It is fairly clear that the director of this production sat Bruce Marchiano down and told him to laugh and smile at every opportunity – even the inappropriate ones. The Jesus that emerges is a thoroughly likeable human being whom grandmothers would most likely describe as 'lovely'. How he manages to wreck the Temple is anyone's guess.

The Visual Bible's presentation of the Gospel of John is probably one of the best cinematic presentations of Jesus available today, but its problems are those that relate directly to its topic matter.

All four Gospel narratives are used as source material to bring to the screen Christ's passion – the physical, spiritual, and mental suffering of Jesus in the hours prior to and including his trial and execution by crucifixion.

Martin Scorsese's film adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' controversial 1951 novel of the same name contains the central thesis that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance and lust.

Originally conceived in 1945 by young businessman and Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright who wanted to privately finance a film about the life of Jesus Christ that was entertaining, biblically accurate, and which could be translated into non-English languages, this film is based very closely on the Gospel of Luke with most of the film's dialogue coming from there.

This six-hour-plus long miniseries which has aired regularly on network television most Easters since the early 1980s is so thorough that the first hour is devoted solely to the story of Christ's birth.

In a year when many will be reconsidering the character of Jesus, it is worth taking some time to consider the characteristics they may have picked up from the big screen's most famous messiahs.