Ed's Review Dot Com

Amblin Entertainment, DreamWorks SKG, Marc Platt Productions,

Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Édgar Ramírez , Laura Prepon, Allison Janney, Darren Goldstein, Lisa Kudrow

This new thriller is the story of three women and a man named Tom (Justin Theroux). Rachel (Emily Blunt) is a very sad alcoholic woman who has not been able to function since her husband left her for their neighbor, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). Every day on the train to the city, Rachel sits on the same side of the train to look and see what is going on in the perfect house with the perfect woman who has the perfect life that Rachel misses dearly. She is obsessed with the woman who lives in her house filled with all the things she used to own. Even worse is the new baby that Anna has that Rachel wanted so bad. Anna has a nanny who lives with them named Megan (Haley Bennett) who takes care of the baby so that Anna can do the charity work that she longs to do to fill the empty life she thinks she has. Megan is a tramp who is deeply disturbed and seeing a shrink to try to find some meaning to her life. When suddenly Megan disappears, things get very confusing as their lives are about to come crashing together as everyone is a suspect. Problem is, that Rachel can’t remember what happened the night Megan went missing.

This is a very slow paced, but highly thrilling “who done it” mystery and suspense film. All three women in the lead roles are very good, and though each is different in many ways, they all are portrayed excellently. Actually everyone in this film is very good and the script is very suspenseful. It’s well scripted, for sure, and the dreary rainy suburban NYC setting is very appropriate and adds a lot to the mood. It’s based on the novel, naturally, and a good one it must be. I haven’t read it, so the movie was a new story for me. My only complaint is the male bashing typical all men are pigs theme that always shows up in this kind of film. For this reason, it’s not a great thriller for the guys to watch. It’s much more of a chick flick in that respect. Even the wise old police chief trying to solve the crime is female played by Allison Janey who is pretty good, but who seems to be the only one who isn’t out to blame everything on the men in the story. It is fairly slow developing, but the purposefully way they build the characters. One other notable thing is that the beginning of the movie is a bit confusing as it does go through each of the three ladies to introduce them to us, but they do it in a disjointed…… “Six months ago” “Two Weeks Ago” “Last Night” “Last Month” kind of way that was very hard for me to follow until I got the gist of who these people were. Emily Blunt was easy to follow, but I was constantly confused as to why she was watching Megan instead of Anna and since they were both blondes, until I got the whole story I was constantly confusing which was which as they jumped around from time to time. Once the story got going it was a lot better. I did enjoy it, and found it interesting, and I can recommend this as a decent mystery story, especially for the ladies.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

FilmNation Entertainment, Flashlight Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company,

Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Holt McCallany, Wayne Bastrup, Jamey Sheridan, Jerry Ferrara, Sam Huntington, Anna Gunn, Autumn Reeser, Max Adler, Valerie Mahaffey

Director Clint Eastwood brings this biopic to the screen of the story of Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks), pilot of the US Air commercial airliner that was forced to land in the Hudson River in New York City on a very cold January day with 155 people on board counting passengers and flight crew. All 155 were rescued due to a lot of luck and a lot of skill, but mostly a lot of hard work by the emergency first responders on the ground. Based on Sully’s book “Miracle on the Hudson” a great deal of the film deals with the aftermath of the event and the difficulties faced by Sully and his First Mate Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart).

Clint Eastwood is one master at his craft. The way this film is put together from the first frame to the last is a work of art. With a mix of the events of those few minutes to the desperation in trying to get to the truth when everyone seems against him, this is a case of David vs. Goliath in epic proportions. The insurance company lost a plane, and they were very anxious to find blame somewhere. Riveting performances from everyone, from Hanks (who was fantastic) and Eckhart, to Laura Linney who played Sully’s wife, all the way down to the flight attendants, everyone did an excellent job. The realism was frightening. It was one of those films where you hold your breath for long stretches at the seconds seem like hours. Extremely well done, and a great film. I recommend this to anyone whether you remember that day or not. Very good job, guys.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Ghost House Pictures, Good Universe, Screen Gems

Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang, Emma Bercovici, Franciska Torocsik, Christian Zagia, Katia Bokor, Sergej Onopko

The Blind Man (Stephen Lang) lives all alone in a house on a street in metro Detroit and he is the only person on the block that is left. This is a perfect setup for Rocky (Jane Levy) and her boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto) and her “friend zoned” would be suitor Alex (Dylan Minnette). Rocky takes care of her little sister as her dysfunctional mother won’t, and her dream is to take her sister and get out of Detroit and move to California. They pull off petty jobs, but The Blind Man got a huge settlement when his little girl was killed by a drunk driver, and since he never goes anywhere, the money must be in the house. With a score this big, the trio can take off an move to the west coast. But The Blind Man is an ex soldier who, though he’s blind, is not a push over, and the trio run in to a LOT of really big problems on what was supposed to be an easy job. As they discover more secrets, it appears there isn’t any way out at this point, and The Blind Man has a keen sense of hearing and smell, and is clever as a fox.

This film has been tearing up the box office, and it was a must see when I saw the trailers for it. I wasn’t sure Jane Levy was ready for a part this big, since I have only seen her as Tessa on Suburgatory, but she was awesome. By far the biggest role, but she carried it very professionally. Excellent job. When it comes down to it, this is a movie for Jane and Stephen Lang, and the others are just there to fill in the spaces. The two of these fight an epic battle down to the bitter end. This is an extremely horror inducing movie and is scary as hell. The Blind Man is not really alone as he has one nasty Cujo worthy dog beside him which helps a lot. The jumps and scares are one after another, and I shouted out loud more than once which is rare for me. But the suspense level is awesome. The director and cinematographers did an excellent of putting us in the scene, and the shots and setups were unbelievable. Whether down in the dark basement in the dark, or stuck in a closet, or crawling through a creep air duct, we are there with them. This is the first real horror film of the season, and timed perfectly, given the big numbers at the box office. Sure not a huge budget, but a well thought out horror film inside a heist film. The characters are well developed, and the script is crisp and smart. All in all, very scary, very suspenseful, and very well done. Good work guys. This is a good one!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Carpenter B, Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television,

James Franco, Sarah Gadon, George MacKay, Chris Cooper, Cherry Jones, Daniel Webber, Kevin J. O’Connor

Jake Epping (James Franco) is a school teacher in 2016. He finds a way to travel back in time, but it always takes him to October 1960 to the same place and the same time. He can return, and anything that was changed remains changed, but when he goes back through the portal, everything resets the way it was. He is on a mission to stop Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Webber) from killing J.F.K. on 11/22/63 so he has three years to wait to prove that Oswald was the shooter, and to try to stop him before he can do it. But time pushes back when you try to change things, and time is a powerful foe.

This is based on a novel by Stephen King, and was planned for a big budget Hollywood film, but the producers determined that it needed more time than that, so they developed an 8 episode, 8 hour mini-series. Starring and produced by James Franco, this is a really neat little time travel story. Stephen King has his own bizarre way of developing a story, and this is pure King. When people write a time travel story, it’s usually either to kill Hitler or to save Kennedy. But they are all the same. You can’t change history or things fall apart. You can’t count on King to follow the rules though, and this is not really ever predictable. There are some really creepy characters, like an old man who keeps telling him “You shouldn’t be here” that gives you the creeps. Plus there is a romance blooming when Jake bumps into Sadie (Sarah Gadon) in 1960 which causes him a lot of distress. This is not a Twilight Zone episode that wraps up in 30 minutes. This is an 8 hour marathon, so we get many characters that we get to see developed, and many side bars and tangent stories that make it good. When it comes down to the last episode, it’s really quite exciting. How cool it is to have this on 2 DVD’s so that we can binge watch them all in one long day! I really enjoyed this film, but, of course, I am a total sucker for time travel stories. It’s something that has stuck with me since I was a youngster. I had never heard of this TV series, and was really interested when I found it in the new releases this week, and very happy I took up 2 spots in my queue for this story. I recommend it for those of us who love a good science fiction thriller once in a while. Keep in mind though, that even though it’s based on the real images of 1963, this is total fiction, so don’t expect to solve the Kennedy assassination while watching this film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Highland Film Group (HFG), Hassell Free Production, Ingenious Media

Nicolas Cage, Elijah Wood, Sky Ferreira, Jerry Lewis

Stone (Nicholas Cage) and Waters (Elijah Wood) are two cops who work in the evidence room of the Las Vegas Police Department. When a huge bail payment comes in, and is locked in the safe, the two hatch a plan to take it. They kidnap a lady who lives next to the safe, and use her apartment to try to break through the safe, in this unusual heist movie.

First of all Nick Cage has his fans, and those who hate his guts. Few sit in between, but I really thought he did a good job in this film. I also would not expect him mesh well with Elijah Wood as his partner, but surprisingly they did work well together. I always think hobbit when I see Elijah Wood, but I was able to put it aside as he did a good job in a totally non-similar role here. The budget was pretty low, but they used it very well. The story is entertaining and somewhat stressful, and the the events twist and turn several times throughout the ending of the movie. I certainly would not have seen that ending coming. I think it was fairly well put together, and is certainly an unusual buddy cop movie. It’s probably unlike any other film of its genre. I enjoyed it, and though it is certainly not a great film, it’s certainly good enough to spend some time with, and I must say, I did enjoy it. I can recommend this film, mostly due to the really good acting from both leads. Plus, Jerry Lewis pops in for a cameo role, and how can you beat that?

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog