Life on the Road

Okay, time to get caught up with the movies we’ve been watching! 

Let me start by quoting a review posted on Amazon that I enjoyed:

There are basically 10 reasons “Facing the Giants” is a movie that every family in America should watch together:

#1. This is a movie about overcoming great obstacles, something every family faces.
#2. This is a movie that does not rely on sex, violence, or profanity to carry a weak or boring plot.
#3. This is a movie that examines the relationships between family members, and offers sound Biblical advice on how to make those relationships more successful.
#4. This is a movie void of famous actors with large egos to build upon, which means cast was able to focus on the overall production and not worry about the performance of one actor or actress.
#5. This is a film that stirs all kinds of emotions and can definitely clean out clogged up tearducts.
#6. This is a movie with some great football action scenes that rival any larger, Hollywood, big-budget film.
#7. This is a movie written and produced by Christians dedicated to their work of reaching out to a lost world with the message of hope and love.
#8. This is a movie that celebrates the power of the human spirit to rise above what we think is possible.
#9. This is a movie that just seems to have the Lord’s blessing on it throughout the post-production, production, and distribution.
#10. The DVD has many extras that give the viewers a taste of the amazing character and the pure hearts of the people who helped make this film a success!

I’ve just listed 10 very good reasons to purchase “Facing the Giants”. It is not my goal to write a review of this movie that spoils the plot, declares one actor better than an other actor, or compares the storyline to another movie.

My review is to let anyone who reads it know that this is a movie worth owning and sitting down to view with the family.

I was very interested when I heard that this film was made by a church - including the cast!  Knowing this I was expecting something quite amateurish, and thus I was pleasantly surprised.  Is it going to win an Oscar?  No.  Is it a good movie, that made me cry?  Yes.

Some of the Amazon reviews protested that the plot ”pray, and everything works out well in the end” is doing a disservice to our faith — of course in real life, even when you pray, bad things do happen.  You know what?  IT’S A MOVIE!  In Hollywood films the Good Guy always emerges victorious through his own efforts and abilities, in Christian films the Good Guy emerges victorious through God’s blessing.  Nobody, Christian or not, wants to watch a depressing movie about people with miserable lives…

One Night With the King is something really special - a Bible story that they made into a movie that’s just a neat story even from a totally secular point of view.  Again, not and Oscar contender, but a good movie for family night.  It’s not preachy, or even “religious” … (but the good message is in there!)

Please, go rent or buy this, and support filmmakers who do stuff like this!

I put off seing The Pursuit of Happyness, not sure I was up for something Hollywood sappy.  I like Will Smith, though, from my knowledge of him as a person, as well as an actor.  And how cute is it to do a father/son picture with his son??

Once again, a pleasant surprise.  Okay, it IS about The Triumph of the Human Spirit, but it’s about making tough choices, doing what it takes, and loyalty to your family - and yeah, God is even in there.  The name comes from a misspelled mural on the side of the China Town daycare, and throughout the film he muses on the Declaration of Independence’s statements about happiness. 

Predictable?  Yeah.  But like I said about Facing the Giants, how far can you stray when you know the happy ending is coming?  It wasn’t bad, like the cheese-ball films where I predict the next line and say it with the actors!  ICK!

3 for 3 Thumbs Up…  Quite a good streak, after our last movie-viewing debacle.