Thank you Lionsgate for sending us this DVD to review!

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. is the film adaptation of Judy Blume’s classic children’s novel that was published in 1970. I haven't read the book so I can't compare how well this movie represents it. The main character is an eleven-year-old girl named Margaret Simon. After arriving home from summer camp, she discovers that she’s moving out of New York city. She doesn’t want to move and be away from her friends and her grandmother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates). In desperation, Margaret introduces herself to God and asks Him to intervene and prevent the move if possible.

Upon arriving at their new house, Margaret is quickly introduced to an outgoing neighborhood girl named Nancy Wheeler. Nancy inducts Margaret into their secret club where they talk about boys, breasts (or lack thereof), and getting their periods. They compare bust sizes and use Margaret’s dad’s Playboy magazine for a reference. While photographic nudity isn’t shown, there is a scene where they look at a diagram of male genitalia.

Most of the girls in the club have a crush on the same boy in their class. Margaret is smitten with a different boy that mows their lawn. She took notice and seems to be attracted to the fact that he has armpit hair.

During their sixth grade school year, the students have to do a research paper and Margaret’s is on religion. She comes from a mixed household with her mom being raised Christian and then outcast for marrying a Jew. Her parents decided to let Margaret make her own choices when it comes to religion. For her research project, she went to synagogue with her grandmother and three different Christian denominations with her friends.

Upon seeing her family argue over religion, Margaret decides that it’s not for her. Does she completely give up on God? I won’t spoil that part and leave that for you to find out by reading the book or watching this 1 hour and forty-five-minute film. Is this film worth watching or is the book worth reading? Like puberty, it's certainly not something I want to experience again. Puberty is awkward enough to deal with once and this movie brings back some undesirable memories. My husband felt uncomfortable watching this film. The views on religion are thought-provoking. Can someone have a meaningful relationship with God without being "committed" to a faith? It's certainly not ideal nor Biblical according to Matthew 18:20.

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Thank you Universal for sending us a review copy!

I grew up playing Mario Bros. on the Atari and then Super Mario Bros. and its sequels on the NES. It’s been quite a successful video game franchise though it has had a rocky live-action history. Growing up, I loved the short-lived TV show and its rap theme song. The 1993 film adaptation, Super Mario Bros. was poorly received along with many other videogame themed movies around that time. Thankfully, videogame inspired films have been doing well recently and The Super Mario Bros. Movie is no exception.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie begins with Bowser invading an ice kingdom inhabited by penguins. After stealing their Super Star that grants invulnerability, he sets his sights on Mushroom Kingdom to demand that their princess marry him or be annihilated.

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, New York, the Mario Brothers (Mario & Luigi) are struggling to launch their plumbing business after parting ways with their spiteful boss. They have spent their life savings on a TV commercial and their first job from it didn’t go so well. Their family isn’t very supportive of them following their dreams. To make matters worse, Brooklyn is getting flooded with water as multiple pipes start bursting. Mario and Luigi come to the city’s rescue, but as they go into the sewers they discover a network of pipes and get sucked into a green pipe that takes the brothers to different worlds.

Luigi lands in the Dark Lands and is surrounded by undead skeleton koopas. He takes refuge in an abandoned castle. Meanwhile, Mario lands in the mushroom kingdom and meets Toad who tells him about Luigi’s dire situation. Mario seeks an audience with Princess Peach who in turn wants his help to thwart Bowser from destroying her kingdom. Because the mushroom inhabitants are not battle savvy, Mario and Princess Peach must seek an audience with Cranky Kong to lend their army.

You’ll see many references to classic and modern Mario franchise games throughout this film. You’ll also hear iconic theme songs as well. Naturally, there is some go-karting and lots of cartoon violence and battles.

The character line and voice acting is top notch. This is a star-studded film and it’s very well made. I love the banter between Donkey Kong and Mario, but one of the funniest characters is the cute nihilist, Lumalee. Lumalee is one of many of Bowser’s captives. While Luigi has hopes of escaping, Lumalee is looking forward to the sweet release of death. Bowser is hoping to offer the prisoners as a ritual sacrifice for his wedding to Princess Peach.

Though there are some dark moments, especially when Luigi goes to the Dark Land in the first act, overall this film is pretty upbeat. There’s lots of eye candy and be sure to stay tuned after the credits as there is a hint of a possible sequel? If you’re a fan of Super Mario Bros (who isn’t?) this film worth watching/owning. The Bluray is available for under $25 on Amazon.

Thank you Paramount Pictures for sending us a Blu-ray to review!

Dungeons & Dragons is a popular role playing game that was originally released in the 70s. There have been many revisions since its launch and some popular video games as well. Fans of the board game and videogames will recognize locations like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter which are part of the Forgotten Realms world of Faerûn.

The main character is a thief/mistral named Edgin who is played by Chris Pine. He is accompanied by an intimidating warrior woman named Holga. Together, they are doing time in prison and are up for a parole trial. During that trial, you’ll get to hear Edgin’s backstory about losing his wife from a vengeful red mage and how Holga took pity on his daughter, Kira, and helped raise her.

Edgin heard about a relic that can revive someone from the dead and tried to acquire it with the help of Holga and his aspiring mage buddy, Simon. Unfortunately, the job did not go as planned and that’s how Edgin and Holga got incarcerated.

Once they’re out of prison, Edgin and Holga attempt to reunite with Kira who has lost her faith and trust in her father. Along with acquiring the relic to revive his wife, Edgin must also restore his relationship with his daughter. This won’t be easy as there are many obstacles in their way.

Many CGI enhanced battles await them as well as some character plot twists. Violence and magic use are prevalent. You’ll get to see severed limbs and eyes dangling out of their sockets. Necromancy plays a big part in the story as one would expect from a guy wanting to bring his wife back from the dead. There is also mention of reincarnation.

In this two-hour and fourteen-minute film you get a few chuckles and be enamored by the special effects. It's not a theatrical masterpiece, but it is enjoyable and light-hearted. There’s plenty of action and the characters are intriguing. Because of the fighting and violence, it’s rated PG-13. Fans of the DnD franchise will likely enjoy this film as long as they’re okay with magic, necromancy, and fighting. If you’re not comfortable with Dungeons & Dragons, then this movie is a hard pass.

Thank you Universal Studios for sending us this Blu-ray to review!

Minions: The Rise of Gru is a prequel that gives you a little bit of insight into Gru’s childhood in the 70s. At the tender age of eleven and three quarters, his role models were a group of villains called the Vicious 6. After betraying their leader, Wild Knuckles, they had an open position. Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) applied for it and earned an opportunity to interview with them. At this point in time, Gru lives with his mother who sells Tupperware on the side. The minions are living in the basement of the house working on Gru’s evil lair.

The minions are supportive of Gru’s interview with his heroes until they realize that they’re not invited to go with him on it. That doesn’t stop a few of them from tailing him on the way there. The Vicious 6’s headquarters is at a record store that’s run by a tinkerer (voiced by Russell Brand) who gives Gru his first gadget.

The Vicious 6 didn’t expect Gru to be a child and dismissed him right away. They told him to come back when he impressed them. Taking that as a challenge, Gru manages to steal their prized zodiac medallion with the help of the new gadget and the minions. The Vicious 6 gives chase and on the way back to Gru’s lair, the medallion is traded for a pet rock.

The rest of the movie revolves around Gru, the Vicious 6, and Wild Knuckles all seeking the misplaced zodiac medallion. Along the way, Gru makes a new friend and some of the minions learn Kung Fu. Like the previous minion movies, there’s a lot of slapstick humor that’s bound to make you chuckle. I also enjoyed the two short films on the Blu-ray. My favorite of the two was the Dungeons and Dragons based one called Minions and Monsters.

For the most part, this film is family-friendly. You will be exposed to seeing some minion rear ends and plenty of cartoon violence. The voice acting is superb (I love the Minion gibberish) and I liked how the crustacean-themed villain Jean-Clawed, is voiced by Jean-Claude Van Damme. The nun villain, Nun-Chuck cracked me up as you don’t expect to see nuns as the “bad guys”.

If you enjoyed the previous Minion movies, this one is definitely worth checking out. The Blu-ray sells for less than $25 on Amazon and it supports Dolby Atmos audio.

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Thank you Roadside Attractions for sending us a screener of this film to review!

Gigi & Nate is based off of the true story of Ned Sullivan and his capuchin monkey service animal. The film begins with Gigi the capuchin monkey being rescued from a poorly maintained petting zoo that looks like a run-down travelling circus. The group that rescues Gigi trains her to be a service animal.

Meanwhile, Nate is living it up as a teenager in North Carolina and he completes a dare to dive from a high waterfall ledge. Little does he know that this dive will give him meningitis, which only has a 20% survival rate. Thankfully, Nate survives but is wheelchair bound and in pain. His parents have to sell the North Carolina property and move to Tennessee to build him wheelchair accessible accommodations and hire a caregiver and a physical therapist.

Nate is very depressed and is not making much progress with his physical therapy. His mom looks into service animals and introduces the family to Gigi. Not everyone is onboard with the idea of having a monkey in the house. (Especially their dog!)

It takes Gigi a while to be comfortable enough with Nate to help him with his therapy. The family almost returned her! When Gigi starts helping Nate, she really makes a difference with his mental health and physical dexterity. She helps Nate with reading books by turning the pages for him and Gigi also helps him with grocery shopping. That’s when Gigi gets the attention of an animal rights activist who pushes for banning capuchin monkeys as service animals. The family and town will have to fight to keep Nate and Gigi together.

I’ll leave the rest of the details as a surprise since I don’t want to spoil this heartwarming film. There are some appropriateness issues worth noting before showing this film to younger kids. Some mild language (hell and sh*t) is present. Nate and Gigi attend a college party which starts trending on social media as both of them consume alcohol there.

If you’re looking for a comedy film, Gigi & Nate isn’t it. However, it is a touching story that shows that it’s not always humans rescuing animals, but it’s sometimes the other way around. The actors do a great job and the picture quality is great. I highly recommend this film if you don’t mind the language and alcohol usage.

Thank you Paramount for providing us access to a digital screener to review!

Secret Headquarters begins with a picture-perfect (Kincaid) family of three on a camping trip together. Just as the mother is about to play some acoustic guitar by the campfire, there’s an explosion in the night sky and a ship comes tumbling down a couple of miles away from their location. Since they’re in the middle of nowhere, the father (Owen Wilson), drives down to the crash site to offer assistance.

Upon arriving at the crash site, Mr. Kincaid finds a wounded pilot near the wreckage of a U.F.O. Near the alien ship is a hovering orb that rejects the military officer as its new owner, but accepts Mr. Kincaid as becoming its new guardian.

This alien artifact allows its owner to see futuristic events and produces energy far beyond any means available on Earth. The orb also creates structures and useful gadgets surpassing anything humanity can presently do. With this new technology, Mr. Kincaid becomes a superhero named The Guard who travels around the world at supersonic speed to stop crime. With great superpowers comes great sacrifices. The time commitment of saving the world from crime costs Mr. Kincaid his family as his wife files for divorce and their son hardly has a relationship with him anymore because of all of his “business trips”.

Thank you 20th Century Studios for sending us a Blu-ray to review!

The King’s Man is a prequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle. This origin story takes place in 1902 with Orlando (the Duke of Oxford), his wife, Emily, and their son, Conrad, supplying provisions through the Red Cross. A marksman’s bullet takes the life of Emily and wounds the Duke’s leg. Before she dies, Emily makes Orlando promise that their young son won’t see warfare again.

Fast forward twelve years during World War I and Conrad is a strapping young teenager and instead of pursuing females, he wants to jump into the battlefield to protect his country. The Duke has high-ranking military official friends who can only deter Conrad so much. In a last-ditch effort to convince him that there are other ways to save the country instead of being on the battlefield, the Duke takes Conrad on an undercover mission to assassinate Grigori Rasputin. Though the mission was successful, it didn’t change Conrad’s mind and he enlists anyway.

Thank you Paramount for sending us a screener of Rumble to review!

Most stories start with a “what if?” scenario. Some famous examples include “what if toys had feelings and lives that nobody could ever see?” or “what if a robot was sent back in time to murder the mother of an influential enemy leader before he was born?” When someone inevitably decided to take fantasy’s most gruesome residents and the most physical televised sport and put them together, they (namely Paramount) created Rumble: a movie whose premise is based wholly on monsters wrestling. (For those of you invested in the cast, there are a few names in there you’re bound to recognize.)

The film follows a young adult by the name of Winnie, who lives in a small town known for its monster wrestling. The town, named Stoker, is famous because of a coach-monster duo that are considered the greatest of all time. However, this duo was lost at sea several years before the story begins – leaving Winnie without a father. When the monster champion that replaced that duo decides to leave town for bigger and better things, Stoker is in a conundrum: monster wrestling is their biggest source of income. Since the town no longer has a use for the stadium, they plan to tear it down. It’s up to Winnie to find a champion for the town that will replace the one that left them before it’s too late to save the stadium.

I won’t go into too much detail on the plot (to avoid spoilers), but I will say that there are a lot of parallels and thematic elements in the story that I immensely enjoyed. The plot is stereotypical, but the characters make the movie and bring it to life. Their interactions are hilarious, and they don’t feel like comedy. They just feel real. There’s a certain sense of uniqueness with the dialogue that isn’t really represented in a lot of other movies I’ve seen. There are a couple of very minor plot inconsistencies, but it’s a kids movie. Paramount probably put those in because of its target audience.

Thank you MGM for sending us access to a digital version of the film to watch!

My family saw the first computer animated Addams Family movie in the theaters in 2019. The film was mildly entertaining, but mostly a disappointment. I’m happy to report that overall we found this sequel to be better than the original movie on many fronts.

The Addams Family 2 begins at Wednesday’s science festival which has many uninspiring science projects including the typical baking soda volcano. Wednesday’s entry is quite fascinating as it transfers the intelligence of her octopus, Socrates, into her Uncle Fester. When it comes time to announcing the winner of the science fair, Wednesday is visibly disappointed when everyone is given a participation trophy. The professor takes note of her disappointment and consoles her while asking for her data so he can improve upon her work. Wednesday tells him it’s a family secret.

Gomez Addams also takes note of his daughter’s disappointment, but she rebuffs any attention and consolation he offers her. In an effort to strengthen the family bonds, Gomez and Morticia decide that a family road trip is in order. Instead of bringing the family closer, a wedge is further driven between Wednesday and her family. Apparently she discovers a mix-up of babies at the hospital she was born in and wonders if she is even an Addams.

Thank you DreamWorks for sending us a Blu-ray to review!

This film takes place thirty years after the previous one and all of the babies have grown up now. Tim is a stay at home dad with an over-active imagination. His mega-successful brother, Ted (the star in the previous movie) is a busy CEO and showers Tim’s family with lavish gifts instead of his presence at holidays. Tim’s second grader daughter, Tabitha, is growing up and no longer finds his antics humorous. Tim is afraid that they are growing apart. The youngest daughter, Tina, is an agent at Baby Corp. The school that Tabitha attends may be part of the reason that she is growing distant from her dad. In order to investigate matters Tim and his brother Ted must infiltrate the school as youths.

In his youthful form, Tim goes by Marcos Lightspeed and befriends his daughter. She confides in him and he learns her true feelings about him. Marcos/Tim and Ted also learn about an evil plan that will allow babies to rule the world without their parents getting in their way. Despite their years apart, Tim and Ted must set aside their differences and work together to save the world.

The main theme of this movie is that just because people grow up doesn’t mean they have to grow apart. That’s a great message. From an appropriateness standpoint, it’s worth noting that you’ll see some butts. There are a couple of moments where Ted is naked, but there are objects conveniently placed that prevent seeing anything between his legs. Many computer animated films are promoting the LGBTQ agenda and I did see a rainbow bumper sticker on one of the cars.

Thank you Flexclip for providing us with a one-year business membership!

There are many programs available for editing movie clips. My kids laugh at me for still using Microsoft’s Moviemaker software for editing our YouTube videos. Flexclip was developed by PearlMountain Limited and have over three million worldwide users and nearly four hundred thousand registered accounts. Over six hundred thousand videos have been made/downloaded using their online tools.

Through the website, you can create a video for free and use various tools including their converter, trimmer, compressor, and recorder. In total, there are four plans available and they all have different features and limitations. The Free plan allows one stock (premade) video and twelve projects. This plan is limited by 480p SD downloads and the video length can’t exceed one minute. The freely made videos will have a FlexClip intro on them. The $5.99/month Basic plan lets you make three-minute 720p HD movies. There is still a one stock video limitation, but you can have an unlimited number of projects.

The Plus plan is $9.99 a month and allows you to use five stock videos and they can be up to ten minutes in length. The videos are offered in Full-HD 1080p. Like the previous plan, you can have an unlimited number of projects.

Thank you Paramount for sending us a screener to review!

SpongeBob Squarepants has been around since 1999 and is still going strong. Now that my kids are getting older, I haven’t watched it on TV in a while. The main characters are still there and the 3D rendered versions of them look great.

There are some impressive cameos in this film including Keanu Reeves and Snoop Dogg. Another new character is King Poseidon who is super paranoid about his appearance and is desperately seeking out a snail to use its slime to remove facial wrinkles. Poseidon posts a bounty for someone who can give him a snail amidst the shortage of them.

Thank you Abramorama for providing us with a screener to watch!

‘Til Kingdom Come is a documentary about the strange political and religious partnership between the United States and Israel. In the 1980s Evangelicals were often viewed as KKK/white supremacists by Israelites. In 1983, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein founded the Holyland Fellowship of Christians and Jews which is now known as International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Their goal is to build bridges of understanding and cooperation between Christians and Jews. Not long after its founding, some popular televangelists like Pat Robertson and John Hagee supported this ministry with over four million in donations through telethons and other financial gifts. Through these gifts, poor people in Israel overlooked by the government are given food items and care that they could not afford on their own.

Binghamtown Baptist Church in Kentucky is located in a poor county with nearly half of the children living below the poverty line. This church, in their own words, "indoctrinates" the youth about the importance of the Jewish people and Israel's role in the end times. They fully believe in the promise of Genesis 12:3 in receiving blessings from God by blessing Abraham’s people. They have raised thousands in supporting Israel and continue to do so faithfully because of this promise. Interestingly enough, they are doing well financially even with the economy in a downturn. Their associate pastor, W. Boyd Bingham has miraculously survived cancer and dedicated his life to serving the Lord faithfully. He’s also depicted cleaning his guns and shooting targets in a forest.

Meanwhile in Palestine, a Christian church is experiencing a decline in membership due to the political unrest and loss of territory. Through Trump’s presidential run, he relocated the US Embassy to Jerusalem and granted Israel settlement rights to the West Bank. Although Christians and Jews have different views on religion, when partnered together politically they are an unstoppable force.

Thank you Universal Pictures for sending us this Blu-ray to review!

The War With Grandpa is a star studded comedy featuring Robert De Niro, Uma Therman, Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin, and Christopher Walken. The grandpa (Robert De Niro) is a widower who is struggling to get by since his wife passed away. Most technology eludes him like self-checkout registers at stores and smart phones. After a legal scuffle, he agrees to live with his daughter’s (Uma Therman) family though the transition won’t be easy for either of them. The grandson, Peter, is forced to give up his room and relocate to the attic where he shares living space with mice and bats. It goes without saying that Peter is not happy with his new accommodations.

After sharing his struggles with his friends, he follows their advice and declares war on his grandpa to get his room back. At first, his grandfather brushes off the declaration of war and first couple of pranks. Upon realizing that Peter won’t be giving up, he decides to fight back as long as they agree to no collateral damage and no tattling on each other. Let the games begin!

Prepare for some funny pranks though a couple of them involve obscured nudity. Grandpa has a tendency of dropping his pants unintentionally. Thankfully, any naughty bits are obscured by conveniently located plants. There is also some language including hell and *ss.

Thank you UberStrategist for sending us a screener to review!

Insert Coin is a documentary about the rise and fall of the popular arcade game making company, Midway. Though Midway has been around since 1958, this film covers the 80s through their bankruptcy in 2009. The 1981 acquisition of Bally is also discussed with their rivalry with Williams. These companies combined are well known for their pinball and early video games like Defender, Joust, Robotron 2084, and Rush. In the mid-80s people were getting tired of the copycat and low-quality games and as a result, the industry was losing its audience.

In 1988, the recently re-branded Midway released Narc which was an arcade hit and stirred up some controversy with its bloodiness and dismembering of body parts. Smash TV did well in the theaters but Midway had to learn from a mistake of teasing the gamers about a nonexistent hidden area (Pleasure Dome) and shipped out ROM chips to actually add it to the game. Countless quarters were spent trying to find that mystical area.

It’s interesting to know that a successful arcade game was one that generated $700/week. NBA Jam was such a success that the arcade machines were deemed defective because their quarter holders were filled to capacity! Their most popular franchise, Mortal Kombat is covered in detail with its over-the-top violence and backlash for it. The film adaptation is also covered. Mortal Kombat was so edgy that Nintendo removed the blood from their SNES release. SEGA left the game intact to attract an older audience.

Thank you Wood Entertainment for sending us a screener to review!

Skateboarding has been around since the 1950s and its popularity has had its ups and downs. Skate parks would come and go and when they disappeared, underground and street skating took off. Pretending I’m A Superman – The Tony Hawk Video Game Story features many professional skaters like Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska, and Eric Koston who share their experiences with this sport and various milestones before it became mainstream.

The popular Thrasher magazine started circulating in 1981, and the following year Tony Hawk became a pro skater. In 1986 Atari released 720°, a skateboarding game followed by California Games and Skate or Die in 1987. In 1989 the movie Gleaming the Cube was released. In the mid 90s skateboarding started to become popular and was showcased in the X Games, which was founded in 1994.

In 1997, Sega released a popular arcade game with a moving skateboard called Top Skater. Once Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater dropped in 1999, the sport would never be the same. Each new release would get better and when the fourth one came out, the other three were still in the top ten sales charts. Not only did this game revitalize the sport, but the skaters in the game became household names and the bands like Primus and Bad Religion got a whole new fan base. The inclusivity of minority and female skaters appealed to many people as well.

Thank you Lionsgate for sending us a screener to review!

Oliver is a twelve-year-old genius whose parents are considering separating. To comfort him in these difficult times is his dog, Henry. Oliver also has a friend Xiao, in China, who plays online VR games with him. Xiao is also quite smart and is an accomplished hacker.

At this year’s science fair, Oliver shows off his mind-reading device. A fictional technology tycoon named Mr. Mills is in the audience and Oliver wants to make a good impression on him. Although the experiment didn’t go as planned, Mr. Mills (Kunal Nayyar) is impressed with Oliver's work and sees potential in it. At home, Oliver fine-tunes his project and with the help of a friend, hijacks a satellite to give the mind-reading device enough power. This move doesn’t go unnoticed by government officials. The project is a success and Oliver can hear his dog’s thoughts while wearing a special collar.

As it turns out, Henry is quite smart, talkative, and funny. Henry’s simple views on life are quite insightful and may help in repairing Oliver’s parents' marriage. There’s a school dance coming up and Oliver needs to work up the courage to ask his crush to the dance. The rest of Henry’s plans to rekindle Oliver’s parents’ romance revolves around them being at the school dance to hear their wedding song.

Thank you Tripp Fuller for sending us a screener link to review!

The Road to Edmond was released in 2018, but now it’s available to watch on Amazon Prime for free. The movie begins with a young youth pastor named Cleo who is forced to take a 2-week sabbatical for telling one of his students that God loves her just as she is when she came out as gay. Cleo’s stance of acceptance goes against his church’s doctrine and that’s why he’s being reprimanded.

Not sure of what he did wrong, Cleo decides to clear his head by packing some camping gear and heading out on his vintage Schwinn bike without a particular destination in mind. On a rest stop, Cleo declines the advances of a lady, and later witnesses his bike getting ran over. The guy who ran over the bike is named Larry and he’s on a road trip with his father’s ashes. Without any better transportation options, Cleo decides to join along for the ride.

Please note that the rest of this post contains spoilers.

Larry is very talkative and tries to cheer up Cleo with crude humor and insightful questions. Having a religious background, Larry asks Cleo for his “Jesus Pitch” and it’s not very convincing. In fact, Cleo’s faith is shaky and on the road trip Larry gets him to swear, drink, and try marijuana. They even go to a gay wedding.

Thank you Lionsgate for sending us a digital screener to review!

I Still Believe is based on the true story of Jeremy Camp’s college days before he became a popular Christian artist who sold five million CDs. This film was supposed to be released in theaters on March 13, 2020, but those plans were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Christians and fans of Jeremy Camp’s music can support this film by renting a premium video on demand on sites like Amazon for $19.99. The digital rentals are good for 48 hours.

This film has a star-studded cast including Gary Sinese and Shania Twain as Jeremy’s parents. Jeremy Camp is played by KJ Apa who does not lip-sync, but puts his own spin on the popular Christian hits sung throughout the movie. I must confess that I’m not familiar with Mr. Camp’s music (despite owning a CD!) so none of the songs performed in it sounded familiar to me. It’s really fascinating knowing the inspiration of two of his hit songs “I Still Believe”, and "Walk by Faith”.

The events in the movie are based loosely on Jeremy Camp’s written biography, I Still Believe. Some artistic liberties have been taken. In the film, the love triangle is between Michelle Henning, Jeremy Camp, and his musical mentor, Jean-Luc La Joie. In reality, the love triangle was with a friend from Jeremy’s Bible study instead.

Thank you Paramount for sending us a digital screener to review!

There have been many movies adapted after popular video game franchises. Sadly, most of them are not very good. This film had a rocky start after fans heavily criticized Paramount’s original design of the blue blur. Sonic’s final appearance looks much closer to Sega’s design with the exception of his arms being blue instead of cream colored.

Sonic is voiced by Ben Schwartz and he does a great job with bringing out the attitude that gamers have grown to love. While Sonic is often cocky, there’s a lot of loneliness shown as he must remain hidden from humans while living on Earth. In the fictional town of Green Hills, Montana, Sonic watches many residents of this small community without being detected (for the most part).

When Sonic lets his emotions get the better of him, he causes a mass loss of power and the government calls upon Dr. Robotnik to discover the source. Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Eggman is quite funny and he provides a lot of humor in this film as expected.