Brilliant and touching

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

First of, this is not a movie, nor is it a documentary, this is simply a sermon like feature where Kirk Cameron tells the story of Creation and the bigger plan behind it all from the eyes of a Calvanist. Now for someone like me who does not agree with Calvanists at all, because I believe in Liberal free will, this "sermon" did not make that much of an impact, but that does not at all mean that I didn't learn anything from it. In fact Kirk Cameron approached a question (which should not be a question in my opinion) with love and in a way that most Calvanists cannot even imagine to do. The question is "Why does God let bad things happen to good people" and any Christian who has ever opened a bible would know that there only ever was ONE good person, and He volunteered to let the bad happen to Him. So that's the answer, bad things don't happen to good people, they happen to bad people. But Kirk doesn't conclude with this. Rather he tells the story of creation and by removing free will from the first sin, he makes a good attempt to answer the question with the conclusion that EVERYHING that happens is because God has some end plan He wants to reach. Even though this is a lazy way of living and thinking, because it implies that Jesus went against The Father's will when He healed the sick and raised the dead, Kirk did make an interesting case that helps us see exactly how the Calvinist views God. I bought the DVD, watched it, and I'm glad I did. Don't think you are buying a film though, it's a mini sermon inside of a Liberty University awareness campaign. Be warned

This deluded fellow, Kirk (a name derived from 'church') Cameron (camera-on), is hugely entertaining for the wrong reasons. His retelling of the creation story is especially hilarious, full of passionate wide-eyed wonder and barely contained (but patently well rehearsed) awe for what is insultingly stupid, sexist, patriarchal nonsense. Kirk, this is a very corny piece of work, my friend.In his risible quest to explain why God allows good and innocent people to die, Kirk simply wasn't bold enough to touch on examples of God's infamous treatment of his creation, such as (to name only one of the more notorious incidents) when HE commanded the Israelites to wipe the Amalekites from the face of the earth, every man woman and child - sorry, except for the young women who had more 'useful' purposes as slaves. Just one of many curious examples of God's celebrated "mysterious plan". Although Krok never manages to articulate it clearly, the crux of his argument is that God's ways are known only to HIM. HE has HIS reasons, and we will only understand the full extent of HIS mysteries when we are dead. And that, in a nutshell, is the fundamental framework for Christian Faith: believing in the supposed utterances of a contradictory, jealous, wrathful, misanthropic, death-obsessed prankster who places impossible and unwarranted demands and perpetual suffering upon HIS creation for HIS perverse narcissistic amusement. Of course, the truth is that the biblical God is obviously an image made in the likeness of violent, greedy, self-obsessed mankind. If you can swallow such bosh, you should have no trouble believing that martyrs from other faiths are rewarded with x number of virgins for their ultimate self-sacrifice. Note the recurring theme of misanthropic patriarchy, and the willingness to believe all manner of nonsense to prove one's unshakable commitment to a form of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual slavery. The most extraordinarily daft aspect of the whole nonsense, something that is rarely mentioned or tackled, is that God (taken on HIS own terms) must be the ultimate author of all misery and suffering. When Scotty from Denver says in his review that there was no sin to begin with, and evil crept in (because of man) and spoiled God's creation, thereby forcing HIM to find a way of fixing it (by, believe it or not, killing HIS only son - this so-called Loving God seems to have an unshakeable fixation on violent death), he misses the irony that it was God (as the Ultimate Creator) who conceived the conditions and scenario (the trap, in fact) by which mankind was to Fall, after which HE gleefully set about punishing them – endlessly! Scotty also misses the point that God effectively blames mankind for HIS devious scheme. God, being all-knowing, would have known before he created anything that mankind would fail/fall, and that thousands of years of suffering would be set in motion. Why? Because it pleased HIM to do so, presumably. It's a scenario devised to ensure that we bow before HIS awesome power lest we be cast into ETERNAL SUFFERING. As if the suffering of life isn't enough, we are threatened by the so-called Loving Father God with endless suffering after death. Charming. But his Kirkness would have you believe that this is evidence of God's unconditional (?) LOVE, and that every miserable death of every innocent (or not so innocent if you accept God's implicitly hate-filled concept of 'Original SIn') serves a greater and mysterious good, which is apparently the unmitigated tosh of God's unfathomable but necessarily HOLY PLAN. Absurd. Fatuous. Way to go, Kirk.

Imagine creating a reflective docudrama (it seems to be something like that) for a person likely to consider going to a Protestant seminary or Bible college. Well, that's a noble thing on face value. But what kind of review on IMDb could one expect? That's probably the best way to frame "Unstoppable." Apart from a massive spiritual awakening, the film was destined for meager critique kudos.But for those curious about a question as old as, "Why did this bad thing happen," and for those who are curious about what the Bible says about that--for someone prepared to wade through the inevitable complexities and theological nuances--this is a pretty darn good effort.Let's be fair, most theology comes from talking heads. Most efforts to indulge in the most basic questions of life are either vague, artful pondering from dramas (as old as Job) or they're deadly dronings from puffy-haired evangelists or monotone professors yapping. This is neither.God's redemptive history is not going to be easily packaged in a digital wrapping with the pace of Transformers or Jurassic World. It can't be. It never will be. But if I have to ponder, muse, reflect or meditate on personal loss, this does as well as anything at straddling that line between style and substance. Frankly, the topic has more substance than most people want to digest, but I have a feeling that Kirk Cameron and John Bona understood this going in.The answer to the question of "why bad things happen to good people" is found in stepping back and defining, "good" and "bad." From a Christian perspective, much of that is found in the book of Genesis--a colorful, gritty and profound story of human beginnings. And if you can't stomach that, you won't like this. If you aren't the kind of person who can spend an hour in a church services, you won't get this. Let's face it, most Westerners don't go to church anymore. So, what could we expect from this effort.At any rate, you cannot deny a man his personal story. You can't invalidate the reality of his pain, his confusion or the resolution he finds. I respect Kirk Cameron for this effort--a visually compelling, but difficult reflection on an essential human question. May we all learn to spend more than 10 minutes a year on such questions and may we have men and women willing to help us do so.

My wife and I went to see this on a very difficult day. We had found out just that day that her niece had passed away. Our grief was very palpable as we watched this movie, and though we had many tears and wept along with the various parts of the movie that dealt with death and dying, we did hear the message that Kirk was laying out for the audience.The "Journey" starts at the beginning, because that's simply what all who become Christians come to understand at some point in their walk with the Lord: That the beginning of the Bible, God's letter to us, lays out the groundwork for everything else that comes after it. The Book of Genesis is indeed a book about beginnings, and has as much relevance today as it did 3500 years ago when it was first written down.This is the "Spoiler" part for those of you who have not seen the movie. If you're a Christian then you'll forgive me for going into it and "Giving away" the ending. But the answer to why bad things happen to good people, or the reason why if God is good, why bad stuff happens is simply the fact that there is sin in this world. There was originally no sin, and humans, specifically Adam and Eve lived in perfect communion with God. It was evil that crept in, and tempted Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit, after which all of creation was messed up and subject to the ravages of sin and death ever since.What the non-Christian can never understand is why God would write down this silly sounding story about it if he didn't intend to do something about it. And that, again, is entirely the point. God _did_ something about the failure, and ultimately He considered it His failure so He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross at Calvary to take the penalty for all our sin - on Himself - so that we could be restored to perfect relationship with Him. We won't be perfect of course until after we die and live eternally with Him. But Hallelujah - the message of the gospel does explain why bad things happen, as well as provides the answer to all that bad stuff that we can have now, here, today.That is not a complete gospel message, and the film does not claim to make anything like a gospel presentation, nor does it. If you wish to hear the full gospel, may I suggest you head on down and talk with a Bible believing Pastor at any Evangelical church and find out for yourself if this amazing story could be true.I liked the movie very much, and I give Kirk Cameron a lot of credit for the work he did on this movie. It is not perfect by any means, but it is far better than average in terms of good Christian messages in any movies out there. The subject matter is difficult - even for Christians - to deal with. Most folks would rather pretend sin didn't exist, and that it's not really a problem. Well, for those of us in the U.S. it may not be, we have so much wealth and prosperity already. It's difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God Jesus told us. The reason why is because the wealthy have no need of a "Savior" they already have all they need. Most of those out there who thumb their noses at God and desire to live their own life-style pretending that God doesn't exist are essentially telling everyone they have no use for God either, they're happy to self-medicate and keep pretending that judgement isn't coming. I hope that works well for those of you out there living in your dreams.I could go on, but I will leave you with some curiosity so you can explore these ideas on your own.