Ed's Review Dot Com

Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ, Likely Story, Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation,

Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, Ellar Coltrane, Patton Oswalt, Glenne Headly, Bill Paxton

Mae (Emma Watson) lands her dream job with the largest high tech company on the Planet, The Circle, led by Bailey (Tom Hanks). She’s really into the company and is very excited to buy into all the wonderful things The Circle can do. They have a miniature camera that can send live pictures with sound to anyone on the channel any time you wish. Like a giant social network, But management wants her to step it up a bit further and become the worlds first transparent user, one who will be always online for people to view. The owner’s theory is that secrets are lies, and that people will act better if they have no secrets and everything is in the open. But though Mae does her best, things naturally start spinning out of control and it begins hurting those most important to her.

I have been anxious to see this film since I first saw the previews, which was much better, I think, than the actual movie. I love science fiction, I and I was really anxious to see how Emma Watson could pull off a dramatic and futuristic role like this. Besides, there are great performers in this film like Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and many others that bring a lot of acting talent to this adventure. The problem is that the director too a really good story idea, and twisted it into a morality tale, much like 1984, only tried to jazz it up for Facebook and Instragram. What resulted is a mediocre morality play about Big Brother watching, and trashing the films with the morality of the director. It was an excellent idea, but it was really poorly executed. The big surprise ending is not a surprise, not is it very big, and it just sort of sat there. Basically it was a missed opportunity. I was really disappointed.

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Toy Fight Productions, Brightlight Pictures, Sayaka Producciones Audiovisuales,

Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson

Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is a young woman with a serious drinking problem. She lives with her boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) who is fed up with her constant partying and drunkenness and finally kicks her out of the apartment. Gloria has nowhere to go except to her old home town where she settles in. She quickly runs into Oscar (Jason Sudekis) who is an old friend from elementary school who owns a bar and kind of takes Gloria under his wing, giving her a job. She’s trying hard to clean up her life, but still finds herself blacking out, and drinking after work until dawn. Meanwhile, a couple huge monsters are attacking Seoul Korea, a giant monster and a giant robot. But gradually as Gloria keeps reflecting on her past and the events in Seoul, she gradually comes to the understanding that someway she’s connected to the happenings across the world and is having trouble dealing with it, and the sinister secrets Oscar is hiding.

This is an ODD movie. There is very little here that makes sense, and it does require a complete suspension of belief as there is no logical connection to what is going on here. This is sort of like a cross between a fairy tale, and perhaps an allegory or message movie of some sort. Hathaway is very good in this most unusual performance I’ve seen her pull off, although you may recognize a couple of her past characters in the mix. Jason Sudekis is hard to rate, as he does fine in portraying his character, but his character is so very disturbing and unlikable so it’s hard to put your finger on his performance. This movie is advertised as a comedy, but I can’t see it. It’s dark, and disturbing, and certainly not a comedy at all in my opinion. But I found it a very entertaining movie with lots of good things to sink your teeth into. I found it very compelling, even though I still don’t understand it, that actually works for this movie. There is a wrap up in the end, but you’re still left with a “What the Heck” kind of feeling when it’s over. There’s certainly not a very happy ending for Gloria, but it’s certainly understandable. All in all, I found this a good movie and I really enjoyed watching it, although if you go into it looking for a light comedy like Ella Enchanted, you’re going to be seriously disappointed. Likewise, you could try to pin it as a horror or monster movie which it isn’t either. The creatures only take up a few percent of the screen time, and they are rather unimportant to the mood and message of the film. Don’t go in looking for either of these, but look for a very unusual independent film, not much like anything you’ve seen before, and if you can suspend belief and stop looking at the scientific truths of the movie, you’ll see an entertaining film.

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Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films (EFO Films), Hat and Cat Productions, Ingenious Media,

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scoot McNairy, Maggie Grace, Martin Donovan, Hannah Ware, Mariana Klaveno, Kevin Zegers, Larry Sullivan, Glenn Morshower, Christopher Darga

Jake (Scoot McNairy) is an air traffic controller. There is a perfect storm. They work at a small tower in Europe and direct planes from one tower to another. There are only two men on duty, and one man decides to take a nap to catch up on some needed sleep leaving Jake alone in the tower. That night a repairman is working on one of their systems which makes Alex’s job a bit harder. Due to circumstances beyond his control, a terrible air crash happens. Jake is devastated at the crash and blames himself, but a hard worker, Roman (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is at the airport waiting for his wife and daughter to arrive on one of the planes taht went down. Roman, too, is devastated and tries to work through his grief, but instead decides that it’s his duty to exact revenge on the person that took his wife and daughter away from him. This is a dramatic story based on the real event, that looks closely into the grief and suffering of two men who were affected by the same event, but in vastly different ways.

This is a very interesting story, based on true events of an awful crash that was caused by a perfect storm of events. One small change could have avoided the whole thing. The movie is very gripping and pulls you into the story, but it’s not a lot of action and events, but develops slowly and carefully as we really get into the heads of the people involved and the feelings and emotions they face. This is not an air crash movie, it’s more of a character study, although the crash is a major part of the story. There are a lot of people who feel this film is too slow, so be prepared for what you’re going to see. You are really, as I said before, going to get into the heads of both men, and so it does take a lot of effort to let us see into their psyche so clearly, and as a result, it does have to unwrap slowly, and it does fully take us through the tragedy and we are able to understand that the crash was over quickly for those who were on the plane, but the agony and grief lasts long for those who are left behind. I’ve seen many stories in the movies and on TV about plane crashes, but none that tackled the suffering of the survivors better than this one did. I enjoyed this film, and would recommend it to you if you think you would be interested in the “Aftermath” of a true story like this is.

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Syncopy, Warner Bros., Dombey Street Productions,

Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy

The Battle of Dunkirk, and the famous evacuation is one of the great stories of World War II. The Germans had been tearing through France and The Allied forces found themselves surrounded by the Germans on the beach in Dunkirk, France. A German army that outnumbered the Allies two to one had them pushed back to the sea. The English Channel was the only thing between the British and their homeland, and Churchill decided it was expedient to bring as many home as humanly possible. Knowing that the next stop for the Germans would be the British Isles, they decided not to risk all their ships on a cause that could have left them in big trouble should the German bombers sink all their ships, they called on civilian ships such as barges and ferryboats, down to fishing boats and private yachts to all head for Dunkirk to rescue as many as they could. Something that has never totally understood happened where the Germans stopped advancing and held their position for a number of days instead of wiping out the Allied forces on the beach. Instead they constantly attacked from the air with bombs and machine guns. But the halt of the advance, for whatever reason gave Britain the time to remove over 300,000 soldiers back to England. This historical wartime film by Christopher Nolan is a brand new telling of the events of that week and the evacuation that certainly changed the outcome of the war in the end.

This is an excellent blockbuster of a film. I got to see it in IMAX and it was certainly very much worth it for the huge screen and the amazing sound system. When the bombs explode and the ships shoot their big guns, it shakes you to the core, and it feels like you’re in the plane when they fire those machine guns. The big screen and sound effects were amazing. It has been such a long time since I saw a really, really good World War II movie. Pearl Harbor was a love story, but this is an unabashed War movie and it doesn’t have time for love interests. Historically, most of it seem pretty accurate although a few changes had to made to make it into a movie, and I can imagine that the characters in the story were representative of real people, although maybe not actual individuals. There are a couple of stories which are told simultaneously for the most part, and everything sort of ties up together nicely, probably not like real life where it was so very chaotic. The acting is excellent, but there isn’t a need for huge Hollywood stars, as this is such a powerful story, that the events are the real stars of the film. It’s very well paced, kept to about an hour and three quarters which is about perfect, and is about the best movie I’ve seen in a long time. It’s interesting how in war, it’s much easier to look back and analyze and make different choices after that fact. In the Civil War, the battle of Gettysburg was an accident, and the whole thing was about shoes. Both armies needed shoes, and Gettysburg was the place to get them. The North had fought for 3 days, and on the fourth day, both armies stayed in their camps and watched each other. The Southern Army was crushed, but General Meade decided not to attach General Lee and the Confederate Army while Lee was sitting wondering why they didn’t attack and put and end to them on that day, as they were finished. Meade’s thinking was that he had won the battle, and if he dared to attack on the 4th day, he might turn his victory into a defeat. His cowardly decision, some say, drove Lincoln crazy and added years to the war which could have been over that very day. In the case of the Battle of Dunkirk, what would have happened had the Germans driven forward and attacked them on the beach. They had double the men, and the Allies had left behind most of their heavy equipment, ammo, and supplies. There is much debate over why they stopped advancing with their tanks and decided to sit and wait and allow the British to evacuate 300,000 soldiers to live and fight another day. It was a great victory for the Germans, but did not wipe out the Allied forces at it could have. Many have argued different reasons for the decision, but it certainly had a huge effect on the success of getting all those men out of a suicide situation for sure. Perhaps it was like Meade, who was just afraid to turn a win into a loss, or perhaps there was much more to it. Had they been moving so fast that they outrun their supply train, and needed to catch up? Were there political reasons for letting the Allies escape? I guess we’ll never know, but this film tells us what happened, and that’s what really matters. This is such a beautiful and touching and moving film that it’s something you definitely should see, even if you’re anti-war. The good news, and the lift it gave to the British folks certainly was an important thing, perhaps even more important that the actual effect of getting those 300,000 men back. Had they lost them, it would have been a hard blow to morale in Britain. Go see this, and watch it on the biggest brightest screen you can find before you miss it. This is one film that is truly a MUST SEE!

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Blackbird, Cold Iron Pictures, Movie Plus productions,

Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Hank Azaria, Steve Buscemi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Michael Sheen, Dan Stevens, Josh Charles

Norman (Richard Gere) is a fixer. Head of the Oppenheimer Agency, Normal sets up meetings. He talks really, really big, has no fear of annoying everyone, and basically talks a big game! He befriends an starting out Israeli politician. Lo and Behold, in a few years he becomes the Prime Minister of Israel and he needs his buddy Norman to help him putting Norman on the precipice of destruction and on top of the world at the same time.

This is a very quirky and off-beat movie that features Richard Gere in a very cerebral and thoughtfully put together movie. I would think a lot of folks are going to get into this. It’s a character study, and Norman Oppeenheimer is truly a remarkable character. He lies without missing a bit, and not much that he says is not filled with hyperbole and exaggeration. He’s a nice guy inside, but is really crass on the outside. I once worked for a guy who used to always tell customers “I am not honest because of any moral reason, but I am honest because it’s simply good business>” Trouble is there wasn’t an honest bone in his body. Guys like Norman can be patting you on the back and heaping praises left and right while he’s picking your pocket. So what can I say about this movie? Well, I have mixed reactions to it. There’s no doubt that Richard Gere’s performance is really very expertly done. He does an amazing job of bringing this guy, we’ve all known at one time or another, to life. But the movie isn’t filled with much excitement. It’s mostly like a one man show. It’s slow paced, and I never did figure out how all the other characters fit in to this story as it lost me a bit, so if you tackle it, pay a lot of attention. However, if you like slow character development and enjoy a masterful performance like Gere turns in, you’re going to be a fan of this film. But it is really hard to classify this film, as it’s not that funny and not that serious, and there’s not that much going on here. For that reason, I hesitate to praise it too much.

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