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My first thought when I saw The Second Chance DVD sitting around was “Odd, I've never heard of that...” Unfortunately, most people would say the same. This film is truly a hidden gem in the Christian movie realm. Even more tragic is it's one of the best out there. This film was at the top for me until Saving God came around recently.

The film has one special thing going for it that other Christian films can't really claim, and that's REALITY. The film is about the streets, and makes no effort to cover that element up. Instead it throws it out front, realistically and dramatically showing the city streets and surrounding locations as they truly are and that is broken, graffiti ridden, drug infested, prostitution covered, and gritty. The camera work is also hand held a lot of the time, making the movie seem more like a reality tv show and happening “on the spot.” The textures of the city are shown clearly and for what they really are. Sometimes you wonder if they just planted the camera on a vehicle and drove around the city grabbing real people going about their daily lives.

Michael W. Smith pulls in a surprising performance, proving he is much more than just a musician. Everyone in the film holds their performance, and the supporting cast stick out just as much if not more than the main roles. The story also goes into a much deeper place than you'd expect. There is some real drama in this movie, you can be sure of that. Combine that with the gritty and real presentation and you have some really believable sequences that hit home. The ending also ends in a way that's unexpected, a bit of a cliffhanger ending. They don't tell you exactly what happens, but they leave on a moment strong enough to satisfy. As previously stated, the biggest fault to this film is the fact that it doesn't get the recognition it deserves. I wish more people knew about this movie, they don't know what they're missing.

Kyle Prohaska
CEO, Praise Pictures Inc.
http://www.praisepictures.com