Ed's Review Dot Com

Summit Entertainment, K/O Paper Products, SOIXAN7E QUIN5E,

Morgan Freeman, Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson, Michael Caine, Jesse Eisenberg, Mélanie Laurent, Common, Elias Koteas, David Warshofsky, J. LaRose, Caitriona Balfe

Four mediocre break out magicians, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merrit McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) {thought he looked a bit familiar–he’s the baby brother of James Franco) are suddenly give an invitation to a mysterious meeting. When they arrive, they find out they are all going to work together to become the worlds greatest magic act, The Four Horsemen. A year later, in Las Vegas, they successfully pull off a robbery of a bank in Paris using a random guys selected from the audience, and give the money to the folks in the audience. FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is partnered with Alma Day (Melanie Laurent), an Interpol Agent, to try to figure out how they did it, and how they can be charged with the crime. They call on Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) a famous magician who learned he could make even more money debunking the fraud magicians rather than performing magic himself, who helps them figure out and explain the performances. But as time goes by the action gets more intense, and the more they think they know, the more they find out that they don’t know anything. This turns in to a masterful cat and mouse chase as things escalate to an amazing finale.

This was a really exciting movie. I enjoyed this one very much. The tricks they did were masterfully pulled off, and there are so many twists and turns and red herrings, that you really are not even sure what’s real and what isn’t. I kept thinking I had it all figured out in time to find out I knew nothing either. This is a fast paced film, that leaves you breathless as they barely escape time after time. Nothing is what it seems, and as in any good magic show, we, the audience, are fooled time and time again. The performances are really well done. With this magnificent cast, how could it be any less than wonderful? A great story, with a lot of action and speed, as well as some really well thought out diversions. I highly recommend this movie! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

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24P Media Group, Emmett/Furla Films, Envision Entertainment Corporation,

Liam Hemsworth, Emma Roberts, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Angarano, Nikki Reed, Shenae Grimes, Jerry Ferrara, James Ransone, Chris Diamantopoulos, Gia Mantegna, Michael Rispoli

Chris Potamitis (Liam Hemsworth) wanted to be a policeman. But when he was kicked out of the NYPD academy due to a marijuana incident with his childhood best friend Eddie (Michael Angarano), so Chris takes a job with an armored car company. The main reason he said he had for taking the job was so he could get a pistol to carry around. But as he travels around learning the ropes, he finds that their security is really lax. Discussion the terrible security practices with Eddie leads him into getting roped into an extremely high payoff job robbing his own company. Chased by detective James Ransome (Dwayne Johnson) he tries to wiggle his way out of being caught, but the mob bosses are mad and trying to figure out who pulled off this job in their territory. This sends them off on a wild chase trying to escape from everyone who is after them. This is based on a true story.

This was a somewhat interesting film, but there was just no enough to hold your attention through the whole thing. Basically shortly into the thing, it turns pretty slow and boring and doesn’t recover a whole lot. The best thing this film has going for it is the interview on the “special features” with the real Chris Potamitis who is more interesting than anyone else in this movie. Unfortunately it’s just kind of jumbled up and hard to follow all the time, and just not enough going on to keep your interest. This film was released straight to video, which is always a bad sign. This is one you can skip, unless you’re familiar with the story and want to rent the video to see the special features on how it really happened. Otherwise, not worth the time to catch this one.

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Entertainment Motion Pictures (E-MOTION), Expatriate Films, Informant Media,

Aaron Eckhart, Liana Liberato, Olga Kurylenko, Garrick Hagon, Eric Godon, Yassine Fadel, Neil Napier, David Bark-Jones, Jade Hassouné, Nick Alachiotis

Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) is a security expert and former CIA Agent. He’s in Belgium with his 15 year old daughter. They’ve not been close because of his way of life, but they’re trying to put their relationship back together. Suddenly he finds that his entire existence has been erased. Both he and his daughter have been setup to be killed, and the two of them have to go on the run to determine what is going on and who, if anyone, they can trust in this explosive high adventure espionage story.

I was pleasantly surprised at this film. Watching the trailer made me think this was a rip-off of the Taken films, but surprisingly it wasn’t. There is a lot more going on here than that. Yes, the daughter was kidnapped, but that’s not the point of this film. I’ve never viewed Aaron Eckhart as an action hero, but he was actually pretty good in this film, and handled it pretty well. The locations were interesting, and the story was pretty decent too. This was an exciting story, and though the ending was a little trite, all in all it was an interesting script. If your a fan of the adventure spy movies, this is a surprisingly good one. It’s available for streaming at NetFlix and is a good add to your queue!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Artina Films,

Julianne Moore, Michael Angarano, Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, Nathan Lane, Fiona Shaw, Norbert Leo Butz, Jessica Hecht, Charlie Saxton, Nikki Blonsky, Sophie Curtis

Linda Sinclair is a 40ish English Teacher in a small town High School. Her life is obviously rather empty, and she’s just getting by, though things are going pretty well. A chance meeting with one of her former students reveals that he is a graduate in creative writing and gave his shot as a playwright, but has failed. He lets her read his latest play, and she is really touched, even more when she finds out it’s his story of a missing Mom, a domineering Father who forced him to go to Law School. So she decides to take him in, perform his play in the High School, mostly at her own expense. But this is where things get complicated. Linda is attracted to the guy, but mostly just lonely. She’s very jealous of his other girlfriends, and strikes up a hate relationship with the boy’s father (Greg Kinnear) who she blames for ruining his son’s life. Things turn for the worst in this romantic comedy, with a lot on the comedy side.

This is a chick flick, for sure. But the background of putting on the school play is kinda funny, and having Nathan Lane show up as the producer of the play is a great add. He plays his usual bubbly self and adds a lot of comedy to the film. Julianne Moore does a bang up job as the lonely spinster teacher, and she keeps getting herself in deeper and deeper by making bad decisions. The relationships between the characters are very well developed. We get to look at each one’s personal issues and why they do what they do. This is a decent little comedy, and worth a spot in your queue.

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Diamond Docs, Exposure Production, Exposure,

James Balog, Svavar Jonatansson, Adam LeWinter

This documentary right out of the Al Gore playbook travels up north to Iceland, Greenland, etc. to watch and film the glaciers disappearing through years of time lapse photography. In a very clever way, they mounted cameras at advantageous spots and had them snap shots on a regular basis, then put them together to make stop motion films. What they got was very spectacular, and goes to try to prove their global warming theories. The science is hard sold to us, but they can’t take away from the beautiful scenery of stuff I’m sure we’ll never see in our lifetimes.

The problem with global warming is the whole idea that a few years of humanity outdoes billions of years of the history of the Earth. I’ve said all this before, but I just think it’s absurd to blame the imminent end of the world on us puny humans. We don’t have near that much power in the makeup of things. I remember my Grandfather worrying that the overpopulation was going to make a world where there is no place to sit or lay down, because people would only have room to stand. Then we drove him through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and convinced him that we still had a little room left. I remember how we’re all supposed to be dead by now according to the end of the world clock due to the evaporating ozone layer. We were all supposed to burn to death a few years ago. But ecologists don’t mention the ozone hole anymore cause there’s nothing to say. These kinds of things run in circles. Now I have no doubt that the climate is getting warmer, but I suspect that’s what happens. I remember learning about how the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes were built by the moving glaciers. Where are the glaciers in New York now? Where did they go? I suspect they melted. I believe the earth will survive whether or not you recycle your water bottles or use plastic bags or not. I think the hypocritical people who drive gas guzzlers, and have huge homes with whole house heating and air conditioning, but are zero carbon footprint because of buying “carbon credits” is just like the rich people buying “indulgences” from the Pope to allow them to “pay” for the sins they were going to commit in advance by donating to the church. This whole thing is just a way to control people.

This film is full of disaster warnings to scare you and make you afraid to sleep because the ocean will be crashing through your bedroom window any day now. It makes for cool fictional disaster films, but in reality mother nature will adjust, or we will somehow mutate. We have plenty to worry about, and floods and tornadoes have always been around, and hurricanes worse than Sandy and Katrina have been here before and will be here hundreds of years in the future. Let’s get back to stunning nature films and cut out the propaganda.

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