Malibu Dan the Family Man, Season 2 (Series Review)

Plot Summary

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.

 

Final Rating: 1 out of 14 points

 

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November 21, 2018December 31, 2018 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Series Reviews, SitcomTags: 2018, Andrea Logan White, Aria Walters, Brad Heller, Carey Scott, Cheryl Ladd, Chris Blount, Comedy, David A. R. White, David de Vos, David Rasche, Dual Visions, Gregg Binkley, Jennifer Lyons, John O'Hurley, Jon Kondelik, Kelly Stables, Kevin Downes, Lauren Harper, Madeline Carroll, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Matt Shapira, Philip Morton, PureFlix, Sitcom, Tommy Blaze, Victoria Jackson 4 Comments

Though None Go With Me (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Elizabeth LeRoy grew up in a small town in the 1950s, but she considered her life to be boring.  That is, until the new young pastor came to town and began spending a lot of time with her.  They eventually fell in love, but as they were engaged, he was called off to fight in the Korean War.  Elizabeth waits for him, but when her father dies and she receives word of the death of her fiancé, she feels like she has no choice but to ask her lifelong friend Will for help.  With everything seemingly falling apart, will she be able to follow God’s plan for her life?

 

Production Quality (2.5 points)

Made in the era of collaboration among Larry Levinson, Hallmark, and Fox Faith, Through None Go With Me is clearly a quality production.  Video quality and camera work reflect this professionalism, as do historically authentic sets and locations.  Audio quality is fine, except for the stock Hallmark soundtrack.  There is really nothing negative to highlight here except for some editing problems, mostly pertaining to excessive time jumps.  But overall, this is a great effort.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)

Based on Jerry Jenkins’ novel, the film is mostly fine, though there is a slightly altered plot.  However, since there are excessive time jumps, there is too much content that is passed over due to there being too much to start with.  Thus, information dump dialogue replaces natural plot progression.  Narration also serves as a crutch to bridge the gaps.  Everything is far too rushed as the story just hits the high points.  Character development is left in the dust as dialogue is empty and trite.  However, the plot does portray a somewhat realistic progression of life, even if the ending is slightly predictable.  In the end, it’s great to base films off of books, but don’t do it in such a way that the original point is lost.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

Though None Go With Me is a pretty standard early 2000s Hallmark casting job.  As such, there are plenty of good elements but others that weigh it down.  Some acting is effective while some of it is overdone, forced, or lazy.  Also, some costuming and makeup are unrealistic, another typical Hallmark pitfall.  But overall, this portion is pretty average.

Conclusion

Jerry Jenkins is a gifted writer, and thus, his stories should be portrayed on the big screen.  But they should not be done in this fashion, so that they are compressed and chopped up in pursuit of fitting into a comfortable ninety-minute, made-for-TV runtime.  A life epic cannot unfold like this and characters cannot be developed properly in this time span.  So when bringing novels to life, consider that you might need to do so in two parts, not all at once.

 

Final Rating: 5 out of 10 points

 

February 6, 2017January 11, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Historical, Inspirational, Movie ReviewsTags: 2006, Alan Feinstein, Alpine Medien Productions, Amy Grabow, Ansley Rix, Armand Mastroianni, Brad Rowe, Bruce Weitz, Chase Ryan Jeffery, Cheryl Ladd, Christopher Allport, Dallas Jenkins, David Norona, Denise Grayson, Emily Hardy, Epic, five points, Fox Faith, George Wyner, Hallmark, Historical, Inspirational, James Wilberger, Jerry B. Jenkins, Kyle A. Clark, Larry Levinson, Larry Levinson Productions, Lindy Newton, Mariana Klaveno, Mark Craig, Millie Perkins, Nathan Furst, Pamela Wallace, Peter White, RHI Entertainment Leave a comment

Love’s Resounding Courage {Love’s Everlasting Courage} (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

After settling into their new lives together, Clark and Ellen Davis had a daughter named Missie and all seemed well for them.  However, things are about to change for them, as a drought threatens to destroy their very livelihood.  Their financial struggles prompt Ellen to take on extra work in town as a seamstress.  Clark’s parents also come to assist them however they can.  However, the new work begins to take a toll on Ellen’s health, and soon Clark must decide what he is going to do as he is faced with an impending tragedy.  Will he stand strong in his faith or turn away?

 

Production Quality (2 points)

In keeping with most Hallmark movies, the production quality of Love’s Resounding (Everlasting) Courage is above average.  The camera work is solid, along with the video and sound qualities.  The sets and locations are above average and the surroundings give off a truly authentic frontier feel.  The biggest caveat here, besides the typical too-modern costuming, is the sloppy editing.  Events sometimes happen too quickly and other times seemingly out of order.  However, this is a very well produced film, which really make it a shame that the plot is way off base.

Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)

From the get go, it seems like Courage is going to be a really good movie about frontier struggles and the tragedy that shaped Clark Davis as a character for the remainder of the saga.  For the most part, this happens.  We need more plots like this that realistically demonstrate the tragic and hard things in life that everyone is faced with from time to time.  The dialogue therein is pretty good, and the characters are obviously flawed.  However, this plot receives a very low score because the obligatory new romantic subplot inserted into this film—the one between Ben and Sarah that was discussed in the inaugural Love Comes Softly film—completely undermines the intent of this entire franchise!  In Courage, their love doesn’t comes softly and they don’t marry out of ‘sheer need’, but for love.  There would be nothing wrong with this, except that, rather than just follow the original storyline that fans know, Hallmark elected to settle for a predictable romance that utterly strips the franchise of its purpose.  Evidently, they thought that audiences wouldn’t notice or care.  When will production teams begin to treat audiences better than this?

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

Much like Love Begins, the acting demonstrates typical Hallmark elements.  As usual, the makeup and costuming do not exactly reflect historical authenticity.  The line delivery is neither great nor terrible.  Emotions can be felt by the audience.  In short, this section is business as usual.

Conclusion

Resounding Courage is a problematic movie.  On one hand, it has a very interesting premise with a lot of potential.  But on the other hand, it completely destroys the original premise of the Love Comes Softly series by inserting a new convenient romance just for the fun of it.  The longer this film franchise dragged on, the worse it became, to the point of turning the entire purpose on its ear.  This is exactly what will happen when creative teams deviate so far from the original purpose of a novel series to the point that they are just reusing the same concepts over and over again rather than provide audiences with fresh ideas that can be found in the pages of the very books the movies are based off of.  This is the end of Box Office Revolution’s Love reviews for now, so we will leave it with this note: make more Christian books into movies, but please, we beg of you, stay true to the books.

 

Final Rating: 4 out of 10 points

March 7, 2016January 17, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Historical, Inspirational, Movie Reviews, Romance, WesternTags: 2011, 4 points, Bradford May, Brian Byrne, Bruce Boxleitner, Cheryl Ladd, Courtney Marmo, Erik Heiberg, Faith & Family Entertainment, Hallmark, Historical, Inspirational, James Eckhouse, Julie Mond, Kevin Bocarde, Kirk B.R. Woller, Larry Levinson, Larry Levinson Productions, Lincoln Lageson, Love Comes Softly series, MNG Films, Morgan Lily, RHI Entertainment, Romance, Tyler Jacob Moore, Wes Brown, Western, Willow Geer, Willow Greer 1 Comment

The Perfect Wave (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Ian McCormack has always been in search of adventure and has always wanted to escape from what he perceives to be confining, namely responsibility and the domestic life.  After selling his car, he finally convinces his parents that as an adult, he needs to go out into the world and ‘find himself’.  An avid surfer, Ian has always been searching for one elusive thing: what he considers to be ‘the perfect wave’.  So he journeys from one surfing landmark to the next, along with a group of buddies, in order to find what he is looking for.  But his journey changes one day when he finds Anabel, a mysterious girl living in Indonesia.  He has never truly loved before, so when Anabel disappears, he feels like he has to search for her.  But what he doesn’t know is that what he has been searching for all along is something to fill the void in his soul.  Little does he realize that he will have to come face to face with what he really believes about the God he has only heard about as a child.

 

Production Quality (2 points)

For a freshman movie, The Perfect Wave is a great start in the production department.  The sets and locations, perhaps the central factor of the movie, are excellently chosen and presented.  The camera work is great, including skillful action shots and clear video quality.  The musical score is decent.  The only two caveats that keep this film’s production from being all that it could are the choppy editing and the inconsistent sound quality.  Sometimes dialogue is hard to hear because of loud background noise.  The editing confuses the viewer—too many things happen off screen that should be on the screen, and vice versa.  Yet despite these problems, The Perfect Wave puts many Christian movies to shame when it comes to production quality.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1.5 points)

The true story of Ian McCormack was definitely one worth portraying on the big screen.  However, after watching the story play out, we were left with the feeling that something was missing.  The story is non-linear, which is not surprising for a film portraying true events, and the characters are obviously flawed, but this plot just didn’t quite make it all the way.  There are some surprising twists and turns, but the dialogue is inconsistent—sometimes profound and sometimes simplistic.  Some characters seem unnecessary.  There is bit too much edgy content.  But in the end, there is a great Christian message.  It seems like the movie was written for its psychologically thrilling end that clearly communicates the gospel.  The end is worth waiting for, but some people will be lost in the middle.  Overall, the plot is average and had a lot of room for improvement.

Acting Quality (2 points)

With a professional cast, The Perfect Wave scores plenty of points here.  Scott Eastwood and Rachel Hendrix are great in their roles, but some others leave something to be desired.  Granted, this is still an above-average cast, but it seems like more could have accomplished with greater acting.

Conclusion

More obscure true stories like this one need to be adapted to movies for multiple reasons.  For one, they are better than writing another small town made-for-Hallmark romance.  For another, they let both Christian and non-Christian audiences know that God is at work in the lives of many different types of people.  God can work however He wishes, and The Perfect Wave shows this.  The unfortunate thing is that this movie was not good enough to be considered Hall of Fame, yet it is still a movie worth watching.  We look forward to what is next on the agenda for Bruce MacDonald and company.

 

Final Rating: 5.5 out of 10 points

 

February 21, 2016January 18, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Inspirational, International, Movie Reviews, SportsTags: 2014, 5.5 points, Billy Wood, Bruce Macdonald, Cheryl Ladd, Craig Jones, Diana Vickers, Divine Inspiration Trading 679, Fabulous Boomtown Boys, Inspirational, International, Jack Halloran, James Burke-Dunsmore, Jeremy Soule, Joseph Chinana, Matt Bromley, Mehboob Bawa, Mission Pictures International, Nikolai Mynhardt, Patrick Lyster, Rachel Hendrix, Riana Alfreds, Roger Hawkins, Rosy Hodge, S. Bryan Hickox, Scott Eastwood, Scott Mortensen, Sports, William A. Wood III Leave a comment