PG-13 | 1h 40m | Faith-Based, Comedy | 2026
Featuring a small role from an “American Pie” alum, “Bad Counselors” is a faith-based movie hiding in plain sight as a frat-bro comedy, a la 1978’s “Animal House.”
Maybe it’s not exactly hiding. “Bad Counselors” is definitely serious about wringing specifically Christian values and life lessons from a classic tale of modern, value-deficient young men being forced to grow up.
And while it attempts to tread lightly on biblical matters and keeps the proselytizing to a minimum, it is reminiscent of parents blending finely grated carrots and zucchini into pancake and muffin batter to make the healthy veggies go down unnoticed. Parents do succeed in this, but kids subliminally notice something’s not quite as delicious.
Entitlement
Frat-boy jock Grayson Fuller (Matt Cornett) is an affable if smarmy and obnoxious dude-bro. The movie kicks off with him disingenuously faking his way through a Zoom interview for a prestigious finance internship, while sitting in his underwear, with a jacket-and-tie up top and on camera. The interviewer is duly impressed.
Fuller’s default state of existence, though, currently consists of hazing his frat house’s beleaguered new pledges, and heading out on the town with bestie-bro Tyler (Ramon Reed) in advanced states of inebriation.
In the same way that redheaded, chronically trouble-making high schooler named Bill Rose was known county-wide by the police in Indiana circa 1980 (he later changed his name to Axl), Grayson and Tyler are legendary party-ers. Local police officer Montgomery (Missi Pyle) relishes busting them, albeit with a motherly twinkle in her eye.
Church!
So it’s a good thing that on the previous night, Grayson and Tyler drunkenly mistake blasting music and flashing lights for a nightclub, and accidentally wind up in a megachurch worship session. There, cute volunteer Becky (McKaley Miller) attempts to recruit the two young frat agnostics to be summer church camp counselors.Waking up the next day, Grayson considers the possibilites—since they are only required to fulfill the hours within a strict two-week deadline, they decide to fake their way into becoming counselors at the Christian summer camp, purely because it’s the only fast-track way they can think of to rack up that many community service hours in such a short window of time.
It’s clearly an amusing setup for a culture-clash comedy of errors. While Tyler warms to their new, sober environment, Grayson is baffled by the rules, regulations, and rituals of organized religion. He doesn’t really take to the kids either—especially Patrick (Brayden Gleave), the awkward, overeager misfit whom Grayson is tasked with mentoring.
A Wee Bit of Conflict
As they say, “Comedy is of the devil,” and so “Bad Counselors” refusal to allow Camp Burning Bush to look overly silly (fair enough, fair enough) stifles the full range of the comedic potential. If every character is quite good at heart, there’s little irony, mischief, or conflict to be had. As mentioned earlier, these are the carrots and zucchini you can taste in the pancakes, underneath the maple syrup.
The sole source of tension involves Grayson’s escalating crush on Pollyanna-ish counselor Jenna (Brec Bassinger), who just happens to be Pastor Tom’s daughter. This causes clean-cut youth Pastor Dallas (Nathan Gamble) to become jealous.
Things naturally turn out happily for all involved, with Grayson resolving to forsake “the things that are trying to replace God in our lives.”
If faith-based films give you hives, it’s safe to say “Bad Counselors” won’t be your cup of tea. However, it’s interesting to see how all Christian artistic endeavors, most notably musical and cinematic, are taking increasing risks. Faith-based films are wading deeper and deeper into the dark side’s dye vat, to attract people who are swimming around in the dark but ultimately looking for the light.
