Ed's Review Dot Com

Regency Enterprises, River Road Entertainment, Plan B Entertainment,

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong’o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Alfre Woodard, Garret Dillahunt, Scoot McNairy, Adepero Oduye, Michael K. Williams, Chris Chalk, Taran Killam, Bill Camp

The true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who was a free black man living in New York State. Solomon was an accomplished musician and was tricked into a job where he was captured and sold as a slave. He was subjected to both incredible kindness and extreme cruelty as were those around him before he meets a Canadian abolitionist, Bass (Brad Pitt) who changes his life forever.

The movie is based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup himself and is set in the pre-Civil War days. Events like that happened from time to time, and certainly no one can tolerate the depiction of the brutality of slavery. Not to make light of it, but since the slaves were valuable property, the extreme damage they did in this movie would surely depreciate the value of their property. I doubt that most slave owners would treat their “tools” like this. IF they did, they were really stupid. But at the same time, the times were horrible and treating human beings as property is disgusting. Still, I feel the filmmakers went out of their way to lay a guilt trip on us, and that is the most uncomfortable thing about watching this film. It’s hard not to feel pretty bad about yourself while watching this. It’s a mind numbing story, and there’s now way to come out of this unscathed. Regardless of whether or not it’s historically accurate in this case, It’s still a powerful message. I felt somewhat torn, all in all, and so I don’t really know how to rate this one. It’s really well done, and yet, I was torn as to whether I really was impressed that much. I chose 4 stars for the really good acting and for the screen play. It is a real depiction of life in the South pre-Civil War. But I was not completely blown away with the story. I can’t really put my finger on it. It just left me unsettled, which is what I guess it was supposed to do.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Paramount Pictures, Apatow Productions, Gary Sanchez Productions,

Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, Meagan Good, Kristen Wiig, James Marsden

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is back, news anchor in New York City, along with his friends, Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and Champ Kind (David Koechner). Ron loses his job to Veronica (Christina Applegate) but and moves back to San Diego a broken man, and a performer at Sea World, when the chance comes to take a job at the first 24 hour news network, Global Network News (GNN). Ron puts the gang back together and they take the graveyard shift, but Ron has some ideas on how to become the biggest thing in New York since the Beatles.

I have to give one thing to this movie. This has to be the highest promoted movie in cinema history. Will started years early to bring back the Ron Burgundy character and used him at appearances everywhere. For 6 months or more there were previews, posters at the theaters, and everything you can think of to remind you that Anchorman 2 was coming out for Christmas 2013. It came out, and I’m sure it made a few bucks. IMDB gives it $50 million, with a $26 million dollar opening weekend. Not that big of a hit, and I can see why. I was kind of disappointed in this film, as it just didn’t really impress me much. Will Ferrell is doing the same schtick over and over again, and it’s starting to get old. There were some really funny lines in this film, mostly from Steve Carell and David Koechner, but Will can set off a zinger every now and then. He comes up with some off the wall things that are really funny. For that reason, It’s well worth renting this movie or watching it on TV. After all, if you’re a Ferrell fan, you gotta see it (although if you’re a fan, you probably already did). But it’s not horrible, and it’s worth taking the time to watch it, but with all the hype, it just didn’t live up to it. Perhaps you can oversell something, till it becomes something you just HAVE to see to see what all the hype is about, and then you’re always disappointed when you expect too much. I was feeling bad I missed it in the theater with all the stuff going on around the holidays, but it turns out I was happy I didn’t spend my 13 bucks on this. It just isn’t that great. So there are a lot of cameos in here, and a bunch of comedy stars doing the best they can with this, but it’s somehow too much over the top, kind of like a Three Stooges type comedy that is too much slapstick, too much cheap swear words to try to shock you, and way over the top overacting to try to be too funny. If they’d dialed it back a bit and had a bit of a better story, it would have been a better film. But then, I guess it wouldn’t be a Will Ferrell movie in that respect, and if you know the way he does his stuff, it’s more of the same. A lot more of the same.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

CineSon Entertainment, Look at the Moon Productions, North by Northwest Entertainment,

Andy Garcia, Vera Farmiga, Taissa Farmiga, Spencer Lofranco, Nicholas Braun, Tom Skerritt, Peter Riegert, Mirjana Jokovic, Stephen Borrello IV, Daniella Garcia-Lorido

Edith Martin’s (Vera Farmiga) daughter Audrey (Taissa Farmiga) has her heart set on going to Middleton College despite her Mom’s wishes that she go to a more prestigious college because she’s star stuck with a professor she idolizes. George Hartman’s son is reluctant to go anywhere, but is visiting Middleton on an open house day to tour the campus. Edith soon loses interest and wanders off on her own where she keeps bumping into George. George is the uptight kind of guy while Edith is definitely a wild child, but the spend the day together on their own tour and find themselves really attracted to each other.

This is a rather clever little film. It all takes place as a small college on a single day, but as we get to know the two parents and each of their children, we get to know a lot about them. Character development is key in this movie, and it’s very well done. The two parents are completely believable in their roles, and it’s hysterical how they play off of each other. Both of them did a really good job. Meanwhile, the tour guide is a pleasant diversion, and there are so many really funny lines that it keeps you smiling throughout. I had no expectations for this movie, but decided to watch it because it was just out on DVD and I had a spot in my queue for it. I was really pleased that I chose to watch this, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s not slapstick or low brow humor, really, although some of the stuff Edith pulls off is much, much more childish than her daughter is. It also does not have a great deal of action, but there are several really memorable scenes that show the pain both these characters are hiding. It’s a charming romantic romp with plenty of laugh out loud moments. They really throw themselves into their roles, and it’s a really well done film. I enjoyed it very much, and I would like to recommend it to anyone who likes a good intelligent movie in the wrapper of a nicely done rom-com. This is one of those hidden gems that I really enjoyed, even though I never heard anything about it before watching.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday May 6, 2014

• The Art of the Steal
• Awful Nice
• Call Me Crazy: A Five Film
• Making the Rules
• Mr. Jones
• Still Mine
• Veronica Mars

Paramount Pictures, Red Granite Pictures, Appian Way,

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Rob Reiner, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Cristin Milioti, Christine Ebersole, Shea Whigham, Katarina Cas, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Ethan Suplee

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) was a Wall Street broker, who loved the lavish lifestyle and the living in the fast lane. But the sudden stock market crash put him out of business. Like a fish out of water, he couldn’t find work and was really lost until he ran across a shop that sold penny stocks. When he found they were not regulated, he put to practice his skills as a high pressure Wall Street guy in the penny stock market, and put together a bunch of rag tag wannabe’s led by Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill). Jordan spent 36 months in prison for defrauding his customers after joining with Shoe Designer Steve Madden.

This story is based upon a real story involving real people. This dramatized version of it is a mix of really funny comedy mixed in with the truth. Actually it is a humorous story, and it did garner a lot of praise for the awards season including Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Jonah Hill, and Best Achievement in Directing Martin Scorsese. This is certainly one of the best roles I’ve seen Jonah Hill perform. He was good in Moneyball too last year, but this was a really great role for him. The story is pretty easy to follow and as I said, there is a lot of really funny scenes, especially when Belfort shows the gang of misfits what he can do. Guys who were used to selling $10.00 worth of stock at a time, were suddenly taking 10k or 100k orders. There is a lot of fooling around, a lot of drug use, and basically guys being guys, but the basis of the story is really pretty funny. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and it was worthy of all the awards it won.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog