Ed's Review Dot Com

Marvel Studios,

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Brie Larson, Tom Holland, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, Evangeline Lilly

In the last film, Avengers:Infinity war (2018) the universe was devastated. Half of the avengers were killed. The remaining allies have banded together with the remaining Avengers to try to reverse Thanos’ actions and once again put things back the way they were before the destruction took place. This means traveling back in time to steal all the jewels and bring them all back together again. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

People who know me, know I’m not a huge comic book or superhero fan. For the most part, superhero films leave me with an empty feeling. I felt that I did have to watch the Avengers films though as they were so powerfully hyped up. In the end of Infinity War, I found myself wondering what the hell I had just watched. Feeling there must be more, I couldn’t believe the ending. It was quite a bummer, believe me. So I headed out to see this one to see if it could fix up the horror of the last movie’s ending. I wasn’t disappointed, as the obvious has to happen, but the way it did was awesome. The intensity and the quality of this movie made it well worth watching, and although this is no way my favorite film of any genre, it was awfully well done. It nice to see everyone brought together, and the suspense of no one can fail or the whole plan fails helped to make it as intense and could be. All in all, it’s a very well made film with really memorable characters and well worth the price of admission. It’s a must see, especially if you saw the last one’s devastation and destruction. This is a very well done film and a must see just the same.

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Legendary Entertainment, Tencent Pictures, Warner Bros.,

Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Tian Jing, John Ortiz, Terry Notary, John C. Reilly, Toby Kebbell, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann

A team of scientists convince their congressman that there is an urgent need to visit and document a hidden island, behind circle of constant storms, to document what exists there. They agree to send a team to visit the island first, but insist it must be lead by military leader Preston Packard who is sad that the Viet Nam war has been shutdown and he has nothing to do. But the island is more dangerous than they realized, and the wild creatures that live on the island wre extremely aggressive and the team is in big trouble from the very start, and trying their best to just stay alive, when the learn the king of the island is a giant ape known as Kong.

This is not really a Kong movie, and has very little to do with the giant ape. Kong only has a cameo or two and is a bit player in this story, but the other wildlife on this island are the key to the story. This is basically a military story much more than a giant ape story! Samuel L Jackson as Preston Packard is absolutely nuts as the driven soldier who naturally pushes too hard and is very stubborn and unwilling to listen. John C Reilly is a standed WWII soldier who has been stranded on this island for decades who is a major add to the story. The action in this movie is excellent, the battles are very exciting, and the acting is pretty decent, considering the non-stop action. Truthfully this movie is much more like The Battle of Los Angeles or Battleship than it is a Kong movie. They surely borrow some of the story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s THe Lost World, more than anything. So as long as you’re looking for monsters and action rather than a King Kong movie sequel, you won’t be disappointed. Granted you have to suspend belief and threat this as science fiction, but the action is good, the monsters are realistic, and it’s a lot of fun.

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Element Pictures, No Trace Camping,

Sean Bridgers, Joan Allen, Brie Larson, William H. Macy, Jacob Tremblay

Ma (Brie Larson) was kidnapped by Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) and held hostage in a converted tool shed in the back yard of her captor. She has since had a small son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay) who has grown up in “room” which is his whole world. Only one small skylight in the ceiling is his view of the world, which he calls TV, because there are two things in his life, things in Room and unreal things everywhere else in TV. Eventually Jack is able to escape room, and his awe at a world he does not understand is incredible. This is based upon a popular novel, this is an amazing story that could have been pulled from the pages of the newspaper.

Room in an emotional roller-coaster. It has ups and downs throughout the story. I am not sure if life was harder for Jack and Ma inside the shed or out in the whole big world. There are many issues with each of the many relationships. Jack, being only 5 years old, is used to life in room, and certainly is not prepared for what’s outside. Things that he could never even imagine face him every day. But Ma has no easy time either. It’s hard for everyone to deal with all of the emotional scars in this story. Naturally all the attention at the Academy Awards was focused on Jacob Tremlay who is a very charming 7 year old who did an unbelievable job playing Jack. This is really his movie, and he was eating up every second of the attention. But this is Brie Larson’s movie as well, and her role was certainly not an easy one, and she carried it like a champ. For the largest portion of the film, it’s only Jack and Ma together in this little room. There is another role I want to mention. William H Macy plays Jack’s Grandfather and Ma’s Father. He has a very distasteful role to play as a father who doesn’t want to accept or face what has happened to his daughter, and though you will hate him for how he does it, William H Macy pulls it off very well. Though hard to understand his character, he plays it pretty well. The suspense is rather good, but the key to this film is the emotional ride we take with the characters and the way they are so well portrayed. This is an amazing film and unless you are not comfortable watching the dark and depressing situation they lived in for all those years, be sure to catch this one. Thought provoking, yet something we all have wondered about as we heard the stories of people who have been held hostage for a decade or more. Once they are freed, it’s not often we get to experience their story like we do in this fictional account of what it must be like. I recommend this one as certainly one of, if not the Best Picture of the year.

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Paramount Pictures, Winkler Films,

Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Lange, John Goodman, Brie Larson

This remake of the 1974 James Caan film stars Mark Walhberg as Jim Bennett, the man with two lives. As a College English Literature professor during the day, and an avid gambler who always seems to go too far and lose it all, he has a hard time keeping the two lives from crashing together. Son of a very wealthy mother (Jessica Lange) Jim borrows the money from her finally as the bad guys are about to come after him very hard since he is in to them for a great deal of money. But Jim starts a friendship with one of his students, Amy (Brie Larson) and together they make some really bad choices and find themselves back in the soup all over again.

Mark Wahlberg worked very, very hard for this film. He lost a TON of weight to play the skinny, down on his luck professor/gambler, and the action sequences, he said, took a lot out of him after losing all that weight. He promises himself he’ll never do that again. But furthermore, he sat through actual English Lit classes so that he would look the part of a professor. But with all that hard work and effort, the movie just doesn’t come together. I’m not sure Mark is the best choice for the role anyway, but it probably isn’t his fault. Actually there’s no real drama, as you don’t get invested in the characters and really don’t care whether he gets beat up or not. Jessica Lange’s role is small, and she’s pretty good at it, but it’s not enough to save the tedious parts of the movie. I guess I would have to blame it on the script. I haven’t seen the original, so I can’t really compare it in any way, but this one never really got going for me. I watched the whole film, but never really got into the story,and at the end, I was glad it was over. No matter whose fault it is, I can’t really recommend this one as I don’t think it’s interesting or captivating enough to recommend.

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Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Relativity Media,

Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis, Ice Cube, Dax Flame, Chris Parnell, Ellie Kemper

Young underachieving cops, Schmidt and Jenko (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum) are screwups on the force, and end up wrecking a huge undercover operation, so as punishment are sent to a “special” squad that has then going back to high school to bust up a drug operation. Naturally anything that can go wrong, does. They soon realize that times have changed since they were in school in this homage to the original 1980’s TV show of the same name.

There are a lot of poeple who LOVE this movie. It didn’t completely blow me away. But there are some really funny parts. Now keep in mind that I have never seen the TV show, so I have no background at all to work from. This is probably why I was not blown away. Then main characters were really good. Channing and Jonah were very good and remind me of a “Farrelly Brothers” version of Miami Vice which is probably what the show was going for. Ice Cube was funny as their leader. All in all there is a lot to like, but it would be a lot better if you have familiarity with the original work. As a stand alone film, without the upgrade of the original TV show, it’s a really decent comedy. So it’s worth watching, whether or not you are going to get the connection of the original film.

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