Ed's Review Dot Com

Miramax Films, TalkStory Productions, Artemis Films,

Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Reeve Carney, Alfred Molina, Russell Brand, Djimon Hounsou, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, Tom Conti, David Strathairn, Ben Whishaw

The Duchess Prospera (Helen Mirren) and her daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones) are stranded on a desert isle out at sea. They have been there for many years but Prospera is a sorceress and able to cast spells. As a ship nears, Prospera causes a huge storm, a tempest, which sinks the ship. A number of people on the ship make it to the island in different groups and begin an interesting journey where they eventually meet up to each other and meet Prospera and her daughter One of these is a potential suitor for Miranda. This film takes the classic drama by Wm.Shakespeare and changes the gender of the sorcerer, brings things up to more modern music and characteristics, but keeps Ye Olde English of the Bard.

For this reason, I didn’t really enjoy this film. For someone who understands and can follow the ancient version of the language, it’s probably ok, but for me, I struggled through trying to read Shakespeare way back in High School and haven’t gotten any better since then. Then to put these modern characters (like Russell Brand) in a story done in old English is rather absurd. All in all I didn’t really enjoy it. I had a really hard time following what was going on, and even harder trying to care.

Even for Shakespeare fans, I don’t highly recommend this, as they change it around enough, and there are enough weaknesses to make it weak for them as well. If you’re a fan of the work, go for a real production, not this bastardized version. A couple things are pretty good. Helen Mirren is great, as always and turns in a stellar performance. And the special effects for the way the portray Ariel is quite good. With film and green screen, they can do a lot more with this character than they can on the stage where Prospero just carries the creature with him throughout!

I wanted to really give this film a chance though, so when I finished it, I turned on the director’s commentary. I found out it was essentially a one woman show where she did everything in the film (Julie Traymor). This usually spells bad news when one person tries their hand at everything. There isn’t anyone to bounce ideas off of. Ask Eddie Murphy how Norbert turned out for him! I listened to about a quarter of the commentary, and was trying to get into it when I heard her say, “I am Berkeley so…..”. Not I am from Berkeley, or I went to UC Berkeley, but “I am Berkeley” When I heard that I turned it off, put it back in the sleeve and dropped it into the mail. That said it all, and I understood that I am much too low on the scale of intellect to ever “get it”. After all, I am not Berkeley.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Lionsgate, Alcon Entertainment, Phoenix Pictures,

Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick, Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Rodrigo Santoro, Ben Falcone, Joe Manganiello, Thomas Lennon, Rob Huebel, Rebel Wilson, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Génesis Rodríguez

This movie follows several couple who find out they are expecting in vastly different circumstances. A star studded film like many others like “Valentine’s Day”, “New Years Eve” and a few others. In some way or another the stories intersect. A romantic comedy with all sorts of emotions, Gary (Ben Falcone) and his wife Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) are finally expecting after trying for a long time, only to find his hot shot racing star Ramsey (Dennis Quaid) and his new hot Mom Skyler (Brookly Decker) is having twins. But there are so many other stories happening that there’s something for everybody to laugh about and identify with.

This is one of those ensemble movies where the quirkiest things try to fit the different stories together. This one is very thin, and that drives some people crazy. I enjoyed the film, just like I enjoyed the other ensemble stories in the previous paragraph, but I’m not sure this is really good enough to recommend you run out and plunk down the bucks for this one. I had a free movie ticket from my Regal Crown Rewards card and I needed to find a movie that wasn’t “no passes” and with all the new films out in the last two weeks, this was about the only choice I had. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but if I was plunking down $13.50 I would have chosen something else, for sure. But I was impressed with Jennifer Lopez in her role as a mom planning to adopt an African baby. She is not shallow and silly, she grabbed for the meat in this role and did some fine acting. I was impressed. Cameron Diaz has a much lighter role as the host of a “Biggest Loser” type show who has all the answers until she finds her schedule is just too much for even a wonder woman like herself. She is pretty funny in this role and did well. There are other fine performances here too. All the stories are pretty good. Even Chris Rock is understated in role. He doesn’t have to take over the screen, but can play a small part that brings a lot of humor to the film. All in all, I would recommend it, but perhaps to wait a few months and catch it on DVD or Blu-ray.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog