Ed's Review Dot Com

Blumhouse Productions, Entertainment One, FilmDistrict,

Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye, Danielle Bisutti, Michael Beach, Ty Simpkins, Leigh Whannell, Andrew Astor, Steve Coulter

Chapter Two picks up right where the original Insidious left off. Dalton (Ty Simpkins) has been saved, and as we left off, Josh (Patrick Wilson) has been possessed by the evil woman who has been tracking him. We’ll the story continues (with a little bit of flash back) to show us the “rest of the story” and it fills in some big holes left open in the first movie. Not only does it scare the heck out of us, but it fills in a lot of the back story about what really happened in the scary moments of the first film. We’re dealing with some real evil in this film, and there are a couple side stories help to flesh out the entire story. This is the first really chilling horror film of the season!

I was really happy I did a nice thing. AMC offered a special deal, a “Red Door Double Feature” on Thursday at 7PM showing a double feature of both the first Insidious film, and then a 3 hour early screening of Chapter Two. Now I’ve said that the first Insidious was about the scariest film I’ve seen in recent years. Here is my review of Insidious. It was so nice to review the first one, since it was two years ago when this one came out. Watching it right before the premier of Chapter Two had it all refreshed in my mind. This was a big help, as I certainly remembered the first film, but watching it right before the sequel made it very fresh in mind. I loved the way this film, much like Back to the Future 2 did, took us back into the events of the first film and showed us another completely different view. The things that happened in the first movie made little sense, and were unexplained. Now they’re not. Now we know exactly what was happening. We learned more about “The Further”, an area where the recently deceased can go to stay until they are able to move on to “a better place”. We learn a little about a very “Norman Bates” type character who is really evil. We get to see some just desserts for some of the bad guys. I really enjoyed this movie. The characters are really great, especially Lin Shaye as Elise, the psychic who helps them get to The Further, and Barbara Hershey, as Josh’s Mom, Lorraine who is awesome, and explains a lot about Josh’s childhood that sets up the story.

Many critics have blasted this film, with the complaint that it’s not that original and not that scary. I disagree on both arguments. I think the story gives us a lot of richness and background info into the story which is very much appreciated. The first one always has the opportunity to be “fresh” because it’s telling a brand new story. The sequel has the disadvantage of dealing with characters, situation, and background story that we’re already familiar with. But rather than wasting that, they really gave us a richer understanding of the whole story which is great. Also, I think this film was every bit as frightening as the first. There were some really big startling moments, and the sound track is spectacular. But the suspense is also very good. It has a lot of edge of your seat moments, and real terror from the storytelling, not just sudden jumps and loud sounds. It has both, which is really good. I truly enjoyed this movie. If you like horror, this is one you don’t want to miss.

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Brothers K Productions, Redbud Pictures,

Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem, Tatiana Chiline, Romina Mondello, Tony O’Gans, Charles Baker

Neil (Ben Afleck) is an American, traveling in Paris, when he meets Marina, a beautiful Ukrainian divorcee with a child. They quickly fall in love when Neil has the chance to come back to Oklahoma, and he decides to bring Marina with him. She is very excited to begin her new life in the U.S., but eventually their love cools, and Neil is attracted to an old flame, Jane (Rachel McAdams) while Marina finds he life is falling apart and returns to Paris and hard times.

This is a very artistic film. It’s a beautifully shot artistic adventure through fields of wheat and flowers mixed with the dusty dreary homes of Oklahoma. It’s very slow moving, half in French, half in English, with not a lot of movement. There’s no excitement or adventure. It’s written like one of the old Gothic novels with less dialog and more self analyzing via narration of the characters. That being said, this movie was not really for me, and I didn’t enjoy it very much, but I was able to enjoy some of the beauty of the scenery. I found it all rather depressing as everyone seems so unhappy all the time, and I guess life can be like that. Although I think I would enjoy the film a little more if wasn’t so darn sad. I just feel bad for everybody in this movie. I know there will be a lot of people who simply love this kind of story, but I found it really discouraging. I would stay away from it if I were you!

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BenderSpink, New Line Cinema, Vincent Newman Entertainment

Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Will Poulter, Emma Roberts, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Molly C. Quinn, Tomer Sisley, Matthew Willig

David Clark (Jason Sudeikis) is a small time drug dealer who is happy being the guy he was in college. No ties, no responsibilities, he’s carefree and doing quite well for himself. He lives in an apartment with a bunch of quirky neighbors, but when he spots one of them in trouble, he has to step in, and he ends up losing both the drugs he’s supposed to sell, but also the money he’s saved up. So now he’s in big trouble with his supplier, Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms) and the only way to save himself is to make a run as a mule bringing a “smidgen and a half” of drugs into the US from Mexico. So he concocts a crazy plan to rent a mobile home, and pose as the Miller Family with Mom, stripper Rose (Jennifer Aniston) Daughter/Goth chick runaway, Casey (Emma Roberts) and not to swift son, Kenny (Will Poulter). Things start out easy, but soon they begin to realize it’s a bit more difficult than they expect, as Murphy’s Law takes over, and everything that can go wrong, does.

I didn’t expect a lot from this film, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was really funny. Now don’t get me wrong, it was quite vulgar a lot of the way through, and it certainly earned the R rating quite easily, but it was definitely funny. It brought much of the humor. Jennifer Anniston is really good, and this role was just perfect for her. She played it perfectly with a mixture of desperate child, worldly lady, and caring Mom in just the right mix. She is no doubt the shining star of the movie, and it’s no surprise she’s usually listed first. Ed Helms brings his best Andy from The Office character with him, and he’s a silly scoundrel who has a lot of karma owing. Jason Sudeikis is, likewise, much like many of his SNL characters, but very good too as the greedy single guy being forced to step up and take care of this family. The rest of the cast is very good too. Even the bad guy/assassins are really not that tough, but much more on the hysterical side. All in all it’s a hoot, and one of those simple comedies that is just a lot of fun. If you’re not offended by the vulgarity of the dialog, then this is a good comedy.

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DisneyToon Studios, Prana Animation Studios,

Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Cedric the Entertainer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Cleese, Carlos Alazraqui, Priyanka Chopra, Gabriel Iglesias

Dusty Crophopper is a crop duster. He comes from a long line of crop dusters, but he has high hopes. He wants to be a racer. His dream is to qualify for the “Wings of the World” race that is literally around the world. But Dusty has a couple things going against him. He’s built for dusting crops, not racing, so he’s not extremely fast nor is he designed for racing. But worse than that, he’s afraid of heights. Normally he only flies a few feet off the ground, so the idea of flying over the Himalayas is very frightening. But he has friends on his side, true friends that will stick by him and encourage him to seek out his dreams and reach for the stars.

The critics blasted this film, and typically for the same reasons. I liked it. But I must say that I knew this was a straight to video feature that Disney decided was decent enough to give a run in the theater first. And they must have been right, because with the drought of decent movies in the theaters the last few weeks since Labor Day, they are making quite a bit off of it. This is not a groundbreaking film. But my Grandchildren liked it, and the characters are well designed. The kids aren’t going to recognize the similarity to all the other films of this nature, but there are a few unique gags in this film that were fun to watch. All in all, you can kick back, relax, and enjoy a nice kiddie film that is very enjoyable. I caught this on a Saturday Matinee, so as not to plunk down about $13.00 for this, and that way, it was really worth the fin I paid to get in. The animation was good, the voices were good, the character development was good, and the story was kinda old. We’ve definitely seen this before. But still, I found myself smiling all the way through. Courage and determination, trust and loyalty, these are all good character traits to develop in our kids. I can recommend this if you’re a fan of animated movies. It is a lot better than Cars 2 was, but I admit that’s not a glowing recommendation. I can also recommend this if you have smaller children or grandchildren who would enjoy a fantasy world of talking planes and a cool ’round the world race. You could do a lot worse.

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Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday September 10, 2013

• Chasing Ice
• Delete
• Love is All You Need
• Star Trek:Into Darkness
• War Witch
• Wish You Were Here