It can be easy to forget just what a big splash God’s Not Dead made when it was released back in 2014.  Today, it’s taken for granted that every year, at least one faith-based movie will be released to terrible reviews and then “shock” everyone by opening up strong at the box office.  However, in 2014, God’s Not Dead was the film that started the whole trend, along with sparking the ongoing debate about whether or not Hollywood has the slightest idea what most Americans want to see.

That’s not to say, of course, that God’s Not Dead was a good film.  It’s not.  It’s a ludicrously simplistic and smug film that, over the course of its overly long run time, promotes the idea that the only reason atheists exist is because they’re either bitter, evil, or both.  (For the record, if a professor truly threatened to fail a paying student solely because of his religious beliefs, the end result would probably be a lawsuit.)  The idea that someone could sincerely disagree with the film’s heroes or even believe differently than them without having an ulterior motive is not one that is entertained in the God’s Not Dead universe.  Indeed, perhaps the most interesting thing about the God’s Not Dead films is that they are just as heavy-handed and often just as condescending as the secular films being churned out by the major studios.

God’s Not Dead has, to date, spawned four sequels.  The second was enjoyably campy and featured an earnest performance from Melissa Joan Hart.  The third, which is the the closest that the franchise has gotten to actually making a good film, was surprisingly even-handed, or at least as even-handed as a film in this franchise can be.  The fourth was way too talky but, because it came out during the COVID lockdowns, its condemnation of government overreach reflected the way that a lot of people were feeling at the time.  Somewhat inevitably, the fifth film finds Reverend David Hill (David A.R. White) running for Congress again the villain from the second film, dastardly atheist Peter Kane (Ray Wise).

The film opens with the death of an incumbent congressman.  His opponent, Peter Kane, tells the press that the congressman was a good man and then proceeds to gloat about his death in private.  Kane is an ultra-liberal atheist.  Usually, the villains in the God’s Not Dead universe have a dead relative to help explain why they’ve lost their faith but Kane is just evil.  (In God’s Not Dead 2, Kane specifically put Melissa Joan Hart on trial for expressing her Christian beliefs and then chortles, “We are going to prove God is dead!”)  With Kane on the verge of being elected to Congress by default, Rep. Daryl Smith (Isaiah Washington) suggests that David Hill, who went viral for denouncing Congress in the fourth film, should be the party’s new nominee.

After some hesitation, Hill agrees.  However, he drives his campaign manager, Lottie Joy (Samaire Armstrong), crazy by basing his campaign on his religious beliefs.  Of course, if you didn’t want a candidate to talk about his religious beliefs in a campaign, why would you nominate a pastor whose fame is totally based on those beliefs?  Add to that, Hill is running for a Congressional seat in Arkansas.  I have family in Arkansas.  Growing up, I occasionally lived in Arkansas.  Sure, there are liberals in Arkansas and there are atheists in Arkansas.  But none of them are going to get elected to Congress anytime soon.  Arkansas is probably one of the few states where Hill’s faith-based campaign wouldn’t be considered controversial.

(That Mike Huckabee has a cameo as himself should be all the reminder that viewers need that Arkansas is not at all hesitant about electing pastors to higher office.)

It’s heavy-handed and cartoonish, which is probably to be expected.  Unfortunately, it’s also rather boring, with not even Ray Wise’s villainy providing much entertainment value.  Outside of arguing that atheists are evil and that separation of church and state is just a catch phrase, the film argues that money is a divisive force in politics and that politicians shouldn’t be bought.  Wow, really!?  It’s a film about politics that has little fresh insight to offer.  David Hill goes from being a media-savvy pastor to being an innocent naïf who is shocked to discover that politics is a dirty business.  God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust makes Billy Jack Goes To Washington seem like a hard-hitting portrayal of American politics.

I will give this franchise some credit for maintaining a surprising sense of continuity.  As I mentioned earlier, Ray Wise returns as the character that he played in the second film.  Paul Kwo is back as Hill’s associate pastor.  Dean Cain returns as the amoral businessman from the first film.  You have to imagine that Kevin Sorbo is kicking himself for allowing his smug professor character to die in the first film.  What’s funny is that the college student who kicked off the franchise by refusing to sign a piece of paper declaring God to be dead has pretty much vanished from the films.  Whatever happened to that kid?

In the end, we all know where this is going.  The next film will undoubtedly feature David Hill running for president.  2028 is right around the corner.