Plot Summary
When a wealthy woman approaches Hamilton’s firm to construct a legal inheritance process similar to that of Red Stevens’ due to her terminal illness, Hamilton and Miss Hastings enlist Jason Stevens as a special consultant (?). Within a month, the woman dies and her wild grandson, Joey, inherits her fortune and the famous Anderson House—with stipulations: he must agree to live at Anderson House for a year and complete a series of ‘gifts’ in order to receive his inheritance in full. Skeptical and frustrated, Joey decides to play along with the will’s demands and suddenly find himself enjoying life in a whole new way.
Production Quality (.5 point)
To put it frankly, the once respectable Ultimate Gift saga has been #Hallmarked. The only positive aspects of this entire film is the decent camera work and video quality. Otherwise, it’s all a wash. The film is plagued by choppy and rushed editing, as disoriented viewers are taken on a roller coaster ride from one high point to the next. The sets and surroundings are severely limited, rivaling Hidden Secrets for how long a random collection of unrelated characters can hang around a house together and be united by completing projects related to said house. The sound quality is average and the soundtrack is typical Hallmark. In short, corners were obviously cut in order for this made-for-television film to happen. There is literally no justification for it.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Anything that was bad about The Ultimate Life has been taken to new lows. Ultimate Legacy is the most obviously ridiculous stupid rip off of an original film in the history of Christian film. Peppered with childish references to Gift and overt copycat concepts of the first installment, Legacy makes for a sadly comedic experience. The movie is based on an unrealistic premise of people hanging around a house with nothing better to do than devote all of time to another unusual inheritance project. Legacy is also based entirely on legal and ethical issues by shoehorning Jason Stevens into the plot, who should have no business whatsoever in the Anderson inheritance case. A perpetually angry character later chides a fellow character for not adhering to attorney-client privilege. The irony! Speaking of characters, they are either empty shells from better movies gone by or useless and unexplained caricatures driven by empty and amateurish dialogue. Other dialogue consists of isolating architectural lingo and the plastic insertion of a trite Christian message. The plot has no direction whatsoever except to poorly mimic as much of Gift as possible through a rushed and choppy timeline. The ending is beyond silly and follows Hallmark’s latest habit of departing from typical inspirational conventions to exchange them for empty fluff. To sum this disaster up, forcing a third movie installment to occur should never happen, especially when it’s built entirely off of overtly and badly copying the original idea.
Acting Quality (0 points)
Hallmark brings with them their typical casting baggage: overdone makeup and zero coaching. The actors and actresses from previous installments are painfully forced into this film and are joined by a new head-scratching cast that doesn’t seem to know why they are there. Line delivery is lazy for the older cast members and forced for others. Emotions are overblown by some, while others seem dazed and confused the whole time. In short, no thought or effort was put into this casting job.
Conclusion
If Hallmark and PureFlix wanted to be partners in crime for the destruction of a film legacy (pun intended), they could have done so without forcibly inserting previously better characters into their creation. At least let us leave those characters in a more palatable place (I never thought those words would describe The Ultimate Life) rather than drag them down into Christian movie Sheol (look it up). The legacy (yes, I did it again) of Jim Stovall’s creative ideas is forever marred by two film conglomerates who now make money off of trolling their audiences. The best thing we can do now is pretend like Life and Legacy never happened and remember better days, such as the original Hall of Fame movie The Ultimate Gift. One day we hope that inspirational film giants such as Hallmark and PureFlix will no longer be able to get away with such unethical activity as this film.
Final Rating: .5 point out of 10 points
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