Ed's Review Dot Com

The Weinstein Company,

Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles, John Ortiz, Shea Whigham

Pat (Bradley Cooper) has been in a mental hospital for 4 years after finding his wife in a compromising situation. Now he’s home, reluctant to take his meds, hit by a restraining order from his ex-wife, and living with his Dad (Robert De Niro) (who obviously has his own mental issues) and trying to keep it together, but not very well. He meets young cop widow Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) and falls into a tumultuous friendship/relationship with her. She’s really troubled as well, so it’s like the blind leading the blind. Pat is trying to win back his wife in vain, and Tiffany is not ready to face the sudden accidental death of her husband. The two are totally broken and trying to find a silver lining somewhere in the midst of all their problems.

This is a really good film, that really deserved all the awards heaped upon it in 2012. The story is a close look at messed up lives and an inspection of mental illness that is really straight on. The ending is really sweet, but the movie is relatively harsh. I think Bradley Cooper did a good job in portraying the highs and lows of bi-polar disorder, and Jennifer Lawrence is really awesome in this film. She plays the mix of fragile/easily hurt vs. loud obnoxious so well, that she’s really believable. This was an excellent role for her to show what she can really do, and she did an excellent job. De Niro was superb as always. His role is a great mix of drama and comedy, and he’s done such a great job in funny roles lately and is a really good comic, but obviously plays the straight roles really well.

This film has a little bit of nudity near the beginning (when there’s a flashback to Pat finding his wife in the shower) but it’s short and not overly done. There is also some violence in a couple bloody fights, but that is not overly done either, so it’s barely an R rating. Just to let you know it’s not overly bad. But the subject matter is rather harsh for kids to understand, so the R rating is not a big problem anyway as kids probably aren’t going to enjoy this anyway. But for grownups, it’s nice on several levels. One, watching these people will make you feel better about yourself! Secondly, we can surely identify with the issues these people are having, and realizing that if we let ourselves do what we wanted (No filter, as Pat describes it) we could be just a bad off as these folks are. All in all, it’s a pretty touching film, well made, and one I really enjoyed. It’s a great mix of comedy, drama, and romance.

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Gary Sanchez Productions, BCDF Pictures,

Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, Rebel Wilson, James Marsden, Adam Scott

Becky (Rebel Wilson) is getting married. Her high school friends, Regan (Kirsten Dunst), Gena (Lizzy Caplan), and Katie (Isla Fisher) who used to make mock her in high school, decide they have to throw her a real bachelorette party. But the night before the wedding, the girls totally destroy the dress, come to the realization that they must somehow get the dress repaired and to the wedding on time. In the struggle to get the dress to the wedding before anyone finds out, the girls have a chance to look inward at their lives and see what’s really important.

This film really wants to be Bridesmaids. It’s not. But it’s not an awful film, and if you didn’t see Bridesmaids, then this will do. It’s a very similar story. The acting is great. Rebel Wilson is funny, and the “mean girls” led by Kirsten and Isla are good enough. There are a good many laughs, and it’s good fun. But the biggest problem with the film is that it’s just too derivative. If you’re in the mood for this kind of “girl” comedy, then it’s definitely adequate as a rental, but this is not nearly as funny as many others. It also is really mean which tends to make me feel a bit uncomfortable. You just don’t treat people like this. Of course, by the end they learned their lessons and felt bad about it, but if you’re really in the mood for a bridal comedy, certainly Bridesmaids or Bride Wars would be a lot more fun.

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Apatow Productions, Forty Productions,

Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Megan Fox, Albert Brooks, Jason Segel, John Lithgow, Robert Smigel, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Annie Mumolo, Charlyne Yi, Tatum O’Neal

Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) are turning 40, and Debbie is especially against the idea so she resorts to lying about her age. The two are growing apart, and are having all kinds of challenges with each other, while trying to deal with two teenage daughters and a father who wants to be close to borrow money all the time, and a father who is estranged and now finally trying to come back into life. Financial problem, in-law problems, child problems, and relationship problems abound in this funny “coming of old-age” film by Judd Apatow, as a “sort of” sequel to Knocked Up.

This is a film that may bore the crap out of young people who never plan on becoming old someday, but will strike fear into those who are approaching 40 and bring back fond memories of those who have long passed the half century mark. This is a funny film with gag after gag, and although Paul Rudd can be really annoying sometimes, it works for this film. You can see why Debbie is going nuts trying to deal with him, but she’s far from perfect either. A comedy romance, heavy on the comedy, and light on the romance, we know these two really love each other, but have just forgotten how to with all the day to day strife and problems. This rings so many bells for me, that I can see myself in this thing over and over again. It’s like a biography of all married couples. The humor is somewhat raunchy, but it’s adult fare. It’s not disgusting or gross at all, but it is about turning 40 after all, so the kids probably won’t be interested anyway. But for those of us old people, it was a really funny film, and a great rental for a nice relaxing evening at home. With the other cast members like Megan Fox, Jason Segal, Albert Brooks, Melissa McCarthy, Annie Mumolo, John Ligthgow, and more, the laughs really pile up. This is a good comedy.

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Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Working Title Films,

Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Kelly Macdonald, Ruth Wilson, Olivia Williams, Emily Watson

In 1874 Imperial Russia, Aristocratic socialite Anna Karenina (Keira KNightley) falls in love with a young cavalry officer Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) though she is married to cold and stoic Count Alexei Karenin (Jude Law) and she has a son. He is very set on not allowing her to embarrass herself and the family and keeping her away from her lover, but she is so brazen in taking chances that the whole court is talking. This classic Tolstoy novel gets a fresh look in this remake of many former copies of this film.

Call me a grouch, but I’ve never been a fan of these old time costume dramas, and this one is no exception. That being said, I think they did a pretty good job on this film. The costumes are good, the scenery is good, and all in all it’s a pretty showy piece. I’ve also never been a huge Keira Knightley fan either, but I have to give her props for this performance. She did a really good job of playing the wide range of emotions in this film. From the awful shame she felt, to the intense passion she has for her new love, to the pity for her poor husband, to the pity for her son, she is wracked through all kinds of emotional issues. But she pulls it off pretty well. She’s really good in this kind of story.

So, suffice it to say, that this is not the kind of film that I get really interested in, but if you a fan of the period pieces and classic novels, this is one of the better ones.

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Summit Entertainment , Temple Hill Entertainment , Sunswept Entertainment,

Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning

So Bella (Kristen Stewart) is now a vampire and getting used to her new powers. Of course naturally she’s the strongest vampire in the whole north woods because, uh, we don’t really know, she just is. Her half human baby, regrettably named Renesme, is growing at an alarming rate, and Bella is extremely upset to learn that Jacob (Taylor Lautner) must stay close to “Nessie” because he imprinted on her. So someone sees Nessie, and assumes she is “immortal” and has been turned by the Cullen’s so she’s off to tell the Volturi that the Cullen’s have broken the law of the vampires. Volturi’s are very tough, so they’re coming to kill the Cullen’s and put an end to the abomination. So the Cullins travel all over the world to call in all their friends to vouch for them, and they set out to explain to the Volturi that Renesme is not immortal. But just in case, all the vampires and werewolves prepare for a battle royal.

This movie sucked worse than the Part 1 did. Honestly, I don’t think there was near enough material to break this into two movies, and it’s just the greed motive that caused it. Nothing at all happens in this film. We’re stuck with an hour of people standing around and talking. Werewolves and Vampires are friends now, and the Volturi who are supposed to be so bad assed, are simply standing around with everybody else. There’s a huge battle scene that means nothing, and they take it all back anyway. To make matters worse, I could see the movie was completely out of gas, but when I looked at the DVD time left, it showed over 18 minutes. They used to be able to do a whole TV show in 18 minutes, but I couldn’t possibly imagine what else they had to show us. Well, the answer to that is that someone proposed that the movie was way to short, so they ought to put the names of everyone in each and every film in the entire series in the credits which literally ran over 18 minutes. Holy cow, what a way to give the custodial crew time to clean up the theater before the next showing! Honestly, the only thing going for this final episode is that the scenery in British Columbia is really beautiful. This film is almost 100% shot in the woods.

Truthfully, I know there are the young girls out there who really loved these books, but I do believe that every movie went downhill after the first one. I don’t know if this is true for the books too, as I haven’t read any of them, but the films started out with a half decent story of wolves and vampires that had a lot of interesting possibilities. But as it went on and on and on, it just had nowhere to go. The movie was not quite as bizarre as it was in Part 1, so that was perhaps the only improvement over the last one which was really strange. All in all, I didn’t watch this one for a long time because I knew it was going to be bad, but I had to give it a shot. It was clearly the worst ending to a story in a long time.

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