Stand Strong

Even without the Christian trimmings about living within your means, Stand Strong is an interesting situation about a family who had been putting material possessions and acquiring them to keep up with the Jones.

Chris Steele and Alison Trouse are a pair who've just overextended themselves and now they're in debt. Business reversals have led to him being laid off, house and car being repossessed, the family fortunately has in Jon Mckenzie a brother to Steele who takes the whole group in.

McKenzie is a financial planner, but he's also a Christian and we keep hearing words about God having the right idea. We do get some biblical quotes and by giving some rather secular advice McKenzie gets Platt on the road to recovery.

The Christian part comes when their youngest Nathan Dobbin is nearly killed in a climbing accident. That will make anyone reexamine what's important in this world.

It seems to me we're talking about two separate things. Materialism and the worship of possessions you can't take with you. One does not have to be a fundamentalist Christian to appreciate that perspective. The second thing is that good financial planning is not a spiritual concept. The film rather falsely says the two are linked and I say, not necessarily.

Good for church audiences, The world outside will not necessarily see the connections Stand Strong tries to make.

Jeesus loves and saves you from all the evil things in life.

I could rate more, but god is involved in this move just too much

I watched Stand Strong on TV.

It was really entertaining and held my attention.

I did not find it boring at all.

And feel the actor did a good job at portraying real life experiences and struggles, experienced by every day families.

It has great values & does not include violence, or murder.

I absolutely loved it and wanted to watch it again.

I rate it R and give it a 7 1/2 - 8.

A really great movie.

Well worth the time to watch! I am sad that it is not available to down load, so I can watch it again.

If you want a movie with great values.

I recommend this movie.

It is a really good family movie.

A must see.

PROS

+ Great display against materialism.

+ Wonderful example of families helping each other, and of a mother saying 'no' for the benefit of her son's family, in order to get on their own feet.

+ Great display of an intact family which is rare to see in American movies where we rather see the negative examples and warnings.

CONS

• Not great acting. Many of the dialogues are somewhat mechanical, as if someone would have read the script a few seconds earlier and the actors repeat. But the mention of an 'Acting Coach' in the epilogue shows that at least some amateur actors had been used, and from that viewpoint it is quite solid.

• Gossiping & badmouthing at the beginning of the movie: "Shopping is not gonna help her face".

• Minute 34: Up to that point Matt had rejected THEOS entirely, and now he is suddenly 'preaching' to his wife. This is not organic and comes without any previous indication of faith.

• Minute 65: Here he is preaching to his son, and again, it still does not fit.

The movie would have greatly benefitted from more spiritual content. We see an ideal family with an apparently strong Christian background and disciplines, but we do not see any Bible reading or worship with both families. There is some help which is rather secular and implies worldly counsel, but that which would have been infinitely more important, spiritual guidance on how to center their life on THEOS in the day-by-day, is entirely missing.

• Promotion of the book 'Dragon Spell', by Donita K. Pau (similar to the witchcraft books of C. S. Lewis which are highly problematic). This specific endorsement is a very negative surprise.