Ruling of the Heart (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Judge Edward Morgan is known for being heavy-handed and for enforcing the letter of the law without taking personal situations into account. However, when he’s stranded in a coffee shop one night, he’s confronted by people whom he’s ruled against, which forces him to take a second look at his closely-held beliefs as well as the past pain he’s been hiding from. Will he be able to change his ways before it’s too late?

Production Quality (1.5 points)

For the most part, Ruling of the Heart is a fine production even if the sets, locations, and props are somewhat limited. Some of the lighting is also unnecessarily dark, and there are some cheap special effects throughout. Flashbacks also have an odd quality about them, such as inconsistently shaky camera work. The soundtrack is fairly generic, and although other production elements are acceptable, there really needed to be more here since this film was made in 2018. However, some of this may be due to the limited plot scope.

Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 points)

Unfortunately, whereas there was a somewhat interesting idea behind this film, its disregard for legal procedure and judicial realities doesn’t bode well. The courtroom situations depicted within the storyline don’t line up with real life, which really puts a damper on things. To make matters worse, the characters are quite bland and one-dimensional throughout the narrative, and the Christian message seems shoe-horned in. One of the saving graces is the use of flashbacks to try to develop character backstories, but they don’t go as far as they could have, and characters struggle to break out of their “issue” shells and to actually be accessible as people rather than as cardboard cutouts. The stock vanilla dialogue doesn’t help, and the fact that the plot forces things forward instead of letting things unfold naturally isn’t advantageous. Even still, the film seems to be long and drawn out despite the lack of substantial content. While there are some brief attempts near the end of the movie to craft character motive, it’s too little too late. Essentially, when setting out to create a narrative that’s confined without one set and based on a complex topic requiring further research, flashbacks need to be integral in developing characters, and accuracy of the depicted topic needs to be ensured.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

Although there’s nothing specifically wrong with the casting and acting in Ruling of the Heart, there’s also nothing particularly dynamic or special about it. This section of the film is overall generic as there is some stilted line delivery and some average emotions that are balanced out by other better performances. Despite some unnatural and overly earnest portrayals, this portion of the movie is basically average.

Conclusion

In the end, Ruling of the Heart is a nice attempt to take a look at how personal experiences can unfairly influence a judge’s ruling, but in order for this concept to produce more of an impact, research needs to be done to make sure judicial situations are accurately portrayed. Further, characters need to organically developed beyond simply representing issues and should be relatable people via personality-building and backstory-revealing dialogue and flashbacks. Without realism of ideas and characters, a movie can’t properly get off the ground to make a difference, no matter how important the topic is.

Final Rating: 3.5 out of 10 points

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September 11, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Inspirational, Movie ReviewsTags: 2018, 3.5 points, Bailey Heesch, Brian Brough, Brittany Wiscombe, Bryce Fernelius, Cate Allen, Charla Bocchicchio, D. L. Walker, Demetrius Daniels, Drama, Gary Sivertson, Inspirational, James Schafer, Jill Adler, Keith Hottinger, Randall Malin, Robert Milo Andrus, Shona Kay, Silver Peak Productions, Spanky Dustin Ward, SunWorld Pictures 1 Comment

The Beautiful Beast [2013] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Isabelle Elliot is a spoiled heiress to a fortune that she has no idea how to manage properly.  She does whatever she wants with the money she has at her fingertips but always makes sure to keep her only normal friend close to her.  She convinces this friend to go with her on a spontaneous ski trip to Switzerland, but a disagreement leaves Isabelle stranded in the cold.  She wanders around until she finds a mysterious cabin and takes shelter inside.  There she meets a reclusive man who confuses her but also intrigues her.  Will he be able to teach Isabelle what really matters in life?

 

Production Quality (2 points)

For a SunWorld production, this one isn’t half bad.  Video quality, camera work, and audio quality are find, even if there isn’t enough of a soundtrack.  Sets, locations, and props are actually pretty good considering the source.  The biggest issue here is that the editing is choppy, as usual for this sort of film.  There isn’t much content to begin with, but to present it like this is unprofessional.  But in the end, we’ve come to expect these sorts of things from these types of films.

Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)

The Beautiful Beast is based on a very stereotypical and predictable idea that utilizes a thin, forced, and even juvenile thrown-together romance premise.  Though there are several somewhat interesting conversations, the characters still need deepening beyond their cheesy romantic story stereotypes.  We need to be able to feel like this is a real story and not some silly knock-off fairy tale that it’s lamely named after.  As it is, the character arcs and the predictable progression are too steep to be believable.  On top of all this, the Christian message is cheap and forced, like it was added in later to make this a “Christian film.”  In the end, the only way to fix this sort of plot is to build deep and realistic characters, but this did not happen in this film.

Acting Quality (2 points)

Though this cast is small, they are mostly professional in their performances.  Line delivery is on point, but emotions are sometimes over the top in attempts to be comedic.  But in the end, this is a decent casting and acting job.

Conclusion

Regardless, it’s really hard to see the justification for this sort of film.  The idea has been done before—too many times—so unless you’re going to improve an old idea, don’t use it.  This film is really just a representation of the need for an inspirational\quasi-Christian film, so somebody manufactured an overused plot and found some cast members to be in.  There’s nothing creative or innovative here—just pure business.  This is definitely not the way to make a movie that will actually make a difference.

 

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 10 points

 

August 1, 2017January 8, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Movie Reviews, RomanceTags: 2013, 4.5 points, Anthony Straga, Ben Hopkin, Brad Johnson, Brit Colzeyo, Bryan Carzan, Chantel Flanders, Don Cosney, Garrick Dean, Kymberly Mellen, Melanie Gardner, Robyn Kemp, Romance, Shona Kay, Silver Peak Productions, SunWorld Pictures Leave a comment

Changing Hearts [2012] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

James Reed is a successful consultant in the big city, glad that he left his rural life behind. However, his old life starts calling him back when his father begins to have health problems, prompting James’ mother, brother, and sister to call on him to come help them run the family business: a rural bed and breakfast.  James returns home, saying he will stay for a week.  When he arrives, he finds his family’s business is not as good as they portrayed it.  But he also finds that he still has feelings for one of the employees there.  Even though James does not want to be home and his brother doesn’t want him there either, the Reed family will have to band together and work hard in order to combat a business rival who wants to buy out the bed and breakfast.

 

Production Quality (1 point)

Starting off, Changing Hearts is the typical story of a cheap Christian movie.  The video quality and camera work is the strongest point of the production, giving this movie and good surface feel.  However, as we usually say, there isn’t much past the surface.  The sets are limited to the bed and breakfast building and property and some random ‘big city’ scenes.  There’s nothing creative about the soundtrack and at times, there is loud background noise that overpowers the scene.  There is really nothing to say about the editing—the movie just drags on and until it’s finally done.  Perhaps the worst element of the production is a scene at the end in which a large crowd of people is supposed to be depicted, yet it’s an obvious production blunder, with a handful of people copied over and over again to make it look like a large crowd.  Beyond this, there is nothing obviously wrong with the production of Changing Hearts, but there is nothing dynamic enough to cause it to stand out.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Leading off the previous comments, the plot of Changing Hearts is extremely linear, with no twists or turns or creativity.  It’s a simplistic prodigal son plot done quite poorly.  The characters fit nicely into their predetermined molds: the prodigal character, the angry brother, the parents, the love interest, and the optional villain (in this case, I can sympathize, since it disturbingly reminds me of a real life person).  Little is done to deepen these characters beyond their stereotypes.  Dialogue is not utilized properly and is very vanilla.  Characters are swept along by the inevitable plot that concludes abruptly and predictably.  Life lessons are obviously taught throughout, but not in a way that causes the audience to connect with the real life events.  The plot comes off in such a way that it seems like it takes place in a location outside of real life.  But if it’s meant to be an allegory, it’s not indicated.  In summary, this would have been fine for a first time film if more thought was put into it.  From the get-go, the plot is very limited in scope and potential, so the most needs to be made of every element.  This did not occur, thus warranting zero points.

Acting Quality (1.5 point)

In a strange twist, the acting is the strongest element of this film.  It’s rare that the acting overshadows the other elements; usually acting goes hand in hand with the others.  In this case, the acting is only better because it’s average and the rest of the film is sub-par.  There is nothing glaringly horrible from this cast.  Line delivery is pretty good.  Emotions sometimes seem plastic, but sometimes they are not.  This cast seems like it has a lot of potential, but it only comes out as average.

Conclusion

As time goes on, Christian films like this will unfortunately be forgotten and lost amidst a sea of cheap movies on thrift store shelves and yard sale tables.  It frustrates us to see this sort of potential do to waste.  Despite the uncreative plot, the tools were there to make this movie stand out, at least as a freshman creation.  But unfortunately, Changing Hearts is just another one of those movies that will fade away.

 

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points

 

May 13, 2016January 17, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Inspirational, Movie ReviewsTags: 2.5 points, 2012, Angelique Cooper, Anthony Straga, Brad Johnson, Brian Brough, Brian McNamara, Brittany Wiscombe, Daphne Zuniga, Darin Southam, David Seaman, Evil Bed and Breakfast Owners, Inspirational, Jaclyn Hales, Jennifer Jan, Jill Adler, Kari Hawker-Diaz, Prodigal, Robert Allen Elliott, Silver Peak Productions, Stealing Lunch, SunWorld Pictures, Tommy Dalton 2 Comments