Facing the Giants: Critic Reviews

The religious proselytizing in this football movie is about as subtle as a blindside hit by a 300-pound defensive end.

By preaching to the converted so heavy-handedly, the filmmakers fumble an opportunity to reach beyond their target demo of devout churchgoers.

The wholesomeness of the message and the movie's cast make it feel 1950s retro.

Facing the Giants feels like an overly earnest church sketch of the type many evangelical congregations use as a teaching tool on Sunday between the worship music and pastor's message.

Faith-based pigskin tale.

Kendrick needs to learn that didacticism isn't a film aesthetic.

The separation of church and cinema amounts to a long yard at most in this high school football sermon from Georgia-based Baptist pastor Alex Kendrick.

Earnest but amateurish.

In a season in which Invincible and Gridiron Gang already have laid claim to the title of inspirational football movie, this looks like an also-ran.

Its feel-good storyline, shopworn message, and bottomless sermonizing would have played better in Sunday school than on the big screen, which is -- let's face it -- Babylon's turf.

Here's a badly acted movie with a terrific story line that makes it well worth seeing.

A sermon much more than it is a movie.

Most of the actors read their lines earnestly but flatly, and Kendrick has done them no favors by pushing them to play broad comedy in some scenes and anguished drama in others.

Fitfully entertaining… To reach a broader audience, though, the filmmakers will have to scrap their playbook and learn a whole new set of rules.

Would seem sincere enough, but it's just a chain of ludicrous cliches of both the sports and religious variety.

For it to have any appeal for persons who do not share the movie's beliefs would indeed be miraculous -- it's appallingly bad as anything other than a sermon.

Those looking for an evening's diversion will find it an amateur exercise that has the feel of a film-school project.

I'm not about to argue with the message, but the delivery system sinks below the level of after-school special, and the acting matches.

When a film is as unintentionally corny as this one, it's anyone's guess as to how many viewers can stomach all the schmaltz for the positive message at the end.

If it cannot avoid the cliches of both the sports film and the inspirational film, at least Facing the Giants leavens its message with good humor.

This time, Jesus rather than Burt Reynolds or The Rock gets the credit for leading an underdog team of football players to victory.

Facing the Giants falls victim to the tell-don't-show brand of filmmaking, in which every character always says exactly what he's feeling and every time a character's flaws are pointed out to him, they are immediately corrected.

..more a ministry tool than entertainment, but it is an encouraging development in the ongoing struggle against Hollywood hegemony.

... full of praise for God in place of foul language and biblical quotes in place of deeds. It preaches to the converted -- literally.