Jesus smiles!
Too often, Jesus has been portrayed as stiff, overly serious and moody. Not here! Jesus is portrayed here as funny, friendly, compassionate, serious at times ... and yet free to smile and occasionally deliver lines with a wink. This helps put many passages of Matthew into perspective and illuminates his intended meaning. This movie is a must see for all who want to get to know Jesus better. Highly recommended.

A laughing, happy Jesus...
My husband and I really enjoyed this movie! We have three different movie portrayals of Jesus Christ, which are completely consistent with their respective Gospels, and we enjoy all of them. (Read my other reviews if you're interested in them.)

The happy, laughing Jesus in this movie is intriguing. The way he speaks to people and looks at them warmly portrays his love for everyone. I think the actor really does a great job of portraying the duality of Jesus, how much he loves us, but yet that all is not hearts and flowers and warm and fuzzy due to the human condition.

If you're looking for a great movie to share with friends, family, small group, etc., this is it! Don't watch late at night because you'll want to stay awake!

scratches head.........
i scratch my head so to speak when i read the reviews about this movie being anything less then five stars! do not listen to those reviews, THIS movie is life changing & the BEST portrayal of the Lord there is out there,

Overly Happy Jesus
Over all, I'd give it a 6 out of 10 rating.
The two major problems -- (1) the juxtaposition of a later-day "narrator" Matthew with the actual events in the Gospel (as opposed to the vastly superior Gospel of John, where the narrator was heard, but never seen); (2) the happy-clappy, perpetually smiling and backslapping portrayal of Jesus, even when the event at hand would indicate that he was unhappy or sad or angry or frustrated or concerned. After a while, all the laughing and smiling is off-putting and totally unrealistic to any real person, even the realest of persons, i.e. Jesus. Portraying him as if he were an insincere politician or tele-evangelist (sorry if some folks actually find tele-evangelists genuine and sincere - a few are, but a few also give off the appearence of snake oil salesmen) or hippie is not a way for folks to find him appealing. He was similar to the hippie Jesus in Godspell, but in a different way, of course.

Jesus obviously had (has) a great deal of personal dynamism and charisma, but the Gospels themselves show that he was not ALWAYS laughing and smiling. I would have to rank this Jesus below that of The Passion of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and Gospel of John (better than the 50s and 60s versions though).

For people who like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing you'll like.
It takes a little while to get used to what you're watching here. It's not actually a movie so much as an enactment. The writers do some clever and welcome things with the material, and are pretty creative at overcoming or even making virtues out of the limitations of the text. But it is, still, very much the text. It also takes a while to get used to the relentlessly American accent of the lead actor, although in his favor, his portrayal of Jesus is the most joyous and exuberant I've ever seen.

The production is only occasionally hampered by what is obviously a lower budget. Most of the time it doesn't matter. Occasionally, though, it's a little "Ooooh, ouch."

Worthy of particular mention is the set-piece of the Sermon on the Mount. Finally, someone this side of Godspell gets that there was comedy involved in Jesus' preaching! Yay!

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with my purchase here. A few DVD extras would have been nice, but -- oh, well.