One of my all time favorites.

Memorable, crazy movie

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

After reading the series I was very excited to find that films had been made. My husband and I really like the Ultimate Gift although it left out parts of the book, it was still a wonderful movie. So I rented The Ultimate Life without hesitation and when we sat down to watch it, I wanted to scream! I was really looking forward to seeing court case of Jason against his greedy relatives and all I saw was a bi-op of Red's life. Did the director even read this fantastic book? He couldn't have, because he didn't do it justice at all. I was peeved that Drew Fuller wasn't in this film but little did it matter since Logan Bartholomew wasn't much in it as well. What a let down to a life changing book. This series deserved better.

It's probably not something that would blast the box office open, but its a notch above others that I've seen. It's definitely worth watching. I enjoyed this movie enough to write a review because:1) It's totally CLEAN. Absolutely nothing lewd or inappropriate. I would watch a movie for this alone, given how rare it is. 2) Plenty of amazing looking guys, yum. :) 3) A positive, not overly cheesy, message. At first, I was worried it was gonna be one of those dogmatic, preachy, "Christian" films or something... 4) The film leaves a "feel good" feeling that stays with you. 5) It's good enough to watch again, with family or friends. Nothing too scary for the young kiddos. 6) Pretty decent, interesting storyline and plot, definitely wasn't bored watching it and rooted for the characters the whole way. 7) Has a good, satisfying ending, and not depressing. I hate movies where you feel bittersweet and left hanging at the end. 8) Was really beautifully shot for an "average" movie. Wait, maybe the movie wasn't so average, after all, haha.You won't regret watching this, unless you're just not into sweet romantic, inspirational, rated PG family films. :)

The Ultimate Life was a fantastic movie, and I was greatly surprised when I went to the theater a mere 4 days after its release and there were only 3 other people there. The movie itself was a well done sequel/prequel to The Ultimate Gift. In my opinion, this movie has a lot more of an impact if you have see the other before this one, I would highly recommend watching The Ultimate Gift prior to The Ultimate Life. The main takeaway from this movie should be that we have too much selfishness inside of us, and if everyone keeps living at the rate we are living now, we are going to grow up breeding selfish generation after generation. Of course this is an extreme over generalization for our world, since there are obviously still good people in the world, like the ones who inspired this movie I would imagine. And one of the more important lessons we learn from this film is that the greatest fortune in life is love and family, without those, not even a billion dollars could ever truly satisfy our desires. Riches, possessions, trophies, and anything else we accumulate on this world will fade, and it will fail us. Ultimately, we are remembered by our legacy, which is not only what we have done in life, but also by our family and future generations, who will be our legacy.The film itself was done very well in terms of recreating the grandfather's past and explaining to us how the 12 gifts came to be. I loved his story and how he had to work very hard to get to where he wanted to be. In contrast, too many young people today expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter, and they don't want to work for anything they want. There needs to be more movies made like this so we can get the point across to the younger generations that it's not all about them, life is about loving each other and creating a legacy that we can be proud of.So whenever someone asks me what I want out of life, I know what I'm going to say now, "I want to leave a legacy. I want to be remembered long after I'm gone. I don't want to just float through life, I want to make an impact." I would highly recommend this movie to anyone wanting to see something different from the usual garbage that is shown in theaters.

I usually do not find a lot to be critical of in a movie. I like cheesy action films, bad comedies, and overdone dramas. But this movie was just awful. The acting looked like it was from a whose line is it anyway skit. It was like the skit where one actor is given a character to play and they overact it so ridiculously that the other improvist can easily guess who they are. And this acting was pervasive throughout the film.The interactions between the characters were unbelievable. The main guy, proposing to his girlfriend with the ring in hand, is served a subpoena and promptly puts the ring away and leaves the girlfriend there alone. I get it. The guy has his priorities mixed up. But, that's ridiculous. Additionally, the whole movie is a flashback that the main guy is reading about in his grandpa's journal. After a night's reading, he is a changed man, and is now worthy of his girlfriend. Come on. But the frustration continues. The flashback portion of the movie takes us back to late depression era USA. Following the grandpa now (who is 15 at the time) we get to see comical attempts in recreating the time periods. Sitting around the table in an obviously poor apartment, is the grandpa's family. His younger brother has on a t shirt that was clearly bought at old navy. Later, the grandpa is getting paid for a day's work. The dollars he is paid in look suspicious from a distant camera shot, but whatever. But then, the camera zooms in nice and close to show 20s that are clearly a modern design. These are small things that honestly made the whole movie look silly.I suppose those involved with making this movie are of the mindset that the wonderful message behind it absolves them of any professional film making responsibility. In reality, they do that wonderful message injustice by expressing it through unbelievable dialog, poor acting, comical laziness in recreating time eras, and logic defying character development.