Review: I Still Believe

I Still Believe (2020)

Directors: Erwin Brothers

Writers: Jon Erwin, Jon Gunn, and Madeline Carrol

Starring: KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Melissa Roxburgh, Nathan Dean, Shania Twain, and Gary Sinise

Plot: Two Christian college kids fall in love then one of them gets cancer.

Review: I don’t have a whole lot to say about I Still Believe. It’s pretty much exactly as advertised. If you saw the trailer and thought “Yes! I need to see that” you’ll probably enjoy it. I advise you to see it. If not, just don’t. There’s nothing unexpected. It’s all there in pretty much the way you could imagine. I’m not the target audience so I didn’t have a good time with this one. I do have some nits to pick though.

So, it may just be that I’m hanging around a different crowd than most, but I’m pretty sure almost no one talks about religion like the characters in this movie. These guys are freaking obsessed. Like, holy crap. It’s almost cultist how often these guys mention God. I mean… I get it. It’s a Christian movie. What did I expect? But, come on! I feel like you can make a faith based movie without that being all you talk about.

Second, I Still Believe kind of promotes alternative medicines inadvertently. Like, at one point in the movie, there is a full recovery and not once did they mention the brilliant work of the doctors who helped. All they talk about is how prayer “cured” this person. Are you freaking kidding me? That’s dangerous logic coming from a major studio release. Don’t trust the doctors. You can just pray the cancer away. Honestly, even if I was enjoying the movie up then, that plot point alone would’ve knocked it into the negative review category.

There’s actually not really anything I enjoyed about I Still Believe. The dialouge, as mentioned, is weird. The characters are way too goody two shoes for me to get behind. Their chemistry’s not great. The actors aren’t really trying all that hard. (Britt Robertson didn’t even shave her head for the cancer parts. She tries to cover it up with a bandanna and it’s painfully obvious.) It’s melodramatic. It’s constantly trying to make you cry in laughable ways. The music sucks, unless you are a fan of Christian rock which I decidedly am not. There’s just no fun to be had here.

TL;DR: If you think you’ll enjoy I Still Believe, you probably will. If you don’t, avoid it at all costs.

Score: 4/10 (Bad)