Ed's Review Dot Com

New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, Evergreen Media Group,

Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Frances O’Connor, Madison Wolfe, Lauren Esposito, Patrick McAuley, Benjamin Haigh, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Simon Delaney, Franka Potente, Simon McBurney, Shannon Kook-Chun, Abhi Sinha, Steve Coulter

We heard of the warrens, Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) in the original conjuring (and some of their offspring) and they are back in The Conjuring 2. Ed and Lorraine are based on the real Warrens and gets them the notation “based upon a true story” in the opening credits. We all have heard of their most famous case, The Amityville Horror, but this story from their files is just about a bad, but takes place in the late 70’s in England where a single mother Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor) is struggling to make ends meet for her 3 children, 2 girls and a boy. The middle child, Janet(Madison Wolfe) has starting having some problems in school and is complaining of seeing things which is how things usually start. But as things escalate quickly, the story gets out around town about the history of the house, and when it hits the airwaves, the church is anxious to bring Ed and Lorraine over to figure out if it’s a hoax or a real haunting. They learn that there is something much more sinister at work here then meets the eye.

This film starts out so cheesy (as all of these films set in the 70’s do, mostly I think to set the mood) that I was rolling my eyes and thinking I blew a lot on what would be a lousy movie. But boy was I wrong. This story takes a while to get going, mostly because we’re tortured with the Warren story one more time for the folks that aren’t keeping up. But once it gets rolling, this is a horror film of great worth. This team really has it down as all the related movies are pretty good. This is a long film. It took well over 2 1/2 hours but it was really intense.
Miss Wolfe did a wonderful job as the middle child who the movie is based around. All of the actors are pretty good, but this gal really nailed it. She had a very difficult part (as this is an R rated film from start to finish with the scares and violence) but she was certainly up to the task and I could find no fault in her performance. The house is extremely ugly which helps to creep us out, and the special effects, sound editing, and cinematography all join to make this a really scary film. The sound system in the theater I saw it in must be brand new, and it was amazing. For a while I thought we were in “sensurround” (ala Earthquake in the 70’s) with all the shaking going on. The building vibrated when things started flying through the air and crashing into walls and windows. Major kudos for the script, and the lion’s share to the actors who performed very well. This is a top notch, first class horror film, and an excellent example of how to do it right at this time in cinema history. See this one in the theater if you possibly can.

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

Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer, Charles Dance, Brendan Coyle

Will Traynor (Sam Clafin) is a very lucky man. He’s from a wealthy British family that owns a castle, and he’s grown into a very handsome young man with a beautiful girlfriend, a high visibility job, and an active lifestyle filled with skiing, surfing, climbing, and all sorts of activities. But in a split second it’s all taken away when a single moment rips away all but the money. Two years later, bubbly and happy Luisa Clark (Emilia Clarke) loses her job as a waitress when the cafe closes. With her father out of work for a long time, the family depended on her waitress salary to stay afloat, so she needs a job. She applies and gets a job as a caretaker for Will, but it’s only for six months. Will is deeply depressed and very disturbed, and Lou sets out to make him smile a little and try to bring some meaning to his life. Little did she know how determined he was to be sad and grumpy at what he has lost.

Based on a novel, this film is a true romance story, but with lots of heartache and sadness, and some terrific highs. My wife and I went to see this film on a Tuesday (aka discount night) date night and I wish I could blame this “chick flick” on her choice and my graciousness of bending to her will, but the truth is that I have been wanting to see this film. As a youngster I had no doubt that I was an unusual kid. I loved sharing music with my grandmother and became a fan of old music, and I loved books and movies. I’ve never been a big one for fast cars, and can’t tell a Dodge from a Toyota, and never really got into playing sports. I had a much bigger enjoyment of the arts and nature and travel and things of that nature. As a teen, name a song, and I could tell you who it was by, what label it was on, how long it was, and what was on the other side, and I amassed a treasure trove of 45’s and LP’s and my record player my Dad rescued from someone’s trash and built into a really nice stand for me for Christmas was probably one of my most treasured Christmas presents. So I am a sucker for “relationship” movies and a lot of what people call movies for girls. Now my favorite genre is horror, and I love comedy. Favorite films would have to include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, all the Star Trek movies, and so on. But I do like really good people stories too. This is certainly a touching (can I say tear-jerking) film, but dang it was a really good story as well. With a British setting and with British actors, the accent was there throughout, but unlike some films that I have a really hard time understanding, this was really easy to follow. There are a lot of twists and turns, although the truth is that it is completely logical step by step. I don’t know any of the actors in this movie which really made it a lot more believable to me as well, and I must admit I was totally invested in this story. It is a bit intense for very young kids, and even though it’s a PG-13 film, I would hesitate to bring children under 13 as it would be tough for them to understand, but for older kids and adults, this is a really touchingly bittersweet story but one that I’m very glad I watched. If you have a heart, I highly recommend this story. Get out and see it while you can!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Fox 2000 Pictures, TSG Entertainment, Annapurna Pictures,

Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Édgar Ramírez , Elisabeth Röhm, Dascha Polanco, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen

Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) is loosely based on the true story of Joy Mangano, a successful early TV marketer who built an empire on her own inventions. Joy is struggling with a broken family and trying to survive with all the crazy occupants of her house, when she determines to set out to make and sell the self wringing mop that she invented. Borrowing money from her father’s new beau, and he ex husband and even taking a 2nd mortgage on her house she sets out to pull off this miracle, but wading her way through the rough storm of the ruthless business world is about to take her down.

This is a loose biographical film based on the real Joy Mangano, but of course a lot of poetic license has been taken. Jennifer delivers a really stunning performance as the harried mom trying to make the best out of all the trouble, and Bradley Cooper is pretty decent as an executive at QVC who gives her a chance or two. Robert DeNiro offers some support as well as her father, giving advice right and left, but not being very coherent most of the time. All in all it’s a comedy of errors, and though it’s not a truly wonderful film, due to the weakness (I think) in the script itself, these actors did the best the could with a kind of flawed script, I think. Still, I did find it entertaining, and did not hate it like so many did. I didn’t find it boring, and to be honest, Jennifer Lawrence, I though, really nailed the role. She is really getting good these days. I found it pulling me into the story and enjoying the stages poor Joy had to go through to get tough enough to survive in this harsh environment we know as business. I recommend this film, and thought it wasn’t a bad film at all.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Annapurna Pictures, Likely Story, Media Rights Capital,

Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Michael Hall, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave

In 1999 the news screamed out the story of the richest man in history to be convicted of murder, when John DuPont (Steve Carell) heir to the DuPont chemical fortune was sent to prison for murdering David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) in the driveway of DuPont’s guest house where he and his wife and children were living. The Schultz bothers, older brother David, and younger brother Mark (Channing Tatum) were a couple of the best gold medal winning wrestling champions in US History. This film is Mark’s story of how we met John DuPont and John’s efforts to buy his way into Olympic wrestling in a effort to maintain a level of importance. He opened the Foxcatcher facility and trained many US Olympic wrestlers there with the help of the Schultz brothers. This is the story of what happened and though we may never know why it happened, at least it is an interesting tale of the events of that day that shocked the country when the new came out.

This is an interesting biographical film. Like most Hollywood versions of true story, it is based upon the events that happened, but not absolutely true to all the facts. What we have though is a very strong cast acting their way through a fascinating story. Steve Carell was even nominated as best actor for his performance, a very somber role for the usually funny Mr. carell, but certenly within his wheelhouse for sure. Channing Tatum gave a really strong performance as did Mark Ruffalo. Even Vanessa Redgrave gave a charming performance as John DuPont’s mother, even though it’s very short. It is still a great performance. Critics of the film call it slow. It does certainly plod along, and at 2 hours and 15 minutes, it probably could have been shorter, but I didn’t find it boring at any point. The time was well used to develop the characteristics of each of these characters, and with the star cast, it takes time to fully develop that. In the end, even at over 2 hours running time, it feels like we’ve missed some of the facts, and it was off to Wikipedia to learn more about the story. I give credit to the writers, directors, and producers for presenting a great feature film on the subject, and am really impressed with the level of acting that went into it. I found it an interesting story, and recommend this film to those who enjoy biographical historical tales that are stranger than fiction.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment,

James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till

Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) is the most powerful mutant in history, but he has been buried away for centuries, trapped under a pyramid. But when he’s unleashed, he has the power to draw skills and power from other mutants and add them to his own. He chooses four powerful mutants as his minions, including Magneto (Michael Fassbender) who is heartbroken at the loss of his family and extremely broken and discouraged. Meanwhile Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has kept his school for mutants open and has a bunch of new recruits who are mutants that are discouraged and feel different who want to learn to control their powers. But with Apocalypse’s return, and his plan to destroy the Earth and start over with a new kingdom with him as supreme ruler, Xavier will have to count on the new recruits and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) to lead them into battle against the end of the world.

When I went to the theater over the Memorial Day weekend, I had to choose between X-Men:Apocalypse and Marvel’s Civil War. Despite the fact that the young man who sold me the tickets insisted that X-Men was a better story, I had my doubts. I still haven’t had a chance to see the Civil War movie yet, so I can’t comment on whether he is right or not, but I have to first give two caveats. One, I am not a big comic book fan in particular and usually feel pretty ho-hum about the whole genre. Two, I am especially bland when it comes to the X-Men in general. I’ve never been a huge X-Men fan anyway. But I must admit, this was a pretty good story. I found it interesting to learn about the new characters, and there was a lot of humor, especially with those who haven’t learned to control their power yet. Apocalypse was a bad guy, but not the baddest I have seen, by any means, and he went down fairly easy, when you come to think of it. But the back story of Magneto was very well portrayed, and you can really understand his pain as it was well played. The action was great, the 3-D effects are fantastic, and the whole things rolls along smoothly. At over 2 1/2 hours, it’s a fairly long film, but I was sad when it ended, as it was very entertaining. Certainly if you like the comic book genre, this is an excellent film, and even if you don’t, like me, it’s still a good movie in its own right. I recommend this action adventure fantasy film as one of the better ones I’ve seen. I enjoyed it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog