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The Ultimate Gift

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The Ultimate Gift (2007)

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Reviews Counted:56

Fresh:18

Rotten:38

Average Rating:5.1/10

Consensus: Though The Ultimate Gift avoids religious speechifying like other Fox Faith films, it's dramatically inert with flat direction.

Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for thematic elements, some violence and language.

Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Mar 9, 2007 Wide

Box Office: $3,178,843

Synopsis: The videotaped will of deceased billionaire Red Stevens (James Garner) includes the "ultimate gift" for his spoiled, sullen grandson Jason (Drew Fuller). A series of tasks meant to turn Jason from... The videotaped will of deceased billionaire Red Stevens (James Garner) includes the "ultimate gift" for his spoiled, sullen grandson Jason (Drew Fuller). A series of tasks meant to turn Jason from a hedonistic jerk into a compassionate human being is included in the will, but whether that's the gift or there's a fortune at the end of the rainbow is something Jason will just have to wait to find out. First, he's sent to Texas to work on the ranch of one of Red's old pals (Brian Dennehey). Then his trust fund is cut off and he's thrown into the streets where he battles a bum for a park bench and eventually makes friends with a young girl--dying of leukemia--named Emily (Abigail Breslin). There's some romantic bonding with Emily's struggling mom (Ali Hills) and danger down in Costa Rica, where Jason winds up hostage to some drug-running thugs. Bill Cobbs and Lee Meriwether are the lawyers who monitor Jason's progress. This is a nice little movie, with a straightforward spiritual agenda. But it gets everything right, with minimum sermonizing and maximum heart. The cast is clearly into the spirit of the matter: Abigail Breslin (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) radiates oddball charm, and the eyes of old pros Garner, Denehey, Meriwether, and Cobbs are alight with compassion and nobility. [More]

Starring: Drew Fuller, James Garner, Ali Hillis, Abigail Breslin

Starring: Drew Fuller, James Garner, Ali Hillis, Abigail Breslin, Brian Dennehy, Bill Cobbs, Lee Meriwhether

Director: Michael O. Sajbel

Director: Michael O. Sajbel
Screenwriter: Cheryl McKay
Producer: Rick Eldridge, John Shepherd
Composer: Mark McKenzie
Studio: 20th Century Fox

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Release:

Mar 17, 2009

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Reviews for The Ultimate Gift

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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Tom Meek
Tom Meek
Boston Phoenix

The Ultimate Gift will put you in a diabetic coma.

Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
09/09/07
Kevin Carr
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

This new film moves along smoothly until Grandpa's most preposterous mission - which needlessly drags out the movie -- takes Jason to a severely caricatured Ecuador.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
08/22/07
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's Self-Help: The Movie, and it stinks to high heaven.

Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | comment Comment
08/21/07
David Cornelius
David Cornelius
DVDTalk.com

I haven't even read the book, and I know it has to be better than the movie.

Full Review Source: Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) | comment Comment
04/17/07
Linda Cook
Linda Cook
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

A parabolic film about one selfish young man's spiritual transformation.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
03/30/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

I think urban sophisticates can be people of faith who want to see movies, occasionally, that don’t have the four-letter words, and I do embrace religion, but I think they have to be better than this.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
03/20/07
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film squeaks by on a combination of reliable old pros...and appealing newcomers...

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
03/19/07
Jim Lane
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

The result is a deep desire for those Hollywood execs to remember that Christian doesn’t have to equal brain-dead.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
03/18/07
Toddy Burton
Toddy Burton
Austin Chronicle

Christian charity, in this movie, seems like a side-effect of capitalism.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
03/17/07
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Veterans Garner and Brian Dennehy give convincing professional performances here, but Fuller is bland.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
03/17/07
Annlee Ellingson
Annlee Ellingson
Boxoffice Magazine

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
03/17/07
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

If you missed the money-isn’t-everything message, an end-credits recap outlines the story’s salient points -- if you’d known, you could’ve skipped the rest.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
03/17/07
Erin Clements
Erin Clements
Time Out New York

[James] Garner is good, and so is Brian Dennehy as a crusty ranch owner; Abigail Breslin, playing a leukemia patient, demonstrates that she was not a one-note wonder in Little Miss Sunshine.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
03/15/07
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

Pretty much what one would expect: a sincere story of redemption delivered with all the low-key execution of one of those Hallmark-backed TV movies of the week.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
03/15/07
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

The Ultimate Gift is kind of like a feel-good Saw for churchgoers, minus the sadistic games of death.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
03/14/07
Gregory Kirschling
Gregory Kirschling
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Wholesome and inspirational, it preaches a simplistic "prosperity gospel."

Full Review Source: www.susangranger.com | comment Comment
03/11/07
Susan Granger
Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
03/10/07
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It is message filmmaking so blunt you might be tempted to root for the parasitic reprobate over the saintly old man, and that's just not right.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
03/09/07
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

If The Ultimate Gift really wanted to embrace a powerful Christian message, it would've made Jason's ordeal truly threatening and genuinely transformative.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
03/09/07
Jeff Shannon
Jeff Shannon
Seattle Times
 
 
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