Archive for Based on a true story

FilmNation Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, Faliro House Productions,

Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Linda Cardellini, Patrick Wilson, B.J. Novak, Laura Dern

Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman) and Mac McDonald (John Carroll Lynch) were brothers who opened a drive in restaurant in San Bernardino, California. They were struggling with all the problems that come with Drive Ins, with the clientele and the car hops themselves, and the difficulty of keeping each of the menu orders straight. But the brothers came up with an idea they called Speedee Service where they trimmed down the menu to just Hamburgers, Fries, Milkshakes, and Soda, nothing else, but also a redesigned kitchen that allowed them to fill orders at the walk up window in about 30 seconds. Additionally they did away with all the silverware and dishes, and packaged everything in disposable wrappers in a bag designed to be totally disposable. Meanwhile Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) was a salesman, struggling to eke out a living selling milkshake blenders on the road. But he was a big dreamer, and when he heard of the success of the McDonald brothers, he set out to see it for himself. They made a tenuous partnership and struggled to bring to fruition Kroc’s vision of the largest franchise in history, with a restaurant in every town, the McDonalds we know today. This docudrama tells the story of the recognized franchise king Ray Kroc from the eyes of the two brothers who actually invented the system.

The main character all are excellent actors. Michael Keaton did an excellent job as did Nick and John as the McDonald Brothers. Laura Dern also brought a lot to the movie with her role as Ray’s wife. She added quite a bit to the story as her role is very complex, but but she pulled it off very well. This is one of the better docudrama’s I have seen in a long time. I think most everyone is aware that Ray Kroc was the founder of McDonalds, but few people know the background of where the golden arches came from, originally. This movie is rather interesting because of the unusual path it took. Everyone wanted to tell the story of the McDonald brothers and how Ray Kroc ran over them with a steam roller, but this producer, director, and screen writer realized early on that Ray Kroc is the center of the film, and that it’s not all black and white. Without taking sides, it’s told from the McDonald Brothers point of view, but as you go through the film, there are no heroes and not bad guys, really. Everything is really grey as we come to understand how things happened the way they had to do. I highly recommend this film as I found it very well made, well told, and quite interesting. Give it a shot.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Fox Searchlight Pictures, LD Entertainment, Wild Bunch,

Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, John Hurt, Billy Crudup, Richard E. Grant, John Carroll Lynch, Beth Grant, Max Casella, Caspar Phillipson

November 22, 1963, President John F Kennedy was shot in Dallas. Jackie (Natalie Portman) Kennedy brings us into her life right after the assassination to portray the confusion, sorrow, fear, and grief that she has to go through during the days and weeks after the event in this fact based docudrama of the days following Kennedy’s death. Without taking a huge chunk of her life, the screenwriter chose just one event. With the unique style, this film is a story told by Jackie to a writer about the events surrounding her husband’s death and burial told after some time passed, but it also mixes this with footage of the famous tour of the White House TV show that was made shortly after they arrived in the White House.

This is a rather interesting story of how it all happened. I was in gym class when the principal broke into the P.A. system and broadcasted the news directly over the speakers so we could hear. I remember the three or four days where nothing was on television other than the news of the shooting, the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the funeral procession. I saw hours and hours of people filing past the casket day and night, and rehash of the events on every channel. There was nothing else to do, and it was a bit overwhelming, but a whole country was in mourning. We were also afraid. We didn’t know what would happen next. But Jackie and her two little children lived though it in a time that must have seemed surreal. We never knew what Jackie was doing behind the scenes other than when she would pop out in front of the cameras from time to time. But this movie covered the time in depth, and I found that quite fascinating. It’s heart tugging, and it’s difficult to imagine sometimes, but is is interesting. I couldn’t help but see and hear Natalie Portman though, and it certainly made me painfully aware that we were not watching Jackie. I think she did an excellent job, but it is very difficult to pull off portraying such a well known celebrity as she was. But I have seen other movies that covered Jackie’s life after the White House, but it was the first time I have ever seen someone attempt to pull off those few days where time stood still. And as a child of Camelot, I remember the assassination like it was just yesterday. Well done film, and well worth watching if you’re interested in what happened.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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CBS Films, Closest to the Hole Productions,

Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, J.K. Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, Alex Wolff, Themo Melikidze, Melissa Benoist

April 15, 2013 at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, two pressure cooker bombs went off shooting shrapnel into the crowd of people watching the race and even the participants in the race. All of the law enforcement agencies came together to put together the pieces and to quickly identify the terrorists as the Tsarnaev brothers, home grown terrorists who wanted to bring mayhem and death to the city. When they realized law enforcement was closing in on them, they made an attempt to escape to continue their mayhem in the largest city in the United States, New York City. The whole crew pulled out every trick in their arsenal to try to defeat these two.

A very well told story of the horror and the brave first responders who cane together to bring the city together is very well told. It stars some great actors like Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, and J.K. Simmons to tell the story clearly and completely. We heard the story in the news as it was happening, but this movie gives us the opportunity to get to know the men and women who worked together to solve this case. With the help of the public and with all the tools at their hands, and a little luck we get to see how the teams work. Of course, I don’t know how accurate this all is, but it seems a great deal of effort was put into making this as truthful as possible. The pace of the story is fine. It takes it time to set the stage, then show the explosions and the horror after the bombs went off. Then it goes through the efforts of each of the teams, and the difficulty of determining who’s in charge at what time. The acting is really good, and the reenactments are very well done. All in all this is an exciting and inspiring story that seems to fairly show the difficulty in trying to prevent things like this from happening. Very well done, and I am glad this film was released to see in the theater, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s now available on DVD and well worth watching.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Broadway Video, Michaels-Goldwyn, Relativity Media,

Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Jason Sudeikis

Steve (Owen Wilson) is a bad guy. But he’s tired of the little nickel and dime capers, and thinks it would be great to pull of an armored car heist, but needs someone on the inside. Kelly (Kristen Wiig) has the solution. Kelly work for the Loomis Fargo company for a short while and knows that innocent, but not too bright David Ghantt (Zach Galifinakis) has a crush on her, and has worked for the company for many years. So Kelly flirts with David to convince him that he could pull of the heist, disappear to Mexico where she will shortly join him in a happy and carefree life with tons of money. But they are just playing him for a sucker. David pulls off he heist, heads to Mexico with his share (all he can stuff into his underwear, to Mexico where he finds the Interpo, and a hired killer named Mike McKinney (Jason Sudakeis) is looking for him. Not to mention that stupidly all of these “masterminds” left behind a huge amount of evidence, and the law is closing the noose.

This is a funny film, that does have a good many laugh out loud moments. It’s not as funny as it thinks it is though. Based on the real life 1887 Loomis Fargo robbery, it misses on a lot of the jokes and ends up being more silly than funny. It’s not nearly as good as many of the other films featuring these same actors, and I blame the script and the director for letting it fall into silliness right away. This is produced by Lorne Michaels which explains all the SNL actors in this film, and that also explains a lot of it. SNL has gone a long way towards losing their sense of humor lately as well, and is getting really hard to watch anymore. As a rental flick, this isn’t that bad, and these guys are really good actors, with very thin material to work with, granted, but they do their best. Several of the moments were really good, and I think it’s worth it to give it a go when you don’t have to pay big money to see it in the theater, but all in all, it’s not near as good as it should have been.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Visible Pictures(II), All Entertainment,

Masey McLain, Ben Davies, Sadie Robertson, Korie Robertson, Bella Robertson, Jaci Velasquez, Jennifer O’Neill

Rachel Joy Scott (Masey McLain) was the first person shot by the Colombine High School shooters, they asked her if she was still a Christian, and when she confirmed her belief, she was viciously shot and killed. Rachel was not a perfect person. Being a High School girl, she had problems and issues, like everyone else, but was a very outstanding young person trying to help others and do the right things. She wrote a journal, and her Mother decided to publish the last few months and weeks of her life to show what a difference her daughter made. This is a biographical story in her own words of how she lived to make the world a better place and to reach out to those who needed her friendship.

This is a Christian movie, certainly. But it’s also very touching and down to earth. Unlike a made up story, this is the real story of Rachel and the struggles she faced. This is not a documentary of the Columbine shooting, although there is actual news footage including President Clinton that is real footage. This is the story of a girl, and her struggles and flaws and her attempts to do good things. In that respect, Masey did a great job of portraying the girl. There are several reasons why people might not like this film, but I think they can be summed up in a few words. One is that it is a Christian movie, and therefore does preach a lot. That turns off a lot of people. Secondly, they are not trying to put down or take away from each of the individuals that lost their life in this terrible tragedy, nor does it do much to explain the psychosis that these boys had that made them do what they did. This is not about the shooting, but is the memory of one person, and a few people that her life touched. So don’t expect a long documentary on the tragedy, as that isn’t here. But if you are able to take the story at face value, it certainly is a great story, and one that ought to be told. It seems each of us ought to have a movie made about our lives and how we made a difference, but sadly only a choice few have that opportunity. If Rachel had been run over by a bus, we never would have known her story and was a decent person she was, and that is sad. But due to circumstances she couldn’t control, she is able to make an impact on each of us. Well done, and a good, very sentimental and righteous story.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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