Ed's Review Dot Com

BV McCann-Erickson, HBO Romania, Mindshare Media,

Dragos Bucur, Maria Popistasu, Mimi Branescu, Mirela Oprisor, Victor Rebengiuc

Paul (Mimi Branescu) is torn between two lovers. His wife, Adriana (Mirela Oprisor), and Paul have been married for ten years. But for the last few months Paul frequently visits his mistress Raluca (Maria Popistasu) with whom he’s also very much in love. As Christmas is coming, Paul must decide between the two and suffer the consequences.

This is a Romanian film by director Radu Muntean. It’s a very stark view at the affects of adultery on all parties involved including Paul and Adriana’s little girl Mara. It has excellent character development, and the scene between Paul and his wife when he tells her the truth is very realistic. It’s hard to watch, the realism is so strong, but it is a very well made foreign film. You’ll have to watch with subtitles, but if that doesn’t bother you, you’ll find this a very decent drama and a story of a dissolving family. No matter what happens, things will be different for everyone. Some have criticized this film as being slow paced, but I think that it’s actually much better for taking a slow, long look at each of the players. It’s well done in many ways, and for a foreign film, very worthwhile watching the film in subtitles and getting into the lives of the characters. This is a well done dramatic work and one I enjoyed watching.

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Belladonna Productions, Memento Films International, Uncorked Productions,

Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner, Wyatt Russell, Nick Damici, Kelly McGillis, Jack Gore, Odeya Rush, Michael Parks, Annemarie Lawless

When Mrs. Parker suddenly turns up dead, the family decides to continue their long held tradition of eating human flesh. Papa Parker puts it upon his daughters to search for and prepare their “food” when the authorities start to suspect something isn’t right and start closing in on them. The children are forced to face their family traditions and determine whether to go along with Dad or not.

This is a very unusual horror film. It’s not really that superb, but it’s not completely awful either. I found that the subject matter was horribly gross, but yet it was not all that awful to watch. If a gore fest like this can be tastefully done, this is probably as good as that gets. There are some memorable scenes, like one in particular early on that takes place in the family cellar that is certainly one you won’t forget anytime soon. But the production values are low, it’s very low budget, but darn it, there are some really interesting parts. All in all, it’s just not up to snuff, but as a fan of horror films, I found myself watching the entire film, then the bonus features on the DVD that talk a lot about how it was made. To their credit, these folks had very little money to work with, and had to do with things as best they could, but they really love the genre and worked really hard to get this on film. So I have to give them credit for their devotion. It’s just hard for me to highly recommend a film with all the production problems that this one has. Now I found it way better than the latest Paranormal Activity:The Marked ones with it’s shaky cam found footage garbage. This is a real movie with actual photography being used. But fans of slick looking high budget horror just isn’t likely to enjoy this. I found myself on the fence and decided to ride on the fence. If you love horror, and are looking for a new viewpoint but don’t mind the low production values, then you’ll probably enjoy this as I did. But if you like production value in your films, then you’ll probably be disappointed. Watch the trailer and decide for yourself.

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Class 5 Films, Olympus Pictures,

Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim Robbins, Josh Gad, Joely Richardson, Patrick Fugit, Carol Kane, Pink

Adam (Mark Ruffalo) is battling his way through a 12 step program to overcome sex addiction when he meets Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow) who has, based on past experience, cast off all recovering addicts. So Adam has to lie to her, by swearing he’s not an “alcoholic” but leaving out the rest. As he battles through problems with his group, and with his sponsor (Tim Robbins) he finds himself really falling for Phoebe, but as in all romantic comedies, sooner or later the lies are going to catch up with him.

This is a fairly complicated romantic comedy, and is about the addiction as much as the romance, but it’s just not as good a film as it could have been. I just didn’t feel the chemistry between Gwyneth and Mark, and I just can’t see them really liking each other. Furthermore, Mark Ruffalo’s Adam is really rough. I never really got to care much for this guy. One bright spot was surprisingly Pink/Alicia Moore as Dede, a really funny member of the group. I am not sure I’ve seen her act before, and though her part was not really big, she was really good. Surprisingly the background characters in this film are much more interesting than the lead. This is not a really horrible movie, but I’m not sure where the target market is for this, as I don’t think the usual market for romantic comedies will enjoy the whole background sex addiction plot, and I doubt that 12 step addicts are big movie buffs for the most part. So it’s all rather ho-hum, and giving it three stars is probably even a little generous.

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Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment,

Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Ken Jeong, Elsie Fisher, Dana Gaier, Moises Arias

Dru (Steve Carell) is retired from the villain business, and trying his best to adjust to a family life at home. But a super-villain El Macho arises, and the Anti-Villain League decides they need someone from the inside to assist, so they recruit Dru and his minions to find and fight El Macho. Dru joins up with Lucy (Kristen Wiig) to determine if El Macho is really alive, and not believed dead as everyone previously though, but as things are going badly for Dru and Lucy, a plot to kidnap the minions has them disappearing one after another.

There is no doubt about it, Steve Carell is a marvelous villain, awkwardly turned into a good guy at the end of the first movie, and the minions are certainly charming and very cute. But this film is not quite as good as the first. I tried to analyze why I felt that way, and I think maybe it’s because the first time around, the whole concept was really fresh and surprising. The minions were really unexpected comedy relief, and Dru’s efforts to be really, really bad, and not really convincing us that he wasn’t really nice underneath, it caught us by surprise. Now, this time around, it’s not new and fresh. We know who these folks are, and though there’s a certain amount of pleasure seeing these characters again in a new story, it didn’t really capture my interest like the first one did. The story isn’t that great, and I found my interest waning a few times. I know people, especially those with kids, that love the minions will be happy to see them again, and they are really good comic relief, but for the masses, this one is not quite firing on all cylinders. It’s worth the rental, for sure, but it’s just shy of the original in my opinion. If they are going to bring them back again, they better take are really long look at the story, and come up with something a little more original.

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Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday January 21, 2014

• Best Man Down
• Blue Jasmine
• Captain Phillips
• Charlie Countryman
• The Doors:R-Evolution