sendscottmailnow Stumbled across this movie on Amazon and thought it sounded interesting. I am a member of the LDS church and know well the story of the 16 stones touched by the finger of God from the BoM account. This movie is pure fiction as there is no known account or belief amongst church members that these stones still exist or could be found today. I found the fictional story line interesting, but the character development and plot line were both a bit weak. This is common among many films made by/for Mormons. They are still getting it together in terms of good quality movie production. The film is probably better suited for teens and young adults (I am 54), but it was an OK Saturday evening watch after the yard work.

blumdeluxe "16 Stones" is a movie centered around the Mormon belief. It tells the story of three young folks, traveling the country in search for a sacred artifact, learning that faith is more important than what you can see or touch.Unfortunately, the movie is clearly not even close to neutral or critical storytelling. Rather it is a big advertisement for the Mormon belief. While of course everyone has the right to produce such movies, I always have my difficulties when believes are hidden behind fictional movie plots because especially for younger audiences this always tastes a bit like infiltration.To make this clear, my rating has nothing to do with the religion itself, I just in general feel like religious blockbusters are not the way to carry on a message.This is especially sad because if you let go the tons of "meaningful" dialogues and some questionable assumptions like the one that native Americans are really bible-days Christian ancestors, "16 Stones" is actually quite a nice film, a classical treasure-hunt that keeps you entertained and cheering for the heroes.However, I propose to choose one: Make an entertaining treasure-hunt for kids or produce a film for your community to strengthen their faith. I give one extra-star for the statement that no-one should be persecuted due to his religion though.

davidhickenbotham It has been a while since I've seen this movie, but a friend and I were talking about it, and I was curious to see what kind of rating it had on IMDb. I generally consider this the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater--not content-wise but for acting and directing and plot and everything else that makes you want to watch a movie.I'm pretty forgiving of locally made LDS-themed movies, but this one was pretty bad. At first the premise seemed pretty good--National Treasure set in an LDS setting. Sadly, it totally failed at being that. And it wasn't anything to do with the authentic clothing, good sets, and decent editing. I couldn't in good conscience give it a 1 because at least someone on the set did try to do something right.I wasn't the only one who couldn't believe how bad this movie was. There were three couples in the movie theater to start off with. The other two couple walked out at various points during the movie because it was so bad. We talked about doing the same, only deciding to sit through to the end because we didn't want to go home just yet to put our kids to bed.I love to support local movies, but they've got to do much better than this.

bkoganbing I was more curious by the reaction of the only other reviewer to this film than the film itself. 16 Stones is a film about three young Mormons who go out on a pilgrimage to recover lost artifacts to prove that a civilization existed here in North America of pilgrims who came from the Middle East.Not reading the book of Mormon I can't answer for what's there. But one of the miracles described is the finger of God touching 16 ordinary rocks and giving them an incandescent glow the better to see by night on that long ocean voyage. Brother and sister Aubrey Reynolds and Mason Davis travel with Ben Isaacs to hunt for one of the stones being given directions by an Indian who's seen it.The trio have their problems with the usual gang of gentile type thieves who hate Mormons. The story takes place in the State of Missouri during the Andrew Jackson presidency and the Missourians raised Mormon persecution to an almost Nazi like level. The Governor of Missouri of the time one Lilburn Boggs issued a shoot on sight order against Mormons a one of its kind order in our history.One thing I've always liked about films showing the early church is the great attention to detail showing 19th century America. Whatever else the Church of Latter Day Saints is, it is a great repository for history and documentation of the early LDS church. Every film produced by the LDS church is like that and 16 Stones is no different.But the problem is that this is a work of fiction, plainly so. That seemed to upset the other reviewer who is a member of the church. In plain fact I think that Mormons would welcome some independent archaeological verification of the Book Of Mormon. That's rather pooh pooed by Brad Johnson who plays Joseph Smith in 16 Stones. I don't think the real Joseph Smith would have done that.I enjoyed the film, I take it for what it is.