Plot Summary
When a group of four unlikely friends from high school reunites in the small town of Cave City, Kentucky, for a brief Christmas reunion, they suddenly get stranded by the snow and are forced to recount the old days they had together. However, Cave City is falling apart at the seems as it gets bought up by some Eastern Syndicate – even the old diner!! Will they ever be able to save the small town from ruin?
Production Quality (1 point)
In this 2016 production, there are many elements that should not be for one this new. This includes poor audio quality that sometimes echoes, as well as a cheesy holiday soundtrack that sometimes overpowers the scenes. There are also very cheap and limited sets, locations, and props, including an overpowering amount of Christmas decor. The only good areas of this production that keep it from being zero points are the fine video quality and camera work. However, the editing is fairly poor, and the use of special effects is cheesy, which keeps this at a one-point production.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
In keeping with his past script-writing practices, Chip Rossetti includes
extremely stilted and unnatural dialogue throughout this story that makes the characters seem like robots. Another commonly used Rossetti theme that’s present in this film is the heavy-handed small town values that are under attack by big city corporations. Paired with this are
constant return-to-small-town conversations and plenty of exposition through conversations that might as well be narration. All of these elements severely cripples any potential for character growth and reduces it to a church play feel. Besides this, there is really little to not plot potential here at all as the characters are cardboard cutouts instead of people. Instead of trying to develop the characters, the storyline seems to grasp at anything it can do to fill time with except for actually developing characters, and this includes poorly constructed flashbacks. As extremely convenient dialogue forces the plot along, the audience is forced to listen to the message that small town values fix everything even while big city evils try to destroy them. Essentially, there is little interesting to mention here.
Acting Quality (1 point)
In keeping with the way the lines are written, the delivery of them is also extremely practiced and measured, as if the cast members are robots. Acting is either overdone or underwhelming, and while it’s fine sometimes, it’s mostly very wooden and stilted. There is such a thing as over-coaching, and Chip Rossetti’s teams have consistently done this in nearly all their films (except Fathers).
Conclusion
Chip Rossetti has an unusual production model to say the least. He advertises 3-5 movies throughout the year, and one of them might be released, but the rest disappear into the black hole while one or two other random films pop up on PureFlix on Demand with no warning or marketing. We have to give it to Chip, however: he never gives up on making more films. Nevertheless, all of this film-making experience should have amounted to something better than a two-point half-baked Christmas film by now. There’s something to be said for doing the same thing over and over again with no results.
Final Rating: 2 out of 10 points
Box Office Revolution 