Ed's Review Dot Com

Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, DiNovi Pictures,

Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner, Sharon Morris, Jay R. Ferguson, Riley Thomas Stewart, Joe Chrest, Robert Hayes, Jillian Batherson, Adam LeFevre, Russ Comegys

A Marine Veteran Logan (Zac Efron) while involved in a horrible battle, found a photograph of a young lady. He considered the photo a lucky charm and claimed it was what kept him alive. After returning home, he began searching for the lady in the photo and found the woman living with her Mom, in North Carolina, and tried to explain about the photo, but things spiraled out of his control and he ended up working for her. Naturally Mom takes a liking to him, but the town cop, who is her ex-boyfriend does not, and lots of complications and trouble ensue in this romantic comedy/drama about chance, fate, and love.

I once rented a Christmas film from Netflix called “The Christmas Card” [Click here for Ed’s Review]. This 2006 film is nearly the exact same movie as this 2006 Christmas movie. (I don’t know if you’ve been reading long enough to know about Ed’s Christmas Movie on TV project every year, but it’s one of those Christmas films that now ends up on TV every year. The Christmas Card nailed this story. This film pales in comparison. Since Christmas is coming, (I even saw this film is coming on Hallmark already and it’s still October) I’d suggest catching The Christmas Card instead of this inferior copy. They took out all the snow and lights and Christmas music and traditions, and it left an all-seasons film. Zac does his best, and it’s good to see him tackling the adult roles now, and he’s left the High School Musical stuff behind, but he is just not as good by comparison. So if you’re a Zac Efron fan, and I’ll admit he is a good looking guy, and you are a chick who loves chick flicks, then this could do it. It’s not a bad story, and the love story part is pretty good. But after seeing the other film, there’s just no comparison, so I can’t get excited about this movie. It was such a rip off. So that’s where I am on this movie. If I had never seen the other film, then maybe I would be more gung ho about it, but I’m serious. At this time of the year, go check out the other one!

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Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Contrafilm,

Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor, Blythe Danner, Ed Begley Jr., Joel McHale, Chris Pratt, Zachary Quinto, Andy Samberg, Thomas Lennon

Ally Darling (Anna Faris) is a “twenty-something” who reads an article about the average number of sexual partners and she realizes that she has a lot of ex-boyfriends that all turned out to be losers. She feels like there must be a Mr. Right in there somewhere if she just looks closer, so she takes a vow to not sleep with any other partners and to find her soul mate among her exes. But when she finds it hard to find them, she recruits her neighbor, Colin Shea (Chris Evens) to help her locate them by offering him permission to user her apartment to hide out. He has a new girl every night, but likes to sneak out in the morning to avoid talking to them.

This is a clever romantic comedy. It’s not extremely original, as most of the jokes in here have been used before, but it is upbeat and pretty funny most of the time. Chis Evans’ character is quite interesting. He’s a nice guy living a life that isn’t fulfilling because he doesn’t seem to know any better. Anna Faris is typical Anna Faris. She is flaky and scatterbrained as she always is. But there’s some character of desperation here, and disappointment, that makes it a decent story. There’s some really good chuckles here, and this film is well worth it if you’re in the mood for a simple romantic-comedy to kill some time. After you get to know the Darling family, you’ll see why Ally turned out the way she did! 🙂 Life can be a challenge sometimes. Let’s hope Ally finds the right Mr. Right after all.

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Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Working Title Films

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver, Blythe Danner, Jeffrey Tambor

Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) are two sci-fi comic book geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America’s UFO heartland. After attending a conference and meeting their hero, they head off on a tour in a camper of famous UFO hot spots. While there, they accidentally meet an alien Paul (Seth Rogan) who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever. Paul was held prisoner at Roswell for the past 60 years at a top-secret military base, all the while thinking he was a guest. When he discovers he’s been taken prisoner, the space-traveling smart ass decides to escape the compound and hop on the first vehicle out of town-a rented RV containing Earthlings Graeme and Clive. This is the greatest adventure of their lives, a real nerd fiesta, but they are chased by federal agents and the fanatical father of a young woman that they accidentally kidnap. Graeme and Clive hatch a plan to return Paul to his mother ship. And as two nerds try their best, their may end up dead, lost, or perhaps intergalactic heroes.

Paul is different that I expected. I can see why Seth Rogan was cast, as Paul really is a smart-ass, and these guys are bumbling fools. But this is a “Revenge of the Nerds” type movie and it’s done in slapstick and low humor. With lots of homages to other sci-fi films, it’s got a lot of humor on that level as well. So it’s really funny, but it’s not heartwarming or touching. It’s more cracking jokes. Jason Bateman and Sigourney Weaver play the feds and are very funny. Jeffrey Tambor plays their comic book writing hero who also has a funny part in the movie. Kristen Wiig plays the one-eyed fanatical Christian non-believer who is kidnapped and becomes part of the chase. These extra characters add a lot of funny parts to the film, and so if you’re a fan of sarcastic humor and satire, you’ll get a kick out of Paul. It’s not a cute kids film though, it’s mostly pratfalls and slapstick. But for that type of movie, it’s really cute.

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DW Films, DW Studios, Everyman Pictures

Robert DeNiro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Ericka Jensen, Barbara Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Jessica Alba, Laura Dern, Kevin Hart, Daisy Tahan, Colin Baiocchi, Thomas McCarthy, Harvey Keitel

Greg (Ben Stiller) and Pam (Teri Polo) are ready to celebrate the twins 5th birthday.  They want the whole family to gather for the event.  Greg and Pam are planning a move to a new home, and the plan is to hold the party with a bounce house and all in the back yard of the new house.  But contractor Randy (Harvey Keitel) is dragging his feet and everything else he can drag.  Plus Dad Focker (Dustin Hoffman) is in Spain on some kind of mid life crisis learning how to dance the Salsa.  Meanwhile, Teri’s father, Jack Byrnes (Robert DeNiro) who was also a fan of Doctor Bob (Thomas McCarthy) since he was so much better than Greg, but Dr. Bob has cheated on Teri’s sister and now is divorced leaving Greg in line to manage the family.  Meanwhile, Greg and Teri are trying to get the twins into a very expensive private school called “The Early Human School” run by Prudence (Laura Dern).  The only thing that could mess things up worse is if Kevin (Owen Wilson) (who just loves Teri, his ex) would show up, and of course he does.  The final straw is a sexy drug rep name Andi Garcia played by Jessica Alba who seems intent on seducing Greg.

Little Fockers is the third in the series.  It’s much better than the last one (Meet the Fockers), but not near as good as the first (Meet the Parents).  That first entry falls into the category of one of the funniest movies of all times!  The characters were really well developed and played off each other wonderfully. With characters so well developed, the only thing that could really go wrong is if they have nothing to do.  I think that’s what happened here.  After the third movie with the “circle of trust” and Jack misinterpreting what Greg is doing, and Greg’s parents being over sexed and crude, and so on, it’s the same recycled jokes.  That is the problem with this film.  It’s like a comedy series that has already run it’s course and run out of new jokes.  Most everything here has been used before.  But still it’s very funny, as always, and these are the same characters we know from before.  It’s like going home again in a way.  Owen Wilson has a slightly longer part this time around, and we get to know him a little better.  Jessica Alba is a good add, as we haven’t seen Greg tempted before.  Greg is supposed to be the one to carry on the Byrnes family crest as “the Godfocker”, and immediately he gets stressed and starts losing it and proving he’s not worthy.   It’s comfortable around this time, and I think a good deal better than the last go round.  If you don’t want to see it in the theater, watch it on DVD when it comes out. It should make the move to small screen very well.   Oh, and one last thing.  Take note of the PG-13 rating very carefully.  Though nothing is shown, there are quite a few crude and rude jokes and gags that, although not shown, may be tough to explain to a small kid.  I was unhappy to see a lot of 8-10 year olds in the theater which made me very uncomfortable for them.

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