BEWARE SPOILERS BELOW!

Positives

1. A refreshingly clean movie with a positive message and even Christian focused plot.
2. Touching scenes that demonstrate thanksgiving and praise to God.
3. Demonstrations of respect for authority.
4. In spite of below comments, it is far better than the gore/violence/sex/language filled movies that one usually endures.

Negatives

1. There is discontinuity in the dialoge. Sometimes, Rich and I looked at each and said, "Where did that come from?"
2. The plot was very predictible.
3. The dialogue was hoaky and the movie a bit campy. We probably chuckled much more than was intended. It was difficult not to.
4. How much more can one throw into a film?
   • A small kid with no football experience making a 55yard goal.
   • Not just a kid making a very difficult field goal, but his disabled father standing at the goal posts for the first time to cheer him on with the American flag waving in the background.
   • Infertility issues being suddenly resolved with not one but two pregnancies.
   • A 6-year losing streak coming to end with an unexpected team disqualification and with not just one, but two State Trophies.
   • A bad car being replaced with an expensive truck as an anonymous gift (thats a pretty nice gift for a coach who was on the virge of being fired and had yet to demonstrate he could win- about a $40,000 one).
   • Not just a few football players becoming Christians, but the whole team.
   • Not just the whole football team becoming Christians, but a revival in the whole school.
   • A kid raising test scores from 55% to 100%.
   • And more....
5. It is one thing to demonstrate that God can do the impossible. Is it realistic to portray God doing ALL the impossibles that exist for this one town and this one family ALL at one time? How much sugar do we need????
6. The Gospel is alluded to, but never actually given in the movie yet we see revivals occuring. I wish the Gospel had been more clearly articulated.
7. The movie gives a false sense of earthly prosperity in relationship to faith. It communicates "If you believe in me, then all your problems will end and life will be great?" (no more house problems, no infertility, no car troubles,succes in jobs, better grades, etc..) I think all the miracles distracted from "faith" regardless of outcome.

Overall
On the whole, it is a bit too much sugar for me. I would have liked it better if less time was devoted to transforming every wrong or bad thing into something "miraculous" and more time was devoted to better dialogue and clarity of message. Having said that, I do appreciate the effort made to create a positive film with a Christian message.

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