Ed's Review Dot Com

Eyeworks Fine & Mellow, Film i Väst, Filmgate Films,

James Franco, Kate Hudson, Omar Sy, Tom Wilkinson

Tom (James Franco) and Ann Wright (Kate Hudson) are young married couple that are struggling financially. They want desperately to have a child, but can’t afford the treatments to make it happen. They rent their basement apartment to a guy who turns up dead, and who seems to be involved with some nasty characters. Tom and Ann find a bag full of money hidden in their basement and they are good people who just need a little help to get through a rough financial patch, so they decide to only use a little bit of it. But when the hoods show up looking for the cash, they are in big, big trouble.

This crime drama feels familiar. We’ve certainly been through this scenario before. But this movie is really well done. With James Franco, Kate Hudson, and Tom Wilkinson performing here, we know we’re going to get a first class performance from all of them. The don’t disappoint. They are really good. The back story on Tom Wilkinson’s character is so tragic and touching that we really feel for him, and his presence adds a lot to the film. The bad guys are bad, and the action and suspense are both extremely well done. If it were not for the familiarity of the story, this would have been a really top notch thriller. So we pretty much know where it’s going to go and how it’s going to end up, but for this film, it’s not the destination, but the journey that makes it worthwhile. I would call this a great film, but it’s certainly worthy of watching, and is very well done.

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1984 Private Defense Contractors, Cross Creek Pictures, Da Vinci Media Ventures,

Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Boyd Holbrook

Matt Scudder (Liam Neeson) is a former NYPD cop and a recovering alcoholic. One of his AA buddies asks him to help out a friend who is in the middle of a kidnapping and not anxious to call the police. Scudder finds out he’s a high powered drug lord and he refuses to help but when the guy shows up to tell him the “rest of the story” it seems he paid the ransom, and did everything right, but they murdered her anyway in an extremely horrible way. Scudder figures they’ve done this before, so he sets out to find out who is behind these kidnappings and murders and decides to try to rescue their latest victim before they have a chance to kill her.

Typical Liam Neeson high suspense, gory, high adventure film. He’s the Liam Neeson action hero that he’s played lately in all the Takens. This is another one, but the thing I liked most about this film is that it’s a straight forward action crime story without all the subtle nuances, back stories, complicated characters and all over the world settings. It’s a simple straight forward ex-cop drama. As I mentioned a while ago in my Taken 3 review, I am really getting to like the action hero Liam Neeson as much, if not more than all his other types of characters. He’s really good in this one, and his cast is also very good. It’s truly a one man show, but he has some great adversaries that bring a lot to the story. Although there’s a bit of nudity, and some very gory fight scenes, this in not a good choice for the younger folks, but for the adult viewer, it’s a really good crime drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Regency Enterprises, TSG Entertainment,

Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Missi Pyle, Sela Ward, Casey Wilson, Patrick Fugit, David Clennon, Lisa Banes, Lola Kirke, Boyd Holbrook

Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) fell instantly in love with Amy (Rosamund Pike), and they were quickly married, but four years later a lot has changed. They’re not feeling close anymore, fighting more than talking, and both feel disappointed in how their lives have turned out. Contemplating divorce, Nick returns home from the bar that he owns with his sister to find his wife is missing. The house is torn up, and it appears like a struggle. As Amy’s family arrives to help, Nick insists he doesn’t know anything about Amy’s disappearance, but as time goes by, everyone seems to turn on him and his alibi is wearing thin.

This is a crime story, right out of today’s headlines, but with plot twists and turns and loads of suspense building, it was a wildly popular film in theaters, and one I wanted to get to see. But the timing was bad, and I never made it. Now it has come out on DVD and I planned a nice evening watching this film. This might be a case where your expectation is too high. Sometimes that backfires, and I was simply not blown away by this movie as I was with some of the others I have seen recently, but knew little about. Ben Affleck was pretty good, and played the frustrated husband with lots of secrets pretty well. I have no complaints with his performance. In fact, it was a very high quality film, and certainly interesting enough to watch. I enjoyed it, and it was an OK thriller with a good cast and an ordinary script. I think my biggest problem here was there were no great AHA! moments, but rather lots of little “ok, sure” moments. I wasn’t shocked by the way the story went, and it was a rather unfulfilling ending at the end. But it fits, and the story is certainly pretty authentic modern America. I don’t want to discourage people from watching this, as it was certainly a good film, but definitely not a GREAT film. Perhaps if you come in with lower expectations you won’t be disappointed.

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Reno Productions,

Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Cara Buono, Kristen Connolly, Mike O’Malley, Stephen Lang, Will Rogers, Theo Stockman

Darcy (Joan Allen) and Bob Anderson (Anthony LaPaglia) have been in a good marriage for 25 years. They own Bob’s father’s rare coin business and he loves traveling all over the country looking for good buys on rare coins. But when a deep dark secret comes out and Darcy becomes aware of it, she has no idea how to handle it. The secret is so deep that it may destroy their whole lives in this Stephen King thriller.

Stephen King’s short story transitions to film and TV is rather hit and miss. Personally, Stephen King is not my favorite horror fiction writer, but he has done some fantastic work. Some of my favorite books and movies have been based on King’s work. This is certainly not the greatest thing he’s ever written, but it’s a pretty good one. We are shocked when we discover the secret, and the suspense builds and disbelief grows along with it. This brings a couple major ethical decisions to life, and we tend to ponder the choices along with the characters in the story. All in all it’s not really horror as much as it is suspense and mystery, but it’s a darn good crime thriller. With lots of character development and plenty of meat in the story, this is a film worth watching. Now that it’s available for streaming from NetFlix, it’s not even a requirement to take up a spot in your DVD queue. If you’re a fan of thrillers, then you gotta catch this one. It’s pretty good.

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IFC Midnight, Motion Pictures, Joyplex,

Tammin Sursok, Ben Wiggins, Sarah Bonrepaux, Jade Tailor, Russell Geoffrey Banks

Allie Westbrook (Tammin Sursok) is backpacking through Thailand. She’s staying at an apartment in Bangkok with a number of other foreign students, and she makes friends with some of them. She’s introduced to a computer “game” played by other residents in the building where they can log into a site called Cam2Cam and face chat with other people. But Allie has an ulterior motive for coming to Bangkok so it’s not a coincidence. But in trying to solve her mystery, she soon finds out that no one in the building is who they seem to be, and it’s a deadly game. In trying to find the truth, she may have sealed her own death or disappearance.

This movie, unrated for a purpose, is all about trying to shock you. The trouble is that in 2014 its hard to shock an audience. Yes this film is full of lies and betrayals, double crosses, and treachery, but there’s just not a whole lot going on here. When you finally put together all the pieces and figure out what really going on, will you care? I doubt it. There’s very little suspense here. Though they’re trying to make you really worried about Allie’s future, you don’t really get so into her story to believe enough to really care. The setting is exotic, but it’s certainly not got much of the beauty of Thailand in it, other than the opening montage, it’s mostly back streets of garbage and ugliness. This is not a travel film that will make you want to explore Bangkok by any means. Whether Allie makes it out or not is not really important. I probably couldn’t remember the ending anyway, and it’s just been a few days since I’ve watched this. This is a very forgettable flick, or perhaps it’s because of my age, that I can’t really identify with the young folks that are wasting their lives out adventuring on their own. For me I would say, skip this one.

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