Ed's Review Dot Com

Annapurna Pictures, Likely Story, Media Rights Capital,

Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Michael Hall, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave

In 1999 the news screamed out the story of the richest man in history to be convicted of murder, when John DuPont (Steve Carell) heir to the DuPont chemical fortune was sent to prison for murdering David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) in the driveway of DuPont’s guest house where he and his wife and children were living. The Schultz bothers, older brother David, and younger brother Mark (Channing Tatum) were a couple of the best gold medal winning wrestling champions in US History. This film is Mark’s story of how we met John DuPont and John’s efforts to buy his way into Olympic wrestling in a effort to maintain a level of importance. He opened the Foxcatcher facility and trained many US Olympic wrestlers there with the help of the Schultz brothers. This is the story of what happened and though we may never know why it happened, at least it is an interesting tale of the events of that day that shocked the country when the new came out.

This is an interesting biographical film. Like most Hollywood versions of true story, it is based upon the events that happened, but not absolutely true to all the facts. What we have though is a very strong cast acting their way through a fascinating story. Steve Carell was even nominated as best actor for his performance, a very somber role for the usually funny Mr. carell, but certenly within his wheelhouse for sure. Channing Tatum gave a really strong performance as did Mark Ruffalo. Even Vanessa Redgrave gave a charming performance as John DuPont’s mother, even though it’s very short. It is still a great performance. Critics of the film call it slow. It does certainly plod along, and at 2 hours and 15 minutes, it probably could have been shorter, but I didn’t find it boring at any point. The time was well used to develop the characteristics of each of these characters, and with the star cast, it takes time to fully develop that. In the end, even at over 2 hours running time, it feels like we’ve missed some of the facts, and it was off to Wikipedia to learn more about the story. I give credit to the writers, directors, and producers for presenting a great feature film on the subject, and am really impressed with the level of acting that went into it. I found it an interesting story, and recommend this film to those who enjoy biographical historical tales that are stranger than fiction.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Universal 1440 Entertainment,

Danny Trejo, Mickey Rourke, Anthony Michael Hall, Dina Meyer, Richard Dillane, Colin Mace, Emil Hostina, Ovidiu Niculescu

When Guerrero (Danny Trejo) arrives in the town they call Tombstone he decides he and his gang are going to take control. But the gang double crosses him and kills him. Guerrero ends up in hell where he’s faced by the devil (Mickey Rourke) who is rather excited to have him to torture for eternity. But Guerrero makes a deal with the devil that in exchange for his life, he will kill every one of the gang members and trade their souls for his own. With time running out, he has to avenge each one by his own hand or return to the devil.

This is a movie for Trejo fans. If you love Machete and you can’t wait until the third installment, then this is made for you. It’s a straight out western, no aliens or zombies running around, unless you count Guerrero coming back from the dead, so it’s not as gimmicky as many other westerns lately. It’s just bad ass versus bad ass in an all out gun battle royal. Mikey Rourke is a plus to the cast, and he makes a pretty decent devil, but it’s definitely all Trejo. There’s not much more to say, as it’s a decent movie, but certainly not great. It doesn’t have the star power that the Machete films do, and most mainstream audiences aren’t going to get this, but it’s made for the people who loved the spaghetti westerns of the 70’s. The Terrence Hill, Bud Spencer’s Trinity films, the Clint Eastwood westerns, and the Lee Van Cleef, Lee Marvin westerns of old. This is a newer breed, but in a similar vein, so it should be easy to tell before going in if this is the kind of movie that will appeal to you or not. If you’re the right kind, you’ll enjoy the adventure. Otherwise, stay away. It will be absurd to you.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog