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Emilio Estevez takes a turn as director for Bobby, a film celebrating the life and convictions of Robert F. Kennedy. And he has a lot of talented actors helping him out—from Anthony Hopkins to Elijah Wood.

But according to most Christian film critics, Bobby is not nearly as inspiring as a film about RFK should be.

Bob Hoose (Plugged In) says that the film's "rambling, purposeless storylines and stereotypical characters … ultimately disappoint."

"Bobby is less concerned with its title character than it is with teaching 1960s history," says Christian Hamaker (Crosswalk). "What we get is a 'highlight reel' of late-sixties turbulence set to the most obvious period songs imaginable … . The film's biggest surprise is that the end result is so banal."

Mike Smith (Past the Popcorn) says it's "an inventive but embarrassingly sentimental re-enactment of Bobby Kennedy's assassination. … [The film is] a slow moving, syrupy quasi-sermon about what made Bobby Kennedy great in the minds of those who knew him."

Taking a different approach than the majority, one Christian media personality seized this occasion to attack Bobby Kennedy directly, saying that his message amounts to "empty political platitudes." And he claims that the movie will "lead many people astray, morally, politically and theologically" with its "false Romantic, Neo-Marxist liberal ideology and … rhetoric." He begs us to protect our "family, friends, children, church, [and] country" from this movie.

Mainstream critics manage to focus on the movie itself, and they're not terribly impressed.

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