Ed's Review Dot Com

Lionsgate, Lakeshore Entertainment, Pantelion Films,

Djimon Hounsou, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Michael Paré, Dougray Scott, Kathleen Robertson, Cas Anvar, John Patrick Amedori, Michael Peña

Angela Holmes (Olivia Dudley) is a 27 year old who is having really bad psychic problems and is hospitalized, but when people close to her are getting harmed one after another, a priest is called and they recommend exorcism. But when Father Lozano (Michael Pena) calls in the big guns from the Vatican to help, the exorcism shows they are dealing with an ancient evil who is far more powerful than they ever expected, and the ultimate battle between good and evil is on, big time.

This is a relatively decent horror film. As you probably have noticed, I’m a bit of a horror fan, so I tend to score them higher than I would if it was another genre. I admit this isn’t a spectacular horror film, but darn it, it wasn’t all that bad. Granted some of the characters in the film were wasted. The connection to the Vatican is somewhat weak. There is one scene in the end that left me really confused as to why it was in there if not to make a Vatican connection, but Michael Pena as the local priest who is watching over Angela, the father, and certainly Angela herself were pretty good and did a decent job. The exorcism itself was very well done, and the effects weren’t over the top as they tend to do today, but were understated enough to let the actors bring the terror and fear without detracting from it with silly CGI shots of demons and such. All in all it’s a fast moving, really creepy, scary movie that does the trick, and if you enjoy exorcism films, this may be the best one I’ve seen in a while. I liked this film and I found it very entertaining and suspenseful, and I recommend this for horror fans everywhere.

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Indian Paintbrush,

Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Connie Britton, Jon Bernthal, Katherine Hughes

Greg (Thomas Mann) is an awkward high school student who does his best to stay invisible so as not to stand out. But when one of his classmates, Rachel (Olivia Cooke) is diagnosed with Leukemia, Greg’s Mother (Connie Britton) insists that he suck it up and spend time with her. So Greg with his friend Earl (RJ Cyler) in tow sets out to befriend Rachel much to her chagrin. But as time passes, Greg becomes less invisible, finds out a lot about himself, and finds he has helped Rachel while growing up a little himself.

This film is reminiscent of “The Fault in our Stars” in a way as it’s a story of growing up and facing loss and tragedy without losing yourself, but it is a very well done story. I think this will appeal to teens and is probably not a bad movie for that age group. It’s rated PG-13 and has some adult situations, but I truly don’t think it’s something that today’s teen aren’t already very familiar with. Only those with a strong dislike of adult themes like those who require their teens only attend G films (I know you’re out there) will think it’s too raunchy for the kids. The story is very touching and quite moving. The acting is good. Olivia Cooke I came to know as the sick girl from Bates Motel, and it seems like she gets the sick girl roles, but she’s a very good actress and quite good at extracting the emotion out of the scenes. She is excellent as the dying girl. Thomas Mann is pretty good as the geeky “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” type character and throws his heart into the role. RY Cyler is also good at his role as the voice of reason when Greg is going off the tracks. There are several back stories going on and many, many interesting characters played by such as Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Connie Britton, etc, who add a lot to the film beside the three leads. All in all it’s a nice little film and well worth watching. It’s one of those surprises that don’t come around all that often. Check it out.

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Legendary Pictures,

Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Charlie Hunnam

Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is an aspiring writer who lives with her single father. When she meets Baronet Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain), who are visiting her father to sell an idea for a machine to mine clay to make bricks, Edith is quickly swept off her feet. But when a family tragedy occurs suddenly, Edith quickly marries Thomas and heads off to Europe to her new home. But as soon as she arrives to this creepy falling down wreck of a house which is surely haunted, she quickly learns that not only does the house harbor dark and sinister secrets, but her husband and his sister also have some things they are hiding in this very creepy Gothic horror story.

This is a very, very well done horror film. I cannot say enough good things about it. The sets are stunningly horrible, and the idea of the house being a major character is absolutely true in this case. Mia is excellent as Edith Cushing, and does a wonderful job of playing the wannabe writer and innocent young bride who has to fight to survive when it all goes awry very quickly. The story is extremely well written, as if this is a old classic Gothic novel, but actually Del Toro wrote the screenplay and it’s a brand new story. I have heard that someone is currently busy writing the novel, but as a brand new story, it does, as I said, have the feel of a classic tale, with modern style blood and gore. The gory parts are not the main focus of the film, though, as it’s a classical horror tale where what you don’t see is as horrible as what you do see. Though not absolutely perfect (I thought the ghosts were silly), it’s one of the best horror films I’ve seen in a long time, and I highly recommend this for horror fans everywhere!

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DisneyNature, The Walt Disney Company,

Tina Fey (Narrator)

Disney has now established a tradition of bringing us a new nature feature on Earth Day every year. This is the new one for this year, Monkey Kingdom. This follows a group of monkeys through a season, losing their home to a meaner tribe and attempting to win it back along with all their other trials and tribulations. Tina Fey is the narrator telling us the story of the action in this exciting nature film.

Walt Disney was one of the cleverest movie producers of his time. He was the first to recognize the power of Television and rushed to create content (and cut and reuse existing content) to fill up a Sunday evening time slot for the newly formed ABC network that was hurting for content. Walt’s biggest dream was Disneyland, and the Disneyland show was born advertising Walt’s new destination, helping ABC, and making Disney very popular in the process and raising funds to pay for the new park. One of the lands was “Adventureland” and Walt and the crew came up with the idea of creating stories of a wild animal of some sort and giving it human qualities and emotions and making it a “good show”. Films like “Charlie the Lonesome Cougar” came about and brought down some harsh criticism for making up a story about a wild animal and dissing Mother Nature in the process, so Walt set out some of his best photographers and the brought us the “Tru Life Adventures” that were actually very well done and tried to show nature in its natural glory without humanizing the animals. Now I am not naive enough to believe that these photographers did not stage some of these scenes to make a better story, but for the most part they did film hours and hours of footage to put together a one hour program. DisneyNature was to be the natural followup to these films. With the success of some of the IMAX films and the Penguin stories that we all came to know and love, it seemed like a good marriage for Disney. With better technology for not only getting the shots, but also displaying the stunning scenery on the huge screens in today’s theaters, it seems like a spectacular grand idea for the always “green” Disney Company to bring out on Earth Day, and it was pretty well received for the big splash in the first year or so. Lately it seems it’s been languishing in obscurity, and I’m not sure they’re faring well in the box office. I think this whole bit is about this one point. I think they are missing the point and bringing back the old Human animals idea which is sort of, in my humble opinion, against the very essence of what DisneyNature was supposed to be. This is a classic example of how far it has slipped back into the fiction category. Don’t get me wrong, this film is very, very beautiful and the photography is spectacular and well worth the 4 stars I am giving this film. My problem though is with the narration. They have really gone off the deep end with explaining in the “storytelling” what the monkeys are thinking, how they are feeling, emotions they may or may not be showing and the plans and war strategies that they are contemplating. I look at my dogs, and I want to say “Oh look how bored he is, or look how sad he is, or look how he wants us to forgive him. I WANT to think my dog has a whole strategy in his head, but he probably doesn’t think like a human. When I think he is showing remorse or guilt, perhaps he is just aware that I’m not in a good mood and somehow he’s involved in my mood and the likelihood of me giving him a nice treat is very slim, so he’s trying to do what has worked before in changing my mood so he can get something to eat. Maybe he can’t even reason to that level but is just doing what dogs do. I really think a group of monkeys do have a way of life that works for them, and I do think the make choices to some degree, but I don’t think the plan strategy for all this stuff. They proceed to have Tina Fey tell us how the royal born monkeys get the best seats and due to their lack of experience in the streets, they have no experiences dealing with the dangers like the street monkeys do. There are a host of examples all the way through where the monkeys have cute names and human-like personalities, and I think this detracts from the beauty and hard work of the cinematographers to bring such stunning images to the screen. You might want to consider turning down the sound and watching the movie in silence. Still, it’s a must see story for the images if not the hokey narration.

P.S. This review has to have had the highest number of spelling corrections of any I’ve done so far. It seems I cannot spell monkeys without spelling it Monkees. I guess I am a child of the 60’s after all.

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Gramercy Pictures (I), Stage 6 Films, Entertainment One,

Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Lin Shaye

You may recall the Lambert family who had horrible problems with demons trying to steal their children and bring them over to the dark side in Insidious and Insidious Chapter 2. A kind and gentle lady named Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) helped them to defeat the demon. Well this is a few years before the Lambert story and is a prequel to the other two films. Elise has given up helping people using her psychic abilities because an evil force on the dark side is threatening to kill her, but when Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) turns up on her doorstep asking for help in contacting her deceased mother, Elise explains that she cannot help. But when it becomes obvious that an evil demon is trying to steal Quinn’s soul, she has to step up. This prequel is the story of how Elise overcame her fears and returned to the business of helping out families like the Brenner’s who really need her, and why she was available to help the Lambert’s in the first two movies.

I had the experience of seeing both Insidious and Insidious Chapter Two in a special event at AMC when Chapter 2 was released. I have always felt that the Insidious movies were among the scariest of the new batch of horror films. Both really terrified me. So I was sure I would run out and see Chapter 3 on opening day. For some reason, I put it off, and never got around to watching it. It’s rare that I miss a decent horror film in the theater, as the big screen is so much fun to watch horror films. But it came out this week on DVD, and I really wanted to see it. We waited till dark and put it on the Plasma TV, the biggest in the house, turned out the lights and turned up the sound. It definitely was not as good as the first two, which I rated higher in both cases, but I really enjoyed it. There were a number of times my wife screamed out loud, and I can imagine those were real good theater moments with their big sound systems. But the story is not nearly as complex as the first two, and unlike them, which twisted and turned us around, this was very linear. I cannot say this is as great as the first two were, but at the same time, I would say this is a must see for true horror fanatics such as I. The back fill of how Elise got to the point that she is in was very interesting and we learned more about her. She was definitely the star of the first two films and we didn’t get to know near enough of her story before. I feel like this was a great add to the story, and I would recommend watching them in chronological order, Chapter 3, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2, in that order for a great experience, especially if you have forgotten the first two, or if you have not seen any of these. It’s a superb horror trilogy and well worth the time spent enjoying them all.

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