Upon watching this film which has Gavin MacLeod in the title role, Robert Guillame as a grumpy neighbor and absolutely no one else you would know, I hit the internet to see if one Jonathan Sperry 1895-1970 actually existed. I found lots of commentary but no article in something like Wikipedia or other sources talking about a real person. I see the credits list nothing based on a biography or autobiographhy. So what are the brothers Christiano handing us here.The problem with a lot of Christian filmmaking is many times it exists in a vacuum. That's a problem not limited to religious themed movies either. In this case it is set in 1970 when all kinds of history I well remember from the time was going on. Not a single reference to anything happening in the real world is made. The story is how a kindly old Christian man played by MacLeod sort of organizes an unofficial Sunday School in his living room for the neighborhood and the impact he has on them. The coda has them all leading exemplery Christian lives in 2008 when this film was released.Did the protagonist exist or his disciples? We are left to wonder. For the evangelical they will not question it. It's not a bad bit of filmmaking. MacLeod and his young disciples give good performances. But adding that coda on to make it real is intellectually dishonest and the Christiano brother know it.For the church audiences only.

This is my first review on IMDb. I've seen most of the mainstream, popular movies for the last two decades. But this movie is the first one that compelled me to write a review! The acting isn't perfect at all times and the interaction may seem unnatural at a few scenes perhaps (if you put your "bad" will/eye or an unnecessary microscope to it, that is) and like some have suggested in earlier reviews you may get creepy feelings during the movie due to the evil things going on in this world. What I mean to say is that we could easily misjudge the characters based on our prior knowledge of certain things that COULD happen in the real world if the story depicted in this movie were to play out in let's say, New York.But if you forget evil persons and watch the movie without suspecting people of being "whatever" you'll find that this is a really inspiring movie worth every dime spent.BTW: This movie is from my standpoint 100% bible-based! And earlier reviewers are IMHO misleading people. People might not like it. But Jesus clearly warned us that there are two paths you may go by.. and there's only one way to heaven, Jesus.God bless =)

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.

I saw a pre-release version about two months ago. As a fan of movies with car chases, explosions, and superhuman exploits, I did not expect to really get into this movie. The story deals with the relationships between characters in a small town in 1970 and feels like a coming-of-age movie as a young man and his friends deal with a childhood crush on a young lady. The boy-meets-girl subplot is a slight of hand before the real plot unfolds. And the resolution of one of the other subplots is the final coup de grace of the film.I found the film moving and well worth watching...again.The film opens today in limited release. My family and I are going to see it.