Go see Courageous!!!!!!

Hubby, 13 yo son and I saw it tonight on opening night.  Urgently important, fantastic movie all families need to see.  The Kendrick brothers hit another one out of the park.

This movie was beyond excellent.  Very impressive acting, cinematography, story line, scenery, MESSAGE, music…  It was exciting and tense, and hilarious, and a super five-star tear jerker.  (Seriously – you WILL NEED tissues!)  We really loved the humor in this movie, too.  And the action scenes were awesome and realistic.  Very gripping and tense, and not over the top or sensational.

Courageous is definitely a movie to watch over and over, and share with your friends.

One of the families portrayed in the film homeschools their two young children.  (Though it wasn’t very realistic when the mom got a phone call from her husband and he couldn’t hear any children in the background …  Oh, wait, that must be only a problem at my house.  Ha ha.)  It was also fun to spot some of the real-life homeschooling Duggar kids in the background scenes.  (I spottedJessa, Joy Anna, and Josh.  Looking at the still photos at the Courageous web site, I spy Jim Bob and others.)  Being a mom of five children ranging from 13 years old to 4 months, I was also pleased to see a family portrayed with both a 15 year old daughter AND an infant son.  =O)  Something sadly foreign to our modern anti-child culture.

On another personal note, this movie made me miss the beautifully lush green landscapes of my hometown area in North Florida, not too far from Albany, GA, where Sherwood Baptist makes these fabulous films (Flywheel, Fireproof, Facing the Giants).  It also makes me want to go camp out at Sherwood Baptist and take part in whatever next film project their ministry is working on.  (I loved seeing the credits — all the family groups, and you would not believe how many “child wranglers” and babysitters were listed!)

Great job, Alex and Stephen Kendrick!  Thank you, thank you, for making such quality films that honor Christ, marriage, children, and homeschooling, among other things (like excellence, hard work, character…).  This is an absolutely perfect date-night movie for homeschooling parents.  I came away from it really loving and appreciating my Man, which was another bonus!

Please support this movie with your money if at all possible.  Especially these first couple of weeks in the theaters.

Only negatives I have to mention aren’t actually involving the movie itself:

1)  My Harkins Theater did a pretty poor job of choosing what previews to play for the early arrivals…  From violence to dirty dancing, I kept wanting to reach over and cover my son’s eyes and ears.  (That might be me being extra sensitive since it was our 13 year old’s first time at a PG-13 film.)  Someone ought to clue in the powers that be that a Christian, family-friendly movie like Courageous probably attracts a crowd that won’t appreciate trailers for movies with gore, occult, or scantily clad gyrating dancers.  I did enjoy a couple of the previews shown closer to the movie’s start time, though, and a neat animated commercial for free-range farming from Chipotle.  (Yay, Chipotle!)

2)  There was a Courageous table set up in the lobby with shirts, books, and who knows what else…  I had planned to visit the table after the film, but it was cleared out by then.  First time I’d ever seen a table like that at opening night of a movie, so I was disappointed to miss out.  (Yeah, I don’t get out that much.)  If you see a booth, go right away!  =O)

Wow, two opening day movie outings for two fabulous, family-uplifting movies in two weeks!  I pray that Courageous and Dolphin Tale both do very well in the box office, and look forward to supporting more like them in the future.