The Ultimate Life is both a prequel and a sequel to The Ultimate Gift, which found the reckless and selfish Jason Stevens expecting to receive a huge inheritance from his grandfather Red (James Garner), but instead was sent on a journey to learn a series of life lessons (or “gifts” as Red referred to them). Now it’s three years later and Jason (Logan Bartholomew) still struggles to find the proper balance between his work and personal life. So Red’s best friend/lawyer Hamilton (Bill Cobbs) gives Jason Red’s journal so he can learn about his grandfather’s struggles with this same problem. As Jason reads the journal, we see his grandfather’s journey from a bright-eyed 15-year-old inspired by Andrew Carnegie’s rags-to-riches story, to a billionaire oil tycoon who takes life for granted until he comes up with the list of 12 Gifts that make life worth living.

While I really liked the premise of the film in that it would give us a look at Red’s journey and motivation prior to the events of The Ultimate Gift, I don’t think the execution was well done. I found the sequel framing device to be a bit weak and unnecessary. They could have just told the story of Red without having Jason fall off the wagon, so-to-speak. The resolution of Jason’s struggle was extremely rushed and was a bit flat. Red’s life lessons in the prequel story seemed rushed as well. Most of the film was spent telling the story of Red in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, showing how he was getting more and more obsessed with his work, but then only about 5 minutes were spent showing him turn his life around and creating the list of gifts. It felt like a very brief and abrupt emotional payoff for the character.

The film does have some really fun moments, particularly with the teenage Red (Austin James) meeting his future wife Hanna (Abigail Mavity) for the first time, and their courting. However, some of the writing and dialogue for these 1940s scenes was just awful and filled with cliches.

I also enjoyed how the film explored how Red and Gus (Jack DePew) became friends, the origins of their friendly competitive nature, and how Hamilton (Bechir Sylvain) first became Red’s lawyer and friend. In general, I found Red’s story to be interesting, but it didn’t really have any resolution or pay off in the end. I didn’t get that same warm feeling I got watching The Ultimate Gift, seeing the main character learning to change his life around.

As for the Blu-ray itself, for the most part it looked and sounded good, but I found the really poor green screen effects to be distracting. It was easy to tell that the scenes with characters out in fields were filmed in a populated area and then the filmmakers tried to clear out the horizon line to make it look more vast and sparse. However, this gave these scenes a very unnatural look. Often you could see outlines around the portion of the characters that appeared in front of the blue sky. I’m not sure why they felt the need to try to remove the buildings in the background—the picture looked so much more natural in one of the film’s untouched deleted scenes. In another scene where teenage Red is on a train with a hobo, it is really evident that the view from the train door is just a video.

As for the bonus features, there’s quite a bit included on this Blu-ray—almost an hour of interviews with the cast and creators, 5 minutes of substantial deleted scenes, and a music video.

While it was interesting to get the backstory of Red, Gus and Hamilton, The Ultimate Life failed to recapture the magic and uplifting spirit of The Ultimate Gift. Fans will enjoy the bonus features of this Blu-ray, but for others this is a rental at best. I suggest picking up The Ultimate Gift instead.

What’s Included:

Film (1:48:33 min):

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD-MA, English Descriptive Audio 1.0
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital Copy: (Redemption Deadline 12/10/2015)

• UltraViolet DigitalHD Copy redeemable via Flixster or Vudu

Extras:

• The Heart of The Ultimate Life (8:06)
  Behind-the-scenes footage of the film along with with the cast and creators thoughts on the film, their characters and what it was like working with director Michael Landon Jr. Features interviews with author Jim Stovall, producer Rick Eldridge, actors Logan Bartholemew (“Jason”), Peter Fonda (“Jacob Early”), Ali Hillis (“Alexia”), Bill Cobbs (“Hamilton”), Lee Meriwether (“Miss Hastings”), and Elizabeth Anne Bennett (“Hanna”).
• Official Movie Trailer (2:26)
• Interviews(44:16)
  Interviews with the cast and creators who discuss the characters, the plot and the uplifting message of the film. Play All or select from interviews with cast members Abigail Mavity, Ali Hillis, Austin James, Bill Cobbs, David Mann, Drew Waters, Logan Bartholomew and Peter Fonda, author Jim Stovall and producer Rick Eldridge.
• Deleted Scenes (5:21)
  A nice collection of five deleted scenes.
• “One Life” Music Video (3:40)
  Music video for “One Life” performed by Tamela Mann, from the film’s soundtrack.

Final Thoughts:

While I liked the prequel premise, the sequel aspect did not work for me, and The Ultimate Life failed to recapture the magic and emotional payoff of its predecessor. While I did enjoy some of the performances, due to some poorly-written dialogue and distracting green screen effects, I suggest renting this first, or better yet, just pick up the superior The Ultimate Gift instead.