Ed's Review Dot Com

Europa Corp., Mad Chance

Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Antoni Corone, Brennan Brown, Michael Mandel, Annie Golden

Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) is a Texas Cop and an upstanding Christian citizen with a wife and a good life. But his biggest pain in life is that he’s adopted. Well, that and he is gay. A near death experience teaches him to live the life that he wants, so he changes his whole life around and announces that he is gay. But he soon finds that living a lavish gay lifestyle is expensive, so he starts pulling scams and crimes and becomes an accomplished liar. Naturally he winds up in prison where he meets his cell mate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) who is the love of his life. So Steven begins a life built around his only true love. This requires more crimes and more scams and more lies and an extremely accomplished skill at breaking out of prison. Steven is a master of it.

This is once again based on a real fellow in Texas. What is it this month with every DVD being a “true story”? Maybe Hollywood has no imagination left and relies now on the “life is stranger than fiction” motto. Well in this case it most certainly is.

I didn’t expect this to be a very good film and I figured Jim Carrey would be pretty lame in a drama. Well I was wrong on several counts. This is an extremely funny film. Every time you figure Steve out, he does something even more outrageous than before. Ewan McGregor is very good in his role as a shy unassuming gay guy who keeps getting suckered into Steve’s outrageous schemes. But I was truly surprised at how funny it was, even though the subject was a true life drama. It fired on all cylinders and was very enjoyable. I was very pleasantly surprised by it. It’s rated R and for pretty good reason, so keep the younger folks away, but it’s good fun, more like a Saturday Night Live skit than a raunchy comedy. It’s in pretty good taste considering the subject matter and the directors did an excellent job in keeping this constantly moving. Surprise after surprise occurs, and to imagine that this is a real story, and as the final credits point out, this guy had to have been a major embarrassment to the Texas government and then Governor George W. Bush. The finally took some really drastic measures to make sure this guy is watched 24X7, as not since Woody Allen in “Take the Money and Run” has there been a funnier prison escape movie. That one is a classic and if you’ve never seen it, track it down. It’s hysterical. But this one is also really good and tons of laughs. I recommend I Love You Phillip Morris! And be sure to watch the deleted scenes on the DVD. They add a lot.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Groundswell Productions, Hit The Ground Running Films

Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella, Lily Rabe, Philip Baker Hall, Michael Esper, Diane Venora, Nick Offerman, Kristen Wiig, Stephen Kunken

David Marks (Ryan Gosling) marries middle-class beauty Katie McCarthy (Kirsten Dunst) against the wishes of his disapproving father (Frank Langella). David is a real estate superstar and very well off, and he seems really in love with Katie. But when she disappears and is never found, suspicions begins to point to David. However there is no evidence and he is not even indicted in her disappearance and nothing is ever heard of her again. Nothing from her credit cards and bank accounts, nothing on her cell phone. This is a dramatization of a true story based upon one of the most unusual unsolved missing persons/murder cases in New York history. Then other people around David start to die under mysterious circumstances, and an attempt is made to implicate him decades later. As the story of what happened to David in the meantime is exposed, it is as bizarre and surprising as they come. Moving away and disguised as a woman, we hear of the death of people close to David and Katie mostly through interviews and courtroom drama. David was accused of the murder and dismemberment of his neighbor and good friend as well, but was not convicted for that one either.

This is a love story and a murder mystery rolled into one. Ryan Gosling does a good job of playing this very strange person. Kirsten Dunst is good as well, but in a limited role as she disappears early on. Frank Langella is both creepy and mean as he goes through the motions of protecting his son, but the relationship is very strained. No one has ever solved this mystery, although on the Special Features section of the disk, there is an extended string of interviews with all the real characters that made up this story. Most of them are convinced Robert murdered and cut his wife into pieces and burned the body. This is somewhat confusing because the real person that this movie is based on is Robert Durst, but “the names were changed to protect the innocent”, as they say. But the movie started as research, hence the extended interviews with all the real people and then a drama was written based upon the fact of the actual case. I’m not sure why they chose the drama route instead of doing an out and out documentary, but I guess you can take leaps of faith and stretches of the truth in a docudrama of fictitious characters, I’m not sure. It’s a fairly creepy story, and though it’s very well done, it’s not much fun to watch in a lot of parts. It’s amazing how this guy lived his life, and he seems very likely guilty to me, but no one has been able to pin anything on him. The movie is mostly a narrative with flash backs based upon the testimony David gives. I enjoyed the story, but I’m not blown away by it. The fact that it’s pretty much a true story makes it hard to decide if it helps the movie or hinders. In some ways it might have been better if it was truly fiction, but on the other hand, the “It really happened” thing makes it even more amazing. What a life this guy has led. If he got away with it, it’s not because nobody tried to pin it on him. If you like murder mysteries, this film is not bad in that department.

[Click to see the Wiki article about Robert Durst]

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Audley Films, BBC Films, BMS Finance

Sally Hawkins, Andrea Riseborough, Jaime Winstone, Lorraine Stanley, Nicola Duffett, Geraldine James, Bob Hoskins, Matthew Aubrey, Daniel Mays, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Miranda Richardson

Made in Dagenham is the British “Norma Rae“. Based on a true story, this is about a group of ladies who sewed seat covers for Ford in Dagenham, England in the 60’s who were being ignored by their union. After agreeing to a ladder of levels of competence, the ladies assumed that they would be classified as semi-skilled workers when they were actually classified as unskilled. The work they did was hard, and they were being forced to work overtime and then found out that they were actually being paid much less than men at the same level. So they decided to strike for equal pay for equal work. This was a time when women had no clout in the workplace, and their attempt at a work stoppage was treated as a joke by Ford executives. Then as time went on and the women stuck to their guns and refused to be silenced, the true horror that if these women succeeded, the situation would be carried out all over the world costing the company millions.

Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins) becomes the leader by default and she is supported by a union rep Albert Passingham (Bob Hoskins) who tells a story about the hardship his mother had working her whole life to support the family at less than half of what a man was paid. For this reason, he supported the women, while the husbands sort of waffle, being prod and supporting at times, but having a hard time dealing with the wives fight and lack of pay at other times.

This is a movie that did not get much buzz before it came out on DVD and it’s likely you missed it, but it’s a very decent film. I use subtitles to help me with the English accent. (It’s been said that America and Britain are two major countries separated by the same language). But the acting is very good, and the wheelings and dealings of the ladies is remarkable. Set in 1968, the soundtrack is the sound of my youth. I graduated high school in 1969, so the 1968 music is wonderful. At the end of the movie, similar to “A League of Their Own” or “The Fighter” we get to meet the real people in the end of the movie. This helps to lend credibility to the telling of the story. It’s a very nice little film, and well worth the time spent watching it. I did enjoy it, and since it’s not widely known, it might be one that was missed that will get some attention now that it’s on DVD. It has a lot of humor and a lot of heart, and even a little naughtiness, but mostly it’s a story a little people standing up against the machine without fear. Nobody thought they would last an hour, and they endured everything thrown at them and stood their ground till the end.

[Click to see the Wiki article about the 1968 strike]

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday April 12, 2011

Apr 12

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 [Click to see Ed’s Review]
• Country Strong
• White Material
• Hereafter (Netflix)

Many Rivers Productions, Boy of the Year, Intermedia

Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Andrew Howard, Anna Friel, Johnny Whitworth, Tomas Arana, Robert John Burke, Darren Goldstein

Eddie Morra’s (Bradley Cooper) life is going nowhere. He’s taken an advance for his novel, which is gone, and he hasn’t written a word. His girlfriend left him because he’s never going to amount to anything, and he’s about to be evicted for non-payment of the rent. Suddenly he accidentally bumps into his ex-wife’s brother who is now representing a drug company. He offers him a little clear pill and tells him to take it. When he does, suddenly he’s able to think clearly, as this modifies the synapses in the brain allowing you to use the full brain power. Suddenly things that you heard and did not understand are memories, and you can learn foreign languages and scientific research in minutes. Eddie’s life changes for the better as he finishes his novel, and starts making tons of money in the stock market drawing the attention of a major corporate mogul Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro). The problem is getting a supply of the drug and once you have it, keeping it from everyone who wants it from you. And no one knows what the side effects will be.

This is a depraved mind blowing adventure. It seems plausible to our feeble minds, but seeing Eddie as limitless makes us jealous. This is actually a pretty good story. It was fun to watch, and the chases and fight scenes were well done and exciting. Robert DeNiro plays a bit of a heavy looking for a fall without realizing it, and it’s a good role for him. It’s humorous the way people treat Eddie different when he’s cleaned up and dressed in a suit rather than the disheveled unshaven slob. If you dress the part, people treat you like you look. This movie will remind you a bit of the movie “Charly” with Cliff Robertson, based on the novel Flowers for Algernon, but it’s not really the same. In this movie the emphasis is on the chase, and trying to keep away from everyone who wants what he wants. He has no idea who knows about the drug, and who else wants it. At every turn someone is out to get him. And without the drug he goes back to a doofus in a few hours. I really enjoyed the film. I can’t call it classic cinema, but it did pretty decent in the box office when it opened and it is pretty decent. It’s probably not the greatest film out right now, but at least make a mental note to look for this puppy when it comes out on DVD. I’m glad I watched it. It was a fun experience.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog