Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

lagudafuad The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry is a subtle movie, that goes ever so smoothly that you never miss a step, it is not filled with the action, and special effects that most believes is required to make a good movie. Here is a movie that just drives off at a pace that it keeps to the very end, driving its message of love and the efforts of one man, whose life was a total testimony of what Christ expects from us when he gave us the great commission.The movie has high ratings from critics, and that made me skeptical, wanting to stay away from it because I know that critics don't really like Christian movies because they see it as a source of propaganda. I felt, "here is a movie that they like probable the message is heavily watered down" but that was not the case in this movie, from the set go it started to preach Christ and it ended with Christ.The movie plot is about a 75 year old named Jonathan Sperry (Gavin MacLeod) in the 70s who befriend a 12 year old boy named Dustin (Jansen Panettiere) and his friends Albert (Frankie Ryan Manriquez) and Mark (Allen Isaacson). Jonathan during his time with the boys taught them about Christ, built them up in Christ and used them to touch the lives of those around them, from a bully to a lonely neighbor.The movie does have some little faults; the kid actors were all not in form, because the class of acting that they delivered was way off base. The adult actors on the other hand did a fine job. Then there is the setting and the dressing, it was said that the movie was set in the 70s but it looked more like the 80s to me, but that is my view. The movie directing was done Rich Christiano and the movie was written by him and his brother Dave Christiano. The two are the owners of Five & Two Pictures, who were also the producers of the 2002 Sci-Fi dramedy Christian movie Time Changer.Here is a Christian movie that many like, and it is for a good reason too, it talks about Christ, and the movie leaves an image in your heart, of a man who spent his life showing the love of Christ to as much as he canHere is a movie for you and the family.www.lagsreviews.com

cjavery1 I'd prefer to have seen Davey and Goliath. At least the threat of Hell would not have come into play. Comments about propaganda are spot on.This type of heavy handed religious syrup promotes a blind sense of superiority that has caused more harm than good in the world for centuries. Let's all go on a religious crusade. Look where that has taken us in the world today. Selling religion to kids with lemonade and cake is a pretty lame way to deliver a partially good message. Even so, the "screenplay" is pathetic. Why can't we learn to keep religion in the church amongst the flock? Aren't these many of the same "worshipers" that burn books and control freedom of thought?

dtucker86 I went to see this film today out of curiosity. I figured that I was going to have a good laugh at it when I read that Gavin MacLeod was the star of it. I didn't think I could take him seriously in a role like this because I always think of him as Captain Stubing on The Love Boat. MacLeod became a born again Christian in real life and making this film was a real labor of love for him. I came to scorn and left to rejoice. I had a very pleasant surprise because this is a beautiful film. Its so sad that it wont even be a footnote in the 2009 box office history. People who are not as brilliant as I am will make fun of it and miss its very important message. It has only limited release and when I went to see it, I was the ONLY one in the whole theatre. It is a real pleasure seeing a film like this because Hollywood has long had a jaded attitude about religion. In other words, whenever they make a film about it they always show the religious person as crazy, corrupt or both. Thinking back over the years, I can only name The Passion Of The Christ as a film that showed religion in a favorable way. People may condemn this film for being preachy, but I loved it. It had such a powerful message and Gavin MacLeod gave an awesome performance. He brought Jonathan Sperry to life and you loved this wonderful old man who had such love in his heart. I can think of no other actor who could have done such a brilliant job and I say give Gavin MacLeod the Oscar! Sadly this will never happen. I also wanted to praise the young actors in the film, they all did a great job even the one playing Nick the bully. I loved the part where Jonathan reached Nick and made him realize the cause of his meaness. I wanted to particularly praise a young actor named Jansen Panettine who played Justin the lead kid. He is a real acting prodigy and I predict a great future for this young man! I kept wondering when he was going to work up the nerve to ask that girl for a date and I was angry at that other waitress for throwing his note away. Watching the three boys and the typical kid problems they went thru sort of reminded me of Stand By Me. I just loved everything about this film from the way they faithfully created the "look" of the seventies (when people only tipped fifty cents!) to the beautiful musical score, the powerful message and the awesome work of everyone involved. If I had my way, this film would have gotten top billing everywhere. SPOILER ALERT, I knew that Mister Sperry would die in the end of the film and Jansen Panettine did a great job showing the grief this boy feels over his beloved friends death. I know that people may mock me for saying this but I feel I am a better person for seeing this film.

RNHunter This movie is amazing. In many ways today it is more scary than the saw movie series and I for one cannot believe it was even made. It is a wholesome movie that sometimes focuses on people being nice to each other.It should sometimes surprise us that a wholesome movie with some religious content makes us more uncomfortable at least in the movie beginnings than the slasher movies or saw movies or the like. We have been programmed I believe to think that movies like this are square or out of date, or just not cool or with it. So there is a tendency to want to hide your face at the start of the movie and slink to the door hoping no one will see you.But if you brave it out, and yes, you can even hold hands in the scary parts, you might find something unique. You might find the movie touching, and you might even want to cry a little, yes, even if you are a male. And at the end you might ask, why is it again that we are so afraid to be nice to other humans or watch movies that show that? Maybe if we give it a chance, and this movie a chance, being nice to each other might just catch on.