User Reviews

Minister Alex Evans (denomination unidentified, but obviously mainline, fairly conservative Protestant) and his family move from Colorado to a small southern town that is still reeling from the suicide of high school basketball star Chase Green the year before. Michael, the minister's son, takes Chase's place on the team, begins a relationship with Chase's decidedly non-Christian girlfriend, Jasmine, and is antagonized by Chase's angry, grief-stricken, star center brother, Lucas.

NEW HOPE is, of course, from R-Squared Productions, a Christian film company, so there is little or no sex, gore, violence, profanity, etc. Not rated, but would almost certainly be a "PG": Tame stuff, but not completely Hallmark in all respects--it does show a condom in one scene. This film is certainly open to criticism for being sappy and cornballish in many spots, but it's not-so in many others. NEW HOPE honestly, originally, and often quite humorously addresses many pertinent issues: e.g., the well-behaved but still somewhat ambivalent Michael's observation, "It's not Christianity that's flawed: It's Christians." Though slow-moving, NEW HOPE's storyline is taut and focused, and there is some real tension here along with genuine elements of surprise in a number of places. Still, the transformations that take place toward the end are both predictable and unbelievable.

Some good acting and dialogue, as well as some that's quite lame. Interestingly enough, the teenagers' script is more realistic than the adults': I've seen better depictions of adolescent life, but I've also seen much worse. The interactions between Jasmine and Michael are particularly engaging and poignant. Also worthy of mention is Michael's little sister, Faith, about 10 and always being told to go get ready for bed: "Mom, don't take this the wrong way, but have you HEARD how boring you and Dad are?!" Unfortunately (since he's so central), NEW HOPE's most wooden character is the minister himself. It is, of course, hard to characterize a Fundamentalist preacher who, regardless of whether or not we all subscribe to his theology, is a decent fellow and neither a thundering lunatic nor a closet pervert; thus, many of Evans's lines are the usual "We ALL have our struggles," blah-blah-blah. Nevertheless, he does have his realer moments: "Hey, I'm a preacher! This 'God' stuff is all I know." Though many will find the patriarchal, mostly white, Middle American culture alienating, it's noteworthy that the moms in this film are far more convincing than the dads. Chase's grieving mother, finely played by Dodie Brown, is probably the most fully-realized character here.

NEW HOPE's mood and atmosphere remind me of the "After-School Specials" I used to watch as a boy back in the '70s and '80s. {That may sound insulting, but it's not so-intended}. Daryl Wolgemuth's fine soundtrack really enhances this production. Yes, a lot of it's "Christian rock," but it's some of the best that I've heard, and the use of subtle instrumentals is just fantastic. The general cinematography and use of scenery are also quite good.

This production will obviously resonate with many Christian audiences, and non-Christians with some tolerance for basic, unpoliticized Christian views should not find it too preachy or dogmatic. It's full of "lessons" about God and life, most of which are given via Pastor Evans, and there is an obvious intent to evangelize to the audience, but again, it's not too "in-yer-face" in these respects.

This movie masquerades itself as a wholesome Christian movie, but unfortunately it has many deceiving teachings. I would think that it is unfathomable for spirit-filled Christians to promote dating and kissing between an 18-year old Christian boy (who is still very weak in his own faith) and an seductive unbelieving girl who tells him after their first day that they spent together that they should stay at her house, as they've got the house to themselves. He should have fled and not pursued a relationship with her after that, and PRAYED earnestly for her instead. He also could have invited her to youth group where she can be mentored by a female Christian. "Missionary dating" (dating someone and leading them to Christ) is a very bad idea and exactly what is portrayed in this movie, there are so many reasons (For one: the motives of the unbeliever is unclear, do they really wish to know God or do they wish to please their believing boyfriend/girlfriend? Also, if the relationship doesn't work out, the unbeliever very often falls back into their old ways, as their relationship with God was intertwined with their relationship with their believing boyfriend/girlfriend). I'm not saying there won't be exceptions, but it's very dangerous to portray this sort of thing as a positive Christian message in a movie. Then a very little while later the girl offers this boy a condom, and although he declines, he keeps on dating her and kissing her. A positive message from a Christian movie would have been "Flee from temptation, young man!!!" However, in this movie, he just keeps dating and kissing the girl. Then towards the end of the movie, he kisses her and then they pray a very shallow type of forgiveness prayer together. It really made God's forgiveness and repentance very cheap. And then the photographs at the end of the movie show them getting married. It seems like the movie portrays them getting married straight out of school, both 19 years old? This is just not realistic. And that is the problem with kissing at 18, because you'll probably only get married at 23 at the earliest, so you'll just be kissing for 5 years. I think there's a lot of unnecessary temptation there, so perhaps it would be wiser not to show such young kids kiss in a Christian movie? I don't know. I know kids kiss these days, but should we as older more mature Christians not be advising them to be more cautious??? Just my 2 cents :)

I don't normally write reviews, but I just had to, seeing that no one else pointed out the sexual content it has for a Christian movie. Yes, Christian movies show you some ugly stories of people until their conversion, but however, this is not a Christian movie. It shows condemns, and someone putting their mouth on them. It also talks a lot about astrology, which the Bible speaks against. God said not to use psychics, sorcerers, observer's of times, necromancers, astrologers, divination, magic.