God's Not Dead 2

God's Not Dead 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHarold Cronk
Written by
  • Chuck Konzelman
  • Cary Solomon
Based onCharacters created by
Rice Broocks
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBrian Shanley
Edited byVance Null
Music byWill Musser
Production
company
Distributed byPure Flix Entertainment
Release date
  • April 1, 2016 (2016-04-01)
Running time
120 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million[3]
Box office$24.5 million[4]

God's Not Dead 2 (also known as God's Not Dead 2: He's Surely Alive)[5] is a 2016 American Christian drama film, directed by Harold Cronk, and starring Melissa Joan Hart, Jesse Metcalfe, David A. R. White, Hayley Orrantia and Sadie Robertson. It is a sequel to God's Not Dead (2014), and the second installment in the titular film series. Aside from David A.R. White reprising his role as Reverend David Hill, Paul Kwo, Benjamin Onyango, and Tricha LaFache also reprise their roles as Martin Yip, Reverend Jude, and Amy Ryan respectively. It follows a high school teacher facing a court case that could end her career, after having answered a student's seemingly innocuous question about Jesus. The film presents an evangelical perspective on the separation of church and state.

Like its predecessor, the film received widely negative reviews from critics, who considered it a wildly unrealistic example of alleged anti-Christian legal cases to the point of playing into the Christian persecution complex; the film's understanding of how church and state are balanced in education was criticized as "wholly divorced from any rational understanding of the topic".[1] The film is seemingly an inversion of historical cases of prosecution of science teachers over the teaching of evolution, portrayed in films such as Inherit the Wind.[6] As with God's Not Dead, critics felt that atheists were again portrayed as flat stereotypes and as unrealistic, scheming villains.[7]

God's Not Dead 2 was released on April 1, 2016.[8] It was the final film role for Fred Dalton Thompson, who died in November 2015. Despite being a large critical failure, it was moderately successful at the box office, earning $24 million on a $5 million budget, though making for a total gross of almost a third of its predecessor.[9]

  1. ^ a b Schager, Nick (April 1, 2016). "Film Review: 'God's Not Dead 2'". Variety. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  2. ^ "GOD'S NOT DEAD 2 (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. April 12, 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  3. ^ Schwartzel, Erich. "Hollywood finds faith: Miracles from Heaven, God's Not Dead 2". The Australian Business Review. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 30, 2016.(subscription required)
  4. ^ "God's Not Dead 2 (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
  5. ^ Flores, Karen C. (2016). "Movie Review: God's Not Dead 2: He's Surely Alive". Christian Answers. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  6. ^ "The bizarro "Inherit the Wind": Understanding evangelical Christianity's persecution complex through "God's Not Dead 2"". April 10, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  7. ^ Ehrlich, David (March 29, 2018). "'God's Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness' Review: A Hellishly Bad Drama About America's Christian Persecution Complex". Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  8. ^ Stone, Natalie (November 4, 2015). "God's Not Dead 2 Gets Spring 2016 Release Date". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  9. ^ Wilkinson, Alissa (December 28, 2016). "How 2016's movies and TV reflected Americans' changing relationship with religion". Vox.