Ed's Review Dot Com

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday March 17, 2015

• Annie
• Exodus:Gods and Kings
• Low Down
• Penguins of Madagascar

Brothers K Productions,

Brit Marling, Diane Kruger, Jason Clarke, Wes Bentley

This biopic is the story of the early days of Abraham Lincoln, one of the the greatest and most beloved presidents of the U.S. He was born in a log cabin in Kentucky and later moved to Indiana. During that time, he was touched by two special women who guided his life and made him into the great man he was. Times were very tough, and the young boys had to basically manage the farm. Abe learned to work hard from the time he could walk.

This was a film that I was rather excited to see, and I was pretty severely disappointed. Told by the Abraham’s brother, if you had not read the cover of the DVD you would never expect it had anything at all to do with Abraham Lincoln. This film was shot in black and white, and though that could have been to show the dark difficult times they experienced, I think it was more playing with the art of painting a movie. This film is so subtle that there hardly is a story, and through most of it you don’t really know what’s going on. It is not a very good screenplay, and much more of an art experiment than a story. It is bleak and dark, and there are plenty of hints to the harsh discipline of Lincoln’s father, and the caring of his two mothers which molded him. But the dialog and story features are so sparse that you have to guess what’s going on most of the time. I really thought this would be a fantastic story of the childhood of one of National heroes, but all in all I found it very hard to follow and a bore to watch. This was a missed opportunity for sure, and it’s a shame. This could have been done much, much better.

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Safran Company, The, PalmStar Media, Hours Capital,

Paul Walker, Genesis Rodriguez, Kerry Cahill, Yohance Myles, Christopher Matthew Cook, Nick Gomez, Judd Lormand, Michelle Torres, Tony Bentley, Lena Clark

Nolan Hayes (Paul Walker) is having an awful day. First a storm is coming, and his wife who is not due yet for several months has gone into labor. Rushing to the hospital to get her taken care of Nolan has no idea that he’s going to end the day with a baby girl. As the storm gets closer, it appears a terrible hurricane is about to hit New Orleans, and yes, this was the big one, Katrina. The doctor comes out to let Nolan know that his daughter is alive and doing well, but will need to be in a respirator (incubator) for at least 48 hours, but the terrible news is that his wife has died of complications during the birth. Nolan goes through a wide range of emotions as the injuries and bodies from the storm start to arrive overwhelming the hospital. Then the news that Lake Pontchartrain has pushed through the levee and the city is beginning to flood, and soon it’s clear that the hospital has to be evacuated. But since the incubator is not mobile, the doctor assures Nolan that he will stay throughout and that he must stay too and care for his baby girl. Later he finds that the doctor went out to assist some patient transfers, and the floods make it impossible for him to return and Nolan is all alone in the flooded hospital doing everything he can to keep his daughter alive by himself. The power is out, and the battery backup has failed and will only take a charge for a couple minutes at a time, and the only generator he can find is hand cranked, so for the next 2 days he must stay awake, keep the generator cranked every few minutes, and try to survive the chaos that is unfolding around him in this extreme suspense film of courageous grit and determination to stay awake and keep the baby safe.

This is a film that is really a Hidden Gem. I was enthralled with this story and didn’t want to take my eyes away, and even though it’s based on the lonely survivor trying to beat the odds story that is relatively common, it’s based on real history and real stories of the horrors of hurricane Katrina. So this is historical fiction, much like Titanic, and a similar story in a way, although comparisons to Tom Hanks in Castaway and of course James Franco in 127 Hours. Anyone who has heard of this film probably only is interested because it was of Paul Walker’s last films. This should have gotten a lot more attention, because it is a stunning performance by him in basically a one man show. Through most of the movie Paul is stuck talking to himself all alone in a dark flooded hospital while the world around him is crumbling. But long before the flood and the power outage, Paul takes us through many emotions dealing with a daughter he no longer wants at first due to the crushing loss of his true love. It comes on so unexpectedly, and that’s something I could relate to. I remember more than 30 years ago, taking my wife to the hospital with stomach pains, only to have a tiny little preemie baby that was totally unexpected. Fortunately there were no problems other than three weeks of infant NICU, but it was such an unexpected shock. Paul plays that really well and goes through a whole range of emotions. Then the hard times arrive, and his character sets out to save his daughter at any cost, and with all the crime and lack of help, a story of Katrina couldn’t be told any better in a documentary than it is in this piece of historical fiction. I was really impressed with his performance, and though the script is not top notch, his performance pulled it out perfectly and this is the kind of role we never saw Paul Walker in before with all kinds of drama. He was stuck in those fast car action chase movies for too long, and people hardly got to see his real talent. I highly recommend this film as one of the most suspenseful films I’ve seen in a long time, so well played, and very, very worthwhile. Find this one! It’s available on streaming all over the place and will no doubt find a home on premium TV as well. Catch it.

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Clarius Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, Millennium Films,

Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong,

Christine (Nicole Kidman) wakes up one morning, terrified to be in bed next to a man she does not know. He explains his name is Ben (Colin Firth) and he is her husband. He explains to her that she was in an accident 10 years ago and has short term memory loss, a form of amnesia which makes her forget everything in her life after the accident. She is terrified, but as we learn by watching, this happens every morning, and he is forced to catch her up every day with the same questions and fear every day. She receives a call from a Dr. Nasch (Mark Strong) who tells her that he has been secretly seeing here for some time and is making some progress with her case. In a flashback, we see Dr. Nasch first treating her and giving her a camera to record what happens and what she learns every day, and to hide it in a special place where Ben will not find it. Sure enough, each morning she finds the camera, watches the recording that far, and adds when new things she learns each day. As time passes she begins to find out that Ben often lies to her, and when she confronts him, he explains that it’s just easier to skip some things since he has been doing this every day for 10 years. But as she progresses in keeping her video journal every day, she begins to learn new things and to distrust everyone in her life trying to find out what is really the truth of what happened to her and who among her limited number of friends and family are who they say they are.

This is a very creepy and sinister film with lots of mystery and suspense. Certainly the concept of short term amnesia (50 First Dates) is not unique and has been used a number of times (Memento). But this one is really a lot different and actually I really enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed Firth and Kidman in 2013’s “The Railway Man” [Click here for Ed’s Review] which I really enjoyed. In that film, Colin Firth was the crazy one, but here the roles are somewhat reversed. They worked so well together in that film, and I really enjoyed them here as well. However, the usual caveat, my Daughter is a recent college graduate who read the novel by the same name, and hated this film. Going into the film, she thought out loud, “How are they going to make a movie out of this book?” only to be crushed at all the many, many things that are different. Some not so big a deal, but some things (like the entire ending) are completely different. Note that in the beginning of the film, it says that it was inspired by the novel, and so it is quite a bit different. This offended her to no end, as she really loved the book and was off to reread the novel last I heard. Having NOT read the novel, it was a very refreshing film to me, and a quite unique story that was very well done. I was very impressed with the story and the extreme suspense through the entire film up to the stunning conclusion. Additionally, I found Nicole’s portrayal of the terror of waking up every day with no knowledge that you were 10 years older and had no memory of anything that happened in the last 10 years. Apparently a lot of people loved the book, or the public relations on this film was very poorly done, as this had a very, very short run in theaters and now is available on video. I highly recommend this Hidden Gem of a movie as one I’m sure you missed but will probably really enjoy.

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Reel FX Creative Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Chatrone,

Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Danny Trejo, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, Cheech Marin

Producer Guillermo del Toro and director Jorge Gutierrez come together to bring a very unusual and unique animated film to life. The film is based on Latin American culture and images in a very colorful and fanciful way. Manalo is faced with the choice of what to do with his life. He has dreams, but the family insists that their tradition insists that he become a bullfighter which is the family’s chosen profession. Manalo has two childhood friends who are off on their own adventures. But when two supernatural beings that head the afterlife locations of Land of the Remembered and Land of the Forgotten decide to make a wager on where the trio will end up after death. But they can’t play fair and start the trio on a journey through both lands of the dead and back again to the land of the living in this very interesting and well done animated adventure that is unlike any other.

The animation style of this is very different. The colors are bright and extremely colorful, but the shapes and designs of the world and the people are very out of the ordinary. The story follows traditions common in Latin America but not so well known in other parts of the world, so for many viewers, this will be a new and unexpected experience. Try not to be put off with this as it’s not your typical angels and devils type of afterlife, but it’s very well done. The soundtrack which is done by Argentinian composer Gustavo Santaolalla (who also did classic film scores like Brokeback Mountain) adds a great deal of value to the production, as do the mix of eclectic old and not so old pop tunes mixed in to the fun. All in all this is a very well done little animated film, and something that is unusual, so it’s quite original in the style and storyline. (I am told it is based on characters on the Nickelodeon show that director Jorge Gutierrez also did called “El Tigre:The Adventures of Manny Rivera”. Since I don’t have kids of Nickelodeon age these days I have never seen it, so I can’t comment on similarities or differences, but as a stand alone film, I was really surprised at how interested I was in the outcome. Almost a morality play, it does have a great many good values, but they are shown in such an unoppressive way that it does not preach and is not in your face. I feel like the uniqueness of the characters and all the colors will keep the younger folk entranced (along with the great music) and certainly the older among us who have more life experience will appreciate the culture and superstitions that abound in the Latin American realm. A good movie for everyone, I highly recommend this film as one you ought to see, especially if you love animation as I do. One last comment. The voice actors in this film are a wonderful collection of great actors who do an excellent job of bringing to life the characters. This was one case where I was not put off by famous voices doing the soundtrack as it was just so well done.

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