Alicia I love this movie so much

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

mharah You can go the breathless, creepy-weepie route. Or you can go the determined, stiff-upper-lip route. The 5th Quarter chose creepy-weepie, and as always, it really doesn't work very well. I don't have a problem with faith-based content, but that shouldn't prevent it from being well-written, well-acted and well-produced. The 5th Quarter, sadly, is not. The characters are very one-dimensional. The film should have explored the personal effect the tragedy forced upon them and how they dealt with that. It's all well and good to portray people turning to their faith in times of great stress. However, The 5th Quarter shows characters turning to faith and expecting it to do the work. We need to see how faith was the inspiration and one's resources were the effort. The writing was uninspired -- many, many clichés. As always in low budget productions, much of the talent was picked up locally, and it shows. Lines were often delivered without any credibility; the actors' inexperience was obvious. Production values were very erratic - sometimes quite good, other times amateurish. (The use of stock footage was particularly jarring - roughly edited and badly printed. It often looked like a bad 60s kinescope, and perhaps it was.) The acting in general was not remarkable. Both Aiden Quinn and Andie McDowell are capable of excellent work; not here. Quinn chewed up the scenery. (He tends to do that in highly emotional roles; the director should have reined him in. Of course, the director may have actually liked it.) Andie McDowell could have phoned it in. Ryan Merriman - still very underrated and underused, as is often the fate of talented child actors who grow up - did quite well making some impossible lines and set-ups sound believable. All in all, this film could have been first rate. The story, the principal cast, the values - they had all the elements of an exciting, inspiring film. But it fell prey to the problem with so many faith-based films - the story was sacrificed to make sure we got the message. As a result, neither succeeded all that well.

raleighgranprix Years ago, there use to be a dramatic Christian TV show called 'Faith for today', having seen it makes me think that these kinds of new movies are a bit of a modern version of that genre, dramatic Christian programming while at the same time, I have to say, it is not 'overtly' Christian in it's message vs. in comparison say 'Facing the Giants' but only in that Wake Forest is a Christian University, the "Deacs", Demon Deacons. Also in one scene in the Abbate household, I believe one might see a cross on the wall but even that seems a bit unfocused in the background and then, there is a short part in the Church but no "Bible Thumping" by any means.One should not be expecting a Hollywood production. You have to think outside the box. The movie has a message and in the end is moving and does recount that story well. The football action is fairly well done when it shows games. I give it 6 stars as being on the plus side of average. For a "football movie", I'd rate it as about 7 stars actually, interesting when you think of Wake Forest as I do as mainly a basketball power which they are vs. football. It may not be 'Brian's song' or 'The Knute Rockne story' but it might be slightly reminiscent of the feel of those movies and I would think of it as being more along the lines of 'We are Marshall.' It's definitely worth a try. Yeah and parts of it do make me a bit teary eyed. Also, from a sports angle, the parts with South African trainer Steve Uria are good, it makes me think of some of the real exercise parts of the movie 'Hoosiers.' Honestly, if you are into sports, the exercise portions may be something you want to try for yourself. Wake Forest is more famous for it's basketball teams, even at the football game, I saw some of the student supporters jumping up and down which is something I tend to see all the time watching basketball games of some Universities like, I've got to say it, Duke University. So, in the final analysis, I think there is quite a bit to this movie and it is worth watching.

aonetravel I don't understand the negative reviews. Please watch this movie and see for yourself. I thought the actors did a fantastic job. I have never seen a father's love portrayed so beautifully as Aiden Quinn showed in this movie. Men do not often show such tenderness but he brought such an endearing character to life for me. Andie McDowell was the perfect choice to play the mother in this film. You could just tell how proud she was of her three sons and how hard she was holding on for the entire family. I fell in love with all three of the sons and felt the two surviving sons each brought a unique reaction to the tragic loss of their brother. Bring a box of tissues and let all of your teenage children watch this! We need to teach our children how one bad decision can alter the rest of our lives and the lives of others that we care about.

starcj70 This is no Blind Side. I had higher hopes for this movie. It seems like a lot of the acting was forced. For the minor characters it felt like they were reading cue cards and talking woodenly. There were lots of missed opportunities to really make this a great movie. The accident was caused by reckless driving where the youngest son in the family is declared brain dead. The angst of a young child lost so soon and the journey of acceptance would have had the makings of this movie. An opportunity was missed in dealing with the culpability of the person who was responsible for the accident. I thought Merriman was a good actor in this part. I thought and so did my daughter that Aidan Quinn overdid the emotion in several scenes. Andie McDowell was SO underused. The dynamic between the husband and wife in dealing with their son's tragedy was never explored. Missed opportunities in this movie give it this low rating.