I recently had the opportunity to watch and review the new movie, Break Away, from Word Entertainment. It’s due for release on April 23.

I was pretty excited about watching it, since it deals with cycling. One of my favorite activities is cycling, using both my road bike as well as my mountain bike. While neither of my bikes are top of the line, not by far, they are both decent quality.

But my dream is to own a Pinerello one day. And with this film being sponsored by Pinarello, as well as playing a role in the film itself, it fuels my dreams of riding one someday.

So with dreams of cycling running through my mind, the family settled down to watch Break Away.

Check out the trailer:

While it was an interesting movie, there was a mix of both good and bad things about this particular film.

The Bad

Let’s tackle the negative items first. The first and most glaringly obvious flaw is the difficulty in understanding the dialog of the film. Break Away takes place in South Africa, and each of the characters have a very heavy accent, making it very difficult to follow the film in English. I understand that the movie is based on a true story, and that it happened in Cape Town, and have no problems with other languages, but it made watching this film very difficult and the plot hard to follow.

The plot is another issue that lands on the negative list. Based on a true story, Break Away starts off quickly assuming that the viewer knows the story. If not, it’s extremely hard to figure out what’s happening. Character development is flawed as well. There is no sense of identity with the main characters, and several characters are developed significantly, only to have minor roles in the film, such as the wife of the main character.

Speaking of the characters in the film, as is sadly typical with the Christian movie industry, the acting was sub par. Dialog was stilted and forced, facial and body expressions were overly exaggerated, leaving a feeling of a low quality production.

I was disappointed with the physical aspects of the DVD as well. Several times the rendering was pixelated, and the letterbox bars turned red at a couple of points during the movie. The menu also doesn’t work as expected, some of the special features don’t open the same video every time. I could never access the video vignette on cycling. There is also a typo on the menu: The disc case lists a short look at a ministry called Jacob’s Well. The DVD menu calls it Jacov’s Well. Hopefully, these are issues that can be resolved easily before distribution.

The Good

While I found many disappointing factors about the film, there were some positive aspects of Break Away as well. The story is very inspirational. Even though it is a fictional story, it was inspired by true events surrounding the recession that left thousands of people out of work around the world.

Despite the difficulty in following the dialog, once you figured out what was going on, the story drew you in and captivated you. Unfortunately, it took the first hour of the film for this to occur.

The point behind the story is a crucial thought for our struggling world right now. When you are faced with the loss of everything, you have to trust God to use what you have and provide what you need. Using the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fish, the film brings forth the fact that God can take what you have, even though it may seem like you’ve lost everything, and multiply it to accomplish his will in your life.

Considering both the negative and the positive, I have to place this movie somewhere in the middle. Break Away isn’t a great movie, but it’s not a bad movie either. We enjoyed it, once we got into the flow of things. You might enjoy it as well.

In what areas of your life do you need to trust God for his leadership and guidance? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

If you are interested in watching Break Away, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Word Films. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“