Archive for October, 2014

Disneynature,

John C. Reilly

This film, narrated by John C Reilly, is the story of a mama bear and her two cubs, one boy and one girl, and their first long year of survival in the Alaskan wilderness. Life is dangerous there, especially for cubs, and Mama has to be on her toes to keep them safe and fed. They have many challenges from other wildlife, to a lack of food, to the harsh elements to keep them in constant danger, but as we see, they have time now and then for fun and learning as well.

Every year on Earth Day, Disneynature gives us a new wildlife film. These have been kind of hit and miss. Some were excellent, others not so amazing. This one is different than most, for the simple reason that it goes back to the age old Disney style of making a story out of the nature footage.

Since the very early days, Walt Disney wanted to educate families and teach them about those animals that share our planet. Disney sent out wildlife photographers all over the world to capture years worth of footage of wild animals at work and play from pole to pole. Often on Sunday Night int he 50’s and 60’s as we sat down at Grandma’s house after dinner (she had the only color tv) to watch The Wonderful World of Color. Sometimes a Disney “Tru Life Adventure” or other animal film would come on and I undoubtedly would feel disappointed. Who wants to see “Charlie the Lonesome Cougar” when it could be an hour with Mickey and Pluto, or Donald, or Goofy. But every time I was pulled in and sucked into the story and I always loved it. I still occasionally get to see one of the old nature films on cable. Disney took some flack for naming the critters and making us believe that they knew what they were thinking. “Leonardo the Lion knew that it was time for something to eat before he became too weak, and he was tired of the same old thing. He was looking for something a little different tonight”. Purists want their nature films to be plain and straight forward like some of the National Geographic specials that have very little narration. In “Bears” John C. Reilly goes all out with the script, giving us all the thoughts, feeling, worries, and problems that the bears face. This is a story worthy of Disney of old, and whether or not the bears are actually thinking all this stuff or not, we get it all. John C Reilly I thought at first was a rather unusual choice for the narrator, but after I while I came to realize that a Morgan Freeman or a James Earl Jones voice wouldn’t have been suitable for this script. John C Reilly’s everyman approach to the story was actually quite perfect. I know this is one nature film that young and old will both enjoy, and I thought it was artfully done. Hooray for the Disneynature folks taking a shot at doing a nature film the old way by giving the animals character and making them seem real. I really enjoyed this year’s film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Studios, Perception,

Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson, Toby Jones

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), having been awoken from a long hibernation of sorts, has a lot of catching up to do on what has happened in the decades he had been in suspended animation. But now he finds himself bored, and not very pleased at the way the world has turned out. In his time there was right and wrong and good and evil, but today’s enemies are much harder to spot and much more difficult to figure out. But when Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) is killed by an old colleague, now an enemy, known as “The Winter Soldier” (Sebastian Stan), and realizing that there’s nobody in s.h.i.e.l.d he can trust, he partners up with The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and sets off to the Kremlin to take care of business.

These Marvel films are really pretty excellent. If you know me, I’m typically not a fan of superhero movies or comic book films. But I really like Captain America. He’s a decent guy with decent morals in a world that is really complex. This is an excellent script, and it seems like the good guys are always just one step behind the baddies as they try to catch up. The action scenes are spectacular, the story in intense enough to keep you on the edge of your seat, and the script is certainly interesting enough to keep you hooked from start to end. This is one of the best Superhero films I’ve seen this year, and I think every bit as good as the original Captain America film in 2011, The First Avenger. I thoroughly enjoyed that one as well, but this was certain a fitting sequel. I wish I had seen this on big screen, but I do have to admit the DVD quality was excellent, and it was thoroughly captivating from end to end. I really highly recommend this film!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Lionsgate,

Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Ed Helms, Cobie Smulders, Max Greenfield, Christopher Meloni

When Joel (Paul Rudd) met Molly (Amy Poehler) sparks flew, but the wrong kind of sparks. They hated each other. Joel owned a huge conglomerate candy company and Molly owns a quirky little neighborhood candy store. This funny little romantic comedy certainly copies “When Harry Met Sally” as well as “You’ve Got Mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle” and a host of other similar type films. But it’s certainly more of a homage to the genre than it is a rip-off. They know they’re copying those films and poking fun at the same time. Joel and Molly are out to dinner with their friends and over the course of the evening tell the whole story of their journey together.

This is not hilarious, but it is very funny. They poke fun at all the classic Rom-Com films that we know and love, and enjoy having laughs at their expense. They’re almost all here, and it’s typical Amy Poehler type humor that we loved in SNL and has a “Parks and Recreation” type of humor throughout. This actually was fun to watch though, especially recognizing and naming all the films represented. They have their own Wayans Brothers style of topping the originals with an extra punch. I found it to be enjoyable, and although I didn’t find it laugh out loud funny, I was entertained. Be aware though, that some people will probably hate this because of the fact that it’s stealing (on purpose) from all the other films. Some people don’t get the joke. So those that hate Naked Gun, the Scary Movie series, and other parody movies probably won’t like this either. But I had fun with it and I think it was a pretty harmless little romp over familiar turf, but with people who appreciate the originals and lovingly skewer them all the way through. I enjoyed it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday November 14, 2014

  • Beneath the Harvest Sky
  • Chinese Puzzle
  • Fort Bliss
  • Mr. Peabody and Sherman
  • Persecuted
  • Venus in Fur
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past
  • Whitey: United States v. James J Bulger

Author: EdG

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Tristar Pictures, Affirm Films, Provident Films,

Sarah Drew, Trace Adkins, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton, Abbie Cobb, Sammi Hanratty, Harry Shum Jr.

Allyson (Sarah Drew) is a stay at home Mom who is losing it. The pressures of being surrounded by little people every day is driving her nuts. So she and her friends decide that they are going to take a Mom’s Night Out, and simply enjoy themselves, and let it all hang out. Of course, it’s hard to leave their children behind with the men that they’re married to, but to make it a real getaway night, they decide to leave the cell phones in the car. But the bumbling husbands aren’t up to the task, even though they get together to help each other babysit, things start going wrong and spin out of control getting worse and worse until disaster after disaster takes them.

This is a very typical movie of this genre, and we’ve seen this many times before. All the way back to Clueless or Daddy Day Care, to dozens of other films (and TV Sitcoms) we’ve seen the hapless Dad’s trying to keep up, and the Mom’s worrying themselves to the point where they cannot enjoy themselves. My wife and I went for a weekend in Vegas once our little girl was big enough to spend two nights at her Aunt’s house, and before we got to the hotel, both my Wife and I missed her so much that we worried the entire weekend away only to find out she hardly missed us. This is what is going on here, but the comedy writers bring in some really crazy characters (see Trace Adkins, his character is hysterical). He had a very small role in the film, but was so good that they kept expanding it until he became one of the major players. Good thinking on your feet guys. I didn’t blast this film, as it is very funny and entertaining, but I have to pull back from an all out recommendation due to the number of times films so similar have already been made. That has to take a little away from the freshness of this movie. However, there is an audience for this kind of laugh fest in young Mom’s who can hardly ever get out for a few minutes themselves, and folks who haven’t heard the same story over and over. The humor is a bit over the top, too, but it does have some really funny situations. I wasn’t overly impressed with this, and felt they could have done a bit better at making it less like a 90 minute sitcom, but on the other hand I found myself laughing out loud a few times, and I was interested enough to make it through the whole film. I just wish it could have been a little bit more fresh.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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