Ed's Review Dot Com

Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM),

Adam Scott, Gillian Jacobs, Chevy Chase, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Angela Kerecz

The gang is back, but when Lou is shot, the gang decides the they have to go back in time to find out who did this, and stop him. But the tub does not take you where you want to go, it takes you where you NEED to go, so the guys end up 10 years in the future to stop the one who traveled “back” to shoot Lou. Good thing the hot tub still works.

This is the “long awaited” sequel to 2010’s Hot Tub Time Machine. It’s the same old gang, minus John Cusack as Adam, but we get the addition of Adam Scoot to play Adam Jr. in the future. This is a raunchy sequel to the equally raunchy original movie, but it isn’t hitting on all cylinders. First and foremost, the plot is really nutty. They are so confused with going to the future to fix the past which is the present is so confusing that even they lose the way. The concept of time travel in a Hot Tub was very unique and original in the first movie, and the issues problems with the paradox of time travel and the uniqueness of the idea was very fresh in the original. Now it’s not original and they lost sight of the original. The whole plot is really screwed up here. It’s funny in some parts, but not nearly as good as the original. So we’re stuck with some good actors doing the best they can with a weak story. Five years to develop a sequel and it still didn’t measure up. So what do I say about Hot Tub Time Machine 2? Well, it’s funny in places. Adam Scoot and Craig Robinson are especially good, but many of the jokes and gags fall flat, and the nasty stuff is hit or miss sometimes. A few times they seem to go a little too far. So it’s a good film to skip, cause you don’t really need to see this one. But if you really like the first one and you’re interested in a bunch of clowns bouncing through time with basically no purpose, then give it a try. It’s not horrible, it’s just not very good.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

1984 Private Defense Contractors, Mandalay Vision, Studio Babelsberg,

Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick, Jacki Weaver

Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) works in a factory and is supposed to be taking his medicine to keep him under control. But the talking dog and cat in his apartment tell him not to take them. He meets the new girl Fiona (Gemma Arterton) in the office, and he’s madly attracted to her, but when he accidentally kills her, he’s not sure what to do. Luckily the cat and dog can help him plan his next move.

This is a very weird movie. Jerry is clearly unstable, but we’re supposed to recognize that and go through this film anyway. There is no way to know what is real and what is Jerry off his rocker. Personally, I didn’t really care. Since dogs and cats (and deer) don’t really talk, then I assume that is Jerry’s deranged mind, but beyond that, who knows. The script for this very, very dark comedy (that’s not really very funny) is pretty weak. I just didn’t find it humorous, and I just didn’t get it. There are some people who really got a kick out of this movie, but for me, it didn’t work at all. I don’t think this is worth the effort, and I would definitely say skip it. What a waste of time.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Room 101, Foreboding Films,

Brandy Schaefer, Zack Andrews, Bobby Roe, Mikey Roe, Jeff Larson

Five friends hop into their mobile home and head out on the search for one of these crazy “Extreme” haunted houses. Every October thousands of these haunted attractions open up and make a lot of money in a short time. But these folks are getting bored with the amusement park scary houses and are looking for the rumored private Extreme house that is invitation only and moves to a new location every year. Only by following the clues and meeting the requirements imposed upon you can you visit this once in a life time horror house. But will any of them survive the adventure, or is it real? You’ve certainly never seen anything like this before.

This is a rather unique idea. It completely looks like a documentary, and they really give the feel of an unauthorized documentary. Several times they get tossed out for using the camera. The terror, especially the last 20 minutes or so, is pretty intense. But unfortunately it’s lost footage handheld camcorder stuff that is getting so VERY tedious at this point, and there are lots of scenes, and I mean LOTS of scenes of them driving from haunted house to haunted house in the camper. This can get really boring. There are some really creepy characters here, and a good look at these haunted attractions. Some of the stuff is really silly though, and it detracts from the film. I think it was a good idea that was not really fulfilled. It fell pretty short in the end. I can’t highly recommend this film, but it is out there for free streaming, and it is a horror film. If you have a curiosity of how these haunted attractions work, it might be worth watching with a finger on the fast forward button, and be warned that aside from the last 20 minutes, there’s not a lot going on. You could, however, watch the end of this as a short film and it might be pretty decent. That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking by it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

New Regency Pictures, M Prods, Le Grisbi Productions,

Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts

Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) is a pretty much washed up movie star. He was a big hit in the blockbuster film Birdman playing a superhero name, imagine this! Birdman. But without anything much going on anymore, Riggan is slowly losing his mind, it seems. He has written a stage play, and sees it as the way to bring his name back into the limelight, but at the same time is fighting to keep his sanity. Things are not going very good with the show, and once he makes a key theater critic angry, she vows to destroy the show, Riggan may be going all the way towards insanity.

As the previews end and the theater darkens before the opening of “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life” a short feature begins with the title: “The Crimson Permanent Assurance”. This is an inside look at the internal workings of an accounting/insurance firm that embark on an epic battle between offices sailing their skyscraper offices down the streets of the city fighting to the death with each other. What a silly piece of film, and brilliant, mostly because it’s only a few minutes long, and it’s Monty Python absurd. Imagine a full length film about the daily operations of the internal mechanisms of an insurance office. That’s kind of what’s wrong with Birdman. I have always felt that if the Academy pats itself on the back with the honor of a picture of the year, it will naturally be something I’m going to hate. There have been many cases of the pure absurdity of Picture of the Year which I did not like. I didn’t hate this movie. But I was sorely disappointed in it.

First of all, let me say that I do like Michael Keaton. I really like some of his classic films (He will always be the Batman to me), but I also really enjoyed some of his films that everyone hated (Jack Frost anyone?). But he couldn’t save this self absorbed film about the internal workings of show business. This is probably really interesting to the folks in the business as they get what’s going on, but as an outsider, I feel like they just aren’t talking to me, and are not trying to bring me into their private story. This film starts and ends with the shot of a meteor burning across the sky crashing to Earth. Why? Perhaps this is symbolism of Birdman’s (Riggan’s) hopes and dreams and career and life and everything else, but maybe that’s my whole point. If a film is artistic, well shot, the story well told, and you are pulled into the story to where you don’t even remember you’re watching a movie, it’s a rich experience. This film is trying to tell you through every moment of the film that it’s “artful” and you should be proud of yourself for being intelligent enough to recognize that you are seeing a best picture film being crafted. At no time are you not annoyed at Riggan and the clowns he’s working with and the people around him. They have three excellent actresses in this film that are all wasted. They even throw Zach Galifianakis and Edward Norton out the window. Basically this is a long, tedious, extremely boring, pretentious attempt to tell a story to the entertainment business insiders that didn’t include me in the least. I didn’t get the point, and I didn’t even get the story. As to what happens in the end, it’s either a miracle, a segment out of A Beautiful Mind where Riggan is insane, or some kind of artsy symbolic thing that makes sense to Cannes Festival goers. For the everyman out there, I’m disappointed to say, skip this. It is not worth the effort to try to understand it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Brothers K Productions,

Brit Marling, Diane Kruger, Jason Clarke, Wes Bentley

This biopic is the story of the early days of Abraham Lincoln, one of the the greatest and most beloved presidents of the U.S. He was born in a log cabin in Kentucky and later moved to Indiana. During that time, he was touched by two special women who guided his life and made him into the great man he was. Times were very tough, and the young boys had to basically manage the farm. Abe learned to work hard from the time he could walk.

This was a film that I was rather excited to see, and I was pretty severely disappointed. Told by the Abraham’s brother, if you had not read the cover of the DVD you would never expect it had anything at all to do with Abraham Lincoln. This film was shot in black and white, and though that could have been to show the dark difficult times they experienced, I think it was more playing with the art of painting a movie. This film is so subtle that there hardly is a story, and through most of it you don’t really know what’s going on. It is not a very good screenplay, and much more of an art experiment than a story. It is bleak and dark, and there are plenty of hints to the harsh discipline of Lincoln’s father, and the caring of his two mothers which molded him. But the dialog and story features are so sparse that you have to guess what’s going on most of the time. I really thought this would be a fantastic story of the childhood of one of National heroes, but all in all I found it very hard to follow and a bore to watch. This was a missed opportunity for sure, and it’s a shame. This could have been done much, much better.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog