Ed's Review Dot Com

Larkin-Goldstein Productions, Pflu Pflug Films, Thankful Films

This is an interesting Thanksgiving story. The fact that it’s moved from the typical Christmas story to Thanksgiving gives it some punch and not so worn out concept is relatively new again. Yes, this switch places with what could have been has been done over and over, but there truly are only 3 or 4 holiday story plots in the first place, with all great holiday movies being a derivative of the rest. This one is not half bad. Daphne Zuniga is a great actress and Faye Dunaway pulls off a decent angel/spirit/mysterious creature who comes to teach her a lesson. It’s predictable, but a really fair job of telling the story in a nice new way. The kids are pretty cool, and the rest of the cast is quite good in pulling it all together. This is a nice Hallmark TV movie to fill a dark cold evening waiting for Thanksgiving to arrive.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Last year I did a special project over the holidays where I reviewed 122 Holiday Movies that are often repeated year after year.  This year I want to continue the process, but without repeating those I already completed.   You can tell the special Christmas film reviews with a
** Movie Title, rather than the “Movie Review – Title” format you’re used to. (The two little stars represent snowflakes.) 🙂  I also put the text in a holiday green!   

Be sure to watch for the special holiday reviews and enjoy yourself over the holidays.  Take a few moments to slow down and watch Hallmark and Fa-La-La-La-Lifetime a bit and enjoy a few hours of hope and faith in the principle of peace on Earth and goodwill towards men. I will also be adding a special page on the main menu that will show a list of the hundred or so Holiday films that I’ve already reviewed. When looking at the TV schedule, you can refer to my reviews to help choose the one’s I think are the good ones and avoid the clinkers!!!

Also there are a few Thanksgiving films too on the list! They might be in Autumn Brown!!

And remember what our good buddy “Buddy” says:  “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear!”

New Line Cinema, Rat Entertainment

Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Julie Bowen, Donald Sutherland, Lindsay Sloane

Horrible Bosses is the story of three friends. Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) works for a big corporation run by Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) who is a jerk of a boss who has been running Nick through the ringer for years for no purpose other than to degrade him. Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) works at a chemical plant for a gentle boss (played by Donald Sutherland) who promises him that someday he’ll run the company. But he quickly croaks, and his coke head idiot son, Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell) takes over the company and is destroying the company with his coke habit, hookers, and lack of any redeeming value at all. Finally Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) works for the boss from hell, dentist Dr. Julia Harris D.D.S. (Jennifer Aniston) who is a sex crazed, blackmailing pervert of a boss who won’t stop harassing him even though he’s engaged. The three of the hate their jobs and their bosses, so they dream up a plan to hire a hit man (Jamie Fox) to kill all three of their bosses. Naturally everything goes downhill from there, and anything that can go wrong, does go wrong in this laugh fest from start to finish.

This truly is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a very long time. I laughed from start to finish in this thing. It was hysterical. The jokes are rapid fire, and the characters are wonderful. The bad guys are real jerks, and the 3 friends have the perfect chemistry. One is the straight man, afraid of doing the wrong things, scared not to toe the line, but talked into things that are spinning out of control by his funny sex crazed friend who is willing to try everything but can’t keep his mind off the ladies, to the third guy who is just plain nuts. Every character is perfectly developed and very, very funny. This film has a great collection of stars who had a riot filming this thing, as shown by the bloopers and outtakes in the closing credits. It was total fun, and just about the closest I’ve had to a 5 Star Comedy in a long time. This one is really good. It’s a bit crude, as most modern comedies are, but nothing in extreme bad taste, and it comes off as a real good comedy.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Reel FX Creative Studios, Smokewood Entertainment Group

Jordana Beatty, Heather Graham, Parris Mosteller, Preston Bailey, Kristoffer Ryan Winters, Garrett Ryan, Jaleel White, Ashley Boettcher, Taylar Hender, Cameron Boyce, Jenica Bergere, Janet Varney

Based on the Judy Moody books by Megan McDonald, Judy (Jordana Beatty) is making plans for an awesome summer. She’s setup a Summer Adventure chart that add points for awesome things like riding the awesome Scream Monster (bonus points for no hands) and such. But her friends have their own things to do, leaving Judy with her brother Stink who’s spending his summer searching for Bigfoot. So Judy does her best to have an awesome summer, but everything she tries turns out bad for her, and zero points. But when Aunt Opal (Heather Graham) comes to babysit them, she is a no holds bar, free spirit, and always up for fun! With Aunt Opal’s help, the summer may not turn out so awful after all.

This is definitely a kids film. Unlike some others, there’s not a lot for adults here. Generally though, the pre-teen crowd ought to just love this film. I found it mildly entertaining, but rate it highly because I think it is great fun for the intended audience. They really did a good job bringing these characters to life, and like Ramona and Beezus, this film will resonate with the younger kids. IT’s well done, and does have a sense of fun and adventure (and disappointment) that is fun to watch. I highly recommend this for your kids, especially girls, and I know they’ll love it if they haven’t already seen it.

If you don’t have kids to watch this with, then it might not be much fun to try to watch it as a grown up, as I doubt we’ll catch the humor that the kids do. But for the younger viewers, this is a must see.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday November 8, 2011

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• The Change-Up
• Atlas Shrugged: Part One
• Life in a Day