Ed's Review Dot Com

Arcade Pictures, Iron Fists,

Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, RZA, Rick Yune, Batista, Jamie Chung, Byron Mann, Daniel Wu, Zhu Zhu

Combining Martial Arts and Hip-Hop, a band of warriors, assassins, and a British soldier all arrive at a village in ancient China, where a humble blacksmith (RZA) looks to defend himself and his fellow villagers from the marauders seeking a treasure of gold.

This movie has Quentin Tarantino all over it, but I can’t see where he’s involved in the film in the least, nor do I see any of his style of film making. I suspect he just put up the money for the project. RZA, whatever the hell that is, is a rapper from the infamous Wu-Tang Clan who has dreamed (according to the special features on the film) of making a Kung Fu movie since his early teens. Well, now he’s got a boatload of money and is able to do whatever he wants. So it’s his directorial debut, as well as his chance to play the lead in the film. Now some long time professional actors have tried to act and direct at the same time, with some very iffy mixed results. But for a first timer to take this on, is really dubious. What results is an amateur looking mess that looks like a high school project shot after school. Now they spent the money to travel to China to film this, but the script is really weak, and the performances are dreadful. With such well knows actors as Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu, it looks like they were trying to get some talent in there, but the script is so bad, they can’t pull anything out of the sewer. Basically this may be just an attempt for RZA to have a platform for his music, and the stuff in here is really incompatible with a martial arts film.

Now I am a big martial arts fan, and am usually pretty forgiving, but I really think this is one of the worst messes I have ever seen, and I cannot recommend this at all. I imagine that the professional critics must agree on this stinker, and all you need to do is to watch the self serving special features on the CD to see where it went wrong. Just let this one go, it’s not even worth the rental.

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Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday March 12, 2013

• Cirque du Soleil:Worlds Away
• Life of Pi
• Rise of the Guardians [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• Hitchcock
• The Flat
• Smashed
• Sound City
• This Must Be the Place

Opening Night Productions , Concept Entertainment , Unison Films,

Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Imogen Poots, Catherine Keener, Wallace Shawn, Mark Ivanir, Liraz Charhi, Madhur Jaffrey, Anne Sofie von Otter

Four members of a world famous classical quartet are planning for their 25th anniversary concert. But a shocking medical diagnosis for Peter (Christopher Walken), the oldest and the leader of the group, forces him to announce that he is not sure if he can make the concert. Things get a bit better, and they decide to make this 25th anniversary concert his personal farewell, although he recommends a new member to take his place. But all the stresses and pressures of a life making classical music suddenly releases and all kinds of personal issues break out. Things escalate, as the pressure seems like it’s going to break the group apart, and perhaps destroy many lives in the progress. The focus fades from the serious problem facing Peter, and passes on to the terrible personal issues affect the rest of the group.

This was a surprising film to me in a way. I debated long and hard as to whether or not to watch this film, as I thought it had to be very strange. I was prepared to be bored with the classical music, and yet, looking at the fantastic cast in this film, I couldn’t decide whether to watch it or not. Well, I’m always looking out for unusual movies, and the hidden gems (as I like to call them) that are missed on the fringes of the box office, and I was quite impressed with this film. There is a LOT of character development, and some really good characters. The biggest problem with these guys is that they take the music far too serious. I know people like this, although I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone this obsessed, but at the same token, these guys have been playing classical music together for 25 years. Still they’re taking themselves far too serious. They are screwed up, that’s for sure, and that’s the interesting thing to watch as each individual comes unraveled. They have real problems which they hide in the devotion to the music, but when they’re forced to look at themselves when they face their leader’s mortality. This is a character film, lots of talking, lots of introspection, and lots of arguments. IF you’re a fan of movies with tons of character development and interpersonal relationships, this is a very good film. Parts of it are really sad, but it’s still a very good look at being human. These folks are world renown, and still have bigger personal problems than you and I. It’s a definite people movie, and pretty decently done. This is a good rental.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Eclectic Pictures , Evil Twins (I) , Millennium Films,

Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Noah Lomax, Dennis Quaid, Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, James Tupper, Judy Greer, Abella Wyss, Grant Goodman

George (Gerard Butler) used to be a star soccer player. Now he’s fallen upon hard times. He’s renting a guest house and way behind in his rent. He’s trying to move into sports announcing, but not having much luck. Mostly he disappoints his son, Lewis (Noah Lomax) and his ex-wife Stacie (Jessica Biel). But now he’s trying to be a better Dad and shows up at his son’s loser soccer team with a coach who knows nothing about the game and lots of incorrect instruction. So George volunteers to take over as the coach of these losers and not only makes a hit with the kids, but all the soccer mom’s are giddy with glee to have this guy as their son’s coach. George has to walk the fine line between all the ladies throwing themselves at him while trying to build a relationship with his son, when a few events make it very, very difficult for him.

This is a film that has been done before. I mean, it’s almost directly a copy of the Bad News Bears or The Mighty Ducks except in this film George actually loves soccer and wants to be a coach. But it is a soccer movie which isn’t quite that common, and Gerard Butler is very lovable as the sports star, sidelined by injury, who spirals out of control. Jessica Biel is definitely not the best person for the role of the Mom who isn’t quite done with George, but headed to the altar with her new, stable guy (Hmmm. The Santa Clause anyone?), but the shining star of this film is definitely Noah Lomax who plays the young son trying to find his place. Noah is perfectly cast as Lewis, and he carries the movie. The rest of the cast is also a big plus. Dennis Quaid is really funny as the rich eccentric guy who provides a lot of perks as long as his tone deaf daughter who “sings like an angel” can sing the National Anthem at the games. Uma Thurman is great as his wife who’s as lonely as she is desperate. Judy Greer as the deserted young wife desperate for some attention, and Catherine Zeta-Jones in a small, but very good role for her.

This movie is certainly not perfect, but it is good family fun. The comedy is real, and it has a lot of heart. It has a strong message, yet is very modern turn to the story. I think this is a good rental film and well worth watching.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Summit Entertainment , Temple Hill Entertainment , Sunswept Entertainment,

Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning

So Bella (Kristen Stewart) is now a vampire and getting used to her new powers. Of course naturally she’s the strongest vampire in the whole north woods because, uh, we don’t really know, she just is. Her half human baby, regrettably named Renesme, is growing at an alarming rate, and Bella is extremely upset to learn that Jacob (Taylor Lautner) must stay close to “Nessie” because he imprinted on her. So someone sees Nessie, and assumes she is “immortal” and has been turned by the Cullen’s so she’s off to tell the Volturi that the Cullen’s have broken the law of the vampires. Volturi’s are very tough, so they’re coming to kill the Cullen’s and put an end to the abomination. So the Cullins travel all over the world to call in all their friends to vouch for them, and they set out to explain to the Volturi that Renesme is not immortal. But just in case, all the vampires and werewolves prepare for a battle royal.

This movie sucked worse than the Part 1 did. Honestly, I don’t think there was near enough material to break this into two movies, and it’s just the greed motive that caused it. Nothing at all happens in this film. We’re stuck with an hour of people standing around and talking. Werewolves and Vampires are friends now, and the Volturi who are supposed to be so bad assed, are simply standing around with everybody else. There’s a huge battle scene that means nothing, and they take it all back anyway. To make matters worse, I could see the movie was completely out of gas, but when I looked at the DVD time left, it showed over 18 minutes. They used to be able to do a whole TV show in 18 minutes, but I couldn’t possibly imagine what else they had to show us. Well, the answer to that is that someone proposed that the movie was way to short, so they ought to put the names of everyone in each and every film in the entire series in the credits which literally ran over 18 minutes. Holy cow, what a way to give the custodial crew time to clean up the theater before the next showing! Honestly, the only thing going for this final episode is that the scenery in British Columbia is really beautiful. This film is almost 100% shot in the woods.

Truthfully, I know there are the young girls out there who really loved these books, but I do believe that every movie went downhill after the first one. I don’t know if this is true for the books too, as I haven’t read any of them, but the films started out with a half decent story of wolves and vampires that had a lot of interesting possibilities. But as it went on and on and on, it just had nowhere to go. The movie was not quite as bizarre as it was in Part 1, so that was perhaps the only improvement over the last one which was really strange. All in all, I didn’t watch this one for a long time because I knew it was going to be bad, but I had to give it a shot. It was clearly the worst ending to a story in a long time.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog