Miracle at Manchester

 

MIRACLE AT MANCHESTER is a powerful film based on the true story of a high school student and the power of prayer! Brycen Newman (Kory Getman), a star athlete at his high school, suddenly starts experiencing headaches that grow increasingly worse. The hospital doesn't believe they signify a serious threat but Brycen's father (Eddie McClintock - who also directed the film) turns to a neurosurgeon (Dean Cain) who finds an aggressive form of cancer and insists on immediate surgery.

The community rallies around Brycen and his family, including one of his nurses (Kathy Patterson). She is married to Ed Hanson (Daniel Roebuck), a car repair owner, who keeps Bryce's hopes alive by getting his input into the '66 Mustang Ed is rebuilding. His school also has a huge prayer rally with all students and staff gathered at their football field to pray for his healing. This film is a wonderful reminder of God’s strength and sovereignty.

Watch on PureFlix, beginning April 1st!

 

My Review: A very heartwarming film on the power of faith and prayer and a strong reminder that God still performs miracles. I do love that the movie is based on a True Story and that Brycen and Richard Newman are co-writers of the movie. It would be easy to think of this as one of the regularly used formula plots in many faith-based films, so their inclusion makes it much more personal. There are several wonderful elements that make this an outstanding selection for a Family Movie Night, leading to discussions on faith, prayer, helping others, and community involvement... not only as an outreach but as building a stronger faith for ourselves and others.

There is also an organization, Miracle at Manchester Foundation, that was created by Brycen after his miraculous survival of brain cancer. His top priority and passion is to help other kids dealing with cancer.

Giveaway: 3-month subscription to Pure Flix! The deadline to enter is April 8, 2023. Requirements include your FULL NAME, email address, USA residence and not to have won a subscription in the past SIX months.

Disclosure: Many thanks to Pure Flix for providing a sample of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own.

LINKS
Pure Flix

IMDb 

MiracleManchester.org 

JC Films 

Pure Flix is a one-stop shop for faith and family-friendly movies and shows where you can confidently stream in your home with the entire family. With new premium and exclusive original entertainment choices every week, Pure Flix streaming service has the largest variety of high-quality, curated, positive, encouraging, wholesome movies, series and kids' content in one service. Pure Flix is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, alongside AFFIRM Films.

Tagline

Your Home for Wholesome Faith & Family Streaming

Pure Family. Pure Fun. Pure Faith.

Bible Verse

Whatever is pure … what is admirable … think about such things – Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

 

Uncommon

When the students of Rosewood High School lose their theater, music and dance departments due to budgets cuts, they create their own. Struggling to find the right script, music & choreography the students get advice from an uncommon source; the Bible! Each student becomes uniquely influenced as they discover that God takes them personally. Equipped with unique talents, they bond together to prepare the perfect production by exploring the diversity of parables taught in the Bible.

Fighting overwhelming challenges, the teens fight against political correctness to defend their privilege to worship, meet and perform.

Will months of constant bullying by the establishment defeat the production and dismantle their faith?

Armed with expert legal counsel and unexpected help from Christian music’s finest, these teens realize what it means to be…UNCOMMON!

My Review: I really wanted to like Uncommon. There were so many aspects about it that appeal to things that matter to me. But, I found myself rolling my eyes too often to really enjoy the film. The potential for a really good film is there, but I don't feel like it reached any where near what it could. Stereotypical characters and less than stellar acting, along with some bad dialogue, ruined much of the film for me. There were some great moments that touched me and a few really good performances. I especially loved the song performed by Stacey Bradshaw near the end of the film. It actually caused me to raise my initial overall bad impression, but I still can't say this is a good movie. It was not even the "Come on, kids! Let's put on a show!" theme, since I actually have always liked those (Andy Hardy, Little Rascals, Shirley Temple---all films that did this well). Perhaps I am just naive or live in a place that is more embracing of Christianity, but this just seemed too over the top and the resolution fell into place too neatly. Definitely more of movie made for the church crowd, so it will find its niche.

I was given the opportunity to preview this film by WORD films. No compensation was provided and I was not required to write a positive review.