Ed's Review Dot Com

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday November 7, 2017

• Cars 3
• The Glass Castle
• Your Name
• Ingrid Goes West
• Slamma Jamma
• The Journey
• Champion
• The Untamed

Lionsgate, Grindstone Entertainment Group, Gold Star Films,

J.D. Evermore, Joely Richardson, Bryce Romero, Aiden Flowers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Whitman Groves, Carsen Flowers, Douglas M. Griffin, Dana Gourrier, Abigail Breslin, Jodie Moore, Raeden Greer, Laura Cayouette

A zombie apocalypse has struck the town, and tough father Wade Vogel’s (Arnold Schwarzenegger) beloved daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has been infected. She realizes the danger she is to her family, so she runs off, but is captured and being held in a quarantine facility. Wade sets out to find her, and is able to persuade the town leaders to allow him to bring her home to care for her, but if she gets worse and becomes a danger to the family, he has to either bring her in to the quarantine center where she’ll be killed, or take care of it himself. But Wade is unable to accept the truth, that Maggie is serious trouble, and spends his time in denial until everything comes to a crashing climax.

This is an unusual science fiction movie that cares more about the characters than the horror. Most zombie films are all about the danger and the gore, and the chase to keep away from the monsters. This film is quite different, as the zombie disease is secondary to the feelings and pain that the family goes through, and that Maggie goes through as she loses herself little by little, but is somehow aware of the tragedy that is falling upon her and her family. It’s very touching and very moving and a very different zombie movie than you’ve ever seen before. Done with a minuscule budget, if not for the backing of Arnold who once he saw the script, knew it was meant for him created sort of a new career for the former Governor of California. As he says in his interview, there is no way he would have ever accepted this role in his younger days when success was measured in the number of kills and the size and quantity of big guns. But he has changed too as he’s matured and has a family or two of his own. He was so touched by the script, that he jumped all in and without his backing this probably could not have been made. As it is, it’s a very touching story with great emotional scenes that make you go through a whole range of emotions. Arnold was good, but so was Abigail who played a very difficult role and nailed it exceptionally. This movie was well worth the time I spent watching it, and though it’s mostly unheard of, it’s well worth looking out for it. Excellent.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Lascaux Films, Latitude Productions, Revelations Entertainment,

Michael Cristofer, Diane Keaton, Morgan Freeman, Cynthia Nixon, Claire van der Boom, Korey Jackson, Carrie Preston, Sterling Jerins, Josh Pais, Miriam Shor, Alysia Reiner

Ruth (Diane Keaton) and Alex Carver (Morgan Freeman) have been married for over 40 years. Most of their married life they have lived in a walk-up apartment in Brooklyn, and the 5th floor, and without an Elevator. Alex is an artists, and loves his home, but Ruth is worried that they are getting older and sooner or later they won’t be able to climb five flights of stairs and need to find an apartment with an elevator. So with the aggressive help of Aunt Lily Portman (Cynthia Nixon) who is a realtor, the decide to put their apartment up for sale to see what they can get for it. That is Lily and Ruth put it up for sale, as Alex wants nothing to do with it. We’re blessed with Alex’s reminisces of their early life and how they met and fell in love in a series of flashbacks. But several unexpected events makes it as though fate is out to destroy everything. This is a touching “elders” film that is really well done and right on point.

This movie has the feel of a stage play in the way it tells the story. IT feels very unscripted, although it is based on a novel, but it’s the skill of the primary actors, Diane and Morgan and Cynthia Nixon are really talented actors, and they just work together in one of the most comfortable and believable stories I’ve seen in a long while. I would suspect anyone who like character driven films would love this movie and appreciate its charm, but it’s perfect for those of us around retirement age as we realize the problems and troubles they experience are very similar to our lives. Ruth was a free and easy flower child in her youth, and her decision to enter into an interracial marriage in those times was pure grit and stubbornness. It’s fascinating to see how it has morphed into today, when they’re both elderly and to see how it worked out and how much they care for each other, but still have issues today, even though much less that earlier days. There is a side story about their only child, their dog Dorothy who has grown old with them and has serious problems of her own. Facing her crisis and in turn facing their own mortality is a very pleasant and touching story in itself. This is a slow and steady character piece without a lot of action, and yet it’s very suspenseful at the same time and you can’t wait to find out how it’ll end up. This is a really wonderful story told in the charm of New York City, by terrific actors, and is well worth watching. What a nice experience it was to watch this story.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Tashmoo Productions, Amber Entertainment, Belladonna Productions

Willa Holland, Amy Jo Johnson, Tatanka Means, Elise Eberle, Cynthia Stevenson, Lucien Dale, Forrest Fyre, Russell Means

Davey Wexler (Willa Holland) is a young lady still in school, and loves her life in Atlantic City with her parents and her little brother. But when her father is killed in a robbery, and her mother finds herself lost and in deep grief and taking too many pills, she decides to take Davey and her brother to New Mexico to live temporarily with her sister’s family. But her mother seems to be slipping further and further from reality and Davey is getting more and more frustrated and having a really hard time fitting in at the new school. Davey goes for a journey to the canyon, and meets a strange guy named “Wolf” (Tatanka Means) and they hit it off in a very beautiful friendship. Wolf is a secretive and has walls as high as Davey’s but he still manages to teach her to look at life from a different point of view and to face and overcome the many obstacles in her life and to change her point of view completely. This is a touching and classic book by world famous author Judy Blume and her husband Lawrence Bloom wrote the screenplay and directed this heartwarming story.

This is another of those films that I missed years ago in it’s release due to Netflix’s DVD throttling practices and it finally bubbled up to the top of my queue. What a wonderful story and very well done performances. A lot of it is filmed on location in the mountains of New Mexico. This is a perfect story for preteen and early teen girls, like most of Judy’s books, and is a perfect story for them, but the value of the softly told story, definitely not in your face, I found I really enjoyed it as well. It has much of the feel of a Wonderful World of Disney TV movie from back in the 60’s but is much deeper than those. Wolf is, of course, a native American who has a lot of love for his culture and heritage, and a few secrets of his own. He did a wonderful job in performing this role, and was perfectly cast. Willa is an amazing actress. I have to admit I was very impressed with her performance. She can portray pages of dialog with just her expression and when she’s wordless, is some of the best moments in the film. From shock, to pain, to frustration, to worry, to love and caring, it’s all there in the emotion her face can portray. She was superb in this movie and is building a large volume of work. The location and the majestic scenery is also stunning. All in all, this little film is an excellent hidden gem that I didn’t know about, but was very happy to stumble upon. It was a pleasure. This is one of those films, that, when it was finished, I went back and watched it all over again with the commentary by Judy and Lawrence Blume, which was every bit as good as the movie itself. The love and caring they put into this story, and the hard work and dedication the cast put into playing the part, makes this a very worthwhile film to watch. Look for it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Universal Pictures, Dark Universe, Dentsu,

Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Marwan Kenzari, Stephen Thompson

Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) is a treasure hunter who stumbles upon an ancient tomb. He accidentally releases the spirit of Ahmanet, an ancient demon, and brings her back to conquer the earth. Though Nick is frightened for his life, he is the chosen one who is to sacrifice himself to make her rule the Earth again.

This was a bit of a dud for me. The Mummy movies with Brandan Fraser were surprisingly rather decent. There was lots of suspense, lots of action, and it was a roller coaster ride. I place the blame for this one directly on Mr. Cruise though. I guess he was trying to play some kind of character under the power of this evil woman, but the delivery was just awful. The beginning of the film where he’s trying to be a grave robber type guy who is looking for treasure buried under the sand, the dialog was simply awful. It seemed like a high school drama production or something. I mean it was really badly delivered. The rest of the movie, he just couldn’t pull off the character in the least. The action scenes weren’t too bad, but they were kind of choppy as well, and started and stopped pretty much at will. The whole thing was kind of hard to follow even though it seemed really simple. Annabelle Wallis and Russell Crowe weren’t bad. They were the only normal characters in the movie, since Tom Cruise was all over the place. One shining star in the movie which garners the most credit is Sofia Boutella who plays Ahmanet. She definitely put in an interesting performance, and she was able to best deal with Tom as he ran around from place to place. I found the whole experience to be underwhelming, and this is another of those movies that didn’t need a remake. I would suggest that you skip this one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog