GOD’S NOT DEAD

Here's the short answer: yes, and bring the older kids. GOD'S NOT DEAD takes on one of the sharpest fights on today's college campuses — a philosophy professor demanding students sign away their belief in God — and turns it into a movie that's both an argument and a genuinely good story.

Several storylines braid together, from a Muslim daughter's secret conversion to a pastor running on empty to a dying reporter confronting a Christian rock band. They all land in the same place, and the direction and acting carry them there with real skill. The dialogue is unusually smart for a film built around apologetics — you'll hear Descartes and Stephen Hawking name-checked, not just Bible verses.

The content concerns are real but limited: a father hits and throws his daughter, a professor manhandles a student, a man dies in a car accident. None of it is graphic, but it's honest, and worth knowing before younger children watch. For everyone else, this is a movie that entertains first and preaches second — and does both well.

Josh Wheaton arrives on campus and signs up for the class that fits his schedule — never mind the warning that its professor makes it his mission to crush Christian faith. On day one, Professor Radisson demands every student sign a pledge that God is dead. Josh won't sign. Radisson tells him he'll fail him instead, and gives him a few minutes across the semester to prove otherwise to the whole class.

Meanwhile, across campus and beyond it, a Muslim convert to Christianity, a burned-out pastor, and a reporter chasing a very different kind of story are each about to be asked the same question Josh is: what do you actually believe?

Four stars — and for a faith-based film built around a classroom debate, that's earned, not given. The direction and acting hold up for nearly the entire runtime, and Kevin Sorbo and Shane Harper make their confrontations as Professor Radisson and Josh genuinely compelling to watch, not just message delivery.

The multiple storylines — a convert, a pastor, a reporter, a professor's girlfriend — could easily have collapsed into clutter. Instead they converge with purpose, and the ending is, in the source's own word, terrific. Three songs from the Christian band Newsboys add to the film's entertainment value rather than padding it. This is a rare case where the argument the film wants to make and the story it tells to make it are equally strong.

This is a film that sets out to defend the existence of God — and does it with unusually sharp tools. The dialogue draws on real philosophers and scientists, from Descartes to Stephen Hawking, and treats the intellectual case for faith as worth taking seriously rather than dumbing down. Its worldview is described as very strong, Christian, and evangelistic, with strong moral points running through every subplot — a pastor rediscovering his calling, a girlfriend choosing faith over a controlling relationship, a professor forced to confront what he's built his life on.

The film is honest that faith costs something. The Muslim convert's storyline shows real family cost for choosing Christ, and the professor's cruelty toward those around him — a student, a girlfriend, a room full of strangers he ridicules her in front of — is not softened for comfort. That honesty is a strength, not a flaw.

At its center, GOD'S NOT DEAD is about a young man asked to trade his convictions for a grade, and refusing. Scripture calls exactly that kind of courage: "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15).

GOD'S NOT DEAD sets out to make an argument and ends up telling a genuinely good story — smart, moving, and unafraid to show what faith actually costs some people. Our answer is the same one we opened with: worth the trip — ages 10 and up. Gather the family, and be ready for a real conversation afterward.