It’s almost the end of time, and two families are full of strife. They are facing some serious challenges as the world starts to spin out of control. Will they be able to remember their faith before it’s too late?
Production Quality (0 points)
There is unfortunately nothing positive to note in this section. Audio quality is terrible due to very loud background noises in both indoor and outdoor scenes, and there is basically no soundtrack. Outside scenes are too bright while inside scenes are poorly lit. Camera work and video quality are both inconsistent. The sets, locations, and props are quite cheap. Further, editing is very choppy, which rounds out a sub-par effort.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
In this narrative, the writers present one thing after the next, dumping disconnected subplots upon the audience. This leads to empty characters and unsubstantial dialogue. The plot includes a juvenile view of Christianity, suggesting that people’s problems can be magically fixed. There is overall no purpose to this story, and it’s basically two different films shoved together. As such, there are no unifying themes other than mindlessness and purposelessness. In the end, the conclusion is nonsensical, leaving nothing for the viewers to learn or believe in. This lack of potential produces a zero-point rating for this section.
Acting Quality (0 points)
Between unconvincing acting and bouts of yelling and screaming, the forceful performances in this movie are basically unbearable. Many cast members recite lines without conviction or realistic emotions. Further, one-take scenes have mistaken lines. Thus, this rounds out a no-potential effort.
Conclusion
It remains incredibly unclear how and why films like Leading to Revelation continue getting made. Screenplays like these accomplish nothing except to further tarnish the reputation of Christian media. There is no purpose to these types of creations, so money needs to stop being spent on them.
When the Apostle Paul went to Philippi, this was the first time that the gospel of Jesus Christ had reached the continent of Europe. However, Paul faced much opposition and many trials in his mission to follow the Lord’s calling. Nonetheless, his obedience changed countless generations to come.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
Although video quality is fine and the soundtrack is culturally sensitive, dizzying camera work and confusing special effects hold the production back from being what it could have been. Sets, locations, and props are great, but sound effects are poor. Further, editing is inconsistent, which goes with the overall theme of this production being a mixed bag. Thus, an average scored is granted here.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
While it’s commendable that the writers of this narrative focused on one short aspect of Paul’s ministry, the apostle himself is too perfect of a character, which means that it’s hard to relate to him as a person. Also, demonic elements are too sensational as too much time is spent on dark spirituality. Elsewhere, the story presentation is confusing since it makes the progression of events very unclear. Most of the characters are inaccessible and hard to connect with due to procedural dialogue. Unfortunately, although this plot could have been interesting, it doesn’t offer any potential because attention is given to all the wrong things.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Though the casting is sometimes culturally authentic, this is not always the case. Nonetheless, the actors and actresses make some good attempts at accents. Sometimes, the acting is believable while other times, the performances are too theatrical and stoic. Emotions and line delivery can be a bit uneven at times. Unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good in this section, which leads to a sub-par score.
Conclusion
Period pieces about well-known Bible characters are very difficult to effectively execute. There are many moving parts and small details that are easy to get wrong. As a whole, it seems like that the creators of To the Ends of the Earth had the right motives but not always the correct philosophy. Unfortunately, there are just too many pitfalls in this screenplay that kept it in the basement of Christian entertainment.
David Williams just wants to live a regular life, but one day, after being convicted by the message of an African missionary, David and his wife decide to stop watching secular movies due to their objectionable content. David is ostracized at work for this decision, but he feels strongly that he needs to do more to reach others for the Gospel. He wants to air a radio ad, but the city’s largest radio station is standing in his way. Will they be able to air the ad on every radio station???
Production Quality (2.5 points)
The Christiano team has come a long way since the old days of their films. Power of the Air has a very professional production with only a few errors. Video quality, audio quality, and camera work are all compliant with industry standards. Sets, locations, and props are also good. The only concerns in this section relate to editing, which leaves something to be desired. Nonetheless, this isn’t enough to prevent a very high score from being awarded here.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Full of information-dump dialogue and expository conversations that are designed to push messages, this narrative is lacking in depth. Empty characters are simply pawns of the plot, which is full of generic Christian propaganda. The philosophy of the writers is very closed-minded and tone-deaf when it comes to real life. Administering heavy doses of legalism, the creators exchange actually story for an outdated view of society, implying that basically all media is evil. The only thing that keeps the screenplay running on fumes is a ridiculous ongoing conflict about when to air a radio commercial, and this experience is full of absurdly forced drama, trying to make the viewers actually care about this stupid first-world problem. In the end, with no potential to be had, this aspect of the movie can’t receive any points.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Throughout Power of the Air, the acting is acceptable without much good or bad to point out. Most performances are fairly pedestrian. Emotional and line delivery are passable. However, there’s simply not enough dynamic to warrant a higher than average score for this section.
Conclusion
Via this film, the Christiano team raises valid points about how American Christians unnecessarily consume too much objectionable entertainment. However, the very existence of Power of the Air only furthers the problem because it demonstrates why many Christians seek entertainment outside Christian circles: Christian entertainment, as a whole, is just bad. Power of the Air is no exception to this general rule. Why should Christians want to watch a screenplay like this? What’s the point? Until Christian creators learn why people watch what they watch, we’ll just keep having the same problems.
Pastor Joe wants to help the community however he can, so he and his wife spend all their time serving those who are in need. One day, when Tasha comes to Joe’s office with an interesting story, he learns that there are far more people to help than he realized. Spurred on by this, Joe and his loved ones find themselves plunged into a complex web of crime that they could have never previously anticipated.
Production Quality (1 point)
Despite being a Strong Foundation project, this production is actually kind of okay. This is shown by acceptable video quality and camera work. Also, the sets, locations, and props are passable. However, the audio is all over the place, sometimes having a loud soundtrack and background noises. Elsewhere, the editing is horrific, including extremely abrupt cuts and transitions. Many scenes appear to be begin just as the camera starts, and there’s a lack of continuity between sequences. Overall, even though there were some bright spots, this production is still below average.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
With so many subplots in Who Am I?, the main narrative is nearly impossible to follow as the storyline jumps all over the place. This creates stunted characters due to the plot moving from one thing to another. There’s also just too many characters to keep up with, and incredibly trite dialogue that’s full of platitudes and forced messaging doesn’t help matters. It feels like the writers were trying to cover every possible social issue at once and attempting to connect every possible coincidence together in stupid and juvenile ways. Too many convenient turns, forced correlations, and unrealistic occurrences litter this film, such as a total lack of ethics code comprehension. Strawman bad characters are around every corner, but although there is much unnecessary content in this movie, there’s a surprisingly good character backstory revealed in the middle of the story. Nonetheless, it’s crowded out by the other tangential inclusions and convoluted with very steep character arcs. A rushed and forced conclusion that’s unearned and somewhat magical caps things off, yet the slight potential in the singular character narrative is enough to prevent zero points for this section.
Acting Quality (0 points)
Unfortunately, Who Am I? carries the typically bad acting styles of other Strong Foundation screenplays, especially when it comes to Josiah David Warren. While Amber Shana Williams tries her hardest, much of the coaching is off, and Warren’s bad performance dominates everything. Many background cast members have potential but are overshadowed by Warren’s extreme negatives. His line delivery and emotions are over-the-top, making for a painful experience. Thus, because the bad cancels out the good, zero points can be awarded here.
Conclusion
In the end, this project comes the closest to a real idea of any other Strong Foundation offering. Nonetheless, it would have been much better to focus on just the main story rather than all the others and to recast Josiah David Warren. This would have been a huge step in the right direction, but at this point, it’s unclear if the Strong Foundation team cares about changing.
Pastor Greg randomly wins a shopping spree for Christmas Eve, but this causes him to be late for the service he has to run because he and his staff get stuck in an elevator with a pregnant woman who suddenly goes into labor! Will they be able to get back to the church in time to help those in need?
Production Quality (.5 point)
With shaky cam and terrible special effects, the production of this film leaves a lot to be desired. Although video quality is fine and the audio quality is acceptable, the soundtrack is quite generic. Sets, locations, and props are very cheap and limited. Further, the editing is very weird due to the fact that some scenes are extremely short with shocking fadeouts. Other sequences drag on for no reason, so this section can’t be award more than half a point.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Much like Diary of a Lunatic: Trew’s Calling, Hope for Christmas brings up a lot of problems that exist within the American church establishment, but many of the satire and parody elements are bizarre and isolating. A lot of the plot elements are completely unexplainable as they either try way too hard to be funny or waste true comedic potential. The narrative lacks focus as it tries to explore an overwhelming amount of topics at once, which causes one thing to happen after another without continuity. Random instances happen for no particular reason, and there are simply too many characters and subplots. Obvious dialogue and conversations try to obsessively hammer the same concepts into the audience’s brains. However, this fact is even worse because the story is very purposeless and aimless. Hence, no points can be awarded here.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Surprisingly, the acting is the strongest aspect of this movie although it leaves much to be desired. Some cast members appear to be trying too hard in their performances. Lots of crosstalk muddles scenes; emotions and line delivery is mostly uneven across the board. However, not all is bad here, which is sufficient to warrant a point but not enough to save this screenplay from itself.
Conclusion
Greg Robbins and company always have something to offer, but their packaging is all wrong. It’s understandable and relatable to discuss the problems within the American church establishment. However, doing so in a such an offbeat way delegitimizes the message. This doesn’t even mention the fact that low quality films continually undermine the reputation of Christian entertainment. We’ve said this all before, and there’s nothing new this holiday season.
George and Allen Barnett are extremely different as brothers, but when their father dies, part of getting their inheritances is working together. Though they don’t get along, the brothers are forced to retrace the steps of their parents’ honeymoon trip, which was aided by many different Good Samaritans. George and Allen are tasked with repaying these kind people for their good deeds, and along the way, they discover more about themselves.
Production Quality (1 point)
The production isn’t quite up to the mark despite its clear video quality. Camera work is inconsistent although it gets better as it goes. Audio quality is fine except for loud background noises and a generic soundtrack that hardly stops playing. Sets, props, and locations are okay, but there are cheesy graphics throughout. Elsewhere, the editing is average, and the amount of negatives overall isn’t enough to warrant a score any higher than this.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Between the choppy story presentation and the lagging nature of many scenes in this screenplay, The Good Journey is a boring experience. Tons of time is wasted with musical montages that displace substantial conversations, making the film feel like a collection of randomly disconnected sequences. The character have absolutely no substance or depth, seeming strangely unconcerned about family deaths without good reason. They do things simply because the writers want them to. As a whole, the dialogue is bland and generic. Thus, with no real potential in this section, no points can be given.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Robotic acting dominates the first half of this movie, making for an annoying experience. Emotions are stoic and nonexistent as line delivery is uneven. Nonetheless, slight improvement in the latter parts keep this section from being nothing but still isn’t enough to buoy an overall underwhelming effort.
Conclusion
The Good Journey was based on a nice idea, one that seemed slightly different from other run-of-the-mill Christian entertainment. However, poor funding and misfired presentation sunk whatever creativity was possible here. As such, this film joins the long line of offerings in the Christian market that could have been something yet fell short of the mark for a number of reasons.
Daniel Rainwater had everything going for him in life: a good job, a nice house, and the family he always wanted. However, when things suddenly take a turn for the worst, Daniel is unsure what to do. Some people tell him to turn to God, but Daniel isn’t too sure about the Christian faith. Little does he know that he’ll have to face what he doesn’t want to talk about before it’s too late.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
In some respects, this production seems to have good effort behind it. For instance, video quality is acceptable, and the sets, locations, and props are at least above average. Audio quality is also fine, including an okay soundtrack. However, the camera work is quite inconsistent, sometimes involving odd camera angles that disorient the audience. Additionally, by far the worst aspect of this section is the severely choppy and confusing editing that nearly negates any good there was in other production elements. It makes for a very difficult viewing experience and overall reduces this rating to middle-of-the-road.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Much like the disorganized editing, the scenes of this narrative jump from one thing to the next, going by so fast that it’s difficult to know what’s going on. Offscreen content makes things confusing, and the characters are simply pawns in the plot’s manufactured circumstances. Despite some slightly meaningful attempts at dialogue, it’s simply not enough to keep the characters from being distant and abstract cardboard cutouts. The protagonist goes from being a downtrodden victim to being a perfect Christian as the writers assert that nothing can’t be easily fixed by a Christianese speech and a musical montage. Because of this, the real issue explored in this story are portrayed in very trite and shallow ways. Further, strangely forced humor is framed in weird contexts. In the end, Trust is a wasted effort due to its childish handling of otherwise heavy topics, vaguely inaccessible characters, and spastic plot presentation.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Though there are some good performances, awkward and forced acting is another pitfall in this movie. Emotions seem very forced throughout, including a lot of yelling and screaming. Also, line delivery is quick, choppy, and stilted. Thus, the negative outweighs the positive here, giving this section a below-average rating.
Conclusion
Screenplays like Trust start out with possibly good intentions but easily go off the rails due to poor planning and lack of collaboration. This film has the potential to offer a meaningful message to viewers, but it’s extremely jumbled in the delivery. Without vital components and clear direction from God, movies like these will unfortunately always come up short.
After country music star Faith Winters receives some bad publicity for a bad decision of hers, she’s obviously forced to return to her hometown, where she happens to reconnect with her high school sweetheart, also known as the local pastor. Coincidentally, the church is about to go under from lack of funds, so it’s possible Faith might be able to help there. However, she’s being stalked by her sort-of boyfriend and will have to rediscover the way she used to be in order to move forward or something.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
Runnin’ from My Roots has a mixed bag for a production, including very shaky camera work and inconsistent lighting. Some of the audio is fine, but some of it is quite over-driven, echoed, or too quiet. The soundtrack is also random and sometimes conflicts with itself, yet the sets, locations, and props are acceptable. Further, the editing leaves something to be desired as there are awkwardly abrupt cuts and transitions. Even still, there’s some slight improvement as the film goes on, which is enough to warrant an average score for this section.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
As if Runnin’ from My Roots wasn’t already basically the most typical plot ever, invasive narration interrupts whatever flow it could have had. Even still, since the storyline is so chock full of predictable small town stuff, stock dialogue, and generic stereotypes, it’s basically a fruitless effort. One random thing happens after another, and it all seems surprisingly disconnected from itself, such as the vague, unexplained conflicts and the very fast pace that the narrative moves at. Due to the speed, things are forced on the viewer without them naturally developing or having a basis for occurring. Besides this, there are too many confusing subplots that don’t fit together, and what the characters claim to experience doesn’t realistically translate to what the audience feels. Conversations are full of stupid one-liners and nonsensical big city/small town dichotomies, which makes the entire movie seem unserious and phoned in. In the end, without a little dose of save-the-church elements, this story really has something for everything in the category of lame screenplays and nothing for points that matter.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Though there are times when the acting of Runnin’ from My Roots is average, a lot of the time, it’s quite forceful. An example of this is the myriad of fake accents and overdone makeup work. Also, some cast members try to draw a lot of attention to themselves with over-the-top drama and pageantry. Elsewhere, line delivery and emotions are too deliberate and pronounced. While it’s not all bad, this section rounds out a very low-quality effort.
Conclusion
There’s no longer a place in the market for films like Runnin’ from My Roots. Run-of-the-mill, half-baked offerings like this one are unacceptable and easily forgotten. It’s an unfortunate waste of resources, and hopefully, Christian audiences will continue to ignore movies like this so that they are no longer made.
The Reynolds family members all have many commitments and obligations, yet none of them want to see anything from the others’ perspectives. However, after asking God to change each other, they get the surprise of their lives when they suddenly switch bodies with each other. This gives each of them a chance to see what it’s like to walk in the others’ shoes, and what they find out is unexpected.
Production Quality (2 points)
Overall, the production of The Big Fix is good without many errors. This includes a great soundtrack and professional audio quality. Camera work and video quality are also up to standards. Sets, locations, and props are well-constructed and well-utilized. The only drawbacks in this section are some cheesy special effects and some choppy editing. In the end, however, this production is enough to be above average.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
At times, The Big Fix offers some good dialogue and realistic looks at problems with families and businesses in American culture, but other times, the film is a bit in-your-face with obvious messaging and sermonizing. This aside, the movie’s entire basis is a bit off, to say the least, as it comes with all the expected logical problems and inconsistencies that usually accompany body-switching plots. Despite these obvious concerns, not much actual content actually transpires in this narrative apart from forced comedy, unearned silliness, wasted time, and useless montages, which all pertain to the questionable premise. Along with these errors comes inevitably unusual content and insinuations that make for awkward stop-and-start scenes and meandering sequences that lead to nowhere. In order to effectively pull off any type of character-switching idea, you have to actually have good characters to begin with rather than basic stereotypes. This storyline’s poor character development also gives rise to cheesy views of young people. In the end, the conclusion is forced and cheesy as it basically fixed everything very rapidly, and the last scene is quite bizarre in general. Therefore, not many points can be awarded to this section.
Acting Quality (2 points)
For the most part, the acting in The Big Fix is okay even though it can be too forceful at times. Other times, however, the emotional and line deliveries seem more natural. The biggest issue here is that, in order to properly execute a character switching plot, you need high-level acting. Unfortunately, these performances are just a bit above average. Nonetheless, while the acting is a bit stop-and-start at first, it tends to improve with time, which rounds out a run-of-the-mill effort.
Conclusion
This creative team is usually almost there (see Fat Chance), but a collection of things always holds them back from reaching the next level. They would greatly benefit from improved screenwriting so that they can focus their talents in other areas, like beefing up production and acting. With a more substantial plot and stronger characters, The Big Fix could have really been something. Nevertheless, perhaps we’ll see better things from this group in the coming days.
Kendra Williams is tired of the way things are. She never gets to have any fun because her parents won’t let her go to dangerous all-night parties with her “friends.” One of these said nights, Kendra meets a mysterious man who promises to grant her secret wish of living however she wants. Kendra accepts his offer but suddenly wakes up in a world where she was never born. Will she be able to escape the nightmare before it’s too late???
Production Quality (1 point)
For the most part, Scion offers a very cheap production experience, including shaky camera work, tight shots, and bizarre camera angles designed to be “cool.” Audio quality is also uneven as backgrounds sounds are too prevalent and invasive sound effects annoy the viewer even though the soundtrack is somewhat interesting. The video is also sometimes blurry, and lighting is inconsistent throughout. Sets, locations, and props are mostly average if not slightly limited, and cheesy special effects plague the audience with dizzying sequences. Further, though there is some slight improvement throughout, continuity errors and various editing concerns keep this section on the low end of the spectrum, but it’s not even the worst of it.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Scion starts off with the completely wrong premise by portraying a tone-deaf view of young people being wayward and throwing in with strawman villains. Also, the psychological fantasy world created for this plot is very difficult for viewers to understanding since its rules seem very subjective. For instance, things in the alternate universe randomly happen for no particular reason, and obstacles are arbitrarily applied to the characters just for the sake of expanding the narrative and illogically getting them where the writers wanted them to go. Similarly, the story’s progression makes little sense as unnecessary time jumps disorient the audience and endless meandering sequences waste time just so that the characters can run all over the place and fill the runtime. Very convenient dialogue also forces the plot to go where screenwriters wanted it to go, and forced suspense scenes crowd out any shred of potential there was for character development. In the end, this screenplay is just a bad version of the typical It’s a Wonderful Life style of psychological narrative.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Though it’s a bit average and sometimes even awkward, the acting is the best aspect of Scion. However, emotions still aren’t very believable throughout, and line delivery is pedestrian. Nonetheless, it’s unclear how the cast members could have done much better with how poorly written this movie was. Thus, this rounds out a severely underwhelming effort that should have never gotten past the initial planning stages.
Conclusion
Kingdom Sight Studios has demonstrated some slight potential in the past, such as in 2nd Greatest, but more recent projects, like Scion and A High School Story, have not instilled any confidence in their commitment to quality. Often, being a lone ranger studio rarely pays off, but the least they could do is overcome their low production quality with deeper storylines that would make bigger companies take notice. However, this isn’t the case as they further contribute to the already low image of Christian entertainment.
Through an unusual turn of events, the Apostle Paul is transported through time to the present day, where he finds the modern church looking very different than the one he knew in his day. Paul is found by Tim, who takes him in and helps the Apostle acclimate to the new world. Then, Paul shares the old messages he was given by God in new ways for the future church.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
As a seemingly basic and essentially modern production, it’s unclear why Translated scored only average, but this rating is due to a handful of avoidable concerns. One of these is some moments of shaky camera work while other relates to invasive background sounds that are present inside of indoor sets. While the outdoor shots are better, the audio quality overall needs some balancing work, and the soundtrack is mostly average. Nonetheless, video quality is very good, and the prop usage is effective. There are some minor special effects issues, such as low quality black-and-white flashbacks, but editing is mostly in line with standards. In the end, the mixed bag quality of the production causes it to be run-of-the-mill, which is actually unacceptable given the uncomplicated nature of what was being created.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
From the get-go, the entire premise of this plot seems off. Not only does time travel almost always present major logic problems for narratives, but it’s unclear why the Apostle Paul would either need to come to the present day or even would be sent to it. Attempting to alter such a cornerstone Bible story causes many issues that are not easily resolved, and besides this, even if this weren’t a problem, it’s still very difficult to discern the actual purpose of this plotline. Nothing much happens as the film meanders around and touches on some typical fish-out-of-water concepts, such as introducing the ‘different’ character to various ideas that are foreign to them. There is no driving focus to the storyline, and the dialogue is mainly used to spoon-feed the audience with obvious messaging. As such, the characters are poorly developed and are swept along in disconnected subplots that lack meaningful purpose. Essentially, once one random thing happens after another, the story suddenly concludes in an abrupt fashion and doesn’t leave the viewer with much to work with. In the end, there’s little to no potential in this idea, which is why it really never should have been made.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
For a small cast, there really isn’t much dynamic in this movie’s performances. While there’s nothing obviously bad, there are also no positive standouts. Emotions and line delivery are both just pedestrian, which ultimately leads to an average rating.
Conclusion
Starting off with such a bizarre premise likely doomed Translated from the start. There’s just nothing that can be done with a story that inexplicably transports a historical character to the present day for no particular reason. There are just so many other things that could be made that would be far more worthwhile than this. We need more Christian films that present transformative meaning rather than more run-of-the-mill throwaways that will be automatically lost in the shuffle.
Joe Bigler wants to shut the world out after his wife died a tragic death. However, his daughter won’t leave him alone, the bank wants him to pay his mortgage, and a big company is threatening to turn his neighborhood into a housing development, which prompts them to constantly offer to buy his house. Nonetheless, when a stray dog takes up residence with Joe, his life begins to take a different trajectory. Will he finally be able to make peace with his past and move on with his life?
Production Quality (2 points)
As is the typical custom of Corbin Bernsen and his team, Life With Dog sports a respectable production, including good video and audio qualities along with professional usage of sets, locations, and props. There are really no concerns to note save for the randomly poor lighting and the inconsistent application of editing. Also, the soundtrack is a bit off since it sometimes doesn’t fit the moods of scenes, but as can be seen in the remainder of the film, much of the oddness seems purposeful.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
Life With Dog is a capstone of Corbin Bernsen’s erratic and unusual Christian entertainment career because it’s the ultimate encapsulation of everything he’s ever done. Not only does this film boast the typically odd elements he inserts into movies, but it carries an inexplicably unusual tone that can’t be easily quantified. Some example of this intangible bizzareness are evidenced by some actually interesting scenes that appear to make fun of cliched film tropes, some subtle asides that range from eyebrow-raising to borderline inappropriate, and a tendency for the dialogue to frustratingly meander among some actually pertinent topics that need to be discussed, some complex philosophical concepts that are difficult to grasp, and a constant itching feeling that the narrative is hiding some deep secret that’s never to be revealed. Besides this, there are logical inconsistencies in the writing, such as the fact that the main character is seemingly able to do whatever he wants with little to no consequences for his sometimes questionable actions and the fact that there are too many coincidences that allow the plot to exist. Though there are many half-hearted attempts (we suppose) to do something meaningful in the story, like provide an accessible character exploration, nothing specifically significant materializes and is instead left as an unfinished, off-the-wall idea. The climax scene is probably the best example of the entire film in a nutshell because it pretends to keep building to something real but never gets there and only leaves the viewer with something that’s both vaguely significant and head-scratchingly odd, as if the storyline was purposely written to dangle hidden things in front of the audience without actually revealing their true natures. In the end, though there is some potential in this chaos, it’s not enough to keep this movie above water.
Acting Quality (2 points)
Much like other Home Theater films, the acting of Life With Dog is fine without many noticeable errors. Though there are some overdone emotions are certain moments, the cast members’ line deliveries are consistently on point. Also, each individual appears to assume their roles well. Thus, this rounds out a slightly below average effort.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, Bernsen’s career is marked with wasted potential (Christian Mingle, In-Lawfully Yours, 25 Hill, to name a few), and it’s unclear whether or not he ever intends to change. It seems like he’s always striving to make the next great iconic Christian film but consistently falls short due to intangible oddness. The worst part is that he clearly has the connections and the resources to do better than he is, yet he usually comes up short as he settles for second best. Perhaps, in future projects, he will finally unleash his full skill set and collaborate with others who can make up for his shortcomings.
Terrell Christian College is in trouble, but if they can assemble a choir for the Golden Voices singing competition, which they are hosting this year, they might have a chance to stay alive. That’s why Georgia, the head of the music department, enlists her granddaughter, Sidney, to help her when Georgia has a back injury. Sidney only takes the temporary job since she’s in need of some extra cash, but little does she know that this experience, along with an unexpected run-in with a local celebrity, will change her life forever.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
As a whole, the production for The Golden Voices is average with some positives and some negatives. While the video quality is clear and the camera work is fine, there are one too many outside scenes that have noticeable background sounds and some that are filmed on the side of busy streets. The indoor sets are better, however, and the props are acceptable. Audio quality is a mixed bag due to some background echoes at times and a generic soundtrack that sometimes interferes with spoken lines. There are also some cheesy special effects and some unnecessary aspect ratio changes at random moments. Further, the editing is okay although it has some very quick cuts and transitions. Thus, in the end, this is a run-of-the-mill effort.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
It’s clear, however, that there were a lot of honest efforts made in the writing of this plot. The dialogue therein is not all that bad and is even sometimes funny; the characters are also on the right track as they are non-typical and feel more authentic than not. Even though the narrative basically boils down to being a save-the-school-by-winning-a-singing-competition-plot, the conversations among characters are actually pretty well-constructed. Nonetheless, it’s a shame that a lot of time is spent on musical montages rather than deeper character development that could have kept this storyline from being as basic as it is. This would have also helped to soften the basically predictable ending, but as a whole, the messaging in this film is quite good, and the movie in general avoids stereotypes that come with musical productions. It would have been good, however, to see a little more effort put forth to keep this plot from being too basic.
Acting Quality (2 points)
Despite some very obviously poor makeup work, most of the cast members assume their roles quite well. Some tend to overplay their performances, but most of them come off as quite genuine, and many of them improve as the film progress. Throughout the movie, emotions are believable, and this collective effort is enough to warrant an above-average score.
Conclusion
Over the years, Poorchild Films has tried several different ideas (Hiding in Plain Sight, Steps of Faith, A Man Called Jon), but The Golden Voices seems like their most honest creation yet. They keep trying and are getting closer to the mark with each effort. However, most of the time, collaboration is the only way forward, so it may be time for this creative team to reach out and work with someone else both for financial and productive reasons. When this begins happening on a more regular basis on Christian entertainment, we will finally be putting the older days behind us.
Elisha just wanted to get to Pittsburgh on time, and he never intended to cross paths with an eccentric character named Elijah. Elisha reluctantly decides to aid Elijah’s hitch-hiking, but he immediately regrets the choice as Elijah continually delays Elisha’s plans and hampers his progress. Thus, Elisha keeps trying to get Elijah off of his back. However, little do either of them know that they are about to both learn something valuable that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Production Quality (.5 point)
The cheapness of The Follower‘s production is very evident from start to finish. There are loud background noises and a generic soundtrack that tend to cover up other audio, and video quality is inconsistent throughout. The camera work is randomly shaky at times, and there are some obvious overdubbed lines in some portions. In other parts, cheesy sound effects are inserted on top of the video, and there some instances of weird camera angles. Further, the sets, locations, and props are cheap-looking, and the editing has a handful of glaringly obvious cuts. Thus, while there are some slightly positive moments in this production, it’s overall quite negative, which warrants the low score.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
It’s unclear whether or not The Follower is supposed to be another modern-day Bible application, but character names like Elijah and Elisha make things very confusing. Besides this, the dialogue is full of corny attempts at comedy, and the cheesy conversations mainly waste time. This causes the middle of the film to be very aimless since it’s appearing to just kill time until the ending, but the storyline actually makes less and less sense as it progresses. The more some hidden purpose is kicked down the road, the more the narrative seems to get lost in its own mind. The story pretends to conceal some great secret, yet the whole concept is too vague to be grasped and only leads to a hollow conclusion. In the end, while there may have been some interesting ideas here, it’s all too rushed and slapped together to make any sense.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Surprisingly, the acting is actually the strongest point of The Follower as Goodwin and Sigler post their best performances to date. They seem very comfortable with their character roles and demonstrate niche talents. Even still, the few cast members that there are seem to be trying way too hard to be funny, and many emotions are quite forced. Line delivery is also uneven, and the acting overall gets worse as it goes even though it started out semi-okay. Therefore, this rounds out a very underwhelming effort.
Conclusion
In the end, The Follower is yet another example of how quantity over quality hurts the Christian entertainment world. Trying to cram more than two movies into one year is very difficult to pull off without sacrificing essentially positive elements. While we do need more Christian movies and series being made each year, we need more Christian entertainment that is not sub-standard and is capable of truly making a difference. Thus, it would be better to have fewer annual releases until the industry is able to consistently produce quality content.
Rose and Katie have been homeless ever since escaping from an abusive relationship, and Rose struggles to make ends meet for her and her daughter. Working as a waitress at a local diner causes her to cross paths with Charlie, who acts as a Salvation Army Santa Claus just outside the restaurant. However, while their friendship gets off to a rocky start, Charlie feels like God wants him and his wife to reach out to the single mother who’s fallen on hard times. Together, they all discover what it truly means to help the needy at Christmastime.
Production Quality (2 points)
The production of The Least of These starts out a bit rough with some cheap sets, props, and locations as well as some inconsistent lighting. There are also some awkward cuts, fade-outs, and slight continuity errors in the beginning. However, the production does improve as it goes, which suggests a positive change of direction. This includes demonstrating good camera work and video quality throughout. Also, the audio quality is great, including a well-constructed soundtrack. Further, all other elements that were previously below par show marked improvement by the film’s conclusion, which helps this section get over the average mark.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
From the beginning of the narrative, The Least of These takes a rare look at little-considered Christmas themes like the connection between the concept of Santa giving gifts to good children and following a works-based religion. Neither of these ideals holds up when someone is homeless due to fleeing an abusive situation. Elsewhere, the writers put forth realistic attempts to present some problems there are with traditional Christmas ideas while at the same time showing the authentic struggles of real people. This includes giving actual attention to detail of how the working homeless population functions on a daily basis and of how Christians can practically assist them if God prompts them to do so. As a whole, the plot feels like it’s based on real happenings of real people, and the dialogue definitely aids this pursuit. However, the storyline isn’t without its flaws; it can be a bit slow at times, and it struggles to hold the audience’s attention. Though the story is definitely trying to be real, some scenes feel like unnecessary filler, and the ending is basically typical. Also, the Christian message can be a bit muted at times, even though this isn’t always bad. In the end, this screenplay shows tons of potential for future projects, especially character-based explorations, so it will be interesting see what a little collaboration can do for this creative team.
Acting Quality (2 points)
As a whole, the acting isn’t bad at all as many of the cast members appear to be really striving to do their best in assuming the roles of the characters. While they are not always dynamic in their performances, they are mostly professionals and do well enough in emotional portrayals and line delivery. Moreover, this section is kept from being perfect by some isolated scenes where the acting is very awkward and some makeup that is a bit crazy a times. Nonetheless, this section rounds out a commendable and honest effort, which is all we ever ask for.
Conclusion
For future projects, this creative team would definitely benefit from further collaboration to enhance their talents. Also, creating a series may be a better way to showcase their characters and to more efficiently use their budget. In summary, The Least of These is an average movie
Around 4 B.C., a miniature mill donkey is tired of walking in an endless circle as he and his partner grind grain. With the help of a bird who can’t stop dancing and waving his behind at the camera (more on this later), the donkey manages to escape. While he’s running away from his owner he accidentally stumbles onto the aftermath of Mary and Joseph’s wedding feast. Mary adopts him and names him Bo. Joseph doesn’t like Bo because he steals Mary’s attention away from him. As time goes forward, Bo soon finds himself caught up in a very unusual depiction of the Nativity story with no way of escape.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
All things considered, the production in this film is a mixed bag with the animation quality being it’s strongest point. This being said, the animation is fine and has no major errors, and outdoor scenes look mostly realistic; however, the transitions between scenes are either very abrupt and choppy or follow no logical train of thought. The soundtrack is a hodge-podge of several songs by big-name Christian artists, and the said songs don’t usually match the mood of the scene in which they are played. For instance, in one scene where the donkey is depressed, we hear a Casting Crowns song about happiness (?). It’s as if the filmmakers were trying to squeeze as many pseudo-Christmas songs as they could into the run-time with no regard for proper editing. Moreover, the film could have used some instrumental music instead of only songs with lyrics because the viewer is confused as to whether they’re supposed to be listening to the radio or watching a movie. In short, there are more continuity errors than successes. Finally, audio quality contains no notable errors, but editing continues to be a problem here.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
What exactly is the plot of this film? Is it a donkey coming-of-age tale? Is it an unusual interpretation of Mary and Joseph’s relationship? Is it about a donkey and a bird who long to join the ‘royal caravan’? Anyway, the plot and storyline are absolute madness, so hold on to your hats. First, it is highly unlikely that Mary was six months pregnant before ever telling Joseph about the angel’s appearance and her new future. Furthermore, the Bible says that Joseph went through a period of indecision before deciding to remain engaged to Mary. In this depiction he says a very brief prayer and hears a one-word answer, then he’s hunky dory. Second, what’s with all the references to animal’s rear ends? From the old donkey in the mill to that obnoxious dove who won’t stop waving his at the camera (sometimes at very close range) and making frequent jokes about pooping on people, we were left slightly repulsed and scratching our heads. Moreover, why are there so many characters in this plot, and why are some minor characters focused on while others have like two scenes? Third, we have no explanation for the weird singular Roman wannabe super soldier who hulks around with a mask on for the entirety of the film, while grunting and leading two ‘evil’ henchman dogs around on chains. Apparently King Herod sent him on a very evil mission to kill Mary, or Jesus, or something. Because said soldier never speaks we are frequently tortured with dialogue from the uber-serious wolf and his unfunny bulldog sidekick. The main question here is why has this soldier singled out Mary and Joseph to follow around??? Finally, no one knows why Elizabeth and Zechariah are only in one scene – Zechariah is apparently a dim-witted guy who loves to gorge himself on free food – or why Joseph hates Bo so much. This maddening tale comes to a screeching halt with a Band-aid style ending that doesn’t make up for everything else.
Acting Quality (1 point)
The acting quality is fine in this movie, but no voice actor portrays much depth beyond reading their lines in varying tones of voice. As is typical for movies by this filmmaker, a whole bunch of celebrities and Christian celebs are thrown together in a mish-mash cast. On a side note, its really too bad Christopher Plummer was wasted on this film because he would have made a great King Herod in a live-action Christmas film. Any-who, there’s nothing particularly remarkable to speak of here. Yes, there’s no glaring errors, but there’s also nothing that makes this film stand out from it’s counterparts. Overall, acting quality is fine, but the performances – with the exception of Zachary Levi, who actually tries – are pretty much phoned in.
Conclusion
In summary, there is no reason to even try to make a kids animated film unless you’re going to commit to making it high-quality in all respects – the world has enough B-grade Christian kids movies. We don’t really know why this movie was made or how it possibly got back into theaters this year. I guess the Christian kids entertainment genre is really that starved for content. One of the most offensive things from this movie (out of many) is the fact that they felt the need to include the statement “We tried not to stray too far from the original story”. Not too far?!?! They went way off the road! Needless to say, we don’t recommend that you watch this film, for it may cause your kids to become confused about how the Nativity story actually happened and expose them to inappropriate ‘humor’.
Following graduation from college, Jessica Miller and her two closest friends are forced to face the harshness of the real world that academia never prepared them for. They all have big plans, but they soon realize that no one in their respective job fields really cares about their dreams. Things don’t turn out like they’re supposed to, and the three friends are left scared and confused. However, this gives them the opportunity to realize that God sometimes has bigger plans for people than they can ever realize.
Production Quality (2 points)
As a whole, the production of Faith, Hope, & Chocolate! is fine for a creation produced from a university film school. They have their proverbial ducks in a row when it comes to video quality, audio quality, and camera work. For the most part, sets, locations, and props are professionally presented and utilized. The only major complaints to raise are some occasional backgrounds sounds and some cheesy flashback quality. Also, the editing is a bit generic, but on the whole, this is a respectable production that shows a creative team headed in the right direction.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
Unfortunately, the plot detracts quite a bit from this film, mostly due to the incessant and unnecessary narration that greatly hurts the possibility of character development. As such, dialogue is fairly pedestrian but not awful; however, it doesn’t do enough to build the characters beyond their stereotypical molds and expected backstories. Also, the awkward attempts at comedy throughout the storyline don’t help matters, and the fact that some plot elements aren’t entirely rooted in reality isn’t helpful either. Since the central concept of this film is somewhat interesting yet at the same time slightly standard, this character-based story needed to depend heavily on the personalities of the characters, and this was something that wasn’t accomplished. Doing this would have added a necessary level of complexity to this otherwise straightforward idea; moreover, post-college issues need to be explored as this isn’t heavily discussed in Christian entertainment, but a more meaningful basis would have done better with driving the points home. In the end, the problems presented in the story are too easily fixed with a posthumous artifact, which seems to absolve some of the characters of realistic consequences or help them to avoid real lessons. Thus, this is a nice try that will hopefully yield better results next time.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Overall, the acting of Faith, Love, & Chocolate! is fine. It’s neither dynamic nor horrible–just average. At times, some emotions come off as forced and awkward, and line delivery could be a bit more meaningful, but this is the best that can be expected from presumably volunteer cast members. In this light, each cast members takes on their roles well.
Conclusion
In summary, the creative team behind this movie likely did the best they could with what they had available. The one thing we would have liked to see more of was deeper character development, which could have only been accomplished by banning narration and by spending a little more time on the dialogue. In cases like these, it’s sometimes better to base characters off of real people or to give the characters flexibility to fit the personalities of the cast members. Nevertheless, the people behind this film seem to mean well and likely have a lot of good potential for future projects.
Jack Benson never knew his birth mother, and this fact has always caused his pain. That’s why he takes the opportunity to run when he gets a vehicle for his sixteenth birthday. However, he doesn’t make it very far and ends up stopping at a local diner called The Griddle House. There, he meets an eccentric cast of characters that surprisingly helps him sort through his problems to find hope.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
For the most part, The Griddle House has a respectable production even though it’s mostly limited to a handful of sets. Even still, the props therein are realistic, and video quality is as it should be. At times, however, there is some shaky camera work as well as some odd camera angles. As a whole, the audio quality is on part with standards, even if the soundtrack is slightly generic. Further, the editing is fairly basic without any major concerns or significant positives. Therefore, this production is basically average since it’s neither horrible nor dynamic.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 points)
From the get-go, it’s fairly hard to understand the point of the story behind The Griddle House. While there’s some character potential, the dialogue isn’t enough to keep them from being generic and cardboard, even though it’s almost entirely made up of conversations. The forced comedy doesn’t help matters, especially since it’s very flat and awkward. Many scenes appear to drag on just for the purpose of filling time, and the interactions between the characters seem stiff and forced rather than natural and dynamic. The Griddle House draws a lot of comparisons with The Encounter, except with fewer Messianic characters. In the end, there’s not really that much to this movie’s plot as it’s hard to deduce the actual purpose behind the random conversations that fill the run time and don’t do enough to help us truly know the characters. This is one of those nice-try-but-not-good-enough efforts.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
As a whole, the acting in The Griddle House is fine but not very dynamic. The cast is somewhat vanilla in their performances and safe in their acting. This doesn’t allow many major errors to surface, but it also doesn’t create an environment for standouts. Also, emotions are somewhat awkward throughout, and this section overall comes out as average.
Conclusion
Bearfruit Films typically likes to try different things (i.e. Rumors of Wars), but The Griddle House doesn’t quite meet these standards. It’s almost like there’s some kind of hidden idea in this film that was never fully disclosed or that there were pertinent scenes edited out that would help us understand better. The overall underlying tone is hard to grasp, which makes it difficult to discern the actual purpose. Perhaps future projects from this creative team will yield more lasting results.
Judge Edward Morgan is known for being heavy-handed and for enforcing the letter of the law without taking personal situations into account. However, when he’s stranded in a coffee shop one night, he’s confronted by people whom he’s ruled against, which forces him to take a second look at his closely-held beliefs as well as the past pain he’s been hiding from. Will he be able to change his ways before it’s too late?
Production Quality (1.5 points)
For the most part, Ruling of the Heart is a fine production even if the sets, locations, and props are somewhat limited. Some of the lighting is also unnecessarily dark, and there are some cheap special effects throughout. Flashbacks also have an odd quality about them, such as inconsistently shaky camera work. The soundtrack is fairly generic, and although other production elements are acceptable, there really needed to be more here since this film was made in 2018. However, some of this may be due to the limited plot scope.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 points)
Unfortunately, whereas there was a somewhat interesting idea behind this film, its disregard for legal procedure and judicial realities doesn’t bode well. The courtroom situations depicted within the storyline don’t line up with real life, which really puts a damper on things. To make matters worse, the characters are quite bland and one-dimensional throughout the narrative, and the Christian message seems shoe-horned in. One of the saving graces is the use of flashbacks to try to develop character backstories, but they don’t go as far as they could have, and characters struggle to break out of their “issue” shells and to actually be accessible as people rather than as cardboard cutouts. The stock vanilla dialogue doesn’t help, and the fact that the plot forces things forward instead of letting things unfold naturally isn’t advantageous. Even still, the film seems to be long and drawn out despite the lack of substantial content. While there are some brief attempts near the end of the movie to craft character motive, it’s too little too late. Essentially, when setting out to create a narrative that’s confined without one set and based on a complex topic requiring further research, flashbacks need to be integral in developing characters, and accuracy of the depicted topic needs to be ensured.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Although there’s nothing specifically wrong with the casting and acting in Ruling of the Heart, there’s also nothing particularly dynamic or special about it. This section of the film is overall generic as there is some stilted line delivery and some average emotions that are balanced out by other better performances. Despite some unnatural and overly earnest portrayals, this portion of the movie is basically average.
Conclusion
In the end, Ruling of the Heart is a nice attempt to take a look at how personal experiences can unfairly influence a judge’s ruling, but in order for this concept to produce more of an impact, research needs to be done to make sure judicial situations are accurately portrayed. Further, characters need to organically developed beyond simply representing issues and should be relatable people via personality-building and backstory-revealing dialogue and flashbacks. Without realism of ideas and characters, a movie can’t properly get off the ground to make a difference, no matter how important the topic is.
For years, Max has resented his father for leaving them. Now, this anger boils beneath the surface as he endeavors to make a big name for himself as a club promoter in the LA night club scene. However, when he’s faced with a lucrative offer he can’t refuse, little does he know that he’s sinking deeper into pride and arrogance. He refuses to turn to God as things seem to be falling apart around him, but a series of events begins to change his heart and remind him of his mother’s faith.
Production Quality (2 points)
Since it is a 2018 production, Crave: The Fast Life should have exhibited a bit more of a dynamic nature. As it is, the video quality is grainy at times, even though the camera work is mostly fine. At times, there is odd lighting throughout, but all production elements do get better as they go. Subtle camera angles throughout reveal well-placed recurring props, and settings are overall realistic and authentic. The soundtrack is also effectively integrated throughout, and the editing is mostly average. In the end, the production does enough in the second half to achieve and above-average score.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1.5 points)
From the get-go, it seems like the screenwriters have a fairly interesting story to share in Crave, which is evidenced by an effective beginning that contains a key character flashback. Other flashbacks are also well-done throughout the course of the plot, yet this technique isn’t used to its fullest potential as the storyline tends to jump around in time using only time stamps to keep the audience oriented. This method of storytelling isn’t the best, even though there are some good attempts to gradually develop character personality and motive. Even so, the time jumps can be a bit disorienting at times, and while the avoidance of narration is commendable, it’s still somewhat confusing for character continuity. Sometimes, dialogue tends to be a bit forward and forced, and the Christian message-pushing seems off-base as it’s portrayed as primarily a church-going habit combined with some behavior modification. There’s some sermonizing done by ‘perfect’ Christian characters who seem to assume that giving people verses without getting to know them is sufficient for a life change. However, one of the plot’s central themes is a hard, realistic look at how generational patterns repeat, which is good, but it tends to wade into some too realistic and slightly edgy content at times. The middle of the story lags and loses some focus and creativity as dynamic storytelling is exchanged for Christian platitudes and quick fixes. The character arcs in the last third of the film are too steep to be believed, and it all culminates in a very quick and rushed ending that easily fixes things with little to no consequences. In the end, there was a lot of potential here, so hopefully, next time, this creative team will be able to work out the kinks of their otherwise good storytelling.
Acting Quality (2 points)
On the whole, the acting in Crave is mostly average. It starts out a bit slow but improves with time like other elements of the film do. Some scenes can feel a bit awkward and have a one-take tone to them while others come off as quickly filmed. Moreover, emotional scenes can seem forced at times, but in the big picture, there is enough good here to outweigh the inexperience. The cast members appear to mean well and want to do their best, so this is a good way to approach things. In the end, this film has some positive marks, and it’s a good start for this creative team.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that Christian entertainment creators are trying to expand the horizons of the genre with films like Crave that would have never been considered just under a decade ago. This progress is encouraging, so we hope to see more forward motion in this area. However, as creativity grows, we also need to see production, acting, and plot qualities grow with it, especially storyline and character growth. We’re just now getting to the point where Christian entertainment is depicting ‘flawed’ characters in the world outside the church, so now, as Christians, we need to get better at telling captivating stories that will truly reach people for Christ.
Carrie Saunders just wants to live her normal life as a businesswoman, but her recurring nightmares about a missing girl continue to haunt her night after night. Her visions cloud her judgment and cause her to begin to suspect her husband of wrongdoing. Police refuse to believe her tales, so she decides to investigate the matter on her own. Little does she know that the wild ride she’s about to experience will change her life forever.
Production Quality (2 points)
At first, the production of Dawn begins in a rocky manner as evidenced by inconsistent camera work and lighting and some slight background sounds. However, the video quality is stable throughout, and the sets, locations, and props are mostly fine. The camera work does seem to improve as the film proceeds, and it becomes quite professional in the end. Another inconsistent area is the soundtrack since it’s generic in some parts yet quite good in others. Further, one other drawback is somewhat dizzying and repetitive nature of some of the psychological sequences, but this is also sometimes an asset. In the end, the editing is good, and the production is a mixed bag that’s overall above average.
Plot and Storyline Quality (2 points)
Dawn dares to try something extremely different in Christian film as it takes on a very unique plot that’s often hard to quantify yet intriguing at the same time. The attempts at extreme creativity are well-noted, even if they can get a bit head-scratching at times. Although some may not like it, it’s good that the Christian elements of Dawn aren’t too in-your-face as it tries to primarily rely on good mystery plot content. However, the storyline does have a few flaws in that the characters could be a bit more developed than they are, which means the time could have been better spent on this venture rather than on repetition of key elements the audience is shown over and over again. Still, the characters are fairly good as they are, even if the villain characters are slight strawmen. The psychological elements of the plot are interesting, but they could use a bit more explanation as to why they are occurring. However, the ending isn’t quite expected, and Dawn is an overall very creative attempt at a complex mystery plot culminating with an actually effective climax that’s built throughout the entirety of the film. This is finally a real suspense plot worth watching, but it would be even better as a remake or a similar replication.
Acting Quality (2 points)
On the whole, the acting of Dawn is fine with only a few minor errors to contend with. There were definitely some opportunities for improved emotional delivery and more dynamic line delivery. However, the cast does enough to make this an above average performance, which rounds out an overall above average film that’s worth your time.
Conclusion
The potential that this creative team showed is very encouraging because it could be the start of something great for them. It’s highly possible that streaming series are in their future if they are allowed to collaborate with larger budgets and tighter writing. What we need is more psychological suspense and mystery stories, and seeing these in the context of Christian series would be awesome, so we can’t wait to see what they have planned next.
When a man and his wife have a sudden plane accident in the middle of nowhere, they have to do whatever they can do to fight for survival. However, the strained relationship between them becomes a detriment to their quest as she believes in God while he resists her faith because of the tragedies they’ve endured in their marriage. Will they be able to overcome both the elements and the distance between them in order to survive another day?
Production Quality (-1 point)
With a production this bad in 2018, we don’t even know where to begin. It’s literally terrible in every way you can conceive: weird outdoor lighting, horrible audio quality with loud background sounds, and basically no soundtrack on top of this. Sets, locations, and props are extremely cheap and don’t line up with what they’re supposed to portray. There are also weird special effects and oddly chosen sound effects that contribute to the annoyingly bad quality of this production. Since you almost have to try to make a production this bad, it warrants a negative point. It goes without saying that the editing is very choppy, but that’s just white noise in the bigger picture because there are so many problems here.
Plot and Storyline Quality(-1 point)
In this storyline, there are no breaks in negativity or balanced scenes as everything is dour and dramatic in infantile ways. It has a very juvenile outlook on life as characters do things that have no grounding in reality and as the plot contains unrealistic survival elements. The majority of the film is painfully long and drawn out scenes that are like pulling teeth to watch. It’s obvious that the main agenda of the film is to scare the viewers into being saved (as if any non-believers would ever think about watching this garbage), yet there are a lot of fantastically weird magical concepts that don’t seem to line up with typical fundamentalist ideologies. These elements are connected to a really bizarre twist at the end of the movie that comes off in a very strange and off-putting way. In the end, there’s so much wrong here with so little to deal with, which is why this is a rare feat deserving of negative points.
Acting Quality (-1 point)
With such a small cast, everything stands out, and the acting therein is annoyingly horrible. Emotions are excruciating to watch as if the cast members are being tortured to say them…it’s like fingernails in the chalkboard to watch it unfold. Every little drama is extremely forced to the point of straining, and because of these issues, there’s no way to properly connect with the character struggles. It’s not like the cast members had good lines to work with in the first place, but they make matters worse with their agonizing delivery. Thus, in summary, if you’re looking for the exact opposite of how to make a Christian film, watch Turbulent.
Conclusion
Negative films are absolutely unacceptable in the modern era of Christian entertainment, and survival plots as a whole are worn out and should be used sparingly unless somebody actually has a good idea to share. Basically, from Turbulent, we can learn the same old lessons we’ve seen before: if you don’t have the money for your film, don’t even think about making it because the higher production standards in the field today demand better delivery. Also, even if you have the money for a decent production, please make sure you actually have a worthwhile plot to share and can properly coach your cast to be believable. The time for poor quality Christian films to go away is long overdue.
If you thought that Clancy ended where the title character died, you thought wrong (unless this head-scratching sequel is actually a long dream). After they appeared to be on the right track with Reading Kate, husband-and-wife film-making duo Jefferson and Kelly Worthington Moore have create an unnecessary follow-up to a film no one really remembers about characters the audience can’t connect with. In this sequel, Nick Best and Clancy are back to…do things…like get involved in street fighting (see copyrighted photo above) and usurp the rule of law because they feel like it. Beyond that, it’s hard to pinpoint what this movie’s actually about.
Production Quality (1 point)
As a fairly recent production, we should be seeing Moore more from Kelly’s Filmworks than this. While they have a flair for some creative camera angles and establishing shots at times, there are too many dark scenes in this film as well as a lot of silent portions that lack adequate soundtrack support. While video quality is mostly fine, sets, locations, and props are somewhat limited in scope, which doesn’t really hold the attention well. The most glaring problems that negatively affect the entire viewing experience relate to the high amount of long, drawn-out sequences that reflect lazy editing and a desperation to squeeze runtime from the thin amount of movie content. As a whole, while this production isn’t glaringly bad, it’s just not enough coming from a film outfit that’s produced more than five movies, especially since the field has higher production standards these days.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
The sole point given to this plot is only because of the hilarious exchange between the two main characters about Hallmark cards and Fakebook. Otherwise, there’s nothing to offer here. After the riveting opening sequence about the previous movie’s events, which appears to suggest Clancy Once Again is actually an alternate ending for the first one or some kind of dream sequence epilogue within the former film, this rendition of the uninteresting Clancy story is full of awkwardly useless conversations and complete with a cheesy villain return subplot. As it desperately grasps for content and purpose amidst a confused landscape and forced premise, unrealistic happenings move things along in order to create an unnecessary suspense feel. Full of coincidences and convenient turns, Clancy Once Again advocates for vigilante citizens taking matters into their own hands rather than trying to wait for the authorities. Obviously, there may be a time and place for this type of action, but the reasons behind it in this film are absurd. When all else fails to keep the runtime above ninety minutes, recycled footage from the first film everybody forgot about is right there to extend your viewing experience. In the end, there’s little else to be said except that this is the most unnecessary sequel in the history of unnecessary sequels (and there’s lots of those).
Acting Quality (1 point)
Jefferson Moore’s unusual preoccupation with Christina Fougnie continues in Clancy Once Again, and her acting skills have not improved with age. In this film, she comes off as even more full of herself as her line delivery is shrill and her emotional expressions are off-putting. Other cast members are bland and vanilla with Moore taking on his usual persona, which wouldn’t be all that bad if he actually had lines to work with. Most cast members seem to be phoning in their performances. One standout issue with this section is noticeably bad makeup throughout the whole cast (but most notably on Fougnie). In the end, this rounds out a subpar film lost in a growing sea of Christian movies that’s leaving the old guard behind.
Conclusion
Jefferson and Kelly were on the right track with Reading Kate, but they’ve lost their way again with a useless sequel to a boring film no one cared about in the first place. Where are they headed as movie creators? It’s hard to say, but they certainly won’t accept dissent or any constructive criticism. They do have experience and some production\writing skills to bring to the table, but they will only find true success in a collaborative environment. However, we somehow doubt this will ever happen since they’ve been content to operate on their own all these years. Thus, whatever talent they have will likely continue to go to waste.
When Amber’s husband is killed in an overseas bombing while on tour in the Middle East, her entire life seems to come apart piece by piece. She struggles to support her and her daughter in a small town because she obviously didn’t get any military benefits from the government. She also pushes everyone away and doesn’t go to church anymore, but thankfully, a semi-bad-boy race car driver has crashed in town because he needed some time off from doing whatever it was he was doing before. This gives him time to do stuff with all the kids in town, which is where he becomes obsessed with Amber’s daughter and eventually Amber herself. However, Amber still is struggling financially to the point where she needs an old-fashioned loan from the pawn shop. Will the madness ever end?
Production Quality (2 points)
As per usual for most recent Harold Cronk and PureFlix productions, God Bless the Broken Road has a fine, generic one to offer with nothing particularly special or negative about it. The sets, locations, and props are somewhat limited, but camera work, video quality, and audio quality are all fine. The vanilla soundtrack leaves something to be desired, and the editing is poor because of the nature of the story, but on the whole, this is a fine attempt. However, this brand of production is also becoming very common place in Christian entertainment, so it’s time for deep-pocketed outfits like PureFlix to show us a little something more.
Plot and Storyline Quality (-2 points)
Regardless, any good this film has to offer is totally negated by the total nonsense of this plot. At times, it feels copied from a Karen Kingsbury novel since this idea has been done so much before, but it’s actually worse because of the logical inconsistencies and flimsy premise. Too many unrealistic things happen that don’t appear to be rooted in reality, and this makes a mockery of real problems people may face in life. Most of the scenes are cheesily forced to convey a certain point in typical PureFlix Obvious style. An example of this is an old standby: awkward sermonizing of lessons they want the audience to be force-fed. Another instance is shown through the most generic dialogue and conversations that were surely purchased (or stolen) from Acme Stock Dialogue, Inc. The characters are just pawns in the inevitable progression of the plot as convenient turns happen to drive home certain agendas. Perhaps the worst part of it all is the fact that every horribly overused inspirational cliche is car-crashed into this one epic fail of a film…an exploration of how this is done would require a completely separate analysis. As a whole, God Bless the Broken Road is just another example of PureFlix Drama wherein every scene has to be an emotional climax as the characters are just extremely stereotyped caricatures designed to represent issues rather than people. If you’re looking for a corny Christian movie all-in-one deal, this one will be worth your money and time. Otherwise, avoid it like the plague.
Acting Quality (1 point)
While plastic white people take center stage to bore us with bland performances (in their defense, they weren’t given much to work with in the line department), better cast members are forced to take backseat as they watch the madness unfold before them and likely wonder when they’ll ever make a big enough break to no longer be trapped in PureFlix World. Main cast members come off as dead-faced and emotionally blank a lot of the time, which makes the forced emotional climaxes of the plot even worse. In the end, there’s some good here, but this sections rounds off an overall unacceptable effort in today’s Christian entertainment world.
Conclusion
If we wanted the sappiest, most unrealistic Hallmark film we could find, we would watch this film because it at least isn’t constantly interrupted by drug commercials. But who’s got that kind of time? Instead, let’s hope films like God Bless the Broken Road will become less and less commonplace as Christian audiences demand more quality from Christian entertainment creators. We’ve finally gotten to where above-average productions are commonplace, so it’s time to let the writers be the writers when it comes to screenplays.
Senator Jonah Thomas is a rising political star who wants to be the good guy in Washington, but evil individuals, both human and spiritual, have their own plans for him. Jonah’s political career is pushing his family to the brink, and he doesn’t realize the evil devices that await him in one fateful meeting. As his soul hangs in the balance, he will be given one last chance to battle for his eternal destiny in a very poorly-animated CGI world.
Production Quality (0 points)
Imagine you have this great idea for a complex sci-fi plot that requires a lot expensive CGI and animation tools. Would you go ahead and make it even though you didn’t have the funding to make it on a level we see in theaters today? Essentially, Heaven’s War is a poorly funded attempt at a possibly good idea that will fall totally flat due to how bad the production is. The extremely cheap special effects and the cheesiest possible animation and CGI draw so much attention to themselves that they negate any possible good elements in other parts of the production. They affect everything and make it an unpleasant experience whether via disorienting editing, cheap flashback quality, weird sound effects, or wild and quick cuts between scenes. Even if other elements of the film are fine, the special effects failings are the types of issues that infect everything, which keeps this production rated at zero.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Besides this, the plot is fairly confusing and hard to follow. Even though it’s an interesting idea to explore the spiritual realm, everything is too focused on American politics, which begs the question why the major spiritual battles highlighted here center around raising taxes and finding a vaccine for cancer. If this isn’t the intention, it comes off that way through expository dialogue and devices that move the plot forward, such as news reports and phone conversations. As the story wildly jumps from one random idea to the next, the slightly interesting flashback\psychological vision elements had something going for them, but the way they are presented is a disservice. Poor delivery and unclear direction doomed this plot from the start, not to mention the extremely cheesy portrayal of the spiritual realm that is almost a laughingstock. After lots of disorienting battle sequences and explorations of alternate realities, problems are suddenly quickly fixed at the end with no feeling or reality behind it, and by the time it’s all over, you suddenly realize that this film barely had any actual content in it. Hence, no points can be awarded in this section either.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Surprisingly, as bad as it is, the acting is the strongest point of this movie because it’s the only section that gets any points. Even still, the acting often comes off as un-earnest, overly practiced, and robotic. For the most part, emotions are black, forced, and unnatural. There are some good moments for some of the cast members that are basically just average, but as a whole, the acting is cardboard and the casting poor. This rounds out an unacceptably bad film in the new era of Christian entertainment.
Conclusion
Danny Carrales’ intentions to make different types of Christian films are definitely noted, but their application is way off the mark. It would have been better to make Heaven’s War fully animated so that more time could have been spent on making a real plot. Relying only on special effects of any quality level is never a good idea because they can’t write the story for you. Even the best sci-fi idea will fail if the characters can hold it up for you because the audience has no real connection to the concept without feeling like real people are experiencing it. Basically, better luck next time.
While on a business trip in the United Kingdom, an American man takes a photography hike only to be shocked by a man waiting on a bridge who intends to jump to his death. The American decides to awkwardly climb up the impossibly tall bridge with no other way to get on it, for he intends to share the Gospel with the British man before he ends it all. However, the American doesn’t know what he’s in for as the two men embark on the longest quasi-philosophical debate involving Bruce Marchiano since the original Encounter film.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
Since it has very limited sets, locations, and props, Grace and Gravity doesn’t make any major mistakes in the production category, but it doesn’t make any waves either. Video quality and audio quality are both fine accordingly, yet the soundtrack is very generic. Camera work is also adequate, but the presence of weird technological sound effects and other cheap elements put a drag on things. To cap things off, the editing is very basic and almost non-existent, which essentially gives us an average production.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Did we really need another film that’s basically a long-winded conversation between Bruce Marchiano and another person? It’s bad enough that this movie is full of forced dialogue and long, drawn-out portions, but there’s hardly anything to this so-called plot. It’s intent on kicking the can down the road by wasting time as it grasps for content and produces menial flashbacks that give us little insight into character motive. While there are some slight attempts at talking about real issues, they come off as inadequate and empty. This idea is awkwardly forced to be something it’s not as there are a handful of totally dead scenes, which makes the story very fruitless as it slogs on. Further, the worldview is bit odd, and the ending sequence is highly unusual and unrealistic. In summary, with no characters to work with in a character-based plot, we’re left with a lame attempt to do something (not sure what).
Acting Quality (0 points)
With only two main cast members, they carry the weight of the film. Unfortunately, they fumble the ball often. While Marchiano is slightly better than past roles, his delivery still comes off as overly theatrical and practiced. The acting as a whole is very stilted and cardboard. There are too many scenes of only one or two cast members doing all the talking, and there are some cringe-worthy sequences of painfully forced emotions. In the end, this rounds out a very disappointing effort that had little going for it.
Conclusion
Grace and Gravity really is just another version of The Encounter, just without an obvious Jesus character. It seems like Bruce Marchiano always includes his contract that he needs a certain amount of speaking time in the film, including a hefty imparting of wisdom (see The Encounter 2 and Alison’s Choice). To many audiences, this delivery of content will be very off-putting and appear purposeless. There just isn’t anything substantial for this film to offer beyond half-baked philosophical explorations that do little to relate to the struggles of real people.
Mark Taylor was burnt out as a firefighter after nearly twenty years of service, and he began having physical symptoms of his exhaustion. He also began having mental symptoms of the trauma he experienced, which led to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. He went on leave from work due to the condition and eventually retired, and during this time, he believed that he received visions both from Satan and from God of how Donald Trump would become President of the United States.
Production Quality (0 points)
So Liberty University wants to make another movie to showcase their expensive equipment and unusual application of it. While on the surface this production seems fine, there are too many film school experiments exhibited throughout, such as bizarre camera work and choppy ‘artistic’ editing. Sets, props, and locations are surprisingly limited for the supposed scope of this film, and it seems like with the budget that was funded for this film, things would look better than this. The audio quality as a whole is unacceptable for a movie of this budget level since there are many weird background noises throughout and since the many musical montages use an invasive and unrelated soundtrack. Besides these obvious problems, it goes without saying that the special effects are horribly bad and very cheap-looking for a film school who purports to have some of the best resources at their fingertips. As a side note, there are too many CBN product placements, probably because they couldn’t license the big networks in a film that depends too heavily on news sequences to move time forward. In the end, any good parts of this production are cancelled out by the bad, which leaves us with nothing here.
Plot and Storyline Quality (-2 points)
As expected from the build-up and from the divisive political atmosphere surrounding the origin of this film’s idea, this story is utter madness. The fact that a large section of the American Christian population has embraced the bizarre ramblings of a self-proclaimed prophet who has many prophecies that never came true is very disturbing at best. Due to money, Liberty University has chosen to give a platform to these wacky theories, but they packaged them in the most boring and vanilla plot you can imagine. The weird worldview aside, this story has basically nothing to offer the viewers except for boring activities of daily living, random life montages, and off-the-wall acid trip vision sequences that have little to no explanation or understanding of what’s going on. Besides the fact that this film gives a platform to highly unusual and offbeat ideas that borderline on false teaching and peddles cult-life politically Christian propaganda, the main story is actually quite short and irrelevant. There’s hardly anything to it at all, and all of the negative brings it lower than zero, which isn’t really surprising, given the history of this story’s origins.
Acting Quality (0 points)
To combine with one of the most boring plots possible, Liberty University’s film school made sure to cast the most boring cast members we’ve ever seen, and we thought that the cast of Extraordinary was bad enough. The lead actor is extremely dead-faced for most of the movie, and most of the cast members don’t exhibit any substantial emotions except for overly practiced ones. Line delivery is very stilted and robotic, and the interactions between the cast members come off as very awkward and impersonal. In short, if there’s something bad about any movie, it’s probably represented somehow in The Trump Prophecy.
Conclusion
We have to wonder if Liberty University will ever learn from their series of colossal failures (see Extraordinary). Even if you agree with the total drivel propagated by this film of madness, there’s no way you can contort this film to be a quality movie or even an interesting one. Whoever is behind the decision making at LU’s film school clearly has no idea what they’re doing in the entertainment business because they consistently roll out some of the most well-funded and tone deaf movies we’ve ever seen. Words cannot express how far out of touch with reality they are; anyone that even thought about making a film based on a scam-worthy book like The Trump Prophecy has their priorities seriously out of whack and out of tune with what really matters.
Every year, movies and series are released, and cast members show off their talents. Writers and directors showcase their creativity. Films and series are separated into roughly three groups: the truly talented, the potentially great, and the others. At Box Office Revolution, we believe it is our prerogative to annually recognize those entertainment creators and players who have the ability to bring revolution to Christian entertainment.
The Delvecchios have always been a tight-knit family centered around their restaurant business, but now things are changing as their patriarch is stepping away from the leadership role he’s held for so long due to his failing health. As he hands the reins over to his sons, old wounds are re-opened as past sins and grudges are exposed once again. When the unexpected happens, will they be able to put things back together the way they once were?
Production Quality (1.5 points)
Inheritance is overall a surprising movie albeit a frustrating one due to its conflicting elements. One of these conflicts involves the production, which is seemingly unnecessarily low-quality. This is evidenced by some inconsistent lighting and some weird aspect ratios, which both seem unnecessary. While camera work is mostly fine, video is sometimes low quality. However, on the bright side, the audio quality is good, including an effective soundtrack. Moreover, the editing is slightly choppy at times due to a large amount of content being handled. Overall, this is a mostly average production that has elements holding it back that seem very avoidable. Had these issues been taken care of, we could be looking at a entirely different film.
Plot and Storyline Quality (2 points)
One of the most intriguing aspects of Inheritance is that it presents a very good study on family systems and generational patterns, which causes the characters to be almost good enough to sustain an entire miniseries. This makes this film a rare case in which character and plot development actually outshine other elements of the movie. However, there are still some issues here, such as a choppy plot presentation that is evidenced by scenes that randomly cut off with no warning at times. There are also times when subplots end very abruptly without any real resolution or understanding of why it happened the way that it did. Even still, there are some great attempts at ambiguity and the portrayal of imperfect, face-value characters without any major agendas to push. The dialogue is somewhat inconsistent, however, as it is sometimes quite good while too expository and shortcut-creating at other times. It’s almost like too much content was written in the initial creation of the film, which required cutting, which happened in some inconvenient places. This possible cutting also caused some unnecessarily steep character arcs that lead up to an almost too-perfect ending. Even so, there’s a ton of potential here that could be used in future projects.
Acting Quality (2 points)
For the most part, Inheritance contains a mostly professional cast of experienced cast members, such as Robert Miano and Andrew Cheney, even though Cheney’s fake accent can get a little annoying at times. This is easily one of Miano’s best performances, but there are also some other fake accent issues to contend with. Even still, line delivery is mostly on-point, even if emotional delivery is slightly inconsistent and overplayed at times. In the end, every cast member is cast appropriately, which rounds out an above-average film that could have been better.
Conclusion
Inheritance does what every low-budget independent Christian film should strive to do: craft a meaningful plot that outshines it budget, which will cause the film to stand out in the sea of mediocrity and possibly open new doors for the future. It’s not perfect by any means, but it does stand out, and it makes us want to see what else could be done with these characters if more money was put towards the effort. It’s highly possible that a series or miniseries format would have been better for this idea. Regardless, we can’t wait to see what this creative team produces next.
Tom has worked hard to become a regional manager, which is why he’s so disappointed when his self-absorbed boss lets him know that he needs a four-year college degree to achieve this position. Frustrated, Tom quits on the spot and decides to look into the property he inherited from his recently deceased father. His wife convinces him to take on his father’s old gas station business as their new source of income. Will they be able to handle the new business while patching up hidden family issues?
Production Quality (2.5 points)
One thing that can be said for newer Christian films, especially those in the last few years: no matter how forgettable or lame the plot is, the productions are absolutely getting better. Shifting Gears has a fine production without many issues, as evidenced by good video quality and camera work. For the most part, audio quality is fine, even though there are some loud portions of the soundtrack and some annoying sound effects, but these are the only issues with the production. It’s clear that time is spent on all aspects of the production, especially the sets, props, and locations that make this movie better than it would be without it. Overall, since the editing is also respectable, this is a high-quality production that unfortunately went wasted.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
As such, it’s very hard to understand the actual purpose of this plot as it meanders around peppered with head-scratching cliches and under-developed characters. It borrows a lot of elements from a typical sports underdog plot combined with a return to hometown plot, which implies that there’s nothing creative going on here. The forced and cringe-worthy comedy elements and asides waste valuable time that could have been used to craft better dialogue, but we are only left with cheesy half-measures. The story is based on too many coincidences, and the Christian message comes off as plastic and manufactured. As many of the scenes are downright eye-rolling and funny for all the wrong reasons, it goes without saying that there is little to no point in making this movie with a plot this bad.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
While some cast members are fairly over the top with their performances, they aren’t all bad since some of them are somewhat professional and seasoned in their work. However, some of the cast members are trying way too hard to be funny most of the time, and many emotions come off as painfully forced. Even so, despite the awkward and unsure moments, there are also plenty of good moments that make up for these, and this overall makes this an average section, which rounds out a below-average film.
Conclusion
It’s difficult to see all this good production go to waste when films that have better plots have worse productions. This is the plague of independent Christian film: if one thing works, another thing doesn’t. The cause of this is obviously a lack of proper collaboration. The writers need to be the writers, and the directors need to be the directors. Until creative-minded Christians lay down their differences and begin working together more, nothing much will change, unfortunately.
Daniel is a death-row inmate awaiting the lethal injection, but he will be one of the first prisoners to receive the new experimental injection drugs. Desperate for an out, he convinces his lawyer to lobby for him to have limited and monitored internet access in order to research the drug in his last days. He is granted this privilege, but a fellow inmate keeps provoking him to research arguments for and against Christianity, and Daniel keeps taking him up on the challenge, even though he has never believed in God. before he knows it, something is changing inside of him, but is it too late?
Production Quality (2.5 points)
As a more recent film, Dead Man Rising lives up to the expectation of higher production quality, which is evident in the professional camera work and video quality. Audio is also good, even if the soundtrack is a bit generic at times. It’s noted that the sets, locations, and props are relatively limited by the design of the plot, but the props are nonetheless realistic. It’s definitely a better idea to live within your means as far as the production goes rather than to over-extend and look silly. This is really the only issue with this production since the editing is good. Moreover, this limited production design definitely puts more pressure on the plot and characters to deliver…
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
…which they unfortunately do not do as much as they could have. While the plot is a unique idea, it too easily devolves into a boring philosophical conversation between two characters that appears to push a pre-determined agenda a bit too strongly rather than to let things develop naturally. There are also some slightly unrealistic plot circumstances that are designed to make the story happen, even if there are portions of intriguing dialogue that make attempts at character development. However, since there are so few characters, they needed to be developed deeper than they were with more effective flashbacks and clearer character motivations. While there are some attempts at flashbacks, we needed to see more in this area and less in the area of apologetic information dumps that sacrifice precious time that could have been used to increase character growth. We needed a story that tells us about actual people, but we only got half-measured. Nevertheless, the ending is very interesting and effective if you make it that far, but after the wearing apologetic dumps in the middle, many people won’t get to the meaning in the end. Basically, this movie, like most other films, was made or broken by the plot, which didn’t deliver as much as it could have.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
For the most part, this small cast demonstrates good acting skills even if there are some forced lines and emotions that seem out of context for their situations. Although each cast member assumes his or her respective role well, due to the small size of the cast, each error is more pronounced. There are also some unnecessary yelling scenes that can become wearing. However, as a whole, this is an average performance that rounds out an average film that could have been more.
Conclusion
A common theme in Christian film that few Christian movie-makers have discovered and remedied is that audiences want characters they can relate to as real people. This is done through effective flashbacks and conversations that reveal to us what the character wants, why he does what he does, and how he got to where he is. Filling time with worn-out Christian debate talking points only implies that a film maker doesn’t know how to relate to real people on this level. However, when this trend changes in Christian film and when Christian movie creators begin depicting real characters we can relate to on these levels, that’s when the Christian entertainment field will finally take the culture by storm, which is good food for thought as we begin a new year.
Jessica ran away from home as a teenager after she did something she would regret forever, but now, after living with an abusive boyfriend for several years, she finds herself running back home for help. However, when she arrives on the farm she once lived on, she finds that all is not well nor how she left it. As she struggles to begin a new life, she discovers that she will need to return to her childhood faith in order to move forward.
Production Quality (2.5 points)
As should be the case for all recently-made Christian films, Christmas Manger demonstrates high production quality, as evidenced by good video quality and camera work. Though the audio can be quiet at times due to not having enough soundtrack, the sets, locations, and props are adequately used and well-constructed. Besides a few one-off lighting issues in some scenes, which may be by design, the editing is good, which rounds out a great production that we should see become more and more commonplace as we move into a new year of Christian film.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1.5 points)
Andrea Gyertson Nasfell has always been good at writing plots that portray real and accessible characters in believable life situations. This is paired with dialogue that is mostly good at building character personality and motive, but we really needed to see a bit more from the conversations among the characters in order to develop them a bit further since this is a highly character-based plot. While there are some great character back stories, flashbacks would have been helpful to enhance them. However, this return-to-hometown for Christmas plot does a great job with avoiding most of the cliches that come with this genre, and it’s a more meaningful Christmas movie than usual, even if the story is a bit simplistic. As a whole, this is an enjoyable story with no glaring errors but nothing truly dynamic either.
Acting Quality (2.5 points)
This film also has surprisingly good acting, including Andrea Logan White’s arguably best performance to date as she excels at playing herself. Other cast members are also effective and comfortable in their roles, even if a few random cast members tend to put a damper on things to keep this section from being perfect. In the end, however, this is a professional acting job to round out a professional and adequate film.
Conclusion
Films like Christmas Manger should be the norm and the baselines in Christian film (especially Christmas movies) rather than the exception. Hopefully, as we close out another year of Christian entertainment, we are beginning to see more of this, which will presumably lead to more dynamic and groundbreaking films from Christian creators. Movies like this one was a good launching pad to begin with, so it will be good to see Andrea Nasfell continue to release quality content that is memorable and culture-changing.
When Meghan and her father were forced to move to West Virginia when he lost his job, she absolutely hated it. However, in the future, as she looks back upon this time, she likes how she was able to teach some local girls how to dance and how she was in a Christmas play that year. She was able to reestablish her relationship with her father, which still affected her as she grew older.
Production Quality (.5 point)
Megan’s Christmas Miracle, though it’s a 2018 production, is one of the cheapest-looking in recent memory. Although video quality is fine, the camera work is a wild ride that includes bizarre camera angles and roving shots that are dizzying. Besides this, the limited sets and locations are very cheaply lit, like this was literally filmed in somebody’s extra house, and the props are also lacking. There’s also weird audio quality with obvious background sounds and barely any soundtrack, and there is no editing to speak of or any substantial transitions between scenes. This rounds out a very poor production effort for 2018.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
It was a monumental struggle to even fabricate anything to write for the plot summary of this film because it’s so wanting for content that it’s sad. With basically no storyline or plot concept to work with, the characters are extremely empty and cheesy due to flat and uninspiring dialogue. Other than predictable Christmas concepts and stereotypical small-town and ‘bad teenager’ characters, there is little to sustain this movie’s painful runtime other than drab conversations and riveting activities of daily living (ADL’s). For a brief moment, some confusing ‘magical’ elements are teased out of left field before they disappear just as soon as they came. Essentially, as one thing after the next happens with no organization or continuity, there is little to no nope of potential in this ‘story.’
Acting Quality (1 point)
Understandably, a majority of the cast members in this film seem bored and uninterested with the job they’ve been subjected to, and who wouldn’t be with this little amount of lines to work with? No coaching is evident as lines are half-heartedly delivered and as emotions are flippant. While some cast members appear to actually care about this film enough to put forth some sort or effort, it’s only enough to keep this section from being zero, which surprisingly makes this area the best of the film.
Conclusion
What exactly is this film going for? I feel like we ask ourselves this question a lot when reviewing Christian films – especially Christmas ones. It would be one thing if Megan’s Christmas Miracle was from the early 2000s, but 2018 films are expected to be higher quality than this with the recent upgrades and newfound advantages for independent Christian films, especially in the area of production. A production this bad is unacceptable in this new era, so any production below average is basically an automatic disqualifier because there’s no more excuses.
Welsey wants to do the right thing even as his sister lays in a hospital bed struggling in her battle with cancer. Wesley faithfully attends church, even though his mother has forsaken the faith for now, and he fervently prays at the altar every week. However, he is hurt when he sees that his pastor is throwing away the prayer requests people put in the prayer box at the altar. Thus, Wesley launches a plan to redeem the prayer box and convince God with his deeds that his sister deserves to survive the battle with cancer.
Production Quality (2.5 points)
It’s clear that although the budget for this miniseries was somewhat limited, Kevan Otto used his funds responsibly and maximized the potential from them. This is evidenced by clear video quality, good camera work, and professional audio quality. The soundtrack is somewhat generic, but it gets better as the series progresses. The sets, locations, and props are well-constructed and well-utilized as they appear to be realistic for the situations. The main drawback here is the slight need for refined editing in order to avoid including as much B-roll footage for filler scenes as it did. However, this is a very good production, which signals that Kevan Otto has finally turned over a new leaf in his career.
Plot and Storyline Quality (2 points)
The Prayer Box is a testament that even Kevan Otto can create good entertainment when he has a good team and when he actually uses employs a talented screenwriter. Using an actual screenwriter in a series rather than having the director double as the screenwriter is rare, but it great assists in the proper development of story and characters. This definitely an advantage to this miniseries as a majority of the dialogue is well-crafted and serves to develop character personalities and character motivations without having them fall into stereotypes or pre-determined molds. Also, the conversations among the characters drive the plot forward rather than having them tossed along by random circumstances. The premise of the story is also realistic and believable, including the portrayal of churches. There is also quite a bit accomplished in the story without narration, and the Christian messaging is very poignant and on point. However, there are a few drawbacks to this plot, including some slightly boring elements in the first episode and some scenes that feel like they’re just kicking the can down the road instead of developing the characters deeper like a series should be able to due to having more time to do so. One example of this is one too many off-screen characters that are only talked about rather than seen, but this could be due to budget constraints. There are also other opportunities for content enhancement, and while the ending is effective, it’s somewhat vague, but it definitely does its job. As a whole, this is easily the best Christian series to date and a great opportunity for Kevan Otto to start afresh in his entertainment ambitions.
Acting Quality (2.5 points)
The acting of The Prayer Box is definitely one of its strongest points. This includes surprisingly good child and teenager acting and arguably the best performances to date from Carey Scott and Reginald VelJohnson. The only drawbacks here are some slightly overdone makeup from some cast members and some slightly under-performed scenes, but it’s nothing too major.
Continuity Quality (2 points)
One big question with The Prayer Box is whether or not it really needed to be a series since it only has two total hours of runtime. While it’s great to create a miniseries out of a book to release it directly to PureFlix on Demand rather than making a half-baked direct-to-DVD film no one will ever see since this is something we absolutely need to see more of, it’s hard to see why a two-hour series was needed. If the funding allowed, more runtime would have been good to further develop the characters if at all possible. However, despite these minor nitpicks, the flow of this series is mostly good except for a few abrupt episode endings. As a whole, it’s refreshing to see a series, albeit a short one, that is committed to above average continuity and flow between episodes.
Conclusion
Even though The Prayer Box is a very basic and generic storyline, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what can be done when streaming series employ true screenwriters to create content. Trisha Mammen definitely has a lot of talent as a screenwriter, and Kevan Otto has definitely found a new stride in his career that needs to continue; it’s highly possible that this film could have made the Hall of Fame as a film. Though we’ve criticized Otto in the past for his poorly created films like A Question of Faith, Grace of God, In the Name of God, Online, Lukewarm, Decision, and WWJD 1 and 2, after The Prayer Box, it’s possible that his future entertainment ventures could be transformed with a second wind of much better source material and more well-funded productions. It just goes to show that anyone can make a turnaround with better resources and that we are always willing to recognize improvement and success – no matter who it comes from.
Just in case you didn’t get enough stereotypical PureFlix stupidity from the first season of Malibu Dan, the old gang is back with a new ‘season’ that they refuse to call a season for no reason. This collection of new episodes (totally not a season) offers more of the same stick-your-finger-down-your-throat humor we had from Season 1, only with an even cheaper production setup and a smaller cast. It’s basically like the second season of Hilton Head Island: nobody asked for it and nobody cares that it’s here.
Production Quality (1 point)
Now that we’re on the topic of Hilton Head Island, the Whites and company borrowed their horrible green screens that make everyone and everything have an obvious outline, like they’re cardboard cutouts. Oh wait… But I digress. As previously mentioned, this non-season of Malibu Dan has even fewer sets than the first and even more reuses of the same old ones. This gives it an overall cheap feel, and it goes without saying that the ‘blooper episode’ is virtually indistinguishable from one of the other episodes because it merely depicts the cast acting like idiots, which is what the other episodes are all about anyway. Did we mention that this new non-season of no one’s favorite sitcom contains another endless and obnoxious laugh track that cues every five seconds whether the scene is supposed to be funny or not? Basically, the only thing keeping this entire mess from 0 points or less is the fine video and camera quality, in conjunction with professional audio work. But that theme song gets annoying over and over again. As a whole, there isn’t much good to say here.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
What could be done in a new non-season that wasn’t done in the first season? This new batch of episodes that’s totally not a season is virtually indiscernible from the other season, but it’s actually possibly worse due to the painfully-forced so-called comedy that contains nothing funny whatsoever. Basically, this collection of fingernails-in-the-chalkboard creations is just as mindless and ridiculous as regular TV shows that PureFlix and their audience would complain about.  Malibu Dan no better than something typical you would see passing by on cable TV as it has just as little potential and just as little hope for any.
Acting Quality (0 points)
Whenever the old PureFlix gang gets together (see Hitting the Breaks, Holyman Undercover, and Me Again), they are content to act like imbeciles. The only consolations this second season cast provides to us is that Jennifer Lyons makes a long-overdue cameo to continually make a fool of herself and that Carey Scott reprises his insultingly fake European accent from Holyman. Steered by the comedic anti-genius of David A. R. White and the sadistic mind of Tommy Blaze, Malibu Dan offers more of the same absurd and zany acting from the expertise of Brad Heller. What’s surprising is that Kevin Downes still puts up with this nauseating experience when he has much better things to do. The constant funding of this insanity is beyond us.
Continuity Quality (0 points)
The second season of Malibu Dan takes on the typical mistakes of sitcoms, besides not developing characters properly, by repeating the same thing over and over again in each episode with no continuity between them. Episodes exist in its own isolated universes as each one appears to have no bearing on another. It seems like they were all filmed in one day with no story-boarding, which is a likely method that has been employed by PureFlix in the past.
Conclusion
With not much else to say, it’s time to address the obviously elephant in the room (no, it’s not David A. R. White dressed up again). What’s the point of randomly pretending that this collection of new episodes isn’t a new season? It’s a very common practice to release an entire season at once with streaming series like this one. Nevertheless, one must take a step back from this mess that’s so easy to make fun of in order to examine what the true state of Christian series is. What are we really accomplishing? Is there any true inspirational or culture-changing value to things like Malibu Dan? I can’t even foresee a monetary gain in it. This begs the question “What is it even for?!?!?” The only answer we can discern is that it’s just another outlet for the twisted comedy desires of White and Blaze, which further goes to show the true darkness behind the PureFlix giant. Needless to say, let’s hope Kevin Downes wipes this from his memory (again) and is able to help the Erwins produce a truly good TV series next year.
Faith High is a seemingly ordinary private Christian high school with all the typical high school issues, but one student is intent on forcing the daily events she sees unfold around her into some kind of Biblical parallel so that she can have an interesting end-of-the-semester school project to talk about. A new kid comes to town as the backup quarterback and falls in love with a mostly silent ballet dancer, so this is naturally the stories of David and Esther mashed together. The vain and self-impressed starting quarterback is obviously Saul, and you can see how this keeps going. With this movie in the works for so long, you would think some better content was created.
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Production Quality (1.5 points)
Ever since 2nd Greatest, Kingdom Sight Studios has been committed to crafting more professional productions than A Perfect Chord. Thus, A High School Story has a mostly average production that’s fueled mainly by good video quality, find audio quality, and professional sets, locations, and props. However, the soundtrack is sometimes too loud, and there are some odd camera angles and wild camera work, especially in the poorly filmed sports action scenes that feel like nothing is really happening even though you’re supposed to think there’s an actual game going on. Scenes like these show the true genius of Facing the Giants in the independent film world (A High School Story even has a discount version of Bobby Lee Duke). Elsewhere in A High School Story, there are too many stupid slow-motion scenes, as well as self-serving product placements and unwarranted self-love for A Perfect Chord. In the end, this is a mostly average production that could have done better.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
From start to finish, annoying narration decides to explain things to us that we should be about to figure out on our own if the dialogue was any good at all.  We apparently have to be told who the characters are instead of letting them develop on their own through actual conversations. There are also plenty of weird attempts at cringe-worthy bad comedy as ‘bad’ characters are over the top bad while ‘good’ characters are too perfect. As is commonplace in cheap sports films, training montages displace opportunities for plot and character growth, as do ridiculous high school nonsense and predictable love triangle stupidity. There are too many cheesy attempts at ‘young people’ dialogue, and we mention the beyond-cheesy attempts to force Bible stories into this modern-day plot? This seriously needs to stop. In the end, this plot contributes nothing to the film’s score.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
With mainstay Kingdom Sight cast members, this acting job is another average one as there are some fine moments that are cancelled out by other moments of awkward and forced acting. When some cast members attempt their own brand of comedy, it’s quite bad. It goes without saying that some cast members seem desperate to advertise their horrid local comedy act throughout the film. Essentially, while these often-used Kingdom Sight cast members are definitely gaining experience with each film, there’s just not enough coaching present here to sustain a higher score.
Conclusion
There’s one thing Kingdom Sight is getting right: releasing films directly to PureFlix On Demand and Amazon Prime in order to get them out there rather than to waste time and money on limited screenings no one will go see and DVD’s that will end up in the $5 Walmart bin. However, 3 points is basically the ‘best of the worst’ score according to our review scale. After 2nd Greatest, Kingdom Sight likely hit their ceiling of potential with their current model, so it’s time for them to take the next step in movie making. They seem committed to trying different things, and their production model is mostly fine. Thus, with their next film, they need to take a bigger step towards greatness by employing a better screen writer and a better acting coach (plus maybe some new cast members).
Brad and Lillian believed that they were meant to be together forever. When Brad graduates from high school, Lillian believes this will not affect their relationship as she has one more year to go. However, on the night of the graduation, Lillian’s life is changed forever when Brad disappears for days without contacting anyone. The town searches for him and holds vigils for him, but nothing ever comes of it all as the months go by with no word about Brad’s whereabouts. Lillian’s emotions collapse as she can think of nothing else besides the future life she thought she had. Will she be able to pick herself back up and remember the faith she claims to have had?
Production Quality (2.5 points)
After several years of trial and error, the production efforts of husband-and-wife movie team John and Brittany Goodwin have paid off. Though If You’re Gone had a modest budget, it was allocated very well. This is evident in the professional video quality and camera work. The soundtrack is a very good original creation, and the audio quality is spot-on. Sets, locations, and props, though somewhat limited, are utilized very well. The only minor issues to point out here that keep this production from being perfect are some inconsistent lighting and some slight editing issues, but as a whole, this is a very professional production that gives great hope for the future of Every New Day Pictures.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1.5 points)
Based on the original novel from the Goodwins, If You’re Gone delivers a unique plot and a compelling message. Though the story can be a bit slow at times, there are some great conversations and dialogue throughout that seek to build characters. However, there were still some missed opportunities to use dialogue to deepen characters just a tad more since this is a character-based story with only a handful of characters. These missed opportunities are most evident in the middle of the film as it appears to only serve to fill time with montages and somewhat repeated scenes in order to get to the ending. Though some audiences may not hold on for the end, the conclusion is definitely worth the wait as it contains an unexpected twist combined with a very unique and empowering message that one does not see very often in Christian film. This ending is very much worth your time, but it would have been even better to see some flashbacks in the middle of the film that helped us to further understand why the characters did what they did and that expanded upon the family of origin issues that were touched on. This story was clearly written for the excellent ending, so it would have likely been Hall of Fame if the lead-up was more engaging. Even still, some will find this movie to be worthwhile and interesting.
Acting Quality (2 points)
For the most part, the cast of If You’re Gone appears to be well-coached as each cast member does a good job assuming his or her respective role quite well. Masey McLain is always a great lead, but it might have helped for her to have further support since some cast members come off as a bit weak and detracting from the overall score. However, emotions and line delivery are above average as a whole, which rounds out this film very well.
Conclusion
The Goodwins have persevered for several years in pursuit of the greatest film, and they have a unique opportunity to create their own source material by writing it before making their own films out of it. They have always been close to the mark, and with If You’re Gone, they have come even closer. Production is in a good spot for them, and acting is nearly perfect. The next step forward for their team is to ensure stronger plots to accompany their great messaging. Writing stories can be difficult, so it may be a good opportunity to adapt other source material as well since the Christian fiction world is replete with options. In summary, If You’re Gone is definitely a good film, and the Goodwins are one step away from true greatness.
Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife Sabina were active in Lutheran ministry in Romania during the 1970s Communist takeover of Eastern Europe. The Communist regme sought to corrupt the church by ‘uniting’ the denominations as a political body rather than as a ministry. Richard and Sabina dared to stand up against the tyranny both by speaking against it and by illegally proselytizing their faith to Romanians who struggled under the heavy yoke of the Communist government. Because of these infractions and because they helped harbor wanted Christians, Richard was arrested and tortured for his faith. He languished for fourteen years in a cruel Communist prison, but he did not give up his faith in Christ.
Production Quality (2 points)
Though this production was somewhat low-budget, there is still a very clear commitment to making it as authentic and gritty as possible. Video quality and audio quality are among these good production elements. Although there are some moments of oddly poor lighting, the sets, locations, and props are very realistic and demonstrate great attention to detail and great care to make the surroundings as realistic as possible. This is definitely the best that could have been done with the funding available, which is all we ask of productions. Though there is some choppy editing throughout, it’s obvious that this creative did all they could with this production, which is all a film maker needs to do.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1.5 points)
Another thing film makers can do to ensure a mostly successful effort is to use good source material. The story of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand is a very poignant and unfortunately true narrative that definitely deserved to be made into a movie. However, one has to question whether the high amount of heavy-handed narration was necessary since it greatly stunts character growth and plot development. Even still, the serious commitment to have each character speak in the original Romanian dialect is very intriguing to say the least as it further shows care for realism and attention to detail that we rarely find in Christian film. Moreover, because of the narration that punctuates and explains a majority of the scenes, the movie comes off as too much of a random collection of loosely connected scenes rather than an engaging story about real people we can relate to. There are also a few too many docu-drama elements. Nevertheless, the strong content of this story keeps the plot from being worse than it could have been as the tragic realities of religious persecution at the hands of tyrannical regimes is brought to the big screen. Thus, many audiences will find this movie to be worthwhile.
Acting Quality (2.5 points)
Although most of the cast members are not allowed to fully act due to the high amount of narration that only allows for rare moments of dialogue, the portions they do act in are definitely great. The culturally authentic casting and the good use of the original language is also a huge plus. Emotions are mostly good with only a few instances of being slightly overdone, but on the whole, this is the best area of the film, and it rounds out a job well done.
Conclusion
Christian films are still getting better by using source material and by being committed to great productions. This creative team is off to a great start in their movie-making careers, so it will be very interesting to see what they come up with next. Until then, Tortured for Christ is an above-average film that carries a great message and a stirring theme packaged in a realistic production that will make a lasting impression on many who watch it.
Army Chaplain Darren Turner and his wife Heather feel that they are called to the life they live as they each minister to those who are connected to the military in different ways. They are committed to each other and to their family, and they firmly believe God is always supporting them. However, the months-long separation with Darren’s deployment takes a toll on their marriage and their family as they are apart for months on end with oceans between them. When tragedy strikes close to home, they will have to decide if they will weather the storm and press into their faith or if they will let it all fall apart.
Production Quality (2.5 points)
It’s very clear that Indivisible was a well-funded and well-organized production. This is evident in the flawless video quality and the great action camera work. The sets, locations, and props are also excellent and appropriate for the situations portrayed, and it was smart for the creative team to stay within their budget and to not film too many complicated scenes. There is a very realistic feel to the film, even if there are some slight audio issues. However, there is a relatable soundtrack, although some of the editing tends to be a bit choppy. Nevertheless, this production is still top-notch and demonstrates very wise use of funding.
Plot and Storyline Quality (2 points)
In keeping with the growing trends of using better source material in Christian films, Indivisible seeks to tell a very engaging and poignant true story that explores realistic everyday issues that need to be discussed in the context of film. There is a very real-life feel to the film as the day to day struggles of military families are portrayed very accurately and in a way that many can relate to. Although there are plenty of opportunities to develop true-to-life characters based on the real people of the true story, it feels like there were missed opportunities to take them a step further beyond the typical and into the dynamic. An example of these missed opportunities appears to manifest in the middle of the plot as this part of the movie comes off as just a collection of loosely connected scenes en route to a conclusion it wants to get to. Time moves too quickly at times, which is never helpful for character growth. However, even though some chances for dynamic storytelling were left on the proverbial playing field, this movie still presents a very effective and accessible view of PTSD and its psychological and emotional effects on the victim and those around him. As a whole, this plot is definitely good on paper even though there was the greater potential to go further. Despite this fact, many audiences will still enjoy this film for its realism.
Acting Quality (2.5 points)
It’s evident that Sarah Drew drew on her past acting experience and on her experience with the Erwin Brothers in Mom’s Night Out to both deliver a great performance and to assist the rest of the cast in this same endeavor. As such, the casting and acting are both very professional. For the most part, line delivery is on point, and emotions are mostly realistic. There are some slight issues at times when emotional delivery can come off as a bit forced and over the top, but overall, each cast member appears comfortable in his or her respective roles. Though there are a few nitpicks in the various areas of this film, Indivisible still has the potential to reach many different audiences.
Conclusion
One can easily see why this great true story was chosen for a film. There are many important messages in Indivisible that many people will relate to, especially those with close connections to the branches of the military. The military life has never been easy for anyone, but for too long, this has been kept quiet. Thanks to the courage of the Turner family, a great story is now being told that reaches out to families who may feel like they are alone. While there is always room for improvement, there is still plenty of good about Indivisible due to a lot of hard work put into it. Thus, it earns a rightful spot on the Hall of Fame.
Following the critically denounced blockbuster debut season of Hilton Head Island, which is the world’s first ever Hope Opera, the second season appeared on PureFlix On Demand in a similar fashion as the first with no warning or marketing to proceed its release. Nevertheless, the second season picks up at the cliffhanger where the first left off–only this time, the cast is smaller and the green screens are more obvious. Daniel Trisk has woken up from his partially fake coma, and he’s taking the Isle News Network back over (as if anybody was watching it in the first place). As he shakes up the staff and whips people into shape, we actually get some looks at what they actually play on their fake channel. However, as usual, there’s a lot of trumped-up intrigue and fake drama that will have you rolling your eyes along with us.
Production Quality (1 point)
The second season of this ridiculous excuse for entertainment is just as cheap – probably cheaper – than they first season. Although video quality is fine, the camera is constantly shifting around even though every shot is already as tight as possible to hide the fact that this nonsense was entirely filmed in a set. This set was complete with a very poorly constructed green screen that gives the characters special outlines and sometimes bleeds through objects on camera. The only parts that aren’t filmed in front of a green screen (there might have been one real set in there somewhere) utilize the exact same stock footage sequences we saw from the first season – including the ones of the false exterior of the network building that’s used about 4843928 times. The rest of the stock footage has nobody in it, as if this island is completely abandoned save for our favorite main characters (some of which have already left the show). Since the stock footage takes up nearly half of each very short episode, there’s little that can be accomplished. Elsewhere, the soundtrack is cheesy and generic, and every scene feels like it begins just as characters start doing things rather than having it flow into things that are already naturally happening. Finally, the introduction sequence was seriously made on Windows Movie Maker. That’s about it for this section.
Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)
Where to start? How about with the weird Christian worldview that earns this section a negative point? As if Wink Martindale weren’t a bad enough TV preacher impersonator, we get strange lectures from the very white, awkward, and geriatric patriarch of the Trisk family about how Christianity is all about legalism and behavior modification (the token black woman gets to say a few things about this topic too). All of the dialogue is overly dramatic, and Bible verses are used in bizarre ways. In typical soap opera form, the ‘story’ is chock-full of forced and fake drama as the subplots fragment all over the place and as conversations are used to dump information onto the audience, especially when explaining where the missing cast members went. There’s still so much going on here that there is no chance for any character or plot depth, as if the writers even knew how to do that in the first place. The ‘plot’ jumps from one thing to the next as the characters are just stand-ins and representations of issues and circumstances. Nearly 60% of the plot takes place in the context of phone conversations, and Christian tropes and trite lessons inserted awkwardly into so-called stories. In typical PureFlix fashion, young people are portrayed in insulting ways as the series basically has no grasp on reality. A lot of ‘good’ characters are questionable at being ‘good’, and the ‘bad’ characters are total strawmen to the point that it’s not even funny. Basically, I think you can get the picture that there’s nothing good here and that there’s not even an ounce of potential in this garbage.
Acting Quality (0 points)
To say the least, this ever-shrinking cast exhibits some of the worst acting possible. Line delivery is forced down your throat like cast members are saying lines through a strainer. Attempts at emotions are like fingernails in a chalkboard. A majority of the scenes appear to be one-take as cast members awkwardly stand around making annoyingly stereotypic movements and just mindlessly recite lines. This doesn’t even cover the fact that this cast is extremely fake-looking, and the makeup work is atrocious. It’s really no surprise that this cast is smaller than the first season (even Donna Mills had something better to do), but we can’t even do without Carey Scott’s stiff and wooden performances. As a side note, most the time, it seems like Anna Zielinki is trolling – it’s either that, or she’s a terrible villain. Further, there are basically no extras in this cast, which lends further to the portrayal of Hilton Head Island as a ghost town.
Continuity Quality (1 point)
Although there is some continuity between episodes, there is still little to no organization in this series. It’s nearly impossible to accomplish anything substantial in incredibly short episodes that are replete with stock footage. It’s also too easy to make mindless 20-minute episodes, especially when this second season is half the length of the first. However, for all the die-hard Hilton Head Island fans, Season 2 provides us with yet another forced cliffhanger ending that’s designed to make you want another season (if they have any cast members left by then).
Conclusion
PureFlix makes garbage and just keeps trucking along. You can’t fault them for having drive. They try new things and attempt to pander to their audience for quick cash grabs. Even still, I greatly fail to see the market for this ‘Hope Opera’. There’s definitely an untapped market for good Christian series, but this ain’t the way. This is the last thing you want in a Christian series unless you have nothing better to do with your free month of PureFlix On Demand.
In late 2009 and early 2010, the evil deeds of a rogue abortion doctor, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, were uncovered when his suspect abortion clinic in downtown Philadelphia was raided by multiple agencies due to suspected drug laundering and mysterious deaths of women who went there. What the authorities found during the raid was shocking and appalling. A local prosecutor and her detective friend were immediately plunged into a politically-charged trial centered around the controversial social issue of abortion. As it becomes more evident that Dr. Gosnell exhibited the behaviors of a serial killer, the pushback from powerful lobbyists only increased until the truth was finally exposed for the world to see.
Production Quality (2 points)
Gosnell had fairly good funding despite their persecution-complex claims. This translated to a mostly professional-looking production, including good video quality and camera work. The sets, locations, and props are mostly well-constructed and well-utilized. There are some randomly dark scenes throughout, but this may be purposeful. Also, the editing of the film is fairly choppy due to the large amount of plot content that is taken on. However, overall, this production is above-average even if it could have been a little better than it was.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
Gosnell makes many attempts to be overly realistic in its presentation of real events, including unnecessary profanity and edgy content that may be off-putting to a lot of pro-life audiences. Besides this, there is a lot of expository dialogue throughout that is designed to mask the time jumps and to connect otherwise unconnected scenes together. Thus, there is lots of content shoved into a small amount of time, even though the writers found plenty of time for shock-and-awe scenes. There are one too many over-dramatized sidebars detailing the perceived persecution of the pro-life movement, and the ‘bad’ characters are flat-out strawmen. One bright spot is the interesting use of flashbacks with characters we don’t see enough of, which is a technique that needs to be used more. If this film’s plot had been more about detailing the real stories of the women who were adversely affected by the negligence and twisted ideas of Dr. Gosnell rather than a politically motivated trial plot reminiscent of God’s Not Dead 2, this would have been an entirely different film. Thus, while there is some good messaging in this film that keeps it from having no potential, the real stories of real people need to be depicted in film rather than political grandstanding. Stories and personal experiences are what changes the culture and changes people’s minds on social issues.
Acting Quality (2 points)
Some cast members are hamstrung from the get-go of this film by the poorly written dialogue that is a direct consequence of the time jumps, but Dean Cain posts another weirdly awkward performance regardless. Cain’s fake attempts at a Philadelphia accent are annoying, and his typical forced line delivery and emotions are wearing. However, the rest of this cast appears to know what they’re doing, and despite their shortage of things to work with, they are mostly professional and comfortable in their roles. Overall, this film is basically average.
Conclusion
The pro-life cause does have history and science on its side, but pro-lifers must be very careful to avoid becoming caught up in the political games that are played by the pro-abortion lobby. There’s no denying that the abortion business is gruesome and downright evil, but the pro-life cause is better than stooping to their level.  Gosnell presents a very important and real-life issue, but one has to wonder how many people will be converted to the cause due to the gruesome nature of this story. Though it’s extremely difficult to maintain professionalism and balance in a heavily biased and lightning-rod political culture, it’s important that pro-lifers don’t adapt the pro-abortion mentality of victim status and shock-and-awe theatrics just to try to gain political power. The pro-life movement should not be politically charged, but we are unfortunately far from that reality. Politics is only a reaction to culture, but changing the culture is much harder to do. However, it can be done with real stories, and there were real stories to present in this sordid tale, even if we didn’t get to see them very well in this film. Real women are hurt everyday by the abortion business, and many of them suffer in silence or are compelled to join the pro-abortion political lobby because they feel like the pro-life movement won’t accept them. We are seeing some change in this area, however, so hopefully we will see more movement in the right direction in the coming days.
When Christian Andrews gets a call to attend the funeral of a friend in an obscure New Mexico town, he has no choice but to immediately hitchhike his way there. However, when he arrives, he finds that someone told him the wrong day of the funeral, so he’s actually too late. Nevertheless, he decides to take the opportunity to go and stay at the ranch where his friend once lived, even though he has never met the ranch owners before. He meets the family who owns the ranch and inevitability becomes immediately interested in dating the oldest daughter and decides he wants to start building a chapel on the ranch. Other than tangling with two drunk convicts who work on the ranch in close proximity to teenage girls, not much else happens in this story.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
As a newer Christian film, about the only thing going in the favor of Amazed By You is its mostly average production quality. However, by today’s standards, this should be a given. In this film, the video quality and camera work are fine, as are the sets, locations, and props, but there are other issues to contend with, such as the stereotypical soundtrack and the audio that is often very quiet and sometimes hard to discern. Also, there are a lot of awkward cuts and fadeouts and seem to cut scenes short, which also relates to the choppy editing of this movie that makes it difficult to follow at times. As a whole, this production is average and looks good on the surface, but it leaves a lot of be desired.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Exactly, what is the plot of this movie? From start to finish, the story is hard to follow as odd things appear to just happen for no particular reason. It really isn’t rooted in reality very well, and the plot has no clear flow or purpose other than a predictable romantic subplot. Each character comes off as plastic, empty, and unfeeling as they just spout uninspiring lines. Any hope of character development is definitely subverted by the many montages that fill this movie’s run time. It goes without saying that the view of women in the film is unusual, and as a side note, the ‘villains’ are extremely cheesy. Overall, this is mostly a half-hearted movie effort with no clear direction and no concerted attempts to make characters into real people.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Although there weren’t substantial lines to work with in the first place, the acting of Amazed By You is awkward and wooden. Emotions come off as forced, and line delivery is not convincing as there is a definite need for more coaching. Unfortunately, this movie really don’t have much going for it.
Conclusion
It feels like Amazed By You was slapped together and forced to go into production without even deciding upon the messaging of the film. It’s so vanilla that it lacks the typical worldview-pushing of a fundamentalist Christian film and the predictable elements of an inspirational horse film, even though on the surface it looks like it is both of these. It’s hard to find a movie that’s so bland and empty that there really isn’t much to comment about. If this was an attempt to make some quick cash off of inspirational audiences, the marketing really wasn’t that great. In summary, in nearly every aspect, it’s impossible to understand how this film came to be or what it was even going for.
After surviving months being stranded at sea and being tortured in a cruel Japanese prison camp, Louis Zamperini was finally returned home as a war hero. His family celebrated his safe return, but little did anyone know that the war still raged in Louis’ mind. His lead torturer, The Bird, never left his dreams, and hate burned inside of him. Louis decided to drink to cover up the madness in his head, but this got him into trouble, so he was given a chance to start over on a vacation in Florida. It was there that he met his future wife, and he felt like his life was finally in a good spot. They married soon after, but the war did not cease in Louis’ mind as it continued to rage and push his marriage to the brink. There was only one way to end the war–only if Louis was willing to surrender.
Production Quality (3 points)
Harold Cronk has had decent productions in the past, but he and his team really went all out for this one. They obviously put a lot of time and effort into crafting extremely authentic and historically accurate sets, locations, and props. This is not just another cheesy PureFlix ripoff because time and money were spent on attention to detail and one making it look real. Video quality, camera work, and audio quality are also extremely professional, but these should be a given in higher budget films like this one. Further, the soundtrack of Unbroken: Path to Redemption is very impactful as Cronk made a wise decision to depart from the typical Will Musser soundtrack PureFlix films usually have. Finally, the editing in this film is very good as it handles a large amount of content very well. In summary, this is a rare find as a perfect PureFlix production, and it is definitely a breakout film for Cronk and his team.
Plot and Storyline Quality (2.5 points)
Despite what some critics may say, it was an excellent idea for this film to pick up where the Hollywood version left off because this second half of the story is much better than the first. Hopefully, this film launches Christian entertainment into a new era of effectively using source material to produce great films. The time jumps in Unbroken: Path to Redemption are handled very well without narration, and the dialogue is very well-crafted and well-constructed in order to build the characters into real, accessible people. It goes without saying that the psychological elements in this film are exquisite and are perhaps the best in Christian film to date. The use of flashbacks is wonderful, and the portrayal of PTSD is very accurate and on point. Further, the plot progression is handled well, and the messaging is effective without being too over the top. The only issues to raise with this plot relate to some slightly wasted time at the beginning of the film that is felt later when the ending comes off as a bit rushed, but this is really nitpicking because the story is presented very well and is definitely a breath of fresh air to Christian entertainment.
Acting Quality (2.5 points)
It was absolute genius to cast Will Graham as Billy Graham in this film, and this is the sort of expertise we need to see more of in Christian films as we hopefully progress to a new era of Christian entertainment. Elsewhere in this film, the acting is slightly awkward in the first few scenes, as if they were test scenes, but the acting quickly and dramatically improves as time goes on. Samuel Hunt has a surprise breakout role as Zamperini, and he does a great job playing multiple different roles as the same character. Conversely, Merritt Patterson cements a great role as the lead actress in this film. Overall, each cast member owns his or her respective role very well and seems very comfortable in it. This rounds out an excellent movie that is definitely worth your time.
Conclusion
Unbroken: Path to Redemption earns an x-factor point for portraying psychological elements very well and for having re-watchability qualities. Much like Jon Gunn did in The Case for Christ, Harold Cronk and his team have found a new voice by effectively adapting source material into Christian film. This is exactly what we need to be seeing more of by letting someone else take the screenwriting duties. Building an authentic production and casting great actors and actresses is also key to success.  Unbroken: Path to Redemption will have far-reaching effects and is definitely worth your time to go see.
Liam and Josie were in love all throughout high school, and many felt like they were destined to be together forever. However, when they were on the verge of pledging their lives together forever, Liam experienced several life-changing moments. First, his mother died suddenly, and Liam was discovered as a country artist and became successful almost overnight. Thus, Liam left Josie behind without saying goodbye. Now, after several years of fame and success, Liam has gotten into trouble with his drinking habit and has been advised to lay low for a while. Thus, he returns to his hometown to live with his father, who is a pastor, and Liam is shocked at who he finds waiting for him there.
Production Quality (2.5 points)
As a modern, standard inspirational film, Forever My Girl checks all of the right production boxes. Video quality, camera work, and audio quality are all what they should be. The soundtrack is a bit generic and uncreative, but the sets, props, and locations are all realistic, appropriate, and professional. The only other minor issue to point out here is the fact that the editing isn’t the best it could be, but as a whole, this is a very high quality production that we have come to see as commonplace in recent Christian films, and it’s a trend we definitely need to see continue.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
Though it is based on a novel, Forever My Girl unfortunately follows a predictable and stereotypical storyline that has been done many times before. The return-to-hometown plot has many different iterations, and this one is just the star-returns-to-the-hometown version. However, the presentation of this predictability is not entirely annoying and does make some good attempts at being realistic, such as a good attempt to explore family systems and some general efforts to create believable characters and situations. Even so, the characters need to be a bit deeper through better dialogue, and the main character’s inevitable arc is a too steep. Nevertheless, the message of the movie is fine, and many audiences will find it to be a good movie. It’s definitely ten times better than your average Hallmark throwaway.
Acting Quality (2 points)
Though the lead actor and the lead actress seem confused and uncoached a lot of the time, the rest of the cast members make up for their deficiencies. It’s unclear whether or not their characters are meant to be written that way, but it seems like the lead cast members could have contributed a bit more than they did. However, the other members of the cast demonstrate great line delivery and realistic emotions, which is enough to bring this section over the average mark. As a whole, this movie is good enough to be watchable.
Conclusion
It is definitely good idea to model movies after novels; if a film like this had not had a story written for it in a book, it likely would have been much worse. This is definitely a practice we need to see more of on the coming days. Hollywood has already figured out that using source material is the key to successful entertainment, so it’s time for Christian film makers to follow suit because if they put their minds to it, they can definitely do it better. There is plenty of Christian source material to use, so it’s a great chance to keep using it.
Paul is a journalist who recently returned from Afghanistan, where he was reporting on the war effort there. What he saw there changed him forever, and it sent him down a dark path as he began searching for the true meaning of life. He began to question his childhood faith, and he asked God if He was even real. However, Paul received an unexpected answer one day when he received a tip to interview God Himself. Skeptical, Paul decides to follow the lead even though he is on paid leave. What he discovers is unexpected and is destined to change his life forever.
Production Quality (3 points)
The Astute Films team is fresh on the scene, and they have put together a quality first-time production, which is a great way to start out. It is clear that they put a lot of effort into making a high-quality production in An Interview With God. This is evident in great video quality, camera work, and audio quality. The soundtrack is creative, and the film has an overall artistic touch as a lot of work is put into establishing things without being too obvious. Further, the sets, locations, and props are authentic and appropriate. Finally, the editing is professional, which rounds out a basically perfect production effort. With this film, the Astute team has sown great seeds for the future.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
On the surface, An Interview With God seems like another version of The Encounter or The Perfect Stranger, but upon closer look, this new film is much more. Though the plot mostly centers around lengthy conversations, the dialogue is well-constructed and holds up the plot well. The characters explore some great topics relating to the nature of reality and the work of God. These philosophical conversations actually hold the attention because they seek to develop the characters as people rather than to throw worldviews at the audience. The writers were not afraid to go deep with the characters by making them flawed and accessible. The portrayal of God is also appropriate and intriguing. Throughout the storyline, there are creative psychological elements that appear to be building towards a possible plot twist, but unfortunately, this seeming creativity never materializes, which leaves the ending to be a bit flat and disappointing. The story tends to limp to a conclusion with too many unanswered questions after it had so much potential going for it, but even still, the remainder of the plot is good enough to lift this film to an overall good rating.
Acting Quality (3 points)
Though the cast of this film is very small, they carry the film strongly. Each cast member portrays emotions effectively and carries his or her role very well. Line delivery is on point, and it appears as though each cast member fits comfortably into his or her respective roles. There are no flaws in this section, which is enough to lift An Interview With God to Hall of Fame status.
Conclusion
An Interview With God is one of 2018’s surprise breakout films, and it comes from a creative team who is not afraid to get their name out there. When a film maker crafts a project they are proud of and one that they are not afraid to share, this immediately shows a great mentality as a creator. It is clear that great production and acting effort were put into this movie, even if the plot department was a little lacking. Nevertheless, the effort was enough to breach the seven point threshold, and An Interview With God is a great start to a promising career that demonstrates great potential for the future.
The Hartley Family appears to have it all on the outside; they are a seemingly successful American family. However, little do they know that their lives are about to become far more complicated than before. They inadvertently cross paths with William Mwizerwa, a Rwandan refugee who moved from Kenya to America to try to make a new life for his family, whom he had to flee the Rwandan genocide with. These lives also intersect with another Rwandan family who has been forever changed by the genocide. Little do they know that collectively, they will experience both brokenness and God’s redemption after brokenness in ways they never before dreamed.
Production Quality (2 points)
Beautifully Broken is an independent film that has finally come to fruition after being in the works for a while, and it bears some key hallmarks of an indie production. Though the production begins in a fairly rough manner, including wild camera work, weird light filters, and dizzying flashbacks, this is mainly only the first third of the film. It seems like this part of the film was produced separately from the rest of the movie since the remainder of the film has a significant quality increase. This is evident as the camera work, video quality, and audio quality all make marked improvements. The soundtrack is effective and culturally appropriate; however, sometimes sets and locations do not fully live up to the hype. Nevertheless, this production does enough in the latter two-thirds to make this section overall above average. It seems like time was spent to improve this part of the film, and they likely did the best they could with the budget they had. The one drawback is that the editing does not improve throughout the film, but this is is mainly due to the large amount of plot content. As a whole, this is a great first-time production.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1.5 points)
It’s an excellent idea to begin your movie career with a complex true story rather than to use original content, especially since we have a deficit of creative screenwriters in Christian film. However, one of the main pitfalls of using a true story is trying to include too much content. In some ways, it seems like the writing team of Beautifully Broken bit off more than they could chew, but this does not diminish the great message this powerfully true story has to offer. The downside is that there are one too many ‘filler’ scenes that waste precious time; the sheer amount of content in this plot does not allow space to develop the characters as much as they could have been, and narration and expository dialogue is used too often as a shortcut for full character and story development. However, despite its rough beginning and inconsistency in the middle, the final third of the plot are definitely worth the wait, and they keep this section higher than it would have normally been. This writing team definitely has more potential in the future once they master organization and character development.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
It’s possible that the uneven and inconsistent acting is the main thing that derailed Beautifully Broken from a possible Hall of Fame run. While some cast members, like Benjamin Onyango, are very good in their performances, other cast members, like Scott William Winters, cancel out any good that is done. Once again, Onyango is not given the space he needs to fully show his potential as an actor. However, for the most part, emotional performances are believable and effective. Costuming is culturally appropriate, and great efforts were taken to cast culturally authentic cast members. Overall, this rounds out a great first effort.
Conclusion
A lot of work has clearly been put into making Beautifully Broken happen after a fairly long period of time has passed, and the finished product is both better than most films and not as good as it could have been. There is plenty of positive in this film, and it is likely worth your time to see when it releases. There is a great message to learn, and this story is definitely worth being told. In summary, this film is a great start to a promising career, so it will be interesting to see what they have to offer next.
After Pastor Dave is released from prison for not turning over his sermon notes to the local government, he is immediately hit with a new persecution angle. His father’s church, which he has pastored for years, sits on the property of a public university, so protests build on campus based on an argument that questions the necessity of the church being on public property. Dave begins to feel pressure from the university leadership, but things hit a breaking point when the church appears to be attacked and when his close friend Jude is killed in the attack. Dave decides to reach out to his long-lost brother for legal help as chaos reigns around him. Will he ever be able to live in peace?
Production Quality (2.5 points)
With the third installment and possible end to the God’s Not Dead trilogy, they have not backed off on their recently attained practice of high-quality productions. On most production fronts, A Light in Darkness is a very professional production, including video quality, camera work, and audio quality. The soundtrack is even better than the previous two installments as it is mostly void of the title track and thankfully leaves us without another Newsboys concert to wrap things up. Sets, locations, and props are also very well-utilized and well-constructed. The only two caveats in this production are the presence of some cheesy special effects and the somewhat sloppy editing job, but on the whole, God’s Not Dead 3 is top-notch production work.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
In a shocking turn of events, after making us muddle through that horrible second film, the third of the trilogy has one of the best plots. The first film’s plot had good elements due to its many fractured subplots, but A Light in Darkness has the best central and focused idea of them all. Though it takes forever to get to the point and though there are plenty of persecution-complex pitfalls along the way, the ending of this film is very significant because it takes the franchise in a totally different direction than the other ones were going in. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of issues with this storyline, including a lack of adequate character development due to poorly-constructed dialogue and a sloppy story construction that tends to jump from one thing to the next and include too many issues. However, someone got ahold of the plot and decided to insert some truth about why young people don’t like the church, which was a breath of fresh air, however brief it may have been. As a whole, this story was a good idea in the end, but it was probably too little too late.
Acting Quality (2.5 points)
In spite of the usual awkwardness of David A. R. White as a ‘serious’ lead, other cast members are more natural and believable in their roles, even John Corbett. Benjamin Onyango was hardly ever afforded a fair opportunity to show his full potential in this trilogy, but his parts are still great. The reality is that there are actually few acting errors in this film; even the emotional performances are mostly believable. As a whole, PureFlix has made a lot of strides over the past few years, so if they will just direct their resources in a more responsible direction, who knows what good could be done.
Conclusion
The unfortunate part is that PureFlix managed to isolate everybody throughout the course of the GND franchise. The first film was a big hit because it filled a void in the market and was basically at the right place at the right time. It had good qualities, such as better production than usual, but it was still mostly standard and pedestrian. The second GND film was nothing short of a total trainwreck, and this where the trilogy lost its reasonable audience. However, A Light in Darkness isolated anyone faithful who were left by taking the narrative in a different and non-persecutory direction. In short, it pays to know who your audience is, but it also pays to strive for high-quality Christian films that aren’t based entirely on pandering to a specific base. PureFlix has the resources to truly blow open the Christian industry if they really want to, but will they seize the opportunity before it’s too late?
In our vast Christian entertainment viewing experience, we sometimes come upon films that we can hardly justify writing a full review for. Therefore, for your convenience, so you don’t have to go watch those free films that invade your suggested watch list in on-demand video services, we’ve provided a quick overview here. Someday we might post more, if we’re fortunate enough to find more.
Lazer Us: The Legend of Jimi Lazer
In this strangely-titled film that appears to convey something about Lazarus, a guitarist named Jimi Lazer is depicted as he stumbles upon a magic guitar that gets him in contact with the Devil! As a musician, Jimi wants riches and fame just like the next guy, so he sells his soul to the Old Liar. Essentially, Lazer Us is a trippy, LSD-style drug trip from the 60s that has an unhealthy obsession with Satanism and tries to warn aspiring artists to stay away from Lucifer. Unfortunately, the time spent on Satan is disproportionate, and the storyline is overall extremely confusing and hard to follow, which is why it landed here.
Pocket Angel
As a basically unknown new film from this year, Pocket Angel is in a category all by itself–almost rivaling The Rev for cartoonishness. Apparently some reporter is assigned to a story in Mexico, so she takes her newly adopted son along. Most of her lines are overdubbed in the most horrible way, and she comes off as a cruel parody of a Hispanic character. Her son is kidnapped by the most childish cartoon villains you can dream of and held for random. As a majority of the film consists of ridiculous sound effects from Lost in Silver Canyon, it’s easy to miss the creepy angel characters that peddle Pocket Angel figurines from a Christian bookstore to the characters. Basically, this film is mostly inexplicable.
A Wish For Giants
When a girl who just contracted brain cancer is given a chance to have her wish fulfilled by a non-profit, she does what every girl would do and wishes to see Bigfoot. The non-profit actually takes her seriously and assigns a summer intern to the case. This film is full of boring and drab sequences that utilize terrible production quality. There is also a lot of Bigfoot message-pushing and some vague reference to the Nephilim that are off-putting. It goes without saying that the acting is basement-level deplorable. As a whole, this movie is extremely strange and hard to follow, which is why it has found a home here.
Well that’s all for now! Maybe we’ll post another one someday…maybe not…
Hudson doesn’t want to do anything except hang around his house and go to work. His nosy mother is worried about him, which is why she keeps trying to set him up with blind dates. However, Hudson’s world changes one day when he finds a dog near his trash can and decides to take it in. Moreover, his world changes again when the dog runs away from their camping trip and finds a new home with a single father and his son, who struggles with a speech impediment. Perhaps this dog will bring them all together in a really sappy way.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
One thing you can say for Faith House Pictures (now re-branded as Inspiriter Pictures for no particular reason, even though they kept that same pixie-dust splash logo) is that they don’t give up. Also, their production quality has slightly increased over the years, with the exception of Before All Others. Still, they have figured out a way to mass produce sappy inspirational films that at least seem passable on the surface of production. This is evidenced by good video quality and camera work. They still use the same old sets, props, and locations we’ve seen before, such as the desert from Desert Redemption and the houses from So Help Us God and A Time For Heaven. Also, they make themselves known with a typically cheesy and carefree stock soundtrack that was either cheap or free from some website. At times, the audio is a bit too quiet, but the editing is basically face-value and fine. Overall, Faith House is proving that if you stick with something long enough, you might get better at it.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Another defining quality of a Faith House film is a safe and predictable inspirational plot that is extremely sappy and is based on coincidences. This time around, we get another rendition of the Black Beauty-style pass-the-narrating-animal-around plot. This worn-out plot device is accompanied by the expected blank and vanilla characters that are written in Faith House scripts. There is also a strawman ‘bad’ character, and each character has a special brand of quirky yet flat dialogue that makes things just interesting enough to keep watching, if only to see what they might say next. However, the entire film basically boils down to being a collection of empty scenes that have just enough sappy inspirational themes (coupled with a totally pandering title) to make it a click-bait film that is ready to be added to your Amazon Prime suggested list if you frequent Christian films on this streaming service. The Christian message is clearly fake, but it is just enough to get you to watch, which makes this film’s only purpose to pander to a desperate inspirational audience.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Julie Van Lith, Suzanne McGown Brown, and Bill Wetherill are certainly committed to the Faith House cause. Julie alone has appeared in every Faith House film. Re-using cast members is another budget-conserving tactic of this company, but retaining good actors and actresses is the ideal. Still, Faith House and company do just enough to make the acting seem realistic for their audience, even if a majority of the performances are extremely dry, flat, and boring. Emotional and line delivery seem like they’re phoned in, and there are basically no extras in this film, but it’s not all bad. Once again, Faith House does the bare minimum to stay relevant.
Conclusion
You can’t fault Faith House’s marketing model: they are running circles around other Christian film makers and their ‘lucrative’ distribution deals that run their ideas into the ground and conceal them in the closed world of Christian film festivals. After watching every Faith House film to date, we are convinced that they are trolling Christian audiences, but they have proven their point: if you want to get your movie out there, put it directly to Amazon Prime Video. No exclusive distribution deals, no film festivals, not even review screeners–put it straight to the audience you want to reach and spoon-feed them the message they want to hear. Doing this is a marketing genius, and our analytics team has confirmed its success as Faith House reviews are among our most viewed posts. This is not a coincidence, and this is an important message to aspiring film makers: for your first film, you won’t make much money, and it’s likely that Amazon won’t help you turn large profits, but it’s worth it to get your content out there at the beginning so that people know who you are. Granted you have a good story to tell in the first place, you can grow from there. Amazon may be Buy-N-Large, but they’re a platform that better Christian film makers can use to gain a voice in an increasingly crowded market. Marketing matters.
After Paul had completed many full years of missionary work across the continents of Asia and Europe and after carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to thousands of people, both Jews and Gentiles, he appealed to stand trial in Rome before Caesar, but this decision only caused him to suffer further for the cause of Christ at the hands of cruel Romans. With the church in Rome on the brink of total annihilation, Priscilla and Aquila house many wanted Christians in their home, and Luke is sent to tend to Paul in prison. As many Christians begin to question the words of Christ, Luke begs Paul for a fresh word to strengthen the church in her dark times, yet Paul is plagued by his thorn in the flesh–namely the lives of all he killed while he was a religious zealot. With darkness seeming to close in on Christ’s people, the story of Paul’s life carries the same message that saved all followers of the Way: where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.
Production Quality (2.5 points)
Gone are the days when ‘Bible plays’ like The Book of Esther are socially acceptable as Christian films. We are in a new era of Christian productions, and Paul, Apostle of Christ is another hallmark of this era. Similar to recent Biblical depictions, such as Risen, this new look at Paul’s life is gritty and authentic and has no fear of being painfully realistic. This is evident in the excellent and historically authentic sets, locations, and props. Video quality, camera work, and audio quality are also what a professional production should be. The soundtrack is very engaging and thought-provoking, and the editing is quite creative and effective in presenting the story. The only drawback to this production is a collection of very dark scenes that may be realistic but do not make for great viewing. Nevertheless, this is a top-notch production that we should see over and over again in Christian films.
Plot and Storyline Quality (2.5 points)
While most standard Biblical plot fare is very flat, face-value, and vanilla, Paul, Apostle of Christ rejects this mold and upends the Biblical genre once and for all. By inserting extremely creative and well-crafted psychological elements into the core of this storyline, Andrew Hyatt and his team have created a point of no return for films based on Biblical events. Much like their work in Full of Grace, which showed the potential they have always had, their portrayal of Paul’s thorn in the flesh and the trauma he went through in his life is revolutionary in this genre. This is exactly what needs to be done to show the humanness of Biblical characters through the exquisite use of effective flashbacks and through processes that demonstrate real motive. Elsewhere, dialogue is rich and meaningful, and the other subplots are intertwined very well as each character is very well-developed. Care is given to demonstrate great historical accuracy, and while there are some slightly slow scenes and areas that could have been fleshed out with further dialogue and flashbacks, this storyline is a breath of fresh air in a world of very poor Biblical screenwriting. To top things off, the ending sequence completes the film excellently and is well worth the wait. In short, this film is a job well done in nearly every area.
Acting Quality (2.5 points)
While there were a few missteps with cast members that are not entirely culturally authentic, they are trained to appear culturally authentic, which is leagues better than having a fully BRITISH cast. Elsewhere, there is plenty of culturally authentic casting to make this section great, and there is clearly a presence of professional acting coaching. There are very few errors to point out here, and costuming and makeup are also extremely realistic. In summary, there are many positive elements to point out in this breakout effort.
Conclusion
This film receives a full x-factor point for its effective use of poignant psychological elements as Paul, Apostle of Christ takes its rightful place among the greatest Christian films of our time. Andrew Hyatt and his team are clearly going places, and even though their sophomore effort was somewhat muted by the blockbuster release of I Can Only Imagine, Paul is a signal that a new force to be reckoned has finally arrived in Biblical films. It will be exciting to see what this team puts together next, but for now, we can enjoy this great movie.
Box Office Revolution 