• Warning: Spoilers
    A fairly faithful retelling of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and Paul centers around Anthony Hopkins playing Saul Paulus of Tarsus, the apostle of Christ to the Gentiles.

    Let's be honest: Only Christians (and possibly some bored historians) would be interested in a film about the early Christian church, so let's look at it from that point of view. There is no objectionable content to Christians in this film, as I can see. Peter's crucifixion is fairly shocking (and heart-breaking), but the rest of the film is pretty devoid of violence (thankfully, we don't have to witness Paul's end at the chopping blocks of Rome). I am about as fundamental as a Christian gets, and I was very pleased with the tight adherence to scripture present in the film, so don't worry about that.

    Some of the bickering amongst the fathers of the Church may be a bit unexpected to Christians, but if you read the book behind this movie, you'll see that men of God didn't always see eye-to-eye, and their conversations didn't always end with a handshake and a "God bless you." Anthony Hopkins is a commanding presence as Paul, and he acts fairly well (he didn't phone this one in). I can't help but wonder, however, if the man that evangelized the gentiles wouldn't have been a bit more... dynamic. Hopkins is a bit reserved at time, but still does a good job (especially at the "dissimlitude" with Barnabas and Peter).

    I've got to give props to the director for getting good performances out of the supporting cast as well, the emotions are entirely believable.

    The musical score is appropriate, with one or two memorable tunes.

    Overall I was very pleased with this movie, and it is one of my favorite scriptural adaptations on film. I heartily recommend it to its target audience.