Ed's Review Dot Com

The Film Community, Electric Entertainment,

Josh Charles, Julia Stiles, Avan Jogia, Tracie Thoms, Leo Fitzpatrick, Mike Houston, Jasper Newell

Tom Seymour (Josh Charles) is a psychologist, married to his wife Lauren (Julia Stiles), and the two are down by the sea when they notice a young man jumping off the pier. Despite his wife’s warnings, Tom climbs the fence and jumps in to save this young man from drowning himself. When he meets his new patient, Danny Miller (Avan Jogia) he learns that he is the same man that he saved from drowning, but also the man was the boy of 11 that his testimony sent away to prison decades before. How odd that the two are once again together, but Tom soon finds Danny inserting himself into his life in very strange ways. Was it all a coincidence, or is Danny really dangerous? This is an eerie mystery and a creeping insight into Tom’s secrets.

This seems like a movie based on a book that might be very, very good. But the movie lacks a lot. The characters are relatively well developed which is more than I can say about the story itself. The script never gets off the ground, and is a bit of an abortion. I’m not sure what the makers of this film were aiming for, but I’m disappointed that they seemed to miss the mark entirely. The film is very slow and dragging, and each moment you think that something is going to make sense, it doesn’t. All in all, the air above my head was filled with question marks throughout the whole film, and I never figured out what it could possibly mean. Who is Julia Stiles supposed to be, and what use is she to the film. Sadly, she has a mysterious role that we never get a clue of. I don’t know who this kid/man is/was, and by the end I really didn’t care. Is the doctor an evil bastard, an abused wimp, or a hero of some sort? Hell if I know. It ended, and the big surprise ending didn’t do anything to bring anything to a close either. After it was all over, I’m just completely confused as to what it was all about. This movie really looked like it had a superior idea for a story that just fizzled out after the initial rescue and never recovered. Now I’m left wondering if this actually based on a decent book that could give me some peace at understanding this tale, or if it’s just something I need to forget and move on to the next movie and forget this ever happened.

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K. JAM Media, Persistent Entertainment, Vocal Yokels,

Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, Catherine Keener, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, James Brolin

Alice Eckle (Jessica Biel) is a waitress in a small town. She is dating a policeman Scott (James Marsden) who has decided to propose to her. But a freak accident leaves her with a nail embedded in her skull inbedded into the brain. When she arrives at the hospital for emergency surgery, once the doctor (Bill Hader) learns she has no insurance, he throws her out. Alice sees a commercial for a junior senator, Howard Birdwell (Jake Gyllenhaal), so she heads off to Washington with the idea for a new bill to provide emergency health care for anyone who does not have insurance. But life in the Capitol is not at all what she expected, and she finds some very interesting effects of having a nail in your brain. Things get very complicated right very soon.

This is a movie that has bubbling in my queue for a couple years. I finally got enough “Very Long Wait(s) in front of it that it popped up in my mailbox. This is a light and funny film, with lots of decent characters. WIth the likes of Beverly D’angelo, Kirstie Alley, Tracy Morgan, and more, there’s plenty of funny stuff going on. This is a really weird movie as it’s really a morality play about the government and the dirty tricks, lies, and schemes that go on. There are some problems that held this movie back. A lot of it is a little silly. Well maybe I’d say a lot silly. A bunch of the jokes fall pretty flat, and many of the characters seem to be cardboard cutouts. I was entertaining, but not all that enticing. I wasn’t blown away with it, and I have a really hard time recommending this movie, but if you’re so inclined, it does a few decent moments, as long as you have nothing better to do.

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Michael Mailer Films, AMPM Enterprises, Tremendous Entertainment (II),

Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore, Dylan McDermott, Viva Bianca, James McCaffrey, Eden Epstein, John Buffalo Mailer, Steven Prescod

Mark Dutchman (Dylan McDermott) is a hot shot businessman who is in big trouble for some shady dealings and is facing quite a stint in prison. His wife Suzanne (Demi Moore) had no idea what was going on, but was pulled in and assigned to perform public service or be thrown into jail like her husband. Bill Oakland (Alec Baldwin) is a top bestselling author who was at the top of his game when a terrible auto accident cost him his wife, and his site. Now blind, he relies on volunteers to read to him so that he can keep up with his work. Suzanne is assigned to him, and she simply cannot stand the guy. But if she refuses him, she will have to go to prison, so she decides to make the best of it. During the time they spend with each other, she is able to look closely into her life and see how empty it is. As spoiled, manipulative, and downright disagreeable as Bill is, though, the more time she spends with him, the more she realizes there is a place in her life that he can fill. But when Mark manipulates the system and gets out of jail, a huge confrontation is on the horizon.

This is a fairly interesting concept, and certainly Alex Baldwin, as much as it hurts me to admit it, did a pretty decent job playing Bill. I think Demi’s part could have been better cast, and there certainly are a lot better choices for Mark than Dylan McDermott, but the basic concept wasn’t bad. I think the thing that hurt this movie the most was the slow pacing. It felt like a stage play, as a lot of it simply took place in the reading room and there were long retrospective monologues without a lot of stuff going on. Another missed opportunity with a pretty decent concept that isn’t executed very well. Though it’s not a horrible movie, a few improvements may have made all the difference. This film was more of a disappointment and is probably not worth the time to invest in it unless seeing Demi Moore in her underwear for no reasonable purpose is your thing. I would suggest giving this one a pass.

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Cas-Mor Productions, Gallery Films,

Dustin Leighton, Tom Noga, Clint James, Grady Hill, Candy Stanton, Sanford Gibbons, Peter Sherayko, Isaac Farm, Ashley Gomez, John Durbin, Dustin James

Frank Harden (Dustin Leighton) is a lone gunslinger looking for a Mexican girl who had been kidnapped and sold into prostitution in the town of Redemption. Redemption is still fighting the Civil war as two sides struggle for control of the town. But the Apostle (Tom Noga) is also on the trail of the men who murdered her family and carried the girl off. This is a LOW LOW LOW budget western, and one of the few Westerns still being made these days. A rare film indeed.

Robert Conway wrote and directed this attempt at a Spaghetti style Western of the old Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood days. It’s a complex story that that’s not really thought out that well. Seems like the story is being written on the fly as the movie is being made. Like the Spaghetti Westerns of the 70’s it’s all about being a western, but no so much on acting and story line. To be honest, this is a horrible story, but it’s so rare to have a new Western, I had to give it a shot. To be honest, I really didn’t dislike it, although I can see why people think it’s so horrible. It is quite serious, no tongue in cheek stuff like the “Trinity” films with Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer (also 70’s films) that I loved a lot back in the day. This is murder, treachery, and shots to the head, one after another. There’s no hero here, just different degrees of bad guys. Frank is a guy who is having a bad run of luck as he doesn’t kill for fun or for money, but just for pure revenge against anyone who crosses him. As a result, is him against the whole town in the end, and he’s much worse for wear. So Frank is the main character of the storym he;s certainly not a hero by any means. He is perhaps the hardest sucker to kill that I’ve ever seen. It’s a weird little western, that will leave you wondering what the hell is going on, but at least nearly no one is going to survive anyway, and that’s as it should be. If you like well made movies with good stories, RUN AWAY!

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Fox Searchlight Pictures, HBO Films, Home Box Office (HBO),

Larry David, Bill Hader, Jon Hamm, Kate Hudson, Michael Keaton, Danny McBride, Eva Mendes, Amy Ryan, J.B. Smoove, Philip Baker Hall

Nathan (Larry David) is a successful PR executive who steps quite a bit over the line with his boss, Will Haney (Jon Hamm) who in turn fires him. His life spirals out of control and he become a laughingstock, so he changes his name, and builds himself a new life in hiding. But when his old life slaps him in the face with his success, Rolly (His new name) decides it’s time for some revenge. When he partners up with a couple of clowns (Bill Hader, Danny McBride) who live on the street but know a little about explosives, the put together a plan to cause a loud BOOM, but as things go, it’s a terrible idea. This is an HBO original comedy film from 2013 but it is now available on DVD.

You either have a taste for Larry David, or you don’t. For me, he is not that funny, and terribly grating on my nerves. I respect that he has a lot of fans and a lot of people love his brand of humor. For me, it just seems to get annoying. I really tried to enjoy this film, and I did get through the whole thing, and I never really hated it, and the story is rather clever, but it’s just the voice and mannerisms of David that ruins it for me. He reminds me a lot of Woody Allen, for some reason, and I guess the sarcastic wit is similar, but I guess this just didn’t work for me. This is Larry David’s movie 100%, so if you’re a fan, you’ll probably enjoy it, but I could have done very well without it, myself.

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