Ed's Review Dot Com

Marv Films

Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Nicholas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Stron, Lyndsy Fonseca, Clark Duke, Evan Peters

In looking at the reviews of this movie, I found a lot of 5 Star super fans.  Apparently this is made from a real comic book or something, so maybe that is where the rabid fans came from.  If you are a huge fan of Kick-Ass, then feel free to jump into the comments section and try to convince me, cause I that it was terrible.  Not from the violence standpoint (it’s disconcerting for some people to see young kids in extremely violent situations and involved in drug use, etc which is far from the usual) because I can deal with that.  It’s not just because I’m not a big fan of Super Hero movies.   I yawned at  The Dark Knight, Spiderman 1,2,3,4 et. al, any of the The Dark Knight, Spiderman, Captain America, Wolverine, Justice League crap.  And it’s not because it’s really a nerdy teen movie, which I can deal with.  It’s just to me that this whole movie was just plain silly.   And not silly in a fun way.  Damon Wayans’ Blankman, although not great cinema, has a few good laughs in it, and is somewhat interesting.  But this junk just never started for me.

Trust me, the credits to me were far better than the movie, and perhaps they should have just considered releasing the credits and dropping the price a bit.   🙂

Nicholas Cage probably has the worst role I’ve ever seen him in since Birdy, which was a LONG time ago!  

Basically this is a story of a nerdy teen who can’t get the girl, but who thought it odd that nobody does pick up a costume and pretend to be a super hero.  So he tries it.   It doesn’t work out too well, but a little bit of luck and he inspires a whole bunch of fanatical freaks to copy him and join the team.   Then is when the fun is supposed to start, but but for me it never did.  Disney’s Spy Kids was a better story, and it’s a movie you could take kids to.  I don’t think you’d want to take kids under 16 to this one.

Now I know there are probably lots of you who love superhero movies, and may enjoy this, although no one actually IS a super hero or does anything extraordinary at all, and for you, I’m sorry for the negative review, but for me.  I’m sorry I even watched this.  I thought it was one of the worst I’ve seen in a long, long time.

Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Marc Platt Productions

Zac Effron, Charlie Tahan, Amanda Crew, Augustus Prew, Dolan Logue, Kim Basinger, Ray Liotta

Based on the book,  “The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud”, this is mixture of genre’s in one.  Most of all, it’s  a ghost story, but it’s also a romance, a tearjerker, heartwarming, has many redeeming qualities, and is a parable of the importance of living your life to it’s fullest.  The book title is very clever, and I’m surprised why they didn’t use that title for the movie, as it’s more appropriate.  Charlie certainly died, literally and figuratively, before he lived.

Charlie loves his little brother.  Some people complained that the relationship between Charlie and Sam is not well enough developed, but then you don’t know brothers very well.   There are two kinds of big brothers, the ones who ditch their little brother and don’t want to be bothered, and the ones who spend time and attention on them.  Charlie was the second type.   Charlie loves his life, and is looking forward to a sailing scholarship at Stanford next year.  He’s a winner.  Suddenly, as life sometimes does, everything is taken from him.  At this point, he has to determine how to get it all back again, or is he going to wallow in self pity forever.  Again, sadly,  Charlie is the latter.

There is a  superficial ghost story going on at the surface of this movie, but the real meat is deeper. The further you look, the more you’ll find.  Now this “superficial” story, the ghost story part, is not trivial, and is really riveting, but there’s much more to learn deeper in the unfolding of the story.

One fairly minor role is Ray Liotta as the EMT who brings Charlie back from the dead.  Later as he has his own troubles, he still finds time to give Charlie the missing pieces for him to reclaim his life.

There are some things that are left unexplained in this movie.  Maybe someone who has read the book, can fill us in on some of the missing pieces.  In fact, this may be one of those films that inspires and touches me so much that I have to go out and get the book to get more of the story.  For one thing,  Charlie’s mom takes off and goes to Portland.  Why?  Why did she leave him?  I have a feeling there is much more to that story that isn’t included in the movie.  Secondly,  Charlie is given a pendant.  He assumes the character on it is Jesus, but he’s told it’s not.  It’s St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes.  Though Charlie thinks his life is a hopeless cause, and it really is the way it’s going, I felt the need for some sudden epiphany based on the necklace, but it never happened. 

So, though not perfect, I really loved this movie.  Zac has turned into quite a fine actor, and I think he nailed this.  It was a wise choice for him to give up the lead in the Footloose remake, similar to his older Disney Channel roles, and take on the role of Charlie.  Also, his little brother Sam, played by Charlie Tahan, was very well played.  He’s young, but he had a difficult time playing part spoiled brat, part fearful little child, and part lost soul.   The only miscast, maybe, was Amanda Crew.  She’s too tall for Zac, and though she did a pretty good job, I have the feeling (and my wife concurs) that someone else would probably have been better in the role of Tess.

All in all, it’s a great story, and has lots of laughs and tears and plenty to think about after you see it.  It’s a well written story and well filmed.  The scenery, as always, in Vancouver where it was filmed is gorgeous.  Originally this was set to be filmed in Massachusetts, but the costs moved it to B.C. which didn’t hurt it a bit.  It’s beautiful there. 

Well, that’s about it.  I really enjoyed the movie, and it touched me a lot.  I know some out there will hate it.  I can see two reasons for why people would hate it.   First, because Zac Effron is in it.  People will hate it just because they hate him.   Not sure why, as he really showed a lot of talent and emotion in this film.   Second, because it is an emotional, heart wrenching story, but very short on guns and explosions, car chases and such.   It’s definitely not an action flick.  So if you are a hater, let me know why.   For me, I highly recommend it.

LLeju Productions, Anchor Bay Films

Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson, Justin Long

Creepy little movie.  Laying on a slab, unable to move, in a funeral parlor, and you can’t get out.  This movie goes to great lengths to keep you off kilter.  You can never relax.  In the end, you don’t know for sure what happened.  People have spent months arguing about the most basic aspects of the ending.  

This is a pretty good scary movie.  It keeps your attention all the way through.  From one twist to another, from one crisis to another, from one unexplained mystery to another, and it keeps you on edge.  I may be giving the writers too much credit here, but I think there’s way, way much more to the story that the literal story.  You’re supposed to think.  You’re supposed to wonder, and to feel.   It looks at life and death, but it is more.  It’s got a moral much deeper than the physical.  Why do we go through life by just making the motions.  Day after day, year after year, the same thing.  No real life.  So are we all really dead and don’t know it?

These are the things you ponder while watching this delightful film.  It’s a horror movie that’s a morality play.

Who in this movie is alive and who is dead?  You may never know for sure, but you’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come.  And I’m afraid I have more questions after it’s over than while watching it.  But it doesn’t really matter.  Choose a side and fight that you’re right.  I truly think anyone can take any side, and argue it you want to.
“You all say you’re scared of death.  But you’re more scared of life!”

Insight Film Studio

Kim Basinger, Lukas Haas, Craig Sheffer, Jamie Starr, Leonard Wu, Luis Chavez

While She Was Out (available on NetFlix Watch Instantly) is a thriller.  It’s a small movie, but it has it’s points.    This reminds me of  I Spit On Your Grave, although not near as graphic, yet it does have some interesting kills in it that would do Friday the 13th proud!   (If you want to be truly shocked by a movie, I Spit on Your Grave is the one to do that!  It’s hard to find, but how it managed to get released in the U.S. is amazing to me)

Della (Kim Basinger) is an abused wife with a loser jackass of a husband.  Christmas Eve she has to make a last minute trip to the mall.  No parking anywhere to be found, and some jerk in a piece of junk car is taking up two parkings spaces.   She’s got to set this right!   So she writes the driver a note and sticks it on the windshield.   Now, I’ve wanted to do that lots of times, but never quite had the guts to pull it off.  But she did it.  When she came back, she found the parking lot is almost empty, the mall is closed, and the “0wner” of the car knows who she is.

From this point we find out what a bad-ass she is, and it’s a cat and mouse game of tag, you’re it, that goes on for the rest of the movie.  Sometimes she’s meek and afraid and sometimes she’s a wildcat!

It’s not a wonderful movie, but it’s got it’s moments.  It’s not terrible either.  It’s just a middle of the road thriller with a few clever effects.   It’s filmed in British Columbia, but it’s not got spectacular scenery.  It’s rainy and muddy and pretty darn ugly really, but that’s to fit with the mood of the movie.  It’s a chase to the end, and Ms. Basinger is not a wimp by any means.

There is an ending that I thought was very obvious, but since it isn’t shown, many people were baffled by what happens at the very end.  Let’s just say,  “What did you buy me?” was probably not the right question.

I was amused throughout the movie, but never blown away, so if you want something great to watch, this isn’t great, but if you want something to kill some time with, and you’re a fan of slasher flicks, you could do much worse than this one!

2oth Century Fox

Dwayne Johnson (don’t call him “The Rock” anymore), Ashley Judd, Stephen Merchant, Ryan Sheckler, Seth MacFarlane, Julie Andrews

The most amazing thing about Tooth Fairy is that it DIDN’T SUCK!  Yeah, I was sure it was going to.  But I figured I HAD to see it, so I put it at the top of my queue, and lo and behold, it didn’t suck!

Derek Thompson (ex-Rock) is a minor league hockey player.  We’ll not really a player because his primary role is knocking the teeth out of the opposing team.  Hence, he carries the nickname  “The Tooth Fairy”.  He’s not a very nice guy, and he has a bad habit of dashing kid’s dreams.  “You wanna be a hockey player?  You know what?  There are a thousand kids better than you, and you don’t have a chance”.  That kind of meaness.  But when he dashes a little kids belief in the Tooth Fairy, he’s in for a harsh sentence.  30 days as an actually Tooth Fairy.

Now you’ve seen the previews and ads.  Dewayne Johnson in a pink tutu with wings.  But it’s got heart.   He starts out half hearted and doing a terrible job, but little by little finds out there is some value in having dreams.  And he begins to learn his lesson.

Now why the bat signal never came on when Batman was in the shower or something, I never understood.  He’s always standing there waiting for the bat signal to come on.   But Derek isn’t so lucky.   The pager goes off at the worst possible times.  Maybe that’s part of the punishment.

Now this is not a movie that a bunch of guys would rent, crack open a six pack, and spend Saturday night watching.   It’s a kids movie after all.  But if you have something you’d like to watch WITH your kids, this is great choice.   The kids will love it, but there’s plenty to watch for the ladies and men in the adult kingdom as well.  The ladies will love wathing Derek deal with the complications in his love life, and the guys will enjoy some of the uncomfortable situations that are really funny, and some decent hockey action too.  All in all, it’s a great family togetherness film, and believe it or not, it really DIDN’T SUCK!    Julie Anderews was a pleasure to watch too.  Her role, though small, adds a great deal to the film.

Enjoy.