At the Movies: I Can Only Imagine 2 (2026)

 This movie focuses on a couple of families, and a couple of songs.  It is about the musical group Mercy Me.  The families are first Tim and Hilary Timmons (Milo Ventimiglia and Arielle Kibbel), Tim is the opening act for the band Mercy Me, and he has cancer.  He wants to write a song that makes a difference.  The second family is Bart and Shannon Millard (John Michael Finley and Sophie Skelton).  Bart is lead singer for Mercy Me.  His son Sam (Sammy Dell) has diabetes.  He comes on the trip with his dad, and starts performing with Tim.  Sam doesn't take care of his sugar numbers and has a relapse, and does Tim with his cancer.  Bart starts taking seriously Tim's desire to write a song and asking Bart to finish it.  

The two songs are very similar and both based on the hymn "It Is Well with my Soul."  The first song is "Make it Well."  The second song is the new song written by Tim and Bart, which they sing for the first time at a concert.  Sam sings, and Tim is in the audience having gotten out of the hospital.  "Even If" proclaims you will be my God even if things do not go right.  

I enjoyed this show of faith.  The music is great as is the message.  Tim does not succumb to his cancer and he and his wife now have four kids.  Sam and Bart continued their careers and sometimes sing together.  

In Theaters: Run the Race (2019)

Run the Race This is a Christian themed movie produced by Tim Tebow.  It is a track and field and football movie as well.  The turning point in the movie is when the main character injures his knee in a backyard scuffle.  He was hoping to play in front of football scouts and earn a scholarship so as to get our of his small town.  Instead his brother takes up the flame in track and field.  His brother has had seizures after a football accident.  He can’t play football, but he can run.  However things take another twist just before the state track meet.  Tanner Stine and Evan Hofer play the brothers.

Movie Review: ****Let Thee Be Light (2017)

It is unusual for me to see a movie, but in this case I do, catching the last showing.  This is a movie that leaves you thinking.  I must admit, the beginning of this movie left me feeling very uncomfortable.  Should we pursue Christ, or “Party on.”  I guess if you don’t believe, then “party on” is acceptable.  However, there is so much more.  
In this movie Dr. Sol Harkens (Kevin Sorbo), who is a leading author of atheist books, finds faith after a near death experience, in which he sees his deceased son.  His wife, Katy (Sam Sorbo) has been praying for him.  There children are portrayed by their real life children, but these two carry the film.  If you are an atheist, what do you do with this type of experience?  The scientific wisdom, is that the neurons in the brain are all firing at once, creating hallucinations.  However, this explanation does not work for Sol.  He and his wife take their new found faith, and create a miracle.  Cameos by Sean Hannity and Dionne Warwick. Kevin Sorbo also directed, and Sam Sorbo helped with writing.  This movie is in limited release this week, but with a good showing will get wider release.  Worth seeing and is an alternative to the the "R" stuff showing.

Movie Review: Facing the Giants

Alex Kendrick and Shannen Fields star as Grant and Brooke Taylor, a couple struggling to have a baby.  Alex is also struggling as a high school football coach.  The team loses their first three games, and aren't together.  It isn't until Grant turns his life over to the Lord, that he starts to have the inspirations needed to get his team to play together, and they come back a completely different team, and with new attitude.  They don't loss after this, except a game in the state finals, but that team is declared ineligible for using players who were too old.  The finally face The Giants in the state title game, and team with three times more players, who are stronger and faster.  And so they face impossible odds, but with God all things are possible.  Kendrick also helped write the screen play.

This movie deals with the theme of infertility.  This story has a fairy tale ending, but in life it does not always work that way.  God has a design for all of us as his children.  Sometimes that includes mothering and fathering in different ways.

Movie Review: ****Woodlawn (2015)

This is football movies at their finest; especially if the goal is building men.  This movie tells the true story of Tony Nathan (Caleb Castille) and his experience playing football as an African American at a White school in the days of desegregation.  He encounters subtle racism, and blatant hate a racism as a result.  However he has a gift, and that is his football.  He doesn't get the opportunity the first few games, but when he does he makes the most of it, and quickly replaces the tail back and becomes a star.  He even leads the team to a lopsided victory over an undefeated team.  However there is always that last hurdle to climb.  This movie is also about those people who help him along the way.  The Christian youth chaplain, (Sean Astin) his coach (Tandy Gerelds) and coach Bear Bryant (John Voight).
This movie had me in the came and was very entertaining.

Movie Review: ***^End of the Spear (2005)

This movie is haunting, and tells of the struggle of peoples when cultures clash.  Five missionaries are intent on transforming the Waodani people of Eastern Ecuador.  This is an ancient tribe, which feuds with another tribe and the go back and forth killing each other.  For anyone to become a grandfather is not heard of.
The missionaries finally land, and appear to be making friends.  However language difference lead to the Waodoni with Mincayani (Louie Leonardo) as leader.  Among those killed is  Nate Saint (Chad Allen) and the story is told from the reference of his son Steve Saint (Chase Ellison and Chad Allen). Other important character , who are essential to the interaction with the Waodani are Dayumae (Christina Souza) who is Waodani  but taken by the whites and raised by them, and Aunt Rachel (Sara Kathryn Bakker).  She spearheads the visit of women to the tribe as tribal men are less likely to see them as a threat.  Opportunity comes for the mission to flourish, and for the two factions of the tribe to come together and stop killing.  This is also a movie of healing, as Steve Saint returns to Ecuador upon the death of his aunt, and Mincayani confesses his part in the killing of his father.
This movie is very thought provoking.  It is true that the Waodani couldn't continue their killing ways, and their lives are better from the change, but it makes you wonder whether outside influence is always good.

Movie Review: ***^The Masked Saint

This was a pleasant find by way of movies.  It was loud at the beginning with professional wrestling. However it soon mellowed out and was enjoyable.  Chris (Brett Granstaff) is injured and forced to resign from wrestling.  He takes up preaching, and is not very good; but he is a fighter.  His wife (Lara Jean Chorostecki) is also a go-getter.  A church goer, Ms Edna (Diahann Carroll)  helps Chris through some rough edges.  However he returns to wrestling to pay off church debts.  At the same time, he finds some anonymity in helping others by wearing his mask.  He does this a few times in situations involving criminal activity.  There is a point he becomes full of himself, and prideful that he is saving the church.  However a local gangster gets on his case who wants to force him out.   His girls and customers are turning to the Lord and his business is waining.
There is some great wrestling action, and an intense rivalry between himself and Chris (The Masked Saint) and The Reaper (James Preston Rogers.)  This movie has both, good action in the ring, and a Christian based story.

Movie Review: The Last Sin Eater (2007)

The Last Sin Eater:  Somehow when I watched this I missed the word Last.  Had I picked up on this, maybe I could have better guessed the ending.  However if I had guessed the ending, maybe I wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie so much.  This is about a rural community with lots of superstition and part of this is that they have a sin eater who will hear everyone’s confession before they day and take upon himself their sins.  This movie is about a girl, who figures she has committed a grievous sin, and it is haunting her.  She seeks out the sin eater to bless her during the day.  Overlayed with this, is a Christian minister who has come to preach.  
The people are against any outsiders, but his arrival causes a great change in the community.  My only complaint is the actors used such a thick accent "sin eater" sounded like somebody's name and it wasn't until later I realized what they were saying. Directed by Michael Landon Jr. and features Liana LIberato.

Movie Review: ***^ Heaven Is For Real (2014)

Heaven Is For Real (2014)

This movie poses the question, how do you react if you child should visit heaven, and comes back knowing things he couldn’t have known.  That is the context of this movie.  Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) is a preacher and the church is doing rather well.  However he has a bad back and kidney stones, and a broken leg.  He takes a break with his wife (Kelly Reilly) and while vacationing the kids come home sick.  Their son has his appendix rupture.  He barely makes it, and for a time there are real doubts.  He recovers in a miraculous fashion.  However, he talks of flying around and looking down on others.  He sees his mother on the phone, his father pleading with God, and expressing his anger.  He also meets people in heaven, his great Grandfather, his miscarried sister.  He also meets Jesus.

This movie is about this family, and in turn the congregation of the church coming to terms and accepting this story.  They finally conclude it is a message of love, as God loves us all.

Movie Review: ***^God is Not Dead

God is Not Dead

This movie had a lot of potential, but in the end did not quite live up to that potential in my opinion, while Sheri said she thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  The pretext is a new college freshman takes a philosophy class, and is required on the first day of class to write on a paper “God is dead.”  He is a Christian and says he cannot do this.  As a result he enters into a debate with the professor.  His girlfriend leaves him as she feels he is jeopardizing his chances of becoming a lawyer.  It seems nobody but his pastor supports him, but he pursues this path feeling it is something God wants him to do. 

There are several side stories, the pastor and his missionary friend having difficulty getting to Disney World, a blogger who blogs against Jesus, but discovers he has cancer, the professor’s girlfriend whose mother has Alzheimer’s, and whose brother is so intent on being successful, he doesn’t visit.   They all head for a big crash at the end.  The student gets to professor to admit that he is angry at God because of his mother’s death; and the student concludes, how can you be angry at someone who doesn’t exist, the professor’s girlfriend leaves him over the issue of God, and he realizes maybe it is time to give his life to God, the blogger seeks out a Christian band to confront them, and the pastor and friend are off to Disney World but stuck in the concert traffic.

Too much something for my taste, and just a bit too something in the end for me.

Movie Review: ****^Moms' Night Out (2014)

This movie is a comedic good time.  I found myself laughing out loud several times.  As did our entire group including Tony.  Although Tony admitted after he laughed because everyone else was laughing.  There were some really good scenes with the kids, which if you didn't laugh would make you cry.
Sarah Drew portrays Allyson, the mother of three, who is overwhelmed with motherhood and organized a Moms' night with her friend, Izzy (Logan White) and the pastor's wife, Sondra (Patricia Heaton).  She leaves her husband (Sean Astin) and his friend who has never grown up (Kevin Downes).  This night is not one which ends up happy.  Everything you can think of goes wrong, and a few things I could never think of.  However for the plot, after their reservations at the restaurant don't work, they go bowling, but not until Allyson has locked all cell phones in the van.  At the bowling alley, where Allyson's sister-in-law (Abby Cobb) has a new job, they discover they don't know who is watching sister-in-law's baby.  This leads them on a wild goose chase, in a taxi as husband needed the van to take the kids out and himself to the hospital, which they don't know as their phones are in the van.  They report the van stolen.
They recruit the taxi driver (David Hunt) and a tatooist, motor cycle rider, Bones (Trace Adkins).  Turns out things keep getting worse, and they all end in the slammer.  Still no baby, and not much hope of finding the baby.
This is a wild ride.  When it is at the lowest point for Allyson, it is the biker who reminds her that God loves her, and she is where she is suppose to be.  Sometimes, wisdom comes from the most unsuspecting place.  And you never no when someone is on his way to rescue you.
Great movie and great ride.