Ed's Review Dot Com

Foresight Unlimited, VIP Media Group, Michael Mailer Films,

Charlie Hunnam, Terrence Howard, Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson, Jaqueline Fleming, Jillian Batherson, Mike Pniewski, Dean J. West, Katia Gomez

Detective Hollis Lucetti (Terrence Howard) is having a bad day. He just found out he is unable to have children, but what does that say about the two kids he has raised? To top it off, he’s assigned to talk a man, Gavin Nichols (Charlie Hunnam) down from the ledge of a tall building. But he senses there is more to the story than meets his eye. Gavin has some time, so he starts telling the story to Hollis. It’s about a girl, Shana Harris (Liv Tyler) and her jealous self righteous and religious husband Joe Harris (Patrick Wilson). But the clock is ticking and soon Gavin is going to jump.

This is an interesting film. Not to be confused with the other recent release “Man on a Ledge” which was also pretty good, this film has a really interesting story as well. The back story of the detective and his marriage crisis takes a back seat to the real reason why Gavin is up on the ledge, but we, of course, have no idea what’s going on. Then bit by bit, he tells us the story (in flash back) in an intriguing tale of what led to this horrible ending. The acting is very good. All 4 of the leads are superb. They play off one another very well. This is not a big budget film, but it is a perfect example of how to make a small budget film. It’s too bad this didn’t get better promotion, but it’s very much worth watching. This is definitely one of those that fell off everyone’s radar, and I feel it’s a very good film and well worth the effort to track it down. It’s quite unique in the story it tells.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Lakeshore Entertainment, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment,

Katherine Heigl, Jason O’Mara, Daniel Sunjata, John Leguizamo, Sherri Shepherd, Debbie Reynolds, Debra Monk, Nate Mooney, Patrick Fischler, Ana Reeder

Stephanie Plum (Katherine Heigl) has lost her job and is broke, so she approaches her cousin and insists he giver her a job as a bounty hunter. Her cousin is a bail bondsmen, and one of his crack trackers is out sick, and so reluctantly he lets her chase a few escapees. But the big score is ex-cop Joe Morelli (Jason O’Mara) who jumped bail, but is her ex. The two hate each other, and the set off on a chase where she thinks he’s capturing him, and he thinks he’s proving his innocence while trying to keep her off his back. In fact, they need each other, and it turns into an intense chase with a lot of humor thrown in.

This is a rather standard cops and robbers, bounty hunter, romantic comedy type film. It follows a lot of the plots of other similar films. I was a bit surprised by it, as I expected it to be a funny rom-com and it was much more serious than I expected. The truth is that most of the film was police/ex-police chasing the bad guys down against all odds and as an outlaw. That too has been done a lot of times. Not a terrible film, but just mediocre. There’s nothing wrong with picking this up at the RedBox for a quiet evening, but don’t go into it expecting too much. I didn’t hate it, but it also did not have much going for it either. Outside of Katherine Heigl, the rest of the cast was so-so. I guess this comes from a series of books, and perhaps they took too many shortcuts just trying to following the book without being too original on their own, but there are definitely some problems. But as I said, it was relaxing watching it, and I had a decent time watching it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Lionsgate, Alcon Entertainment, Phoenix Pictures,

Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick, Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Rodrigo Santoro, Ben Falcone, Joe Manganiello, Thomas Lennon, Rob Huebel, Rebel Wilson, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Génesis Rodríguez

This movie follows several couple who find out they are expecting in vastly different circumstances. A star studded film like many others like “Valentine’s Day”, “New Years Eve” and a few others. In some way or another the stories intersect. A romantic comedy with all sorts of emotions, Gary (Ben Falcone) and his wife Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) are finally expecting after trying for a long time, only to find his hot shot racing star Ramsey (Dennis Quaid) and his new hot Mom Skyler (Brookly Decker) is having twins. But there are so many other stories happening that there’s something for everybody to laugh about and identify with.

This is one of those ensemble movies where the quirkiest things try to fit the different stories together. This one is very thin, and that drives some people crazy. I enjoyed the film, just like I enjoyed the other ensemble stories in the previous paragraph, but I’m not sure this is really good enough to recommend you run out and plunk down the bucks for this one. I had a free movie ticket from my Regal Crown Rewards card and I needed to find a movie that wasn’t “no passes” and with all the new films out in the last two weeks, this was about the only choice I had. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but if I was plunking down $13.50 I would have chosen something else, for sure. But I was impressed with Jennifer Lopez in her role as a mom planning to adopt an African baby. She is not shallow and silly, she grabbed for the meat in this role and did some fine acting. I was impressed. Cameron Diaz has a much lighter role as the host of a “Biggest Loser” type show who has all the answers until she finds her schedule is just too much for even a wonder woman like herself. She is pretty funny in this role and did well. There are other fine performances here too. All the stories are pretty good. Even Chris Rock is understated in role. He doesn’t have to take over the screen, but can play a small part that brings a lot of humor to the film. All in all, I would recommend it, but perhaps to wait a few months and catch it on DVD or Blu-ray.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog