Ed's Review Dot Com

3 Arts Entertainment, Jolie Pas, Legendary Pictures,

Garrett Hedlund, Domhnall Gleeson, Jai Courtney, Jack O’Connell, Alex Russell, John D’Leo

Based on the true story of Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) who was a promising young track start headed for the Olympics when WWII broke out. Louis was a bombardier who crashed due to a malfunction and ended up stranded in the ocean for 47 days. When he was rescued it was by the Japanese, and he spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war forced to work for the Japanese while being starved and severely tortured.

This is directed by Angelina Jolie. I’m not sure why that really ticked a lot of people off, but much of the criticism I feel is anti Angelina flack. There are some problems with this film. The lead actors were not big blockbuster names, but I certainly felt they did a pretty good job playing the roles. There isn’t a lot of criticism of the acting, although it was completely snubbed by the Oscars in almost every category. But I found the movie to be touching and inspiring. Yeah, other people have been lost at see and imprisoned by the enemy, but that’s not the problem. This is based on the true story, so it is what happened, sorry if it’s similar to other people’s experiences. It was interesting that as a young boy, Louis was persecuted for being Italian in the neighborhood and he learned to be tough in a hurry. This prepared him for the resolve he would need to stand up and survive this experience. Perhaps those who read the book found the movie lacking. That’s a common response from a good book. But as a film, I think it was very well done. The action sequences in the war were really well done. The cinematography was really good from the fight scenes to the raft scenes to the years in the POW camp. I thought this was nicely done and well worth watching, and I recommend this film as a really good picture of life in America and the horrors of WWII. This is a good movie, very well done.

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Screen Gems, Misher Films,

Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, Gabriella Wilde, Michelle Nolden, Alex Russell, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, Samantha Weinstein, Max Topplin, Cynthia Preston

Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a shy young girl being raised by a religious fanatic mother (Julianne Moore) who punishes her by locking her in a closet and making her pray all day. Carrie is curious, but doesn’t fit in with the rest of the kids and is made fun of all the time, but Carrie is trying to learn to control some supernatural powers that she has, and when she is pushed too far, all hell breaks loose in this remake of the Stephen King story that made into a 1976 movie and now being brought up to date.

I have often made the assessment that some movies don’t need to be redone. We used to call it remaking, but now they prefer to call it reimaging. To me, reimaging would be making a new physical copy of an old print, but it sounds better I guess. Well, this movie does get the new 2013 technology update that wasn’t there in 1976, but I think it was a lot better film without Twitter and Facebook and YouTube. Imagine Carrie’s embarrassment when her shameful incident goes viral! It was a lot simpler terrifying story in 1976, I would much rather watch that version of the story. Don’t get me wrong, Chloe Grace Moretz does a really good acting job, but it’s not really her fault. I had a hard time with Julianne Moore because I know her so well, and I just had a hard time buying her as the mean old mother that she was supposed to be. I suspect she did a good job too, but it wasn’t the right role for her I’m afraid. But the biggest problem is that they had so much fun with all the fake CGI stuff, and some of it was frightening (a car crash for example), that they didn’t pay much attention to the nuances of the story. Carrie was an innocent little girl, but a really nice kid that you could see asking to the prom for real, and then suddenly threw the switch and became an evil bitch. Likewise, Carrie’s Mom garnered so much sympathy that you actually end up feeling really sorry for her which is not supposed to happen. She had a rough childhood which helps explain why she was so wacky, and she had good intentions. This is all wrong.

There are some other examples of this miscasting that is similar in a way. Take the musical Camelot for example. Arthur is supposed to be a little boy who never grew up. The impish Peter Pan way he runs around hopping from table to chair is supposed to show us how much he was so childish, that he never could have been a husband to Guenevere. We are actually supposed to feel sorry for her and Lancelot as what happened was Arthur’s fault because he was such a childish little boy. But when they cast Richard Harris in the movie version of Camelot, we loved him. He was such a warm and loving character that we hated Lance and Jenny for the horrible thing they did to him.

In Carrie, the remake, we feel a lot of sympathy for Mom Margaret, and don’t like Carrie at all by the end. It’s kind of backwards, and doesn’t come off that way in the original. But those of us who were frightened by the original movie are old now, and millions on millions of people have never seen the film. This is a modern version of a really good Stephen King story, that should be told. So if you’re not, like me, going to keep comparing the old with the new, for heaven’s sake, watch this version and you’ll really enjoy it. But if you like good classic cinema, and if you can find the original version, in my opinion it’s far superior to this version. This one is for the new generation, and has a purpose. I’m stuck in the middle on this one, but I don’t want to totally discourage you from seeing it. It’s a darn good book.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Davis Entertainment, Adam Schroeder Productions, Film Afrika Worldwide,

Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly, Alex Russell, Ashley Hinshaw, Anna Wood, Joe Vaz, Matthew Dylan Roberts

Three high school friends attend a party, but are startled by something that fell out of the sky. Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan) is the strange somewhat dark of the friends and is filming everything in his day to day life, so he brings the camera into the woods where they find a deep dark hole. After the guys climb down to investigate a strange light, the find that they are developing super powers and able to do things with their mind. As they learn more and more of how to use their powers, Andrew gets more disturbed. Will their powers unite them for good or destroy them all completely. The friends soon learn that power has it consequences.

This is a very strange film, but I have to admit it was much better to me than Clockstoppers was. On the other hand, I can see how it was a bit of a disappointment in the box office department. That’s because it is anything but mainstream. Mostly this is a fable, trying to look at the character and problems of the characters. The special effects are fine, the laws of physics are freely broken, and there is some relatively poor acting among the gems, but the moral of the story is good, and you can really get into the minds of the characters. How did the former lives of the three friends determine what would happen to them? How did their experiences in life foreshadow how they are able to handle ultimate power. What could have been done to prevent the sorrowful outcomes? These are all questions you will ask yourself as you go through the film. The ending is kind of epic, but we won’t give that away, but it will stand up to a lot of really big films. So I don’t have a bad feeling about this film. I really enjoyed it. The science fiction is fun, if not really sensible, and they don’t go out of the way to theorize on how it happened, or who did it, or why. They just let you know that it happened and we have to deal with it.

Essentially, there is a lot more to this film than either a super hero movie (it’s not), or a teen angst, coming of age film (It’s more this than that). I suggest you give it a try if you’re looking for a deeper look at what teenagers go through in growing up with real problems at home, trying to deal with it, and growing deeper and deeper in depression. The science fiction takes second place in the story, but it impressive. And beware of reviews and summaries that call this a “found footage” film. It is nothing of the sort. I think this film has enough going for it to make it a movie you don’t want to miss, especially now that it’s on DVD.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog