Ed's Review Dot Com

Fox 2000 Pictures, Walden Media, DiNovi Pictures

Selena Gomez, Bridget Moynahan, John Corbett, Joey King, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Duhamel, Jason Spevack, Sierra McCormick, Sandra Oh, Kathryn Zenna, Hutch Dano

Based on the books of Beverly Cleary,  Ramona is a girl with a wild imagination.   This imagination leads her into one adventure after another.  But times are tough and Dad is out of work, and thinking of taking a job in Oregon.  Meanwhile Aunt Bea is being reeled in by an old boyfriend, Hobart.  Ramona is trying to make sure neither of the things happen.  Thinking the bank is going to hook up their house and take it away, she sets out on a bunch of quests to earn some money to save the house.

Ramona and Beezus is a children’s movie, for sure.  After all, it’s G rated.  But it is an interesting film, and though especially nice for kids, I don’t think grownups will be bored either.  The adventures Ramona gets into are well done, as the way they’re filmed, we get to see exactly what she’s thinking.  The characters are so well developed that the actors must be just right.  They hit on most everyone.  We get to meet most everyone from the books.  Joey King is an excellent Ramona Quimby, and Disney Channel star Selena Gomez was a great Beezus.  With Josh Duhamel as Hobart, Hutch Dano as Henry Huggins, and Ginnifer Goodwin as Aunt Bea, the whole cast is complete.  It’s a excellent depiction of the book coming to real life, and yet very interesting in it’s own right.  Definitely the  children will love it, but anyone of any age who loves Ramona and Beezus is going to love the story as well.  Ramona is the ultimate little girl with a heart of gold who just can’t help getting into trouble.   Very highly recommended.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday Jan 11, 2011

• Piranha
• Alpha and Omega
• Heartbreaker (French)
• The Other Guys (Netflix)
• The Town (Netflix)
• The A-Team (Netflix)
• Legend of the Guardians (Netflix)
• Nanny McPhee Returns (Netflix)
• Cyrus (Netflix)

We have a lot of movies this week, but mostly it’s NetFlix catching up with Blockbuster and the others who get the DVD’s first now. I don’t know how NetFlix is going to deal with this new twist (ok, maybe not so new) but it seems to be that more and more distributors are starting to release to certain vendors before others. I think this is unfair, and I’m sorry that the technology of today is interfering with the brick and mortar dvd rental businesses, but it seems it would be the same as if only certain theater chains could get movies on their release date and all the others would have to wait a few weeks. It doesn’t seem right to me. Released on DVD should mean released on DVD. I suspect they won’t be able to get away with this as more and more and more DVD’s are given “early release” to just some people to punish others for coming up with the mail-order dvd business in the first place. My opinion for whatever it’s worth. –Happy Viewing! –Ed .

Happy Madison Productions, Relativity Media

Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Joyce van Patten, Ebony Jo-Ann, Di Quon, Steve Buscimi, Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, Madison Riley

These 5 guys made up the championship team of their youth.  They’ve all grown up and gone on, but they all remember Coach Buzzer.  But when he suddenly dies, they all have to come back home to pay their last respects.  They attend the funeral and then spend the July 4th weekend away a cabin by the lake.  Each of the guys have changed, but inside they’re still the same.  They have to bring their dysfunctional home lives with them, and all the baggage while the play and hang around like teens again.

Marcus (Spade) is single, and always hitting on the ladies, but he drinks too much and is all alone.  Rob, (Schneider) has 3 grown daughters that he’d do anything to protect, but in not close to them at all, and is married to his new flame, and old lady who creeps everyone out as she has no inhibitions at all.  Eric (James) is fat and is out of work.  Kurt (Rock) is a house husband who is put down and constantly picked on by his wife and mother in law.  Lenny (Sandler) is a successful Hollywood agent with a wife (Selma Hayek) who is a fashion designer.  He’s embarrassed of the nickname Hollywood, and his kids take all the technology in their lives for granted and also their affluence.

All of them thrown together for the weekend and they have a blast.  This film feels like a bunch of real old friends packed together, just putting each other down.   The cut ups and put downs are hysterical and non-stop.  Also, the adventures (or more applicable MIS-adventures) they get into are also very funny.  “Let’s go to the water park!” turns into one funny bit after another.   The only complaint I have with this film is the last 15-20 minutes.  There is an on-going story about a championship basketball game where the boys won on a last minute controversial shot.  The guys from the other team are still together and still very angry about the supposed “win” and demand a rematch.  The other team is manned by Dickie Bailey (Colin Quin) and a guy named Wiley (Steve Buscimi) who is an absolute nut case.   There is the inevitable rematch, but I thought it was a downer for the movie.  It seems like it was added in late just to fill in the time and was way underdeveloped.  There were some funny bits, but all in all as the climax of the film, I thought it was a little bit of a letdown.  I wish this had been better.

But still, it is very funny with all kinds of gags, but the clear thing is that these guys (who must be friends in real life) are just hysterical together, and they must have had the best time making this movie.  I can see it being a lot of turning on the camera and letting it run to see what these guys think up.  The special features and blooper reel seem to show this.  They can’t stop cracking each other up.  The relationship and pecking order between these guys is really funny.  I  did not expect to be nearly as funny as it turned out to be.  Good job.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Twentieth Century Fox Corporation, Prospect Park, Scott Free Production

Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Dunn, Kevin Corrigan, Kevin Chapman, Lew Temple, T. J. Miller, Jessy Scham

Frank (Denzel) is an old timer, three weeks away from an early retirement.  Will (Chris Pine) is a rookie, just passed his exams and out to work for his first day.   They get assigned together, and Frank is trying to do the best he can to torture  the rookie on his first time out.  But it’s turning into an unusual day.   One of the engineers commits a cardinal sin and jumps down from the engine of a half mile long freight train to flip a switch leaving the cabin unattended.  It slips into gear and he can’t catch it in time to get back into it.  Suddenly we’ve got a freight train tearing down the main track at 80 miles per hour.  not a good thing, especially when it is heading straight for Stanton, PA. which is a highly populated area with an elevated curve.  Every effort to stop the engine fails, and it falls on Will and Frank to try to stop it.  To top it off, many of the cars are filled with a toxic chemical.

This film had a hard time getting made.  It took about 6 years to complete, and at one point Denzel walked out on the project, but came back after a script rewrite.  This story is based on a real event in Toledo where a train took off under similar circumstances and ran for almost 70 miles before being stopped.  The situation was close enough that it promoted a “based on real events” notice at the beginning of the film.  The facts are stretched, and the names of the places were made up, and the incident happened in Ohio, not in Pennsylvania.  Ironically, the movie was mostly filmed in Ohio.  Denzel is wonderful in this film, and has just the right amount of meanness and niceness.  He’s able to torture the new guy, but be very caring when it makes sense.  Meanwhile Chris Pine who was chosen by Denzel for the role, also was excellent as a kind of spoiled rich kid (but not really) who is related to the big wigs in this fictitious railroad, and this angers the old timers who are being kicked out because their pay is too high and replaced by young kids at lower wages.  The suspense in this film is intense, and the sight and sounds are unreal.   This is one of the best action films I’ve seen in a long time.  The time flew by, and it was very exciting.  I think they did an excellent job on this, and the fact that it is based on a real incident makes it even more adventurous.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Regency Enterprises, Pink Machine

Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Jordi Molla, Viola Davis, Paul Dano

June Havens is an ordinary good person. Instilled from her father with a passion for classic old cars, she’s on her way home to prepare for her sister’s wedding in Wichita. He life is about to change though, when in the airport she “bumps” into Roy Miller, a rogue secret agent who’s life is in serious danger. He’s trying to protect a young man and his invention that everyone is after. He uses June to get it past the security checkpoints, but a simple mistaken conclusion sets them on a path together that should get them both killed. June just wants to go home, and Roy just wants to make sure nothing bad happens to her, but as the are forced to work together getting deeper and deeper in it, they have to learn to trust each other, whether it makes sense or not. From the initial plane crash to the wild train ride to the final showdown, it’s action, action, action on a worldwide adventure!!!

I have to admit that I loved this film. This is a classic spy film, except that it’s hysterically funny. You can’t take this serious, and it’s all tongue in cheek here. And it’s very funny. The situations they get into are well crafted and extremely impossible which is what makes it so funny. Roy (Cruise) is so good, he takes absurd risks. Machine gun fire all around and he stops to explain the next steps to June (Diaz). It’s funny how every time June is in trouble, Roy is there, and he’s a heck of a secret agent. Roy reminds me of Charlie Wax (John Travolta) in “From Paris With Love“. They are the same kind of unbelievably clever, able to do anything and get out of any scrape, rogue secret agent. I really enjoyed every moment of this film, and this was one of the best DVD’s I’ve seen over the holidays. Put it in your NetFlix or Blockbuster queue or get it from the local RedBox, On-Demand, or however else you get your new releases, as this is a really fun way to spend an evening. I think the chemistry between Cruise and Diaz is about as good as it gets. It’s a very good movie!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog