Bob Rutzel This is based upon a true storyThe story will open with the death of Brandon Burlsworth although we won't see any of the accident he was in. We see the beginnings of funeral arrangements for him and why his brother Marty (Neal McDonough ) cannot understand why this happened. Brandon Burlsworth (Christopher Severio) had always wanted to be a Arkansas Razorback football player and he had to try harder than most to achieve it even when it was always in doubt, mostly because of his weight. High School Coach Bender (Fredric Lehne) called him a "diamond in the rough" and hoped someone would notice. His brother Marty was 17-yrs older than Brandon and many thought he was Brandon's father. Marty wanted the best for Brandon but really didn't believe Brandon would achieve his dreams. This really isn't a football story It's a story about determination, faith and trust. Christian undertones dominate this film, but is not preachy. We see a little football, of course, but we mostly see the struggles Brandon went thru at different stages to achieve his dreams and never gave up and always tried to do better. We will see Brandon take a lot of abuse from just about everyone especially from the players he hoped to play with. Some of this will tear at your heart. Oh, and have box of Kleenex handy.It was nice to see Neal McDonough finally in a good guy role. He is a great, perhaps underrated, actor even though he plays the bad guys a lot. He always gives a very good performance and he did in here. Notables: Nick Searcy as The Farmer who tries to shake Marty's faith and it is fragile at best; Michael Parks as Leo, Brandon and Marty's alcoholic father; Leslie Easterbrook as Brandon and Marthy's adoring mother; and Mark Dobies as Coach Nutt, the coach in Brandon's senior year and he convinces the new coach not to go into a rebuild program and not to give up on this team as things will change.At the end there will be statements about how Brandon Burlsworth's life impacts many today. This is a very uplifting and impressive story about a young very impressive young man. Christopher Severio has done an excellent job portraying Brandon Burlsworth. Kudos. (9/10)Violence: Yes. Football scenes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: Yes, at times. Language: No Rating: A

ward As a Christian, nothing I hare more than dishonest piety. They turned a great story about a great person that was Christian and made it an American sermon about God using a football player like he was a donkey. If you want to preach to non-believers, show them that Christians are just ordinary people with an extraordinary gift of Faith. This movie is so predictable. Written for a 3rd grader. Acted poorly...beyond poor. This movie is preaching to the choir which is not what Jesus did. This is not a movie that Jesus would do. This is what the Pharisees would do. Cultural Christianity without any merit. I want this story retold by a great director with great actors and writers that have done more than children's books. The Croods is an example of a Christian message about Faith, Hope and Love that reached 1000 times more people around the world than Greater will ever imagine. Incompetence movie making is not an effective Evangelical tool. The 10/10 reviews is a clear campaign to promote religious dogma which is not WWJD. BTW...shame on Hollywood for ignoring a great story that puts Rudy to shame.

Craig Brown Very, very little sports action at all. It's a decent story, and one that deserved to be told, but lighten up with the religitard propaganda. I mean seriously it was not even needed to tell this young man's story, but here we have a fine example of the zealots attempting to disguise their prosthelytizing fan fiction as an actual movie worth watching.

Zkot Pen Greater is a great movie -- greater than most, in my opinion. Christopher Severio, Neal McDonough, and Leslie Easterbrook, as well as the supporting cast playing Brandon's High School & Arkansas coaches achieved resounding success in making this film believable, and its real-life characters empathetic in every sense.Be that as it may, I couldn't bring myself to give it nine stars, for three reasons in order of importance to me, from least to most:1. I wanted to see a bit of Brandon overcoming some of his early obstacles. In particular, his growth spurt between high school and college seemed instantaneous, as if somebody had just clicked "supersize" on his body, and he was suddenly one inch taller and 80 pounds heavier. 30-90 seconds would have sufficed to show me, rather than tell me.2. Some parts of the script were a bit gushing with sentimentality, when there was absolutely no need for any melodrama in this story.3. In keeping with the bit of melodrama, I felt "The Farmer" who taunted grieving Marty was absolutely unnecessary. Was this person really there, doing that? I don't know, and I don't care. He's inserted into the movie in a way that seems like editorializing, rather than adding to the story. If a character isn't driving home the story, he or she should be eliminated from it, especially given the length of the film.To close out this criticism sandwich of a review, these minor flaws kept me stuck at 8.3 stars for "Greater," unable to round up to a 9-star rating. It's still a great movie. In particular, the intense sadness of the ending was much deeper than expected. After all, I reckon most viewers know how Brandon's life ends before they watch the movie -- it's explicitly stated in the Storyline for this IMDb page. Even so, the depth of emotion portrayed caused me to recollect the sadness of loss of close loved ones in my own life, and how much better I feel the world would be if they were still around, instead of abruptly removed from it as they were. The ending itself drives home that emotional connection (without requiring an extraneous character to spoon feed it to me).Eight stars!