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.

I really enjoyed The Ultimate Gift (original film) and saw it at a time in my life where it really hit home and really registered with me. I was greatly looking forward to this sequel. Having said that, something seemed missing this time around. To be honest, this entire movie feels like DVD bonus material for that original film. That's not a bad thing but despite a great message, this effort feels lacking. I enjoyed the Red Stevens back story but the writing and story feels somewhat shallow and incomplete. Since I enjoyed and was moved by the first film, this extended look appealed to me. Truthfully, as a stand alone film it really doesn't hold up well at all even delivering a wonderful message and few points to live by and dwell upon.More than worth watching if you enjoyed the first film.

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.

The Ultimate Life has been attacked by critics as a sop to "family values" types and prudes, who complain about "too much sex and violence" in movies. I'm not a prude or an ultra religious person, and I loved this film. I knew nothing about it when I agreed to go with two friends, who had seen trailers for it. I nearly passed after reading critics' reviews, and boy, am I glad I didn't.This is a "feel good" movie which I highly recommend, particularly to anyone who likes a good romance. The main characters are shown falling in love as teens and still in love as adults. It presents its characters honestly and shows how someone can change from ruthlessly pursuing riches to wanting to do good for mankind. You'll also see beautiful cinematography of the Texas prairies.There are battle scenes of WW II and it also portrays the beginning of the oil industry in Texas. The key word for me is romance. Ignore the critics this time. This is a story well told.Please check this review for spoilers.