Ed's Review Dot Com

Atlas Entertainment, DC Comics, DC Entertainment,

Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevingne, Viola Davis, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Adam Beach, Jay Hernandez, Karen Fukuhara

Our government is once again petrified that the next Superman that comes along may be a really bad guy who might be ready to wipe out humanity, so they figure they got to do something proactively to prepare in case a bad space alien shows up. So the plan is to put together a team of really bad folks with superpowers and keep them safely locked up and protected, but to hold something over their heads so that in case something bad happens, the will have a desire to do what is asked of them for their own greedy purposes. But when the super villains figure out that maybe they’re being used, many decide to go out on their own wreaking havoc and destruction everywhere as the rest try to contain them. What follows is an epic battle of evil vs more evil.

Each time I watch and review a movie featuring comic book characters, I mention the fact that I have never been a huge comic book/ comic book movie fan. But there have been some that have really impressed me and make me really glad I watched it. This one, however, isn’t one of those. I found this one really tedious, I’m sorry to say. But as I read other users and their comments, I figured out pretty quick that my feelings were felt by many other people as well which sort of validated my indecisiveness about this film. I was afraid it was my fault as a non-comics guy, but it’s more than that. I was bothered by Will Smith as DeadShot. He is a bit too recognizable to take on a role like that, and it bothered me all the way through that it was Will playing the part. There were a LOT of characters that are not really very recognizable, and it took a lot of effort to try to figure out all those characters and what their back story and motivation was so we could know where they were coming from. The battle scenes weren’t bad, but the feeling that I got was that it was all being done just to have something to do to fill up the time. The story did not catch me, and I was very apathetic as to whether they succeeded or not. The whole movie was just a bit chaotic for my taste and I sure got distracted all the way through. When it was over, I said, “That’s it?”, but then realized that I wasn’t playing that much attention to it. Not a great experience for me, so unless you’re a big Comic Book fan, there are many better choices that this one. Guardian of the Galaxy (which this movie obviously tried to cash in on) was a much better movie, for sure.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

This Week on DVD – 1/17/2017
Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday January 17, 2017

• Come and Find Me
• Death Race 2050
• The Free World
• The Girl on the Train [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• The Hollow Point
• Keeping Up with the Joneses
• Long way North
• Ouija:Origin of Evil [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• Surf’s Up 2: Wave Mania
• When Elephants were Young
• The Whole Truth

Cappa Defina Productions, Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films (EFO Films), Fábrica de Cine,

Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Ciarán Hinds

In the 16th Century Japan had over 300,000 Christians. In a move to ban western ideas from Japan, the Emperor banned the religion and began to persecute not only the priests who served their congregation, but the Japanese Christians as well to drive them out of the country. Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) was one of the greatest priests in Japan, but he has disappeared and not heard from in many years. Two young Portuguese Priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver) beg for the opportunity to go to Japan and determine what could have happened to Ferreira. Reluctantly they are allowed to take with them a drunken Japanese guide who promised to lead them to where Ferreira was last seen. But upon arrival, they find it extremely dangerous and filled with hardships for both them and for their tiny flock. They have to endure much torture and see so much suffering before they are able to learn the truth of their former mentor.

This is a very long and very dark tale with lots of extreme cruelty and lots of gory torture and death. These are Catholic priests and so this is definitely a religious film. These facts will make films like this difficult for some people. But this is a Scorsese film, and a labor of love for him since it took nearly 30 years to bring this to life. The novel is from 1966 so it is an old work, and this was made once before in 1971. This one is very authentic looking, although it was filmed in Taiwan, not in Japan, but the look and feel is very well done. The dark rocky shores lead you to believe you are in Japan This is a long movie, but kept me enthralled throughout. The story was told with such stark realism that you could almost feel the suffering. It was hard not to shed a tear or two during some of the endings. This also a morality play with no black and white, but many, many different shades of gray. Each person has a breaking point and how far can they be pushed before they will have to break. It also shows how extremely hard the Japanese people were. All in all, this is a really amazing story, and a new epic tale worthy of the great biblical films of long ago. This film did not get a lot of traction in the box office, and I think that’s really sad because there is an awful lot to love about this adventure, but I think some built in prejudice against Scorsese himself, along with the religious aspect of it affected a lot of the negative about it. I felt it was extremely well done, but people don’t want to see a movie about the Catholic church unless it’s got an exorcism or two in it, and a monster or two. Sad, because this was a very good film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Scott Free Productions,

Kate Mara, Anya Taylor Joy, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Giamatti,

Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a risk management consultant for a large company who is sent out into the sticks to evaluate a project that seems to be running off the rails. There was an unfortunate accident which prompted the company to send her to decide whether or not to terminate the experiment. But she is surprised to learn that they are working with artificial intelligence and have created a humanoid robot that thinks it’s alive. But something may be amiss and all hell breaks loose when the robot played by Kate Mara learns she may be terminated.

This was one of those hidden gem films that sneak up on you. I had no idea this film existed and it was a pleasant surprise. It snuck up on me and caught me when I wasn’t looking. I found myself very interested in this film. The leads in this film nailed it, and it was filled with shocks and surprises. Paul Giamatti has a small role, but is very memorable. This is suspenseful, and kept me on the edge of my seat. The concept was fascinating, and very well pulled off. I was really blown away when this was over. I really did not expect to be so entertained by this movie, and it was really a lot of fun. If you enjoy science fiction, this is a great story about issues with artificial intelligence and self learning computers. Give this one a shot, it’s really a good one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Miramax, Perfect World Pictures, StudioCanal,

Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Celia Imrie, Sally Phillips, James Callis

This third in the Bridget Jones series finds Bridget (Rene Zellweger) pregnant at 43 due to the “age” of the condoms she’s been carrying for years and years, but the problem is that she has two fellows that could be the father, and she’s unable to figure out which of the two might be it. So in a very Bridget like way, she decides to let them both think they’re the father. What could go wrong here? Everything, and it does.

The first Bridget Jones movie was quite interesting and a fresh and unexpected film. The second was a rather big letdown. This film didn’t blow me away either. Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey were good as the eligible baby daddies, but all in all it was pretty much the same thing as before. It isn’t fresh anymore. Bridget is kind of whiney and a bit annoying after all, and the story is rather predictable. So my recommendation here is that if you’re a Zellweger fan, or if you really enjoyed the other movies in the series, you might want to go see this one. But I suspect you have already seen it then. Otherwise, there’s not a lot of reasons to go out and borrow this one. I wasn’t majorly impressed with the story, and found it a bit tedious.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog