Beware of alcohol. Beware of drugs. Beware of premarital sex. These are all ideals instilled in the American Christian’s mind from a very young age, and while all of these statements are valid the cast of this film would add its title “Beware of Christians” to this list. The movie is centered around four Christian college students: Alex Carroll, Matt Owen, Michael Allen and Will Bakke.
These four friends embark on a European adventure to escape the overly routine nature of American Christianity and focus instead on following Jesus. The movie begins with a round table discussion among the four students where they introduce themselves and talk about their Christian backgrounds. Bakke, the director of the film, discusses how he became a Christian at a summer camp when he was young and lacked a true understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus. The others tell similar stories.
The film follows the group to 10 European cities including London, Paris, Barcelona, Munich, Rome and Budapest. In each city the group focuses on a different topic. For example, while at a beautiful beach in Barcelona with bikini-clad women as far as the eye could see, the four are inspired to discuss the topic of sex and dating.
The group narrates the journey in their round table discussions, which is part of what makes this film so unique. The film is convicting and insightful, but also very entertaining and humorous at some parts. Hijinks ensue when the group loses their passports, ends up in unexpected places and when one of the guys attempts secret postcard correspondence with an unknown love interest.
Characters experience change of heart
At times, the film seems to descend into frat boy humor but this is contrasted with solid discussion based on Scripture relating to each topic. This movie is very well made and there is a very evident change of understanding in the four men by the end of their journey.
They leave Europe with a fire to pursue Jesus and not belong to the Sunday-only Christians who call themselves believers because they go to church, even though the rest of their lives are completely opposed to what Christ has called them to do. The group showed that being a Christian is more than not drinking and not sleeping around, but it is about following Christ passionately.
The only complaint I found about this movie is that in their interviewing of people on the streets, they speak to only English speakers, so they lack perspective from various ethnic groups. However, they are still able to drive home the point that Christianity is about following Jesus himself, not getting stuck in the rut of routine religion.
