Lack of good storyline.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Cheese With Mold Is A Recipe For Disaster What happens when you mix a bad script with REALLY bad actors and photographers and editors working out of their parents' basement? You get a bad movie! Jake is a poor spoiled rich boy. Captain of the football team, wealthy family, blonde cheerleader lover, etcetera.But Jake has a religious epiphany that there's more to high school life than sex, drugs, and rock and roll, after his token black childhood friend brings a gun to school and commits suicide.The friend was crippled after he pushed Jake out of the path of speeding car. As a result he was mocked and shunned by the whole school. If he'd actually gone postal and killed some bullies along with himself this film MIGHT have been interesting.Jake feels guilty for abandoning his friend and joins a local church youth group and tries to help other shunned kids.Not only is this film predictable and boring but the quality of basic film making makes Coleman Francis look like Orson Wells.SKIP IT!!! If they show this on an airplane, walk out. If they show this at your church convert to another religion. How the hell this is averaging 6.6 stars is beyond me.

I should start off by telling you a few things about myself to remove any false pretenses. I am a committed Christian who Pastors a youth group. About 3 years ago, my best friend from primary school killed himself and this woke me up from my complacency and caused me to re evaluate the world I was living in. We should have an awareness of the effect we have on others we meet and have contact with in the world and hold ourselves accountable for them. So there are a lot of points in Jake's story and also Chris' that really hit home to me, and I showed this film to my youth group last night. A group of kids who'd been tackling and screaming each other minutes earlier sat completely silent for the next two hours.The film starts with the main character Jake at the funeral of his childhood friend Roger, who we soon learn committed suicide right in front of Jake after shooting up their school. Jake is haunted by Roger's final words "you never cared anyway," and thinks back to the way their friendship ended, with Jake rejecting Roger to go and party with the cool kids, and then consistently ignoring him for the next two years until his death. Attending Jake's funeral leads to Jake meeting a Youth Pastor named Chris, who helps Jake when he is stranded drunk after police raid a party.Jake eventually ends up coming first to church and then to youth group. Jake researches some of Roger's blogs online and comes into contact with a whole community of depressed teenagers and eventually decides to befriend one of them, Johnny Garcia, and that's where the title of the film comes from.The acting in this film is serviceable. It is no master class, but there are no real cringe worthy moments either. The script is uneven, containing many genuine moments, but every now and then descending into caricature and over simplification. The production values are surprisingly decent for a Christian film, probably a few too many slow motion shots and short crane shots of characters during arguments, two of my least favourite film making clichés. But these can easily be forgiven. The overall authenticity of the story and the consistency of the message being delivered ultimately win out.This film is essentially a call to arms for all people. It's time to shed our apathy, reach out to the people who need it. The old man who sits at the same bench at the supermarket every day. That one person in our workplace or school who everyone picks on. Just a bit of effort can mean a whole lot. It's not really about converting a person to my world view, it's about showing a person with nothing to live for that life is worth it.Be mindful of the rating. This DVD, with beer pong, chugging, a reasonably authentic suicide etc is strictly for older youth.

Aside from the connection to the church, this movie was Extremely Well Written. I would recommend this for any person, let alone teenager. It was inspiring and confirmed my passion for helping others. Although I would have liked it even better if the script was non-denominational, I can appreciate that it was (mostly) true to life, and most of the characters, were pretty good actors (Jake, Chris, Johnny, Roger, etc...) I also really liked that it had a couple twists to the story and that it was not entirely attached to just one main theme, such as the idea of suicide. It had other issues teenagers go through. I am wondering how realistic the party scenes were because they seemed more like college parties than high school, but that's usually how movies tend to go. Otherwise, the relationships between Jake and his girlfriend, parents, friends, were solid.

Well, let's just start out by saying I AM a Catholic and a VERY sharp critic of Christian movies. I've seen many of them and the majority of them are lacking, and I realize that. When the general public hears the two dreaded words "Christian Movie", they immediately think Low-Budget, Low Production quality, abysmal acting, laughable special effects, so on and so forth. And honestly, could you blame them? Most Christian made films are because the makers of the film are more interested in preaching than entertaining and telling a story. Facing the Giants is blatantly guilty of that offense as well as the Left Behind series. Then "The Passion of the Christ" was made and it was a spark of hope for us Christians. And "Bella", which could be considered not Christian but let's go ahead and throw it in. And some others were lukewarm at best. And then came "To Save a Life".....Welcome to the new world of Christian-made movies, folks! We have arrived to the 21st Century and are here to stay! Why is this film so good you ask? Superb acting, fantastic cinematography, good, strong storyline, upbeat, steady soundtrack to just name a few things this movie does to break the mold. But the best part about this movie, by a long shot is, the filmmakers found that delicate balance between preaching and entertaining. The Christian-Jesus element is there and you can't miss it, but it is NOT the overriding theme of the movie. Your Christian and Atheistic teens will both love this movie because it's message is deeper than church walls and pulpits. It deals with human emotion, with the day-to-day struggles and anxieties every teenager faces and it shows us that all is not well with the generations following us. "To save a life" is real life, and that's something teens never see on MTV or Teen Nick.The story centers around a High School senior named Jake Taylor who is the All-American teen archetype, good athlete, kind of quiet, has a beautiful girlfriend named Amy, plans to go to a good college, lots of friends and is no stranger to having a good time. But a terrifying event changes his life and awakens his conscience and he is forced to make some very tough decisions. He decides to change his current lifestyle, reevaluate what he values most in his life and meets Jonny, an introverted, tormented soul who has given up on life and hope. Can Jake find the inner strength and put everything on the line in his life, to save Jonny's? Every possible choice, idea and issue teens face every day is portrayed in this movie with brutal honest and passion. On facebook and twitter the stories of teens which this movie has saved is too many to count and they are truly the true reviewers of this movie because this is their life. We just try to give our impute but, if you're reading this and are wondering if you should watch this movie, find a teen who has seen this movie and ask them. Trust their word more than mine. With twists and turns at every corner and an ending you won't expect, "To save a life" will have you and your teen child asking the question, "What would I do to save a life?"