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What if... (2010)



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What if... (2010)



4/10



Starring
Kevin Sorbo
Kristy Swanson
Debby Ryan
Caeden Lovato


Directed by Dallas Jenkins

What if…
What if I didn’t get to see this film, would it have mattered?
That is how I felt when I was done watching this movie.
What if is the Christian version of Nicholas Cage’s The Family Man (2000) and it is a bad reinvention of the wheel.
What if is dull and at times it just looked stupid, the comedy was not well timed, and the adaptation of the character to his new life was rough. The whole plot that led to him getting use to his new life was weak and not well thought through.

While watching I didn’t get to see the attachment to his children, which is very important, there was a time when his kids felt he was another man entirely and then later on there was a fatherly bond going on, what happened in between?
The producers just took a good story and made a nonsense tale out of it and stamped on it Christian drama.
As a strong supporter of independent Christian film I dislike when I see a lot of things going wrong with some movies, in this world where the secular movies are making violence and sex seem like the norm, the Christian movies have to make movies that will draw you in then leave you with the message that God wants us all to be like Christ.
Although this is not the worse Christian movie I have seen, but it will not come in as average either, as it was not that good.

The movie plot is about a man Ben Walker (Kevin Sorbo) who left a path that God had planned for him and went into the real world. There in the world Ben made a success of himself. He was happy with his money and his investment until he ran into an angel who told him that he would have to see life at the other side to see what life would have been if he had done what God expected of him.

Unable to get away from what has been set in motion, Ben decided to get used to the life where he is now married his first love, is a pastor of a growing church and was a father. All this with the hope that in the end God will let him get back to his previous life where everything was just as he liked it.

I will not give this movie a good rating because I know it could have been better.

Finding Normal (2013)



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Finding Normal (2013)



5/10



Starring
Lou Beatty Jr.
Andrew Bongiorno
Valerie Boucvalt


Directed by Brian Herzlinger


When I read up on the movie I was very expectant because on IMDB it seems to have a high approval rating from the audience. But after watching it I felt the movie is a little overrated, now Finding Normal is not a bad Christian movie, neither is it a shallow production, in fact the production and setting are well done, and after watching I have to give kudos to the actors, they did a good job. But Finding Normal is very subtle and will only fit as a good sit home movie to watch with a friend, not in a gathering as some may doze off.

Finding Normal has its story being more like a lift or a Christian version of Doc Hollywood. Doc Hollywood has been remembered lately thanks to Disney/Pixar, as their Cars movie is like an animated version of Doc Hollywood rather than a homegrown story from the studio. Finding Normal is also similar, as stated above it is the Christian version of the 1991 Michael J. Fox hit Doc Hollywood.
                                                                
The movie plot is about a woman named Dr. Lisa Leyland who has multiple unpaid speeding tickets and was speeding to go be with her boyfriend, when she got stopped over at a town called Normal. There, her unpaid speeding tickets were found, and she was faced with either jail time or do community service.

She decided to opt for the community service, where she will be the town’s doctor, as she was hurrying to complete her service and get out of the town certain incidents began to happen that made her start to love the town and soon, she was caught in the middle of going or staying.

Finding Normal is a good family Christian movie, but very predictable and it script could have been better if more work was put into it.

This movie was released this year, and I appreciate the effort that Christian movie makers are putting into their movies today, as predictable as the movie was, I still sat through it.

The long conclusion is that Christian movies are hard to make mostly because you will not see big studios parting from the huge budget to make them, but when you do see a good one or in this case an average one, you tend to really appreciate the effort put into it, as it gives you hope that sometime soon, Christian movies are going to be just as great as their secular counterparts.

The Perfect Stranger (2005)



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The Perfect Stranger (2005)



6/10



Starring
Pamela Brumley
Jefferson Moore


Directed by Jefferson Moore and Shane Sooter


The Perfect Stranger came out before The Encounter (exactly five years before) and I think, The Encounterdid justice to what The Perfect Stranger tried to pass across.

Although I saw The Encounter (2010) first, I still appreciated the work Jefferson Moore did, he took inspiration from David Gregory’s book Dinner With a Perfect Stranger and put together a screenplay that will keep you glued from the beginning to the end if you are interested in the word other than the visuals. Although there are weak points in the script, The Perfect Stranger is still enlightening.

Like The Encounter (2010) the character Jesus addressed major issues that will be on the mind of many, but unlike The Encounter it took it one step further and addressed issues that I bet the makers of The Encounter didn’t want to touch, such issues like, Mohammed and Islam: this movie took on the Islamic faith and explained why it is not the way.
It also took on Idol worshipping (i.e. Hindu, although Hindu is not the only idol worshipping religion) and made us understand that Idol worshipping is not a way to get closer to God.
What I really liked is that it also addressed the issue of Christ being the only way.

The movie plot is straightforward, Nikki Cominsky (Pamela Brumley) is a lawyer with problems in her married life. At work she saw an invitation to come for a dinner outing with Jesus (Jefferson Moore), thinking that it was a joke from her husband she shows up only to meet a man named Jesus, who tells her that He is the real deal, and He took the time to address issues that bothered her faith.

Acting is where the movie starts to go south, the acting in the movie is not so great and then when you add that to the cinematography, what you have is a good movie not well-done.
The movie’s progression (editing) is also another problem, if you are not ready to see this movie through to the end to get the message you will very well sleep off.

Then there is the setting, The Encounter stepped it up, and I believe it is because of financing. Budget was what made The Encounter a good watch, and budget is what made this movie not step up to meet the required criteria that will make many recommend this movie for everyone to see.

My conclusion is that, you should see this movie for the message not the visuals, it is good for the soul.