Ed's Review Dot Com

National Geographic,

Jeremy Irons

As the film opens an African lioness named Ma di Tau and her cubs flee a deadly fire, only to find themselves cut off from the rest of the pride. They have to find a way to survive in a situation they were never supposed to face as Ma di Tau tries to find a way to hunt to feed her starving cubs while dealing with unusual conditions that she doesn’t understand and knowing the fact that if she fails, none of them will survive. This exciting documentary is the work of a husband and wife award winning filmmaking team, Dereck and Beverly Joubert. Jeremy Irons narrates.

This is a National Geographic film, so you know it’s got to be really good quality. They obviously have an agenda, as the lions and other Big Cats are at risk of extinction. This is mostly due to poaching, but other issues threaten them. But though it could get all up in our face with the agenda, instead it takes the high road and lets these incredibly beautiful animals tell their own story. This is a very beautiful documentary, and is very well done. Jeremy Irons reminds that that other voices than Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones can narrate a film. Jeremy does an outstanding job. All in all, this is as exciting as any scripted drama could be, and will bring us memories of the Disney Tru-Life Adventures of old with modern technology to bring us stunning pictures, especially in the original IMAX version of this film. Very well done, and an excellent story of survival in a harsh environment. Good film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Imax Filmed Entertainment,

Morgan Freeman, Birute Galdikas, Daphne Sheldrick

This IMAX 3D documentary is a stunning story of two amazing women in two distant countries. Birute Galdikas has studied primates and rescues them in the jungles of Borneo to be reintroduced to the wild. Daphne Sheldrick is attempting to save the elephants on the plains of Kenya and developed procedures like a special infant formula that makes orphaned elephants whose mothers have been killed by poachers thrive and grow to be released back to the herd. This stunning beautiful story weaves the two stories into a tale of wild animals and those that love and care for them and try to install a respect for those who watch this film.

This is certainly a very beautiful film, very well done, and excellently filmed. But the downside is the way the film flips back and forth from one story to the other. Then there’s the fact that it’s listed with a 40 minute run time which is pretty short, but I swear it was less than 30 minutes actually. The DVD I watched did not have any special features on it, and so the entire experience was very short. Still, it must have been a great experience to see this on a huge IMAX screen in 3D and witness the breathtaking scenery. On a small TV screen it was nice, but much was lost I am sure. If you’re a nature lover, by all means, go ahead and watch this, but there are much better nature films out there than this niche IMAX 3D film that doesn’t quite cut it on the rental DVD.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Miramax Films, TalkStory Productions, Artemis Films,

Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Reeve Carney, Alfred Molina, Russell Brand, Djimon Hounsou, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, Tom Conti, David Strathairn, Ben Whishaw

The Duchess Prospera (Helen Mirren) and her daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones) are stranded on a desert isle out at sea. They have been there for many years but Prospera is a sorceress and able to cast spells. As a ship nears, Prospera causes a huge storm, a tempest, which sinks the ship. A number of people on the ship make it to the island in different groups and begin an interesting journey where they eventually meet up to each other and meet Prospera and her daughter One of these is a potential suitor for Miranda. This film takes the classic drama by Wm.Shakespeare and changes the gender of the sorcerer, brings things up to more modern music and characteristics, but keeps Ye Olde English of the Bard.

For this reason, I didn’t really enjoy this film. For someone who understands and can follow the ancient version of the language, it’s probably ok, but for me, I struggled through trying to read Shakespeare way back in High School and haven’t gotten any better since then. Then to put these modern characters (like Russell Brand) in a story done in old English is rather absurd. All in all I didn’t really enjoy it. I had a really hard time following what was going on, and even harder trying to care.

Even for Shakespeare fans, I don’t highly recommend this, as they change it around enough, and there are enough weaknesses to make it weak for them as well. If you’re a fan of the work, go for a real production, not this bastardized version. A couple things are pretty good. Helen Mirren is great, as always and turns in a stellar performance. And the special effects for the way the portray Ariel is quite good. With film and green screen, they can do a lot more with this character than they can on the stage where Prospero just carries the creature with him throughout!

I wanted to really give this film a chance though, so when I finished it, I turned on the director’s commentary. I found out it was essentially a one woman show where she did everything in the film (Julie Traymor). This usually spells bad news when one person tries their hand at everything. There isn’t anyone to bounce ideas off of. Ask Eddie Murphy how Norbert turned out for him! I listened to about a quarter of the commentary, and was trying to get into it when I heard her say, “I am Berkeley so…..”. Not I am from Berkeley, or I went to UC Berkeley, but “I am Berkeley” When I heard that I turned it off, put it back in the sleeve and dropped it into the mail. That said it all, and I understood that I am much too low on the scale of intellect to ever “get it”. After all, I am not Berkeley.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Bionic Boy Productions, Fury Productions,

Carmen Argenziano, Allan Arkush, John Ashley, Alan Birkinshaw, Judith M. Brown, Andrea Cagan, Colleen Camp, Steve Carver, Leigh Christian, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Jon Davison, Marissa Delgado, Nick Deocampo, Pam Grier, Sid Haig, John Landis

Back in the 70’s and 80’s the B filmmakers realized there was a terrific bargain to be had by filming in the Philippines. Marcos had just declared martial law, and part of the result of the was Richard Nixon pulling the plug on financial aid and support, so licensing movie shoots was a great way to raise money. Meanwhile, for the movie makers, it was a real bargain, and nobody regulated or monitored whatever they did. They were pretty free to do whatever they wanted. No unions requiring humane treatment. Actors could live in grass huts, get eaten alive by mosquitoes, and do all their own back breaking stunts. Rumor was even that one of the girls who went over there never was heard from again. To add to the fun, they B movie moguls like Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Sid Haig, and Eddie Romero found an unlimited demand for cheesy movies that could be made for practically nothing for the Drive-In circuit. Horror, titilation, and fighting ladies, they went through the jungle GI Joe films, to the horror films, to the girls in prison films and on and on. The kept cranking them out until eventually the actors got more sophisticated, the drive-ins closed, and the demand dried up, not to mention the ratings systems came in and censoring was in vogue. But during the time it was cranking out films by the dozens, and this documentary shows us all about the times and adventures of these people.

I was living in the Philippines from 1971 through 1974, and was completely unaware of the whole genre, until I got home and started watching the late night horror films on TV and began to realize the jungle warriors were speaking Tagalog (the primary language in the Philippines). The largest film to come out of this period was Apocalypse Now. Most of the others, with titles like Buckets of Blood and Caged Women were not quite so big budget. This is an interesting documentary covering the whole period with interviews of both directors and actors, as well as from the rest of the crew, with lots of anecdotes, and clips from the films from that time.

This documentary is in the style and mood of the films themselves, and I found it quite interesting. This was the beginning of the “strong woman hero” film, where the girls appear to be sexualized and trivialized, and then turn around being the tough warriors that pay their captors back and lead their escape. This was something new for Hollywood where the ladies were always the fair damsels that needed to be rescued. It was a two edged sword.

This documentary doesn’t pull any punches. It is fair and doesn’t try to put make-up on the pig, but it shows the good side as well as the bad side. All in all, it’s one of those stories that isn’t known very well by the movie watching public, and will be interesting for those who are interested in how the movie business works. It was truly a business, and the bottom line was king.

Not for the faint of heart. The films then were a lot bolder than they are now, and the clips don’t hide the half naked babes, but it was all done in fun, and nobody really paid much attention to the screen in those Drive-in double features anyway. They just needed a constant stream of mulch to keep the screen lit up every week.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog *** NOTE: This trailer is also unrated”

Red Box Films, Passion Pictures, BBC Films,

Herbert Terrace, Stephanie LaFarge, Jenny Lee, Laura-Ann Petitto, Joyce Butler, Bill Tynan

Nim was a chimpanzee, taken from his mother moments after birth, and raised in a human family, as much like a human child as possible. This was in the 1970’s and a project of Doctor Herbert Terrace, a scientist who wanted to investigate the question of nature vs. nurture in an epic way! This was the college environment in the 70’s so Nim certainly had a hippie upbringing! This documentary follows the early days of Nim’s development, as he grew larger and stronger and eventually was moved to the University where he could be put into more a learning environment. From the start he was taught the sign language of the deaf, and learned to communicate through signing. There were many stages of Nim’s life, and this views them all, as he moved from situation to situation, some good and some downright awful. It looks somewhat of the question of whether Nim actually could use language, or just string signs together to get what he wanted. But it also looks more deeply into the way he was treated, and whether it was right to take a free running chimp, and lock him in an iron box by himself? It includes all the people who were involved in Nim’s life including caretakers, teachers, and lab technicians. Dr. Terrace came to his conclusions about Nim’s accomplishments which disagree with some of the other experiments that followed similar paths of teaching chimps to sign. But ultimately this is not so much about the scientific conclusions, but about the amazing life and times of Nim himself.

This was truly a magnificent documentary, and one I enjoyed from start to finish. I was riveted in the story, and didn’t want to miss a moment, as we watched Nim from a tiny baby through adulthood as Nim grew to about 5 feet tall, 150 pounds, and 5 or 6 times stronger than a man. Certainly he was dangerous, but he also shows an amazing amount of emotions. Raised as a human baby, we learned a lot of what was the way he was raised, and what is innate in his DNA that still made him a Chimp after all. I thought this was a very well done documentary, and certainly even handed. It didn’t take sides too much, and lets the viewer decide what was right and what was wrong. Even those who dealt with Nim throughout his life have different opinions on what is right and wrong. This is the way to make a documentary, and this one was definitely worth watching. Nim was certainly a majestic creature, that’s for sure.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog