The Story of the First Noel (2004)

Roger Moore narrates this pseudodocumentary carried by Blockbuster but not Netflix. It's commendable for its intentions to present scenes from Biblical lands and reenactments of Biblical events but these fall woefully short because the scenes and reenactments are from modern times -- including metal bowls, souvenir stands, and the like. Worse still, it presumes and even asserts legitimacy for the gnostic gospels then uses them for half of the production to describe a travelog for the Holy Family's return from Egypt, including numerous apocryphal "miracles." It presents Constantine's wife Helena's "discovery" of the "remains" of the three magi as historical fact and spends 15 minutes in a soap-opera-like reenactment of a young couple's parental sorrows. This 90-minute production felt like two and a half hours. 2 stars.