Ed's Review Dot Com

Dark Horse Entertainment, Jerry Weintraub Productions, Riche Productions,

Alexander Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie, Djimon Hounsou, Christoph Waltz, John Hurt

As we all remember, John Clayton (Alexander Skarsgard) was lost in Africa as a baby and grew up raised by the apes as Tarzan, King of the Jungle. Later he was rescued (?) and brought to England and reclaimed his rightful right as British nobility. This story picks up when he is requested to return to Africa to investigate potential slave trade and the rape and pillage of the Congo.

I must admit up front that I have never been enthralled with the Tarzan stories ever. Even as a kid, my friends loved to spend Saturdays watching Johnny Weismuller wrestle crocodiles and snakes and rescue the poor natives from the evil white hunters. None of the dozens and dozens of attempts to tell this story every impressed me greatly, including Disney’s cartoon version which was destroyed by Rosie O’Donnell. This one I have to admit is done very, very well. This is the best “looking” version of Tarzan I’ve ever seen. It helps that I saw it in Imax I suppose. But the story was really confusing. We kept jumping though time to see Greystoke in Parliament, then a baby in the jungle, then on the trip down to Africa to fight the slavers, then as Tarzan the ape man, then as an Englishman again. Now he’s traveling with Jane, now he hasn’t met her yet, now she needs rescued, but then she’s with him again, then finally he goes back to rescue her from somebody back in time somewhere. It was all very confusing. Furthermore, you don’t really care about the outcome of anything. Cristoph Waltz once again plays a really, really nasty villain, which is he is really good at, and Samuel L Jackson is around for comedic distraction now and again, but the whole thing was so disjointed I gave up. I am really not sure where to recommend you toss your dollars to the theater owners this weekend, but surely there must be something decent out of the mess of films that seem to be foundering. If you’ve got small kids who have not seen Tarzan and they will be impressed with the vicious apes and crocodiles shown in terror-vision, they are really good CGI moments, and the kids my enjoy this. But if you grew up on Tarzan, this is not going to be an impressive trip down memory lane. My best recommendation is to skip this one, or at least wait till the DVD comes out.

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros., New Line Cinema,

Sylvester Stallone, Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Tony Bellew

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is old. He’s had a long full life, but his love Adrian is gone, and his coach Mickey. Rocky’s living a lonely life till a young man turns up asking him to train him. Turns out the kid is Adonis Johnson (Michael B Jordan) who wants to make it on his own, but is actually the son of Apollo Creed, a former Russian champ who fought with Rocky and who highly respected each other. But sadly Apollo was killed in the ring back in 1974. Rocky doesn’t train boxers anymore, but he Adonis convinces him to take him under his wing and teach him what he knows, mostly for Rocky’s respect for his father’s talent and courage in the ring.

This is one of those movies that you HAVE to see because of the continuation of a story that has been going on for decades. We have to see how Rocky has turned out and how he’s doing. So for that fact, it’s a very worthwhile experience. Now if you have never seen a Rocky film, then this is not a good place to start, as it’s only a mediocre boxing film, but it is a fond look back at a character America loved, and it is very nostalgic. I was not anxious to run out to see this in the theater on the first weekend, nor did I push it to the front of my queue the day it was released on DVD either, as truthfully I was not that psyched to see it, but I still am very glad it bubbled to the top and I got to finally see it. If you have any fond memories of Rocky Balboa, and you haven’t seen this one, then what are you waiting for? Get out and get this and give it a spin. Thanks Rock.

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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.

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Cube Vision, Universal Pictures, Will Packer Productions,

Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong, Benjamin Bratt, Tika Sumpter, Sherri Shepherd

Ben Barber (Kevin Hart) is about to get married to detective James Payton (Ice Cube)’s sister making them future Brother’s-in-law. But after Ben’s success in the last film, he is chomping at the bit to become a full fledged detective like his brother in law. But he’s just out of the police academy and not ready yet. When James has to take a road trip down to Miami to interview the technical nerd who has broken into the phone of a drug lord, he decides somewhat reluctantly to take Ben along simply to prove to him that he’s not detective material. Naturally things go awry, and the pair end up in a dangerous cat and mouse game with some real bad dudes.

With this sequel that starts immediately after the first film, you get exactly what you would expect. This is no pearl, but it is what it is. Kevin Hart is a pretty funny guy, and he knows how to make you laugh when he’s not annoying the crap out of you. Ice Cube is a really good, dry and serious, all business straight man, and then the story is just a vehicle to allow these guys to do what they do, and they do it very well. Trouble is we’ve seen this already, and it’s very similar to every other buddy cop movie where one is a bumbling but good-hearted Jerry Lewis guy who fouls everything up, and the other is a sometimes borderline mean, but always serious Dean Martin straight man. Like Abbott and Costello of the old days took half hour vaudeville routines and turned them into feature films, this vaudeville “standup act” is made into a movie as well. That’s not to say that it’s not a good story or even a good movie. But what you expect is what you get, and I can see how this would irritate the heck out of a lot of people. So I’m not giving it a glowing rush out and rent it rating, but I am saying if you find Cube and Hart a funny standup act, you’re bound to enjoy this film. So use wisdom in deciding whether to invest the hour and a half or not on this film, but if you like slap stick funny movies, by all means go for it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

New Artists Alliance,

Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz, Ben Feldman, Dane Cook, Tom Cavanagh, Grant Bowler, Sally Pressman, Fernanda Romero, Dominic Bogart

As this movie begins, the base commander is holding a press conference to explain a 400 day mission that a select group of astronauts are about undertake in a buried mock up of a space ship underground. To assess the effects of being trapped in a tiny cylinder simulating deep space with no chance to get out, the group sets out to complete the mission. But it’s a difficult mental and physical experience and it brings a number of surprises. To fully test the crew a series of surprise tests is thrown at them in the way of mock failures and they are tested on their ability to cope and solve solutions sometimes without the help of mission control. But when they suddenly lose connection with the outside, tension grows as they wonder if this is really a test, or is it something much more catastrophic.

This, like any concept film, has its lovers and its haters. I really enjoyed the film, but did not get sucked into the tale, but took it much more cerebral in thinking about the effects of what they were portraying. The haters hate this movie because it offers no resolution, and I don’t mean a cliff-hanger ending. What I mean is that we’re not told what really happened. There are major issues between some of the characters that could be just a dream, or just mental health issues, or it could be a simulation for real, and the ending could have happened or been an elaborate setup. Expecting a resolution you get none, and you have to think your way through it. I think I know what I believe, but I’m not sure that I am right, but I have worked my way through the film, and appreciate the attempt to make this open ended and to allow you to interpret. There have been a few good films like this. Now, I must admit, usually I hate movies that don’t have a point, and just end. Sometimes it drives me crazy. But this time I found it much better that it allowed you to figure out what you will. It presents what it shows, and no interpretation follows. There is a lot of clues, such as the very ending frames of the picture, but those can be interpreted a number of different ways. The haters blame the writer and director for being lazy and not resolving the film, or give us enough clues to know what he intended. But perhaps these folks are being lazy in waiting for someone to tell them a story with a nice surprise ending that wraps it all up. To be honest I enjoyed the experience of not knowing what it really was. I also enjoyed reading the 3 or 4 or more major theories on what it all means. It’s an interactive movie that you have homework to do after it’s over. The story is not in the actors, nor is it in the presentation or the dialog. It’s not in the sets. It’s all there for you to absorb, but the point of the story is in your mind, and there’s time for you to work it out after it’s over. I’m ready to watch this one again.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog