GOD'S NOT DEAD 2

Pure Flix

Rated PG

Running Time: 121 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of God's Not Dead 2 from YouTube.



In Pure Flix's God's Not Dead 2, high school teacher Melissa Joan Hart is asked a question about Jesus in class and her response gets her in trouble with the school board and she winds up in court.

In this sequel to God's Not Dead, high school teacher Melissa Joan Hart, who is is a Christian and taking care of her grandfather Pat Boone, is teaching history in class when one of her troubled students, Hayley Orrantia asks a question about Jesus. Hart gives a simple answer - of which high school principal Robin Givens hears about. Now the school board threatens to fire Hart and make an example of her in court, and public defender Jesse Metcalfe must defend her.

I liked this movie better than the first one as it was not an in your face film in the beginning of the film as the first God's Not Dead. The Christian music gave you the feeling of a Christian film in the beginning of the movie. I will admit to tearing up a couple of times during the film as Hart undergoes this burden. I felt it rather sad that Orrantia's atheistic parents Maria Canals-Barrera and Carey Scott - who practically disowned their religious son - were taking the religious issue to court for the publicity of getting Orrantia into an ivy league school, as well as principal Givens controlling Orrantia.

I liked the legal arguments both for and against the religious aspects in the classroom according to the law, the separation of church and state. This was a pretty intense trial film, both with the trial and the protests outside the courts. It is curious on how the media was anti-religion - but as the religious leaders said, there is the silent majority. There was at least one religious argument that was not brought up that I would have liked to see in the movie even though they had the perfect setups. While I am not a lawyer, I have been summoned to jury duty before and had some issues with some of the procedures presented in the movie. Family was also an important theme in this movie, and also had me tearing up at some of the familial relationships.

Several of the stars from the first movie, Trisha LaFache, Paul Kwo, David A.R. White, Benjamin A. Onyango, as well as The Newsboys appeared in this movie. As well as Duck Dynasty's star Sadie Robertson's first feature film. This was former senator and actor Fred Dalton Thompson's final film appearance. I will admit that Kwo's reappearance was the most interesting appearance of the returning actors.

Ernie Hudson was great as the judge and had much more of an acting challenge in this film than in  his more famous Ghostbusters role, and Ray Wise once again played an antagonist - this time as the smarmy prosecution lawyer supposedly doing this for the good of all students.

While The Newsboys were in the movie, God's Not Dead 2 is much more of a trial film for the case of Hart. It is not as much of a Newsboys concert film as the first film was, although there is some Newsboys concert footage.

At the end of the movie the audience applauded and were singing God's Not Dead. During the credits, there was a list of similar trials that had taken place. These went by too fast for me to read them, but I noticed that at least one trial as of 2016 was still ongoing. There was a website shown for support.

A lady who was sitting behind me reached down and wished me God Bless You while she was leaving.

There is an after credits scene at the end of the movie. The lady who was sitting behind me missed the after credits scene as she had left with most of the audience leaving during the credits, although there were a few people still left in the theater to watch this important scene.

Rated PG for some thematic elements. Running time: 121 minutes.

Click below to watch the music video of The Newsboys song God's Not Dead from YouTube.



Pancho
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