Review of Do You Believe? (2015) by Greg B — 21 Mar 2015

"Do you believe?" is a heavy-handed Christian propaganda movie about twelve seemingly disparate peoples' lives who come together in a climactic tragedy. This movie is right off of the assembly line of feel-good Christian movies that try too hard to make their point and are indistinguishable from other movies of the same breed.

Though the movie contains some decent story arcs and acting talent (Sean Astin, Mira Sorvino), they are not able to do much with the thin script. Tragedy happens all the time; that's part of life, and this film does not do an adequate job addressing the problem of evil and the problem of god's omnipotence within the framework of the problem of evil.

I actually thought this movie was quite dull and did not sufficiently make the point it was trying too. I actually thought the 2014 movie "God's not dead" was superior to this movie. As I said, I don't mind Sean Astin, but I thought he played a stale role as a trauma doctor whose atheism is challenged by a "miraculous event.

" Spoiler alert: a dead guy comes back to life for no apparent reason and is somehow cancer free which defies all metaphysical and scientific explanation. Honestly, I am not opposed to pro- Christian movies.

I have seen my fair share of ones that were well made, but this one feels stale and recycled. I appreciate the message in this movie that finding Jesus can be empowering for many whose lives are devoid of meaning.

I think Jesus is a very powerful ideal, but unfortunately this movie tries too hard to make its point and mars the execution ------------------------------------------------------------------ C.