Ed's Review Dot Com

Columbia Pictures, Media Rights Capital, LStar Capital,

Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Miranda Frigon

Engineer Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) is working for an outfit that makes and sells police and military robots. They’re looking for the next big thing, but Deon is working on making the robots more like humans, with feelings and emotions and the ability to learn. Unfortunately the company isn’t interested in that, and are looking for the next big killer robot. Deon trashes the robot, but decides to keep it himself and take it home to work on it in his spare time. Meanwhile, Chappie (Sharlto Copley) becomes aware, and runs across some two bit drug dealers who are in big trouble for owing a lot of money and see Chappie as a way to pull the big heist they’ve been planning. Chappie is caught in the middle between his maker and these thugs and then the action starts.

I was very anxious to see Chappie. I kind of wanted to see it in the theater, but didn’t make it, but I was delighted when I saw it coming out on DVD. In fact, my wife and I recently spent a week on Catalina Island and took the freshly arrived Chappie DVD with us to watch in the hotel. We got our snacks, turned up the air conditioner and sat down to watch this movie finally. Boy was I disappointed. Now, I certainly expected it to be a rip-off of the “Short Circuit” series. “Number Five is alive.” But I really enjoyed those movies despite Steve Guttenberg. And I was frequently reminded of that throughout, but that didn’t bother me. This was also a blatant rip off of all the “Robocop” films too, which didn’t bother me. But still I was deeply disappointed while watching it. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was very low budget looking. The acting was pretty bad, perhaps Dev Patel excepted and Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver were only here for window dressing. Their parts added nothing of value to the film. Furthermore, the storyline wasn’t very good. If anything it was childish and mostly silly. This concept had so much potential. So what was wrong with it. Well, after coming back from the island and doing some research about the movie, I found it was from the same guys who made “District 9”. Now “District 9” was a sci-fi adventure and loved by a lot of people, but I wasn’t impressed with it for the same reasons. It felt like it wasn’t Hollywood material. In fact, Chappie gave me the same feeling “District 9” did. Chappie was filmed in South Africa. I got the feeling I was watching a student film for a college assignment. It was very JV and not very well done. The cinematography was pretty good and the sets and locations were alright, but the script and the performances were juvenile. But the worst part of all was the patched together ending. It was simply awful. This ending turned the whole scientific feel of the film, which wasn’t that bad, and turned it into an extremely childish fairytale ending. I felt really cheated by the ending. It was simply horrible. All in all, I expected a great experience and for me it was a dud. I wish I had left this one alone. I tend to do my research on a film after I’ve seen it, so as not to go in with a lot of preconceived ideas, but in this case, if I had known how disappointing it was, I would probably have skipped it. Well, maybe not, but I would suggest a Short Circuit/Robocop double feature and leave this one alone!

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Focus Features, Michael De Luca Productions, Trigger Street Productions,

Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson, Luke Grimes, Victor Rasuk, Jennifer Ehle, Marcia Gay Harden, Eloise Mumford, Rita Ora

Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) is about to graduate from college. Her roommate, a reporter, makes a big score by getting an interview with Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), an ultra rich telecommunications magnate who is a young and handsome and filthy rich businessman. But she is feeling under the world, and so she sends Anastasia in her place. Mr. Grey totally overwhelms her in the interview and leaves her feeling pretty helpless, but he is smitten by her and so is she. Christian Grey, though, has had a very difficult life and is certainly not able to maintain a normal relationship. Everything has be under his control and under his terms. Anastasia is really a simple girl looking for a regular guy, but this guy is too amazing to let go, so she debates risking everything to agree with whatever he wants.

I had to catch this film when it came out on DVD. Why? I’m not sure, but I suspect it was simply to see what all the hype was about. It wasn’t a very good film. This guy needs to be euthanized. He has no morals of any kind and is one very selfish bastard. Ana, on the other hand, is such a weak and wimpy woman, that she kind of deserves some of the crap she gets. But really no person could tolerate this kind of relationship. Ok, I know there are people who are into this kind of thing, but the way Ana thinks and feels, there is no way she would even consider putting up with this bastard. The story is really weak, jumping from place to place at breakneck speed, but nothing is really ever resolved. There are scenes with his family, and with her family, but neither have much to do with the story in the least. I really thought this was a waste of time, and truthfully, it took me 3 days to get through this one, as I would get bored and turn it off. I really can’t comment on the books. Perhaps they are stunning literature, but the film was a waste of time. Perhaps that’s why critics tore it up and audiences stayed away. Personally I say, don’t bother with it. If you’re one of the naughty ladies who secretly read this, you’ll be very disappointed in the movie, and if you’re not familiar with the story, it’s not worth it, trust me. Stay away from this one.

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Paramount Pictures, Winkler Films,

Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Lange, John Goodman, Brie Larson

This remake of the 1974 James Caan film stars Mark Walhberg as Jim Bennett, the man with two lives. As a College English Literature professor during the day, and an avid gambler who always seems to go too far and lose it all, he has a hard time keeping the two lives from crashing together. Son of a very wealthy mother (Jessica Lange) Jim borrows the money from her finally as the bad guys are about to come after him very hard since he is in to them for a great deal of money. But Jim starts a friendship with one of his students, Amy (Brie Larson) and together they make some really bad choices and find themselves back in the soup all over again.

Mark Wahlberg worked very, very hard for this film. He lost a TON of weight to play the skinny, down on his luck professor/gambler, and the action sequences, he said, took a lot out of him after losing all that weight. He promises himself he’ll never do that again. But furthermore, he sat through actual English Lit classes so that he would look the part of a professor. But with all that hard work and effort, the movie just doesn’t come together. I’m not sure Mark is the best choice for the role anyway, but it probably isn’t his fault. Actually there’s no real drama, as you don’t get invested in the characters and really don’t care whether he gets beat up or not. Jessica Lange’s role is small, and she’s pretty good at it, but it’s not enough to save the tedious parts of the movie. I guess I would have to blame it on the script. I haven’t seen the original, so I can’t really compare it in any way, but this one never really got going for me. I watched the whole film, but never really got into the story,and at the end, I was glad it was over. No matter whose fault it is, I can’t really recommend this one as I don’t think it’s interesting or captivating enough to recommend.

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Red 56, Deep Blue Pictures,

Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Aimee Teegarden, Chris Lowell, Max Adler, Austin Stowell

Mickey Wright (Liam Hemsworth) is a soldier in Viet Nam on an extremely nasty tour of duty. When they return from the field and collect the mail from home, he looks for a letter from Jane (Aimee Teegarden) his sweetheart. He finds the letter, but is shocked to learn that she is breaking up with him. Yes, it’s a Dear John letter. He is granted a two week R&R in Hong Kong with the rest of his men, but he makes up his mind to go AWOL (technically) and go back to the states to get his girl back. One of his closest buddies, Dalton (Austin Stowell) decides to risk everything to go back with him on this adventure to recover Jane.

This movie starts out with some fresh battle scenes in the fields of Viet Nam with some heavy duty scenes. Then we head back to the states and get a good look at the other side of the Vietnam situation. They are surrounded by people who spit on them or throw rocks, who despise the war and the army and who are convinced that the pair should head to Canada and renounce the army and the war. They guys need to take a good look at that. The performance by Liam Hemsworth is not bad, but it’s not really something in his wheel house. I thought Jane (Aimee) was really pretty awful. I understand that she has to play a crazy mixed up young adult, but she wasn’t very likeable. Most of what she did made no sense at all. The movie starts out with a great battle sure to create some action scenes for the trailers, but after a few minutes, it turns into a romance that isn’t really that dramatic nor is it comedic. In the end, they tried to throw in an action sequence of car chases and escape, but it doesn’t really add anything to the mix. My feeling is that this is a film that couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be. The blood and violence will turn off the girls and the long romantic chased and banter between the boys and girls will send the guys out for pizza. Nobody gets what they want out of it, and it sort of fizzles out. It seems to be schizophrenic and and bi-polar at the same time. I lived through the Vietnam era so I have a lot of familiarity with the times, but that still didn’t help me appreciate this film any more. I found that it was a fair try, but missed the mark in many ways, so I don’t highly recommend this one.

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Cloud Ten Pictures, Namesake Entertainment,

Brad Johnson, Chelsea Noble, Kirk Cameron, Clarence Gilyard Jr, Gordon Currie, Daniel Pilon, Neil Crone, Colin Fox, Christie MacFadyen, Jay Manchester, Janaya Stephens

The story of a day when millions of people disappear from the Biblical prophecy of “The Rapture” when all the faithful rise to meet Christ leaving the unbelievers behind. Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron) is a field reporter and is investigating the “Eden Project” which is finding a way to grow wheat in the desert to provide food for Israel and to potentially end hunger in the world. But when all the righteous are taken, the soon to be Anti-Christ arrives and is seeking to take control of the governments of the world.

This is the original film, based on the Left Behind series of 16 best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. There were a number of sequels made to this film (at least two of them are carried by Netflix) and the remake in 2014 starring Nicholas Cage. I understand that the books are pretty good, although I have never had the urge to read them. This movie does not have a big studio behind it and therefore doesn’t have much of a budget. So there are many holes in the movie despite the somewhat far out premise of the film. This one differs greatly from the Cage remake that was done as a pretty much religion free action adventure based on one of the characters from this book, Rayford Wright (Brad Johnson) and his daughter Chloe (Janaya Stephens), whereas they have a much smaller part in this film. The acting is not stellar and the cliche’s are all throughout. The abrupt ending also leaves off where the next story will begin. There is obviously no resolution as the author has 15 more books to write on the subject. The religious elements are pretty much in your face throughout, although the concept of The Rapture is an interesting idea for a movie. But there are a lot of things wrong here that make it less enjoyable. My feeling is that if you have a strong religious bent and are interested in the interpretation of scripture of the last days of the world, then it’s probably best to pick up the books and start reading, and if you’re not interested in the religious element and are looking for action and adventure and an interesting take on an extreme situation, then catch the 2014 Nicholas Cage version as it’s much less preachy and covers the exciting part of the airliner trying to get back home part which is nowhere to be found in this film at all. The characters are here, but the daring adventure is not a part of the real story.

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