Ed's Review Dot Com

Alphaville Films, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Paramount Pictures,

Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow, Jeté Laurence, Hugo Lavoie, Lucas Lavoie, Obssa Ahmed, Alyssa Brooke Levine, Maria Herrera, Frank Schorpion, Linda E. Smith, Sonia Maria Chirila

Dr Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) and his wife, Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and the two children Ellie and Gage, relocate to a secluded house in Maine to get away from the rat race in Boston. Louis is the doctor at the local hospital and their new home is in the woods with a large lot away from everybody except their neighbor Jud (John Lithgow) who lives across the road. There is a plot of ground used as a pet cemetery by the local kids, but beyond is a long abandoned ancient place where rumor is that anything that is buried there could come back to life. As the Creed family tries to adjust to their new life, things get very creepy in a hurry, and they find that living next to the Pet Sematary is not necessarily a good choice. Bad things seem to happen on a regular basis. This remake of the horror novel by Stephen King is a remake of the 1989 version of the same story.

So it’s time to do a remake of Pet Sematary, hunh? Well, I’m not sure if this is one that needed to be remade, but being a lover of horror, I had to go see it. I must admit that this is a really creepy story, and the suspense, even though we know the story, is really intense. There are a couple changes to the story, and one big twist that is a surprise, and at first it ticked me off, but I did look up to see how Stephen King felt about it. Turn out the ran it by him and he totally agreed with their decision and though it was a good change to the story. The original scenes really had a huge impact on me 30 years ago! But I can understand the reasons for the change and I can see that it makes sense. Otherwise, there are emphasis on different parts of the story than from the original, but mostly it’s the same story, so it’s familiar. However, there a lots of folks out there who have never seen the original movie 30 years ago, so as a brand new story for them, I think it would have as strong of an impact as it did on me back then. The new very is very graphic and with much better special effects now than back then, it is powerful, but after all, a strong story is a strong story no matter what the format. I understand there were 3 different endings, and the test audiences picked the darkest one of the three. It was a good choice, as the ending of the original movie is not all that memorable. If you enjoy horror, this is a pretty good film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Walt Disney Pictures, Tim Burton Productions, Infinite Detective

Eva Green, Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Nico Parker, Finley Hobbins, Kamil Lemieszewski, Alan Arkin, Joseph Gatt, Sandy Martin, Sharon Rooney, Deobia Oparei, Roshan Seth, Jo Osmond, Jessie Vinning, Douglas Reith

Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) was once a circus star, but an injury during his service in the war drastically changed him. The owner of the circus, Max Dedici (Danny DeVito) is struggling to survive, but when his new elephant has a baby elephant, he hires Holt to take care of them. But the newborn has enormous ears, and Max is really angry because the oversized ears make the elephant a joke and he is the laughing stock of the circus industry. But there is more to Dumbo than just his giant ears, and with the help of a partner and a high wire artist, Collette (Eva Green) Dumbo may be a star after all and save the circus. This is the Tim Burton live action version of the original Disney 1941 animated film, Dumbo.

Tim Burton really put his touch on this movie, changing, and adding a lot to the original movie. First there are rules. The primary one is that animals do NOT talk in real life, so so talking mice, talking crows, or talking elephants. But there is a lot of tribute and homage to the original film, and though the music is not a primary part of this movie, unlike the animated film, it is used wisely and adds a lot to the movie. I was not completely blown away, as some of it was rather odd (with Tim Burton at the helm, how could that not be true), but I still really enjoyed the experience, and I do like these live action versions of the classic cartoons. Colin Farrel was really good in his role, and this was one of the highlights of the movie. This is a new character, and the emphasis on the cast of sideshow freaks is a also something that was added, but with a full length film, a lot has to be added. The original cartoon was only one hour long which won’t cut it in the theater today. All in all, I really enjoyed the film, and I think it was a relaxing evening watching this film. I recommend this one for the whole family.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog