George Lopez Encourages People to Focus on Biblical Themes of ‘Faith and Love’ in Movies
By Movieguide® Staff
Comedian and actor George Lopez is not known for his family-friendly comedy but encouraged fans to watch his newest faith-based movie, WALKING WITH HERB.
Lopez encouraged Christian audiences to watch the movie without his past roles in mind.
“I think people are gonna associate me with the past, but I think they should disassociate me and watch this with an open mind,” Lopez told The Christian Post. “Don’t come in with preconceived notions. People can be different.”
A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
WALKING WITH HERB is a faith-based comedy about a 65-year-old bank manager who’s lost his faith in God because of his granddaughter’s death. Joe gets a second chance when God gives him an assignment to win an eccentric billionaire’s $300 million golf tournament to be the golf champion of the world. God sends an angel named Herb to help Joe. Being an amateur, Joe must qualify for the world championship tournament by winning one of the top two spots in a qualifying golf tournament. Eventually, Joe must face an angry young golfer who’s upset he must compete against a 65-year-old amateur.
WALKING WITH HERB is a whimsical, lighthearted, well-acted comedy. The second half is especially good. It has lots of charm and humor, and ends on a satisfying, uplifting note. WALKING WITH HERB has a strong Christian, moral worldview. It stresses overcoming doubt and disappointment with faith in God and being obedient to God. The movie also has an uplifting message about helping and inspiring other people. WALKING WITH HERB contains some references to Buddhism and Judaism, however; so, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution.
Despite a challenging childhood, Lopez credits God with his ability to find humor in his darkest moments.
“I didn’t know my father, and my grandparents raised me, and it was just almost too much to take for any child,” Lopez said. “My mother tried to hurt herself … I’m an only child. It wasn’t like you had anybody. But what was given to me by God was the ability to find humor in the darkest time.”
“Freddie Prince was my idol, my hero, and he committed suicide in his darkest time. I was in the 10th grade,” Lopez continued. “I knew that morning that he did that, that I wasn’t going to do that. I was still in my darkest time, but I used his example of losing his life as a reason for me to want to fulfill the dream that I had of becoming a comedian really, not an actor or voice actor.”
Lopez added that faith is what allows him to see life as a gift and not a burden.
“I think that’s the beauty of having faith, for me, to see things going well and to stick with it,” he encouraged. “If you wake up tomorrow, then you’ve already been given a gift of seeing things different than today. So we go forward like that.”
Lopez hopes that audiences, in general, seek out the biblical themes of “faith and love” instead of getting caught up in the “man-made” parts of movies and entertainment.
“All of this stuff that is in Hollywood, the scripts, it’s all man-made!” Lopez said. “Everything else — faith and love — is made by the Almighty. So if you think that Hollywood is the end-all, be-all, it’s really not.”