Central messages are that faith has the power to save you and help you out of dark and desperate situations into the light. Also presses that you must fight for what you believe in, even if that means going up against people and authorities who will test and doubt you.
Several characters act compassionately and selflessly. Bobby stands up to his bosses and the courts for his rights. Stereotyping of atheists and people of color. Men with guns steal a van, point a gun at unarmed men, have a shoot out with other criminals, and kill a man.
People die and are injured in a car accident. Parents need to know that Do You Believe? While there's no sex or language, you can expect disturbing scenes of violence, including several gun shots, a murder, a chase scene between criminals, and a fatal car accident that kills or injures people. While viewers who agree with the filmmakers' beliefs may enjoy the film, others could be uncomfortable with the movie's political agenda and the stereotypical portrayal of atheists and people of color every young person of color in the film is either a criminal or suffering in some way: a pregnant teen, gang members, and a violent former Marine suffering from PTSD.
The violence makes the movie inappropriate for young viewers, but teens in church-going families should be mature enough to handle the content. Add your rating See all 5 parent reviews. Add your rating See all 1 kid review. In Chicago, a dozen characters' storylines intersect literally and figuratively at a cross. Pastor Matthew Ted McGinley witnesses an older man Delroy Lindo dragging a large wooden cross around the city, asking strangers whether they "believe in the power of the cross of Christ.
The pastor is so touched by the man's faith that he hands out small wooden crosses to his congregation the following Sunday.
The power of the cross then touches various other believers and nonbelievers, from a homeless mother and daughter Mira Sorvino , Makenzie Moss ; a selfless church janitor Brian Bosworth ; and older parents Cybill Shepherd and Lee Majors still struggling with the loss of their daughter to a troubled pregnant teen Madison Pettis ; Kriminal's younger brother, Pretty Boy Shwayze ; an evangelical EMT Liam Matthews ; and two twentysomethings Alexa PenaVega and Joseph Julian Soria who meet on a bridge where they were planning to attempt suicide.
Until recently, most faith-based movies have had to settle for one or two recognizable actors; this one might boast the most familiar group of established actors ever to appear in a Christian movie. Most of them are listed as associate producers, meaning they'll contractually receive back-end profits perhaps part of the formula to help these movies attract better ensembles? In this case, the actors all do their best with the heavy-handed script.
If it had focused on the characters' stories of love and compassion the pastor taking in the pregnant teen, the church janitor helping both the repentant criminal and the homeless single mom, the suicidal couple , it would have been an effective story about God's love. But the political overtones and the subtle race issues make the movie more problematic. It stumbles the most with the EMT's subplot, which stretches the boundaries of believability by stereotyping atheists, unions, and prosecutors.
The messages about race are particularly mixed. Although Pastor Matthew's congregation is multicultural, the movie's central steadfast Christians are all white men, and the people of color almost all end up redeemed but dead. Bottom line? Yes, Do You Believe? Despite her terminal diagnosis, Jeremy proposes and stands by her side as she fights the illness and their love deepens. If you're in the market for role models, look no further: This couple is as wholesome as they come the only villain here is cancer.
They don't even kiss until they first say "I love you. Add your rating See all 7 parent reviews. Add your rating See all 19 kid reviews. But she's already in a relationship of sorts with Camp's music hero.
As he tries to win her over while being respectful to his friend, the couple eventually learns that there's a much harsher obstacle in their path. This love story has the heart swells of The Notebook , the unexpected twists of a Nicholas Sparks novel, and the anguish of The Fault in Our Stars : The proof is your depleted tissue box.
What elevates I Still Believe is that it's true. If it weren't, it would be too sappy and overwrought to accept as reality. But Camp has been telling this story at concerts for years, and the events really did happen to him and his first wife, Melissa. Most of the story takes place at the Orange County Bible college that Jeremy and Melissa attended, and there's not a shady character here: These kids do the right thing, strive to make good choices, and are all-around great role models.
There is a moment in which their actions are hurtful to someone -- and you'll definitely want to talk with kids about what might have been a better way to handle it -- but it's easy to appreciate that at least their hearts were in the right place.
Yes, Jeremy and Melissa may be too good to be true and, really, who would begrudge them perfection? This is a full-fledged faith-based film, and it's a victory for the Christian creative community. And kudos to directors Andrew and Jon Erwin for having the self-restraint to not make the movie about Camp's rising-star status, instead, letting that occur subtly in the background.
The film is beautifully shot -- if only we could all live in a world lit by cinematographer Kristopher Kimlin. From characters luxuriating in a sun-drenched room to a smoky haze beaming through the window, Kimlin may have invented a "God" filter.
Apa and Robertson are marvelous together, and co-star Gary Sinise exhibits a natural ease. While the script could use some punching up, overall, it's on par with most romance movies. And sure, there are a couple of things that a cynic could take shots at, but considering the squeaky clean story, admirable characters, and positive approach to some of life's most difficult moments, parents may think their prayers have been answered.
Families can talk about their beliefs. Did I Still Believe change or affirm any of your opinions? What do you think the filmmakers want you to take away from watching? How do the characters demonstrate courage , communication , gratitude , and humility? Why are those important character strengths? You could argue that this film is both a drama and a romance. Which do you think it is primarily?
Does a movie have to be one genre or another? Can it be more than one thing? Jeremy and Melissa always mean well, but there's a moment in which they hurt someone. What might have been a better way to handle it? Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
Ansgar, in particular, feels more like a cut-out to be lusted after and reduced to a hypersexual character with one thing on his mind. There are a few surprises but nothing too earth-shattering or shocking. Monica Castillo is a freelance writer and University of Southern California Annenberg graduate film critic fellow.
Victoria Justice. Matthew Daddario. Katherine McNamara. Lucien Laviscount. Reviews Trust. The bulk of the values is still in the average area, which makes the IMDB rating worth considering further for a recommendation, although is clearly hard to rival the metascore, with that skew.
The skew is still visibly towards the higher part of the movie rating spectrum, where most of the ratings reside. The area for the lower half of the average ratings is completely empty, just like the one for low ratings.
It can easily be concluded that the distribution is quite far from fitting my criterion. I promise that the torment of scrolling up will end soon. This makes it unfit for the bad-average-good qualitative framework, because it makes movies either good, either bad.
It could be that a larger sample would do it more justice, but even so, if I were to recommend it, I would do it with some reserves because of the vague positive or negative rating system. At this point of the analysis, I could say that by looking at the distributions, my recommendation is the metascore.
From this perspective, recommending the metascore by mostly doing a visual examination is clearly not enough. The idea is to use the Fandango variable as a negative reference, and then determine which variable, from the IMDB rating and the metascore, is the least correlated with it I call these variables because they can take different values — for example, the metascore is a variable because it takes different values, depending on the movie.
I will simply compute some correlation coefficients, and the variable with the smallest value will be my recommendation I will explain then how these correlation coefficients work. But before that, let me briefly justify choosing the Fandango variable as a negative reference. The adjustment did change some statistical parameters for the better, but not enough to convince me not to work with the Fandango variable as a negative reference.
The least correlated with the Fandango rating is the metascore. Measuring correlation simply means measuring the extent to which there is such a pattern. Given the correlation coefficients just mentioned, there is a pattern between Fandango and IMDB to a greater extent than is for Fandango and the metascore. Put differently, for any given movie rating on Fandango, it is more probable that the metascore is going to be more different from it than the IMDB rating.
All in all, I recommend checking the metascore whenever you are looking for a movie rating. In a nutshell, the metascore is a weighted average of many reviews coming from reputed critics.
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