God's Not Dead - The Movie

[SGOS]

It didn't put me to sleep, but here's a major spoiler alert, so proceed with caution:

[spoiler]As we surmised from the coming attraction, the professor is a jerk.  Not only that, but he's also a hypocrite.  He's also not even an atheist.  He just hates God.  But he gets his just reward at the end when he is killed by a hit an run driver.  Hypocrite that he is, just before it's "lights out" for him, he repents to a minister who just happens to be at the scene of the accident, and as he dies, a Christian Rock group is giving a concert where everyone is celebrating his crushing classroom defeat, where he was overpowered by a much more charismatic student inspired by God.  Not only does he get killed, but to add insult to injury, his wife leaves him earlier in the day because he's such a dickhead.

Along the way, other happy things occur: A Muslim girl converts to Christianity and is thrown out of the house by her father.  It is presumed permanently, but off she goes to the concert, street kid for Jesus that she has become.  A Chinese foreign exchange student also converts to Jesus and pisses off his father.  An atheist reporter is diagnosed with terminal cancer, but the Christian Rock band holds a prayer meeting for her, although we don't know if she lives or dies.  The professor's wife who left him also goes to the concert.  Everyone pretty much ends up at the joyful concert (given by the Newsboys), which I presume must be a well known band in the real world.

Now to be fair, the student never actually proved that God exists, and he admits he can't upfront.  His key assertions go unchallenged, except for a couple of lame attempts by the professor, who is unable to rise to the challenge, because he's more or less, kind of an idiot.  But the student does convince the rest of the class that God does exist. [/spoiler]

In all, the movie is one gigantic triumph for Jesus.

[PickelledEggs]

That's actually the greatest review I have ever seen. I actually want to watch it now so I can see how stupid it is.... if that makes sense. (It actually doesn't, but who cares...)

[SGOS]

That's actually the greatest review I have ever seen. I actually want to watch it now so I can see how stupid it is.... if that makes sense. (It actually doesn't, but who cares...)

LOL  I'm not recommending seeing it or not seeing it.  I was kind of fun watching it from an atheist perspective.  I rolled my eyes a few times, and even laughed, often when I shouldn't have laughed.  I'm happy I was at home, and not in a public theater.   

[stromboli]

And I for one am inspired by your mildly acrimonious yet non judgmental review.

[Munch]

I did consider watching it, but seeing an overview on youtube, given certain plot points, it doesn't make me want to, since it'll make me feel like i'm giving to much credit to a very forced message. They did portray the atheist in this as a douchebag to almost universal concept.

You notice there were no other atheists in the movie? The director wanted to type cast all atheists at the one kevin sorbo asshole.

[doorknob]

I was forced to watch this movie and it made me sick.

[Mr.Obvious]

I watched it with a couple of friends. At times it made us angry because of the fact that this bullshit propaganda will resonate with some. At other times we just laughed.

It's not just a bad plot. It's bad acting, bad writing, bad music...

I would definitely not recommend watching it alone and/or sober.

[SGOS]

The bad acting may have been partly due to the awkwardness of the script or possibly unrealistic demands of the director.  I'm not in the movie business, but asking actors to act in ways that are unrealistic might stifle them.  It would me.  Throughout the movie, actors overly exaggerated certain characteristics that would reinforce the various personas the director wanted to achieve.  It lacked any sense of subtlety.  That's fine if your audience is made up of idiots, but to normal people it sort of insults their intelligence.  I think actors would be aware when this is happening, and feel encumbered.  Or if they are good enough to just act as directed, the scenes come out unrealistic, and make the actors seem unconvincing.

[Munch]

I think sorbo knew exactly how he was acting, but he did it anyway because thats how he perceives atheists

[Mr.Obvious]

It's of course not all the fault of the actors, and yes a bad director or other circumstances can add to a bad acting performance. But still, to act in ways that are unrealistic need not interfere with the quality of your acting. Romcoms, for example, tend to be filled with unrealistic characters, dialogues, choices and whatnot. And while I dislike a load of romcoms personally, there are also a lot in which the acting isn't all that bad to even outstanding.

[GrinningYMIR]

My dad rented this and Noah hoping I would watch with him, based on the review you gave and combined with what I believe and already knew

*ahem*

Nope

[Munch]

My dad rented this and Noah hoping I would watch with him, based on the review you gave and combined with what I believe and already knew

*ahem*

Nope

Is your dad trying to convert you back to christianity with these movies?

[SGOS]

My dad rented this and Noah hoping I would watch with him, based on the review you gave and combined with what I believe and already knew

*ahem*

Nope

From a technical standpoint, I can say that I've seen worse movies, but not many. It's designed to appeal to a niche group of Christians, but probably not all Christians.  For me, I would describe it as perhaps laughable because of it's ridiculous stereotyping.  Some people will buy into the stereotyping as realistic, and that's not a healthy outcome.  I don't know if most people would, however.  Maybe.  Overall, the movie attempts to perpetuate archaic attitudes that pervade probably any highly religious society.  It would appeal to many people on those grounds.

[GrinningYMIR]

Is your dad trying to convert you back to christianity with these movies?

He wants me to be Christian mainly because of my mom, who is convinced that I'l burn for all eternity, he also thinks that I'm going through a phase where I'm just trying to rebel against society via atheism

[SGOS]

I just checked again at Rotten Tomatoes.  The film is trashed by critics (17%), pretty much for the same reasons I would criticize the movie:

• "Despite the campus setting, little about the story is intelligently designed. "
  
  "Even by the rather lax standards of the Christian film industry, God's Not Dead is a disaster. "
  
  "The Almighty deserves better advocacy than he gets in this typically ham-fisted Christian campus melodrama. "
  
  "A sloppily written, badly argued, unevenly acted film about a first-year college student who tries to prove the existence of God within weeks of setting foot on campus. "

There's lots more of these similar reviews.  However, the niche audience it was made for gives it high marks (81%).  There's something telling about that disparity that might warrant a bit of optimism about our society.  Just a little bit, however.