Tag Archives: Christian

The Little Troll Prince Review

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Now this is a special that I haven’t seen in a very long time. The Little Troll Prince is one of those wholesome stories that is fairly quick but covers a lot of ground. Bu may not be the most intense main character out there but he does serve his role well in learning about the true meaning of Christmas. This is a special I could really recommend to anybody.

The story starts by spoiling the ending though as we see how Bu is living a happy life. He lets the audience know that he used to be sad though as he grew up as a troll. The rest of the special is a flashback as we go back to the troll world and learn that they are taught from early on to be as mean as possible. The Trolls are a very cruel people and Prince Bu is the only one who wants to be nice. The school is desperate to knock that out of him though and Bu’s father is certainly upset about this. The other trolls decide to take Bu out of the picture permanently by sending him off to be eaten by the humans.

Fortunately for Bu the humans aren’t so bad. Otherwise he was completely tricked and dominated in this encounter though. Unfortunately while being nice is a good trait, Bu also ended up being naïve which did make it easy to put him in a bad position here. In a way I was surprised that the film didn’t end with him going back to the troll world in order to rehabilitate them. Instead he sort of rolls with the idea that goodness turned him into a Gnome and he’s just happy that it all worked out.

I would say the side characters end up standing out a little more than Bu here. Bu has a good singing voice here and he does his best to be a good prince while not succumbing to the way of the trolls. At the same time, he’s a bit too timid and there isn’t a whole lot to him. I enjoyed the King because he was actually concerned for his son but was stuck within the negative trolls framework.

So his only idea for helping Bu out was to be mean because that’s the only way that he knew. The King even went to the school personally to try and figure out what was going wrong. He was in Bu’s corner the whole time so I appreciate that. The Queen was a whole lot less sympathetic as she just considered Bu to be a failure and wasn’t going to defend him at all. It shows the completely different approaches that both of them had to this situation.

Then you have the two kids in the human world who got to explain things to Bu. They did a good job of rejecting all his arguments about how the trolls were beyond saving. They basically told him to stop being silly and listen to their points. They also explained the true meaning of Christmas being about the birth of Jesus Christ and instilled within Bu some true life lessons. Without them, Bu would still have been in a rather rough place.

The special does a good job of balancing the adventure with also being a more educational special where it talks quite a bit about the Bible and Jesus. It’s the kind of thing you don’t see a whole lot of nowadays so that was a really nice touch. It’s the small things like this which help to take the special to the next level. Surprisingly we don’t have a huge bombastic climax but I guess this special didn’t really need that. No need to promote violence here when the whole point is about Bu finally learning a better way.

The animation is pretty solid. It has a very traditional style that works well and reminds you how good the hand crafted style is. It holds up better than some modern titles which is absolutely a huge inditement on them. This style isn’t going for anything fancy but has strong fundamentals across the board.

As for the soundtrack, the songs could be a bit catchy at times. I actually liked the song Bu had about how cruel the trolls were. He sings it really fast to the point where it is almost hard to keep up but I liked the lyrics and he showed just why trolls could not be underestimated. It was all handled rather impressively if you ask me since I don’t always enjoy these old songs.

Overall, This is a pretty good special. It may be under an hour but they still cram in quite a few characters and the world building is solid. The special doesn’t try to show how the trolls are just misunderstood, but instead their society is just built completely different than the humans. It’s really interesting and also when you consider how close it is to the humans base. Perhaps one day the two sides will meet and things will get really intense but if not, you still have the lore here and can imagine how it all plays out. If you haven’t seen the special before, I would definitely recommend checking it out. I think you’ll be surprised at how fun it can be.

Overall 7/10

The Passion of the Christ

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This write up is of the TV-14 version. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time to look at one of the most famous adaptions of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. I would even go as far as to say it’s probably got the number 1 spot on lock there. It’s really nice to see a movie like this get so mainstream. It may not be my personal favorite adaption but it definitely does show what a massive burden he had to endure for humanity’s sins.

The movie starts with Jesus being betrayed by Judas and what follows is close to 2 hours of him being beaten and tortured until his eventual murder. There are quick flashbacks to his life and important moments mixed into this but make no mistake, the focus is really on his final hours. I can’t think of any film I’ve seen with this long length of nonstop violence. Films like Transformers are famous for very long action scene but to call this an action scene would definitely be misleading. This is a complete beatdown/torture for hours, not a string of different fight scenes so you definitely don’t want to get that mixed up.

Throughout the movie you know that Jesus has the power to save himself but is showing restraint because his death needed to happen here. It’s what makes all of the scenes that much more powerful since it would be one thing if he was completely helpless but putting up with all of this when he could end it all in an instant is really something. Along the way you naturally have Satan trying to tempt him and also showing up to mock as much as possible.

His demons also make quick work of Judas. One of the annoying things is always how Satan can freely use his abilities whenever he pleases while Jesus has to show restraint but that’s how it has to be for now. In the end Christians will get the final victory and it’s all about trying to survive until then. It isn’t easy and it will be a long road but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel. That really should provide some comfort although it is often easier said than done.

The main thing to remember is your Earthly life is essentially a series of long trials. It’s a race with an unknown goal and so you have to not only survive the race but not lose your faith along the way. If you are able to do this then you will be in Heaven in the end. If you are not able to do this, then Hell awaits which is an unfathomable punishment even greater than the tribulations you see in this film. It is quite literally the highest stakes imaginable and so you have to really do your best to not let it overwhelm you. Just take it one day at a time and the Lord will be with you.

Now like I mentioned this isn’t my favorite adaption because to me the whole thing is a little too narrowly focused. Without the context from the Bible, it’s not as if this film is really going to be speaking to you all that much. In that sense it’s impressive that the film is releasing with a real specific target of reaching Christians and being a visual aid. On the other hand, there is no real goodness in almost any of the characters. The beatings and torture also go on for such an incredibly long amount of time that there is virtually no plot for most of the film.

It’s just like pulling up footage of someone being beaten and it goes on for a long time without the guy being able to fight back. It’s just going to be a hard watch and you question how effective it can really be. The movie also does add a lot of effects to make this almost like a horror film at times but then it jumps right back to the shock value violence. I understand that plenty of people have seen this film and enjoyed it so I suppose I can’t say it had no positive effect. Still, you get more out of the toned down versions that focus on the surrounding events as well like He is Risen. Or ultimately just reading your Bible is still and always will be the best resource since you are reading The Word directly.

Overall, The Passion of the Christ is a film showing a very important moment in history. The brutality that Jesus went through was absolutely extraordinary and he did not falter in his divine mission. Ultimately it is thanks to him that we have a path to Heaven through believing in him. I won’t fault anyone for skipping the film though due to the extreme levels of violence. At the end of the day this is a way to reach more people but as long as you read through your Bible and have a good understanding of the events then you are still all set. The ending is definitely handled really well, you can see how the sequel will pick things up from here.

Sound of Freedom

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This film certainly made a lot of waves when it was coming out. It deals with the rather heavy themes of human trafficking and goes very in depth with the subject. So this isn’t meant to be a fun watch by any means but more of an instructional one. Always keep your guard up and be careful out there. You need to be careful not to let your kids out of your sight with any strangers and even with people you know unless you are 100% confident that everything will be okay. Villains lie around every corner.

The film follows a guy named Tim who works for Homeland Security and his main job is really about finding podophiles across the country. Sometimes he is able to save some of the victims as well but typically they are taken across the border so there isn’t much more that the country can officially do about it. One day he plays the long game with one of the villains to get his trust and manages to actually save some of the victims. One of these victims explains that his sister is still being held captive and so Tim decides that this time he is going to see the mission all the way through. He will have to go to Columbia and so he loses the support of the homeland since this is out of his jurisdiction. Tim’s officially gone rogue and will have to use all of his skills to take these guys down.

There isn’t a lot of action for most of the film as it’s really about Tim having to set up a trap for these guys. He plays nice with the locals and has to act the part for a while. The idea is to build a giant building filled with kids to get all of the villains around and of course one of those kids might be the girl that he’s looking for. Of course it’s a very risky endeavor as well because if he gets taken out of the picture, now there is a new base for the villains. Also he has to wait until all of the kids land and so the first ones who get into the island are in the most amount of danger.

I’d say the main weakness that the film runs into is that since Chris has to pretend to be evil for most of the film, it feels like the majority of the film is just villains chatting with each other and talking about evil subjects. The dialogue is just hard to listen to even when nothing is happening. Then the film is fairly graphic in detail about what’s going on here and the main character barely manages to get there in time. One character’s origin is another tragic one about being with a minor when he didn’t even realize it.

Basically, this film is unrelentingly dark at all times. There’s never really any time for happy scenes here. Sure there may be a smile once in a while but only the very ending is actually happy. That’s a long time that you have to sit through to get to that point. For any film the objective for me as a viewer is to have fun. If you’re not having fun then the entertainment part of the genre is being lost and that’s always a problem. I would have preferred if the film has just dramatized things a bit and been more of an action thriller where he went around shooting everyone and saving the day. Of course you can only take so many liberties when being based off of a real event.

The takeaway here is to do your part in trying to make the world a better place. Be careful which organizations you donate to since tons of them are scams and just redirecting the money but find one that is actually helping and contribute. It can feel a bit futile at times with how much corruption there is in the world but we’ll be stuck here a while longer and every single person you can help is one less person being hurt or becoming a victim. Even if the film itself may be a little too daunting to check out, you can always do research online on ways to help.

Overall, Sound of Freedom is definitely an intense film. I do think that it goes too far to illustrate the points of the dark fates that go to anyone who has been trafficked. We understand implicitly what happens at that point without needing to see the whole leadup to it and aftermath. In a standard film that I’d review, going this far in depth would net you the immediate 0. This film is based on a true story so there’s no score and these kinds of films tend to have much more content since you can get away with more in that context. It’s why you can have documentaries and such with enough content to be an easy R just get a standard PG since it’s in a scientific context. As long as this film can inspire more people to support the cause of keeping everyone safe then that’s a good thing.

Overcomer

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It’s time for a film about overcoming the hurdles and problems in your life so the title is certainly very appropriate. It’s definitely a solid movie and probably one of the only track and field titles I’ve gotten to check out. It’s definitely a tough sport as you’re really all alone and can only go as far as your body can take you. In that ways it has to be one of the sports with the fewest variables. You’re either fast enough to pull this off or you aren’t.

The movie starts with John getting excited because his Basketball team should be ready to go all the way next year. Unfortunately that dream is quickly taken away as the school isn’t doing very well with funding and jobs are drying up so everyone ends up leaving the school. John doesn’t really have a Basketball program anymore and so Principal Olivia tells him to coach up Track and Field now. There’s only one person who tried out for the team though, Hannah. John isn’t thrilled about this because 1 person does not make a team…except he’s then reminded that you only need 1 person for Track. Hannah has asthma though which is a significant hurdle to winning and John just isn’t very motivated right now. Can they both overcome these issues to win this thing?

So at first John may not be the most supportive but I’d say the film writes him well. He’s not being completely unreasonable or rude or anything like that. He just really was crushed because he’s taught Basketball all his life and finally had a chance at winning. It’s easy to see why he would be a little dismayed right now. I would also say he turns to taking Track pretty seriously before too long so it’s also not like he was out of it for half the film. By the time he met with Thomas at the hospital I’d say John had started to settle into his role as coach.

Learning tips from an ex-runner was a really good way for him to help coach up Hannah too. Thomas also helped John reawaken his Christianity. While John had never left per say, Thomas showed him that this wasn’t quite as high up in his priorities as it should have been. It took John a while to say that he was a Christian for example. From there on John started praying more and things got better there. He even tried running with the team a bit although that’s one trial he probably doesn’t need to subject himself to more than once.

John’s wife Amy is always very supportive as well. She does her best to encourage him with the Track and Field program and also tries to cheer up Hannah. It’s always good to have someone in your corner and just her presence certainly made things easier on John. Principal Olivia was also a solid character. Now she couldn’t help as directly most of the time because of her position but she would at least try to sow some seeds to help things work out. She talked with Hannah, warned the leads that Hannah’s grandmother Barbara might try to stop them, etc.

As for Barbara, she’s the main antagonist here but definitely another reasonable one. She had to live first-hand with how Thomas wrecked their lives. He had a rough history involving drugs and so it’s not super easy to forgive that. Even though he says that he’s better now and is in a condition where he can’t do any more damage, it’s just hard to forgive and forget. So she really tried to keep Hannah away from him to the point where she told the girl that her father was dead. That way they would likely never meet and if not for the coincidence of John meeting Thomas in the hospital it wouldn’t have even happened. Barbara planned well in that respect.

Then you have Thomas who is in a serious condition at the hospital. He’s lost his eyesight and doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of time left to live. He’s introduced as a very nice but lonely guy from the start. He doesn’t have any visitors at the hospital. Mix that in with the fact that he can no longer see and it’s really been a tough experience for him. It’s hard to even imagine having to live like that for a long period of time. Nobody to talk to and nothing to see? Yeah the film did not hold back at all with his trials here. Fortunately he was able to find God and became a Christian so while his life has been a really rough one, he’ll get to finally experience the joy he missed in Heaven.

He also got to meet up with Hannah before dying so he had some good memories to end life with. These times were brief but at least it happened. It would have been a little too tragic if he had parted before that could happen. As for Hannah, she naturally has a tough time with this as well. It’s difficult to live your whole life thinking your father’s dead only to find out he’s been around the whole time. The hospital even seems to be fairly close. Ultimately she does decide to talk rather than bottling it all in and this helps her be a better person. During the film there was a bit of a subplot where she’s a thief and this helps her break away from that.

Once Hannah becomes a Christian she stops stealing things altogether. The plot didn’t really add anything to the film so I sort of feel like it could have been cut out though. I think the whole plot was only here so we could have some objective way to see how she was acting better now. The concept behind that is good but it was just treated like such a minor thing throughout the film that I feel like it could have been removed. Ultimately all of the characters are in a better place by the end of the film than when they started.

Overall, Overcomer is a pretty solid film. The ending might make you a bit sad for one of the runners just with how things turned out though. It’s always best to win or lose right at the results screen but when your really think you’ve won, only to have it taken back a few minutes later definitely stings. I would have just made the winner immediate to avoid that. If you’re looking for a solid film of inspiration then this is a good one to pick up. It’s certainly got its sad moments but on the whole it’s a light hearted film that should fill you with good vibes.

The Nativity Story

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It’s time to check out The Nativity Story. Considering that this one got to claim this title you can say that it’s seen as the definitive film adaption of this moment in time. It’s definitely got very solid production values and they did well to adapt everything here. There’s a lot of attention to detail throughout each part of the movie and no corners were cut here. The movie has definitely aged well and of course it’s always nice to see the events of the Bible played out on the big screen.

The film really focuses a lot on Mary and her coming to terms with all of this. Initially she did not even know Joseph and the whole arranged marriage came really suddenly. Mary was understandably not a fan of this but ultimately goes along with it so as not to disappoint her family. What makes matters tricky for her is that she ends up being pregnant with Jesus despite not having any affairs. It is difficult to actually convince anyone of this though so her reputation is shot. It’s definitely a rather difficult burden that she has to bear in the meantime.

Same with Joseph as he is pressured by the customs to out Mary and have her stoned. He decides not to do this of course and makes the heroic choice of keeping this to himself but for a while he doesn’t totally believe her either. It’s definitely something that is tough to believe, particularly since he was well aware that she was not happy about the marriage initially. Fortunately things turn out for the best and they manage to finally get along by the end. Usually in the films we cut to the end when Jesus is born and the 3 Wise Men appear so this was a bit of a change of pace with how the focus was on the earlier events. The birth doesn’t happen until near the very end of the film and isn’t the main subject this time.

So I would say the main theme of the film was faith. Ultimately each character needed a whole lot of that to survive here. Joseph had to have faith in Mary telling him the truth and overcoming the dreams he would have. Mary had to have faith that she actually saw the angel and everything was as foretold, etc. Without faith none of the characters would have been able to make it to the end. Even the Wise Men needed this or else they may have lost sight of the star and ended up giving up on the journey halfway.

They are the comedic plot of the film as they bicker a lot and have a lot of fun on the way there. You can tell that the 3 of them are good friends and are close enough to mess with each other like that. Fortunately they’re also wise enough not to tip off the king about exactly where Jesus was and just keep on moving. I’ll give the film credit for not making the King quite as obvious about how evil he was compared to other adaptions. He also felt like a very imposing figure with how he threatened his only son and showed how he has stayed in power for so long. Definitely not someone you want to get in the way of.

This is an adaption everyone can be proud of. It sticks close to the scriptures and I wouldn’t say any of the scenes felt like they didn’t belong. Naturally the film does need to expand on some scenes and throw in a lot of extra moments to pad out the runtime, but it was never anything that made you feel like the writers were messing things up. I get the feeling they did a lot of research here and likely collaborated with scholars to learn more about the customs and how a day to day life would have been like. There are a lot of people who make a career out of that so you could definitely get some good background elements this way.

While the events in the Old Testament were massive and living through them would have been quite the experience, it’s also abundantly clear that it would have been a very difficult age to live in. The film shows in detail just how tough life was on everyone there. Food was scarce and you could always count on thieves and soldiers showing up to erase all of your hard work. There were no modern conveniences and walking for miles was a normal thing. There was no part of daily life that was easy and it’s really something to think about. We have the privilege of knowing everything from the future as opposed to living through it. We all face trials and they would be different in the past compared to the present but I’m personally glad I’m in a future era. Naturally it’s moot since if I grew up back then I wouldn’t know the difference since it would seem normal to me but I’m rather used to this era.

Overall, The Nativity Story is a really solid Christian film. It’s a good adaption of the birth of Jesus Christ and serves as more of a prequel compared to most adaptions. There’ a lot going on here and each of the characters gets a lot of development. They spared no expense on the visuals and soundtrack throughout the film. It’s all a very impressive production here and with Easter quickly approaching it’s always a good time to reminisce about the birth of Jesus Christ. That would ultimately lead to the Resurrection and then bring us up to the current date. Now’s a great time to watch the film as well as any time. Just as it has held up over all these years, I expect it will continue to do so as the years go by. It’ll be difficult to make a more detailed adaption of the Nativity.

Facing the Giants

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Facing the Giants is a film I saw a very long time ago before the blog days. Well, now I have rewatched it and the movie holds up well. It’s a solid drama story with the main characters being put through a lot of trials in their faith but ultimately they are able to overcome them and get even closer to God by the end. While you can likely see all of the story beats coming in advance, this isn’t really meant to be a film of twists and turns so the execution is what counts here.

The movie starts by introducing us to Grant who has been having a rough time. His Football team has been losing so many games for years and years. Just having a mediocre season is the best that they have been able to pull off. This is causing Grant to lose a lot of standing with the fathers whose kids are losing their time to shine here. Meanwhile Grant isn’t doing much better at home. He and his wife Brooke have been unable to have a kid for a while, their car is broken down, and the house is in poor condition. It seems like everything around Grant is falling apart and even his faith is now strained. Is there any chance at a comeback?

There is also a sub plot where a kid named David is interested in joining the Football team but he’s worried that he will fail. He figures that if he doesn’t join then he can’t possibly lose but his grandfather pushes him to try anyway. David ultimately makes the team but now he’s scared about actually kicking. Can he manage to go past his fears? There isn’t a ton of time for the subplot but ultimately David steps up eventually. It’s a tricky situation for Grant though because the team does already have a great kicker. Considering how bad the team is, he was probably hoping that David would be playing a different position. He makes sure to give David his chance to shine though which is good.

The movie’s got good pacing and goes quickly. My only issue/weakness for the movie is I think the drama aspects can be overplayed a bit. Grant’s various sad moments just don’t land for me in that I think he goes overboard. If the movie dialed down the sad scenes a little bit I think that would be for the best. The deck is certainly stacked against Grant but he just keeps on doing the right things and it pays off.

The turning point for the team is when they decide to finally start playing for God instead of focusing on wins. This way they’ll stay happy whether they win or lose. The team certainly has a lot more motivation after that as they start dominating on the field. Ultimately to put that to the test I would have kept the ending without the plot twist near the end. It would still have been a happy ending with how far they made it in the season without it feeling a bit cheesy. The very final game just seemed like a stretch.

Low key, the team’s defense was actually really good though. So in the first game we see in the movie, Grant’s team fumbled 4 times and threw 3 interceptions. So if you’re counting that’s 7 turnovers yet the final score had them losing 21-7. So their defense was absolutely rock solid in stopping them each time because otherwise the score should have been far greater. I like to think it shows that the team did have some talent, they just couldn’t turn that into points on the other side. So by the end of the film both sides were finally playing well and it made a difference.

Meanwhile Brooke had to deal with her share of trials as well since she really wanted a kid too. She goes through a lot of tests and is always hoping that things will be different. While I don’t think taking the individual tests to see who is at fault was a good idea (Puts unnecessary guilt on whoever is not performing) you can see how desperate she was. Ultimately things turn out well for her.

So the movie definitely has a happy ending for everyone. Someone even gets a new vehicle and along the way one kid’s relationship with his father is mended. Each character certainly has a lot to be thankful for. We get a lot of fun Football scenes as well so this was definitely a quality title. The title itself was also clever as it means a few different things as you watch the movie. A versatile title is nice because it shows that they really thought hard before selecting it. Sometimes a title just feels thrown on without having a whole lot to do with the movie.

Overall, Facing the Giants is a solid movie. It’s well balanced with the writing and trials that the characters have to go through. Grant may overdo it a bit with his reactions but you know that things will turn out fine in the end. Ultimately he made the right choice in having the kids learn to accept the result whether it be victory or defeat. They would place everything in God’s hands and what will be, will be. There won’t always be a happy ending but you just have to stand strong through to the end.

Left Behind II: Tribulation Force

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In Left Behind 2 the situation continues to grow more dangerous for the heroes. Nicolae has gotten even more support so he now effectively runs the free world and has full access over the media. This makes it more difficult to stop him and the heroes also have the knowledge that they can’t stop him. How should they proceed now and will this cause tensions among the group? They will have to pray that they make the right decisions or their Tribulation Force will be over before it has truly begun.

The first film ended with the heroes having some hope here because they did manage to get a moral victory with Buck becoming a Christian so he can not be deceived by Nicolae’s persuasive abilities. This film also has a similar kind of tone to it as the heroes know they cannot win the war so they have to secure smaller victories in the meantime. Every life they save is a big accomplishment in itself so they have to keep on trying their best and taking as many risks as needed.

Why have they accepted defeat in terms of stopping Nicolae? Well, the reason actually makes sense. The events are playing out exactly as they were foretold in the Bible which is what helped get the main characters into becoming Christians. As such, they know that what is written has to come true which means that the Anti Christ will come to power and the temple will be rebuilt. The main characters then know that these events have to happen but it’s possible they can at least slow things down or convert more people in the meantime. It comes down to the classic debate where if you know what the future holds and can’t change it, are your other actions all predestined as well so no matter what you choose, the end result is the same?

Well to keep it brief, while the future will happen as foreseen by God, there’s no way for anyone to actually know the future. (You can safely ignore fortune tellers and such for that reason) Not to say God can’t enhance someone with future sight as done in the past but there’s no way to tell if someone is scamming you or not. If they say they know when he is coming back then you know it’s a scam because the Bible makes it clear that nobody would know. As for any other predictions, I would still ignore them since it’s safer to just accept that the future is unknown outside of what’s written in the Bible.

So going back to the characters, they still have to try their best because regardless of how the future will play out, they don’t know what’s going to happen so going in half heartedly is not the way to do it. You do understand why Rayford doesn’t want to be driving Nicolae around though. Being the personal driver for the Anti-Christ is not something you want on your resume but ultimately I was on Bruce’s side here. Now if Nicolae starts asking Rayford to commit some actual crimes then it’s time to draw the line. This connection comes in handy almost right away too.

Rayford takes some rather extreme risks the whole time though. He has no real subtlety when going around and downloading files from the computer. It works out but you do feel like he should have done a smoother job of the whole thing. In general Rayford looked good here. He helped to patch things up with Chloe and Buck while also doing on all kinds of missions so he was really busy here.

Buck’s the other main hero and things are also tough for him the whole time. Being a reporter and having to be at the front lines every time with Nicolae watching his every move has to be unnerving. There was a really random scene though where there’s a new boss at his company who wants to give him a hard time. Fortunately his old assistant showed up in time to defend him but the whole thing felt random. Nicolae really wants Buck on his side so you feel like the company would have gotten the memo. Imagine if Buck was fired there? That would have thrown Nicolae’s plans for a loop and it just seemed odd that this would even come close to happening.

That’s the one scene that felt really out of place in the movie. As always Buck fought through it though and keeps having a critical role throughout the movie. Then we have Chloe who has a much bigger role in this film but unfortunately it’s not a good one. She is mainly used to add a big romance/drama subplot which wasn’t needed. She gets jealous quickly, doesn’t listen or give Buck a chance to explain and hurts the team’s morale. It feels like she took the longest to really get on board with what’s going on and you would have thought she would have made more progress by now. At least things are squared away by the ending so she should be good in the third film but I’d definitely be cool with the subplot vanishing. I don’t think this is the perfect time for romance with the end of the world going on.

Bruce doesn’t get as much to do in the field but he’s effectively the group’s field commander so he helps with coordinating everything and making sure that the characters are all on the same page. He is the one giving the sermons at Church to help convert more people so his role is definitely pivotal either way. It probably would have been tough to balance another subplot too.

Then we have the main villain Nicolae who still makes for an imposing figure. He’s got a fairly strong chokehold on the world and uses his powers effectively to break everyone down. The guy rarely breaks down but that does make it satisfying when the heroes do finally get one up over him. In a way these films are definitely about a lot of strategic battles. There are a lot of rules by which Nicolae can use his power, for example he can use telepathy to an extent but he’s not seemingly allowed to just use this on the whole planet and be done with it which does give the heroes a chance here.

One character who was annoying the whole time was Chris though. So this guy didn’t take the rapture very well and refuses to believe in God. He storms out of the church and then nearly commits suicide. He even pointed a gun at Rayford and nearly took it all out on him which would have really been crazy. The heroes do have a scene where they try to talk him down right outside of the Church btu that doesn’t end up working out so well. Only Rayford is able to turn him by the end. So Chris ends up in a good spot but I certainly wouldn’t have minded if he was cut out.

Overall, Left Behind II is a solid sequel. While it doesn’t quite match up to the original with the intense rapture scene and setting the board for each of the characters it is a good sequel. Each of the characters gets to continue their journey and get closer to God. The journey is quite early though to the point where you could say they are still at the very beginning and will need to steel themselves for what is to come. Buck will certainly have to be extremely careful now since Nicolae will likely know that he has been betrayed. It’s possible that he won’t know but I’m pretty sure he figured it out. By extension Rayford should be careful as well since they are seen together a lot. All it takes is one traitor in the congregation to put everyone at risk. Next up is the final of the original Left Behind trilogy movies so we’ll see how that one goes.

The Case For Christ

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The Case For Christ is definitely a film where the premise strikes out at you immediately. In 2 of the previous Christian films that I’ve seen (God’s Not Dead 1 and 2) it was about the main character having to prove that God was real. This title flips that around by having the lead try to prove the opposite, that God is fiction. He seeks to do this by overturning the biggest event in Christian history, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is this feasible or will Lee soon find out that debunking such an event is as futile as trying to suggest that the world is actually flat?

The film starts off with Lee and Leslie heading to a diner to enjoy a nice meal. Unfortunately the situation grows dire when their daughter begins to choke. As despair begins to set in and all hope is lost, a nurse steps in and is able to save their daughter in the nick of time. She is a Christian and Leslie begins to believe that maybe there is a God who is watching over everyone. She goes with the nurse to Church and gets saved. Lee is not happy with this as he is a devout Atheist and tells Leslie that there is no way they can stay together unless she renounces her faith. Leslie refuses and so Lee decides that he will put his reporting profession to use by finding evidence and making a complete case that God doesn’t exist.

Naturally such a journey is doomed for failure. It’s interesting to see the evidence behind the existence of Jesus Christ and how we have hundreds of accounts from individuals who saw him. The mountains of evidence left behind is quite impressive. To Lee’s credit, it does make sense to attack the resurrection if you were trying to debunk the religion since that miracle is really what proved beyond a shadow of a doubt God’s power. There are many other moments in the Bible of miracles as well and even if there wasn’t a mountain of evidence to defend the Resurrection that wouldn’t be enough to rock our faith.

At the end of the day it is impossible to 100% prove or disprove many things. You often have to take a leap of faith and it wouldn’t be worth much if you didn’t need it to proceed. I’m not saying that I would refuse additional proof if it was ever discovered, but I’m fine without it. Everything within the Bible is ultimately all that we need to know. The film fortunately has a happy ending for Lee’s character as he concedes defeat. He was not able to prove that God didn’t exist and furthermore, he only just ended up convincing himself of the opposite. It was a good way to close his character arc.

That being said, I wasn’t a fan of the character. He definitely did not take the situation in stride and came across as completely unreasonable. He’s been married to Leslie for several years at this point, enough to have a daughter who is old enough to talk and everything. Yet, he almost immediately wants to end the marriage because she has become a Christian. I can understand not wanting to accept this and to continue debating it, but not wanting to leave immediately. It’s not like the person suddenly became a Satanist or anything like that. He also doesn’t have any sympathy for criminals and even puts an innocent man in jail because he couldn’t be bothered to look at the facts of the case more closely. That same guy then gets stabbed and nearly fatally injured. Lee is sad about that, but the guy just created so many problems during the film.

Leslie was a good character. She wasn’t too forceful about turning Lee into a Christian right away which was good. It makes sense that she would understand the situation and try to be tactful about the whole thing. Naturally she wouldn’t give up on converting him and that’s good because as a Christian you understand the stakes better than anyone. If she can’t convert Lee in time, he’ll end up burning in Hell for eternity. Of course you don’t want someone you’re close with to experience such a fate. Since the stakes are that high, she has to try playing 4D Chess and trying to slowly get him to her side. At times maybe she wasn’t perfect with her approach, but at least she kept on trying.

I also liked the characters that Lee went to for advice. They all had an extremely confident air about them. Their smirks basically never left and while they weren’t downright condescending to Lee, they certainly seemed to think that he was asking extremely basic questions. Of course they likely weren’t in the best mood since he clearly was asking them questions to get them to take a shot at their religion so they were guarded. I just always like these kind of characters. You know that they’re not going to be on the defensive during the verbal exchange and have all of the answers.

Overall, The Case For Christ is a pretty fun film. The writing is solid and the pacing for The Case for Christ is on point as well. I haven’t seen any debates in a while, but I always like seeing debaters challenge the two sides. I’m certainly not impartial as I’m a Christian, but all the more reasons to better understand the points that the opposition makes so I can know how best to respond. If you liked God’s Not Dead then I believe you’ll like this film. The main character is definitely annoying, but the rest of the case is solid. His coworkers are all pretty fun characters and the Nurse who saved the kid at the beginning isn’t bad. Maybe a little ineffective the whole time, but saving the kid is really all she needs on her resume. I’ll definitely be interested to see which film this company churns out next.

God’s Not Dead 2

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I got to watch this film in theaters a while back, but it took a while to get around to it. I really enjoyed God’s Not Dead so I was looking forward to the sequel. Debates with non believers on the validity of Christ is always very entertaining and I certainly recommend looking up some of the professional debates that are on Youtube. There are even Christian vs Christian debates online as they tackle the deeper topics like predetermination, and on whether parts of the Old Testament were parables. (I definitely disagree with the latter. At least on the Jonah and the Whale part. I think that definitely did in fact happen and it was not simply a story) God’s Not Dead 2 ups the stakes as the debate is in an official court room this time.

Grace is a history teacher and one day she gets asked a question about whether King Jr., Ghandi, and Jesus Christ had similar messages of peace. Grace responds with a sound yes, but one kid in the back quickly sends a text to his parents. They quickly take it up to the Principal and they are ready to take Grace down if she does not retract her statement. Grace definitely does not and she quickly gets assigned one of the worst lawyers that they could find. Little do they know that Tom is very enthusiastic and doesn’t like to lose. He may not be at a high rank yet, but he’ll still give this his all. The two of them prepare for the big day in court as they fight to protect the right to use the Bible in historical context while at school.

The one iffy thing about the first film was that it tried to juggle about 10 or more subplots. This one cuts down on that considerably so we can now focus on Grace’s subplot. The pastors from the first film also get a small role here as they show up every now and again, but don’t ultimately do much. It’s more for cameo purposes and to acknowledge the continuity of it all. The villains of this film are likable as antagonists. We have the principal who is very excited for this case since it is apparently something that he has been waiting for. He really gets into the battle as he even goes to the home of the student who asked the question and convinces her parents to stand against Grace. They quickly do since they don’t talk to Brooke as much as they should and don’t really understand that this is completely against her wishes.

Brooke is a good character as well. She is struggling with death in her family and this is how she ends up becoming a Christian. The society makes this task very difficult for her though as peer pressure tries to get her to think that this may not be a good thing. After all, her teacher was brought to court and could lose everything just for mentioning the Bible in class and quoting a line or two. That’s a pretty steep price and it will only get steeper as time goes on. Brooke stands strong though and tries to provide Grace with support as best as she can. It doesn’t always pay off, but she does her best. Tom’s a solid character as well. His final plan was definitely super risky, but it shows what a good guy he is. He may not be a Christian, but he did still want to genuinely help Grace. His plan’s risk was mostly all directed at himself so even if it failed, Grace would be okay.

Naturally, Grace is an excellent character. She is given many reasons to quickly take back what she has said and then everything would go away. Everyone advises her to do this, but Grace is courageous and managed to stay strong. It’s certainly a lot tougher than it looks to stand up to adversity without bending to the whims of the world, but it is what you have to do. Your faith will definitely be tested in one way or another during your life. Everyone faces trials and tribulations at some point and if you’ve never experienced one before, then you likely have one coming up. Even for those of us who have already gone through many struggles, there will always be new ones over the horizon. Life wasn’t meant to be easy, but it is all worth it for the final prize of Heaven in the end.

One important thing to take away from debates is that you must be completely confident in yourself. You certainly do want to convince your opponent to become a Christian or to at least consider the possibility that God is real. However, another aspect is just as important and that is to not let your opponent shake you. They will try every tactic possible to convince you that Christianity is false as they point out moments that they deem hypocritical or implausible. The Devil would like nothing more than for you to enter a lot of Christian debates and slowly start to lose your faith in the Word’s infallible truths. It’s why debates aren’t always for everyone and I certainly don’t recommend looking into them any deeper than you are comfortable with. Give yourself time to read the Bible cover to cover on your own and listen to some sermons. Once you have a very clear understanding of it, then you can enjoy the debates. Otherwise, it’s possible that they will try to confuse you and twist the meanings of the Bible. It’s very easy to change the entire context of a passage by starting in the middle or ending a quote before it was really over.

In the end, you don’t want anything to shake your faith. There are many things about the Bible that I don’t understand and many things that I probably can’t even if I were to focus on them forever. You can run yourself through logical loops forever and ever without getting any closer to the true meaning. The Bible isn’t meant to be comprehended in a quick sitting like an average novel. It’s known as the Living Word and that’s because you can always get something else out of it. You may interpret a passage one way the first time you read it and another way the next. You are constantly changing as a Christian and your capacity to understand will always be growing. It’s still hard to actually picture Heaven in all of its splendor and I do think that it is beyond comprehension. It’s something that you will simply have to look forward to experiencing and I can’t wait.

“I would rather stand with God and be judged by the world, than stand with the world and be judged by God.” A solid quote to remember from Grace in this film. This world has a lot of joys and wonders in it as well to counteract all of the evil deeds around the world, but the thought of a perfect world of only joy is incredible. This one won’t last and the people who try to get you to renounce your faith won’t get the last laugh. Not only does God provide an end goal to look forward too, but he gives meaning to life. What would the whole point of our daily struggles be if we simply died in the end? With nothing to look forward too, then we would simply be living for day to day pleasures and that just doesn’t seem right. You always get the feeling that there has to be something more to life and Christianity gives you that something. It’s been great to see more and more Christian films arriving in theaters and I’m proud to support them. Hopefully these films will reach a lot of people and turn their hearts to Christ. Every soul saved is worthy of our celebration because it means that we will have saved another person from Hell. If you haven’t seen this film yet then I completely recommend it, along with its predecessor.

Do You Believe

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God Is Not Dead was a terrific film and it’s good to see more and more Christian films make it to theaters. As more and more people hear about the Word, hopefully we will see them accept Christ into their lives. When I saw the title of this film, I immediately thought of a song that has been sung in Church fairly often as of late. It’s a great song based on the Apostle’s Creed where you reaffirm your faith in God. This film shows us many different characters who will have to deal with their faith in different ways as hardship comes in many forms.

There are a number of plots here and they are all rather separate until a highway situation forces all of them to meet up and help each other out. A pastor is asked if he believes in the Cross and is unable to really answer at first. It is certainly a powerful symbol which has been interpreted in many ways. Sacrifice and kindness would be the first two words that I would use for it and other Christians would possibly have different views. We all know that Jesus died for us and how we respond to that is all different. The pastor asks everyone what the cross means to them. He is then faced with other tough choices like whether he should accept stolen money from a gang member or not. Naturally, accepting such an offer is certainly not something that a Christian wants to do, but not accepting it would possibly put the criminal in even more danger as the guy wants to walk away from crime. The best thing that the Pastor could have done in my opinion, would have been to hand the cops the money immediately. I suppose that they may have forced him to identify the guy who gave the package to him, but it still seems like the best case scenario for the guy.

Not all of the plots end up perfectly happy for the characters, but most of them end up seeing the light and becoming a Christian before it’s too late. I think that the gangster plot was probably a little out of place here, but it did add some action to the whole ordeal, which is probably what the writers were going for here. One of the plots saw an emergency worker get sued for supposedly trying to convert someone to being a Christian and letting the guy die as a result. Naturally, this was not the case as the man tried his best to save the victim before converting him, but the wife would not hear of it. The man refused to lie about this even though it meant that he would lose all of his money in court as well as his job. Certainly a tough decision for anyone to make considering that your life would effectively be over as it would be very tough to bounce back from that. He certainly gave us a good example of standing by the belief that God will ensure that everything turns out okay. You have to believe and have faith.

Some of the plots were certainly more enjoyable than others, but in a film with so many storylines, it makes sense that this would happen. None of the plots were bad though. For example, I didn’t care too much for the Pastor’s subplot where he took in a girl who was pregnant and having a tough time so he took her in. It’s not my kind of plot, but it definitely shows how selfless the Pastor was here. An old couple also took in a girl and her mother, who didn’t have a home before then. They were fortunate to meet up with these Christians and one also gave them a place to stay before that. Seeing such generosity is always inspiring.

Do You Believe is a more somber than God’s Not Dead and shows you a lot of real trials that Christians deal with all the time. As such, the other film is naturally a lot more fun for me, but both titles are good to check out. As Christians, it’s good to give these films support provided that they do a good job of presenting God’s truths and aren’t simply trying to capitalize on them. This film has a number of good messages and I definitely recommend checking it out. At 2 hours, the movie is certainly able to fit a whole lot of themes in.

If I had pick which trial was the toughest, it would probably be taking in the pregnant lady. You have to be really selfless to do such an act since letting someone into your home is no small feat. It will also be expensive since you will have to provide for another person. The easiest one would probably be the court case. Not saying that it is easy by any means, but at that point in the game, your honor as a person would also help you to stick to your story of what happened. Pride and honor wouldn’t let you back down and since you know that telling the truth is the right thing to do here, it’s a double incentive for you. The gangster one depends on if you’ve made your peace with the world or not. At the very least, the end should be fairly quick in that scenario. I was glad that the film didn’t go over the top with the sadness angle though as a certain individual staying in the car at the end would have been unfortunate.

I look forward to seeing which Christian film I check out next. I know that several more will be coming out in the near future and that’s a really good thing. Despite society drifting further and further away from the Bible, these films give people a chance to retink Christianity and every person that ultimately converts into Christian is a big battle that has been won by the people behind the film. As in the film, there will always be those who will refuse to accept God even if a miracle occurs right in front of them, but we must still pray for as many people as possible to see the truth. Miracles do occur each and every day after all and until the Lord comes again, our mission to bring more and more people to Christ is not over!