AN AUDIO SNAPSHOT REVIEW
The 5th Quarter is based on a true story of loss, family love and inspiration. When 15-year-old Luke Abbate is killed in a tragic accident it rocks his family members back on their heels. Understandably, his mom and dad are distraught. And even though they agree that Luke would want his organs to be used to save the lives of others, their sense of painful loss is devastating. Luke’s older brother Jon struggles to cope with his feelings as well. And back at college he lets his football dreams flounder as he tries to drown his anguish in pitchers of beer.
Things change for the better, however, when friends stage an intervention of sorts for Jon. The young athlete decides to change his jersey number to Luke’s former number and dedicates the upcoming college season to the remembrance of his fallen younger brother. Driven by Luke’s memory, Jon leads and inspires his underdog team to a surprising season.
If you saw The 5th Quarter in its limited run in theaters, you may have been put off by some of its language, but for the DVD version they’ve cleaned that up. This faith-based movie presents emotional performances mixed with actual footage from Wake Forest’s standout season. And it points to how God can save the infirm and impact the broken, even amidst the most painful times of life.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
