Ed's Review Dot Com

Dark Castle Entertainment, After Dark Films,

Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight, Rebecca Budig, Paul Freeman, Bruce Payne, Ivailo Geraskov, Dimo Alexiev, Velislav Pavlov, Kaloaian Vodenicharov

Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) is a washed up race car driver whose wife has been kidnapped by a mysterious foe who calls every shot. He steals a car and heads off on a high speed chase following the commands of the villain who is giving him every turn. But when he gets hijacked by a young girl known as “The Kid” (Selena Gomez) the two team up to try to defeat the evil villain before it’s too late for his wife.

I should have hated this film. I’ve even seen it nominated for the Razzie for worst picture with Selena Gomez nominated as worst actress. I actually enjoyed it. I’m not sure why, but it was an exciting story, and I think Selena did a great job in this role. She played what she was given, and she’s supposed to be some hacker kid nerd, which she pulled off pretty good. The action was good, and though the ending was really silly, I thought, the rest of the film was interesting. I enjoyed the high speed driving, and the suspense. There are some ridiculous premises of how the guy can know what he does, and give them the commands, time after time, at the last second, but that’s part of the fun of the film. You can’t watch a chase film and expect it to be totally realistic any more than the crazy car commercials with “expert drivers on a closed track” are realistic. But if you just go into it watching the speed and the tension, it’s a half way decent film. I’m not sorry I chose to watch this one, and I think they did a pretty decent job.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Paramount Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Room 101,

Andrew Jacobs, Jorge Diaz, Gabrielle Walsh, Renée Victor, Noemi Gonzalez, David Saucedo, Gloria Sandoval, Richard Cabral, Carlos Pratts

A group of Latino kids notice strange things happening around their apartment, and then the upstairs neighbor is murdered. Being curious, they start snooping around the now empty apartment and discover much more than they’re ready to know. Then Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) starts acting very strange, until it comes to their knowledge that he has been marked at birth by an evil group. This is not a sequel, but more of a spin off Paranormal Activity series.

I was sorely disappointed in this film. It was odd because this just suddenly came out, without much buzz or pre-promotion, and then we were bombarded with previews on TV. These were very short teaser trailers, although I never saw a real trailer in the theater, and made us think it would be a really good new frightening movie as the other ones have been. But it seems this franchise is waning! This movie refers to a few of the things that happened in the main series, and the house in Moorpark is familiar, if you’ve seen the other 4 films in the series, but other than that, this is a completely different path. This is more voodoo and sacrifice, even though it’s the same batch of bad girls. It seems they have more than one trick in their book of evil secrets.

Furthermore, I am bored to tears with these found footage movies. There’s a reason why movie makers use good equipment, cameras, lighting, and sound. It’s an exact science mixed with a lot of art. This really does look like a couple kids did it, but not in a good way. I seriously think we could have done a better job telling this story when I was 12 and had an 8MM movie camera. There was nothing really scary, and I’m just not talking about the loud noise make you jump stuff which any kid hiding around the corner in your house can pull off, but I mean there wasn’t anything really scary going on. They worked us up with creeping around where they’re not supposed to be, but it was just a setup without a payoff. None of this was anything but laughable. I didn’t like the characters, and didn’t really give a hoot. When they head out trying to solve the problem themselves without help and with no backup, it’s just another in a bunch of stupid decisions that make, doing things no one would ever really do, and just trying to move the stinky plot forward so they can get to the next scene.

I was very bored by this movie, and at the end, which is never an end, but the film just runs out, or someone we can’t see switches off the camera (that’s how all these things end) and as far as I could tell, no one else in the theater was impressed in the least either. It was the most quiet horror film I have ever seen. We were dumb enough to see this in one of the Extreme Cinemas where we get to pay extra for the special sound and picture, and it wasn’t worth it. I now hear a Paranormal Activity 5 is due out in the fall of 2014, to follow #4 which makes this version 4.5 I guess, but it was a waste, and I would be dubious about getting this as a rental (it’s sure to be on DVD very soon), but I wouldn’t recommend spending a dime on this to see it in a theater. This must be the worst film I’ve seen in a long, long time.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday January 7, 2014

• The Act of Killing
• Closed Circuit
• I’m So Excited
• Inequality for All
• Runner Runner
• Thanks for Sharing
• Tiger Eyes
• We Are What We Are

Back in the 1970’s I spent some time in the Philippines. There was a love there for martial arts that still continues today. In the years I was living there I was able to see many great Kung Fu films, but the very best were made by Shaw Brothers, the Hong Kong studio built by Run Run Shaw. He brought the popularity of Kung Fu to the world. Like Hammer Films always made the very best Horror Films, Shaw Brothers at the start of a film always meant it was a good martial arts film. Run Run Shaw was 107 years old. What a classy guy!

[Here is the Wikipedia entry for Run Run Shaw]

In another brief note. If you’re planning on heading out to see Paranormal Activity:The Marked Ones, you may want to stop and reconsider. I saw it last night, and my review will be coming up very soon, perhaps tomorrow, but I can warn you that it’s the worst film I’ve seen in a movie theater in a long, long, long, long time.

Ed

DreamWorks Animation,

Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Peña, Luis Guzmán, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Samuel L. Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Kurtwood Smith

Turbo (Ryan Reynolds) is a little garden snail with a big dream. He loves fast cars, and dreams of being a race car driver. He can’t get enough of it. But when a freak accident gives him super speed, his dreams are about to come true, or so it seems, until he learns that in order to succeed he will need all the help he can get from his friends.

Dreamworks has had a few ups and downs. They are capable of turning out a great movie, but sometimes they turn out drivel. It seems like you’re taking a chance when you pop in a Dreamworks DVD. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I didn’t expect it to be too great, as from the previews it seemed rather silly. But this movie does have a lot going for it. My grandchildren loved it, and found it very interesting. For me, there were some things that you have to look beyond. After all, a snail in the Indy 500. But the strength of this film is in the cast. They are a great gang of friends around Turbo who lift him up. All of the characters are well written and nicely voiced. This makes the film less about racing and more about relationships. It’s an exciting film, and a lot of fun to watch. No, this will not likely win best animated film of 2013, but there’s a lot going on here. If you have kids, they’re sure to enjoy it, and this is a great family film to enjoy together. Perhaps it’s a better DVD rental or download than it was on the big screen, and on the small screen (although they’re not so small anymore), it’s well worth checking out. I can recommend this one to fans of animation.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog