Ed's Review Dot Com

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday May 10, 2016

• The Boy [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• Captive
• Creative Control
• Deadpool
• Regression
• Synchronicity
• War & Peace
• Where to Invade Next

Columbia Pictures, LStar Capital, Material Pictures,

Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Maggie Siff, Alex Roe-Brown, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe, Liev Schreiber

Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) is a typical high school girl who is experiencing the last normal day of her life. An alien ship arrives and parks over Ohio and begins 5 waves of attacks in increasing severity to destroy life on Earth. Not knowing what they’re after, survival becomes extremely hard as the world changes forever. When Cassie’s parents are lost and her little brother missing, Cassie sets out to try to stay alive avoiding the “Others” while trying to rescue her little brother.

I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for good alien movies. I’ve been a fan of them all my life. And this is a pretty good one. Some people are going off about how this is the greatest film of all times. I suspect these are younger folks who haven’t seen a lot of these over the years. The classics going back to the 50’s and even before have already used all the gimmicks in this plot, and it is all too familiar. That’s what’s keeping me from giving this a super high rating. There aren’t any real surprises here for all of us who have been through these films over the years. But what’s different about this is the character that Chloe Grace brings to her portrayal of Cassie. She really nailed it, and this is totally her movie, for sure. Cassie is brave and strong and unafraid, but yet we have lots of emotion from her character from horror to sadness, to loneliness, to desperation. She carries the film with the help of some other strong performances as well. The story is well woven around the different twists that the plot takes, and though they’re easy to see coming, they are still fun to watch develop. The biggest issue I had with the DVD is simply that most of the middle of the movie is so dark, that I really thought I was watching the radio. I suggest if you don’t have a dark room, to watch this dvd after nightfall. It’s scary, and very suspenseful, and well put together. The scenery is really nice (when it’s daylight!). The action is hot and heavy, and as I mentioned before, the suspense is very high. I really wanted to catch this in the theater, but was never able to find the time, but watching the DVD was a good experience, so if you haven’t seen it, and you like a good little sci-fi space creature thriller, give this one a spin in your DVD player. It was well worth it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Broad Green Pictures, Film Science, A24,

Kai Lennox, Patrick Stewart, Mark Webber, Imogen Poots, Macon Blair, Callum Turner, Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, Eric Edelstein, Anton Yelchin

A young punk rock band in the Pacific Northwest is having a rough time making a go of it. When they get an opportunity to play a gig for a remote location owned and run by a gang of skinheads, their plan is to get in and get out in a hurry. But a fluke causes them to see something they shouldn’t and the group is locked in a room with no change of escape until they are put out of the way because of what they have seen. What should have been a simple show turns into a desperate fight for survival.

This is one of the most unusual horror films I’ve seen in quite a while. This is a very graphic and gory film. It’s quite intense. Patrick Stewart plays the owner of this club and it certainly an interesting role for him. This guy is unlike anything you have seen from Patrick Stewart in the past. This movie was in limited release is certain theaters, and we were lucky enough to catch this in L.A. The suspense is crushing. Your heart is in your throat through much of this film. The suspense is extremely intense. It’s a very powerful story. But aside from the tension of the capture and escape, there is still a lot about the lives of the band members and what they are going through. And of course there’s the music which fits the movie very well. The music adds to the suspense as it’s very unsettling. There are a lot of additional characters that are very well developed and quite interesting. There’s a lot going on for this low budget thriller. Due to the extreme intensity of this movie it’s not for everyone, but it was an interesting and a suspenseful experience for sure.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

1821 Pictures, Boies / Schiller Film Group, Handsomecharlie Films,

Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Noah Emmerich, Ewan McGregor, Rodrigo Santoro, Boyd Holbrook

Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman) is a frontier woman trying her best to make a home for her husband, Billy (Noah Emmerich) and child. But Jane has a past. A gang of outlaws is chasing after them, and when her husband returns home badly injured by being shot, he tells her the gang is on the way to get them and to get away. But Jane does not back down, so she heads into town to find a former lover Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton) who is not very happy to see her, and she asks him for help to stand up to the gang.

Westerns are rare these days, and there’s nothing better than a good western. I was delighted to see this one come out. There have been a few lately (I’m thinking of The Hateful 8, for example) and I anxiously dug into this one. It is quite raw. The violence is real, and the story is the king in this film, as Natalie Portman pulls out an awesome performance. I was not expecting her to pull off a role like this that would appear out of her wheelhouse, but she played the wild west housewife who ain’t going to take crap from anybody very, very well. Joel Edgerton as Dan Frost is also a very good performance and brings all the different emotions and feelings out very well to. But this is also a very nice script. Just a simple story of danger and revenge and self defense, but it all comes together very chillingly. The violence is harsh, and we witness the cruelty of this battle, and like the great westerns of old, the suspense and the waiting keeps us on the edge of our seats. An excellent performance by all, and kudos for a tremendous screenplay that the director and the actors pulled off in a good show. If you love Westerns and don’t mind the R rating, this is a shocking thriller of a western that ought to be well worth seeing.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday May 3, 2016

• 400 Days
• The 5th Wave
• The Choice
• Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors
• Joy
• Remember
• A Royal Night Out