Status currently unknown
Writer(s): Stephen Donnelly, Chuck Williams
Director(s): Anthony Adams, Oliver Lucas
Producer(s): ????
Starring: Aaron Mees, Jessica Lynch, Timothy Goodwin, Sierra Foley
Plot Synopsis: In this faith-based Western, no man can escape God’s Wrath. Twelve men come together to revenge their friend’s death but on their journey…will they find Redemption or Death?
Plot Summary
Roy, a former pastor, has decided to go out to a secluded cabin in the woods to determine whether or not the spiritual realm exists. He’s determined to lock himself in until something spiritual manifests, which attracts the undue attention of various supernatural forces, both good and evil. In the end, Roy will have to battle for his soul, using homemade armor, against poorly animated demons!
Production Quality (.5 point)
Although the video quality of The Cabin is fine, this is the only positive production element. The camera work is very shaky, including some really wacky camera angles, and the audio leaves something to be desired due to its background sounds, constant generic soundtrack, and weird sound effects. Also, the sets, props, and locations are quite cheap, and it goes without saying that the special effects are terrible. Elsewhere, the flashbacks are unnecessarily black and white, and editing is sub-par. Essentially, this is an unacceptably bad production, but it’s not even the worst of what this awful film has to offer.
Plot and Storyline Quality (-3 points)
Although The Cabin‘s plot begins with boring sequences of activities of daily living and vanilla dialogue that produces cardboard characters, things quickly become much more outrageous. Through a combination of stupid jump scares, blank scenes where basically nothing happens, cheesy found footage sequences, and drug trip montages that are nearly impossible to quantify, this film successfully finds its way all the way down to the bottom of the barrel. Besides the forced drama that has no logical lead-up, the narrative is so vague that it’s barely even a story and completely lacks purpose. However, this doesn’t even though the fact that many of the plot points lack realistic support and that the spiritual elements of the story are either portrayed in juvenile ways or through very bizarre methods that cause the viewer to question whether or not the screenwriters actually comprehended the serious subject matter they wrote about. Basically, the movie’s second half is utter nonsense and full of over-the-top sensationalism such that it makes a laughingstock of otherwise important spiritual topics. It’s incredibly difficult to include all of the complete madness that’s contained within this one screenplay without asking the audience to see for themselves, but that would be a total waste of their time.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Despite other glaring problems in The Cabin, the acting is actually quite average, considering the fact that there’s not much for the cast members to work with. Not many lines are demanded of them due to the abysmal writing, but many of the performances contain forced emotions. Nonetheless, this section isn’t all bad, but it’s not enough to salve the utter disaster that is this film.
Conclusion
The Cabin puts the proverbial icing on the bad cake that JC Films made in 2019. Flooding the market with tons of sub-par movies is never the way to go, as we’ve previously stated. Doing such will inevitably lead to horrific disasters like this one that further tarnish the reputation of Christian entertainment. All that can really be learned from train wrecks like this are how not to do it and how important it is to continually produce more quality creations in the future.
Final Rating: -1 out of 10 points
Plot Summary
John Light is a prisoner nearing the end of his sentence, and he’s paired with Matt Garrett as a part of a prison ministry mentor program. Though Matt is ambivalent about the experience at first, he quickly becomes friends with John, who has no one else in life who cares about him. Thus, when John is released, Matt is there to help the ex-con get back on his feet. However, John has to face some dark elements of his past in order to move forward with his life.
Production Quality (1.5 points)
In the beginning, the production of John Light is as poor as those from other JC Films offerings. One example of this is inconsistent audio quality, including some background echoes and noises as well as a generic soundtrack that never stops playing. Also, some scenes obviously begin right after the camera starts rolling rather than already being in motion. However, on the bright side, sets, locations, and props are all acceptable, and video quality and camera work are both fine. While the editing is basically average, the good thing is that all production areas show concerted improvement as the film goes on, which is enough to warrant an even score.
Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)
From the get-go, John Light is one of the most noteworthy ideas put forward by the JC Films team, probably because it’s based on true events. However, in the beginning, the characters are a bit blank due to some rushed conversations and some unsubstantial dialogue that fails to properly develop them. This makes it difficult to grasp the overall flow of the plot as the narrative tends to meander without clear themes to guide it. In the first half of the movie, it feels like a bunch of random scenes were strung together, but somewhere in the middle, things suddenly take a turn for the better. While the central purpose is still unclear, there are some realistic attempts at family systems issues and some considerably adequate conversations that make the characters a bit better throughout the storyline’s second half. There is some slight focus on the latter parts of the film, and the characters become more accessible, but the plot’s beginning causes the entire experience to be disjointed. Nonetheless, there are enough noteworthy concepts explored after the midpoint of John Light for it to warrant a modest score.
Acting Quality (2 points)
Although some of the acting is a bit forced at first, including some unnatural line and emotional delivery, like other elements of this movie, these problems do improve with time. Throughout the screenplay, some cast members are better than others, but they all show good effort by the time it’s over. Also, the culturally diverse cast is commendable, so this rounds out a mostly average film effort.
Conclusion
John Light really does deserve a remake since it contains such an interesting true story. In reality, the JC Films team should have nixed all of the other movies they had planned for 2019 and instead put all their eggs in one basket for John Light. In doing so, it’s highly possible that it would have had enough funding (and maybe expanded collaboration) to propel John Light to the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, however, we’ll never know what could have been, yet it’s still an excellent lesson for all Christian entertainment creators: don’t rush to make more films just for the sake of making them; wait to make a quality offering that God actually wants you to make.
Final Rating: 4.5 out of 10 points
Plot Summary
Elisha just wanted to get to Pittsburgh on time, and he never intended to cross paths with an eccentric character named Elijah. Elisha reluctantly decides to aid Elijah’s hitch-hiking, but he immediately regrets the choice as Elijah continually delays Elisha’s plans and hampers his progress. Thus, Elisha keeps trying to get Elijah off of his back. However, little do either of them know that they are about to both learn something valuable that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Production Quality (.5 point)
The cheapness of The Follower‘s production is very evident from start to finish. There are loud background noises and a generic soundtrack that tend to cover up other audio, and video quality is inconsistent throughout. The camera work is randomly shaky at times, and there are some obvious overdubbed lines in some portions. In other parts, cheesy sound effects are inserted on top of the video, and there some instances of weird camera angles. Further, the sets, locations, and props are cheap-looking, and the editing has a handful of glaringly obvious cuts. Thus, while there are some slightly positive moments in this production, it’s overall quite negative, which warrants the low score.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
It’s unclear whether or not The Follower is supposed to be another modern-day Bible application, but character names like Elijah and Elisha make things very confusing. Besides this, the dialogue is full of corny attempts at comedy, and the cheesy conversations mainly waste time. This causes the middle of the film to be very aimless since it’s appearing to just kill time until the ending, but the storyline actually makes less and less sense as it progresses. The more some hidden purpose is kicked down the road, the more the narrative seems to get lost in its own mind. The story pretends to conceal some great secret, yet the whole concept is too vague to be grasped and only leads to a hollow conclusion. In the end, while there may have been some interesting ideas here, it’s all too rushed and slapped together to make any sense.
Acting Quality (1 point)
Surprisingly, the acting is actually the strongest point of The Follower as Goodwin and Sigler post their best performances to date. They seem very comfortable with their character roles and demonstrate niche talents. Even still, the few cast members that there are seem to be trying way too hard to be funny, and many emotions are quite forced. Line delivery is also uneven, and the acting overall gets worse as it goes even though it started out semi-okay. Therefore, this rounds out a very underwhelming effort.
Conclusion
In the end, The Follower is yet another example of how quantity over quality hurts the Christian entertainment world. Trying to cram more than two movies into one year is very difficult to pull off without sacrificing essentially positive elements. While we do need more Christian movies and series being made each year, we need more Christian entertainment that is not sub-standard and is capable of truly making a difference. Thus, it would be better to have fewer annual releases until the industry is able to consistently produce quality content.
Final Rating: 1.5 out of 10 points
Plot Summary
Astrid Nicosia lived in a small town and tries to do good to each person she comes in contact with. She freely gave the little money that she had to those who needed it. She also wanted to walk closely with the Lord and to make a difference with what time she had left. Those who were touched by her kindness and generosity made a promise to return her favors either to her or to other people who were also in need.
Production Quality (1 point)
As a 2019 production, A Promise to Astrid has no excuse to be as bad as it is. While the video quality and the camera work are okay, the audio quality throughout the film is quite bad, including loud background sounds, echoes inside of the sets, and an invasive soundtrack that sometimes interrupts dialogue and others times causes confusion since it doesn’t fit the mood of the scenes. In addition, the sets, props, and locations are quite cheap, and there are some obvious continuity errors between scenes. There are also other editing concerns, such as the quick and awkward cuts and transitions, the high number of fade-outs, and the fact that many scenes do not flow together and seem very disconnected from each other. In the end, this is an unacceptable effort with many unforced errors.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Even though it’s based on a book, A Promise to Astrid is not what it should be, mostly due to the lack of substantial characters. Although this is a heavily character-based plot, dialogue is usually a bit clunky and awkward and does not adequately develop character personality or motive. Additionally, it’s very difficult to understand the true purpose of this narrative beyond random people doing random things. The vague ideas behind the storyline might be interesting, but without effective connections with the audience, it really has nothing to show for its meager efforts. Essentially, the plot meanders around as a collection of random scenes before suddenly ending and leaving the viewer wondering why they just watched the movie, which is why this section warrants zero points.
Acting Quality (1 point)
While the acting of A Promise to Astrid is not entirely bad, it’s very marked by incompetent attempts at obviously fake accents. Also, some cast members seem unsure of their roles, even though there’s not much to work with in the beginning. Further, other cast members are either clearly overplaying their roles or half-heartedly trying. Throughout the film, line delivery and emotions are uneven but not all bad, which is enough to warrant at least a point out of this section. In the end, however, this is a very sub-par movie.
Conclusion
Based on their 2019 slate of films, it’s evident that it was the goal of the JC Films team to flood the market with as many movies as they could squeeze into their limited budget. This was an old model PureFlix used in the early 2000s and 2010s, and they had some success due to lack of many other options. However, as the calendar turns to 2020, times have changed in Christian entertainment, and higher quality is demanded. Thus, it’s better to save your funds to make one good film or series and then to see how you can build off of the success of one quality project rather than to get ahead of yourself and to over-extend your means.
Final Rating: 2 out of 10 points
Status currently unknown
Writer(s): Tara Lynn Marcelle
Director(s): Tara Lynn Marcelle
Producer(s): Jason Campbell, Tara Lynn Marcelle, April Kennedy
Starring: Chris Minor, Jenni Kennedy, Darwin Shaw, William McNamara, Kera O’Bryon, Matthew Lloyd, Micah Lynn, Troy Means, Mai Arwas, Bryan Michael Nunez, Timothy Goodwin, Gabrielle Diaz, Joe Estevez
Plot Synopsis: After a tragic accident, Jordan Travis is forced to quit his band at the start of their success. Empty and broken, he finds a job in the wine vineyards of Northern California. What follows, is a series of people and events that lead him back to his first love, and ultimate destiny, which can only be found in a ‘Divine Appointment’.
Box Office Revolution 