16 Stones (2014)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Pretty Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Stumbled across this movie on Amazon and thought it sounded interesting. I am a member of the LDS church and know well the story of the 16 stones touched by the finger of God from the BoM account. This movie is pure fiction as there is no known account or belief amongst church members that these stones still exist or could be found today. I found the fictional story line interesting, but the character development and plot line were both a bit weak. This is common among many films made by/for Mormons. They are still getting it together in terms of good quality movie production. The film is probably better suited for teens and young adults (I am 54), but it was an OK Saturday evening watch after the yard work.

"The following account is fictional but the trials of faith portrayed herein resonate within the experiences of early members of the Church."Account? Fictional? Then it is not an account, it is a story. What early members of the Church were asked about this story to claim such resonance?The writing and plot don't get any more intelligent after that opening statement. This is not just Mormon fiction, it is historical fiction, upon historical fiction, upon historical fiction, upon historical fiction, to the point that you end up asking yourself about once a minute: What?, How?, or, simply, Huh? It is as if a child wrote it. That would be the only reasonable explanation of such abuse of history and such astoundingly ignorant plot holes (too many to name and it's hard to pick a favorite bad example without listing several). National Treasure could not hope to be so clueless and naive. It's as if ANY attempts at believability and accuracy were purposely avoided. Any mature viewer is guaranteed no chance of suspending disbelief in this film.This film embarrasses me. I try to give leeway to low-budget films and rate them on their own merit, but there is no excuse for writing this bad. It makes me wonder how this film ever got made. Someone clearly has too much money and no idea what to do with it. I give very few one-star ratings and this is one of those rare films that solidly earned it. Reptilicus was better than this. This is on par with Santa Clause Conquers the Martians.

"16 Stones" is a movie centered around the Mormon belief. It tells the story of three young folks, traveling the country in search for a sacred artifact, learning that faith is more important than what you can see or touch.Unfortunately, the movie is clearly not even close to neutral or critical storytelling. Rather it is a big advertisement for the Mormon belief. While of course everyone has the right to produce such movies, I always have my difficulties when believes are hidden behind fictional movie plots because especially for younger audiences this always tastes a bit like infiltration.To make this clear, my rating has nothing to do with the religion itself, I just in general feel like religious blockbusters are not the way to carry on a message.This is especially sad because if you let go the tons of "meaningful" dialogues and some questionable assumptions like the one that native Americans are really bible-days Christian ancestors, "16 Stones" is actually quite a nice film, a classical treasure-hunt that keeps you entertained and cheering for the heroes.However, I propose to choose one: Make an entertaining treasure-hunt for kids or produce a film for your community to strengthen their faith. I give one extra-star for the statement that no-one should be persecuted due to his religion though.

I was more curious by the reaction of the only other reviewer to this film than the film itself. 16 Stones is a film about three young Mormons who go out on a pilgrimage to recover lost artifacts to prove that a civilization existed here in North America of pilgrims who came from the Middle East.Not reading the book of Mormon I can't answer for what's there. But one of the miracles described is the finger of God touching 16 ordinary rocks and giving them an incandescent glow the better to see by night on that long ocean voyage. Brother and sister Aubrey Reynolds and Mason Davis travel with Ben Isaacs to hunt for one of the stones being given directions by an Indian who's seen it.The trio have their problems with the usual gang of gentile type thieves who hate Mormons. The story takes place in the State of Missouri during the Andrew Jackson presidency and the Missourians raised Mormon persecution to an almost Nazi like level. The Governor of Missouri of the time one Lilburn Boggs issued a shoot on sight order against Mormons a one of its kind order in our history.One thing I've always liked about films showing the early church is the great attention to detail showing 19th century America. Whatever else the Church of Latter Day Saints is, it is a great repository for history and documentation of the early LDS church. Every film produced by the LDS church is like that and 16 Stones is no different.But the problem is that this is a work of fiction, plainly so. That seemed to upset the other reviewer who is a member of the church. In plain fact I think that Mormons would welcome some independent archaeological verification of the Book Of Mormon. That's rather pooh pooed by Brad Johnson who plays Joseph Smith in 16 Stones. I don't think the real Joseph Smith would have done that.I enjoyed the film, I take it for what it is.