Destiny Road (Movie Review)

Destiny Road (film) - Wikipedia

Plot Summary

The lives of three people may all take different turns, but one way or another, they are destined to meet up with each other. A young couple who met in church, a successful megachurch pastor, and a poor boy from the slums may not have much in common, but they all have common lessons to learn. Will they find their true purposes before it’s too late?

Production Quality (2 points)

For the most part, the production of Destiny Road is acceptable, including good video quality and camera work. Sets, props, and locations are also fine, but the audio is quite uneven throughout the film. Sometimes, it’s too quiet, and other times, there are obvious overdubs. However, there aren’t that many notable issues to note here save for the poor editing, which can be explained away by the sheet amount of content included in this movie. Thus, this section earns an above-average score.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)

Destiny Road, from start to finish, is determined to be full of confusing interlocking subplots, which causes the film to try to cover too much ground in one creation. As such, it may have been better suited as a series or as several movies, especially since there is plenty of potential to note here, including characters that are realistic at times, authentic looks at secret problems within ministries that put on shows for their congregations, and believable sequences of dialogue that demonstrate church fakeness, expose soft legalism, and establish relatable character backstories. However, narration absolutely decimates any hope of having better characters as it sometimes unnecessarily covers up conversations and just never stops. Besides this, there’s tons and tons of scenes that show many things happening all at once and include far too many concepts shoved into one screenplay. Additionally, there are very bizarre, creepy, and trippy content that’s very much out of place for the rest of the narrative and may frighten some audiences. In the end, it all leads to a confusingly vague ending that’s hard to grasp and leave the viewer feeling lost. Therefore, despite some potential, Destiny Road mostly gets in its own way.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

As a whole, the acting of this film is average since it’s sometimes unsure and sometimes acceptable. In parts, line and emotional delivery are fine while in other portions, they’re not. Nonetheless, there are plenty of good parts to balance out the bad. Therefore, this section earns an middle-of-the-road score.

Conclusion

Despite being based off of source material, Destiny Road hurts its cause by crowding itself out and overwhelming the audience with too much content to focus on. In doing this, it falls in line with with so many other screenplays that have something to offer yet ruin their chance in one fashion or another. Perhaps, one day, as we see a possible increase in writing quality among Christian entertainment, we’ll no longer have unfinished disppointments like this one.

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 10 points

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Mandie and the Secret Tunnel (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

When her father dies, Mandie Shaw is forced to live with her mother who doesn’t like her.  Therefore, she decides to run away and try to find her elusive Uncle John.  With the help of her Cherokee native friends, she discovers his estate and is taken in by his staff.  However, she receives the devastating news that her uncle is also dead.  After more emotional turmoil, Mandie decides to join in the search for her uncle’s mysterious will in order to determine who is the heir to the estate.  As they do so, however, more and more unusual characters begin appearing, obviously in search of the will for their own gain.  Mandie and her new friends must band together and discover the will before it’s too late.

 

Production Quality (1 point)

Mandie and the Secret Tunnel is obviously a low budget production.  Thankfully, the money was at least spent on cameras, for the video quality and camera work are the best production elements.  Otherwise, it’s pretty raw.  There is some potential, however, if you can endure the grating soundtrack, the inconsistent sound quality, the limited surroundings, and the sloppy editing.  When it comes to production, Secret Tunnel is not the worst of the worst, but it really doesn’t have much going for it either.  Yet for a low budget production, it’s definitely commendable.  Were this the weakest area of the film, it would be understandable.  But alas, it’s not.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)

Adapted from books by Christian children’s author Lois Gladys Sheppard, this should have been an interesting plot.  The premise of the books is unique and definitely deserved a movie.  However, Secret Tunnel just doesn’t cut it.  From start to finish, the plot is confusing and key elements are understated.  Character development is very inconsistent and dialogue ranges from slightly comedic to downright childish.  Every character has a lot of potential that needs deepening.  This could have been a really well-done character-driven plot with witty dialogue, but that ship never sails.  This ‘treasure hunt’ plot sputters and wastes time before jumping to a slightly interesting conclusion.  On its face, this plot should be way better than it is.  Low budget production can be excused, but bungling an above average plot like this one is inexcusable.

Acting Quality (.5 point)

Probably the worst element of this film, the acting is very poorly coached, if at all.  It seems like this cast has potential and could even be funny, but they have no clear direction and just say things awkwardly.  A handful of them are quite professional on their own, the rest really drag down the score.  Emotional delivery is inconsistent and at times, the delivery of lines if very forced.  Overall, casting needed a rework.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, Secret Tunnel is forced to join the ranks of movies that wasted good ideas.  Christian novels should be adapted to more movies than they are, but it must be done so properly.  For a first film, we are likely to excuse production errors that pertain to poor funding, but bungling a plot and poorly coaching a cast are fundamental errors are all levels of movie-making, no matter how much money is sunk into the project.  If you are a Christian film maker or an aspiring one, please heed this advice: before charging ahead for the sake of making another Christian movie, take time to work on your plot, making the characters deep and believable and the plot as realistically complex as possible.  For a virgin voyage, cheap production can be excused; just make sure your plot is sound and your cast doesn’t ruin your film.

 

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points