Greater (2016)

As a Christian, nothing I hare more than dishonest piety. They turned a great story about a great person that was Christian and made it an American sermon about God using a football player like he was a donkey. If you want to preach to non-believers, show them that Christians are just ordinary people with an extraordinary gift of Faith. This movie is so predictable. Written for a 3rd grader. Acted poorly...beyond poor. This movie is preaching to the choir which is not what Jesus did. This is not a movie that Jesus would do. This is what the Pharisees would do. Cultural Christianity without any merit. I want this story retold by a great director with great actors and writers that have done more than children's books. The Croods is an example of a Christian message about Faith, Hope and Love that reached 1000 times more people around the world than Greater will ever imagine. Incompetence movie making is not an effective Evangelical tool. The 10/10 reviews is a clear campaign to promote religious dogma which is not WWJD. BTW...shame on Hollywood for ignoring a great story that puts Rudy to shame.

Very, very little sports action at all. It's a decent story, and one that deserved to be told, but lighten up with the religitard propaganda. I mean seriously it was not even needed to tell this young man's story, but here we have a fine example of the zealots attempting to disguise their prosthelytizing fan fiction as an actual movie worth watching.

There is one thing I want to say right off the bat....this is absolutely not even close to The Blind Side or Rudy...both of which were stellar stories with very good acting. The acting in Greater was B level at its best.We watched this movie last night and it started off as a lot of inspiring sports movies do...with a kid that is faced with some kind of adversity. In this one Brandon Burlsworth has to overcome a childhood of growing up as a very overweight kid who is ridiculed for it but there are adults in his life who inspire him and help him get through the worst of it so he can keep going with his football aspirations.It started off as a perfectly nice, entertaining story. We enjoyed it despite the truly B level acting (don't let any of the ridiculous 10 star reviews fool you on that front). It wasn't until the last 3rd of the movie that you actually realized that this was a movie with a very very heavy Christian message. That is not a bad thing if it is advertised as such and that is the type of movie you like or are looking to watch. It really soured me on the whole thing since I think the film makers were pretty underhanded on that front. By the time the first hour and a half of the 2 hour 10 minute movie was over and it started in on the heavy Christian message (complete with a representation of the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other in the form of a nasty man and an innocent high school football player), you were so far in that it wasn't worth turning it off.If Christian entertainment is what you are looking for, this is probably a 6/7 out of 10 movie.If you are like me and picked it up as a movie like Rudy or The Blind Side (as advertised), I'd give it a 4.5 out of 10. The end that made me feel like I was in an evangelical church service ruined the entire thing for me.

Based on a true story, the story involves an overweight athlete with an overwhelming desire to become an Arkansas Razorback football player. Life is not easy for Brandon Burlesworth. He faces challenges that seem insurmountable to overcome. Brandon possesses an extraordinary personality that few people exhibit. He is never quick to anger, learns to motivate others, and as the story unfolds, Brandon develops into a prime example of being a optimistic type motivator that guides his team into a winning one.When watching the story unfold, we were not all that familiar with the life of Burlesworth. The last part of the story, for us, was unexpected. However, the first and middle parts of the story keeps providing hints of how the story line will come to its end.This film rivals some of the best sports related movies of all time. Still, since the story delves on the meaning of life, and slightly touches on God and one's faith, YUP, Hollywood will never like this movie and we are afraid it will simply be in theaters a short time and go to DVD in a few months.Hopefully, while Greater is on the big screen it will have staying power and have a long run through word of mouth, high ratings, and positive reviews.