Simply A Masterpiece

Admirable film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

My previous review mentioned that Corbin Bernsen's name was spelled wrong in the opening credits. For that I gave the movie a one star review, but admitted I hadn't finished watching it. Well, now I have.I'm giving it 7 stars to bring my average rating up a bit (I figure that makes it somewhere around 4), because the movie wasn't a total waste of time. It's still unforgivable that one of the stars of the film got his name misspelled in the credits, but there is some value in sticking it out to the end. Yes, it's unoriginal, a bit bland, and the utterly predictable ending arrives suddenly, and is completely unbelievable and not a little eye-rolling. But the acting was above average for this kind of film, and it does serve to remind Christians that, even in a society supposedly founded on biblical principles, it is fast becoming a toxic environment and it now requires an act of courage to publicly admit to their beliefs.Of course not all atheists behave as some of them did in this movie, but you don't have to look far to find ones who do. Christian bashing has become acceptable and even something of a sport. I find it interesting that most of the worst reviews were written by atheists who strongly objected to the portrayal of fellow nonbelievers. They are right to assure us that not all atheists act like hot headed cavemen, but it does make me wonder why so many avowed atheists are even watching such a film as this. What do they expect to get out of it?And that's the thing that makes this film ultimately fail, as do most Christian themed films, unfortunately. They are forever preaching to the choir, and no one ever seems to find the budget - or the chutzpah - to make the kind of unexpected, challenging, eye opening film that really makes thoughtful, questioning, open minded people sit up and take notice. These films are like Christian rock music - too timid and too frightened of giving offense to make themselves in any way memorable. It's too bad.But if you like vanilla movies like this and are part of the choir that likes to be preached to, I can at least say that I've given up on countless yawnfest movies of this genre, and this one I was actually able to watch to the end.

I watched this movie for a podcast that reviews religious movies, most up until now, although terrible have at least been somewhat entertaining.This piece of crap was so boring, so poorly written and acted that I nearly crapped myself when I saw it had a 5.4 IMDb score.Stephen Baldwin, much like Kevin Sorbo is a born again Christian that has some how created a caricature in their heads of what an atheist is and for some reason people encourage them to make films about this delusion.At least Kevin Sorbo can somewhat act, Stephen Baldwin looks and sounds like a bloated wooden whale corpse that smoked way too much weed and is totally trying to pretend that he is not high but everyone knows he is and just humors him because of how sad his career and acting ability has become.Don't watch this crap, it is insulting to everyone and I hope every person involved with this is ashamed of themselves.

Another outstanding faith-based movie. Stephen Baldwin is an excellent actor who has been in quite a few Christian movies. A lot of times there are Christian movies that have sub-par acting. This is definitely not one of them. I appreciate the story line of the movie as it's something that our culture has endured for decades. Yes, it is a bit predictable in some parts yet it's still a fantastic movie to watch. I liked that they showed the main character as a real person, dealing with raw emotions.If you're a believer in Jesus then you should really enjoy this movie. If you're not a believer, then be prepared to meet Jesus through this movie.

For some reason this was on Netflix and for some other reason my lady decided we should watch it so we could have a laugh at the expense of discount God's Not Dead. And make no mistake when I write those words, don't take it lightly, people: this is *discount* God's Not Dead. In every way shape and form this is about some alternate reality called Super-Scaredy-Cat-Christian-Pants land where the filmmakers see Christians as oppressed and all atheists as hard-headed scumbags who want to stop all of these good-hearted (sometimes, as in this case, seemingly broken) people from just practicing their religion in schools or colleges or who knows what else! I mean, come on, people! The problem here is that this has Stephen Baldwin. Let that also sink in: Stephen Baldwin, who has the voice of brother Alec, but his face looks like it's been run over by several angry water-buffalo and reconfigured to have the same expression all the time - even post car accident scene where character's wife dies in one of those goofy car accidents with him saying "my love" and "babe" in unconvincing ways - and he is the lead in this story that's supposed to be some inspiration pap about him overcoming his wife's death by setting up an *afterschool* Bible club. And the problem is.... huh? Oh, yeah, there's a couple of high schoolers who want to mess with the guy by making up some stuff in the Bible club, and then one guy (who you know is meant to be sexy to Baldwin's daughter because, oh God, his HAIR man!) who's father with the glued-on beard(!) is all against them because... FAITH MAN!The conflicts here are wholly unconvincing - maybe also HOLY unconvincing too! Puns aside, this is such bland material, all acted and meant to be with sincerity, but it's badly performed and written and directed with a taste for dumb montages showing, uh, jogging, and, again I must stress here, STEPHEN BALDWIN! I think I could let his less than one dimensional character/performance go if there was something else to latch on to, some actor or person with a heart-beat with some craziness or personality or screen presence (i.e. God's Not Dead, much as that is an insulting mess, has Kevin Sorbo who makes the antagonist someone to reckon with). Here everything is so soft and safe but it's nevertheless a piece of tripe on just its filmmaking - even if you agree with this message (with, well, should I argue with that, we'd be here all night), the actual *cinema* part of it, that it's a 90 minute filmed piece of entertainment, fails on those grounds.I frankly couldn't even finish this, so I can't tell you how it ends. If you get to a product like God's Club and it flatlines at minute one, odds are good it won't get a heartbeat. And lo and behold, this was unable to resuscitate even as a fun-bad movie. It's just... boring.