Amazing Love

This movie was kinda cheap however there are great significant and valuable lessons displayed. We see the comparison between the biblical account and a group of teens camping out. The biblical account is God communicating to his people the Israelites. God had a covenant with them but regardless of that they kept on cheating on God. This movie does a great job displaying how God was using Hosea to communicate to his people and how that applies to the campers lives and in return applies to our lives. I'm not giving any spoilers but the campers and the bible characters all match up so in the end it's basically the same story with a few modern differences. This is a great family movie, appropriate and educational for all ages.

My personal opinion is that the movie did a really good job retelling the story of Hosea the modern way and the biblical way. I liked how they did both a modern and a biblical version. How the unconditional love was displayed in the movie was very noticeable. In the movie, Ashley did not think that she needed Jesus and could solve her problems on her own. In the Bible when Israel turned from God saying we don't need you, everything is going good. His unconditional agape love will stay true and never fail unless I reject Him. Even then, He still doesn't stop loving us. If I reject Him, He leaves and lets us choose but still nudges us to go the right direction just like He used Hosea to nudge the people even though they didn't listen . If we listen, we can and will be saved and not be "enslaved" by sin.

I was unsure about this movie as far a Christian movie. Once we started it we realized that this was going to be sort of a comedy. I have led many youth trips and several into the woods, and this really hit the dynamic really well. I won't lie and say the acting was good, but the story was. I liked the combining of two movies. One about a youth trip and the other about the prophet Hosea. It was a movie that really communicated the love of Christ for us. I would recommend this as a family safe movie that is moving for a small group.

This movie starts out with a small group of campers from a church going camping and one "outsider" coming along for the trip against her will. She does not want to fit in nor do some of those on the trip care if she does. Through the intervention of the youth leader and his wife and of course a wonderful bible story, hearts are changed.

The Book of Hosea is one of the most compelling books of the Bible for a number of reasons, one of which is because it's a love story, so it's bound to resonate with everyone on some level. So for this film, a camping trip is used to contextualize the story.

It begins with a few young Christians taken to the wilderness for a weekend by none other than Sean Astin, a great casting choice. The core group gets along well enough, but one character is outed because she's different on the surface. With that said, the characters aren't the selling point, but I think they do good enough of a job that they don't weigh down the meat of the story, which is the story of Hosea.

In it, we get an interesting depiction of Hosea, the trials he endured with his wife Gomer, and the relation it had to God and Israel (or His people in general.) We're taken through the story while the characters react to it in a way that I believe teens actually would. They don't agree with God's ways at first, but once they understand the depths of love He has for us, it seems to make more sense. Willingness to sacrifice. The acting and sets in the ancient scenes are also quite good.

The camping trip may seem to be the weaker element at first, but the characters grow on you because they experience their own changes and growth; but as for the depiction of Hosea and his life, those scenes are engaging and compelling. Additionally, the youth scenes contrast the more serious parts for the sake of pacing and variety, as well as relatability.

Overall, it's pretty good. Not perfect, but the message was what mattered because Hosea's story is touching and poignant.

This film is basically two movies in one: the story of modern teenagers on a Christian retreat in the woods, and the story of Hosea's struggles with his wife and his people in the Old Testament. The Hosea scenes have excellent acting, beautiful scenery, and a deep and powerful plot. The camping-teenagers scenes have cheesy dialogue and terrible acting. It's worth sitting (or fast-forwarding) through the one plot to get to the other. This movie is deep and mature, while still having little sex, violence, or profanity, which is not the case of so much trash produced these days. If you want a clean flick that will make you think, this one's a keeper. I typically dislike Christian movies despite being a devout Christian, because they typically have terrible acting and cheesy dialogue, but the Hosea parts are different. Note that though this movie is clean and is based on scripture, I don't think it's suited for young children. The plot deals with prostitution and adultery (none of it acted on-screen). Kids would just be confused.