Ed's Review Dot Com

Macari/Edelstein, Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation, Vertigo Entertainment,

Alex Roe-Brown, Matilda Lutz, Aimee Teegarden, Johnny Galecki, David Dorfman

A young couple, Julia (Matilda Lutz) and her boyfriend Holt (Alex Roe-Brown) are just getting used to being apart. Holt is away in Spokane in college, and Julia is left behind in Seattle. But as they are using Skype to connect every evening, one time Holt stops answering calls and in nowhere to be found. This is after he told her he was working on a special project for a noted biology professor. Julia heads to Spokane to look for him, and the two of them get involved in the mystery of a video, that once you watch it, you will die in seven days.

This is a sequel to the 2002 film The Ring which scared the crap out of us back then, and The Ring 2 from 2005. It’s based on an original Japanese story of a girl who was drowned in a well and is seeking release from her prison inside that well. This is a very slick movie, and though it’s a bit far fetched, just like the original, the methods by with they build and build the suspense layer upon layer is really masterful. The primary actors here are excellent, especially Johnny Galecki who play the professor who we will remember from Big Bang Theory. The suspense, especially in the last half hour is really intense. It’s quite shocking, and is rather interesting. I really enjoyed it, and got to see it on a really big screen with excellent sound and it was really creepy. I totally enjoyed this film, and I recommend it for the horror fans out there. If you liked the original, I think this one is just as good if not better, and certainly equivalent to The Ring Two. Nice add to the original tale.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Red 56, Deep Blue Pictures,

Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Aimee Teegarden, Chris Lowell, Max Adler, Austin Stowell

Mickey Wright (Liam Hemsworth) is a soldier in Viet Nam on an extremely nasty tour of duty. When they return from the field and collect the mail from home, he looks for a letter from Jane (Aimee Teegarden) his sweetheart. He finds the letter, but is shocked to learn that she is breaking up with him. Yes, it’s a Dear John letter. He is granted a two week R&R in Hong Kong with the rest of his men, but he makes up his mind to go AWOL (technically) and go back to the states to get his girl back. One of his closest buddies, Dalton (Austin Stowell) decides to risk everything to go back with him on this adventure to recover Jane.

This movie starts out with some fresh battle scenes in the fields of Viet Nam with some heavy duty scenes. Then we head back to the states and get a good look at the other side of the Vietnam situation. They are surrounded by people who spit on them or throw rocks, who despise the war and the army and who are convinced that the pair should head to Canada and renounce the army and the war. They guys need to take a good look at that. The performance by Liam Hemsworth is not bad, but it’s not really something in his wheel house. I thought Jane (Aimee) was really pretty awful. I understand that she has to play a crazy mixed up young adult, but she wasn’t very likeable. Most of what she did made no sense at all. The movie starts out with a great battle sure to create some action scenes for the trailers, but after a few minutes, it turns into a romance that isn’t really that dramatic nor is it comedic. In the end, they tried to throw in an action sequence of car chases and escape, but it doesn’t really add anything to the mix. My feeling is that this is a film that couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be. The blood and violence will turn off the girls and the long romantic chased and banter between the boys and girls will send the guys out for pizza. Nobody gets what they want out of it, and it sort of fizzles out. It seems to be schizophrenic and and bi-polar at the same time. I lived through the Vietnam era so I have a lot of familiarity with the times, but that still didn’t help me appreciate this film any more. I found that it was a fair try, but missed the mark in many ways, so I don’t highly recommend this one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog