Ed's Review Dot Com

RADiUS-TWC, Vega, Baby!, Crime Scene Pictures,

Salma Hayek, Jennifer Blanc, Togo Igawa, Masashi Fujimoto

Everly (Selma Hayek) is having a rough day. Her ex sends a hitmen, then more, then an entire army to kill her. This action thriller is filled with blood and violence, with a great sense of humor. The story takes place all in one room and in one day while she defends herself, her daughter, and her mother.

How to describe this film? Well, it’s one of a kind, that’s for sure. This is like Machete, only with a girl. Truthfully, this is Selma Hayek’s film, and I’m sure it’s not for everyone. It’s extremely dark and gory, but at the same time, it’s really, really funny. The humor is not Three Stooges style slapstick, it stays with the story and is very dark humor, but it’s really funny. It’s filmed in Serbia, and it’s definitely a niche film. But with all that said, I really got a kick out of this. It’s ridiculously silly, but still it holds your interest throughout. There could be other Everlys but it wouldn’t be the movie it is without Selma Hayek. She really put her own stamp on the film, and even before you listened to the DVD bonus feature commentary track you would know that Selma had a lot of input to the film once she signed on to the movie. Yes, this is a very unique indie film with lots of R rated content, but with a humorous and exciting and suspenseful storyline that is an adventure to watch. I did enjoy it, and if you think you can handle this (or if you liked Machete) then I recommend this one for you.

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Abbolita Productions, Gotham Group, Starstream Entertainment,

Jennifer Aniston, Mos Def, Isla Fisher, Will Forte, Mark Boone Junior, Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Clea Lewis, Charlie Tahan, Kevin Corrigan

Frank Dawson (Tim Robins) is a developer who has earned a lot of money rather unscrupulously. He’s a bit of a bastard, and his long suffering wife, Mickey (Jennifer Aniston) does her best to put up with his crap. Frank is off on another business trip which is really a tryst with his girlfriend Melanie (Isla Fisher) and Franks divorce papers are in the mail so that Mickey will get it while he’s away and he won’t have to deal with it. But things don’t go as planned when Mickey is kidnapped by a few quirky common thieves who lock her away and demand a million dollars from Frank who doesn’t want to pay. Things get really screwy in this drama with a side of comedy.

Jennifer Aniston is amazing, isn’t she? It’s because of her performance that this movie even works. As it is, she was really good. This story seems very, very similar to “Ruthless People” with Bette Midler and Danny DeVito where she was kidnapped from a husband who didn’t want her. But this is quite different. “Ruthless People” was done as a slapstick comedy with laughs coming every minute. This film, though very funny in parts, is much more dramatic and a lot more serious. The crooks who kidnap her are about as incompetent as “The Apple Dumpling Gang” but somehow they are clever enough to pull it off without being silly. Tim Robbins was perfectly cast as the uncaring husband and he did a good job, but the gem in this film has to be Isla Fisher who is really perfect as the mistress who has an angle of her own. There are twists and turns throughout the movie, and it’s actually a very interesting story. I was impressed by this film as a streaming movie (I haven’t found a place to buy it yet, but it’s available for streaming) and it was a pleasant journey watching this movie. I recommend this as an unusual relationship story with a side of crime and treachery topped with a heaping helping of comedy. If you find this one, give it a shot. If just for Jennifer Aniston’s performance alone it will be worth it.

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Saban Films, Code Entertainment, Freedom Media,

John Travolta, Christopher Plummer, Tye Sheridan, Jennifer Ehle, Marcus Thomas, Anson Mount, Abigail Spencer, Travis Aaron Wade

Raymond Cutter (John Travolta) is the worlds best art forger, but he’s been in prison away from his father Joseph (Christopher Plummer) and his son Will (Tye Sheridan). But his son is not well and Ray would do anything to get back home to spend some time with him. So he makes an impossible deal with a big time gangster to paint of forgery of a Monet painting, then break into the museum and steal the original, and replace it with the forgery in return for buying his way out of prison.

This crime story jumped out of the screen and captured my attention. Truthfully I have never been a huge Travolta fan, and he has made some rather bad movies over the years, but he did a really good job in this one. He is an art forger, and a criminal, but still cares about his son and he pulls this off very well. The two have a tight bond by the end of the film. These three together is actually a pleasure to watch. Typical scam and heist films like this one have a lot of twists and turns, and this one is no different, and it was pretty interesting all the way through. I found the story fresh and fun to follow. The script was well done, and the actual heist was really suspenseful. All in all I found this a good film. and if you enjoy a good robbery, mixed with a story of three generations trying to find their common ground, give this one a try.

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Universal Pictures, Dark Castle Entertainment, Woestijnvis,

Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Isabel Lucas, Rachael Taylor

Five married professional men in the city have keys to a loft in a large apartment building. Here they can bring their conquests for a private tryst while hiding from public places and their wives and families. But when one of the guys arrives at the loft and finds a beautiful girl murdered in the bed, he calls the others. This could be the end of the line for these guys and all their deeds may become known if word gets out. But the door was locked and the alarm was set, and all the keys are accounted for, so who is responsible. This who-done-it story is full of twists and turns and lots of lies and deceit in this crime thriller.

This film is definitely a crime thriller with the usual secrecy and deceptions, and the cast is really solid. With some top notch actors here, the talent is very good. The movie, however, has it’s flaws. The story is fresh enough, but the screenplay resorts to the usual plot devices and in that sense it feels very familiar. There could have been a little more effort put into the story to make it less predictable. The final big twist you can see coming a mile away. The actors are working hard, and they really give their best. This has the film of one of the old film noir detective films of old, but the difference is that the guys pretty much need to find out what happened themselves, knowing that the killer is probably one of their friends. This makes trust pretty difficult when you don’t know who is responsible for the terrible thing that happened here. The film is rated R, but there is very little actual sex and violence in the film itself. Instead it is a very adult story, and the subject matter itself is what gets the R rating. It’s not what you see, but what you experience that is for grown-ups only. If you like mysteries, this one is interesting and is good enough, but it’s not a great film that you need to run out and chase down on it’s merit alone.

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Paramount Pictures, Winkler Films,

Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Lange, John Goodman, Brie Larson

This remake of the 1974 James Caan film stars Mark Walhberg as Jim Bennett, the man with two lives. As a College English Literature professor during the day, and an avid gambler who always seems to go too far and lose it all, he has a hard time keeping the two lives from crashing together. Son of a very wealthy mother (Jessica Lange) Jim borrows the money from her finally as the bad guys are about to come after him very hard since he is in to them for a great deal of money. But Jim starts a friendship with one of his students, Amy (Brie Larson) and together they make some really bad choices and find themselves back in the soup all over again.

Mark Wahlberg worked very, very hard for this film. He lost a TON of weight to play the skinny, down on his luck professor/gambler, and the action sequences, he said, took a lot out of him after losing all that weight. He promises himself he’ll never do that again. But furthermore, he sat through actual English Lit classes so that he would look the part of a professor. But with all that hard work and effort, the movie just doesn’t come together. I’m not sure Mark is the best choice for the role anyway, but it probably isn’t his fault. Actually there’s no real drama, as you don’t get invested in the characters and really don’t care whether he gets beat up or not. Jessica Lange’s role is small, and she’s pretty good at it, but it’s not enough to save the tedious parts of the movie. I guess I would have to blame it on the script. I haven’t seen the original, so I can’t really compare it in any way, but this one never really got going for me. I watched the whole film, but never really got into the story,and at the end, I was glad it was over. No matter whose fault it is, I can’t really recommend this one as I don’t think it’s interesting or captivating enough to recommend.

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