DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!
I did not know anything about this movie, and now I wish I still didn't. Nothing funny in it. This movie was very negative. The people say everything that is on their minds-EVERYTHING! The more hurtful the better. Then, when the main character's mother is dying, she says she is going to an eternity of nothingness. He decdides to "lie" to her and tell her of this wonderful place of love, joy, beauty, etc. They don't use the word "Heaven," but of course that is the inference. As if Heaven is a lie. It just gets worse from there. I was totally shocked at the total disregard for God. I am a Christian and this movie was blatantly disrespectful. I turned it off when someone said "Then f... the man in the sky." I would never recommend this movie to anyone. I would give it negative stars if available.

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Parent of 1 and 5 year old
April 5, 2010
 
Not funny with a negative message
I know that some of the other reviewers touch on what I'm going to say but I feel like I have to write this review anyway. I purchased this DVD after reading the product information on this website. I will admit that I did not read the user reviews and that it turns out I should have. Nothing in the Common Sense review indicated that this movie had such an anti-Christian/anti-God/anti-religious (however you want to put it) message. The main character, having lied once and finding himself in a situation where he must explain his lie, makes up ten rules which he says were given to him by "the man in the sky." The similarities to Moses and the Ten Commandments continue from there. The point is, of course, that God is a lie. I think that Common Sense should have at least a small mention in their "Messages" category about this. The rest of the movie was pretty mediocre as well. Not even 15 minutes into the movie, my husband and I had the discussion that just because the characters couldn't lie it didn't mean they had to volunteer all the negative things they were thinking. And does the inability to lie really make you not care that you were hurting other people's feelings. It was more like they had no inner monologue - to reference Austin Powers. In summary, this movie left me more confused and uncomfortable than amused.

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Parent of 23, 26, and 27 year old
October 12, 2009
 
Love Ricky Gervais. Loved the premise. Loved all the cameos. Hated the story, editing, script, acting in general and the fact I paid $9 to see it. Genuinely hope others enjoyed it more than I did.

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Parent of 9, 11, and 13 year old
February 12, 2010
 
Tread carefully based on your audience!
While it had some very funny and silly moments and yes, could lead to some discussion about believing in yourself and thinking positively, definitely be sure of your audience. In our home we sometimes go up to PG13 movies because we always discuss the bad language as words that we are not allowed to say. And, often, the subtle sexuality is simply chuckled at or goes over our younger one's heads. However, there was nothing subtle about the "masturbate" which was used at least a half dozen times in the first five minutes. We were not ready for that question! It was just thrown right out there and really seemed to be said several times just for the sake of saying it. Our "bad," for not being more aware of what we were putting in the DVD. Just learn from our error and know what you're getting into!

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Parent of 6, 8, and 13 year old
October 12, 2009
 
Really didn't like it at all.

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Parent of 9 year old
October 3, 2009
 
for tweens and up
It was awesome!

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Parent of 6 and 8 year old
May 8, 2010
 
I'd wait until at least age 12, probably 13 even....
I loved this movie...unfortunately due to the language and frank sexual jokes, I won't show it to my kids. Of course it's that stuff that makes it so FUNNY...but once again, not for little kids. Too bad too, because I'd love to show it to them, but due to the content I stated above I just can't.

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Parent of 8 year old
August 23, 2010
 
Sacreligious!
I was so offended by the sacreligious message in this movie. God (referred to in the movie as the "Man in the Sky" was called horrible names. The message was that all of the religious things that we hear about the afterlife were manmade lies and that there is really no life after death. I was als ashamed of Jennifer Garner for some of the content that she took part in as I have been a fan of hers. Do NOT see this movie.

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Adult
April 11, 2010
 
They should not have made this movie
Terrible choice for my daughters. I wish I had not trusted the ratings system.

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Adult
June 11, 2011
 
An excellent movie, with a good message.
It is extremely unfortunate that this movie is slammed so much by conservative Christians. This movie, at its core, is about the silliness of the whole concept of religion. I feel sorry for all of you people who feel offended by references to Moses, and the " f---k the man in the sky" line, and Gervais' resemblance to Jesus near the end of the movie, but all this is how it went down. The fact is that this is how Christianity was founded. I'm not going to get into any detail about this since, after all, i'm reviewing the movie and not your capacity to understand my reasoning. The movie was a very funny movie with many witty and entertaining jokes. In fact, many of the jokes designed with the intent of religious controversy were the funniest in the movie. Overall, if your child is mature, and secure with his or her religion, and you are not a parent who feels it is your responsibly to make your children practice your religion, then it should be perfectly fine for them to watch.

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Adult
October 3, 2011
 
Avoid this movie...
If you are of any faith that believes in God, especially Christianity, skip this movie now. It is blatantly and tactlessly anti-religion. It was infuriating to watch; we had to turn it off. At one point, a man in a mob of people says "I say f*** the guy that lives in the sky!" That was the clincher.

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Parent
January 29, 2010
 

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Adult
January 27, 2010
 
NOT GOOD FOR CHRISTIANS
i walked into this movie simply because i love jennifer garner but came out of the movie extremely offended like i think its enough that kids arent aloud to talk about God in school (because it might hurt other religions feelings) and that we cant say merry Christmas in stores (because its offensive to non-christians) well im a Christian and i am extremely offended that they would make a movie saying God is a lie the thing is Canada ,USA,and the UK are all Christian countries and personally i dont think a movie offending our heritage should be alloud to play in theatres and know what go ahead and think im rude for saying this but if people with other religions are offended by merry Christmas i think i have the right to be offended by a mocury of mine

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