GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 121 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy.
 

In Marvel Studios Guardians of the Galaxy, kidnapped Earth man Peter Quill/Star Lord/Chris Pratt, winds up in an uneasy partnership with a group of extraterrestrial misfits Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Rocket/Bradley Cooper who are on the run through space from Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou and Karen Gillan after scavenging a mysterious orb for a buyer.

Based on the 2008 version of the 45 year old comic book series Guardians of the Galaxy, this is the first non-Avengers Marvel property developed by Walt Disney Pictures as well as being a Marvel Phase 2 movie. Guardians of the Galaxy is more of a bad-assed action film than a comedy that the movie trailers had made the movie appear to be, with the opening scenes before the credits of the movie being a tearjerker. Despite being an ensemble piece, Quill/Star Lord/Pratt is the leader of these criminals, who pulls these losers into a group in order to do something good to save the galaxy. Tree creature Diesel puts a lot of emotion into his one line of dialog that he repeats throughout the movie. Diesel also recorded all the languages of his line for the international releases of the movie. Racoon Rocket/Cooper and tree person Groot/Diesel will be the toys for this movie.

For Executive Producer Stan Lee fans, his cameo appears relatively early in the movie and the audience reacted positively to his appearance.

Being the first movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe set in space, a lot of the cosmic space elements from the Marvel comics universe are mentioned in the movie - with cameos of major comic characters, including Benicio Del Toro and an uncredited Josh Brolin. The movie also includes an Infinity Stone appearing in the movie. The cameos and the Infinity Stone hint at future movie roles in the Marvel Cosmic Universe.

While part of the promotional marketing of the movie has Glenn Close in the trailers - she has basically a walk-on part with hardly any lines, despite the nature of her character. I loved the mixed cassette music of 70's and 80's songs that was put together for Quinn's/Pratt's Walkman. I would not be surprised if the soundtrack for this movie becomes a hit. Of course what is funny is that Quinn's/Pratt's Walkman and cassette tape has lasted for over 20 years.

I saw the movie in 3D. While the 3D seemed good in the beginning - after awhile I stopped noticing it except for certain action scenes and one awe scene, some of which the action scenes made me blink.

While there might be a couple of points where scenes would seem scientifically inaccurate - given what was established, I could accept those scenes. The end of the movie was also a bit deus ex machina to me, but the end of the movie also might be acceptable given to what was established.

After the end credit music, the very last end credit scene of the movie might be controversial with the fanboys, so I would not be surprised if nothing ever became of it and just appeared in the movie as just a last joke. But then again, the fanboys would go nuts if this was real and Marvel did it right. I believe it was for legal reasons with Marvel that the creator's names that were involved with this scene had appeared after the end of this scene. If Marvel actually does make a movie and puts this on the production schedule in a slot that has not been confirmed yet, I hope that they make that movie as originally intended by the creators as a satirical existential experience, instead of just something from space.

The very last visual on the screen is that GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY WILL RETURN.

As of 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy broke the record for an August debut.

Rated PG-13 for violence, obscenity. Running time: 121 minutes.  

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Click below to watch a final movie trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy.



Pancho
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HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

DreamWorks Animation

Rated PG

Running time: 102 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of How to Train Your Dragons 2.



In Dreamworks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hiccup/Jay Baruchel and his dragon Toothless map the unexplored lands and territories, when they come across an insane dragon conqueror called Drago Bludvist/Djimon Hounsou - as well as someone from Hiccup's/Baruchel's past.

This is the second movie in the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy Executive Produced, Written, and Directed by Dean DeBlois, and based on the How to Train Your Dragon book series by Cressida Cowell.

This is one of those rare movies that I think is actually better than the original movie. The story is bigger and more open than in the first movie as Hiccup/Baruchel explore the area surrounding the island of Berk from which he is from. The characters from the first movie have returned. Hiccup's/Baruchel's father Gerard Butler, as well as characters Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and the friends have grown in the reported five years since the events of the first movie and are young adults now. Hiccup/Baruchel grows even more as the movie develops, especially when he meets Valka/Cate Blanchett. Hiccup/Baruchel's scenes when flying with Toothless were awe inspiring to watch. It helps that there was the Dreamworks Dragons TV show that aired in-between the release dates of the two movies which had showed how the dragons were being integrated into the Viking island of Berk, including running dragon games. After watching the TV show, it is not such a culture shock when watching How to Train Your Dragon 2 from the story of the original How to Train Your Dragon. The animation of How to Train Your Dragon 2 is quite involved too as the movie depicts the various new dragons and massive battle scenes, which reminded me of World War II battle scenes.

I think of all the movies that I had watched over the Fourth of July weekend, How to Train Your Dragon 2 was the best movie for me story and entertainment-wise. This movie was a lot of fun. I loved at how family motivated the movie is with Hiccup/Baruchel and how emotional the movie was for me as a result. Even Toothless seemed to become part of a family when they discover the new world of dragons. I will admit that I had cried when I watched this movie, as the movie was that powerful toward the end.

One thing that did bother me - and it should not bother me as this is an animated movie, so they were not hurt - was of how the sheep were used in this movie. I kept thinking of The American Humane Association. This is an animated movie, and how the sheep were used were funny and reminded me of the Wallace and Gromit movies - but how the sheep were used would have been disturbing in a live action movie and I had to keep reminding myself that this is an animated movie and thus not real.

The final movie in the trilogy, currently titled How to Train Your Dragon 3, is scheduled for release on June 17, 2016.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of How to Train Your Dragon 2.



Click below to watch the featurette movie trailer of How to Train Your Dragon 2.



Rated PG for violence. Running time: 102 Minutes.

Pancho 
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Maleficent

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 97 Minutes



Click below to watch a movie trailer of Maleficent.




Walt Disney Pictures Maleficent is the story of the fairy queen Maleficent, Angelina Jolie, who curses the baby daughter of a king into a death-like sleep on her sixteenth birthday.

In this live action version of Walt Disney's 1959 animated movie Sleeping Beauty and released on Sleeping Beauty's 55th Anniversary in 2014, Maleficent is told from the point of view of the queen fairy Maleficent - who was the villain in Sleeping Beauty and is considered to be the greatest villain in Disney history. In this 2014 movie you get to know who Maleficent is. In a similar style to Walt Disney Pictures Oz the Great and Powerful, both visually and story-wise, in that Maleficent is also a tragedy such as in Oz the Great and Powerful. The movie Maleficent is a tour de force for Actress and Executive Producer Jolie as you feel for Maleficent as she goes through a very personal dark and painful time in the movie. Jolie worked closely with the costume designers and special make-up effects artist Rick Baker to maintain the scary look of the animated Sleeping Beauty. It is curious that all the actors were chosen in part for their likeness to their characters in the animated Sleeping Beauty. Fairy actresses Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, and Juno Temple were guided by the artists of Cirque du Soleil to give the proper feeling of featherweight and agility when Manville, Staunton, and Temple are the tiny fairies.

As the king, Sharlto Copley appears to show any love to his daughter Aurora/Elle Fanning. King Copley is so obsessed on his plans of destroying Maleficent/Jolie, that he has no time or interest for family. In fact, you do not know the queen/Hannah New at all. She only has a couple of lines and then you do not see her at all anymore. Queen New is basically just there in the movie as a cameo of Aurora's/Fanning's mother and you do not care about her at all.

It should be pointed out that the movie Maleficent is not exactly the same story as Sleeping Beauty. While the movie has elements of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent does not follow the story that everyone has grown up with. Although Aurora's/Fanning's baby christening sequence is word for word from the movie Sleeping Beauty - because Jolie felt that this sequence was the core and setup of the entire movie of Maleficent, and the movie is really about what happened before this scene - the first time that I had realized that the story of Maleficent would be a different story was when a minor plot point was not revealed. I kept expecting that particular plot point would be revealed later on in the movie, but it never was.

It was great to hear the song "Once Upon a Dream" from the 1959 Sleeping Beauty film as the end credits song for Maleficent, which was sung for the movie Maleficent by Lana Del Rey, who was chosen to sing the song by Jolie.

There are so many wonderful movie trailers of this movie. It was hard for me to pick a movie trailer for this review. For this review, I choose the movie trailers that compared Maleficent with Sleeping Beauty, as people would be familiar most with Sleeping Beauty. Click here to watch the Maleficent movie trailers.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Maleficent.

 
Rated PG for violence and intense scenes. Running time: 97 Minutes.

Pancho 
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TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 165 Minutes



Click below to watch the movie trailer of Transformers: Age of Extinction.


In Paramount Pictures Transformers: Age of Extinction, Mark Wahlberg finds a broken down semi-truck - which turns out to be the Transformer Autobot Optimus Prime/Peter Cullen.

In this sequel to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the film takes place four years after the invasion of Chicago. Using new characters, struggling inventor/mechanic and single father Mark Wahlberg is trying to make money for himself and send his daughter Nicola Peltz to college with his inventions, when Wahlberg tries to restore a broken down semi-truck that he had bought with his partner T.J. Miller's money. Wahlberg soon discovers that the truck is Autobot Optimus Prime/Cullen - and that secret CIA government agents Titus Welliver and Kelsey Grammer are searching for them, along with bounty hunter Transformer Lockdown/Mark Ryan.

Directed by Michael Bay and Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg, story-wise, I think this is the best of the Transformers movies. While Optimus/Cullen feels betrayed by the humans, due to Grammer's machinations of getting rid of all Transformers after what had happened to Chicago, this movie is really about the love of father Wahlberg and his daughter Peltz. But like all of Director Michael Bay's films, the movie is twenty minutes too long as far as the action at the end is concerned. As it it, Bay says this is the longest film in the series. I just wanted to get on with the story instead of watching all of this fighting and destruction. I was feeling sleepy because there was no story to keep me interested. As usual I got confused as to which Transformer was which during the final battle scenes as they all look alike. As a result - as much as I wanted to care who was who, I did not care. I cared more for Wahlberg was firing an alien gun. It is curious in that there seemed to be more collateral damage and bystander refugees in the international China scenes than in the American scenes.

While Autobots from previous movies have been destroyed, the movie does introduce new Transformers - including Hound/John Goodman, Drift/Ken Watanabe, and Crosshairs/John DiMaggio. There was also a logical reason for the new Transformers that are introduced that transform into cars and other things, not including Stanley Tucci's man made Transformers, which Optimus/Cullen brought about which goes all the way back to the Creators. This logical reason, and that Optimus/Cullen was leading them, made the introduction of the new Transformers really special for me.

The 3-D was awesome throughout the entire movie. Usually the 3-D in movies is bad as it is just a conversion, but I noticed the 3-D throughout the entire movie - most notably when dust motes are flying around. Even in ordinary scenes, you could see the depth of the scene as Bay shot 60 percent of the movie in IMAX 3-D. The 3-D actually made me flinch a couple of times as things flew out at me.

Hasbro and Paramount Pictures have stated that here are talks of a fifth and sixth installment in the Transformers series. As of the 2014 July fourth weekend, Transformers: Age of Extinction has earned $201.3M overseas. This makes the movie the highest-grossing weekend for a film.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Transformers: Age of Extinction.



Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 165 Minutes.

Pancho
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X-Men: Days of Future Past

Twentieth Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 131 Minutes


Click below to watch a movie  trailer of X-Men: Days of Future Past




In Twentieth Century Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past, the near future has most mutants, and the humans who helped them, placed in internment camps, while the rest of the mutants are hunted down and killed by mutant hunting robot Sentinels. In order to save what's left of the mutant X-Men - Professor Charles Xavier/Patrick Stewart and Magneto/Ian McKellen sends Wolverine/Hugh Jackman 50 years into the past to change history.

After traveling back into the past, Wolverine/Jackman returns home to a run-down Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters to try to convince a young broken and disheveled Xavier/James McAvoy to free and recruit Magneto/Michael Fassbender from the Pentagon and join them to stop Mystique/Jennifer Lawrence from changing history.

The movie is basically The Avengers meets Captain America: The Winter Soldier and just as political as Captain America. The seventh film in the X-Men series, and the third X-Men film Directed and Produced by Bryan Singer, X-Men: Days of Future Past is based on the X-Men story line by Chris Claremont and John Byrne in the comic book The Uncanny X-Men issues #141-142, "Days of Future Past" published in 1981. The first issue of the story line was voted in 2001 as the 25th greatest Marvel comic. It is great that Claremont was brought in as a consultant to this film.

While I have not read "Days of Future Past" since it was published in 1981, I am pretty sure the movie followed the story fairly closely with some minor changes - or major changes depending on your point of view, since in the original story it was Kitty Pryde/Sprite who went back in time. But Wolverine/Jackman is the more popular protagonist character to the audience and can be used as an ageless immortal time travel character since he does not age. Also in the comics, the key time character was Senator Robert Kelly who was the head of an anti-mutant platform. In the movie, the key time character is cyberneticist Bolivar Trask/Peter Dinklage who created the robot Sentinels, since Senator Kelly/Bruce Davison appeared in X-Men.

With Bryan Singer's casting of Dinklage as Bolivar Trask, there could have been a lot of characterization developed on Trask and to why he had created the Sentinels. As a writer, I would have asked Dinklage's opinions of why Dinklage himself would have done something like creating the Sentinels. Too bad there was hardly any characterization developed for Trask/Dinklage. A new enemy and a new weapon for this war is not enough characterization.

The X-Men from the future you never get to know at all, aside from their powers. As a fan of the X-Men, I knew who these future X-Men all were - but even then, I have not read the books since the eighty's and I do not know if these characters have been prominent in the books since then. So the general public would most likely not have any connection to these future X-Men aside from appreciating their powers - which were pretty kick ass. The movie is basically Wolverine's/Jackman's movie. In the books, the dystopian near-future was the year 2013, which was last year as of this writing in 2014. It is good to know that near-future did not come to past in this reality.

Several people from the previous X-Men movies reprise their roles, like Nicholas Hoult/Beast, with most of the people being in cameo roles. The movie includes footage from the previous X-Men movie for these characters - as well as people appearing in some surprising live-action cameos.  The new character in the movie, who was also the most fun character in the movie, was Pietro Maximoff/Evan Peters. Too bad Maximoff/Peters did not have a larger role to offset some of the heavy drama that would play out in the rest of the movie. I am looking forward to Maximoff/Peters future connection to Magneto/Fassbender. It was sad to hear from Magneto/Michael Fassbender that several characters from the X-Men movies had been killed off. It was heartbreaking to hear Magneto/Fassbender yell at Charles Xavier/James McAvoy because it was Xavier/McAvoy as the one who had abandoned those who were lost. Mystique's/Jennifer Lawrence's character is the one character in the movie who was the most tragic after all the things that had happened to her, although we never really get the reason why Mystique/Lawrence was really after Trask/Dinklage aside from the obvious. The real reason is too subtle to pick up. Halle Berry's/Storm's character presence was reduced in this film due to Barry's pregnancy.

I liked the DNA graphics that were shown during the opening credits, which stresses the idea of genetics, leading into the theme of mutants. The prototype Sentinels in the past look just like the ones of which I am familiar with from the comics, and visually look pretty cool, while the Sentinels from the future are the ones that are the most dangerous. While X-Men: First Class used historical footage of President John F. Kennedy as part of the film to help make it believable, X-Men: Days of Future Past casts actor Mark Camacho as an historical figure. Using an actor for this historical figure loses credibility to the reality of the role, especially considering everyone's perceptions of this historical figure. The international implications of mutants as well as the news coverage of the mutants added to the reality of the situation outside of this figure.

There was no Stan Lee cameo in this movie, so don't bother looking for him, like I was doing. You can concentrate on watching the movie instead and not worry about missing something important like Lee.

While the events of this movie might change the events of previous X-Men films, Singer believes in multiverses and that certain events would be part of the history of alternate universes. This will help the fans keep from being so upset that things keep changing. I know it would help keep me from being so upset. There are a lot of good stories from the alternate universes in the 50 years of X-Men history.

I saw this movie on an opening weekend matinee and the theater was pretty full. At the end of the movie, the audience applauded. While most of the audience left, those who had stayed while waiting for the closing credits scene were sitting around talking about X-Men as the end titles credits music played. The closing scene character, while different from the drawings from the comics - so much so that I did not recognize the character, suggests the story that I am looking forward to in the next X-Men film - X-Men: Apocalypse coming out in 2016. I should point out, that while the scene at the end of the credits in the movie The Wolverine teased at what was going to happen in X-Men: Days of Future Past, that scene does not appear in Days of Future Past.

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, and nudity. Running Time: 131 Minutes.

Pancho
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Marvel Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 136 Minutes

Click below to watch the movie trailer of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.



In Marvel Entertainment's Captain America: The Winter Solder - Steve Rogers/Chris Evans - also known as America's Hero, Captain America - struggles against a high ranking conspiracy as well as a Cold War "ghost" assassin - The Winter Soldier/Sebastian Stan.

In the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Washington D.C. and the World Security Council has the covert agency of S.H.I.E.L.D. empowered with the hardware for a Project designed to preemptively eliminate threats after the events of The Avengers. The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury/Samuel L. Jackson, soon discovers a conspiracy after the recovery of classified data - and soon becomes a target from police disguised assailants, as well as the Winter Soldier/Stan. With the help of the Black Widow/Scarlett Johansson and his new friend, Pararescue war veteran and PTSD counselor Sam Wilson/Anthony Mackie - otherwise known as The Falcon - Captain America/Evans goes after the people responsible for attacking Fury/Jackson, the major conspirators and the Winter Soldier - who has a secret connection to Rogers/Evans.

With this film being more of a political thriller, I think that this is the best of the Marvel movies and debuted to a record breaking $96.2 million in North America as of 2014. While Captain America: The Winter Soldier was mostly a serious drama, most of the light comedy in the movie was of  the Black Widow/Johansson trying to set up Rogers/Evans with a date. This is even funnier when you consider that Captain America/Evans is such a piece of Americana that he is now an exhibit at a Smithsonian Museum. For Stan Lee fans, Lee's cameo is as a guard in the Smithsonian Museum.

Being a political thriller, the movie deals with hard core political issues, such as disorder and war, that deal with today rather than the more simplistic issues of disorder and war that Steve Rogers/Evans grew up with in the 1940's. As Rogers/Evans says, "This isn't freedom, this is fear." Having friends of mine who very liberal and are into conspiracy theories, the ideas in this movie hit pretty home to me, just as these ideas hit pretty home to Captain America/Evans. The scenes of the fake police using S.W.A.T. tactics against Fury/Jackson was especially disturbing for me to watch, as I have had classes with the police as a Citizens Academy graduate. Robert Redford as a senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official and World Security Council member as well as Fury/Jackson's mentor is an homage to Redford's 1970's thrillers and made the movie especially believable. Having bystanders running away to safety in the background in the various action scenes helped to ground this movie into reality and not just some comic book movie with no consequences.

I liked how we got to know more about Fury/Jackson and Rogers/Evans in this movie than we had in the other movies. Getting to know about Black Widow/Johansson and Falcon/Mackie made these four characters more of a family to me, despite their dysfunctional backgrounds. The relationship between political opposites Black Widow/Johansson and Captain America/Evans was quite interesting and pretty hot, despite the fact that these two character are supposed to get involved with other characters in the Marvel Universe, such as Hawkeye/Jeremy Renner and Agent 13/Emily VanCamp.

I saw the movie during a matinee and the theater was pretty full. The audience reacted positively to the kick-ass action. Seeing Captain America/Evans using his shield as both shield and weapon during the action scenes was pretty awesome. Black Widow/Johansson kicking ass is a given in the movie. A most welcome surprise is that Wilson/Mackie's action scenes as the Falcon were just as good, especially since the idea of the Falcon seems pretty cartoony in the comics to me and could have looked really bad. After watching how they did the Falcon with his exoskeleton wing pack in the movie, I am pretty confident that Marvel will treat all their comic book characters right visually. This is especially important as the Falcon/Mackie is an African-American superhero which is why Mackie wanted to do the movie in the first place, for his son and nephews and nieces. The S.H.I.E.L.D. technology was pretty awesome and formidable, particularly the helicarriers. The movie looks more realistic and more impressive to me especially during the action scenes, which is mainly because the movie was done mostly as live action with very little computer graphics involved.

Since everything in the Marvel universe is connected, the big scale events in Captain America: The Winter Soldier also affect the events in the TV show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which is about a team in the vast covert agency of S.H.I.E.L.D. under the direction of Agent Coulson/Clark Gregg. After watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I now understand the events of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. better, which will deal with the consequences of the movie on the team's relationships on a very personal, intimate scale. Since Coulson/Gregg is so involved into Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I miss having him appear in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and having Coulson/Gregg relate to his hero Captain America/Evans. Despite the lack of Coulson/Gregg, several S.H.I.E.L.D. characters, as well as several characters from Captain America: The First Avenger reprise their roles in this movie. An Easter Egg mention of Stephen Strange in the movie was of particular delight to me. From the lack of reaction, I think I was one of the very few people in the theater audience who knows the comic book character name of Stephen Strange - who is the title character in the new upcoming Marvel movie Dr. Strange.

There were only two movie trailers shown before Captain America: The Winter Soldier in the theater that I was in, Guardians of the Galaxy and Maleficent, both of which come from Marvel/Disney and both movies are movies that I really want to see when they come out.

I liked that during the end credits there were comic graphics of the movie with an iconic comic graphic of the stars in their roles of the movie. There are two movie scenes during the end credits. The first scene, in which Joss Wheedon directed, is after the credits for the movie's stars have been finished, in which the scene refers to Avengers: Age of Ultron. Most of the audience in my theater left after that scene - but there is another movie scene later after all of the credits at the end of the movie have been finished. The people staying for the rest of the credits were discussing Marvel as I was reading the credits and enjoying the music from the movie. The rest of the audience who stayed all went quiet when the final scene finally aired. I felt this final movie scene was quite moving for the movie.

The very last message before the Marvel logo appears is: Captain America will return in "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.




Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

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GOD'S NOT DEAD

Pure Flix Entertainment

Rated PG

Running Time: 113 Minutes

Click below to watch the God's Not Dead movie trailer.



In Pure Flix Entertainment's God's Not Dead, freshman college student Shane Harper must prove to his Philosophy teacher Kevin Sorbo that God's Not Dead.

When Sorbo refuses to waste time in his philosophy class debating about the Big Man in the Sky, Sorbo has his class write down God is Dead. Christian-based Harper can not do that - and Sorbo assigns Harper to defend the antithesis. The class soon becomes a mock-trial about the existence of God.

Based on the book God's Not Dead by Rice Broocks and the song "Like a Lion"  written by Christian artist Daniel Bashta - which became the song "God's Not Dead" for the Christian Band the Newsboys. I liked Harper's struggles in how to deal with defending his beliefs, in his Christianity. It made me think of if I were strong enough to take on such a task to defend my belief in God, and how I would do it if I could.

While some of the film is an over-the-top, in-your-face style of Christianity which bothered me, the blatant anti-Christianity also bothered me. Reporter Trisha LaFache's ambush interviews seemed especially mean-spirited. Things and ideas should be brought into the movie slowly. The small conversations discussing what this was all about were the ones that were the most profound to me. I did like the arguments, both pro and con, of the existence of God - especially the science arguments by Harper of Darwinism and the Big Bang. The list of philosophers used in the movie, most of which I did not make the connection that they were atheists before, drove home the intellectual elitism to me of which the college tenure portrayed. The film also showed how other cultures approach God, some of which felt very stereotyped to me in the movie.

I liked the fact that there were several mentions of the play Death of a Salesman. It is curious how some of the themes in Death of a Salesman actually plays into the movie God's Not Dead.

There was a large cast of characters, which I liked, but I was not exactly happy that all of the characters were connected to each other in some way. I would have preferred groups of characters having their own stories - in which they basically did, but have no connection to each other at all.

Not only is the title of the movie based on the Christian artist band Newsboys song God's Not Dead, the Newsboys have a larger presence in the movie than just a cameo. While the movie is definitely a drama between Harper and Sorbo, the movie is also a concert film for the Newsboys, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Other Christian artists songs are also used as background music in the movie. Cameos from A & E's TV show Duck Dynasty, Willie Robertson and Korie Robertson, made for an interesting appearance. I liked how Robertson explained that everything, money, success, life is temporary - but that Jesus is not.

It is great that both Kevin Sorbo and Dean Cain appear in this movie. Sorbo was up for the role of Superman in the TV series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - in which Cain got the part, while Sorbo got the role of Hercules in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. It is interesting to note that these heroes play not-so-heroic roles in God's Not Dead. Too bad they did not have any scenes together, but it is nice to know that Sorbo and Cain were in the same movie together.

Because of the college environment, this film should be seen by youth groups and has a definite youth group feeling to it - especially coming from the pastor David A.R. White and his missionary friend Benjamin Ochieng - and about the choices we make. The Free Will. The film reminded me of my college days and of my relationships with my professors. I saw this film at a matinee and the theater was half-full. This is very good for a limited release film on it's opening weekend. The audience was composed of a mixed audience age wise. At the end of the movie, the audience applauded.

Before the closing credits rolled, there was a list of legal cases concerning religious freedom on various schools and colleges. There were a lot more legal cases than I thought there would be. While the list of cases rolled through the screen too fast for me to read them all - I noticed that most of the cases were favorable about religious freedom, with the rest of the cases still pending as of 2014.

It is curious, that as I was waiting in line to get my ticket, there was a couple behind me that were going to see God's Not Dead as well, but one of them was confused about the time - because there was another movie with God in the title that was playing at the same theater there as well, Son of God. How often are there two religious movies released at the same time in mainstream theaters? The trailers showed another religious movie that is coming out around Easter that I also want to see Heaven is for Real. I think that would make the most religious movies in the mainstream theaters that would be out at the same time that I have ever experienced.

It is great to see a contemporary Christian movie dealing with today's issues for once, including mobile cell phone texts, than an historical religious film that is usually shown during the Lenten season. And for a religious movie in limited release for it's opening weekend - God's Not Dead wound up at number 5 at the box office. The Hollywood industry newspaper Variety says that "Faith-based audiences are once again proving to be anything but conservative at the U.S. box office."

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 113 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.