Love Me [2020] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Reggie and his friend Sam live in a tent and run a soap-making business. Sam makes the products while Reggie tries to sell them door-to-door. One day, Reggie happens to visit Charlotte, who loves butterflies and won’t go outside without her headphones due to sensory overload. Without Charlotte’s brother knowing, she and Reggie fall in love and begin to date. Will the two social outcasts be allowed to have a life together?

Production Quality (1 point)

In usual Faith House (Inspiriter) style, camera work is shaky in Love Me, sometimes zooming in during shots. Audio quality is all over the map, include a very loud and shocking soundtrack, cheesy sounds effects, and annoying background sounds. Video quality is acceptable, but lighting is sometimes poor. Sets, locations, and props are cheap, and editing is fairly choppy. The only saving grace here is that the production quality tends to improve with time, but it’s not enough to keep this section from being subpar.

Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)

Of all the ridiculous films previously put out by this team, Love Me actually centers around an interesting idea: how special needs adults are treated in our society. It’s actually Inspiriter’s best idea ever and has the most potential of anything they’ve ever come up with. However, like many intriguing concepts in Christian entertainment, some of the good possibilities are wasted on frivolous scenes, like pointless musical montages. Dialogue is passable, though, which helps the characters become more accessible and less over-the-top. This narrative unfortunately lacks central focus and purpose, and it would have been good to see more backstory from the characters. Also, the conclusion is very abrupt and lacks logic as it depicts on character changing their mind for no particular reason. This alteration is only invented to unnaturally fix the story’s conflicts. Therefore, due to slight potential but inadequate presentation, this section only receives a meager rating.

Acting Quality (2.5 points)

Although not perfect, the perennial FaithHouse cast members that once again appear in this movie actually found their acting niches in Love Me. Their performances are mostly authentic, despite some mumbled lines, and demonstrate realistic emotions. As such, this is the screenplay’s strongest area and makes us wonder if Inspiriter has finally hit their stride this late in the game.

Conclusion

Imagine if FaithHouse/Inspiriter had saved all the money from their previous absurd offerings and put it toward this film, which is the one interesting idea they’ve put forth. What if they took a quality over quantity approach, beginning with a raw character-based drama with subtle Christian messaging? Unfortunately, we may never know, but this is definitely a lesson for future creators: don’t settle for less because one good movie is always better than ten bad ones.

Final Rating: 4 out of 10 points

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October 13, 2020 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Inspirational, Movie Reviews, RomanceTags: 2020, 4 points, Bill Wetherill, Craig McMahon, Drama, Faith House Pictures, Gary Herkimer, Inspirational, Inspiriter Films, Julie Van Lith, Romance, Savanah D. McMahon, Shari K. Green, Stacie Stocker, Tim Helmstadter 1 Comment

Sweet Sunshine (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

TJ Millhouse was a poor farmhand with a fleeting dream of being a recording artist. However, this dreams seemed to die along with his sister in a tragic car accident, but a local talent scout accidentally discovers TJ’s songs and brings him in to record some more. Before TJ knows it, he’s super famous, but this fame comes crashing down when he’s suddenly afflicted by an unknown medical condition that prevents him from singing. Will he ever be able to recover?

Production Quality (1 point)

In keeping with most Faith House/Inspiriter productions, Sweet Sunshine leaves something to be desired in this category. Though video quality and lighting are fine, there are too many background echoes and sounds. Camera work is acceptable, and the soundtrack is back and forth. Sets, locations, and props are passable but could be better. The worst element of all that drags down this section is the extremely choppy editing. Some scenes drag on for no reason while others are abruptly cut off. Thus, with little dynamic and too much negative, a low score is all that can be offered here.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Despite some slight attempts to establish character motive in this plot, most of the dialogue leaves a lot to be desired. While one personal tragedy after another strikes in this narrative, some characters seem unaffected by these circumstances, which makes them feel like cardboard cutouts. Silly coincidences fuel the story’s progression as things unnaturally happen because the writers what them to. This shows just how weak the premise is. What’s more, incredibly disconnected subplots and wild time jumps leave the viewer very confused. Stupid and pointless scenes waste tons of time, and the screenplay can’t decide what it’s actually about. The Christian message is extremely vague, and there’s some bizarre edgy content that’s very unnecessary. It all concludes with a ridiculous ending that magically fixes the invented medical problems with no explanation. Basically, Sweet Sunshine is just another lame Faith House offering.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

For the most part, the acting of this film is stock. Line delivery is acceptable although some lines are mumbled. Emotions are a bit blank, but it’s overall enough to produce an average score for this section. This rounds out an unacceptably low quality effort for 2020.

Conclusion

What’s with Faith House’s (now Inspiriter) weird obsessed with off-the-wall medical tragedies and concepts in their movies? Before All Others, Desert Redemption, A Calling of Courage, So Help Us God, and A Time for Heaven are examples of this. Now, Sweet Sunshine joins these ranks with a nondescript voice condition that can be magically healed for no reason. Inspiriter is wasting their good platform as a direct-to-Amazon-Prime independent creator. People are watching their offerings, but the films are only further contributing to the bad reputation that Christian entertainment has. Audiences want easy-to-access movies, but quality definitely matters.

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points

October 8, 2020October 10, 2020 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Movie Reviews, MusicalTags: 2.5 points, 2020, Bill Wetherill, Craig McMahon, Debra Ann Byrd, Drama, Faith House Pictures, Fit Via Vi Film Productions, Inspiriter Films, John Way, Julie Van Lith, Mackenzie Coffman, Musical, Rob Edwards, Savanah D. McMahon, Savannah Wix Leave a comment

Kindness Matters (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Hudson doesn’t want to do anything except hang around his house and go to work.  His nosy mother is worried about him, which is why she keeps trying to set him up with blind dates.  However, Hudson’s world changes one day when he finds a dog near his trash can and decides to take it in.  Moreover, his world changes again when the dog runs away from their camping trip and finds a new home with a single father and his son, who struggles with a speech impediment.  Perhaps this dog will bring them all together in a really sappy way.

Production Quality (1.5 points)

One thing you can say for Faith House Pictures (now re-branded as Inspiriter Pictures for no particular reason, even though they kept that same pixie-dust splash logo) is that they don’t give up.  Also, their production quality has slightly increased over the years, with the exception of Before All Others.  Still, they have figured out a way to mass produce sappy inspirational films that at least seem passable on the surface of production.  This is evidenced by good video quality and camera work.  They still use the same old sets, props, and locations we’ve seen before, such as the desert from Desert Redemption and the houses from So Help Us God and A Time For Heaven.  Also, they make themselves known with a typically cheesy and carefree stock soundtrack that was either cheap or free from some website.  At times, the audio is a bit too quiet, but the editing is basically face-value and fine.  Overall, Faith House is proving that if you stick with something long enough, you might get better at it.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Another defining quality of a Faith House film is a safe and predictable inspirational plot that is extremely sappy and is based on coincidences.  This time around, we get another rendition of the Black Beauty-style pass-the-narrating-animal-around plot.  This worn-out plot device is accompanied by the expected blank and vanilla characters that are written in Faith House scripts.  There is also a strawman ‘bad’ character, and each character has a special brand of quirky yet flat dialogue that makes things just interesting enough to keep watching, if only to see what they might say next.  However, the entire film basically boils down to being a collection of empty scenes that have just enough sappy inspirational themes (coupled with a totally pandering title) to make it a click-bait film that is ready to be added to your Amazon Prime suggested list if you frequent Christian films on this streaming service.  The Christian message is clearly fake,  but it is just enough to get you to watch, which makes this film’s only purpose to pander to a desperate inspirational audience.

Acting Quality (1 point)

Julie Van Lith, Suzanne McGown Brown, and Bill Wetherill are certainly committed to the Faith House cause.  Julie alone has appeared in every Faith House film.  Re-using cast members is another budget-conserving tactic of this company, but retaining good actors and actresses is the ideal.  Still, Faith House and company do just enough to make the acting seem realistic for their audience, even if a majority of the performances are extremely dry, flat, and boring.  Emotional and line delivery seem like they’re phoned in, and there are basically no extras in this film, but it’s not all bad.  Once again, Faith House does the bare minimum to stay relevant.

Conclusion

You can’t fault Faith House’s marketing model: they are running circles around other Christian film makers and their ‘lucrative’ distribution deals that run their ideas into the ground and conceal them in the closed world of Christian film festivals.  After watching every Faith House film to date, we are convinced that they are trolling Christian audiences, but they have proven their point: if you want to get your movie out there, put it directly to Amazon Prime Video.  No exclusive distribution deals, no film festivals, not even review screeners–put it straight to the audience you want to reach and spoon-feed them the message they want to hear.  Doing this is a marketing genius, and our analytics team has confirmed its success as Faith House reviews are among our most viewed posts.  This is not a coincidence, and this is an important message to aspiring film makers: for your first film, you won’t make much money, and it’s likely that Amazon won’t help you turn large profits, but it’s worth it to get your content out there at the beginning so that people know who you are.  Granted you have a good story to tell in the first place, you can grow from there.  Amazon may be Buy-N-Large, but they’re a platform that better Christian film makers can use to gain a voice in an increasingly crowded market.  Marketing matters.

 

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points

 

July 2, 2018December 31, 2018 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Inspirational, Movie ReviewsTags: 2.5 points, 2018, Aaron Ginn-Forsberg, Bill Wetherill, Craig McMahon, Faith House Pictures, Greg Lutz, Inspirational, Inspiriter Films, Julie Van Lith, Kathleen Benner, Lacy McMahon, Post Reel Pictures, Raine Hartman Forsberg, Suzanne M. Brown, Tim Helmstadter 9 Comments