Wednesday 19 Jun
 
 

The Last Exorcism Part II

Unlike many moviegoers, 17-year-old farm girl Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell, The Day) has no memory of the events of The Last Exorcism, a found-footage smash of three years prior. The Last Exorcism Part II finds her taking steps to build life anew, beginning in a boarding house for troubled girls, where the deeply devout Nell is exposed to such heretofore corrupting influences as lipstick and rock music and YouTube and cotton candy.
06/19/2013 | Comments 0

The ABCs of Death

Suspense novelist Jeffery Deaver once praised the short-story format, writing that the minimal time investment on the part of the reader allows the writer to get away with endings he or she cannot in the long form. In other words, the writer can be meaner, more devious. He's absolutely right, and the theory applies wholesale to The ABCs of Death, more or less a horror anthology depicting "26 ways to die."
06/19/2013 | Comments 0

Ninja III: The Domination

Don't ask why Ninja III: The Domination begins with a ninja assault on a municipal golf course. Just be grateful it does. You also may wonder why its sex scene employs a can of V8: Don't question it. Just lie back and enjoy it.
06/14/2013 | Comments 0

Lifeforce

Tobe Hooper got a raw deal. The director of horror hits The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist didn't deserve to be sent to movie jail for 1985's Lifeforce. It's a well-crafted, well-intentioned work that was mismarketed and misunderstood, losing a bundle of money and soon sending Hooper into the lands of episodic television and direct-to-video features.
06/14/2013 | Comments 0

Dead Souls

With Dead Souls, we can prove something about the Chiller cable network's original features that Remains could not: Source material is not to blame for their pervasive generic nature — it's the economy, stupid.
06/11/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · Drama · The Ultimate Gift
Drama

The Ultimate Gift


None March 30th, 2007

the_ultimate_gift

Reviewer grade: C

 


Work builds character. Family is important. It's better to give than to receive. If such truisms strike you as fresh and exciting, there's plenty more where that came from in "The Ultimate Gift," the latest offering from 20th Century Fox's faith-based division. But this treacle is more dispiriting than spiritual.

 

Based on a novel by Tulsa native Jim Stovall, the picture delivers its messages with the blunt force of a grapefruit to the face. Jason Stevens (Drew Fuller) is a spoiled trust-fund baby who gets a curious inheritance from his grandfather, Red (James Garner), a saintly oil tycoon with an unquenchable love for humanity. Red directs the young man to execute a series of tasks designed to impart life lessons. It's a moral-heavy journey that leads Jason to a girl stricken with leukemia (Abigail Breslin), her single mom (Ali Hillis) and a bunch of Ecuadorian drug traffickers. Although somewhat redeemed by a solid cast, this "Gift" is nominally more welcome than a fruitcake. But it's just as tough to swallow. PG

 

"” Phil Bacharach 

 
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
 
 

 

 
 
 
Close
Close
Close