The Film
"So you think God does care about football?"
That's an actual line in Facing the Giants. The answer should be pretty obvious. Otherwise, we wouldn't have this completely sappy, low-budget entry into the sports genre.
The bottom line: If you pray hard enough, good things will happen. You'll win the state championship, get pregnant and even get a new truck.
In case you haven't noticed, the film isn't just about football, but it's got religious overtones. That's not a bad thing. However, just because the message is good, doesn't mean you can't shoot the messenger. Because even though God may care about football, he obviously doesn't care about acting.
No one in this movie can act. They could have gotten hobos off the street and it probably would have been better. In fact, it definitely would have been better.
The Picture
Facing the Giants is a low-budget movie, so we can't fault them for the after-school special look. There are a lot of spots where detail is bad and colors are dim. Naturally, the best moments in this 1.85:1 transfer are on the field, mainly with uniform colors popping. However, don't expect the same image you'd find in Rudy, Remember the Titans, or even Brian's Song.
The Sound
One of the things we usually count on in sports movies is realistic sound. Unfortunately, the Dolby TrueHD track fails here. Dialogue sounded fine, but there seemed to be more than a few moments where it didn't match up with the actors on-screen. That would be forgivable, if the action were there. Instead, like the movie itself, there are no hard hits, no great surround moments, and way too much use of a very cheesy soundtrack.
The Extras
Facing the Giants features a fair amount of typical extras. There's commentary, deleted scenes, bloopers, a music video and a short making-of feature. If you're going to bother, sit in on "Interview with Mark Richt." The pain-free 4-minute video is a chat between Alex Kendrick and University of Georgia head football coach Mark Richt, who makes a quickie cameo in the movie. The two talk about faith, feelings, and of course, football.
Final Thoughts
Are you ready for some football? Well, there are probably 20 other movies that cover the sport better than Facing the Giants. We do appreciate the nice, spiritual message. It's just too bad they couldn't have hired real actors to deliver it.
Product Details
- Actors: Alex Kendrick, Shannen Fields
- Director: Alex Kendrick
- Audio/Languages: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (English, French, Portuguese), Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish), Dolby Surround (English), Dolby Stereo (English)
- Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Region: A
- Number of Discs: 1
- Rating: PG
- Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- Blu-ray Disc Release Date: September 29, 2009
- Run Time: 111 minutes
- List Price: $28.95
- Extras:
- Filmmaker Commentary
- Fumbles, Funnies and Other Fun Stuff
- Deleted Scenes
- Behind the Scenes of Facing the Giants
- Interview with Mark Richt
- "With You" A Music Video of the Production
- Previews
- BD Live
