Ed's Review Dot Com

Alcove Entertainment, Attercop Productions, British Film Institute (BFI),

Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Yasmin Paige, James Fox, Cathy Moriarty, Phyllis Somerville, Sally Hawkins, Chris O’Dowd, Craig Roberts

Simon (Jesse Eisenberg) is an employee in an office who is invisible to everyone. No one notices him, especially the girl he likes, Hannah (Mia Wasikowska). Nobody pays any attention to him, and he gets no credit for what he does. Suddenly a new employee, James (Jesse Eisenberg) shows up to work, and he’s an identical physical copy of Simon, but very smooth, great personality, and a hit with the girls. James makes Simon do all the work, but takes all the credit which drives Simon nuts. He can seem to tolerate all the abuse and all the negative energy around him, except for James who he just can’t stand, although he can’t seem to make anyone see that James is a fraud, as they all like James so much.

It has been a hard week for Ed’s Review. Either I have been in a bad mood, or the new DVD’s just haven’t been very good lately. This was, I think, the lamest of the bunch. I don’t have anything against Jesse Eisenberg but what they made this movie for is hard for me to understand. Someone called this film the poor man’s Fight Club, which is probably not a bad description, but at least Fight Club has some sort of purpose. There wasn’t anything that made any sense in this film. I am not sure what they were going after, but unfortunately it was all really silly. They may have been going for something really deep, but it didn’t gel in the least for me. I found myself wanting out all the way through this film. I thought if I stuck it out, there may be some payout in the end, but there wasn’t anything worth waiting for. This is one of the dumbest movies I’ve seen all year, and I’d suggest you avoid this one like the plague. This was a waste of a good cast and another missed opportunity to create something meaningful.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Film4, British Film Institute (BFI), Silver Reel,

Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell, Kevin McAlinden, Andrew Gorman, Joe Szula, Krystof Hádek, Roy Armstrong, Alison Chand

A beautiful alien woman (Scarlett Johansson) drives through the streets of Scotland in a large dark van, picking up strangers, lonely men, looking for some company. She leads them off to a dark place where they are swallowed up by a large liquid pool.

Well, friends, that’s about all you’re going to get because that’s about all you’re given. This is one of those mysterious, “what the hell is going on” type of film. I was not impressed. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t enjoy it a smidgen either. I found it really dull. There is nothing much going on, no answers, and nothing to show after wasting a couple hours on this. Now, naturally, the internet is full of people theorizing and pondering over what it all means, and what the symbolism is all about. My problem is I have no basis to start with. I do like science fiction and horror, but I hardly think this film falls into either category. I found it vapid and pointless and just a waste of time.

Now that all that is out in the open, there are a bunch of fans of this movie and others of it’s type. I trust you I am not. I feel like now that I’m getting older, there is a limited number of movies left to watch, and I hate to waste one on drivel like this. It just did not touch me at all. As nice it is to see Scarlett Johansson prance around naked a couple of times, she does that on Instagram anyway, and it’s not worth the investment here. There’s nothing going here, at all.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

British Film Institute (BFI), Irish Film Board, Qwerty Films,

Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Olivia Williams, Johnny Harris, Goran Kostic, Tom Cullen, Yusra Warsama

A group of astronauts are coming to an end to their first manned mission to Mars. They’re waiting to be released by the replacement group when they suddenly find a kind of bacteria that might be proof of life on Mars. One of the astronauts defies orders and goes out to investigate against orders, but his excavation triggers a cave in which causes his demise. When the rest of them go out to recover him though, one by one they turn up missing and they soon come to realize that the bacteria was a lot more menacing than anyone figured.

This science fiction / zombie film is pretty much alone in it’s class. I went into it expecting it to be really silly and very poorly done. I was kind of surprised as it was a lot better than I expected. There was a mixture of horror and suspense with the setting on Mars, so you really could feel the sense of isolation that they felt. If you are inside a house that’s haunted and the walls start reaching out for you, get the heck out of the house and you will survive! But on Mars, your options for escape are pretty limited, so mostly you have to deal with the problem. The film makers did a really good job of making us feel the loneliness of being alone on another planet. That part was handled very well. Liev Schreiber did a really good job. Some of the other characters where not really convincing that they could have passed the NASA requirements to be astronauts, but we can cut them a little slack. None of us have any experience with Martian zombies, so who knows how we’d handle it. I don’t mean to be flippant or mocking the storyline. They actually did do a decent screenplay here, and it does provide the chills and suspense that this type of movie should. All in all, it was a pretty good science fiction film, and one that makes a pretty good rental. It’s available for streaming, and is a good one to add to your queue if you like these kinds of movies.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog