God's Not Dead 2 is in theaters now

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YADA said:
People often complain about the “Christian” movies being low budget, no stars, scripts could use work … or some Catholics will complain they are too “Protestant” …

We nearly stopped going to theaters decades ago because of all the movies that lack moral values and positive messages - glorifying sin & evil, drugs, violence for the sake of violence etc. … only going to the rare film … then about a dozen years back we realized we needed to go to movies that were put about by groups like the people who made "God is not Dead" and "God is not Dead 2" ,and others “Fireproof”, “October Baby”, “Facing the Giants”, “War Room” etc …

And its important to go opening weekend too … I go because its important to financially support these groups so they will make more movies and if they are financially viable - the quality, and number of movies made illustrating positive Christian values will increase.

I watched both God is not Dead movies with groups from my parish and enjoyed both 👍
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That’s right. I might see one or two movies in a year. The stuff I like on TV is old and moral. The new stuff on TV I watch on occasion to warn people.

Ed
 
I don’t mean to offend anyone who really likes the first one, but am I the only one who thought it wasn’t very good? Christians used to be the ones in the culture who produced the most beautiful and best pieces of art and this movie as far from beautiful. I found it to be very corny and not at all clever in its writing.
 
JD1789 said:
I don’t mean to offend anyone who really likes the first one, but am I the only one who thought it wasn’t very good? Christians used to be the ones in the culture who produced the most beautiful and best pieces of art and this movie as far from beautiful. I found it to be very corny and not at all clever in its writing.
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It was terrible. It’s a case of “The Emporer’s New Clothes”. No one wants to admit it’s a poor film, simply because it is a “Christian” film.

Anyone who wants to see an excellent Christian film should watch “Ragamuffin” on Netflix.
 
JD1789 said:
I don’t mean to offend anyone who really likes the first one, but am I the only one who thought it wasn’t very good? Christians used to be the ones in the culture who produced the most beautiful and best pieces of art and this movie as far from beautiful. I found it to be very corny and not at all clever in its writing.
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That’s one reason I tend to not watch a lot of self-described Christian movies. Same with Christian music. It just seems like with the effort to get across the message they relegate other aspects of that art form to the sidelines, and for me it suffers because of that.
 
1neophyte said:
It was terrible. It’s a case of “The Emporer’s New Clothes”. No one wants to admit it’s a poor film, simply because it is a “Christian” film.

Anyone who wants to see an excellent Christian film should watch “Ragamuffin” on Netflix.
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Another excellent pro-Christian movie (that’s not corny) is “Calvary.”
 
JD1789 said:
I don’t mean to offend anyone who really likes the first one, but am I the only one who thought it wasn’t very good? Christians used to be the ones in the culture who produced the most beautiful and best pieces of art and this movie as far from beautiful. I found it to be very corny and not at all clever in its writing.
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No you’re not the only one.

The story was unrealistic, and only reinforces stereotypes. If a professor actually did what that guy did, he would lose his job. Doesn’t matter how “liberal” the college is. I’ve had atheist professors before, and they are nothing like that. In fact, I found the way all the non-Christian characters were portrayed - especially the atheists - to be poor. None of them were good people, let alone sympathetic. That’s just bad storytelling.

Sadly, I could never recommend it to my non-believing friends. This movie would only push them farther away.
 
These movies are for the most part truly awful. In fact, the first “God’s not Dead” was hateful and bigoted to the point where I would say it’s a heavily immoral, unchristian movie.

What we need isn’t movies that divide Christians from everyone else and make everyone else look bad. We just need actual, legitimate art(which these films can hardly be called) that just happens to respect God. Christian movies need to stop preaching and making it look like God will fix every problem.

War Room has a heavy implication that you shouldn’t do anything in an abusive relationship but let God fix a person against their will.

Facing the Giants implies that God will take away all your problems and make your life smooth.

Old Fashioned is just plain puritanical and disrespectful of the human person and women in general.

God’s not Dead 2 just has a weak main plot, on top of the same problem from the first(but thankfully not as hateful) where it’s all about how we should be scared of the world and must defend ourselves from it, and everyone else is just plain bad.

All these films do is drop anvils of meaning that get old and tired. Movies are an art form, not a format for preaching. The best Christian films just show a story and not try to preach. The Scarlet and the Black, The Passion, a few others.
 
1neophyte said:
It was terrible. It’s a case of “The Emporer’s New Clothes”. No one wants to admit it’s a poor film, simply because it is a “Christian” film.

Anyone who wants to see an excellent Christian film should watch “Ragamuffin” on Netflix.
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Well, I think the quality of Christian films should be up for fair discussion if nothing else for a good artistic endeavor.

Jesus did die for us on the Cross, after all, and it would be nice to not half-it on a Christian film.
 
“God’s Not Dead” was an OK movie on it’s own, but the Protestant movie genre is not really that good.

The problem is that these protestant/evangelical produced movies (PureFlix, the studio that produced this film is evangelical) always have the same plot: evil secularists attack innocent Christians.

The problem is that it doesn’t paint a true picture of reality. It doesn’t portray the role that lukewarm, secularized Christians play. It doesn’t show the role that conservative atheists play in agreeing with 1st amendment rights.

These movies simply paint it as atheist vs. Christian, pretending that big part of the problem doesn’t come from liberal Christians. Protestantism is the reason we have many Christian denominations giving conflicting messages. If all Christians were Catholic, we would at least all be in agreement with what the official message of Christianity was.

What’s great about the Catholic movies is that they show the man’s fallen nature, even on the righteous side. And they often show the good God gave all of us, even on the side of evil.

A good talk on Catholic Answers Radio about “God’s Not Dead” and other Protestant films here: catholic.com/radio/shows/reel-life-movies-reviewed-35573# starting at 47:17
 
Pretty much, ask yourself, “If this movie was not an overt evangelization tool, would I watch it?”
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Personally, I found **GND1 **to be a rather strong disappointment. Not only did it look like a $9 admission to a theatrical Chick tract, but the main character was unbelievable (who would jeopardize his college career for such a conflict?) and the treatment of the Professor at the end was lame.

The recent “Heaven” movies were just as flawed. “90 Minutes in Heaven” turned out to be 90 minutes of family financial crisis and a few passing images at the end, of his purported Heavenly experience. “Heaven is for Real” had the same problem: the kid’s experiences were submerged in a torrent of familial money woes, to the point that I, at least, wondered if the narrative had more ulterior motivations than were let on.
Code: 
  We understand, Hollywood, that our country's healthcare system is imperfect and that hospital emergencies are expensive.   We don't need to pay to have that slathered into our heads.
I’ll wait for more reviews on **GND2 **before deciding whether or not to see it. Right now, I am leaning against.

ICXC NIKA.
 
anon67074017 said:
Would most movie stars even be willing to act in a Christian movie? I think most of them are not Christian.
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I dont think this has any impact on whether an actor takes a role or not, I can think of a number of roles in past movies that contradict the actors personal beliefs.

They recognize they are just ‘acting’.

I had the same opinion you did at one time though, back when ‘To catch a predator’ tv show was on, at first I believed it was real, then when it came out it was all fake and was scripted, I wondered why the people that agreed to play the part of the pedophiles would have agreed to do that, especially when the show was billed as real…in the end, they were just acting, if it seems real, then they were doing a good job as an actor.

Of course, some people do not recognize this, I remember reading about how many people that watched the Sopranos, they thought James Gandolfini had ties to the real mafia. lol, even though he personally despised the role of Tony S. He was that good of an actor to make it seem that real.
 
Women, in particular, who allow themselves to be shown partly or fully nude are not acting. It’s not just a job. The same with profanity. Or declarations that two people who are not married are having sex. Modeling bad behavior is bad. Just because some consider it a job, they are modeling bad behavior.

Of course, they are acting, but those body parts are their’s.

Ed
 
edwest2 said:
Women, in particular, who allow themselves to be shown partly or fully nude are not acting. It’s not just a job. The same with profanity. Or declarations that two people who are not married are having sex. Modeling bad behavior is bad. Just because some consider it a job, they are modeling bad behavior.

Of course, they are acting, but those body parts are their’s.

Ed
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Yeah, I don’t like God’s Not Dead either.
 
I have no interest in this film or the first one, and I think films like this do more to harm Christianity than help it.
 
We need Christian movies like Les Miserables and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Not all this self-indulgent junk.
 
Wow. And Les Miserables was on this list? Almost completely takes away all credibility from any documents with fancy Latin names.
 
It may have been the author, Victor Hugo, rather than the book per se that was proscribed, as some of his other works were seen as critical of the Church. In **Nôtre Dame de Paris, ** for example, the villain is a priest.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
It may have been the author, Victor Hugo, rather than the book per se that was proscribed, as some of his other works were seen as critical of the Church. In **Nôtre Dame de Paris, ** for example, the villain is a priest.

ICXC NIKA
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Sort of a “love the writing, hate the writer” thing? Church history is fascinating. I can’t imagine why anyone would portray a priest as a villain. That would never happen in real life, of course.

Anyway, to get back to the topic, it would be great if the Church could publish a list like that now, and forbid anyone from seeing God’s Not Dead 1 or 2, simply because of how awful they are.
 
From the reviews I have heard or read this movie is laughable. It is as riffable as the first movie. All that was missing was Kirk Camron or Ray Comfort. More strawmen than you can find in a corn field.
 
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