Archive for January, 2017

Columbia Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, LStar Capital, Mid Atlantic Films

Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Irrfan Khan, Ben Foster, Sidse Babett Knudsen

Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is back for the third installment of the Dan Brown novel in the “Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” series. This time he wakes up in a hospital in Italy with virtually no memory of what happened to him. His nurse, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) tries to help him with his recovery and with his memory, but someone is out to get him, and so the end up chasing all over Europe trying to solve the mystery of a evil plot to release the plague virus on the world. This time it’s based on a picture of the levels of hell in Dante’s “Inferno” and trying to decode the message and save the world is a very challenging task in this high energy spy like thriller.

What is it they call Robert? It’s like symbologist or something like that, if that’s a word. Is there such a thing? Anyway, this film is directed by Ron Howard, so it’s a high tech action thriller and all that. I wasn’t completely sold on the whole thing. There wasn’t anything wrong with Tom Hanks or Felicity Jones’ performance that put me off, and there was lots of explosions, tension, chases, suspense, and all that, but I find these stories a little bit confusing and hard to follow. Yes, eventually they figure it all out and they get it, but the focus on how he decodes these ancient messages from common works of art is sometimes just more than I care to know. Ian Fleming’s 007 has been saving the world from evil madmen for years and years, and it never gets old because the villain always takes to time to tell his plot to take over the world and manages to keep it simple stupid. (KISS). In these series of films the effort is in trying to make me understand how he uses symbols, solves clues, and gets secret decoder ring messages in a way that totally loses my interest and goes over my head. This is a prime reason why I have not really liked any of these three films. It’s just a bit off putting for me, and though Hanks and Jones and their friends and enemies put in a really good effort with wonderful acting and though it is exciting and looks great, one cylinder was missing and I was just bombarded by the hidden meaning of rearranging Dante’s levels of hell that I found, let’s face it, basically tedious and boring. That’s why I think a lot of these types of films are better done than the Da Vinci Code series, and why I’ve never had a desire to read the books, either. I wouldn’t say that it’s not worth it to watch it, especially on DVD or streaming, but just don’t expect to be blown away with the wonderful plot. Goldfinger’s plan to set off a nuclear bomb in Fort Knox to turn all the gold toxic was a lot easier for me to follow. 🙂 Ron Howard did a good job and it looks great, but the novel was a bit hard to turn into a movie that popped.

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Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday January 31, 2017

  • Barbie:Video Game Hero
  • Boo! A Madea Halloween
  • The Hangman:Shepherds and Butchers
  • Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
  • Masterminds
  • Disney’s Pinocchio
  • The Queen of Katawe

Author: EdG

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Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions,

James McAvoy, Anya Taylor Joy, Betty Buckley, Jessica Sula, Haley Lu Richardson, Sterling K. Brown, Kim Director, Lyne Renee, Brad William Henke, Sebastian Arcelus, Neal Huff

Kevin (James McAvoy) is suffering from a Split Identity Disorder. His doctor, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) is treating him with a little success, but is only aware of 23 of different personalities. Unfortunately there is a 24th that she is not aware of. When one of Kevin’s personalities kidnaps three girls, he takes them to a basement that is securely locked, soundproof and not easy to escape from where he holds them and prey’s on their minds until #24 shows up to do horrible things to the girls. This M. Night Shyamalan psychological thriller hit theaters this week and is certainly very suspenseful and quite shocking.

I have had a love/hate relationship with Mr Shyamalan. Some of his work I really liked, and some I just did not get. Surprisingly my list of the ones I didn’t like are on many people’s favorites list, and likewise, those I really liked, many people despised. This one I got a real jolt out of. The best thing about M. Night Shyamalan is that you must know as little as possible about the film going in, and try to see it right away before the ending gets spoiled. A couple times he has truly broken my mind. Sixth Sense is something I NEVER saw coming until the “Oh Crap” moment at the end. The Village was also one of my favorites as well because I never could see what was coming when the poor girl got out of the forest. What a shock that was to me. This one is not quite as shocking, but it was very, very suspenseful and I enjoyed every second of this film. Jame McAvoy had a blast playing all these different characters, and he slipped between them so perfectly that we really got to learn the personality of each of them as if they were separate people. Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) really nailed this movie. I have seen here is several very suspenseful movies, particularly in The Witch and in Morgan which I really thought was a gem. She is a wonderful little actress, and I will do my best to watch out for her in the future. I thought this film was very suspenseful and quite entertaining, and I didn’t see the reason for all the hate. The public seems to like it though, as it has won the first two weeks, although granted there isn’t a lot of stiff competition at this time of year. This is rated PG-13, but it would be pretty darn scary for kids under 13, so I would take that into account. There was a small child in the theater when we watched it, not a toddler, but definitely elementary aged, and it seemed a bit intense for someone that small. It is actually a though provoking suspense film, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It was a pleasant evening.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Hannibal Pictures, USS Indianapolis Production,

Nicolas Cage, Tom Sizemore, Thomas Jane, Cody Walker, Matt Lanter, Weronika Rosati, Brian Presley, Emily Tennant, Callard Harris, Mandela Van Peebles

It was in the midst of WWII in the pacific and Captain McVay (Nicholas Cage) is captain of a Navy ship, and he and his men are given orders to deliver two packages with unknown contents to the Mariana Islands in the Philippine Sea. It is a top secret mission and so their ship must sail across the Pacific alone without other ships accompanying them. This puts them at great risk of Japan submarine attack because the ship is a dead duck if a sub attacks them. The crew has no idea what’s in the boxes, but set out on their way. The custom was for large ships like this to follow a zig-zag path, but Captain McVay decides the best move is to sail as straight and quickly as possible. The Japanese were now using manned torpedo subs, and zig-zagging was of no value if there were attacked by one of these because the suicide pilot would follow and hit you for sure, so the only choice was to get there as soon as possible and keep a low profile and hope. They delivered their packages, but were sunk by a Japanese sub on the return trip. The survivors were thrown into the sea with very basic rafts, hardly any supplies, and in water full of sharks. Because of the secret of their mission, the Navy was not searching for them and they had no contact. The sailors suffered terribly from hunger, thirst, exposure, and shark attacks.

This is based on the true story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, a cruiser that was sunk by a Japanese sub. Historically it may be correct. There is a lot more to the story than what I have given you above, and this story didn’t end when the survivors were recovered. The feel of the torment on the sea was very well done, and I feel Nick Cage did a wonderful job in portraying this character. A lot of people have complained about this film, but I think some people complain about anything Nick does. I felt he was very well suited for this role, and he did a very good job. I like how the movie at the end, in the credits gave us a look at the actors and the real sailors side by side, and there are lots of special features and interviews with some of the survivors on the DVD, even the rental version. I have briefly heard of this story, but did not really know the facts, and I was impressed with the whole story. If you can remember, Quint (Robert Shaw) from the original Jaws movie talks about the USS Indianapolis with Richard Dreyfus while aboard the ship. I was glad to learn much more about these brave men, and the terrible way they were treated by the Navy to provide the coverup of their mission. In my opinion this was a darn good movie based on real WWII history and had some very touching and thought provoking experiences. CGI is good, and I think the acting was good, and the look and feel of the story was really authentic. I recommend this move for mature teens and adults, especially those interested in military history.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Magic Lantern, Revolver Picture Company,

Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, Jennette McCurdy, Nathan Parsons, John Ross Bowie, Da’Vone McDonald, Janet Song

Seth (Dominic Monaghan) spots Holly (Ksenia Solo) on a bus who was a high school crush of his and he is blown away seeing her again. He becomes quickly obsessed with her, and begins tracking her on social media and learning everything about her. Then he starts making random contacts with her and tries to spark conversations with her that are pretty creepy. She rejects him and so he set a plan in place to kidnap her and place her in a cage in the back room in the basement of the animal shelter where he works.

This was a shocking and surprising film. Close to horror, but it’s more of a torture story of someone who is a pure stalker. Holly’s situation is horrible as things escalate and he tries to break her so that she will listen to him and give him the chance he wants so badly. But this story has lots of surprises, and many twists and turns all the way to the very ending which was quite a surprise. The actors in this film were actually really good, and it moved along quickly and was surprisingly entertaining in a train wreck sort of way. The movie is a hard R due to the language and violence, and a very adult situation, but there is essentially no nudity or sexual situations as that’s not what Seth is about at all. It was shocking though, and a very good study of Seth and Holly’s motivations, and several other characters such a Seth’s boss and co-worker who do a really good job as well. This was not a movie that I expected to be nearly as good as it was, and it was a pleasant surprise to find this so enthralling. This is a thriller more than horror, although it is horrific as well. If you can stomach the darkness of this, I recommend this one as one you probably never heard of. It was actually pretty well done.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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