Ed's Review Dot Com

Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions, Bad Robot,

Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Peter Weller, Alice Eve, Bruce Greenwood

Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are back aboard the Enterprise. There is a threat facing all civilization. An army of superior beings has been cryogenic-ally stored upon the Enterprise with their knowledge, but the leader of this army has been awakened for the evil purposes of one man. This leader of the superior army is none other than Khan. But Kirk and Spock don’t know whether to trust him or not, until they confer with the future Spock who warns them that Khan is the most evil being in the universe. Khan will use all his tricks to try to destroy the Enterprise and everyone on it to get his army back. This is a sequel to the 2009 Star Trek and continues the story of the early days of the crew.

This is a high energy, high adventure story. From start to finish there is tension and non-stop action. Khan is one of the greatest of all villains ever, and he lives up to his early potential here. The photography is stunning, especially the battles in outer space, and it’s fun to see the crew as young people, but with the traits that we will know and love later. One advantage to a prequel/sequel is that we get to build off what happened in the first one, but still enjoy the knowledge of what will be coming in the future. This is a very well made story, and every fan of Star Trek ought to make sure to see this one. It wasn’t as huge in the theater as the first one was, but it’s very good, and if you happened to miss it, be sure to watch it now on DVD, now that it’s available. Great movie!

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Paramount Vantage, Indian Paintbrush, Super Crispy Entertainment

Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston, Oliver Muirhead, Finola Hughes, Chris Messina, Ben York Jones, Jamie Thomas King, Keeley Hazell, Natalie Blair, Edurne Ganem

British Student Anna (Felicity Jones) meets and falls in love instantly with Jacob (Anton Yelchin) in an Los Angeles college, but when school is over, Anna can’t bear to leave, so she stays on for the summer, overstaying her Visa. But when she comes home to England, she finds that she’s banned from coming back due to her discretion. This puts the whole Atlantic between them as the try to keep their love alive, only seeing each other for the moments when Jacob can manage to cross over to England to visit. While battling immigration, they have to decide whether the love they have for each other is worth the effort tearing them apart.

This is a romantic film, but many people don’t get it because it isn’t cut and cliched like many contemporary films are. This is more realistic, and everything’s not always so pretty when exposed to the light. It’s slower than usual, but that gives them time to develop the characters and sub characters a great deal, and that’s an advantage. It’s a slow, independent type of film, but for what it’s worth, that seems to work. It’s an interesting relationship, and it’s not really boring if you get to know the characters. The ending is the weakest thing, It leaves you a little let down perhaps, but life often does I suppose. All in all, I thought it was pretty well put together, well acted, and if you’re into romance stories with more than usual character development, a strong leading lady, and plenty of romance, then this is not a bad film at all. It won’t be fore everyone, but it’s pretty darn good for most of us. I can recommend this for one of those out of the way films that is worth the watch.

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Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Kerner Entertainment Company

Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Hank Azaria, Sofía Vergara, Jonathan Winters, Katy Perry, Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin, Kenan Thompson, Jeff Foxworthy, John Oliver, Wolfgang Puck, B.J. Novak, Paul Reubens

Gargamel (Hank Azaria) finally finds the way into the Smurf Village, and in escaping from him, the Smurfs (little blue people) are sucked into a portal that drops them in the middle of Central Park in New York City. Of course Gargamel has to follow them, and the chase is on. The Smurfs meet humans Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace Winslow (Jayma Mays) who make friends and try to help them to find a way to return. But with Gargamel and his cat on their tail, and with all the dumb stuff they do to sabotage themselves, the Smurfs may not live long enough to get back home.

Ok, I may be a little harsh on this film, but I have to admit right of the top, I was too old for the Smurfs and did not develop a fondness for the little creatures that I always did feel were a little creepy. After all, the film did just barely make it’s budget of 100 Million back, so it wasn’t a complete disaster, probably due to those that did grow up with the Smurfs and are nostalgic to see them again. But taking a half hour cartoon and trying to stretch it out into an hour long films just doesn’t always work. Many stories do much better in a half hour format.

This film, to me, seemed just a lot of silliness. I never felt a kindship to the little guys, and didn’t really care if they got back or not. A number of films of the same genre are a lot better done. Enchanted for example, was pretty clever, as was the unique Gnomeo and Juliet (which I also did not LOVE, but it was way better than this was). I didn’t hate this film, but I just didn’t really get into it. It was hard to keep interested in it, and when it was over, it seems highly forgettable to me.

I think two age groups would enjoy it. Obviously those who grew up with the Smurfs and really want to see them again will no doubt like it. Also I can imagine the little folk who don’t know the Smurfs will enjoy seeing them too, as they are well animated and quite unique in that respect. But anyone who’s looking for a story, this is pretty week.

Two other comments. I much preferred Neil Patrick Harris in A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. He was really funny there, as he is in How I Met Your Mother. He was good dramatically in a number of holiday films that are shown on the Hallmark channel and Lifetime at Christmas. But in this movie, he’s more like a prop. Not a complaint on Mr. Harris, he just wasn’t given anything to work with. Secondly, Sofia Vergara plays Patrick’s boss. I don’t know how they could possibly manage to make her appear non-sexy, as she is one of the most beautiful women in the world. But her plain Jane character in this film somehow makes her look neutral. I don’t know how they could do that! Not awful. Watch it if you’re interested, but it just wasn’t good enough to get me excited about it.

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Summit Entertainment, Participant Media, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ

Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Riley Thomas Stewart, Cherry Jones, Kelly Coffield, Michael Rivera, Zachary Booth, Matt Lauer

Walter Black (Mel Gibson) is the CEO of his father’s successful toy company. But he’s suffering from a severe case of depression that is real and completely debilitating. Suddenly he’s about to lose his company, his family, and perhaps even his life as he drifts from day to day, many days never getting out of bed. Drugs and therapy have not helped, but suddenly he begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. Walter can’t talk to anyone, but the Beaver can, and he turns things around in a hurry with the Beaver’s help. But Walter isn’t alone. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter (Anton Yelchin) pushes for his parents to get a divorce. Jodie Foster directs and co-stars as Walter’s wife in this dark comedy that also features Riley Thomas Stewart and Jennifer Lawrence.

The Beaver bombed in the box office and I’m not sure why. Surely a movie about depression must be depressing. Maybe that’s why? Or is it the other summer blockbuster movies that just buried it? Or could it be backlash directed at Mel Gibson who has certain had a run of very bad press of late. When Mariah Carey went through her nutsy phase, Glitter was a huge bomb, but was it really that bad? Well, maybe so, but Brittney’s Crossroads suffered the same fate. Of course it wasn’t very good, really, either. But this isn’t a bad film. I can see why Jody Foster took on the project, and Mel was an excellent Walter, and I really believed him. In fact, maybe making this movie is in some way therapy for the real Mel Gibson, who knows. But it is a warm and touching film about a very real illness. Too many people dismiss depression as something you just need to shake off and move on. Get yourself out of bed and move on. I will never forget the sweetest scene in “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” when Charlie makes it all the way to the National Spelling Bee and loses by misspelling Beagle. (B-E-A-G-E-L). Charlie arrives back in town and no one is there to meet the bus. Next day he doesn’t go to school and stays in bed all day. Linus arrives after school and says, “Charlie Brown, you lost the spelling bee. You lost, but guess what? The world didn’t end.”

This is the message of The Beaver. Depression is real and isn’t something that you can just wish away. It takes lots of help and lots of support. It also takes a lot of effort. Mel shows us this very well. His wife also shows us a real wife. Supportive as she can be, but tired of having no husband, and frustrated. When things start to look up, she’s expecting an instant leap to normalcy, which isn’t ready yet. But the key relationship here is the two boys. The oldest is experiencing many of the same things his dad feels. But Walter’s Dad also had the same illness. It is heredity, and is passed on in many familes. So the life that Walter’s son is moving into could be the same as his father and his grandfather. The relationship between Walter and his sons is also very important to the story. This is a slow moving, and very thoughtful film, but told very well with good characters. I don’t think it should have been completely ignored by the public, and my hope is now that it’s on DVD that it will come back in a strong way in the rental market. It’s time to forgive Mel for his weaknesses, and give this movie a chance. I am certainly glad I watched it. It had a really good story to tell and it was very well done.

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Albuquerque Studios, DreamWorks SKG, Gaeta / Rosenzweig Films

Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette, Dave Franco, Grace Phipps, Reid Ewing

Teenager Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) suspects that his new neighbor, the strange and confusing Jerry Dandrige (Colin Farrell), is a vampire. Charley turns to a self-styled vampire expert and Vegas magician and showman, Peter Vincent (David Tennant), for help. Vincent proves pretty useless, and it’s up to Charley to save his mom, Jane (Toni Collette), and girlfriend, Amy, from the seductive bloodsucker next door.

This remake of the 1985 horror film goes much more for horror than for comedy as the original did. Though there are some truly funny scenes, especially when Vincent is involved. He’s a very “Arthur” like alcoholic, playboy, rich as sin, but basically useless character, basically this is the vampire movie that vampire movies should be like. It’s pretty scary and has some very good nightmare inducing scenes in it, for sure! It was actually not bad. This particular breed of vampires are very tough to deal with, and it takes everything they have to survive. Vincent’s statement that you don’t hunt vampires, you survive if you can, is a good one.

Very well acted and the desert scenes in this little subdivision out in the Vegas desert is really perfect for this kind of thing. Working all night and sleeping all day is a lifestyle that fits in well in Vegas. They are remote enough to not be able to get any help, but the constant view of the Vegas skyline in the distance is a reminder of the place that’s not far away. I saw this film in 3D and the 3D effects were very good. I’m beginning to not think about the extra couple dollars spent on the 3D glasses each time because it really adds to my enjoyment of the film. I know some people cannot stand 3D, but for me, it’s a great add to many films. This is one of them. In a season with a lot of horror films coming out, this is one that could get lost in the shuffle, especially as it’s a remake, but I certainly like it better than the original and it is a vampire film I could “sink my teeth into” (pun intended). Enjoy!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Here is the preview for the 1985 “original” version