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.
Strange….
For Such a Time
Why do we need so many Esther films? This one looks like it was recorded with a handheld camera for a church play. They obviously purchased all of their costumes and props at Walmart and decided to film a historical story in a modern house full of white people with too much makeup. Production is terrible in all aspects and nothing these people are doing resembles acting. This is so low quality that it doesn’t even warrant creation.
Just taking some pictures of flowers
The Bouquet
One of the wonders produced by Nasser Film Group, this one portrays Kristy Swanson and a whole bunch of other awkward cast members in a knockoff Hallmark movie about a group of people all hanging around the same property together trying to rehabilitate a dying flower business. With laughable references to the internet and technology and the most juvenile forced romances ever, only watch this one if you need a good laugh.
Enough said
Midnight Stallion
In another face-palmer from Nasser, Kris Kristofferson attempts to portray a fifty-year-old man with a teenage daughter, although he was close to eighty years old at the time of this movie’s filming. Hardly anything can be focused on at all in this formulaic, stereotypical, and predictable horse-saves-the-farm story except for Kristofferson’s terrible plastic surgery, constant grunting, and scenes of him pretending to ride a horse. Whoever keeps casting old coots like Kristofferson needs to quit film making.
Well that’s all for now! Maybe we’ll post another one someday…maybe not…
Abby and John fell in love in high school, went to college together, got married, and came back to the small town where they grew up. They raised a family together, but now they are growing apart. They are ready to file for divorce when their daughter comes home from college suddenly engaged to her boyfriend. Not wanting to spoil her time, they decide to hold off until she gets married. However, Abby’s father uses this time to step into their business to find out what’s really going on between them. Forced to work together for their daughter’s wedding, Abby and John begin to relive why they fell in love in the first place. But they must rekindle their romance before time runs out.
Production Quality (2 points)
Not to be deterred from their endless factory model of manufacturing inspirational films ripped off from popular authors, Hallmark always spends the money on production quality. Clear video quality is evident, as is professional camera work. Audio quality is consistent throughout, but there’s the ever present generic melancholy-serene Hallmark soundtrack to listen to throughout the scenes. While the sets and locations seem above board, they are actually quite limited and dressed up to have that ‘magical’ Hallmark look. As will be expounded upon shortly, the editing is lazy and sloppy, leaving the viewer with a half-effort plot. In other words, A Time to Dance is business as usual for Hallmark.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Anything good about this plot can be credited to Karen Kingsbury, not Hallmark. The otherwise interesting novel A Time to Dance has officially been #Hallmarked. What was an intriguing plot about a highly pertinent issue facing many Christians—namely broken marriages—has been transformed into a mellow and boring snoozefest full of the typical Hallmark emptiness and the unrealistic fairy tale alternate realities. Complete with cardboard characters that spew obvious dialogue designed to drive the plot along, viewers who choose to watch this disaster will be dragged out over a nearly one hundred minute runtime of melancholy delay of the inevitable just to have the so-called conflict resolved in five minutes or less. The conflicts therein are extremely empty, as are the relationships between the characters. We can’t appreciate or understand anything they’re going through because it doesn’t seem real. There is far more telling than showing; for example, we are told about things that happen off screen or are informed of things that happened in the past rather than being provided with a flashback. Also, the Christian message is very manufactured and plastic. I could go on and on, but the same old truth remains: Hallmark has no regard for preserving good plot ideas, they only care about making money.
Acting Quality (0 points)
What else is new? The acting is forced and stiff. Line delivery is very awkward and sometime monotone; emotions are almost nonexistent. As usual, every cast member has far too much makeup and look like either washed up wannabes or desperate wannabes. The Hallmark acting rule is to throw a bunch of big names in the film so the commercials will catch people’s attention but to do nothing to actually coach them. But at this point, we don’t expect anything different.
Conclusion
Hallmark has a real chance to bring great Christian novels to life. They have the resources, they have the connections, and they have the marketing to do this well. But instead, they settle for half-measures to improve their profit margins. People desperately want to see wholesome entertainment, and Hallmark claims to provide this, but they are short on delivering it. A Time to Dance could have been an inspiring Christian film on an important topic, but instead, it just became another forgettable show of Hallmark pageantry.
Box Office Revolution 