Diagonaldi Very well executed

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

touchmenot120196 This is a Catholic film. The Shrivers are part of the Kennedy clan. This movie portrays Mary as the perfect on not Jesus Christ. They show very little about the Christ. Mary was bless but not perfect. It makes her look like she is the one who had no sin. They showed very little of Jesus ministry. I think they should have shown Jesus and his ministry which is the way we get to Heaven. Mary was the chosen vessel to the birth of Jesus and raised him but I truly doubt she had more power over him than God and the Holy Spirit did. I just wish they would have used this film to lead people to Jesus instead of to Mary. This film is not an Evangelical Christian Film. They would have focused on Jesus not Mary. So many parts of Jesus' ministry was left out for the speculation of Mary being the chosen.

Gregory72 Firstly, this movie is overly-ambitious in the amount of material covered. Cramming Christ's entire life (and Mary and Joseph's relationship beforehand) into a 90 minute movie doesn't do justice to any part of it, and at times it feels like a series of loosely-connected skits. Some fairly important things aren't shown at all such as the scourging of Christ (he just appears before the crowds with a crown of thorns and robe) and his conversation with the thieves who were crucified with him. His trial is quick and simplistic, and the Emperor doesn't seem interested in the outcome all (and Barabas doesn't seem like a very bad guy either).Also, the acting is extremely poor overall. Honestly, it is the worst that I have ever seen in a religious film - a mixture of wooden, bizarre and exaggerated performances. This is the angriest Jesus that I've ever seen - he's in a rage even when he's on his way to be crucified. I guess that's why he only falls down once. Mary has a mean streak too, as evidenced when she calls the disciples "cowards".Then there are the revisions, and misinterpretations.First, we have James as the actual brother of Jesus (because, after all, that's what it says in English). Mary, we learn, is instrumental in Jesus' ministry - she teaches him the story of the Good Samaritan as a child, for instance. This is fairly harmless, and makes for a touching scene (Mary is best as a loving Mother), but then we are shown Mary as the only one who witnesses the Ascension (though in the movie, Jesus simply fades away).We also see Mary state that Jesus told her that woman are fit to lead because they raise our sons. Mary, not surprisingly is also the one who founds the Church (now she might have had some help from the Holy Spirit, but you wouldn't know it from the movie) and she must tell the disciples what to do (they are generally portrayed as useless when they are shown at all). So much for Peter being the rock...With so many great movies about Jesus, I wouldn't waste my time with this movie (although it might make a fun game for a bible study group to see who could pick out the most errors). I recommend "Jesus of Nazareth" as a much more complete movie (at 6 hours, the scenes play out properly) with well-portrayed characters (not surprising, given the cast) and no serious problems.

David Downing This was a good idea, but I had problems with the execution. I felt this movie sacrificed more than it gained. Because it limited itself to what Mary experienced firsthand, it omitted huge chunks of the story of Jesus (like, for example, the Last Supper). If it had really developed Mary's character, that would have been a decent trade, but she comes a cross as a stock character whose words and actions are predictable and unremarkable. This could have been a good movie, but they didn't take the trouble to do it right.

dust-7 Spoilers!Another Costco special, as it were. Sort of dramatic, literalist CBN/Evangelical type docu-drama, with a particular view of Mary perhaps not shared by everyone, such as Catholics, Muslims, or even the High Anglican? The actress portrays her as petulant, defiant, confused, and so on. It just seems like one of Mary's sisters, rather than Mary. Joseph seems about right, physically tall (Mary was prob. on the tallish side, too), concerned with her welfare more than anything, and so on.The Bible isn't quite consulted so much; surprizing for an evangelical type of film, perhaps. Mary was supposed to shelter in a cave used as a shepherd's stable outside of town, not in a livery. The cousin, Elizabeth, knew when Mary walked up she was pregnant, not afterward when they were in the house. The wise men showing up before the birth, when it's more likely they went to a house that Mary went to after the census crush, and only later she fled to Egypt (and the whole Egypt thing is missing, of course - which might have been very interesting). And things like that.And of course there's the British accent thing - associated with Shakespeare, 'high drama'. It probably sounds like nit-picking, but too much melodrama, in this way, too much silence, too many 'meaningful' gazes, makes everything look and sound too scripted and too forced. It's not a story, but a film about a story. It's self-consciously a collection of scenes, and that's what comes through.Not a movie to recommend. It's slow. It's bad filmmaking. Even the old Biblical quick-cut epics had more character development and plot. People complain of the Hollywood treatment of good stories, and the resulting middling to bad films. But you can give a story a bad religious treatment, too, even if it's not Hollywood. And if you don't have even basic Hollywood screenwriting to fall back on, for what it's worth, it can really wind up - sort of like this film.