Ed's Review Dot Com

Carpenter B, Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television,

James Franco, Sarah Gadon, George MacKay, Chris Cooper, Cherry Jones, Daniel Webber, Kevin J. O’Connor

Jake Epping (James Franco) is a school teacher in 2016. He finds a way to travel back in time, but it always takes him to October 1960 to the same place and the same time. He can return, and anything that was changed remains changed, but when he goes back through the portal, everything resets the way it was. He is on a mission to stop Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Webber) from killing J.F.K. on 11/22/63 so he has three years to wait to prove that Oswald was the shooter, and to try to stop him before he can do it. But time pushes back when you try to change things, and time is a powerful foe.

This is based on a novel by Stephen King, and was planned for a big budget Hollywood film, but the producers determined that it needed more time than that, so they developed an 8 episode, 8 hour mini-series. Starring and produced by James Franco, this is a really neat little time travel story. Stephen King has his own bizarre way of developing a story, and this is pure King. When people write a time travel story, it’s usually either to kill Hitler or to save Kennedy. But they are all the same. You can’t change history or things fall apart. You can’t count on King to follow the rules though, and this is not really ever predictable. There are some really creepy characters, like an old man who keeps telling him “You shouldn’t be here” that gives you the creeps. Plus there is a romance blooming when Jake bumps into Sadie (Sarah Gadon) in 1960 which causes him a lot of distress. This is not a Twilight Zone episode that wraps up in 30 minutes. This is an 8 hour marathon, so we get many characters that we get to see developed, and many side bars and tangent stories that make it good. When it comes down to the last episode, it’s really quite exciting. How cool it is to have this on 2 DVD’s so that we can binge watch them all in one long day! I really enjoyed this film, but, of course, I am a total sucker for time travel stories. It’s something that has stuck with me since I was a youngster. I had never heard of this TV series, and was really interested when I found it in the new releases this week, and very happy I took up 2 spots in my queue for this story. I recommend it for those of us who love a good science fiction thriller once in a while. Keep in mind though, that even though it’s based on the real images of 1963, this is total fiction, so don’t expect to solve the Kennedy assassination while watching this film.

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NWave Pictures, Serengeti Entertainment, Atlantic Productions,

Tim Allen

Rex (Tim Allen) the penguin has been off at sea for three years learning how to catch fish and avoid predators. Now it’s time for him to return to Penguin City and find a mate and settle down. But according to the laws of nature, when the egg is lain, the male must stand over and keep the egg warm all winter while the female heads out to sea to gorge herself with fish. This is the story of a year in the life of the penguins (particularly Rex) watching his egg and raising his child.

This film has some of the best nature footage I have seen. It’s certainly very high quality and very instructing and very entertaining. Seeing this in IMAX 3-D would have been wonderful. But there is a problem. Well, perhaps it’s a problem, but the narration is by Tim Allen who is a really great guy and a good actor, but it’s a voice over of everything from Rex’s point of view. The problem is that they fall into the trap of making up a story that probably has nothing in the world to do with real king penguins. It is really cutesy, with lots of made up thoughts that is really very childish. On the other hand, this might be really good for young children who could learn a lot about the species while hearing an entertaining story along with it. It’s a bit like on one hand there is DisneyNature Bears, and on the other hand there is “Charlie the Lonesome Cougar”. For those of you who are not familiar, Disney sent out photographers into the wild to capture wildlife footage by the mile. With what they brought back (and truthfully I’m certain a lot of it was staged), they turned it into two types of features. On one hand they had Disney’s True-Life Adventures (the childhood version of the new DisneyNature films) which were very educational and really tried to show nature in natural terms, and Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar on the other hand was a childhood adventure made for the kids, and shown on the Disney Sunday night TV show in 2 parts. Both served a different purpose. This version of the film is the childish one, and it loses a bit, in my opinion, due to the silly dialog made up strictly for entertainment. But there is a lot of information here. Now, one final point. There is a European version of this film narrated by David Attenborough. I have included both previews below. His version “sounds” like the serious version I was looking for, but unfortunately that soundtrack was not available to me. It would be wonderful for them to provide both tracks to allow you to choose both. Perhaps that will happen in a release at some point. All in all, this was a good movie, and really a lot of fun to watch. I recommend it.

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Open Road Films (II), Rice Films, Gulfstream Pictures,

Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Julia Roberts, Jon Lovitz, Kate Hudson, Timothy Olyphant, Britt Robertson, Aasif Mandvi, Sarah Chalke, Grayson Russell, Shay Mitchell, Margo Martindale, Loni Love, Ella Anderson, Cameron Esposito, Jack Whitehall, Lucy Walsh

Mother’s Day is an ensemble film, telling four different stories that all tie together in the end. There are many different kinds of mothers, and many different situations, but we all stop on Mother’s Day to remember and honor those special women in our lives. As this story unfolds, we meet different families and different situations, but all are touched in the end in different ways.

Directed by Garry Marshall, this is the same team that brought us Valentine’s Day and New Years Eve. It is a great cast, and it’s a very touching story. Each situation is unique, yet they manage to tie it all together in the end. It’s got funny moments, and of course, the cheesy romantic ones. It’s a very clever put together tale and was fun to watch. If you have seen these hinds of stories, there have been dozens, where a number of different stories come together in the end. This is a very good one. Julia Roberts does a very great job as a childless, driven TV host, as does Jason Sudekis as a single widower dad trying to raise his two daughters. Jennifer Anderson is really good as a divorced mom of two boys who is trying to deal with her situation. It’s a very well developed story line that comes together beautifully. This is a touching movie, and one I can highly recommend for anyone who is a mother, who has had a mother, or knows a mother. If you don’t fit into any of those categories, you’re out of luck. This film is a tribute to mothers. This is a really good film, and I recommend this, especially now that it’s on DVD.

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Highland Film Group (HFG), Hassell Free Production, Ingenious Media

Nicolas Cage, Elijah Wood, Sky Ferreira, Jerry Lewis

Stone (Nicholas Cage) and Waters (Elijah Wood) are two cops who work in the evidence room of the Las Vegas Police Department. When a huge bail payment comes in, and is locked in the safe, the two hatch a plan to take it. They kidnap a lady who lives next to the safe, and use her apartment to try to break through the safe, in this unusual heist movie.

First of all Nick Cage has his fans, and those who hate his guts. Few sit in between, but I really thought he did a good job in this film. I also would not expect him mesh well with Elijah Wood as his partner, but surprisingly they did work well together. I always think hobbit when I see Elijah Wood, but I was able to put it aside as he did a good job in a totally non-similar role here. The budget was pretty low, but they used it very well. The story is entertaining and somewhat stressful, and the the events twist and turn several times throughout the ending of the movie. I certainly would not have seen that ending coming. I think it was fairly well put together, and is certainly an unusual buddy cop movie. It’s probably unlike any other film of its genre. I enjoyed it, and though it is certainly not a great film, it’s certainly good enough to spend some time with, and I must say, I did enjoy it. I can recommend this film, mostly due to the really good acting from both leads. Plus, Jerry Lewis pops in for a cameo role, and how can you beat that?

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Film4, Irish Film Board, Eurimages,

Colin Farrell, Jessica Barden, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Aggeliki Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw

This allegorical tale tells of a world where marriage is mandatory. Those who are single or who become single are put in a hotel and give 45 days to find a suitable mate. This is not easy because the mate must be suitable meaning you must have the same interests, problems, disabilities, etc. David (Colin Farrell) is a kind and very gentle man whose wife just up and informed him she doesn’t love him anymore, so he arrives at the hotel looking for a mate. If after 45 days you don’t have one, then you must choose which animal you wish to be transformed into for the rest of your days. David chooses a lobster as he loves the sea and figured that’s a good choice.

This is a very, very strange movie. There are actually several different tales, when you come down to it, but none of this makes any sense at all. Yet somehow on a deeply oblique plane, it kind of does. This is not meant to be taken literal in the least. But it’s a really good look into the human condition, and in a hilarious way, points out to us what our weaknesses are. People require some kind of regimen. We need order and a plan or purpose, and need some kind of organization to help us make sense out of the world. After David left the hotel, a new world order enslaves him, and I’m not sure it’s any better than the one he left. I don’t think it’s supposed to be. This film is one of those polarizing movies that is a 5 star masterpiece to some folks who like the crazy storyline that doesn’t make any sense at all, and there are the 0 stars folks who just don’t get it think it’s a total waste of time. I don’t agree with either of these camps, and I hope I’m being fair to the film. It’s a very bizarre concept for a film, but surprisingly I see a lot of Hunger Games and Harry Potter in this film, but in a total unique setting. I did think a lot about it, and I did enjoy it. It was really that funny, nor was it that serious, but right in the middle somewhere. There were funny lines, and some very sad moments. One scene in particular had a lot of people turning it off, or so they claim. I sat through this, and was entertained, and it did make me ponder a lot which I like, but on the other hand, it is very slow and quite absurd, so keep that in mind. I found in in the middle range of the star scale.

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