The only major production improvement that should be noted in Meant to Be is the need for more organized editing. In this film, scenes tend to be tossed here and there in a confusing fashion. However, the editing can only be improved as the plot content is improved. Thus, a more organized plot would have likely led to improvement in this area.
Plot and Storyline Improvements
Meant to Be is one of the most creative and most frustrating films we have ever reviewed. Without spoiling the major twist at the end, it should be noted that this twist is mostly unexpected, especially after sitting through the boring and purposeless first half of the plot. This is where most of the audience will be lost, so the most effective thing that could have been done in this situation would have been to make the first half of movie a good film on its own without having to rely on the twist in the second half. This would also cause misdirection and make the twist even more surprising and out of left field. As it is, Meant to Be seems to be rushing to get to the twist, and character development is sacrificed in the process. We need to know what these characters care about and what their motivations are, and this can be done through substantial dialogue. If these characters would be able to stand on their own apart from the twist, this would have been a truly great film.
Acting Improvements
Step one: take out Dean Cain. Further, the jury is still out on whether or not Bradley Dorsey should be acting in his own films. Other cast members in Meant to Be were underwhelming in their performances, so more improved acting coaching might have helped this section improve.
Conclusion
Bradley Dorsey has some great ideas, but he often stunts their full impact by getting in his own way. The best thing he can do at this point in his career is to work with a team approach. He may need to step back from acting in his films and work collaboratively with someone to bring his creative ideas to full fruition by developing deeper characters. In the end, while it is unclear what his next steps are, if he heeds this advice, he could soar to new heights.
Olivia and Lucas have always heard rumors about a mysterious old house in their New Orleans neighborhood. Legends say that if you throw a rock through one of the windows and make a Christmas wish, it will come true. After witnessing several wishes come true when they ask them for other people, Olivia and Lucas decide to investigate the matter further. They find a collection of offbeat characters hanging around the house who are not what they seem at first. Little do they know that Christmas angels come in many forms…
Production Quality (1.5 points)
As we’ve mentioned before, PureFlix can usually put together a respectable production. Video quality is clear as usual and camera work is professional. The sets and locations are realistic and down to earth. Unfortunately, the audio quality drags down this production, including a silly Christmas soundtrack and too many scenes in which lines cannot be heard due to background noise. The editing is mostly okay and does a good job concealing the obligatory Dorsey twist until near the end. Basically, this is an average production effort but we strongly believe it could have been better.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1.5 points)
In keeping with their usual practices, Bradley Dorsey and Andrea Gyertson Nasfell craft a creative and thought-provoking plot that makes you think it’s going to be one thing, only to change it to something different in the end. However, it goes without saying that Dorsey also commits his original sin of not going all the way with his creativity. There are times when Christmas Angel is innovative and interesting, while some moments are cringe-worthy and totally off the wall. This inconsistency makes the audience vacillate between cheering and scratching their heads. The schizophrenia is also demonstrated in the characters—while the character arcs are great in the end, it’s a rocky road to get there. As usual, the storyline is based off a creative concept that sports a key plot twist and demonstrates the creative genius of the team. Elsewhere, there are just too many childish Christmas elements that hold this plot back from being as good as it could have been. Sometimes we wonder why a creator can come so close so many times but always miss the mark by an inch.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Like the rest of the film, the cast of Christmas Angel is very inconsistent. Sometimes they have awkward scenes while other times they act very professionally. Emotions are good at times and not good at other times. Some of the makeup work is below par. In short, in comes to another average score.
Conclusion
Basically all of the films Bradley Dorsey is involved in need to be remade. As we’ve said before, he has tons of potential that is untapped, probably because he throws in his lot with the PureFlix crew. For that matter, Andrea Gyertson Nasfell has lot of untapped potential herself. Both Dorsey and Nasfell have much to offer to Christian film and if they ever reach their full potential, then the field will be a different place.
Richie Chaplin is a mess. He’s struggling to convey meaning in his pastoral ministry. His wife has separate from him due to his depression and sleepwalking, taking their three children with her. His two younger children don’t even know who he is. His older daughter is messing around with a boy. Basically, Richie doesn’t want to be himself anymore. He wants somebody else’s life because his life stinks. He’s forgotten the original purpose God created him for, so he’s about to embark on a wild journey outside of his control to remind him why he is living the life he is living. In the end, he will have to decide whether or not he likes the life God has given him or if he is going to make one of the biggest mistakes of his life.
Production Quality (1 point)
To their credit, at least PureFlix invested in better camera quality than usual for this film. The sound quality is also fine, but these are the only positive aspects of the production of Me Again. Throughout this zany drug trip into the creative faculties of David A. R. White and Tommy Blaze, the camera angles can get dizzying, confusing, and downright amateurish in their attempt to be dramatic or comedic. Cheesy horror effects are inserted randomly and out of context. Low-quality special effects are overused and invasive. The surroundings are painfully obviously reused from Marriage Retreat, suggesting that this movie was borne out of that film’s B-rolls. Finally, all editing sense is thrown out the window as the plot tosses hither and fro with no system or consistency, like they’re just throwing stuff up against the wall to see what happens. Overall, Me Again feels like an experimental film that either accidentally got released or was released to try to glean desperately needed funds. Either way, it doesn’t work.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
Few screenwriters venture to create a psychological comedy, and Me Again may stand as a testament as to why. The plot of this film is extremely hard to nail down. After watching an unusual sequence on television two nights in a row, David A. R. White is suddenly transported into an alternate universe in which he gets to become a random rich guy, a model he saw on TV, a goldfish (?!?!), an infant, a housemaid, the teenage boy trying to date his daughter, and finally his own wife. The only real explanations that are offered for this potentially interesting psychological journey are vague and trite inspirational quotes from an offbeat angel character he should have already known about (more on that shortly). The leaps from one impersonation to the next are not only painfully horrible at trying to be funny, but also leave no room for real character development. The dialogue is horrifically childish and often feels adlibbed and impromptu. Yet somewhere in the midst of histrionic displays from A. R. White, including a fake (or not) heart attack, a purposeful makeup disaster, voiceovers for a goldfish and an infant, generally idiotic behavior, self-parodies, and an epic conversation with himself in the alternate universe (perhaps his acting dream), there is some interesting meaning hidden here. If someone was able to ‘walk in someone else’s shoes’, then they would view life a lot differently. But this potential meaning is covered up due to time wasted on downright stupidity. This goes without saying that, in keeping with usual White themes, everything is too black and white. ‘Good’ characters are obviously perfect and wise while ‘bad’ characters are complete over the top strawmen, bringing more disgrace to how people think Christians view ‘worldly’ people. Also, solutions to problem are far too easy, trite, and shallow, and offer no real help for people struggling with the real issues presented.
But perhaps the worst element of this entire plot is found in the unusual sepia tone flashback prologue and epilogue. It’s so devastating that it warrants a Box Office Revolution first: a separate paragraph of discussion. The prologue and epilogue are presumably supposed to depict Richie and his wife as childhood sweethearts drinking honeysuckle tea (whatever that is). The epilogue completely undermines the purpose of the plot and suggests that it’s all one big joke. Either that or PureFlix is full of incompetence (probably a little of both). Richie’s wife, as a girl, tells him that she knows they’ll be married one day because the specific angel he later sees on television and has a conversation with in the midst of his psychological adventure told her so. If this is the case, then he should have known what was happening when he recognized the name of the angel. Another alternative possibility is that the entire middle of the movie is just part of the girl’s dream, which suggests that the entire movie is useless. Whatever the case is, this plot is so slipshod and incompetent that we can’t make heads or tails of it. All we know is that it’s an experience we’ll both never forget and never wish to repeat.
Acting Quality (0 points)
As usual, the Whites and their comrades have no restraint or direction in their acting but are content to blurt out lines in ‘funny’ fashions and lazily act their way through another cheap movie full of one-take scenes and adlib behavior. No emotional meaning can be felt here because the acting is so absurd, especially David A. R. White’s zany impersonations of other characters and Tommy Blaze’s generally bizarre behavior. In short, another zero point acting job is business as usual for PureFlix.
Conclusion
If anything was accomplished through this unique experience, it was that a movie like this has never been made before and should never be made again. Unfortunately, any attempt at deeper meaning is so shallow that’s easily washed over with a tide of absurdity. Many elements of this movie seem to suggest that the Whites and company have no grasp on the real world, as they treat important issues too lightly and portray people has completely good or completely bad. It seems like the only purpose of Me Again is to make fun of everything, including themselves, and to waste another good idea. The one merit PureFlix has is an acceptance of creating different types of movies, but in most cases, like this one, they ruin the reputation of Christian movies in unique genres. This is not to mention the fact that Me Again is just another film that makes the name ‘Christian film’ more of a laughingstock. At some point, the creation of this type of nonsense must end and Christian filmmakers must get serious about generating quality content if we are ever going to make a true difference.
After a negative turn of events in his life, Nathan Burr begins to search for meaning in life. Recalling his younger years of living with foster parents, he decides he needs to search out his birth mother, who he has never met. His search takes him to a mysterious hotel where he finds surprising wisdom from the hotel’s aging maid. But he also finds more questions than answers. Linda Dickson is a social worker who has guarded a terrible secret all her life. That’s why she jumps at the chance to help a girl escape from a domestic violence situation. Little does she know that her world is about to be changed forever.
Production Quality (2 points)
Starting off, the limited budget of Meant to Be must be accounted for. The sets are pretty good; the video and sound quality are great. The camera work tends to be a little too artistic at times, but it seems to work well more than not. The biggest error here is the confusing editing. Some scenes seem to cut too quickly and some seem to drag on too long. This is likely due to the low amount of plot content, but it is overall produced fairly well.
Plot and Storyline Quality (2 points)
As mentioned, the plot is very limited in scope when it could have been very broad. There are really only two and half subplots, but it didn’t have to be that way. Some movies have little room to work, but this one had a mansion. Though there are few characters, they seem unfinished. The dialogue is inconsistent. At first, this plot doesn’t seem sustainable at all. But more than halfway through the film—if you stick it out—Bradley Dorsey introduces a huge twist that completely changes the audience’s outlook. This is perhaps the best twist ever in the PureFlix movie. It makes up for a lot of the movie’s errors, but it also shows just how far the movie could have gone. Nonetheless, the twist is genius and makes it worth watching.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Unfortunately, the average to poor acting quality also detracts from Meant to Be’s creative premise. Some of the actors show great potential with better coaching. Dean Cain seemed like an unnecessary addition to the cast. Overall, the acting has a lot of potential that was not tapped.
Conclusion
This movie had a mountain of potential—it could have been a nearly perfect film. It does receive an x-factor point for presenting an important social issue in a very unique and creative way. We desperately want this movie to be remade, or least the idea to be allowed to be used in a different movie, one with more and better characters, a more complex plot, and better actors. Bradley Dorsey show great potential as a movie maker, and we anticipate his future films. He needs a better crew to surround him and to support him in his excellent ideas. He has a corner on the Christian psychological thriller market if he takes the chance.
Box Office Revolution 