Given its title, one might expect 2023’s Jesus Revolution to offer a heavy-handed religious tale. Instead, the movie comes based on real events and acts more as a story of how different generations can unite.

In the late 1960s, Southern California pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) sees his church struggle because he can’t connect to a younger demographic. This changes when his daughter Janette (Ally Ioannides) gives a ride to Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a hitchhiking hippie.

Lonnie travels from town to town and spreads the word of Jesus. When he meets Chuck, the two bond and begin to develop a new flock.

A lot of Revolution concentrates on a separate character, though, as we see these events through the eyes of Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), a high school student who leaves a military academy to pursue hot blonde Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow). Along the way, he gets caught up in the hippie lifestyle and this leads him to the Lonnie/Chuck church.

I get the decision to use Greg as the audience’s surrogate. The movie tries to let us engage in the titular movement through his eyes.

However, this divides the narrative in an awkward manner. The film can’t decide whether to focus on Chuck, Lonnie or Greg, so the end product fails to flow.

It also doesn’t find much purpose beyond its general “peace ‘n’ love” message. Not that there’s anything wrong with peace and/or love, of course, but the film fails to discover depth to the story.

The problem comes from a lack of substance, and Greg’s side becomes problematic. His story feels tedious, especially as we see his messed-up mother and his problems.

The pacing feels too slow as well. We need to wait 45 minutes into the story before Greg meets Lonnie, an awfully long span given the central nature of that relationship in the plot.

A lot of the movie simply seems simplistic. For instance, Chuck starts as the squarest of squares but he buys into the new spirit with next to no resistance.

Really? Lonnie spouts some hippie banalities and Chuck suddenly becomes a different person?

The film never gets to the core of the “Jesus movement” or why people flocked to it. We find a tone of “hey, we’re hippies” and little more.

Lonnie also fails to deliver charisma. He just comes across as yet another peace ‘n’ love hippie without anything more to him than the other characters.

Revolution becomes increasingly melodramatic as it runs. I get the impression the filmmakers sensed that the general theme doesn’t go much of anywhere after the initial thrust so they needed to gin up contrived drama to enliven the proceedings.

Instead, the end product feels rambling and without much real development. While I feel happy it lacks the usual preachiness but it doesn’t offer much real spirit and fails to turn into a dynamic and engaging tale.

Jesus Revolution appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a satisfying presentation.

Sharpness tended to be positive. A few shots showed a smidgen of softness, usually during interiors. Overall, though, detail seemed good.

I noticed no signs of jaggies or edge haloes, and shimmering was absent. The film lacked print flaws and seemed clean.

Despite the period setting, Revolution went with a heavy teal and orange impression. These appeared fine within the film’s stylistic choices.

Blacks seemed dark and tight, and shadows demonstrated good clarity. I found this to be worth a “B+”.

A character drama wouldn’t seem to be a candidate for a dynamic soundtrack, and the Dolby Atmos audio of Revolution fell into expected realms. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, a few scenes – by the sea, drug trips, at concerts or other gatherings, etc. – used the various channels well.

Music also expanded to the different speakers in an active manner. The track lacked a lot of whiz-bang but it still managed to utilize the story’s potential.

Audio quality satisfied. The music was full and rich, while effects showed nice clarity and accuracy.

Speech – obviously an important factor here – appeared concise and crisp. Nothing here soared, but it all seemed positive for the material at hand.

We find a mix of extras, and we launch with an audio commentary from director/writer Jon Erwin and director/composer Brent McCorkle and producer Kevin Downes. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific look at the source history and the movie’s use of facts vs. liberties, cast and performances, sets and locations, story/characters, music, effects, editing and photography, costumes and period elements.

While we get some useful nuggets about the film, these come with an awful lot of happy talk, as the three participants frequently relate praise for all involved and everything about the movie. We find enough quality material to make the track decent, but I could really live without all the fluffiness.

Featurettes follow, and When God Has a Plan goes for 32 minutes, 50 seconds. It brings notes from Erwin, McCorkle, real-life Greg and Cathe Laurie, producer Kevin Downes, costume designer Anna Redmon, and actors Kelsey Grammer, Joel Courtney, Jonathan Roumie, Anna Grace Barlow, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Devon Franklin, and Kimberly Williams-Paisley.

“Plan” looks at the movie’s path to the screen, story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography, costumes and production design. A few good facts emerge here but much of “Plan” revolves around fluff and happy talk.

The Heart of the Film lasts three minutes, 57 seconds and features Barlow, Roumie, Williams-Paisley, Franklin, Grammer, Erwin, Greg Laurie, McCorkle, Cathe Laure, Courtney, and Downes.

This one examines story and themes. It acts as a general promo piece with no real substance.

With Inspired By a True Movement, we locate a six-minute, 24-second piece that offers info from Cathe Laurie, Greg Laurie, Erwin, McCorkle, Franklin, and members of “Love Song”.

“Inspired” views the Christian scene covered in the film. This offers a handful of insights about the era and the “revolution” but it mostly delivers another puffy program.

Behind the Scenes of “Living Water” occupies 11 minutes, 31 seconds and includes material with Erwin, McCorkle, Barlow, Downes, and singer Anne Wilson.

We get some notes about the flick’s “Living Water” song and we see a fairly dull video for it. Most of the reel talks about the movie’s special qualities and various religious/social notions, so don’t expect substance here.

Lastly, Faces of the Jesus Revolution fills five minutes, 55 seconds and provides comments from Franklin, McCorkle, Cathe Laurie, Love Song, Erwin, Greg Laurie, Barlow, Courtney, Grammer, Roumie, and Larry Norman’s son Michael.

As implied, “Faces” takes on the historical characters of the film. It becomes another superficial program.

Seven Deleted Scenes take up a total of nine minutes, 41 seconds. That total includes a 56-second intro from Erwin and McCorkle.

These tend to expand character moments. They offer some value – especially in terms of Cathe’s family – but none seem crucial.

We can watch the deleted scenes with or without commentary from Erwin and McCorkle. They tell us some basics about the sequences but don’t always let us know why they omitted the material.

As an exploration of a popular religious movement, Jesus Revolution feels thin and superficial. The movie never gets to the core of this era and lacks heart or compelling drama. The Blu-ray brings solid picture and audio along with a decent array of bonus materials. This turns into a fairly flat film.