Ed's Review Dot Com

Gail Katz Productions, MICA Entertainment, Material Pictures,

Tobey Maguire, Peter Sarsgaard, Liev Schreiber, Michael Stuhlbarg, Lily Rabe, Robin Weigert, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Aiden Lovekamp, Conrad Pla

Throughout the 60’s the U.S. and the Russians were locked into the cold war. Each side tried to out shine the others. This docudrama is the story of the epic chess match between Bobby Fischer (Toby Maguire) and Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber) which took place in 1972 to determine the world’s best chess champion. But though the climax of the film is the chess match, we get to learn a log about one of the strangest fellows on the planet, from the time he was a little boy until the world championship.

This movie feels like a documentary, although it’s not really. But it is the story of Bobby Fischer, who I remember from when I was a young adult. I remember the story as it was in the news every day, and I remember what a really strange fellow Bobby Fischer actually was. There is an air of mystery with this guy, and there’s a lot missing from this story. That is my biggest complaint with the film that keeps it getting a higher rating. It feels like they were shooting for a time limit, rather than telling the whole story. But what they did get, they did justice to. You won’t need to be a chess master (I certainly am not) to understand this movie. But a psychology degree or two might help. Tobey Maguire did an excellent job playing Bobby. I think he pulled of the character very well, and I was impressed with the range he was able to show. This is one of his best performances. Liev Schreiber is also a surprise as Boris Spassky too, as he was a well known figure, especially after he played against Bobby. He plays the relatively good-natured (for a Russian) opponent. He was totally believable as Spassky. As docudramas go, I did enjoy this film, but again, that may be due to my familiarity of the story. If you’ve never heard of him, though, and you enjoy biographical movies, this is worth watching. Don’t expect to be wowed or blown away, but it’s a interesting film, and one I’ve been waiting for a long time.

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Stone Angels, YRF Entertainment, Umedia,

Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Frank Langella, Parker Posey, Milo Ventimiglia, Paz Vega, Geraldine Somerville, Nicholas Farrell, Derek Jacobi, Robert Lindsay

Grace Kelly (Nicole Kidman) was a beautiful Hollywood actress who was swept away and married the Prince of Monaco. This film really begins a half dozen years after she had become princess when she was facing a crisis about her life. Offered a role back in Hollywood at the same time a struggle and potential war with DeGaulle and France, Grace has to decide what her role will be. This biopic tells an interesting story of these years in Grace’s life.

Grace Kelly was a really beautiful young lady. Nicole Kidman took on a huge challenge taking on this role, and she probably did the very best she could. She got the look and feel down really well, but of course Grace was much younger than Nicole (who looks remarkable anyway), but though many critics are simply haters on Nicole, I think she did a good job. It was an interesting choice to cover this brief period in her life, rather than trying to do the entire “This is your life” thing. I think it was a good choice. Looking in depth at this period gave us a much better understanding of the person than trying to do the whole thing. It was an interesting period in the history of Monaco as it was in her life. She was struggling with what her role would be and which way her life should go. The script is well done, and the acting is as good as it could have been. I enjoyed this opportunity of learning more about this person, as I was very young when she got married and never really understood how the fairy tale life came to be. I have no unkind words for the actors, as I think they did a pretty good job. I recommend this film if you’re into biographical stories as I think it’s quite well done.

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Working Title Films,

Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, David Thewlis, Maxine Peake, Harry Lloyd, Christian McKay

Stephen Hawkin (Eddie Redmayne) is well known as one of the worlds most brilliant scientists and theoreticians. This is his story, from his time as a youth attending school, through his diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and through many of the accolades and awards and discoveries he has made. This is a docu-drama, and basically a one man show about the life and times of Stephen Hawking so far, and the trials and tribulations he has had to face from this awful disease.

I was riding with my wife the other day and while we were waiting at a red light, a car turned left in front of us. The window was open, and I said to my wife, “I hate that guy!” She was surprised and asked if I knew him. My response was not at all, but I can just tell by looking at him that he’s a pompous ass. Was it was how he carried himself? Was it the way he was dressed? Was it the look on his face? Or did he remind me of someone else I don’t like. I don’t think so, but I could just tell. She thought it was funny and said if I got to know the guy, we might be best friends. Have you ever had that experience where you dislike someone instantly without knowing anything about them at all? It’s a weird thing. Now, I have to say that this is the way I felt about Eddie Redmayne. I don’t know him, I haven’t seen him in person, but when he showed up in Les Miserables, I took an instant disliking to him without even knowing him. When I saw him at the Oscars and making the rounds of the talk shows and other awards shows I felt even more instant dislike for the poor guy. I’m sorry Eddie, but I can’t help it. That overwhelming feeling actually affects my feeling about this film. I have nothing against Stephen Hawking personally. I am not completely in awe of him. I realize he’s a genius and probably much smarter than I’ll ever be, but I also realize he could be quite wrong on a lot of his opinions. He’s probably not, but he could be. When I was 19, they convinced me that Paul McCartney was dead. I was totally convinced because there was a LOT of evidence. I felt that, at least, if he wasn’t, that the Beatles went through a lot of trouble to convince us that he was. As you grow older you realize that prognosticating after the fact is fairly easy to prove anything, and people want to make sense out of the randomness of this world, and if you tie a bunch of theories together, you can pretty much convince yourself that you’re right. Sometimes you are, and the more evidence the better, but sometimes you’re just blowing smoke. I am not saying Stephen Hawking is just blowing smoke, but he could be wrong. But there is no doubt that his life has been extremely challenging and his story is quite astonishing. The facts of his life experiences make a good story. So why did I just not like this one so much? I can’t really put my finger on it, I just was not blown away by this story. I feel like they missed the mark. My instinctual dislike for poor Eddie aside, I felt a little like the whole thing was a bit pompous and sort of stuck up. The feeling I got through the whole thing was like someone was trying to tell me they’re better than me, smarter than me, and superior to me, and if I didn’t accept that I was just stupid. This is probably all in my own mind, but I couldn’t get past it. I wasn’t comfortable through the whole film. I know it got a lot of praise and a lot of awards, but for me, I just didn’t feel like I enjoyed it very much. I have to give it three stars because in my mind I realize it’s not a bad film, and I did go to wikipedia after the film and read up on the real Stephen Hawking and to find out how much of the story was true. It turns out that they did a pretty decent job on telling the true story. But I would not be interested in watching it again.

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Brothers K Productions,

Brit Marling, Diane Kruger, Jason Clarke, Wes Bentley

This biopic is the story of the early days of Abraham Lincoln, one of the the greatest and most beloved presidents of the U.S. He was born in a log cabin in Kentucky and later moved to Indiana. During that time, he was touched by two special women who guided his life and made him into the great man he was. Times were very tough, and the young boys had to basically manage the farm. Abe learned to work hard from the time he could walk.

This was a film that I was rather excited to see, and I was pretty severely disappointed. Told by the Abraham’s brother, if you had not read the cover of the DVD you would never expect it had anything at all to do with Abraham Lincoln. This film was shot in black and white, and though that could have been to show the dark difficult times they experienced, I think it was more playing with the art of painting a movie. This film is so subtle that there hardly is a story, and through most of it you don’t really know what’s going on. It is not a very good screenplay, and much more of an art experiment than a story. It is bleak and dark, and there are plenty of hints to the harsh discipline of Lincoln’s father, and the caring of his two mothers which molded him. But the dialog and story features are so sparse that you have to guess what’s going on most of the time. I really thought this would be a fantastic story of the childhood of one of National heroes, but all in all I found it very hard to follow and a bore to watch. This was a missed opportunity for sure, and it’s a shame. This could have been done much, much better.

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Imagine Entertainment, Jagged Films, Wyolah Films,

Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Dan Aykroyd, Craig Robinson, Lennie James, Jill Scott, Tika Sumpter

Chadwick Bosseman plays James Brown as he starts his career as part of a group, but quickly shines and shows his independence as he becomes the “hardest working man in show business” and “the King of Soul”.

Chadwick does a fantastic job of portraying a very difficult character to play. James Brown certainly lead a difficult life. Nothing was ever easy for him, mostly due to his own attitude. I was never a huge fan when I was younger, but as I got older, I began to appreciate the contributions James Brown made to rock and soul music and the quality of his talent. This was a really interesting biopic and I learned a lot about him watching this movie. In fact the movie was good enough that immediately after watching it I was on-line reading more about this interesting life. If you’re into biographies, or you’re into James Brown, this is a great chance to learn more about it. I can recommend this movie as one that was very interesting and quite enjoyable and educational to watch.

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