Ed's Review Dot Com

They Are Going to Kill Us Productions

Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, Sean P Diddy Combs, Elliot Gaynon, Antony Langdon, David Letterman, Larry McHale, Edward James Olmos, Jamison Reeves, Eddie Rouse, Ben Stiller, Cenk Uygur, Bruce Willis

In 2008 while rehearsing for a charity event, Joaquin Phoenix announced to everyone there that he was retiring from acting and switching careers to become a rapper. For a year he works on that premise while going off the deep end, growing a shaggy beard and delving into prostitutes and cocaine, cursing his two man entourage, and trying to convince Sean Combs to produce his album. Casey Affleck (Ben’s brother and Joaquin’s brother-in-law) documents it all with a camera to make a stunning documentary of the events of this year of his life. He finally makes a very disjointed and monotone appearance on the Letterman show that went very badly and proves either he’s complete nuts or completely convinced that the character he is playing is for real. This set Hollywood on fire with everyone trying to determine whether it was for real or a very convincing and involved hoax. I don’t think anyone knew for sure.

Shortly after the Letterman appearance Joaquin and Casey came out and announced that it was a complete hoax. Joaquin was playing a character in Casey’s new movie. He then returned to Letterman as himself to prove he was not like the guy who was there before. But whether it’s a hoax, or the hoax is a hoax, it’s an interesting film. The fact is that if he was pulling everyone’s leg, then the film is not worth much. If the hoax is a hoax, then he needs help. Either way, the movie is somewhat interesting, but not very amusing. It’s not like Andy Kaufman, who when you learned that the foreign man was a fake and that Andy was a very clever fellow after all, it did not destroy the enjoyment of watching a brilliant comedian at work. Just like Sasha Cohen’s second film of a gay fashion designer was not near as successful as Borat because we had been fooled before, so we were already in on the joke, this film is just not so good. The fact that they tried to convince everyone that it was for real doesn’t help much. As we look at this guy, he’s so unlikable, that we don’t really care what happens to him. The fact that we know he used his Letterman appearance to promote a film that he was about to release, a film which included the whole interview, makes us dislike him even more. I rated this in the middle, because it was a lot like watching a train wreck or an accident on the freeway, curiosity makes us want to watch, but when it’s all over, we yawn and say, so what. If it’s just an act, then it’s just an act. If it’s a cover up story to hide a real breakdown, then I hope he got some help. But as far as the movie goes, it was ok to watch once, but it’s completely forgettable.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Crescendo Productions, Red Hour Films, Travelling Light Partners

Julie Andrews, Jim Dale, Roy E Disney, Micky Dolenz, Karen Dotrice, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Bruce Gordon, Sheldon Harnick, James Jensen, Jeff Kurtti, John Landis, Angela Lansbury, John Lasseter, Gavin Lee

The Sherman Brothers had an office in the animation building in the Disney Studios, Burbank.  Everyone called them, “The Boys” even when they were very old.  They wrote songs for Walt.  Their first major hit was, of course, Mary Poppins, and a great deal of time of the story deals with that period of their lives.  But they wrote lots of other big hits for Walt’s films.  Then came the Worlds Fair, and some great hits for theme park attractions.  It’s a Small World After All, and the theme of the very first Audioanimatronic show in the world, “In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room”!  But this film, designed and put together  by the sons of Dick and Bob Sherman as a chance to get their dad’s together in their elder years, shows their lives from a little boy, until the present.  These boys were exact opposites from the time they were little.  Richard is outgoing, impulsive, funny, and always high spirited.  Robert is calm, slow, careful, quiet, and sometimes very dark.  But the two as a pair turned out some of the greatest music of all time.  They were the only musicians Walt had on his staff full time.  They were very close to him.   But not only was their relationship strained, but their families had not spoken for nearly 40 years, even though they lived only blocks apart for all those years.

This film is stunning in it’s depth and close insight into the lives of these great men.  I loved every moment of it.  And on the bonus features are some great special treats.  It includes additional insights and interviews that were not in the film.  Anyone who knows them, loves them, and the music that they wrote.  Like Bob says,  We didn’t write Kiddie Songs……we wrote  songs for kiddies.  I am a fan of Disney, as you probably know, and have been in the Animation building hundreds of times.  But most of the nuances of this fabulous film I never knew.  It was wonderful to learn the stories of how the most loved songs came about, and how many almost never happened.  How these geniuses write is an amazing story in itself.  So next time you hum the songs from Winnie the Pooh, you’ll think of this wonderful documentary and the men who made it all happen.  No wonder Walt loved them so much.

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Laughing Crow Entertainment, Schuster’s Cash

Tichina Arnold, Beverly Todd, Peter Coyote, Michael Rooker, Chris Burns, Kenny Cook, Jasmine Farmer, Tom Huff, randy McDowell, Ron Prather

Based on a true story,  Lena Baker was the only woman put to death for a murder in Georgia’s electric chair.  She claimed it was self defense.  In 2005 she was posthumously completely and utterly pardoned for the crime by the State of Georgia.

Born around 1900, this is the story from her earliest days as a cotton picker on a plantation, through a period as a prostitute to stay alive, and he problems and challenges with the bottle.  It was a hard time to be black in Georgia.  Deep in the South, the wounds of the Civil War were still fresh.  Racism was still rampant, and would be for another 60 or 70 years.  No one listened to her testimony, no one wanted to know what truly happened.

This is certainly a thought provoking film.  It is based on the true story, but if there is a fault, it’s that it covers a lot of history in a very short time.  It moves along really fast, and doesn’t seem to develop enough into the character.  Also, they took one side and then set out to press that point of view.  I have a hard time thinking there isn’t more to the story.  Then in the end, it just ends and the words come up on the screen that the pardon happened in 2005.  Why?  What prompted it.  Was was the background on that?   Why do the just have to end it with a statement on the screen with no background information at all as to the details of what happened to cause a state to do th is 60 years later?

So it’s a decent story, one I was not familiar with before seeing the film, and it was very interesting.  But it certainly wasn’t as good of a story as it could have been.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Bear Media, Field Guide Media

Jack Rebney, Ben Steinbauer, Keith Gordon, Nick Prueher

The angriest man in the world!   Jack Rebney was hired by the Winnebago company to shoot a sales video at the end of the 80’s.   They kept the outtakes of the shoot, and they ended up on a “blooper” reel that was orginally shown to the Winnebago executives.   This was back in the VHS days and the tape was duplicated till the video got very weak.  Then someone posted it on You Tube, and Jack Rebney became one of the most well know phenomenon’s of viral videos, along with the Star Wars Kid and the dancing baby.   The video is hilarious.  He got mad and cursed a blue streak on and on and on.  He truly came off as an insane idiot.

Well, Ben Steinbauer got hooked on the video and watched it over and over and over.  Then he wondered whatever happened to Jack Rebney, and how this new found fame suited him.   He set off on a quest to find him and find out what ever happened to “The Angriest Man in the World”.

He found out it wasn’t easy.  Winnebago wasn’t in contact and was not interested at all.  Then Ben even hired a private detective to track him down.  He agreed to be interviewed.  Jack was living on top of a mountain in California and was living like a hermit.  Apparently the fame had not sat so well with him.

This is an interesting documentary, but I was really waiting to see this film, and I found myself disappointed.  First, it was mostly about Ben Steinbauer, not Jack Rebney.  And it left a lot of the questions unanswered.  A lot of it was pretty boring and very self indulgent on the film maker’s part.   It was very self serving more than anything.

So it was and interesting subject, and it was very interesting to see the man today 30 years later.  Also on the special features is the entire video (without the outtakes) and it’s a pretty well done video.  Hopefully it helped the dealers sell a few RV’s. 🙂

But it could have been better.  If you’re interested in the real Jack Rebney (and you have seen the you tube video), go ahead and invest the time to see it.  Otherwise, you’ll probably be bored.

(It very funny to see how much Jack Rebney has inserted himself into popular culture, and how often his sayings have been copied and reused in modern work)

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Golatee Films, Pathe, France 2 Cinema, Disneynature

Pierce Brosnan (Narrator)

I started watching this film with a half open mind dreading when I was about to be bashed over the head about what an evil person I was and how the US is an evil country.   I am behind at work, have lots of chores around the house to do, and I’m struggling to keep paying the mortgage and stay even with the bills.   I feel bad about all that, but I didn’t want to be completely responsible for the death of all mankind and for personally killing the ocean.

To my surprise it didn’t really come until an hour into the film.  Then there it was.  I am trashing the ocean, killing the kelp, destroying species, and devastating the ocean, just as I expected.  But the sad thing is I don’t even eat seafood of any kind.

Well, this is a documentary, and the film is beautiful.  They used to fabulous techniques and this must have been awesome on an Imax screen.  So I have to give great credit for the cinematography and the fantastic way we got to look into the lives of the creatures of the sea.  This is a great film, but Pierce Brosnan, bless his heart,  gets to be grating on the nerves after a while.  Several narrators might have helped this a bit.

So as I expected, the visual is stunning, but it would be nice to watch again with a nice instrumental background with the sound turned off.   Worth watching, except for little kids who might find nature a little bit disturbing (birds eating baby turtles for example), but don’t mind the evil human theme.   It’s required to get something like this made.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog