Ed's Review Dot Com

Andrea Leone Films, Busted Shark Productions, Fear of God Films,

Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Kylie Rogers, Aaron Paul, Diane Kruger, Quvenzhané Wallis, Bruce Greenwood, Jane Fonda, Octavia Spencer, Janet McTeer

Fathers and Daughters is a very touching heart felt film about a single father Jake Davis (Russell Crowe) who is also a well known author who is struggling with the accidental death of his wife while trying to raise his little girl and the light of his life, Katie (adult played by Amanda Seyfried, Young Katie played by Kylie Rogers). Told in intertwining stories of Young Katie supporting her Father who went through a stay in the mental hospital after the death of his wife, leaving her with an Aunt and Uncle who don’t feel inclined to let her go back to her dad, and the grown up Katie, now working as a child welfare worker, but suffering badly from the effects of everyone she loves leaving her alone. It is a very touching tale and an excellent relationship drama.

The three main characters in this story, Jake, and his daughters, Young Katie, the child, and adult Katie the screwed up woman trying to learn how to live her life with the strong desire to help others, but no idea how to help herself makes a very touching and tragic story. But it’s also very heartwarming. All three of these actors are superb, and all need to be congratulated very much for their wonderful performances. No surprise from Russell Crowe, although he pulls out a stellar performance of a man at his wits end doing everything in his power to keep fighting against all odds. But this is the best I have seen Amanda Seyfried, although she has done some very good performances in the past, she is absolutely excellent in this very troubled and difficult role. Great job! But Kylie was absolutely stunning in her role as Young Katie. This little girl pulled off one of the best child acting performances I have ever seen. The rest of the cast is outstanding as well. Though this is a tragic story, it is crafted extremely well, and kudos to the screenwriters and director as well for a stunning film. This is one movie I was really glad to see, and it touched my heart deeply. This is an adult story, some of the choices Katie makes are very bad, and though shown very tastefully, are not meant for little ones. The R rating is much more about what you feel than what you see. But adults and older teens ought to watch this film. It is like a work of art and a real masterpiece. I highly recommend this movie for mature audiences.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Magnet Releasing, Marvista Entertainment, Circle of Confusion,

Sarah Hyland, Justin Chon, Steven Krueger, Clara Mamet, Anthony Carrigan, Sophie Dalah

Satanic is the story of four friends, Chloe (Sarah Hyland) and Elise (Clara Mamet) who are cousins and their boyfriends who are on their way to Coachella for the music festival, but decide to arrive 2 days early to visit the site of horrific murders and satanic rituals in Los Angeles.But when they meet a lost girl who appears to be all alone, they invite her to stay, which brings doom to the bunch of them.

People sure hated this film. I think that is a bad rap, because I found myself interested in it. I was able to follow what was going on, and if you’re totally lost, just watch the special features and you’ll learn a lot about the intentions. I have a soft spot for folks who love the movie business, and though they have little money and little pull in Hollywood, they set out with vigor to try to do the best they can with what they have. Having read William Shatner’s biography about the beginning of Star Trek and the troubles they had where they had to write changes to the script because there was no money for any special effects. (The transporter itself is an example of that. There was a shuttle craft in the script, but no money for it, so Roddenberry on the fly came up with the transporter where the actors stood on tiny circles and inside the camera they would make them disappear and reappear on the surface of the planet. This film reminds me of that.) This is a very low budget film with a very dedicated director who wanted to make this film very much. Most of the cast and crew only did it for their love of film and not for a big paycheck. Everyone turned in their best. Sarah Hyland is obviously the star of the film and is given the most to do due to her experience and training in TV and other films, but a number of the other characters really stood out and did a good performance. My favorite is a toss up between Steven Krueger and Sophie Dalah. Steven did an excellent job, but Sophie really seemed quite adept at her role as the lost soul who was the keystone of the whole adventure. I was sure I had seen her before, but looking her up in IMDB showed that she’s really new but extremely talented. She definitely reminds me of someone, although I’m not sure who. The movie starts out slowly allowing us to get used to the characters and the dynamics of the group, and sets up a few red herrings for us. As the actors get the situation ALL WRONG, we do as well. The ending is abrupt, and loses a lot of people, but it’s really obvious what it all means. I didn’t find it a bad ending at all, although I was disappointed at how it ended, I think it was very well done. I would have liked a different outcome, but I didn’t want the Titanic to sink either, you know. Also I did not want Davey Crockett to die in the Alamo either. But with very little budget and a great love of cinema, these guys made a decent horror film, and though it’s not mainstream Hollywood, I think they did an pretty good job and deserve praise, not complaints. I liked it, and if you’re a horror fan, as I am, give it a try. It’s not that bad, trust me.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday October 4, 2016

• Complete Unknown
• Into the Forest
• Ithica
• Joshy
• Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
• Laid in America
• The Night Crew
• The Purge: Election Year
• Satanic
• Snow Bride
• Swiss Army Man
• Wild Oats
• X-Men: Apocalypse [Click Here for Ed’s Review]

Summit Entertainment, Participant Media, Di Bonaventura Pictures,

Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O’Brien, Kate Hudson

Deepwater Horizon is a fact based docudrama covering the 2010 explosion and oil spill on the floating rig Deepwater Horizon leased by BP. The crew from Transocean dug the initial well, and stabilize it with cement then cap it off and leave before the drilling crew from BP come aboard and finish the well. As they were over a month late, and over budget, BP was pressuring them to finish up and get on with it. Due to some likely shortcuts and unwise savings, the well suddenly erupted starting a huge fire which killed 11 men, and caused the rig to sink to the bottom of the ocean starting the largest oil spill in US history. This film is the story of the events leading up to and to the evacuation and rescue of the survivors after the fire. Led by Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) and his technical right hand man Mike Williams (Mark Walberg), and their interactions with BP executive Vidrine (John Malkovich) this exciting tale feels like a simple action movie but is based on the real events of 2010.

Produced by Wahlberg and Directed by Peter Berg, this is an excellent film. The excitement and action is first rate, special effects are mind boggling, and the movie still develops the characters and their motivations, and the human interest side of the story is developed very well too. Kurt Russell is amazing, as always, and Mark Wahlberg did a fantastic job as well. It is nice to Kurt and his daughter Kate Hudson who played Mark Wahlberg’s wife together as well. The beginning of the story was a bit slow, as it takes a great deal of time to give us all the background information of who the characters are, and why they are doing what they are doing. If this were fiction, that could have been shortened a little bit, but because to the need to be truthful to the facts, it is important to give us all this information about how it could happen. As soon as I got out of the theater, I looked it up in Wikipedia to see how accurate it was, and after having seen the film, I was surprised to learn how much I knew about the facts of what happened just based on those first 40 minutes or so while the story was introduced. But one trouble starts, thing get really moving real fast. It was an awful disaster, and I feel like I was there. One point though, although 11 men died in the explosion and fire, a great deal of damage happened long after the event (and is still happening). Though the film gives us the welcome pictures of the real people portrayed, and the words on screen telling us who quit the oil business after, and what essentially happened to the people, it does not spend any time talking about the consequences of the aftermath. For that reason, I would highly recommend that after you see this exciting film, that you do a tiny bit of research on your own to try to get the full picture of the whole story. This is a very good movie, and I highly recommend it for you.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog