Ed's Review Dot Com

Maybach Film Productions, RT Features, Film Science,

Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard, Alia Shawkat, Logan Miller, Kai Lennox, Katherine Waterston, James Le Gros

John (Jesse Eisenberg) and Dena (Dakota Fanning) are young environmental activists. They want to make a huge statement and pull off a master protest, blowing up a dam. They enlist an ex-military explosives expert, Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard) to show them how, and to assist in making the explosives.

I thought maybe this would be an entertaining film, but I was somewhat disappointed. With really strong actors, the story itself just seems to go nowhere. There are some twists and turns, and some regrets and misgivings, but this movie just plodded along at such a slow pace, that it seemed to drag and drag and drag. The good part of the movie is the unexpected consequences of the choices they make. Things are not as they expected they would be and the results were not what they wanted. That part of the story is halfway decent. But the flaws in the story make it difficult for me to recommend, as Jesse spends half the movie just staring moodily out into space. No emotions, no dialog, just staring. The pace is so slow, that I wanted to scream. I just didn’t get the point, although I could follow the story, this could have been done so much better. I am sorry but I just don’t recommend that you subject yourself to this. It’s very depressing.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

20th Century Fox,

Sadie Katz, Anthony Ilott, Aqueela Zoll, Rollo Skinner, Billy Ashworth

Danny (Anthony Iilot) suddenly inherits a run down resort in Hobb Springs, so he and his friends head out to investigate his good fortune. But while there they run into a bunch of inbred locals who hang around the place. Turns out they are long lost relatives and they try to turn Danny against his friends and to join their family, and they help by killing and eating his friends one at a time.

This is the 6th film in the Wrong Turn series, and by far the weakest. The story is lame, and the concept has been rather stretched. After all, the original idea what someone who accidentally ended up taking the wrong road and ending up where they definitely shouldn’t be, but in this one, they know where they are going. Perhaps you could say it was a wrong choice, but they chose to go there. The kills are very graphic and the unrated version is rather nasty, but the story is just kind of lame. I was bored though this, and it took about 3 tries before I could make it through the whole film without falling asleep. I am a fan of horror, and usually not too hard to please, but this one is pretty bad. You might find this on late night cable, and if you’re a fan of the franchise, feel free, but I don’t recommend wasting the time on this one. Just sex and gore, blood and guts and disgusting people. Not worth it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Film4, Irish Film Board, Eurimages,

Colin Farrell, Jessica Barden, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Aggeliki Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw

This allegorical tale tells of a world where marriage is mandatory. Those who are single or who become single are put in a hotel and give 45 days to find a suitable mate. This is not easy because the mate must be suitable meaning you must have the same interests, problems, disabilities, etc. David (Colin Farrell) is a kind and very gentle man whose wife just up and informed him she doesn’t love him anymore, so he arrives at the hotel looking for a mate. If after 45 days you don’t have one, then you must choose which animal you wish to be transformed into for the rest of your days. David chooses a lobster as he loves the sea and figured that’s a good choice.

This is a very, very strange movie. There are actually several different tales, when you come down to it, but none of this makes any sense at all. Yet somehow on a deeply oblique plane, it kind of does. This is not meant to be taken literal in the least. But it’s a really good look into the human condition, and in a hilarious way, points out to us what our weaknesses are. People require some kind of regimen. We need order and a plan or purpose, and need some kind of organization to help us make sense out of the world. After David left the hotel, a new world order enslaves him, and I’m not sure it’s any better than the one he left. I don’t think it’s supposed to be. This film is one of those polarizing movies that is a 5 star masterpiece to some folks who like the crazy storyline that doesn’t make any sense at all, and there are the 0 stars folks who just don’t get it think it’s a total waste of time. I don’t agree with either of these camps, and I hope I’m being fair to the film. It’s a very bizarre concept for a film, but surprisingly I see a lot of Hunger Games and Harry Potter in this film, but in a total unique setting. I did think a lot about it, and I did enjoy it. It was really that funny, nor was it that serious, but right in the middle somewhere. There were funny lines, and some very sad moments. One scene in particular had a lot of people turning it off, or so they claim. I sat through this, and was entertained, and it did make me ponder a lot which I like, but on the other hand, it is very slow and quite absurd, so keep that in mind. I found in in the middle range of the star scale.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Warner Bros. Animation,

Frank Welker, Mindy Cohn, Grey Griffin, Matthew Lillard, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer, Tommy Thayer, Jennifer Carpenter, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall

A horrible ghost starts haunting KISS World amusement park where the rock band KISS is set to play and have chased all the kids away . It looks like the park is going to close until the Mystery INC. gang show up to help, only to find that they’ll have to work with KISS themselves to find the cause of the haunting. That’s not a problem as the gang are major KISS fans anyway as they search to expose the cause of the haunting.

I was definitely not impressed a lot with this movie, although I have to admit I have never been a major fan of Scooby-Doo! in the first place. When my kids were small I used to watch a good many of them, but quickly found them to be all the same. Well this hour and a quarter Saturday Morning cartoon is a little longer, but follows the exact formula of everything else they have done. It’s a TV Animation direct to DVD film that was made, obviously, to make a buck or two from the Scooby and Shaggy fans out there, and it’s good for that. Also, bringing KISS into the mix means that they are able to take the same material that could be a 30 minute cartoon TV show and blow it up to 78 minutes by including many of the classic KISS songs. That is actually one of the highlights of the show as KISS still kicks butt after all these years. So fans are going to like it, but I’m not sure (unless you want to hear the KISS tunes) that the average joe like me is going to care for this very much. Just be aware when you go in that it’s not a feature film. It’s a TV Cartoon with long music breaks. If you don’t expect a lot, you won’t be disappointed.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Dark Horse Entertainment, Jerry Weintraub Productions, Riche Productions,

Alexander Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie, Djimon Hounsou, Christoph Waltz, John Hurt

As we all remember, John Clayton (Alexander Skarsgard) was lost in Africa as a baby and grew up raised by the apes as Tarzan, King of the Jungle. Later he was rescued (?) and brought to England and reclaimed his rightful right as British nobility. This story picks up when he is requested to return to Africa to investigate potential slave trade and the rape and pillage of the Congo.

I must admit up front that I have never been enthralled with the Tarzan stories ever. Even as a kid, my friends loved to spend Saturdays watching Johnny Weismuller wrestle crocodiles and snakes and rescue the poor natives from the evil white hunters. None of the dozens and dozens of attempts to tell this story every impressed me greatly, including Disney’s cartoon version which was destroyed by Rosie O’Donnell. This one I have to admit is done very, very well. This is the best “looking” version of Tarzan I’ve ever seen. It helps that I saw it in Imax I suppose. But the story was really confusing. We kept jumping though time to see Greystoke in Parliament, then a baby in the jungle, then on the trip down to Africa to fight the slavers, then as Tarzan the ape man, then as an Englishman again. Now he’s traveling with Jane, now he hasn’t met her yet, now she needs rescued, but then she’s with him again, then finally he goes back to rescue her from somebody back in time somewhere. It was all very confusing. Furthermore, you don’t really care about the outcome of anything. Cristoph Waltz once again plays a really, really nasty villain, which is he is really good at, and Samuel L Jackson is around for comedic distraction now and again, but the whole thing was so disjointed I gave up. I am really not sure where to recommend you toss your dollars to the theater owners this weekend, but surely there must be something decent out of the mess of films that seem to be foundering. If you’ve got small kids who have not seen Tarzan and they will be impressed with the vicious apes and crocodiles shown in terror-vision, they are really good CGI moments, and the kids my enjoy this. But if you grew up on Tarzan, this is not going to be an impressive trip down memory lane. My best recommendation is to skip this one, or at least wait till the DVD comes out.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog