I’ve seen more than a few Christian movies in my time. Some of the fantastic ones would be War Room, Courageous, and Fire Proof to name a few, while the Left Behind films, 90 Minutes in Heaven, and The Case for Christ all fall into the abyss of bad movies. All Saints doesn’t really belong in either category, but if I had to really say, it was a pretty bad movie.
The story about the refugees finding a home at the church, a church that needs just about as much saving as they do, is not the problem. The biggest problem I have here is that who ever picked the main characters didn’t really think it though. Personal beliefs aside, John Corbett does not come across as a pastor. He could never play such a serious role, so every time he said the word God, I cringed. It didn’t feel real. I didn’t feel the desperation in his voice or character. As much as this story is about the church, it is really centered around a pastor who out of the good graces of heart wants to do more than you or I could ever imagine. The film tries to make you care about both and does a terrible job at both.
Amazingly the events in the story actually happened in a small town in Tennessee, which is inspiring and up lifting. Although I bet if this story was told in a book it would have been better put together and actually showcased the deeper meaning that the film intended. I have sat through worse movies, but I deserved a little bit better than this.
The writers tried to really hammer away the major hurdles the pastor, his family, the refugees, and the church folk suffer through, without ever going deep enough to get us invested. Pastor Spurlock (Corbett) has a son, that kinda get some attention but in no way gets enough credit for dealing with this situation at home and with his friends. The people who attended this church and did everything they could to save it also don’t get their fair share of attention. The bishops want to close the place down and put up a super store, but never really tells us why the church has no money or how much it needs to survive. Sadly everything just gets glazed over and the final product doesn’t really do an amazing story about faith justice.
star rating: 4/10
Ten Stars or Less 
Interesting. I thought this was one of the better faith based films I’ve seen
Did you get a chance to review All Saints? I couldn’t find it on your blog. It may be a solid movie about faith, I just didn’t get invested in the story enough to consider it a real faith based story. Most of it felt pretend, like I couldn’t actually see these people in these types of situations in real life.
Yep. I really enjoyed it. http://54disneyreviews.com/2017/08/31/all-saints-review/