My review of Facing the Giants

If you haven't seen this movie, here's the short of it.
Christian football Coach, down on his luck, prays in the middle of trees and converts everyone in the town to believe in Jesus. Oh yeah, they wins the final game against the bad guys. I would not suggest watching this movie. Rent the Remember the Titans instead.

For anyone whose has seen this movie and really loved it, I have a question for you: Who was this movie marketed to? This was a "Christian" movie that made it into secular theaters and, in my not-so-humble-opinion, isolated non-believers and essentially gave them the finger. The movie used church language, had an unrealistic view of how quickly God decides to answer prayer (What? God's answer can't be NO?), and allows the viewers who don't put their kids in public school to imagine what the "real world" is like. Tell me, is the real world truly some kid telling another about Jesus, then that kid in turn gets everyone in class to come out to the football field and have bible studies?

Now, you could argue, "Hey Phil, are you trying to say that this could never happen?" No. In fact, it would be awesome if something like this did happen. But, I have never heard of something like this happening and if you could tell me a story about a similar situation you've had that even remotely relates to this idea, I will shut the *$#k up.

If you want your movie to be encouraging, write something everyone can relate to. And if you are going to make a movie that speaks a language that the secular world does not understand, don't put it out in theaters. Put it up in your church and invited believers to share in this most unrealistic occurrence of events. Just wait, soon there will be a movie that says no Christians have sex before marriage and, as they tell others this, every college student abstains from sex until they get married. Oh, and they have bible studies on the football field.

Is there even such a thing as "Christian" films? If it doesn't deal in real life the concept seems absurd.