Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
FrogGlace
In other words,this film is a surreal ride.
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
banjo-peppers
First of all, it's absurd this movie is rated PG. The language and the bloody, violent scene towards the end should push this up to a PG-13 rating.As for an actual review: This is one of those "family torn apart by tragedy and they come together thanks to the power of Christ" movies, except in this movie, the message doesn't work at all. One character, who's a drug user, gets his girlfriend pregnant, is in a gang, and uses the foul language that should keep this movie from a PG rating, just all of a sudden changes for the better after cursing out God after his girlfriend gets stabbed in the stomach. Really, his change comes pretty much out of nowhere.The main character's change for the better is more gradual and makes a bit more sense - she's convinced to help with a church's nativity play, and that mostly combined with the friendly carpenter changes her from being a clubbing, drunken mess to a more put-together young lady.But that's not enough to save this movie. The plot overall is slow, and there's somehow too many plot threads and yet not enough. The characters are almost entirely unlikable, and nobody ever calls out the step-mom for her obvious preference for her biological son and her blindness to his drug use and stealing her money and how absurdly critical she is of her step-daughter; at one point the step-daughter shows up in short shorts and a sparkly shirt, and the step-mother says "Did you get that at a thrift store?" with contempt. Which is absurd - she's more concerned that her step-daughter may have bought clothes secondhand than that her step-daughter is dressed like a hooker and keeps coming home drunk.But then in the end we find out the step-mother is responsible for the death of her step-daughter's biological mother, but her new husband (the step-daughter biological father) is fine with that, and the drug-using son says "Hey God, please let my girlfriend live" and then there's a mediocre duet of "Mary Did You Know?" that then repeats during the credits immediately after the duet first ends.There's plenty of other Christmas movies that have a "redeeming power of Christ" message that have much more solid plots and likable characters than this one.
connie g
DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE with kids under age 16. That is unless you want to explain, sex, drugs, and every curse word (almost) to your 8 year old. "Mommy whats that thing in his mouth..." Um, that's a crack pipe sweetie. Of course I had NO IDEA that this movie would be filled with bar scenes and a crotch shot of a slightly erect penis (yep!) because it was in the FAMILY section. This movie was right next to "Miracle Dog" and it had a nice wholesome cover and every thing. But we were soooo wrong. Outside of that, the production, editing and many other aspects of the film were poooor quality. In one particular masterful editing sequence,a young lady went from being at a bar, to smiling at an empty school at night, to ending up at a friends house beaten. This took place literally in a matter of 18 seconds. There were no other scenes or dialogue! It was literally-bar...school smiling with nobody around...bruised and abused at friends house. I did appreciate the message and all. And I appreciate a depiction of a modern day interracial family. Other than that, this movie was a complete waste.
ChaosUnleashed
No idea why this is labelled as "comedy" although we did laugh out loud at the abysmal acting and watching the set fall apart. Vivica A. Fox & Eric Roberts did a competent but lazy performance and everyone else was just plain terrible, seriously the Twilight vampire movies had better acting. The movie did touch some important deep issues which requires good acting but you won't find that here. Two hours of my life I am NEVER getting back. Thanks Richard Foster for wasting my time and I'll see you at dole/unemployment office on Monday. My advice to you gentle reader looking for a movie to watch: Move along, nothing to see here. I've noticed a lot of the positive reviews for this movie moan about the negative reviews being anti-Christian, personally I'm not for or against Christianity, you can worship whatever you like I couldn't care less, that's not the problem, the problem is its a very bad movie.
reesha7591
In the "olden days" we used to watch movies together and then discuss them with our families, especially at the holidays. This is a great one for discussions between youths and adults. Kids are exposed to so much these days regardless of how parents may try to protect them or whether everyone gets a trophy. They have so much access to information of all sorts and are exposed to problems most of us weren't in our youths. They may not know what to do with all the information, misinformation and feelings about information. Some of them learn the hard way that NOBODY'S life is "perfect." This film gives everyone a problem. It's an excellent vehicle for helping your kids explore not only the problems featured in this story, but also helps parents or other adults set the stage for open discussion on life's touchy subjects.May be a little R-rated for the wee ones. Still, if you've ever wondered how to bring up subjects surrounding the idea of losing to win, this well-acted, well-directed and well-filmed movie is an excellent starting point. Bravo to the cast and crew!
