velcrohead

"Courageous" is a highly ambitious movie from the Kendrick Brothers and Sherwood Baptist Church. It's encouraging to see that the filmmakers have grown and improved since earlier efforts. The cinematography is vastly improved from "Facing the Giants" and even "Fireproof," both of which I didn't really like. Thankfully, this time they were actually concerned with lighting, framing their shots, and the sound mix.

The message is great, too. After all, who can disagree that the world needs better fathers? I'm a little concerned that Christians are a bit over-zealous in defending the film, and altogether too willing to overlook some mistakes, but in all fairness to the filmmakers, this effort is far and away their best effort yet.

But there are still a few hurdles the Kendricks need to overcome before they will be truly great filmmakers.

Clocking in at over 2 hours, the film is really badly paced. The story starts and stops, when it really could've been effectively woven together in a much more dramatic fashion. It becomes a roller coaster after a while, with various mini-climaxes, and just when you think you've reached the denouement, the movie takes off in another direction. And then it just sort of stops dead at the end.

There were a lot of scenes that could've been cut. For example, one of the characters has a major decision to make, in which it appears his employer is being dishonest. The film chooses to drag it out and chew up screen time with unnecessary dialogue, when it would've been more effective and more meaningful for him to make his inevitable decision within the same scene. There's also an extended (and honestly somewhat creepy) scene at a restaurant between a father and daughter which doesn't really add anything to the story, and which to many actually detracts from the realism of the narrative. It could've been cut without any impact to the story. There were several other scenes that should've been kept, but trimmed down. These and a few other scenes could've been cut or edited to make the story flow better and to trim down the running time.

The writing is better this time around, but it's still not great. I think Alex Kendrick would be better served to farm out the writing to more experienced screenplay writers and focus on production. (One could also argue that his films are better when he is not the lead actor.) Kendrick is a decent and competent producer, but he struggles when writing dialogue, though he has grown somewhat. A more skilled writer could've used the groundwork he laid and have developed a more fluid and gripping story (using the same elements) that fit together a little better.

All that being said, there are many things to praise about this film. The action sequences were extremely well-executed and gripping. There were several laugh-out loud comedic moments in the film. The acting is average, with some really good performances mixed in with some really bad ones, but it feels, again, like a step up from previous movies. The final confrontation between the police and the drug traffickers--aside from a shot that was inexplicably repeated--was top notch. And the message of the film really is a good one.

Evangelical Christians will enjoy this movie. Those who aren't probably won't. It's one of the better faith-based movies out there, despite some really deep flaws. Hopefully, the next offering from this studio will continue the trend of improvement. As long as the producers pay attention to the writing, pacing and editing a little better next time, we may actually see a thoroughly enjoyable movie from the Kendricks.