The novelty alone makes "Beyond the Mask," a rare faith-based film pitched as a swashbuckling action picture set during the American Revolution, worth a look.

It’s got piracy, revolution and ordinary men battling against the original "too big to fail" megalopoly, the British East India Co.

‘BEYOND THE MASK’ Rated: PG Opens Friday at Dole Cannery Stadium 18

There’s also a cameo by the most whimsically secular of the Founding Fathers, Ben Franklin.

An utterly conventional and old fashioned swashbuckler, "Mask" sends a mercenary agent to America, where William Reynolds (Andrew Cheney) takes on a new identity and a new profession. He’s a pastor in the colonies, and not that good. Even his congregants, especially the fetching Charlotte (Kara Killmer of "Chicago Fire"), raise an eyebrow at that. But she doesn’t suspect him of being "the notorious" Reynolds, wanted by the law and a force greater than the law — the East India Co.

"Only God can give us new lives," she opines.

But the swashbuckling vicar’s secret is safe only until the archvillain Charles Kemp (John Rhys-Davies) can find him. And with East India cooking up a teapot full of trouble for the colonies, that won’t be long.

Reynolds flees to Philly, where publisher Ben Franklin finds work for him. Reynolds is soon in the thick of it, as is the lady the vicar once loved.

Progressive casting means there are color-blind roles for actors of color.

It’s a decent plot that doesn’t have the light writerly or directorial touch or proper budget to come off. When you’re relying on Franklin’s new toy, "electricity," to set off bombs, you’d better have convincing effects and there simply wasn’t money for much other than the occasional digital rendering of an 18th-century sailing ship.

Cheney, a veteran of Christian films, has nice presence, and Rhys-Davies ("Raiders of the Lost Ark") makes a formidable villain.

But on the whole, "Beyond the Mask" lacks wit and excitement, though it is intriguing enough to make you hope this team gets to make more films, perhaps spending more money on screenwriting as it does.

Review by Roger Moore, Tribune News Service