Ed's Review Dot Com

Fox 2000 Pictures, Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation,

Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, Gal Gadot, Michael Liu, Maribeth Monroe

Jeff Gaffney (Zach Galifianakis) and his wife Karen (Isla Fisher) are about the coolest family in the neighborhood. But when the empty house was sold to new people and when they moved in, Tim Jones (Jon Hamm) and Natalie (Gal Gadot) were about the most perfect couple anyone had ever seen. Jeff was out to make friends right away, but Karen was a bit concerned that something didn’t seem right. But Karen was right as it turned out that they were out after criminal mastermind, Scorpion (Patton Oswalt) But before they know it, curiosity killed the cat, and Jeff and Karen are in deep in the middle of the incident and they have no clue whether the neighbors are the good guys or the bad guys.

This rather humorous little spy film is a lot of fun. It’s got a lot of the same gags and plot moves that most of these types of movies have, but the delightful thing about this one is the quality of the performances of everybody in the cast. Zach can really get on your nerves if he’s not in the right role, but this one suited him perfectly as he played it neither too goofy or too straight, but followed the line of a normal guy who is in over his head. He did a great job. Isla Fisher is one of my favorites though, and she was also very good in this role. These are the most well suited roles for them I have seen. Jon Hamm was nearly perfect in his role of the guy who hates his job, but knows he has to make the best of it. He plays a very sarcastic Tim Jones in a very Patrick Warburton kind of way and was very good as well. Gal Gadot I was not so familiar with, but she play Boris’ Natasha in a very good portrayal of the foreign spy girl who keeps her husband on his toes. All in all, it was a very good story played by an excellent cast, and I am surprised this this wasn’t bigger in the theater. But this is a perfect rental, and very much worth watching, so give them some support by renting this and have a very enjoyable evening laughing with them throughout. Yes, you’re going to figure out what’s going to happen early on, but it’s still a great deal of fun to watch it evolve.

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Miramax, Perfect World Pictures, StudioCanal,

Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Celia Imrie, Sally Phillips, James Callis

This third in the Bridget Jones series finds Bridget (Rene Zellweger) pregnant at 43 due to the “age” of the condoms she’s been carrying for years and years, but the problem is that she has two fellows that could be the father, and she’s unable to figure out which of the two might be it. So in a very Bridget like way, she decides to let them both think they’re the father. What could go wrong here? Everything, and it does.

The first Bridget Jones movie was quite interesting and a fresh and unexpected film. The second was a rather big letdown. This film didn’t blow me away either. Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey were good as the eligible baby daddies, but all in all it was pretty much the same thing as before. It isn’t fresh anymore. Bridget is kind of whiney and a bit annoying after all, and the story is rather predictable. So my recommendation here is that if you’re a Zellweger fan, or if you really enjoyed the other movies in the series, you might want to go see this one. But I suspect you have already seen it then. Otherwise, there’s not a lot of reasons to go out and borrow this one. I wasn’t majorly impressed with the story, and found it a bit tedious.

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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Red Hour Films, 21 Laps Entertainment,

Bryan Cranston, James Franco, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mullally, Griffin Gluck, Keegan-Michael Key, Zack Pearlman, Casey Wilson, Andrew Rannells

The Fleming family, Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston), kind Dad whose old school print business is struggling, but is trying hard to succeed. Barb Fleming (Megan Mullally) Mom who has no clue that her husband’s business is in trouble, Scotty Fleming (Griffin Gluck) young teen son who is trying to be cool, but doesn’t understand, and Stephanie Fleming (Zoey Deutch) who is attending Stanford University and about to graduate, are all looking forward to the holidays. But Stephanie has a plan. She’s been dating a secret boyfriend, Laird Mayhew (James Franco) and wants to surprise the family to spend Christmas in California and meet her new boyfriend. But what she doesn’t know is that Laird is planning to ask her to marry him and being a nice guy wants to ask Ned for his blessing first. But Laird is a REALLY unusual guy and Ned is a bit over-protective, so just about everything that can go wrong, does go wrong until it looks like the whole family is about to go back to Michigan and come completely apart before the big Christmas Day.

This is a raucous comedy full of very over the top raunchy comedy that is off the chain! This is a very funny movie, but written by Jonah Hill and Produced by Ben Stiller, this is certainly a mature comedy. The comedy, though, fires on all cylinders and is very laugh out loud funny throughout. I really enjoyed Cranston as the uptight over-protective father, and Franco is hysterically funny in this role. This kind of role really suits him, and though I’ve seen some sketchy performances from him in the past when he’s out of his element, this is the role he was born to play. Everyone else is loads of fun too, and everyone gets punch lines throughout, so everybody is really having a great time. Some of this is so ludicrous, but still so darn funny. Very well put together by people who really get comedy, this was a very funny film, and if you don’t mind the strong “Borat-like” R rating, give it a shot. It was really a crack up.

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Blackbird, Cold Iron Pictures, Tadmor,

Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Hank (Paul Dano) appears to be on a deserted island and about to hang himself. Hank is very lonely and full of despair. As he’s about to do the deed, he notices a corpse floating out in the water. He changes his mind and sets out to pull in and rescue the corpse, but over time as his relationship with the dead dude, Manny (Daniel Radcliffe), he finds that not only is Manny still able to function, but he has magical powers that help Hank to escape his desperate attempt to return to civilization, especially to finally meet and talk to the girl he often saw on the bus, Sarah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

This film is really, really strange! Now that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, and in this case, it’s not anything like realism, but it could have many, many meanings. It’s wide open enough that you can come up with you own theory of whether everything is literal, if it’s a psychotic episode, or if Hank perhaps really succeeded in his attempt to hang himself. That’s all up to you, the viewer to decide. Daniel Radcliffe certainly picks some really strange roles, and this has to be the strangest thing he’s ever done, but it’s got some real comedic moments if you take it all seriously. It’s certainly way out there in the Twilight Zone. I don’t want to spill too much of the happenings as it might be fun for those of you who are fans of the strange, to try to figure out your take on it. Like “The Lobster” [Click Here for Ed’s Review] that was released on DVD not to long ago, this is really off the mainstream by miles and miles. As to the performances, Paul Dano did an excellent job on this movie, but he’s certainly not very likeable. Poor Hank has so many issues and is really screwed up, that’s for sure, no matter how you take it. And Radcliffe’s performance as I alluded to before is very strange, but he’s playing a talking (and farting) dead body, so what is there to judge it with? All I can say is that I didn’t really get it, and found it rather annoying in a lot of ways, but I certainly didn’t hate it either. I would not go out seeking this movie, as it is certainly an odd way to spend an hour or so, but if you do have a chance to see it, and you like very out of the ordinary subjects, then you just might like it. I can see where some people would think this a masterpiece (I don’t) but on the other hand, I can just as easy see fights erupting over what it all means, which may simply means totally nothing at all. Approach at your own risk!

Note: This is the studio’s Red Band or R Rated trailer:

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New Line Cinema, Principato-Young Entertainment,

Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Tiffany Haddish, Method Man, Jason Mitchell, Luis Guzmán, Nia Long, Will Forte, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Jamar Malachi Neighbors, Benedict Cumberbatch

Rell Williams (Jordan Peele) is really sad, and his world is crashing down. His friend Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) would like to help out, but when a little kitten arrives at his door, Rell finds new purpose in life and bounces back. But a week later the poor little kitten is stolen, and so Rell and Clarence head out to recover the cat. But it isn’t going to be easy as they have to impersonate gangsters and thugs as they deal with the drug lords and crooks that run the city to try to get their kitten back.

I must admit I was waiting a long time for this to come out on video, and I was rather disappointed when it came time to pop it in the DVD. For some reason I expected more out of this. Now, I remember these guys from the MadTV days when I watched it religiously every week. I used to Tivo SNL and watch MadTV first! (Yeah, there is a new MadTV on this season, and it just isn’t funny). I enjoyed their characters, although this movie kind of felt like a very, very long version of their “Jinx” skits where somebody does or says something bad, and the guys have to go through extreme measures to break the jinx. They were very funny, but always went on WAY too long. This is kind of the same thing. I found myself wishing this would just be over and something else funny would come on. They are finding a new audience on their new TV show, and I must admit I have never seen that one, not even once, so there may be something going on there that I just don’t get. I really think these guys are very talented comedians, but they didn’t put it to good use with these characters. They spend the whole movie switching between making extreme funny faces and faking terror or fear, and talking like tough gang members about to “pop a cap in yo’ ass”. Perhaps there is a taste for this, like what I felt for The Three Stooges back in the day, but I found this extremely silly. I realize that comedy often is made by going to the extreme, but this so far that it’s like Borat without the clever bits. I found it just dragged on and on and did not strike me as very funny at all. I am sure there is a market for these guys, and I wish them well in future endeavors, but I think this one missed by a mile. Sometimes sketch comedy doesn’t stretch out to a full feature without getting too thin.

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