Ed's Review Dot Com

Screen Gems, Hidden Empire Film Group, Primary Wave Entertainment,

Joseph Sikora, Dennis Quaid, Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, Lili Sepe, Debs Howard, Alvina August, Lee Shorten, Carolyn Anderson, Caroline Muthoni Muita

The Russells (Meagan Good, Michael Ealy) are a prosperous young couple looking to buy a nice home up in Napa Valley to get out of the rat race of the city and they run across a beautiful house on a large piece of land, and instantly fall in love with the house. The buy it from Charlie Peck (Dennis Quaid), who is being forced to sell after some serious hard times, but feels like the house has been in his family for generations, and he’s not quite ready to give it up that easily.

This is a very intense movie, and Dennis Quaid is really equipped to play this Norman Bates like psycho very, very convincingly. This was creepy as can be, and had some very suspenseful parts to it. The only problem with the movie is that it has been done over and over and over again. This movie is so very predictable and exactly like so many other films with the same exact story, that it really made it almost laughable. I don’t know why they decided to make another film exactly like all the rest of “the guy is still stalking the house after you bought it” movies, but there really isn’t much exciting here except for Dennis Quaid’s incredible acting skills. It was fun to watch him practice his craft, but it was really hard to enjoy this movie considering it was so much like all the other films, it really seemed like a remake with not a single surprise. I have to say to skip this unless you find it on TV one of these days (probably not too long from now). It is a shame to spend your hard earned cash on this film because it’s simply a direct copy of so many other good films. The scenery is beautiful, the acting is very good, and it is suspenseful, so if you don’t see a LOT of movies, then you may really enjoy this one, but if you’ve seen the story before, it will likely disappoint.

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AG Studios, Denver and Delilah Productions, Good Universe,

Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen, June Diane Raphael, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ravi Patel, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Serkis, Randall Park

Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) is a journalist with strong moral values. He believes in the causes he writes about and refuses to compromise his principles and as a result is kind of on the sidelines. When he attends an event with a friend, he spots Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) an old classmate and crush, his former babysitter, who is now one of the most powerful women in the United States. She is planning a run for the Presidency, and hires Fred to write speeches for her, and they are really attracted to each other, but her quest for power means putting aside some of the values, and Fred’s desire to be true to his principles soon cause trouble, not to mention that her political rivals would love to expose this unequal paring with a commoner to bring shame and to cause her to lose he chance in the election. What follows is a raucous romp through this very funny film.

This is a good pairing. Each of them are well suited to the role, and it is a really funny film at times. I enjoyed Seth Rogen’s attempts to fit in to the political drama without giving up his principles. Charlize is also very good in her role as the wannabe politician who at heart is still the small town girl who wants to do the right thing. She is very well suited for the role as well. The two of them do have some really funny moments and some of the gags are really good. This wasn’t an outstanding film, just a quiet little one that was enjoyable to relax and watch just for the fun of it. With all the big blockbuster films coming out, superhero after superhero, ad nauseum, it was nice to see this little movie for a change. I did enjoy it, but it might be a nice one to catch on DVD as the cost of movie tickets these days is pretty hard on the budget. But it was a pleasant distraction, and I enjoyed watching it, and do recommend it for a nice change of pace.

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Monkeypaw Productions,

Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon, Anna Diop, Kara Hayward, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nathan Harrington, David M Sandoval Jr., Madison Curry, Duke Nicholson

The Wilson Family is on vacation up in Santa Cruz, Ca near the seashore. They need a break, and some time to unwind. But after a visit to the famous boardwalk, when they return to the cabin, four strangers are standing in their driveway. As they investigate further, they determine that the four characters look like each of the family members, and as time passes, they definitely intend harm to the Wilsons, their neighbors, and lots of other people. It’s going to be a long night.

I wanted to see this movie opening weekend. I’m glad I did, as I’m starting to see a lot of whines and complaints about this movie, most of which are not really justified. This is a really creepy story with lots of violent actions, and a great deal of suspense. However, it’s not you usual horror film with no real story, just lots of loud noises and sudden jumps. This is a deeply dark and suspenseful story that is quite complex with a lot to think about and figure out. So those who just want another straight forward horror fest are going to be disappointed. You need to be aware that the story is a lot more complex than it appears on the surface, and be prepared to invest some brain cycles to figure it all out. Secondly, this is the second film from Producer/Director Jordan Peele. This makes it normal that people would want to put the two films (The other one is Get Out) side by side and compare them This is a big mistake because these films are not at all alike. Now on the other hand, there are some problems with this movie. It might be because it’s only Jordon’s second film, or it could be simply some bad advise. It’s also hard to discuss this all without giving away too much, but speaking generically, they took great pains to try to explain how this all happened. Unfortunately, it’s not a very good explanation, and leaves us with some really strange plot problems. It seems like the tried to throw in a twist in the end, as it seems proper to do, but it doesn’t work at all with the entire rest of the movie, and was very ill advised. Sometimes we are better off not knowing the cause for the crisis, and it is better to leave a lot more up to the viewer to determine what it all means. Still, I did enjoy this film (although my companions in theater did not) and I think it was worth the trip to see it. I do like stories with thoughtful questions and deeper meanings, and every horror film does not need to be a shallow slasher with no plot. I just wish they had done a little more work on the script to fix some of the problems in the story. This film would have been a lot better with a little more thought into the plot holes and how to plug them up.

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Ilion Animation Studios, Midnight Radio, Nickelodeon Movies,

Sofia Mali, Jennifer Garner, Ken Hudson Campbell, Kenan Thompson, Mila Kunis, John Oliver, Ken Jeong, Norbert Leo Butz, Matthew Broderick, Brianna Denski, Oev Michael Urbas, Kate McGregor-Stewart, Kevin Chamberlin, Kath Soucie, Noen Perez

June (Sofie Mali, Briana Denski) is a young girl with a vivid imagination. With her Mom (Jennifer Garner) she uses her toys to design and build an imaginary amusement park called Wonderland. But things change as Mom becomes sick and Wonderland gets put away. On a trip to summer camp, June runs away to go back home, but on the way she finds that Wonderland is real, and that since she left it behind, it has fallen into decay and is in bad shape, but with the help of her toy friends, she may be the one who can put it back together again and save the park.

I have been looking forward to this film since I first saw the preview, and thought that I had to see this one. I was disappointed though and I feel quite a bit let down. The colors and the design of this animated film are really good, and the music and soundtrack are well done, but the story lacks any oomph to make it interesting, and I found it just didn’t move me. This is more like a Saturday morning cartoon than a feature movie, and it should have had a lot more work done on the actual story itself which is where the movie fell short. I definitely think it is worth seeing, but as to paying the cash to see this in the theater, maybe there are better things to see than this one. This is a definite rental somewhere down the road, but I sure wish there had been a better story to tell than it provided, so I can’t really recommend running out to see this. Nickelodeon has disappointed me in the past, and I think perhaps they don’t have the depth to make a really good feature film. They just often don’t compare to the big guys. It’s a shame as this looked like a really great opportunity. I am sad.

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Mas Films, Paradox Films, StudioCanal,

Liam Neeson, Micheal Richarson, Tom Bateman, Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum, Domenick Lombardozzi, Julia Jones, John Doman, Laura Dern, William Forsythe, Aleks Paunovic, Ben Hollingsworth, Nathaniel Arcand, Glen Gould, Bradley Stryker, Elizabeth Thai

Nels (Liam Neeson) is a simple hardworking snow plow driver who keeps the road open to a popular resort destination in Colorado. Its a small town, but has really gotten very popular after a fancy ski resort opened. When his son, Kyle (Micheal Richarson) turns up dead from a heroin overdose, Nels doesn’t believe it was an accident. He starts to investigate on his own, and finds a connection so some very shady drug racketeers from Denver he stars seeking vengeance on them This leads to one final showdown that is really something to see!

This is a typical Liam Neeson movie of revenge hunting to the max. This is a bit darker than most of the others, but has a lot of similarities. The best part of the film is the beautiful scenery in the Rockies in the wintertime. It is truly breathtaking. The suspense is really intense, and it’s easy to follow. It took a while to get everything straight as the beginning jumped around a bit and made it kind of hard for me to follow for a while, but after I got every straightened out in my head, it was really easy to follow. Laura Dern is a great actress and was kind of wasted in this movie, and I’m not sure why. She didn’t have much to do, and her character was very superficial. I wish she had been given more to do. In some respects it is a bit over simplified. It is extremely violent, though, with lots of blood and guys all the way through, so it earns it’s R rating for the extreme violence, but it is a very exciting roller coaster of a movie. It was very intense, and well worth the time.

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