Ed's Review Dot Com

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday May 23, 2017

• Get Out! [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• The Great Wall
• Logan
• My Life as a Zucchini
• Rock Dog
• XX

Cinelou Films, Linson Entertainment, Anvil Films,

Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Danny DeVito, Edie Falco, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Patti LuPone, Harvey Keitel, Veronica Ferres, Lois Smith

Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) is a well known comedian. Unfortunately he’s only known for a silly sitcom he did decades ago. But everywhere he goes, all he runs into is people asking for catchphrases from his long cancelled show. Jackie wants to get his act back on track, but mostly he’s just angry. When a heckler makes him snap, he goes after him and ends up in court where he’s thrown in jail and has to do community service.

This movie is a bit schizophrenic. On one hand, there are some really funny situations, and some pretty good jokes. De Niro plays the insult comic pretty good. But at the same time, it’s a really good little drama as well. De Niro does a fine job of making Jackie (who most actors would probably treat as a cartoon character) a real person. The more we get to know him, the more we get to like him a little, but understand him even more. Perhaps the credit should go to the writers, but De Niro does a good job with it. Some folks found this film to be a little too slow, and some people were looking for a lot more comedy. But truthfully, this was a well done little film with an interesting story. There are many cameos from other actors that bring a bit of comedy to the movie. I enjoyed this movie, and I do recommend it.

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday May 16, 2017

• Extortion
• Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
• The Space Between Us
• xXxL Return of Xander Cage

Chernin Entertainment, Feigco Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation,

Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Joan Cusack, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, Christopher Meloni, Tom Bateman, Randall Park, Óscar Jaenada

Emily Middleton (Amy Schumer) is a rather spoiled young lady with an upcoming rock star boy friend, who is set to take a vacation to Ecuador, when she is blind sided by a nasty breakup leaving her with two tickets and no one to go with. All her friends have turned her down. She decides to go home to her Mother Linda (Goldie Hawn) to ease her broken heart and to coerce her Mom to go with her on the trip for some bonding time. But no sooner than they arrive do the pair get kidnapped by some bad cartel guys and have to fight for their lives as things go horribly wrong all around them in this raucous comedy from 20th Century Fox.

Amy Schumer has pissed off a lot of people who are extremely unhappy with her uncalled for political rants. Like every other person on the planet, she is entitled to her opinion but some of her choices of late have hurt her credibility a LOT. I try to keep the work apart from the worker as much as I can, unless they try to infuse the political stance. If you choose to hate her (look at the ratings on Netfix if you want to see what I mean) and demean the film simply because you don’t like Amy, I can accept that. You might as well stop reading as I’m going to try to review the movie and not the person. So here goes. This movie is pretty funny. If you saw Trainwreck, Amy’s first movie, then there are reasons why people are calling this a sequel to that one, although it’s not. But it’s the same character, the deranged dysfunctional child/adult who seems to have no moral compass at all. Life keeps getting harder and harder as bad choices are made. It’s in the same vein as Superbad and the Hangover pictures that are raunchy and truly R rated which is well deserved. Be sure you’re ready for that before watching this. But Emily does have some real values underneath, and just doesn’t know how to present them. Like the Alice in Wonderland song from the Disney film, “I give myself good advice, but I seldom ever follow it.” This should be Emily’s theme. However, this movie is far better than Trainwreck because of the outstanding cast that is backing Amy up. Goldie Hawn (Poor Goldie, I still remember the bubbly little girl from Laugh-In and she’s not that anymore) is absolutely charming in this film. She’s been honing her comedic skills her whole life, but she got this Mom down perfectly. She’s naturally very much like her daughter, trying to do the sensible thing, but getting into trouble, although a lot more cautious than Emily, she still makes some strange choices which depicts the difficult life she lived (in the film) as well. Also there are some excellent additional characters that bring tons of color to the film in somewhat smaller roles. Ike Barinholtz from Mad TV plays Emily’s brother, an adult agoraphobic man who never leaves the house who is there mostly to drive Emily nuts. There is another lesbian pair who are staying at the resort and make friends with Linda played by Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack that are very, very funny. Joan, playing a mute person, is exceptionally funny and provided many of the belly laughs. The captain of the “slow boat” Roger Simmons played by Christopher Simmons is also very funny, although he doesn’t last too long. Basically this is low brow humor that actually works, but makes you feel a little dirty afterward. All in all, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected, and if you can take the R rating without getting offended, then it’s a dang funny little movie.

Regular Trailer:

RED BAND (R Rated) TRAILER

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday May 9, 2017

• A Fantastic Fear of Everything
• Fifty Shades Darker