Ed's Review Dot Com

Cappa Defina Productions, Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films (EFO Films), Fábrica de Cine,

Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Ciarán Hinds

In the 16th Century Japan had over 300,000 Christians. In a move to ban western ideas from Japan, the Emperor banned the religion and began to persecute not only the priests who served their congregation, but the Japanese Christians as well to drive them out of the country. Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) was one of the greatest priests in Japan, but he has disappeared and not heard from in many years. Two young Portuguese Priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver) beg for the opportunity to go to Japan and determine what could have happened to Ferreira. Reluctantly they are allowed to take with them a drunken Japanese guide who promised to lead them to where Ferreira was last seen. But upon arrival, they find it extremely dangerous and filled with hardships for both them and for their tiny flock. They have to endure much torture and see so much suffering before they are able to learn the truth of their former mentor.

This is a very long and very dark tale with lots of extreme cruelty and lots of gory torture and death. These are Catholic priests and so this is definitely a religious film. These facts will make films like this difficult for some people. But this is a Scorsese film, and a labor of love for him since it took nearly 30 years to bring this to life. The novel is from 1966 so it is an old work, and this was made once before in 1971. This one is very authentic looking, although it was filmed in Taiwan, not in Japan, but the look and feel is very well done. The dark rocky shores lead you to believe you are in Japan This is a long movie, but kept me enthralled throughout. The story was told with such stark realism that you could almost feel the suffering. It was hard not to shed a tear or two during some of the endings. This also a morality play with no black and white, but many, many different shades of gray. Each person has a breaking point and how far can they be pushed before they will have to break. It also shows how extremely hard the Japanese people were. All in all, this is a really amazing story, and a new epic tale worthy of the great biblical films of long ago. This film did not get a lot of traction in the box office, and I think that’s really sad because there is an awful lot to love about this adventure, but I think some built in prejudice against Scorsese himself, along with the religious aspect of it affected a lot of the negative about it. I felt it was extremely well done, but people don’t want to see a movie about the Catholic church unless it’s got an exorcism or two in it, and a monster or two. Sad, because this was a very good film.

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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Red Hour Films, 21 Laps Entertainment,

Bryan Cranston, James Franco, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mullally, Griffin Gluck, Keegan-Michael Key, Zack Pearlman, Casey Wilson, Andrew Rannells

The Fleming family, Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston), kind Dad whose old school print business is struggling, but is trying hard to succeed. Barb Fleming (Megan Mullally) Mom who has no clue that her husband’s business is in trouble, Scotty Fleming (Griffin Gluck) young teen son who is trying to be cool, but doesn’t understand, and Stephanie Fleming (Zoey Deutch) who is attending Stanford University and about to graduate, are all looking forward to the holidays. But Stephanie has a plan. She’s been dating a secret boyfriend, Laird Mayhew (James Franco) and wants to surprise the family to spend Christmas in California and meet her new boyfriend. But what she doesn’t know is that Laird is planning to ask her to marry him and being a nice guy wants to ask Ned for his blessing first. But Laird is a REALLY unusual guy and Ned is a bit over-protective, so just about everything that can go wrong, does go wrong until it looks like the whole family is about to go back to Michigan and come completely apart before the big Christmas Day.

This is a raucous comedy full of very over the top raunchy comedy that is off the chain! This is a very funny movie, but written by Jonah Hill and Produced by Ben Stiller, this is certainly a mature comedy. The comedy, though, fires on all cylinders and is very laugh out loud funny throughout. I really enjoyed Cranston as the uptight over-protective father, and Franco is hysterically funny in this role. This kind of role really suits him, and though I’ve seen some sketchy performances from him in the past when he’s out of his element, this is the role he was born to play. Everyone else is loads of fun too, and everyone gets punch lines throughout, so everybody is really having a great time. Some of this is so ludicrous, but still so darn funny. Very well put together by people who really get comedy, this was a very funny film, and if you don’t mind the strong “Borat-like” R rating, give it a shot. It was really a crack up.

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21 Laps Entertainment, FilmNation Entertainment, Lava Bear Films,

Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma

Twelve mysterious flying objects from space arrive across the globe in a twelve different locations. One is in Montana in the U.S. Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) is responsible to find out what it going on and has a team that is trying to determine if there is anyone or anything inside and if there is, what they want with us. One thing for sure is these devices are not from this planet. Colonel Weber chooses Louise Banks (Amy Adams) an expert linguist and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) a top scientist, to head up the team that go into the ship and attempt to communicate with whatever they find in there. No one knows if they are coming to attack, or to make friends, or if there is some other motive, or if there is anything in there at all. This is a highly suspenseful sci-fi thriller.

This film arrived in the theaters in November of 2016, but with all the other big films coming out over the holidays, I missed this. While it’s still in the theaters, I wanted to make a trip to get to see it on a big screen. I’m glad I did. Though not quite as impressive as Passenger was, this is more of a scientific adventure. We get to witness the secret goings-on behind the scenes of this investigation and lots of things that would be held back from the public to avoid panic and chaos. It’s also not a mistake that they arrived in 12 different locations at the same time in all the top military countries. Discussions with the British, the Chinese, the Russians, and lots of other groups is critical to determine the proper response to the situation. This is a very well developed script, and played very well by the three top actors in this project. Amy Adams was really good as a scholarly and highly learned linguist and college professor. Jeremy on the other hands brings a scientific look to the problem, and the coordination between the two outlooks is portrayed very well and I found very believable. The suspense is very intense, and it was very well done. We only get bits and pieces of the story in the same manner as the characters. Each revelation is a surprise and very well portrayed. This is a excellent story to begin with which they turned into a really entertaining film. I was quite impressed with this film, and it was very though provoking. It made me think. I highly enjoyed this movie, and I do recommend it. The more you like science fiction and alien stories, the more you will likely enjoy this film, but I feel like it’s exciting enough for action-adventure as well.

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Lucasfilm, Allison Shearmur Productions, Black Hangar Studios,

Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Wen Jiang, Forest Whitaker

Jyn (Felicity Jones) lives with her parents, farming and mostly hiding out. But Jyn’s Father is a scientist and is recruited by force by the Empire to work on a new project of Lord Vader (James Earl Jones), a death star with the power to destroy a planet. When her father is abducted and her mother is killed, Jyn hides out until she is rescued by rebel fighter Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). As time passes, the death star nears completion, but a plan is hatched to steal the plans and get them to the rebel alliance so that they will know how to destroy the death star. This is the story that fits in between Chapters Three and Chapter Four and tells the background information of what happened before the first Star Wars movie back in 1977.

This Star Wars movie was made for the fans. Perhaps this film wouldn’t be as powerful to someone who did not know the characters. There are no long lasting characters, and it is a fill in film, not part of the main story, but it does fill in some very useful information that makes things a lot easier to understand, and reveals some of the mysteries that are missing between these two films. This was very entertaining film and it was quite a lot of fun. It’s a long movie, but went by so fast. There is a lot of really good action scenes, lots of suspense, and lots of throwbacks to the main films. Felicity Jones isn’t the strongest lead in a Star Wars movie, but in my opinion she was good enough. I think she played her role that she was given. Much like Luke Skywalker she did not ask to be a hero. She was a simple girl who was put into this situation because of who her father was. She has some supporters who have interesting stories too. This is not intended to be as great as the other films, and my personal opinion is that it was better than the “horrible three” Chapters one, two, and three. You just have to set your expectations a little bit lower as it’s not a part of the main series, as I’ve said before, but it’s a wonderful addition to the wealth of the story. This is not one to miss.

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Heyday Films, Warner Bros.,

Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Ezra Miller, Carmen Ejogo, Jon Voight, Ron Perlman, Jenn Murray

Newt (Eddie Redmayne) is a wizard and a writer who arrives via ship at New York City to meet with another wizard about some additional fantastic beasts he is interested in. Newt is carrying a leather briefcase with some of these creatures inside. But when some escape, he quickly finds that the wizarding world in America is much more hidden and repressed than it is in England. The Americans have outlawed fantastic beasts of any kind, so Newt is in trouble when first of all he doesn’t erase the memory of a muggle (or No-Maj as they call them in the US) on top of having some of the beasts escape, so he is pulled before the tribunal for punishment. But they don’t realize the danger that they are in, and they may need Newt’s expertise in saving the whole city.

This film is a spin-off of the Harry Potter series of books written by J.K.Rowling and made into an entire series of movies. This takes places decades before Harry, Hermione, and Ron, and tells the story of the writing of one of the text book studied by Harry at Hogwarts. Newt Scamander is credited as the author of one of the textbooks about Fantastic Beasts, and we get to meet him in this film. This was a good extension of the Harry Potter universe and we finally got to see a little about wizarding in the United States as well. It is quite different on this side of the pond, and we get to see what it was like here at the time. The special effects are outstanding, of course, and 3D and IMAX is well put to use in this film, but the story fails a little. First of all, Newt is not someone you really get to like very much. He’s kind of annoying and just not that likeable. Tina (Katherine Waterston) on the other hand is likeable in her role as a demoted Auror in the MACUSA (American Ministry of Magic organization) but the chemistry never gets off the ground and is not that acceptable. Colin Farrel is pretty good as the bad guy, but just not as impressive as the Harry Potter bad guys. All in all, it’s not a bad movie at all, and a must see for Fantasy fans, but be prepared for some really slow parts, and a lot of muttering that is not easy to follow. Boy, Subtitles would have been awesome! Aside from a pressing desire to fall asleep in the middle while things were crawling along, it was worth the effort to stay awake. The magical creatures are revealed to us one at a time and it takes a while to get to know them, but it’s worth the wait as each one appears and gives us his special abilities and features. I really did enjoy this film, so I don’t want to discourage anyone from seeing it, but I also don’t want you to expect it to be as spectacularly done as Harry was. This is a lot more like the later movies in that series where it turned a lot darker and with a lot less hopefulness. This is supposed to be a long series of films as well, and I hope the first one doesn’t turn people off from the rest of them. I know I’ll be there for the next one and hope it will be better.

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