Ed's Review Dot Com

Pantelion Films, 3Pas Studios,

Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Rob Lowe, Kristen Bell, Raquel Welch, Rob Corddry, Rob Riggle, Raphael Alejandro, Mckenna Grace, Rob Huebel, Linda Lavin, Michaela Watkins, Michael Cera

Maximo (Eugenio Derbez) figures out early in life that working is not for him. He wants to be a gigolo and have rich women take care of him. But when his wealthy widow, Millicent (Linda Lavin) throws him out when she falls for a younger guy, Maximo is out. With no where to go he sets off to his sister Sara (Salma Hayek) to move in with her. But he soon sets his eye on another catch, Celeste (Raquel Welch) but he’s going to have to work really hard because he has some competition, and he’s not getting any younger.

This is a light and breezy Latin comedy, but I didn’t find it overwhelmingly funny. Yeah, the jokes are there, but it feels like most of it are inside jokes and you’re not in on the jokes. I suspect Latin folks would really enjoy this, mostly because they probably know someone like Max and Sara and can really relate. It was okay, and I suspect it was entertaining enough. I didn’t really get into it a lot, and I can’t highly recommend this, but it’s not really that bad. Rent it if you want. There are a lot of surprise guest shots in the movie, and it’s kind of fun to see them and try to figure out who they are.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

De Line Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), New Line Cinema,

Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Alan Arkin, Joey King, Matt Dillon, Ann-Margret, Christopher Lloyd, Kenan Thompson, Siobhan Fallon, John Ortiz, Peter Serafinowicz, Josh Pais, Maria Dizzia, Anthony Chisholm, Jeremy Bobb

Joe Harding (Michael Caine) has been a hard worker for the same company all his life along with his friends, Willie Davis (Morgan Freeman, and Albert Garner (Alan Arkin). Joe is having financial trouble and his daughter’s debts are going to cause his house to fall into foreclosure, but while he’s in the bank a robbery takes place and the masked bandits take off with the money. Joe is very impressed with how easy it was to pull off. When the last straw falls, and the old friends learn their company has been sold and thew owners are cancelling their pension, they decide to rob the bank themselves, in their own style, and steal enough money to get back what they’re owed so that they can live out their days in style. But this is an extremely dangerous operation for the senior citizens to pull off, and when something goes wrong, it starts snowballing into a huge disaster.

This film is a remake of the 1979 film with George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg which was very, very well done. This one updates the story a bit, but is in many ways the same idea. The concept of growing old and forgotten in the U.S. is something that haunts a lot of older folks. They simply want what was promised to them and the young businessmen just don’t get it. It’s not a really over the top comedy, and it has real friendship and a lot of the kind of morality older folks still maintain today, and so there’s a lot to take in. It’s interesting, and it’s entertaining, and this is a great bunch of actors. The three main characters are stupendous, but the rest of the cast really helps them deliver the best they could with this retread of a movie. I found it interesting, and fun to watch, so I wouldn’t want to discourage you from watching, but don’t expect a side splitting comedy, as it’s much more subtle and gently done than that. If you like really great acting from accomplished actors, give it a try though as it’s a nice rental film that is worthwhile to see.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ, Likely Story, Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation,

Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, Ellar Coltrane, Patton Oswalt, Glenne Headly, Bill Paxton

Mae (Emma Watson) lands her dream job with the largest high tech company on the Planet, The Circle, led by Bailey (Tom Hanks). She’s really into the company and is very excited to buy into all the wonderful things The Circle can do. They have a miniature camera that can send live pictures with sound to anyone on the channel any time you wish. Like a giant social network, But management wants her to step it up a bit further and become the worlds first transparent user, one who will be always online for people to view. The owner’s theory is that secrets are lies, and that people will act better if they have no secrets and everything is in the open. But though Mae does her best, things naturally start spinning out of control and it begins hurting those most important to her.

I have been anxious to see this film since I first saw the previews, which was much better, I think, than the actual movie. I love science fiction, I and I was really anxious to see how Emma Watson could pull off a dramatic and futuristic role like this. Besides, there are great performers in this film like Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and many others that bring a lot of acting talent to this adventure. The problem is that the director too a really good story idea, and twisted it into a morality tale, much like 1984, only tried to jazz it up for Facebook and Instragram. What resulted is a mediocre morality play about Big Brother watching, and trashing the films with the morality of the director. It was an excellent idea, but it was really poorly executed. The big surprise ending is not a surprise, not is it very big, and it just sort of sat there. Basically it was a missed opportunity. I was really disappointed.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures,

Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine, Tyne Daly, Martin Starr, Hannibal Buress, Abraham Attah, Kenneth Choi, Selenis Leyva, Angourie Rice, Garcelle Beauvais, Michael Chernus, Michael Mando, Logan Marshall-Green, Jennifer Connelly, Martha Kelly

After all his exciting adventures with the Avengers in the last film, Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is back home in high school trying to get along. He’s not the most popular kid in the class, and he’s always sneaking out on Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) who is his legal guardian but has no knowledge of his secret identity. But Peter notices something strange going on when he spots some out of this world weapons keep showing up and a spooky flying monster named Vulture (Michael Keaton) is behind it all. Peter keeps digging even though not only will Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) not believe him, but he tries to stop him from fooling around on his own, so Peter has to try to solve the mystery on his own, although he may not survive the week.

To tell the truth, I am getting really weary of all the Superhero movies this summer. It’s been one after another after another, and I think I’m not the only one who’s getting tired of them from the box office numbers this summer. I didn’t expect much from this film, and I was really expecting to wait until it came out on DVD, but my wife and her sister really wanted to see it, so they took me along. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, and I was somewhat surprised at how interesting it was. I wasn’t blown away, and there are some weaknesses in the story, and Tom Holland just isn’t strong enough to carry the film. Cameos by a few of the Avengers and their backup crew don’t do much to help either. The story is kind of weak, and the acting is kind of weak, and so that takes away from the overall enjoyment. If you’re a real Spidey fan, then you probably like the older films a lot better. If you love the mix-up of Avenger characters in each other’s movies, then you might dig that, but all in all this is just a mediocre movie, and I’ve seen it all before. I would have been happy to wait for DVD for this one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Primate Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Warner Bros.,

Michael Peña, Dax Shepard, Jessica McNamee, Adam Brody, Ryan Hansen, Justin Chatwin, Kristen Bell, Vincent D’Onofrio, Rosa Salazar, Maya Rudolph, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Richard T. Jones, Jane Kaczmarek, Adam Rodriguez, Vida Guerra

Ponch (Michael Pena) is an undercover FBI man looking for dirty cops in the California Highway Patrol. He’s partnered up with a brand new rookie Jon (Dax Shephard) who is the oldest rookie in CHP history. Jon is a former X-Games star, but his failing marriage to Karen (Kristin Bell) causes him to tryout as a policeman to try to win her back. But the corruption runs deep and they don’t know who they can trust as they try to locate the loot and the dirty cops behind the heist. This is based on the popular 80’s TV show CHiPs, and even features a cameo by the original Ponch, Erik Estrada.

They took a different approach with this movie, not really following the story of the tv series, but rather making a comedy satirical parody of the TV show which was a little unintentionally funny in the first place. This one is strictly tongue in cheek and doesn’t even try to take itself seriously. Maybe that wasn’t a bad idea since the history of TV shows turned into feature films has been mostly dreadful. This one didn’t take itself too seriously and was actually really funny. They could go for jokes mocking the original series and beef it up with crazy R rated humor which differentiates it from the TV show. Michael and Dax have fun mocking their characters, and both are cartoonishly over the top performances. The supporting cast is really good too and help them a lot to bring humor to the story. And best of all it’s only a teensy bit over an hour and a half so it doesn’t drag out the joke too far. All in all, I think it was a nice homage to the original TV series done, as I stated, tongue in cheek, but with TLC as well. It wasn’t a bad break from serious movies, and was more like one of the many parody movies with Leslie Nielsen or maybe Charlie Sheen. It wasn’t bad, and worth the time I spent on it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog