Unified Pictures, Tee Rob Pictures, Amberdale Productions,

Billy Crudup, Anton Yelchin, Felicity Huffman, Selena Gomez, Laurence Fishburne, William H. Macy

Sam (Billy Crudup) is a single Dad whose life spirals out of control when his college age son is recently deceased. He’s a power ad executive, but just can’t deal with the pain. After he loses his job, he takes a spin at house painting and lives on a boat and heads deeper and deeper into despair. When his ex-wife drops off their son’s demo tapes for songs that he wrote, Sam starts singing them at a local bar, but as the music becomes quite popular, he is faced with the fact that he has stolen his son’s music and must face the consequences.

This is a very dark indie film, that tells a great story. William H. Macy has a rather small part, but he is the director and he is so talented. He really brought this film to the screen in a very touching manner, and it really affects you in the way the story unfolds. He does an excellent job here. Anton Yelchin, who recently passed away in a tragic accident is very memorable here. His role in pivotal in the epiphany that Sam has to come to and does a very good job as well. You’ll see that Selena Gomez is listed, and her role is rather small. Since her boyfriend (Sam’s son) dies in the first few minutes, and since she is boy’s girlfriend, I can only assume that she is here for her star power. It’s a small role, but completely dramatic, and she handles it well. The story is somewhat shocking, and you have to come to feel sorry for Sam, though you’d like to smack him at the same time, and there are several other actors who turn in excellent performances. The star power here is fierce and the story, though dark, is quite touching. I have often wondered of how people deal with issues like this, and this film seems, (to me at least) to portray it in a very stark, realistic manner. This is rated R because of the intensity of the subject matter, and though the usual stuff that earns an R rating is not present here, it’s still likely to be disturbing for younger teens, so I would stick with the R rating. For those who are older though, I think this is a good example of an excellent independent film, and I can imagine it was popular in the film festival circuit. Give it a shot, it’s a worthwhile tale.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Paramount Pictures, Alibaba Pictures Group, Bad Robot,

Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba

In the beginning of the 5 year mission to go where no man has gone before, Kirk (Chris Pine) takes the crew into an uncharted nebula on a rescue mission that goes very bad and strands the Enterprise and the crew out of communications range from the Federation on a planet with a really bad guy Krall (Idris Elba) who has plans to put an end of the Federation due to an old grudge. Kirk and the crew plus a few new found friends have to find a way to defeat Krall and find a way back home.

This is epic Star Trek. It is hard to believe that it has been 50 years since Star Trek first lit up our TV screens. This is a nod back to the original, perhaps as a nod to the 50th anniversary. The cast who play the younger version of the original crew do an excellent job, and this is a really good story with lots of excitement and action, along with the close relationship of the crew and a splash of real humor thrown in for good measure. I really enjoy this cast, and the addition of a brand new character, Jaylah, played by Sofia Boutella is a great addition to the cast. I saw this film in IMAX 3D and really enjoyed being in the middle of the action. This is not a perfect movie. There’s a new director this time out, and some of the choices are not perfect, but the affection for the characters, and the excellent script makes up for it. Are there some plot holes? Certainly. When has Star Trek NOT had plot holes? The style is an allegory tale, almost a science-fiction fairy tale, that does require some suspension of reality once in a while. That’s not a problem for me. I appreciate that mankind in the future will still be based in morals and values and trying to do right by one another. All in all, I really enjoyed another venture into the Star Trek universe, and found the experience very delightful. Great film!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Broad Green Pictures, Film Science, A24,

Kai Lennox, Patrick Stewart, Mark Webber, Imogen Poots, Macon Blair, Callum Turner, Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, Eric Edelstein, Anton Yelchin

A young punk rock band in the Pacific Northwest is having a rough time making a go of it. When they get an opportunity to play a gig for a remote location owned and run by a gang of skinheads, their plan is to get in and get out in a hurry. But a fluke causes them to see something they shouldn’t and the group is locked in a room with no change of escape until they are put out of the way because of what they have seen. What should have been a simple show turns into a desperate fight for survival.

This is one of the most unusual horror films I’ve seen in quite a while. This is a very graphic and gory film. It’s quite intense. Patrick Stewart plays the owner of this club and it certainly an interesting role for him. This guy is unlike anything you have seen from Patrick Stewart in the past. This movie was in limited release is certain theaters, and we were lucky enough to catch this in L.A. The suspense is crushing. Your heart is in your throat through much of this film. The suspense is extremely intense. It’s a very powerful story. But aside from the tension of the capture and escape, there is still a lot about the lives of the band members and what they are going through. And of course there’s the music which fits the movie very well. The music adds to the suspense as it’s very unsettling. There are a lot of additional characters that are very well developed and quite interesting. There’s a lot going on for this low budget thriller. Due to the extreme intensity of this movie it’s not for everyone, but it was an interesting and a suspenseful experience for sure.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Fusion Films (II), Future Films, The Sommers Company,

Anton Yelchin, Addison Timlin, Willem Dafoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Shuler Hensley, Leonor Varela, Nico Tortorella, Patton Oswalt, Melissa Ordway, Kyle McKeever

Odd Thomas(Anton Yelchin) is a strange fellow who has paranormal powers, specifically, the ability to see dead people. He lives in a very small town in the California desert, and the folks in town understand his special powers and depend on him to let them know when something awful is about to happen. But this time he sees something big coming, and with the assistance of his girlfriend Stormy (Addison Timlin) and the town Sheriff Wyatt Porter (Willem Dafoe) he sets off on a mission to stop the evil from coming. Based on the Dean Koonz best seller.

Dean Koonz is a excellent writer. I have been given chills by a good many of his books. Somehow I have missed the Odd Thomas books. I have heard many of the fans of his book have been deeply disappointed in this movie because it is nowhere near as rich as the stories it’s based upon. That is probably true as it is with most movies based on a popular novel. It’s hard to complete in a 90 minute movie with a whole book. But Koonz is an interesting writer, and he does know how to write a creepy story. This is one of those. I think what I liked most about it was how bizarre and off the wall it was. There was nothing normal about this story. I also had the weird feeling that I was watching “whatever happened to that kid from Sixth Sense?” It was an unusual tale and that’s what I found interesting about it. It could have been an Outer Limits episode, with all the twists and unexpected turns that it took, and I found myself sucked into the story and enjoying it all the way. Parts are a little silly, as are the shadow creatures that show up when something really bad is about to happen, and perhaps it was a little on the shallow side. There’s really no life altering changes taking place here. But it was a lot of fun, and very interesting and just an enjoyable experience to watch. Now I’m debating on looking up the book as it would probably add a lot of back story to the tale.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Hemisphere Media Capital,

Neil Patrick Harris, SofĂ­a Vergara, Christina Ricci, Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Alan Cumming, Brendan Gleeson, Hank Azaria, Jayma Mays, Katy Perry, Fred Armisen, J.B. Smoove, George Lopez

For years we’ve known that the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) absolutely hates the Smurfs. But he’s created some little creatures similar to the Smurfs called “The Naughties” who are going to help him with this efforts to replace the Smurfs, but they won’t work. Gargamel needs the Smurf essence to turn them into real Smurfs that he can control. Only Smurfette (Katy Perry) has the knowledge to obtain the essense, so Gargamel convinces her that the Smurfs have forgotten her and kidnaps her and brings her to Paris to help him in his plan. The rest of the Smurfs have to find Smurfette and convince her to come back home.

First of all, I have to warn you that I’m too old to have grown up with the Smurfs. For some reason, I never got into watching them with my kids, so I’m not a Smurf fan by any means, and I always found the little rats a bit annoying. Well, maybe more than a bit. Therefore, the Smurfs start off with a big mark against them in my book. I wasn’t a fan of the first Smurfs movie, but I admit this one was probably at least as good, if not better than the first one. The acting is corny, the animation is corny, but I suspect that’s what the Smurfs are about anyway, so I’m sure anyone with a soft spot for the little fellows and one lone adopted girl Smurf will enjoy this revisit to their world, plus the added benefit of bringing them to Paris for an adventure. I am giving this movie a bit higher rating that I probably would if I was basing it on my own enjoyment, but I do realize there are Smurf fans out there, and this is not that bad of a movie, really. So if you have a Smurf fan in your group, this makes a decent rental film, but of course if you’re a Smurf grouch like I am, it’s more of the same old, same old.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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