Jesus Revolution | |
---|---|
Directed by |
|
Screenplay by |
|
Based on | Jesus Revolution by Greg Laurie Ellen Santilli Vaughn |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Akis Konstantakopoulos |
Edited by | John Pucket |
Music by | Brent McCorkle |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 120 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $15 million [2] |
Box office | $54.3 million [3] [4] |
Jesus Revolution is a 2023 American Christian drama film directed by Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle. Based on the autobiographical book of the same name co-written by Greg Laurie, the film follows the teenage Laurie (Joel Courtney), Christian hippie Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), and pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) as they take part in the Jesus movement in California during the late 1960s. Anna Grace Barlow and Kimberly Williams-Paisley also star.
The film was theatrically released in the United States by Lionsgate on February 24, 2023. Although it received mixed reviews from critics, the film grossed $54 million worldwide against a production budget of $15 million.
In 1968, the stern yet respected Southern California pastor Chuck Smith realizes his church, Calvary Chapel, is slowly dying and he is unable to connect with the younger, live-free hippie generation of teens and young adults. His daughter, Janette, gives a ride to a colorful hippie hitchhiker named Lonnie Frisbee, who says he is traveling around and telling people about the ministry of Jesus. Smith, at first suspicious of Frisbee, eventually warms up to him and welcomes him to his church and his home. To the dismay of Chuck and his wife, more hippies soon arrive at the Smith house. After Lonnie introduces Chuck to a newly-formed band called Love Song, and the group performs a song in his living room, Chuck develops a new attitude toward the young people. He and Lonnie end up joining forces and start a successful movement to evangelize hippies and other youth.
Meanwhile, high-school student Greg Laurie runs away from his Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps class and joins a girl named Cathe and her friends, who "turn him on" to drugs at a Janis Joplin concert. At the concert, Timothy Leary is seen preaching the value of LSD for self-discovery. However, Greg sees that various hippies are dangerously irresponsible; at one point, Cathe's sister gets sick from a drug overdose. When watching a movie, Cathe gets angry at Greg for not caring about the dangers of drugs and ends their friendship. They reconcile the next day, with Cathe telling Greg she found Lonnie's church and he should attend with her. After getting baptized at Pirates Cove, Greg and Cathe find solace at Smith's and Frisbee's church, though Cathe's establishment and conservative parents are not enthusiastic about Greg.
The ministry explodes in popularity, being seen as a "Jesus Revolution" and the young attendees as "Jesus freaks". Christian conversions and group baptisms in the Pacific Ocean follow as membership at Calvary Chapel grows to such proportions that services have to be held outside under a large tent. Time magazine does a cover story on the movement in 1971, and both Lonnie and Chuck are featured on Kathryn Kuhlman's weekly television show. [5] Lonnie and his wife, Connie, start having difficulties in their marriage, and Lonnie believes Chuck is trying to diminish his contribution to their joint ministry. Lonnie eventually leaves for Florida with Connie after increasing disagreement with Chuck. Before Lonnie's departure, Greg offers to take over a ministry branch of Calvary chapel in Riverside. He eventually marries Cathe and becomes a pastor of his own church, which becomes Harvest Fellowship. At the end of the film, the credits reveal that Smith and Frisbee reconciled and both are remembered as founders of and leaders in the widespread Jesus movement that started at Calvary Chapel.
The film was announced in June 2018, with Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn writing the screenplay, Gunn directing, and Greg Laurie, Kevin Downes, and the Erwin Brothers producing. Jim Gaffigan and Joel Courtney signed on in the lead roles in June 2020, although Kelsey Grammer eventually replaced Gaffigan. [12] Filming occurred in Mobile, Alabama in March 2022, with several other scenes being shot on-location in California. [13] [14]
The film had its premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on February 15, 2023, [15] and was theatrically released in the United States on February 24, 2023 by Lionsgate. [16] The film was released internationally, starting in Singapore on March 23, 2023, with Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries set for release in the subsequent months. [17]
Jesus Revolution was released for VOD on April 11, 2023, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release on April 25, 2023. [18]
In the United States and Canada, Jesus Revolution was released alongside Cocaine Bear , and was initially projected to gross $6–7 million from 2,475 theaters in its opening weekend. [19] The film made $7 million on its first day (including $3.3 million from previews from the days leading up to its release), raising weekend estimates to $14 million. It went on to debut with $15.8 million, finishing in third place. [2] In its second weekend it made $8.7 million, continuing to outperform expectations, [20] finishing in fifth place. [21] In its third and fourth weekends the film made $5.1 million and $3.5 million, respectively, [22] [23] to pass $40 million and briefly become the highest-grossing Lionsgate movie since 2019. [24] The film eventually passed $50 million. [25]
The film received mixed reviews from critics. [26] [27] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 54% of 58 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10.The website's consensus reads: "Jesus Revolution fumbles an opportunity to bring fascinating real-life history vibrantly to life, but deserves credit for avoiding the preachiness common to faith-based films." [28] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [29] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+", giving director Jon Erwin the most films to earn the grade (following 2015's Woodlawn , 2018's I Can Only Imagine and 2021's American Underdog ). [30] Those polled by PostTrak gave it a 97% positive score, with 89% saying they would definitely recommend the film. [2]
Joshua Encinias of MovieMaker attributed its positive reception among audiences to "high production values and a storyline that works even if you don't care about Christianity." [31] Rahul Malhotra and Simbiat Ayoola of Collider noted that Christian media is an "underserved audience", that "the production company did its due diligence to create buzz", and "despite mixed critical reviews, Jesus Revolution has proven to be rather popular with its target demographic." [32] [20] Michael Foust of Crosswalk gave it 5 out of 5 stars, writing that "although the script carries the film, the cast makes it believable." Noting that Jonathan Roumie is best known for his portrayal of Jesus in The Chosen , Foust added, "it doesn't take long to put that in the back of your mind and imagine him as Frisbee." [33]
Dennis Harvey of Variety gave the film a positive review, saying the film is "polished and persuasive without getting too preachy." [34] In another review, James Berardinelli said that "Jesus Revolution takes a fascinating period of American history – the hippie movement and its associated fallout within the Christian community – and transforms it into a bland, TV movie-of-the-week experience." [35] Film Threat writer Alan Ng gave the film an 8/10, saying, "I associate three things with faith-based films: bad acting, an outrageous, overly positive message, and a shoe-horned sermon. Thankfully, this film avoids all three elements." [36] Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2 stars, pointing out that the film skips details like one of its real-life characters' substance abuse and homosexuality, and quoted Jack Kornfield saying "after the ecstasy comes the laundry." [37] Kathy Schiffer of the National Catholic Register noted, "If you're old enough to remember the 1960s and '70s, you'll find Lionsgate's upbeat new film Jesus Revolution to be a walk down memory lane... As a mainstream Christian film, it focuses on a feel-good faith message, which is more than welcome amid today's culture." [38]
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dove Awards | October 17, 2023 | Inspirational Film of the Year | Jesus Revolution | Won [39] |
Movieguide Awards | March 7, 2024 | Best Movie for Mature Audiences | Jesus Revolution | Won [40] |
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He gained fame for his role as the psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1984–1993) and its spin-off Frasier. At more than 20 years on-air, this is one of the longest-running roles played by a single live-action actor in primetime television history. He has received numerous accolades including a total of six Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Tony Award.
Jesus music, known as gospel beat music in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music that originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This musical genre developed in parallel to the Jesus movement. It outlasted the movement that spawned it and the Christian music industry began to eclipse it and absorb its musicians around 1975.
Calvary Chapel is an international association of charismatic evangelical churches, with origins in Pentecostalism. It maintains a number of radio stations around the world and operates many local Calvary Chapel Bible College programs.
Lonnie Ray Frisbee was an American Charismatic evangelist in the late 1960s and in the 1970s; he was a self-described "seeing prophet". He was known for his hippie appearance. He was notable as a minister and evangelist in the Jesus movement.
Greg Laurie is an American evangelical pastor, evangelist, Christian Nationalist, and author who serves as the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, based in Riverside, California. He also is the founder of Harvest Crusades. Laurie is also the subject of the 2023 film Jesus Revolution, which tells the story of how he converted to Christianity and got his start in ministry in the midst of the Jesus movement.
The House of Miracles was a series of Christian communal houses established during the early Jesus Movement under the auspices of Pastor Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. The House of Miracles was the group from which sprang the largest of the Jesus People communal groups, the Shiloh Youth Revival Centers, which had 100,000 members and 175 communal houses spread across the United States and Canada during its lifespan.
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa is a Christian megachurch located near the boundary between the cities of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana in Orange County. Although the church takes its name from its original facilities on the Costa Mesa side of the boundary, it is now in Santa Ana. The original Calvary Chapel, the church has grown since 1965 from a handful of people, led by senior pastor Chuck Smith, to become the "mother church" of over one thousand congregations worldwide. Outreach Magazine's list of the 100 Largest Churches in America lists attendance as 9,500, making it the thirty-ninth largest in America.
Charles Ward "Chuck" Smith was an American pastor who founded the Calvary Chapel movement. Beginning with the 25-person Costa Mesa congregation in 1965, Smith's influence now extends to "more than 1,000 churches nationwide and hundreds more overseas", some of which are among the largest churches in the United States. He has been called "one of the most influential figures in modern American Christianity." The founding of Calvary Chapel is depicted in the 2023 film Jesus Revolution, with Smith being portrayed by Kelsey Grammer.
Boss is an American political drama television series created by Farhad Safinia. The series stars Kelsey Grammer as Tom Kane, the mayor of Chicago, who has recently been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a degenerative neurological disorder.
The Expendables 3 is a 2014 American action film directed by Patrick Hughes and written by Creighton Rothenberger, Katrin Benedikt and Sylvester Stallone. It is the third installment in The Expendables franchise and the sequel to The Expendables (2010) and The Expendables 2 (2012). The film features an ensemble cast of largely action film actors consisting of Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Point Grey (PGP) is a Canadian-American film and television production company, founded in 2011 by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The company is named after Point Grey Secondary School in Vancouver, where they met.
Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher is a 2005 biographical documentary film about American Pentecostal hippie evangelist Lonnie Frisbee. It was written, produced and directed by David Di Sabatino and narrated by Jim Palosaari. The film includes interviews with Palosaari, Frisbee's ex-wife Connie Bremer, and Randy Stonehill.
Killing Jesus is an American television film inspired by the 2013 book of the same title by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. This is National Geographic's third installment of television adaptations of O'Reilly's non-fiction books, which include Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy. The cast includes Haaz Sleiman, Kelsey Grammer, Stephen Moyer, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and John Rhys-Davies.
Robin Hood is a 2018 American action-adventure film directed by Otto Bathurst and written by Ben Chandler and David James Kelly, from a story by Chandler. It is a modern retelling of the Robin Hood legend, and follows his training by John to steal from the Sheriff of Nottingham. The film stars Taron Egerton as Robin, and features Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, Tim Minchin and Jamie Dornan in supporting roles. Returning home to England to learn the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham (Mendelsohn) has seized his family estate, aristocrat Robin of Loxley joins forces with Friar Tuck (Minchin) and Little John (Foxx) – a fierce Arabian warrior who wants to put an end to the Crusades. Armed with arrows and dubbed Robin Hood, Loxley leads a band of oppressed rebels in a daring plan to rob the Sheriff of his money and take away his power.
The Chosen is an American Christian historical drama television series. Created, directed, and co-written by filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, it is the first multi-season series about the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Primarily set in Judaea and Galilee in the 1st century, the series centers on Jesus and the people who met and followed him. The series stars Jonathan Roumie as Jesus as well as Shahar Isaac, Elizabeth Tabish, Paras Patel, Noah James, and George H. Xanthis.
Kingdom Story Company, is an American film and television studio in partnership with Lionsgate specializing in the production of Christian films. It was founded in 2019 by the Erwin Brothers, Kevin Downes, and Tony Young and has operations in Nashville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, California.
Saw X is a 2023 American horror film directed and edited by Kevin Greutert and written by Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg. The film is the tenth installment in the Saw film series, serving as a direct interquel set between Saw (2004) and Saw II (2005). It stars Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith, who reprise their roles from the previous films, alongside Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, and Michael Beach. The film sees John Kramer (Bell) travelling to Mexico in hopes that an experimental procedure may cure his terminal cancer. John later discovers that the operation is a scam, prompting him to kidnap those responsible and subject them to his trademark death traps as retribution, with Amanda Young (Smith) acting as his accomplice.
Plane is a 2023 American action thriller film directed by Jean-François Richet from a screenplay by Charles Cumming and J. P. Davis. The film stars Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, and Tony Goldwyn. The plot centers on a pilot (Butler) allying with a prisoner to save his passengers from a hostile territory in which they make an emergency landing.
Jonathan Roumie is an American actor known for his role as evangelist Lonnie Frisbee in the 2023 film Jesus Revolution and as Jesus in The Chosen, a crowd-funded television series about the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. He is also a voice artist and a public speaker.
Nicholas Cirillo is an American actor and producer.