Ed's Review Dot Com

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Electric City Entertainment, Verisimilitude,

Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Harris Yulin

Luke (Ryan Gosling) is a professional motorcycle rider. When the show returns to Schenectady, Luke looks up Romina (Eva Mendes), an old flame, but he is surprised to learn he has a son. Romina is now in a new relationship, but Luke really wants to be a Dad to his son. But he soon falls into bank robbery to provide money for his son which puts him on a collision course with very ambitious cop, Avery (Bradley Cooper) which doesn’t end well for anyone.

This relationship movie is a real though provoker. There is a lot to think about here. There are number of different relationships going on, and the movie is really broken up into 3 distinct stores which all overlap, of course. I really enjoyed this film. It was a long movie, nearly 2 1/2 hours, and it was brilliantly filmed. This is like an Indie film with a A Movie cast! There are a lot of people who didn’t like this film, I think mostly because there is much less action, chases, and gun play than a typical cop flick. In fact, this isn’t really a copy story, although the story is set around the department. It does develop characters meticulously and there are no real good or bad guys here. As in real life, everyone is sort of midstream somewhere in between. It does show how choices we make can have long lasting effects. But mostly this looks at the lives of these characters, and how they interact. One of the common complaints is the ending. Many people expect a huge climax with a gigantic tied up with a pink bow ending. This is not near that simple. The ending is realistic as can be, and that puts off some people. But even though this is a tough film to watch due to the nature of the subject, it was really worthwhile, and I enjoyed it very much. I think you’re best going into this with as little background of the story as possible, and it will be much more enjoyable.

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Columbia Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment, Blinding Edge Pictures,

Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Isabelle Fuhrman, Kristofer Hivju, Gabriel Caste, Zoë Kravitz, Sophie Okonedo, David Denman, Sacha Dhawan, Lincoln Lewis

Cypher Raige (Will Smith) is the supreme fighter of the universe as we learn in this futuristic vision of space after the humans have destroyed Earth. Earth turned really bad, and everything evolved towards killing humans, so they all moved off the Earth to a distant location. But the aliens are looking to seek out the humans and destroy them, and they have a really evil creation in the blind, but keen smelling Ursa who can find humans by the smell of the pheromones that we give off when we’re afraid. Cypher has a son Kitai, who is estranged from his Dad because his Dad has been off saving the universe and leaving him alone. He feels a lot of guilt for an event that happened, and hasn’t learned how to defeat his fear. He is trying to be a soldier like his father, but so far has failed to pass the final test. On a space journey Cypher and Kitai are marooned on an evil planet, Cypher is unable to walk, and Kitai must go out for help. If he fails, they both will die. But great test await him on the multi-day journey which will test his manhood.

Well, what a predicament. I have to admit, with the bad reviews for this film, and the sudden demise from the big screen, I did not have an opportunity to view this in the theater. Now it’s available on DVD, and I just had to watch it, but I was prepared for the worst. This movie has a lot going for it, and yet, it has some huge problems that it can’t seem to overcome. I’ve always been a Night Shaymalan fan, and Will’s got the clout to get him as the director of this thing. So the camera placement, frightening scenes, and sudden surprise twists are really good. Night is a genius director. The story is excellent. According to the credits, Will wrote the story, and it’s awesome. It’s one of the best Science Fiction stories I’ve seen in a long time. But….though Will has carried some great films with his humor and his acting ability, he has nothing much to do in this movie. He sits in a chair, grunts, passes out most of the time, and yells Kitai endlessly over some futuristic communication device. Will developed this story for no other purpose than for Jaden who can’t act worth a damn. Just because you’re descended from a couple decent actors, doesn’t mean you’ll get the talent automatically, and he didn’t. I think he is even worse in this movie than he was in the “Kung Fu Kid” he made some years ago. That’s because he has no one else in this film to work with, and it’s a soliloquy, basically a one man show. And he’s not the man to carry that off, although to be fair, that’s a tall order for any kid. But the beginning of the movie is going to lose you when Jaden does his “narrator” piece to tell you all the background of the story. He can barely read, and it is truly awful. And his acting doesn’t get any better when they get to the action parts. What a waste of an excellent story.

So I feel the reason this film flopped is directly on Will’s back, as this is his pony show for his kids. Will needs a variety show or something so he can pull his kids out and show them off once in a while, but this narcissistic thing of writing whole movies for kids is going to destroy any of the credibility that Will ever built up. So if you’re an M. Night fan, and if you love sci-fi, and if you want to see a beautifully filmed space adventure, this is ok to put in your queue to watch. But if you have to pay $3.50 to go out and rent it, it’s not worth $3.50 in my opinion. If Will can write like this, then perhaps he needs to write for someone else than his own kids. Sorry Will, but you wasted a great opportunity here.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday October 15, 2013

• The Colony
• Dirty Wars
• The Heat
• A Hijacking
• Kevin Hart: Let me Explain
• Maniac
• Pacific Rim
• Plush

Informant Media, MICA Entertainment,

Logan Lerman, Kristen Bell, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Rusty Joiner, Greg Kinnear, Liana Liberato, Spencer Breslin, Nat Wolff

The Borgan family is a clan of writers. Father William (Greg Kinnear) is an established writer and has been long divorced by his wife who has remarried. William is waiting for his wife to come back to him. His eldest daughter is very angry with Mom over the divorce, and her younger brother is a budding science fiction writer who is filled with optimism, the opposite of his sister. This is a very dysfunctional family that has to deal with their issues, as each of them has a lot to learn to mend the family.

Greg Kinnear is very good in this film. It’s one of those family dramas with some realistic depictions of a dysfunctional family. There are very complex relationships going on at all levels, and it’s a very good character study. It’s an indie film, but flowed very well for me. I found it an interesting film with enough going on to really develop the characters, but to keep it quite interesting throughout. There are some really funny moments, but I wouldn’t classify this as a comedy by any means. But the humor adds a lot to the story. Basically there are a lot of layers to this story, and it’s interesting to watch them unfold. I really enjoyed this movie, and as a romance/drama independent film, I found it very easy to watch. It was a surprise to me, as I had not heard of this film, but I can recommend this one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Anchor Bay Films, Slasher Films, Movie Package Company (MPC),

Anne Heche, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Stone, Ethan Peck, James Tupper, Rebekah Brandes, J.D. Evermore, Wayne Pére

Pastor Dan (James Tupper) and his wife Wendy (Anne Heche) moved their family to a small town to take over the church for the retiring pastor. At first, things are very good, but as time passes, they begin to realize that the town holds a deadly secret and that the retiring pastor has some very sinister motives in this horror film from Michael Bay.

This is a little horror film, one that starts out very slowly before it gets going. The problem is that there is not enough meat to satisfy the audience. The movie does not really have a big enough payoff at the end to make it worth suffering though the beginning, although it is a lovely depiction of life in a very small town. The lack of mainstream actors shows itself very much. Anne Heche is a good actress, but her part is really small. Clancy Brown, who plays the retiring pastor is definitely the best thing going in this film. He’s actually pretty creepy! All in all, this is a decent attempt at a horror film, but it falls quite short of the mark. The story is a lot like a bunch of other “demon, gates of hell” movies, and isn’t really worth investing the time in it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog