PROS
+ Good display how helping others will not only affect their lives, but will eventually result in returned help in times of struggle.
+ Great example of working with people who are less privileged.
+ Inclusion of many Bible verses.
+ Inclusion of several Bible teachings / sermons.
+ Good actors.
CONS
- The movie has a certain potential of creating doubts in weak believers: (Min 18) "Don't talk to me about praying. That's all I ever did. I used to pray and pray and pray. Look what I got. Absolutely nothing. I stopped praying."
- Min 70 When one of the kids sets his room on fire, we see a huge burn wound on the face of Leon, but not a single hair is burned just centimeters beside the burn wound ...
- No baptism is included as a sign of Leon's conversion.
- While it is ok to show the struggles of a milk-Christian, the movie sadly crosses a red line when the rebellion against THEOS is shown in Min 79: "I am done with you." Leon then slams the Bible at the floor.
After he wakes up, joyful music is played as if nothing happened and he walks past the teared Bible on the floor without picking it up nor paying attention to it. This is a transgression and desecration of the Word of THEOS rarely seen in a 'Christian' movie.
- The Carpe Diem School for the disabled is shown to have its students pray for Leon and to be close to CHRIST. But a quick search of the website (site:carpediemskool.co.za) reveals that the entire website does not once mention the words 'Bible, Church, Faith, God, Jesus'. This is very odd.
The slogan 'Carpe Diem' is also rather opposed to the Bible, which opposes this ideology of 'Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die' (1Cor 15:32). But not enough, the camera zooms several times into the school's logo, where the additional slogan 'Dum vivimus vivamus' appears, which is a Latin phrase that means "While we live, let us live".
- The movie includes the narrative and visualization of 3 female angels, which Leon saw in a vision as a young child. This is strictly heretical, because we nowhere in the Bible read of female angels nor could derive this from the Bible.
This inclusion of 3 female angels makes it clear that this movie is outside of the will of THEOS and to be considered heretical, and highly problematic as a whole.
- THEOS speaks twice audibly to Leon, which is already a very gray area. But it becomes highly problematic when THEOS 'speaks' the second time to him, and he yells into the sky in utter rebellion and disgrace.
- This 2014 movie claims to have been inspired by the book 'Born to Win: Learn to Roar, Lion!' by Leon Terblanche. But this book was only published in 2020, 6 years after the movie. While there could be an explanation for this, it is obviously very strange. But it is more, the foreword for this book comes from Andre Roebert, president of the highly problematic Faith Broadcasting Networks. The book itself includes written verses of the heretical 'The Message Bible'.
