You won't be disappointed!

Wow! Such a good movie.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I received this movie as a gift this year (2010) and frankly, had never heard of it, even though I pay attention to movie releases. I approached it with no expectations whatsoever. To me, almost everything about the movie, including the Christian subculture, the cast, the director, and so on, was an unknown. I've never seen a movie rated with so many 1's and 10's before. I suspect that people are projecting their religious agendas, and not properly rating the movie itself. A movie needs a good story; and I found the story engrossing, so that gives it at least a 6, for me. What particularly fascinated me was the highly interior look at personal conflict and challenges in church ministry, and this is a very honest movie. The music and the setting were an entertaining and enjoyable backdrop to the story, enough to raise the score to a 7. The acting won't win Oscars, but I felt deeply involved emotionally at various points in the story. Because of the Christian context, I believe many viewers just won't get into the story. The only thing to add is that I've never actually seen a movie like this; that in itself makes it worth watching, and brings the score to an 8, which places it within the top 10% of movies I've seen.

This movie was completely horrible from start to finish. I didn't go to the movies to see it; I finally watched it last night and, MY GOD, was it awful. First of all; there are thousands of "real choirs" and "musicians" in the USA; they could've gotten them to play those particular parts instead of poorly doing voice-overs that were too low! Half of the people in the choir were not even moving their mouth, and the musicians didn't even try to act like they were playing.The whole, "the church is a corporation" angle they took probably lost most African American church members because that is not how most African American churches operate. This movie should have been made like a musical with the lead actor (not Boris, although it wasn't his fault) actually knowing how to sing. The voice-over didn't even match his persona. Anyway why would you pick German & British actors who probably knew nothing of the African American gospel experience, put them in this movie, and assume that it's going to be good.As said before, the plot was so predictable (if a plot truly existed), I found myself finishing actor's sentences. They had a serious conflict between the young preacher and his wife and you didn't even understand what it was until the movie went off. The fact that Boris was just walking in and out of a large church like that singing and interrupting the preacher was extremely unrealistic.In all the movie was, for lack of better words, dumb. Glad I didn't waste any money going to the movies and I'm glad I burned a copy of the CD from a friend who purchased it!

I wouldn't rate this a bad movie. I mostly enjoyed it. However, I was still somewhat disappointed. My expectations may have been higher than this movie entailed. Based on the cover photo, I was originally expecting not only "the prodigal son" to return, but also take his father's place on the pulpit. In the end, I found the movie was supposed to promote salvation--key words: "supposed to." The plot shares similar ideas with "The Fighting Temptations": A young man leaves the church, and comes back several years later, after achieving success in the world. Not surprisingly the man finds love in someone (who coincidentally, is also a single mother), who's not impressed by his celebrity status. And, as in several movies, the woman has a change of heart. Both characters of Boris Kodjoe and Cuba Gooding Jr., are involved in the church's music ministry, and run into the conflict of bringing in secular ideals. The only difference between the two movies being one of the main characters indicated a need for a complete life change. However, this point didn't become clear until ninety minutes later.My biggest criticism: The ending needed more work. The series of scenes towards the end were hard to follow. It was as if the director was avoiding the 2 hour mark, and compacted all the remaining details into the last three minutes.All in all, I'd give it a six for its content. Even with the unoriginal plot line, it's still an enjoyable film.

I worked in a church for quite some time and saw the inner workings of it. Much like anything else a church is a business, and the pastor and congregation are just people.This movie reflected what we are as humans; imperfect. It strayed from the normal Hollywood stereotypes of pretty, perfect, and life always falling into place. It showed the power of God, when we allow Him in our lives, and allow our self-pride to step aside.Powerful, strong and beautiful. And no, you don't need to be a person of color to enjoy this awesome film, as if it mattered, because I am a Caucasion woman. All you need is to enjoy music and have an open mind to real-type people in real-type of events.The best film I have seen in years.~Desiree