Ed's Review Dot Com

Amazon Studios, K Period Media, Pearl Street Films,

Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Gretchen Mol, Matthew Broderick, Tate Donovan, Josh Hamilton, Anna Baryshnikov, C.J. Wilson, Heather Burns

Lee Chandler (Casey Afleck) is a lonely guy. He has a long history and has left home in Manchester along the coast to get away to the city where he works as a handyman for a string of apartments. But when he gets a call that his brother has just died from a heart attack, Lee heads home to Manchester to see what must be done. To his shock, his brother has named him as guardian for his teen aged son Patrick (Lucas Hedges) which he is ill equipped to handle. Determined to do the best he can for everyone, Lee is sorely burdened by certain events in his past that have affected his life.

This film is highly honored by the Hollywood Elite, and up for many awards, which is usually a sign of a problem. Then I start seeing FIVE STAR Reviews all over Netflix, and as I read them, they are rather stuffy as well. Then I notice that this is a Sundance film, and that explains why I was so disappointed in this film. There is a class of people who feel they are the true art lovers and who appreciate the nuances and such of a film like this. But I had a really hard time sitting through it. I wanted to be moved, but I couldn’t. Both the young Patrick and the grown version were highly unlikeable. Casey is in one of the worst roles I have seen, and this guy needs some Prozac right away. Flashbacks were all over the place, and very hard to catch on to what was going on. There are several characters in this film, including Michelle William’s character who I have no idea why they are important to the story. Perhaps I am too dumb to get it, but I just felt that this dragged on and on and on, and I was anxiously watching for the final credits when I could finally put this one back in it’s folder and mail it back. I really felt this was not worth the time that I invested in watching it. Watch it if you’re curious about all the awards, but be prepared to be bored to tears.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

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

XYZ Films, Resolute Films and Entertainment, Zapruder Films,

Matt Johnson, Owen Williams, Josh Boles, Ray James, Andy Appelle, Jared Raab, Sharon Belle, Kirsta Madison, Joe J. Thomas, Tom Bolton, Johnny Osmorkrovic, Chris Gonsalves

Matt Johnson and Owen Williams play two NASA operatives who are searching for a mole inside the CIA that might be giving secrets to the Russians. It’s 1967 and in the middle of the cold war, as well as the space race. Russia has launched Sputnik and President Kennedy has decided to do whatever it takes to put a man on the moon. But during the “mole searching” they overhear a conversation that the U.S. is nowhere near ready to land a man on the moon, and this shakes them to the core. But they hatch a plan to fake the moon landing on a Hollywood stage, and use the fact that Stanley Kubrick is actually filming a fictional movie about the Space Race, so they sign on as “NASA advisors” to learn how to make a fake space landing on the sound stage.

This movie was a real blast for the guys who made it. It was not that much fun to sit through though. I don’t have any problem with a fictional film about the fake moon landing, and I do believe the research that they did was sufficient to tell the story. It’ just the way they told it. The who movie was pretty much ad libbed on the set, and I guess that shows. Lots of it was disjointed and hard to follow, and it was just not that well done. It was a great concept, and an interesting idea, but the execution lacked too much to pull it off. I put this movie in my queue because it looked like it would be better than it actually turned out to be. Since there really wasn’t much of a script, the whole thing jumped around and wasn’t very coherent. I think this was a missed opportunity, and hopefully this might get remade with a budget and a script writer and be a much better film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Safady Entertainment, Silver Lining Media Group, The Culling Productions,

Jeremy Sumpter, Elizabeth Di Prinzio, Brett Davern, Chris Coy, Linsey Godfrey, Virginia Williams, Johnathon Schaech, Harley Graham, Jennifer Bowman

Five friends are on a road trip to a music festival, but when they stop for a bite, they find a little girl of about 7 who is all alone in the parking lot. After discussion they decide to give her a ride home safely, but when they stop at the old farmhouse, they soon find themselves battling the forces of evil just to survive in this horror film.

This move is full of problems, from lack of money, to a devoted, but weak cast, to reusing the same plots again and again. But by the same token, it is really creepy. It’s dark and the suspense is really pretty good. I mean, it’s certainly a well used plot for sure, but if you don’t expect too much, it is quite possible to enjoy this film. Remember, there’s not much new that you can dream up that hasn’t been done. So you change around the characters, make this one a little girl, and you have the hook to build a creepy house story. Don’t go into this thinking it’s a great new masterpiece of a story, because it’s not. But if you have some time to kill watching a movie to creep the heck out of you, this is not the worst you can do by any means. When people get together who really want to make a movie, and give it their best, God bless them for keeping new blood (pun intended) to the film business. I didn’t hate it, Didn’t love it either. But it was ok to watch.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

New Line Cinema, Principato-Young Entertainment,

Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Tiffany Haddish, Method Man, Jason Mitchell, Luis Guzmán, Nia Long, Will Forte, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Jamar Malachi Neighbors, Benedict Cumberbatch

Rell Williams (Jordan Peele) is really sad, and his world is crashing down. His friend Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) would like to help out, but when a little kitten arrives at his door, Rell finds new purpose in life and bounces back. But a week later the poor little kitten is stolen, and so Rell and Clarence head out to recover the cat. But it isn’t going to be easy as they have to impersonate gangsters and thugs as they deal with the drug lords and crooks that run the city to try to get their kitten back.

I must admit I was waiting a long time for this to come out on video, and I was rather disappointed when it came time to pop it in the DVD. For some reason I expected more out of this. Now, I remember these guys from the MadTV days when I watched it religiously every week. I used to Tivo SNL and watch MadTV first! (Yeah, there is a new MadTV on this season, and it just isn’t funny). I enjoyed their characters, although this movie kind of felt like a very, very long version of their “Jinx” skits where somebody does or says something bad, and the guys have to go through extreme measures to break the jinx. They were very funny, but always went on WAY too long. This is kind of the same thing. I found myself wishing this would just be over and something else funny would come on. They are finding a new audience on their new TV show, and I must admit I have never seen that one, not even once, so there may be something going on there that I just don’t get. I really think these guys are very talented comedians, but they didn’t put it to good use with these characters. They spend the whole movie switching between making extreme funny faces and faking terror or fear, and talking like tough gang members about to “pop a cap in yo’ ass”. Perhaps there is a taste for this, like what I felt for The Three Stooges back in the day, but I found this extremely silly. I realize that comedy often is made by going to the extreme, but this so far that it’s like Borat without the clever bits. I found it just dragged on and on and did not strike me as very funny at all. I am sure there is a market for these guys, and I wish them well in future endeavors, but I think this one missed by a mile. Sometimes sketch comedy doesn’t stretch out to a full feature without getting too thin.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog