Ed's Review Dot Com

Walt Disney Pictures,

Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Bryan Cranston, Polly Walker, Daryl Sabara

John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a Civil War soldier. While trapped in a cave, he wakes up on Mars, an earth-like planet covered with sand and rocks and in the middle of civil war. John Carter meets a Princess who is need of his help. Though his only thought is to go home, he finds he can’t resist staying to help fight to free the planet and save the princess from a fate worse than death.

Occasionally there is a movie that we just fight with. John Carter is one of these. I never made it to the theater when it was out. It came and went pretty fast. Originally ordered for delivery from NetFlix, I got the old “Very Long Wait” thing, and it WAS a very long wait. Finally when it was shipped, I found the envelopes in my front yard, ripped to shreds and the DVD’s long gone, stolen. I notified NetFlix, and figured I’d pick this up from the Redbox rather than trying to get another one shipped out to me. But I didn’t get around to it. Finally after all this time, I got the movie and got to watch it. I have to admit, I had great fears about this film. After all, it was one of the biggest box office bombs in Disney history. I am not sure why it did so very poorly. Perhaps the story didn’t resonate with people, or perhaps it was the lack of very big stars in it. I’m not sure. Perhaps people just don’t like pictures about Mars, who knows.

Edgar Rice Burroughs must have had his own concerns as he wrote this under a pseudo-name. But the stories were pretty popular, sparking a series of stories. This was originally titled John Carter of Mars, but later changed to John Carter, possibly because Disney had an aversion to movies with Mars in the title (Mars Needs Moms!), but perhaps more likely because they thought it would hit pay dirt and start a whole series of movies. Unfortunately that’s not likely to happen.

This is an adventure story, with lots of interesting CGI characters, and battles. There are special effects galore, and an interesting storyline. I didn’t think this movie is nearly as bad as the box office showed. But it’s certainly not a great movie. Disney’s been looking for a big hit series like the did with Pirates of the Caribbean, but this isn’t it. The actors do a well enough job, but some of the story is just confusing. I don’t think we develop enough of a connection to any of the characters to really care about them, and it just is not hitting on enough cylinders to keep the thing running. It’s worth catching on cable or for a quick rental, but its sad that this film just didn’t live up to the hype. I did enjoy watching it, but it just isn’t that memorable to stick with you for the long haul. I wouldn’t want to sit through it again.

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Two Ton Films, Millennium Films,

Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Ben Barnes, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams

Don (Robert De Niro) and Ellie (Diane Keaton) have been divorced for a long time. They have two children and an adopted son from Columbia, Alejandro (Ben Barnes). Alejandro is getting married, and he informs his parents that he never told his mother, who is coming from Columbia to the wedding, that his parents are divorced. This is a big sin for a conservative religious woman. So he asks Don and Ellie to pretend they are married for the week. Of course this sets of the typical hijinks of a dysfunctional marriage in the comedy featuring a lot of stars!

This is a typical dysfunctional family comedy, but the vast array of superstars in this film make it a pleasure to watch. Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton together is a real treat. Robin Williams has a small role as the priest, but he’s pretty funny too. All in all, it’s a well designed wedding disaster movie that matches many others of this genre. It’s not a blockbuster hit by any means, but it’s a really funny comedy that is perfect for DVD rentals. Everyone does their part to come together in a comedy of errors that makes this a lot of fun to watch. I really enjoyed it, and I felt like the cast must have had a blast filming this. It’s a party from start to finish and a very clever story that made me stay interested all the way through.

One bit of warning though. This is rated R because it is definitely a little raunchy in spots. For those of you in the PG crowd who don’t like the somewhat explicit humor, stay away. This is more Meet the Parents than Father of the Bride.

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Relativity Media, SkyLand Entertainment, Virgin Produced

Miles Teller, Skylar Astin, Justin Chon, Sarah Wright, Jonathan Keltz, Francois Chau, Russell Hodgkinson, Daniel Booko, Russell Mercado, Josie Loren

It’s the night before Jeff Chang’s (Justin Chon) big interview for admission to medical school. His father Dr. Change (François Chau) is very strict and will do him severe bodily harm if he screws it up. But it’s also his 21st birthday, and his friends want to take him out to celebrate. When he refuses, they keep insisting until he finally agrees to go out for one single beer, and then get back home. Naturally it doesn’t work that way, and before you know it, Jeff Chang is drunk out of his mind, and lost. Not lost in that way, but the guys have no idea where he lives or how to get him home. The guys have to figure out where to find him and try to get him back home and sobered up before his interview in the morning. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

This movie is just like Hangover, and Hangover 2, and a dozen other teen drinking and partying movies that have been made. That is the down side of this film. On the other hand, however, it’s got a real fresh cast. This is not the usual players, and they actually do a pretty decent job. I was impressed with the originality in this obviously plagiarized script. I mean, they copy from every other teen gross out movie, Superbad included, but it still was a lot of fun to watch, and kept me interested in the whole film. There are some clever plot devices that actually worked. The levels of the fraternity house has a funny payoff, and was an interesting gag. This may be the most realistic portrayal of “broke college kids” I’ve seen.

Basically, this is a gross, teen, party and puke movie, and nothing much more than that, so be warned that it’s not for everybody. However as far a fun and laughter is concerned, it’s on par with many of the other films of this genre, and is actually a bit more interesting than some of the others I’ve seen. I actually enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone who will not be offended by the drinking, potty mouths, and other typical gross out stuff that it had to contain.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures,

Harrison Ford, Alan Tudyk, Lucas Black, Christopher Meloni, Brett Cullen, John C. McGinley, T.R. Knight, Brad Beyer, Chadwick Boseman, Jud Tylor , Ryan Merriman

Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers saw an opportunity with the huge audience of baseball loving African American citizens who would flock to the Dodger games if there were an African American player in the game. At the time, African American players played in small cities in the Negro League. Branch brought Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) up to play for the Montreal farm team, and then to the Dodgers amidst a lot of resistance from the other players, the white fans, the other teams, and even the league and the umpires. Jackie was one of the greatest players of his time, but he faced a really hard time with all the racism and hatred thrown his way. This film exposes the trials and tribulations both the team and especially Jackie and his wife had to put up with with day after day, mixed with some really good baseball.

This film feels very much like a documentary and is unflinching in the racism that was so prevalent at the time. It was a shame in those days that in some cities it was so bad that the whole team could not stay in a hotel. The story is fairly well known, but there’s a lot of detail in this story that I wasn’t aware of, and though I realized that the first African American major league player would have to put up with a lot, I didn’t realize just how bad it really was. Chadwick Boesman did a great job as Jackie Robinson, although I really didn’t know what he looked or sounded like, so that was probably easier. Harrison Ford, on the other hand, tried really hard to become Branch Rickey, but throughout, I was painfully aware it was Harrison Ford, and the look and mannerisms just didn’t seem to fit. But I’m sure he did a good job. It was just a really hard job to do, and I’m sure he did a good performance.

I really did not expect to enjoy this film as much as I did. I thought it would come off really preachy and anti white people. But unfortunately I knew people like this. I wasn’t around in the 1940’s, but I remember some of the jerks that attended ball games when I was a little kid. I think they did a really fair job in presenting the story fairly, and I imagine it played out pretty much just like this. The baseball parts were really well done, and took me back to the old days when baseball was king! The rest of the story was very smooth flowing and went by really fast. It’s a very intriguing movie, very well done, and well worth watching to show what it was like in the early days. I enjoyed this movie very much.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

TriStar Pictures, Media Rights Capital, QED International,

Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, Michael Shanks, Talisa Soto

The year is 2159 and like Wall-E, the greedy people of Earth have destroyed it. The planet is a mess, and the rich people have built a great space city called Elysium with beautiful gardens and homes, and high technology medical treatments that can cure anything. Meanwhile, the poor people on Earth are not allowed to go to Elysium unless they can afford it. They have to live with crime, disease, and poverty. Max (Matt Damon) has had a dream of escaping to Elysium since he was a small child, but his life has not worked out that way. Coming out of prison and trying to go straight, he’s forced into working with some unsavory characters to save his life. Meanwhile Delacourt (Jody Foster) is the security chief looking to oust the weak President and take control of Elysium in a sort of coup attempt.

Earth is a nasty place in 2159, all right. Obviously Obama has managed to push his immigration reform through, as Los Angeles is a real mess, and everyone speaks Spanish. What are the odds? Meanwhile all the white people have escaped to Elysium and locked the gates behind them. Don’t think this is an accident. This film made me feel a bit racist, just by being in the theater. Oh well, that aside…this is a very interesting sci-fi movie. It is expected to be really big, and I can’t really predict whether it’s going to catch fire or crash and burn. There is a mixed bag of acting as well. Matt Damon’s character could have been really interesting, but I’m afraid he underplayed it a bit. Jody Foster’s character has a fabulous opportunity to make us hate her. She’s a great villain and she has a chance to really make us hate her, but she’s underused, and it ends up we feel a little bit like she’s maybe right? So I never really got to hate her. On the good side, this movie is stunningly beautiful. The ugliness of Earth is still very well filmed, and the beauty of this space station world is stunning. It’s also a very thought provoking picture. I really enjoyed watching it, and it was a very pleasurable evening. I have heard a lot of criticism of the scientific possibility of the movie. There are a lot of complaints about such things as the exoskeletal suit or the space station’s atmosphere. I suppose I had thoughts about the same things while I was watching this, but I passed it off as unimportant issues. If you are going to get the message of the movie, you have to accept the world that it’s in. Granted that sometimes little things like this can kill the enjoyment, but I don’t think that’s fair in this particular story. There’s a limited amount of time, and taking the time to explain the environment would have really slowed down the film. So just accept the world as it is, and look deeper into the tale.

So this is not a perfect film, but it was very unusual, and very interesting. I really enjoyed it, and I think it was well worth watching.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog