martinmayfield-64396 If you know, going into the movie, that there are strong Christian themes, then I don't think it is too off-putting for someone who is not a Christian. I am a Christian, so my perspective may be different, but I didn't find it to be "preachy." Now, to the movie itself..the story of Brandon Burlsworth is "made for movie" material, and I think the script does Brandon's story justice. The Farmer character was a great device to help draw out Marty's inner struggle. Neal McDonough just killed it as Marty--I have a new appreciation for his acting chops. Leslie Easterbrook did yeoman's work as the mother. But my biggest problem was with Severio's acting. I want to be kind, but this role was just too big for Chris, and I don't believe he filled the shoes. He's likable, but that's just not enough to carry the role...sorry. But overall, definitely worth watching.

Craig Brown Very, very little sports action at all. It's a decent story, and one that deserved to be told, but lighten up with the religitard propaganda. I mean seriously it was not even needed to tell this young man's story, but here we have a fine example of the zealots attempting to disguise their prosthelytizing fan fiction as an actual movie worth watching.

razzel There is one thing I want to say right off the bat....this is absolutely not even close to The Blind Side or Rudy...both of which were stellar stories with very good acting. The acting in Greater was B level at its best.We watched this movie last night and it started off as a lot of inspiring sports movies do...with a kid that is faced with some kind of adversity. In this one Brandon Burlsworth has to overcome a childhood of growing up as a very overweight kid who is ridiculed for it but there are adults in his life who inspire him and help him get through the worst of it so he can keep going with his football aspirations.It started off as a perfectly nice, entertaining story. We enjoyed it despite the truly B level acting (don't let any of the ridiculous 10 star reviews fool you on that front). It wasn't until the last 3rd of the movie that you actually realized that this was a movie with a very very heavy Christian message. That is not a bad thing if it is advertised as such and that is the type of movie you like or are looking to watch. It really soured me on the whole thing since I think the film makers were pretty underhanded on that front. By the time the first hour and a half of the 2 hour 10 minute movie was over and it started in on the heavy Christian message (complete with a representation of the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other in the form of a nasty man and an innocent high school football player), you were so far in that it wasn't worth turning it off.If Christian entertainment is what you are looking for, this is probably a 6/7 out of 10 movie.If you are like me and picked it up as a movie like Rudy or The Blind Side (as advertised), I'd give it a 4.5 out of 10. The end that made me feel like I was in an evangelical church service ruined the entire thing for me.

martydorr First of all I would like to say that this review is not an attack on any of the real life characters within the story. I'm sure they are all nice people, and Brandon certainly seemed to change peoples lives for the better. He also battled adversity from an early age which again is to be commended. My problem is purely with the film itself, which I realized too late (about 40 mins into the film) that there were Christian undertones running right through the core of it, and certainly the last part of the film felt like I should have been sitting in a hall with a preacher in front of me. I am a Christian myself, God does not offend me in any way, nor his many followers. But what does offend me is the feeling of being duped into being given a sermon about "Gods will" every couple of minutes. I also feel that had the makers not concentrated so much on "spreading the word", and centered on the story of a sporting underdog done great, it would have been a good film. To call this film the greatest sporting film ever is quite frankly absurd, at best it is a TV movie for a rainy Monday afternoon, and that is if there is absolutely nothing else on. As a person, Brandon left his mark on this world which few of us get to do, but I personally feel that the film could have been so much better.