Let Go and Let God (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

After Wendy lost her husband in the line of duty, she felt like things couldn’t get worse. However, they did get worse when her son suddenly went missing. A local pastor has lost his faith, but is he being given a chance to look at his worldview from a new angle after Wendy, one of his members, is in a time of need? Will they all be able to see that letting go and giving anxieties to God is the best way to live?

Production Quality (.5 point)

From start to finish, the production of Let Go and Let God is underwhelming for 2019. The camera work is very shaky, even though the video quality is fine, and the audio is quite unbalanced as some scenes are overdubbed and have unnecessarily high volumes while others have distracting background sounds. Also, the soundtrack is quite loud at times, and there are many very tight and strangely close-up camera shots, along with some blurry angles. Lighting is overall poor in the cheap sets and locations, and there are too many cheesy special effects and overlays, including random split screens. In the end, the editing is also an issue, as evidenced by very abrupt cuts and transitions, and this production as a whole just has too many problems to warrant any more than half a point.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

In the beginning of Let Go and Let God, there’s no clear way to understand what the writers are trying to convey through the unsubstantial dialogue that creates very dry and bland characters. The conversations don’t properly move the plot forward or develop character motives and personalities, and overall, nothing significant happens throughout this story. There are a lot of vague psychological sequences that only waste time and isolate the audience; it’s very hard to relate to the struggles of the disconnected characters, some of which have zero purpose, and there’s an unexplained air of mystery surrounding the narrative that the viewer can’t put their finger on. As the film progress, it becomes more and more consumed with ethereal artistic sequences that have no meaning for the audience and just make for a slow and boring experience. However, by the final third of the movie, the story begins to take an even more incoherent turn into disorganization before culminating with an incredibly abrupt ending that leaves the viewer with an extremely head-scratching message. Thus, due to the abstract oddness of this plot, it warrants a surprising negative score due to unforced errors and general strangeness.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

The acting of Let Go and Let God is actually its strongest point, even if it’s generically average. There’s nothing horrible nor dynamic about the cast members’ performances although some of them seem bored and disinterested with the experience. However, they can hardly be blamed due to the nature of the narrative. Elsewhere, some line are a bit over-practiced, and emotions can be flat at times, but this section rounds out a mostly unnecessary film.

Conclusion

It’s extremely difficult to understand why this movie was even made. If the screenwriters knew what message they were trying to communicate, it’s completely lost to the audience. When this happens, the film has already failed. Combine this with poor production and mediocre acting and the project is a total non-starter. Hopefully, as Christian entertainment moves forward, movies like Let Go and Let God will become more irrelevant and and less prevalent.

Final Rating: 1 out of 10 points

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January 16, 2020 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Inspirational, Movie Reviews, PsychologicalTags: 1 point, Brynn Mosley, Carla Mahaffee, Clifton Powell, David Schifter, Delynn Terry, Drama, Gary Paige, Inspirational, Jenique Bennett, Joan Reilly, Kimberly Ann Parker, Kimberly Sabrina McDuffie, Luv Life Entertainment, Nakia T. Hamilton, Psychological 3 Comments

One Church (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Cornelius Barlow is a devious politician who has had a vendetta against organized religion ever since his daughter was killed by a cult. Instead of eradicating religion, however, once he becomes President of the United States, he decides to make his own united religion by bringing all faiths together and by forcing them to work together. Unfortunately, this doesn’t go as simply as he planned as he faces opposition from a secret resistance who claims that they know the only truth of salvation: Jesus Christ. Will their numbers be able to survive the coming persecution?

Production Quality (1.5 points)

One Church is one of those Christian suspense films that bites off more than it can chew in the production department. This is evident by the shaky camera work, the loud soundtrack and sound effects, and the inconsistent audio that is sometimes muted. There are also a lot of tight shots and a weird aspect ratio, along with some randomly blurry camera shots and odd camera angles. Some scenes also cut off very abruptly as if this is an early cut that wasn’t finished. However, not all is bad in this production as there are some elements that are fine throughout, such as the sets, locations, and props, which keep this production from being below average. Even still, if the funding and resources aren’t there for a good suspense plot, it’s better to not make it.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

While this is an interesting attempt at a different type of plot, it’s based too much on far-fetched concepts and ‘bad’ characters that are total strawmen and get worse as the film progresses. The premise also progressively become more unrealistic, and large time jumps hurt any hope there was of plot and character growth. Time is mostly spent on montages, which leaves characters shallow and the purpose of the film unclear. One thing happens after the next in very rapid fashion, and expository dialogue is used as a shortcut. There are too many vague ideas that are started without backup or follow-through, and sequences of boring activities are used in place of actual conversations between characters that could help us get to know them as people. In the end, the story ends in a very awkward and abrupt fashion that makes it even more unclear why this movie was even made.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

For the most part, the acting is fine without any major problems, even though it’s underwhelming and vanilla at times. Sometimes, dialogue is slightly mumbled, and line delivery is under-performing at times. It seems like some cast members become more and more dramatic as the film goes on, and other case members don’t do enough to make up for these poor performances. However, the early acting does enough to keep this section average, which rounds out an overall blah movie.

Conclusion

The JC Films team still hasn’t found itself in movie-making. They are disjointed and disconnected from both reality and relevance in the film world. They have a lot of ambitions and want to try different things (sometimes), but they have no foundation or basis for what they do. This likely won’t change until they begin retaining real screenwriters and actually put their funding and resources to good use.

Final Rating: 3 out of 10 points

February 2, 2019February 2, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Movie Reviews, SuspenseTags: 2016, 3 points, Asif Khan, Barry Piacente, Bill Coen, Bill Rahn, Brandy Allison, Britt Barlow, Catherine Trail, Charles Landers, Chip Wilt, Chris Horton, Christopher Luther, Chuck Clark, Clarence Harris, David Schifter, Don Brooks, Drama, Gogo Lomo-David, Hershel Scott, Hunter Lee Manning, Jason Campbell, Jason Frederick, JC Films, Jeremy Carr, Jessica Lynch, Juan Rivera, Kayli Maree Tolleson, Kera O'Bryon, Laura Palka, Luis Carlos Machicao, Sarah R. Cook, Savannah Johnson, Suspense, Tim Ross, Todd Long, Tri-Rahn Pictures, Vanessa Ore 5 Comments

Believe [2016] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Matthew Peyton has tried to keep his father’s struggling factory afloat, but with the unions bearing down his neck and the economy tanking in the small town he lives in, it may be too late for him, even with Christmas just around the corner.  One night, when Matthew is attacked by angry workers, he is left for dead yet tended by a community of homeless people he never knew existed in the city.  They change his outlook on life and give him a new hope for the holidays that he thought he had lost.

 

Production Quality (2 points)

As a modern production, Believe is mostly high quality and professional.  Video quality is great, and camera work is good except for some unnecessarily odd camera zooms at dramatic moments.  Audio quality is good, however, as is the soundtrack.  Sets, locations, and props are realistic and appropriate for the film.  However, there are some confusing special effects throughout, and the editing is generally disorienting as time goes back and forth without warning.  Nevertheless, it is clear that this production team wanted to make a good film, so they mostly succeeded on this front.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)

Believe is one of the most complex yet disorganized Christmas plots I have ever witnessed.  It begins with unusual apocalypse undertones that depict a small town falling apart almost like a disaster film.  There is a lot of information dump dialogue to ‘catch the audience up,’ yet a lot of it is politically charged and agenda-driven.  At first, the drama seems manufactured as characters are seemingly swept along in uncontrollable circumstances like stand-ins for plot devices.  The story is also heavily centered around a stereotypical Christmas pageant that can save everything.  The protagonist is hated by almost everybody, which is another premise that seems very forced.  However, the plot pulls itself out of the nosedive in the middle as some really interesting issues and ideas are brought to light in what could have been a very unique and creative Christmas film.  However, the sheer number of ideas packed into this film cripples its influence, especially since the storyline returns to predictability and extremely quick problem-fixing and conflict-resolving for the final sequences.  Regardless, there is a lot of potential here that could be reworked into a different film.  The complexity at least keeps the viewer interested.

Acting Quality (2 points)

For the most part, this cast is professional and well-coached.  There are some moments when they are too practiced and forced in their emotions and line delivery, but this is not enough to derail the positive efforts.  On the whole, like other parts of this film, this casting and acting is what is needs to be to keep things interesting.

Conclusion

Many audiences will likely enjoy Believe, and it’s not really that bad of a movie.  But it needs some serious reorganization, along with a final sequence rework.  Too much is trying to be accomplished in this film, but we can never fault wanting to handle a lot of content when most films—especially holiday ones—suffer for any shred of substantial content.  Still, it would be interesting to see a remake of this film because there is definitely tons of potential here.

 

Final Rating: 5 out of 10 points

 

December 20, 2017January 2, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Christmas, Inspirational, Movie ReviewsTags: 2016, Ben Holmes, Billy Dickson, Bryce Lenon, Christmas, Danielle Nicolet, David DeLuise, David Schifter, Dean Lyons, five points, Gunnar Sizemore, Inspirational, Isaac Ryan Brown, Jacob Patrick, James C. Burns, Joey Naber, Jolie Lippincott, Katherine Bunn-Davidson, Kevin Otos, Kevin Sizemore, Lance Nichols, Landon Stephen Popadic, Matthew Pickett, Michael Reola, Nelson Diaz, Power of 3 Films, Robin Capehart, Ryan O'Quinn, Scott Summitt, Shawnee Smith, Steven Farnsworth, Suzie Haines 1 Comment

Virtuous [2015] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

After Simone Burner is attacked by the grandson of a powerful man, she is arrested for the grandson’s murder and mostly everybody in the city turns against her for no particular reason.  Therefore, she has to seek out the help of an estranged attorney who doesn’t really like her as her last resort.  Meanwhile, there are tons of others subplots are all going on at the same time as other random characters are briefly introduced who have very loose connections to the original point.  With so much going on, the question is not what will happen, but will anyone understand what is happening?

 

Production Quality (2 points)

Virtuous has a professional and adequate production, as evidenced by clear video quality, good camera work, acceptable audio quality, and an intriguing soundtrack.  Sets, locations, and props are professionally chosen and presented.  On the surface, it seems like Virtuous checked all the necessary boxes to receive a passing score.  However, the major detractor here is the horrific editing.  Somewhere in post-production, someone needed to sit down and have a serious talk with the JC Films team about whether or not it’s justified to have a 150 minute film that has next to no continuity.  This was the editor’s job; however, this was not done, and thus, it leaves a gaping hole in this film.

Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)

As previously mentioned, this perhaps the most convoluted and non-continuous plot in all of our viewing days.  With hundreds of subplots that have very little connection to one another, there is no way to make sense of what is going on as the story hops from one random thing to the next.  There’s all kinds of intrigue with this local judicial and law enforcement system and how corrupt businessmen are trying to control stuff, plus some stereotypical down-on-his-luck who takes on a seemingly impossible case that has some ties to a non-profit involving Erin Bethea, and this doesn’t even cover the random guy in the hospital and the nurse who takes care of him who also has a questionable position on the jury of the original trial.  This previous run-on sentence doesn’t even cover all the points Virtuous tries to expand on.  It’s like twelve different people all had ideas and decided to shove them all together into one bloated film.  With so much going on, there is no hope for character development as dialogue is stunted and all over the place.  The only characters that stand out are strawmen villains, unfortunately.  Yet despite all of this massive blending of concepts, there is a really interesting idea somewhere lost in the fray that would be better served in a miniseries format.  It’s disappointing to see good ideas go to such waste, especially when it’s like this.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

With so many cast members, it’s really hard to keep up.  This is an unusually large cast for a Christian film, thus making the performances inconsistent and random.  Sometimes line delivery and emotional delivery are good, while other times they are not.  Overall, it comes out as fairly average.

Conclusion

When you’re in the process of making a film that is over two and a half hours and you actually have the budget to make a film this long, perhaps you need to stop and consider: with so much content, I should make this a series!  People love series: just look at the unexplainable success of When Calls the Heart.  Why not, instead of making a cumbersome film like this one, try something different and create an interesting genre-busting Christian series.  It would be a huge hit.  Yet once again, we are left wondering what could have been.

 

Final Rating: 4 out of 10 points

 

April 12, 2017January 9, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Inspirational, Movie Reviews, SuspenseTags: 2015, 4 points, A.J. Pulliam, Adam Drake, Alisha Montyo, Amber Fish, Angela Oberer, Angelita Nelson, Ben Davies, Benny Tate, Bill Rahn, Bonnie Johnson, Brandy Allison, Catherine Trail, Cedric Greenway, Chris Menard, Chuck Clark, Danny Agha, David Pharr, David Schifter, Dean Haskins, Deven Bromme, Don Brooks, Eliot Sloan, Erik Estrada, Erin Bethea, Inspirational, Jan Ivers, Jason Campbell, JC Films, Jeff Glover, Jennifer DeLoach, Jordyn Bingham, Kayli Maree Tolleson, Kelly Bowling, Kera O'Bryon, Legal, Melissa Barron, Missy McGuire, Mystery, Pam Jenkins, Rebecca Frussel, Rick Canino, Ricky Shepherd, Sam Redfern, Sandra Elise Williams, Suspense, Tara Lynn Marcelle, Ten Johnson, Tim Ross, Timothy E. Goodwin, Todd Maynard, Todd Maynor, Tri-Rahn Pictures, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Vanessa Ore Leave a comment