Plot Summary
When three American soldiers are taken captive by the enemy and trapped in a dungeon awaiting their fate, their minds wander back to the lives their left behind in their home country. As they share stories and regrets, one of them tries to help the others come to Christ before it’s too late. Will they be able to leave behind their regrets and embrace a new future with Jesus before time runs out for them?
Production Quality (0 points)
Unfortunately, throughout his film career, Chip Rossetti has struggled with production quality. Homefront is no exception. Camera work is stationary and video quality is grainy. Lighting is terrible in a lot of the scenes. Audio quality is also bad and the soundtrack is basically nonexistent. Sets and locations are severely limited. Furthermore, editing is not what it should be, although there are some efforts to make it that way. In the end, it’s unfortunate that the production quality of this film is so low because it had some potential.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
It is clear that this film was intended to be a big military epic, but it fell very short of expectations. The story is very flat and boring, even though the dialogue has some potential. Flashbacks barely keep the movie alive, but they need a lot more development, as do the characters. There is a part of this film that is interesting and makes us want it to be better because we can see what Chip was trying to do here, but it just didn’t work. As it is, Homefront does not have the stamina or powerful content to sustain a two-hour film. Though it was intended to be an international suspense epic, this dream unfortunately did not come to fruition. Thus, we are left wandering what could have been.
Acting Quality (1 point)
This cast, while they are not as bad as they could be, is very dry and cardboard in their emotions and in their line delivery. Some lines are severely mumbled, yet sometimes they surprise you with a randomly good performance. Since they were so underwhelming yet showed potential, they desperately needed some acting coaching. With that, this section could have been improved.
Conclusion
Homefront is the bare bones skeleton of an idea that needs serious fleshing out and a huge production and casting upgrade. It’s not like there’s not potential here—the potential is the one thing that keeps this film from being zero points. But with a production this bad, a film can never succeed. With a plot this understated and under-developed, there is no way a movie can make a difference. Furthermore, when your cast does not reach its full potential, you are in for disappointment. The good thing is that Chip Rossetti is making strides to improve his brand, and is having some success at this (see 94 Feet). This is all we ask from Christian film makers.
Final Rating: 1.5 out of 10 points
Box Office Revolution 