THE YOUNG MESSIAH (2016) – My rating: 8/10

I haven’t seen many movies about Jesus as a child nor is their much scripture found on the early years of Christ.  I was curious to see if this film supported what little I did hear about the life of Christ as a boy.  I recognized a couple of incidents as being similar to stories I’d heard before but most were new.  I found it strange that bullying exited among the children as strongly as was depicted in The Young Messiah.  I always thought the children were more disciplined in that era and environment.  I was surprised that Jesus (Adam Greaves-Neal)  was picked on and frequently beaten up.  My understanding of Jesus as a small boy raising another boy from the dead was when he caused the boys death but in this adaptation,  Jesus had nothing to do with the boys death even though he was accused of causing his demise. The Young Messiah is a name change from the original book written by Anne Rice as Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.  “This new title better conveys how our film seeks to present a realistic portrait of Jesus as a child both grounded in faith and consistent with the adult Jesus revealed in the Bible.” (Quoted by the new writers, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh and Nowrasteh).

From another source, I’d learned that Jesus fixed the size of the wood his father  carved to fit when it didn’t, in order to complete a project they were working on together.  This did not appear in the movie,  however Jesus healing Joseph’s dying brother in front of the village did.  There were other miracles performed by Jesus as a young boy depicted in this film up to Jesus disappearing for three days before being found in the Temple by his father Joseph (Vincent Walsh) and mother Mary (Sara Lazzaro).  Throughout the movie, Jesus was hunted by Severus (Sean Bean) sent by King Herod’s son (Jonathan Bailey).  Also, a Demon (Rory Keenan) appeared whispering in the ear of various persons who made every situation harder for Jesus. Mainly, at the age of 7, when Jesus returns from Egypt to his home in Nazareth with his family, he discovers the truth about his life.  He realizes he is the Son of GOD, sent by GOD, to be the savior of humanity.

I thought given the amount of information the new writers had to work with, the film not only held your attention, it gave forth some validity to Jesus’ young life while sending a profound message about the people of that time.  I can’t say The Young Messiah lends any new information to the Jesus’ life as a boy because as I mentioned, there is little to no scripture about Jesus as a child.  Other than what’s in the Bible already, movies like this only offer speculation.  The acting was brilliant and The Young Messiah was spot on and is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.  Check it out!

 

Save

THE SHACK (2017) – My rating: 8.5/10

Ever notice how the background music in most spiritual movies sound alike — slow and with an elevation as though something divine is about to happen. Somehow, the movements are different and the aura of the characters are different. What they talk about and the way they talk is different. You know right away it’s a spiritual movie. The Shack had a lot of these attributes but without giving anything away. It is just a story about a super nice family (rare these days) consisting of two girls, Kate Phillips (Megan Charpentier), Missy Phillips (Amelie Eve) and a boy, Josh Phillips (Gage Munroe) plus mom, Nan Phillips (Radha Mitchell) and dad, Mackenzie “Mack” Phillips (Sam Worthington). They actually hung out as a family, going to church, family picnics, school events and eating dinner together. While that might sound corny to a lot of the world, it’s a pretty nice existence in a world full of smart phones, TV, drugs and so many other interest outside of plain old family values.  All is good until something horrific happens that rocks this family to their knees, especially dad.  Months later, on a snowy day, Mackenzie receives an invitation in his mailbox, signed by GOD as Papa, to meet at the very shack where tragedy still loomed in his head.  Because there were no footprints in the snow, Mackenzie had no idea how the invite got there.  He had just checked the mailbox moments ago.  There was no stamp and no return address.

While not 100% accurate, according to scripture, The Shack teaches a wonderful, spiritual lesson that I believe many can benefit from, even if you’re not a Christian.  The movie focuses on abuse, alcoholism, judgement, healing, forgiving, evil, love, why GOD, and gives an acceptable answer to why bad things happen to good people.  If you listen with an open mind and heart, you might get something out of this movie — and for those who go in knowing their scripture, you’ll have more information to add to what you already know.  The Shack is not boring — it held my attention.  It’s pretty hard to say more about the film without revealing spoilers, so I’ll leave up to you to see The Shack for yourself.  Octavia Spencer plays Papa, Missy’s nickname for GOD while (Tim McGraw) plays Willie, Mackenzie’s best friend.  Aviv Alush plays Jesus and (Sumire Matsubara) plays Sarayu, who completes the trio (Trinity) representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I highly recommend The Shack, it really is enlightening!

 

 

GOD’S NOT DEAD (2014) – My rating: 10/10

God’s Not Dead is an amazing movie on every level.  I had heard really good things about this movie.  After seeing it, I have a few good things to say myself.  I’ve seen a lot of Christian based movies but none like this one.  God’s not Dead is based on true events surrounding abusive tactics used on some college campuses.  A student, Josh Wheaton played by Shane Harper, is challenged in his philosophy class to prove that God is not dead or fail the course.  The class is being taught by a dogmatic and argumentative atheist professor played by Kevin Sorbo.  The student, Josh,  goes in depth, refuting every well know philosopher’s findings.  Josh is put down by his family and girlfriend and urged to sign a required paper, put to the class, that states God is Dead.  There are several stories being told that nicely comes together in the end.  Willie Robinson and his wife from Duck Dynasty had a small but significant part in the movie.   As a side note, David A.R. White played Reverend Dave who looks and reminds me so much of Keith Urban that I had a hard time focusing on him as a reverend.  You will definitely shed a tear or two, as God’s not Dead is packed with emotional stories from start to finish.  From the music to the acting, God’s Not Dead is very much alive and a winner in my book. 

NOAH (2014) – My rating: 8.5/10

I had heard Noah wasn’t biblical and some other criticisms that I wouldn’t be able to elaborate on until I actually saw the movie.  So now I can tell you that Noah is as biblical as scripture allows.  What I mean by this is the Bible does not go into detail about Noah’s plight.  All that is undefined in the Bible, is filled in by Hollywood.  Whose to say it wasn’t the way this movie depicts the story.  So at best, it’s 75/25 in favor of the Bible.  Russell Crowe really played the heck out of Noah.   Jennifer Connelly as Noah’s wife, Naameh was brilliant.  Noah was tasked, by God, to fulfill this monumental assignment of building an arc to house his family and 2 of all the existing creatures in the world during the annihilation of all sinners by flooding water.  I don’t think the movie mentioned that the rains lasted 40 days and 40 nights.  This information is according to scripture.  Noah was well acted and pretty exciting.  I particularly liked the Watchers.  The special effects were fantastic.  From the arc to the seething waters, it looked real.  As usual,  Anthony Hopkins was outstanding as “grandfather”.   Because I don’t want to add spoilers, I really can’t talk about all of Noah’s  content but I can say Noah is a very good film.  I think it’s worth seeing on the big screen and it’s worth your buck!