Badmovies.org Forum

All too often, Christian films, no matter how positive or Biblical their message, are just plain bad movies.  Badly acted, overly contrived,
preachy, and annoying.
But today I had the chance to go catch a matinee showing of Kevin Sorbo's GOD'S NOT DEAD, and I was VERY impressed.
Impressed enough, in fact, that I want to go catch a second viewing of it with my family later this week.  I think that, no matter what side of the theist/atheist debate you fall on, this is a thought-provoking film that can stir some interesting conversations.

Kevin Sorbo plays Professor Radisson, a college philosophy professor who is a militant atheist.  He opens each lecture in his Philosophy 150 course by listing all the great philosophers and thinkers of history who have been atheists, and then explains that since the issue of God's existence has been clearly settled in the negative, he wants to dispense with any discussion of the Almighty for the rest of the semester.  He then asks his 80 students to all sign a three word statement and hand it in - "God is dead."
  Freshman student Josh Wheadon refuses, so Radisson issues him a challenge: he has three 20 minute lectures to prove the existence of God; failure to do so will result in a grade of "F" in the first unit of study, which is one third of the grade for the course.  Josh agrees, on the condition that his classmates serve as the jury, since Radisson's mind is already made up.  Against the advice of his parents and his girlfriend, Josh prepares to meet his professor's challenge.
Several other storylines intersect throughout the movie - from a young Muslim girl who has converted to Christianity but is hiding her faith from her strict father, to the pastor who feels as if his ministry is no longer making a difference in people's lives, to the young atheistic blogger wrestling with the diagnoses if terminal cancer.  While the story is somewhat contrived in places, the movie is well-done, well-acted, and uplifting.
  There seem to be a bevy of faith-based films being released this year;  I hope the rest of them are this good

In the meantime, I strongly recommend this film to all my fellow Bad Movie Lovers!

From the plot description, sounds like they were inspired by several related urban legends about atheist professors:

http://www.snopes.com/religion/chalk.asp (http://www.snopes.com/religion/chalk.asp)

I have to admit, I find the central conceit pretty hard to believe.  Maybe professors get a lot wider latitude in some universities than others?

I'll have to say though, I've never seen Kevin Sorbo not be game in a role.  He's probably great as a real prick, right? 

At the end of the movie, the producers provided a list of about 20 actual court cases where students who were ridiculed, received failing grades, or were otherwise academically punished for openly professing their faith on campus.  While the central story of the film is false, it is loosely based on some of these cases.

Incidentally, I saw the movie a second time Friday night, and tried to pay closer attention to it as a film.  I still think the performances were very strong. None of the characters were one-dimensional - every one was carefully fleshed out.

That's terrible.  I am curious about the actual cases, wish they had more information on the official site or the wiki.

I'll admit to being curious about the film because of what its origin appears to be.  Might check it out when it hits DVD.

The director's career is though hahaha jk it sounds interesting

Kevin Sorbo did an interview on O'Reilly the other night.  He said that since he came out as a Christian, his readings for movie parts have gone from
30-40 per year to 3-4 per year.  Be that as it may, I think this performance is the best I have ever seen him give.

Our Sunday School class all wants to see this together. :smile:

Yeah, I'm sure coming out as Christian is the reason.  Everyone in the film and TV biz threw out a line with the Christian alert tag, don't hire Kevin Sorbo!  Not, ya know, entering the middle age bracket where parts dry up, particularly for someone who was previously a bit of a pretty boy. 

I like the guy, but c'mon.  :lookingup:

I'm sure some of it was related to his age and role choices, but if you think there isn't some anti-Christian prejudice in Hollywood, you're fooling yourself.  Not universal, but present nonetheless.  Many of the celebrity set really despise Christianity.
 Sorbo did have two of the top-rated series of the 1990's, and he's definitely got some acting skills.

That being said, he also picked a couple of real stinker roles that damaged his marketability, no doubt!

Anyway, all that aside, I still loved this movie.

There is a definite liberal bent in Hollyweird, Jim. I mean, think about it. If instead of Kevin Sorbo coming out as a Christian, he had come out as gay, he would probably be getting offers of 300-400 parts now instead of only 3-4. I mean, take a look at Ellen Page as a perfect example; a mediocre actress who is witnessing her acting career on a slow decline due to her rather ho-hum performance in movies, suddenly decides that now is a good time to come out as a lesbian? I like the girl, but c'mon. :lookingup:

I hope this is released here as I love films that challenge me and I think this one will.

More than a year later, it has finally been released here: I hope to see it this weekend.  :smile:

SAVED is a Christian themed film that will challenge you and make you think about faith.  It has one of the best lines relating to contemporary Christianity I think I've ever heard in a film: in regard to the Bible, "This is NOT a weapon!"  I think a lot of Christians didn't like it because it did not tie things up on a nice, neat little bow.

GOD'S NOT DEAD tackles the questions more head-on, and does a good job (imo) except for getting a bit loose in the end (again, my opinion).  I'm interested to hear your thoughts on it after you've seen it.

It's a great MOVIE. It has a great message and the actors did an amazing job but it is still just a movie! It's for entertainment and people should not base their beliefs on what they see on screen. If you want to know what God says read the Bible for yourself.

How dare he not be a scientologist?

That said, the movie is based on an absurd, unrealistic scenario.

I've just ordered the DVD from www.takealot.com (http://www.takealot.com) and will report back once I've seen it.  :smile:

Well, it has been over a year.  Yep, she's in everything now.  Coming out as gay caused a huge career renaissance for her, didn't it?  We have her upcoming role in Robodog (!) to look forward to, hurray.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Also, I'd had God is Not Dead in my queue for a while...  Looks like it dropped off Netflix before I got to it.  But, it is still on Hulu Plus.  Just a heads up.

If I've got time (final projects this week in grad school) I'm going to give it a go. 

I just finished watching this on Hulu. 

Where to start...  I'll definitely say this is several notches above the other recent Christian films I've seen bits of (Left Behind and others with that same actor guy who went super Christian, the sitcom one), which are often very poorly made.  Acting, I think, it's the easiest. I thought Kevin Sorbo and the male lead were quite good.  Dean Cain in a small role is good, like he usually is. Other performances were a mixed bag.  The guy's girlfriend was terrible (worst important character in the film).  The two priests were OK.  The Islamic-going-Christian girl was alright.  And so forth.

Writing wise...  I'll start with the positive.  The main character is adequately written, though I feel we don't get quite enough background.  The central plot element is pretty engaging for about half the film.  Due to the good performance, and the solid presentation of "David VS Goliath" (and that Sorbo is a huge prick) you really want him to succeed, regardless of your own philosophy.

There's some pretty irritating issues in the film, however.  Several bits of the story seem pointless.  What's the purpose of the Arabic girl?  She could have been completely cut and it would have changed nothing.  Also, maybe I'm not familiar enough with Islam - but isn't the New Testament usually considered basically outdated, but an important text?  So, isn't the father's reaction nonsensical?  Of course, some islamic sects probably have stricter rules on that sort of thing, but that's the deal - they never establish ANYTHING about the beliefs of the girl or her father, outside of "He's traditional, and she is listening to Corinthians".  So it all comes out of no where, and seems to be there just to serve the thesis of the film.  It'd have been better off on the cutting room floor. 

Likewise, the whole stuff with Dean Cain, the lady with cancer, the priests, and Sorbo's girlfriend.  It doesn't really go anywhere, and doesn't do much for the core narrative, other than supporting the thesis of the film (which you can tell from the title). 

Now, mentioning the thesis brings about a big point.  This film is OBVIOUSLY purely intended for a Christian audience (and a generally conservative, protestant, and American breed of Christian audience at that) who want reassurance and confirmation of their worldview.  Honestly, there isn't anything inherently wrong with that, either.  But when your film is based upon a supposed academic debate and you show basically nothing of the other side whilst creating strawman points, and everyone on the other side is always wrong about everything, it's a bit alienating to a non-Christian audience in a way more pure pandering would not be.  As well, I was particularly annoyed when the lead brings up points totally unrelated to God's existence, like evolution.  Then he conflates abiogenesis with evolution.  Ugh.  Further, the central challenge from Sorbo's character was never "Is Christianity real?", it was a simple "Does God exist?".  In an academic philosophy class, those should be noticeably different.  The film forgets this less than halfway through.

**SPOILERS**



It's all also far too convenient and wrapped up in a bow with how everything turns out in the end.  You could have a debate class like this asking everyone to stand up if they agreed the point was proven that Hitler was bad, and you wouldn't get the degree of immediate agreement the climax of this one shows you.  Sorbo's eventual reveal in the film that he's not an atheist and is instead someone who simply hates God is, by the way, a semi-offensive stereotype for non-believers.  But that also undermines the concept of the film.  He doesn't have to be convinced to really change his view, just give up his own internal dishonesty.  As if that's what is really holding back atheists.  Yeah.

You might say I'm overreaching, that it's a single character, but the film is clearly aimed outward and is trying to say (particularly with the end scroll) "This is how the world is" so I'm going with it. 


**END**


Probably seems like a lot of complaining....  But, I'll also be fair and say the pacing was good, it's decently shot, and I wasn't ever bored. 

5/10.

My issues with the film (thus far) are the following:

Professor Radisson isn't an atheist in the true sense - he's a lapsed Christian and that does not, IMO, make you an atheist.

The horrible line delivered by David A R White to the dying Professor "In a minute or two, you're going to know more about God than me or anyone else here." I mean, seriously?  :buggedout: :buggedout:

The film seems to take a great delight in presenting atheists as horrible people: the atheists I know well are decent, intelligent people and so what if they don't believe in God or a god? That's their life.

The line in the God's Not Dead song [my God's not dead, he's surely alive] raises a question: they are not sure either. The line should go My God's not dead, he is alive.

Jim, as a Christian, I cannot disagree with your assessment of the film.

I thought it did some things very right, but some things wrong.

The central plot was about the kid and the prof.  That's where it should have stayed.  All the other subplots, in my opinion, served only to dilute the central message of the film, and some of it was truly cringeworthy.

But, I think taken as a whole, overall it did several things very well:  first, it showed the Christian kid standing up for his faith, even at the expense of losing his girl friend. It showed him being respectful of the prof in the process....

The debate between the prof and the kid could have been so powerful.  The main theme here is "respect" and they could have RUN with that...that both sides can present reasoned, respectful arguments.  The prof was a little pompous of course (they could have toned that down a notch, but that IS realistic for some I have personally witnessed), but in the end, we have to give him credit for granting the kid a chance to state his case.

I think if nearly the entire film were done in that classroom, we'd have a powerful piece on faith and philosophy.  These are not separate subjects.  This was the right classroom to HAVE that discussion, and the prof was right to allow it and be part of it.

We needed no conversion (of either side).

Oh well.  It is what it is.  On the whole, not a BAD film of the genre, but granted nowhere near as tight as it could have been with a little more...courage.

I like that idea ulthar.  I'm envisioning something like Twelve Angry Men.  Could be cool, and could still be done by someone in the future.  You just need a good writer, three or four good actors, a good DP and editor, and a good director - God's Not Dead cost $2 million (and took in 64), and I think a film like that could be done for less. 

Also, I've never met a professor *quite* as bad as Sorbo...  But I have seen a couple he'd probably be friends with.   :teddyr:

Final note: sequel is coming, looks really stupid.  It's evidently based on misunderstandings of what teachers are allowed to do and say in public school, coupled with the massive persecution complex in certain Christians. 

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEQ8KAKO2BY#)

"We must prove once and for all that God Is Dead."   :lookingup:

They would have done better to let this movie stand without a sequel, to be honest!

     As a Christian, I still find myself in agreement with Trevor on the points he raised, particularly that line; clumsy.
I enjoyed it as a film, but it didn't "strengthen my faith", or anything of the sort-my faith is what it is.
A lot of Christians watch movies like this so they can go "RAH! RAH! RAH!" over the subject matter....as Christians, that's not supposed to be how we see our faith.

     Belief in Christ does NOT make me (or anyone else) better than anyone else....if anything, that relationship should illustrate to me (us) how broken we humans are. I did like the fact that the protagonist didn't present himself as "superior" to unsaved people, which sometimes is not the case-you get characters playing the "great white hunter" role, wowing the natives with a cigarette lighter.

     No movie is going to "bring someone to the Lord"; that's the job of the Holy Spirit. Still, you might enjoy it as a film, along with the recent release, THE WAR ROOM....that's exactly what I did. 

I just saw "Gods Not Dead" just recently with my family it was really courageous for Josh to stand up for God and I cried at a certain spot in the movie which touched my heart greatly and I dont want to give out any big details
for people who havent seen the movie but it is really good and you should definitely see it
Qshop

That line really rattled me: if I'm dying, Reverend Dave must stay wayyy away from me.  :buggedout: