Ed's Review Dot Com

Carpenter B, Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television,

James Franco, Sarah Gadon, George MacKay, Chris Cooper, Cherry Jones, Daniel Webber, Kevin J. O’Connor

Jake Epping (James Franco) is a school teacher in 2016. He finds a way to travel back in time, but it always takes him to October 1960 to the same place and the same time. He can return, and anything that was changed remains changed, but when he goes back through the portal, everything resets the way it was. He is on a mission to stop Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Webber) from killing J.F.K. on 11/22/63 so he has three years to wait to prove that Oswald was the shooter, and to try to stop him before he can do it. But time pushes back when you try to change things, and time is a powerful foe.

This is based on a novel by Stephen King, and was planned for a big budget Hollywood film, but the producers determined that it needed more time than that, so they developed an 8 episode, 8 hour mini-series. Starring and produced by James Franco, this is a really neat little time travel story. Stephen King has his own bizarre way of developing a story, and this is pure King. When people write a time travel story, it’s usually either to kill Hitler or to save Kennedy. But they are all the same. You can’t change history or things fall apart. You can’t count on King to follow the rules though, and this is not really ever predictable. There are some really creepy characters, like an old man who keeps telling him “You shouldn’t be here” that gives you the creeps. Plus there is a romance blooming when Jake bumps into Sadie (Sarah Gadon) in 1960 which causes him a lot of distress. This is not a Twilight Zone episode that wraps up in 30 minutes. This is an 8 hour marathon, so we get many characters that we get to see developed, and many side bars and tangent stories that make it good. When it comes down to the last episode, it’s really quite exciting. How cool it is to have this on 2 DVD’s so that we can binge watch them all in one long day! I really enjoyed this film, but, of course, I am a total sucker for time travel stories. It’s something that has stuck with me since I was a youngster. I had never heard of this TV series, and was really interested when I found it in the new releases this week, and very happy I took up 2 spots in my queue for this story. I recommend it for those of us who love a good science fiction thriller once in a while. Keep in mind though, that even though it’s based on the real images of 1963, this is total fiction, so don’t expect to solve the Kennedy assassination while watching this film.

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Art Cine Productions,

Christian Camargo, Katie Holmes, William Hurt, Allison Janney, Cherry Jones, Russell Means, Michael Nyqvist, Jean Reno, Juliet Rylance, Mark Rylance, Ben Whishaw

The family gets together to celebrate the Memorial Day weekend at the summer house alongside a lake in rural New England. The period is in the mid 80’s. The family tries to get along, but there are many issues and many problems, and the weekend is a bit of an eye opener and game changer for the family as the fight and bicker their way through the long, long weekend.

This is a Russian story inspired by Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull”, moved to the U.S. It was terribly difficult for me to sit through. Generally I love “people” films and “relationship” films much more than most guys. But I simply despise films that have no purpose and no point. Just setup a camera, film a day or two in a family’s life where nothing much happens (to be fair their is a tragedy in the last few minutes of the story, but by that time nobody really cares). It just goes on and on and on with unlikable characters, no plot or purpose, no direction, it just happens. When I saw it produced by a company called “Art Cine” I knew what I would get. This film is trying so very, very hard to appeal to stuck up artsy folks, and as a result, leaves the rest of us far behind. I really tried hard to give this movie a chance. It has a really good cast, but with nothing for them to do. I’m not sure what made these folks accept this film, but I’ll bet there is a story behind it. I just can’t think anyone read it and said, “This will be a fascinating story”. I was NOT in a bad mood when I watched, neither was I tired or distracted. I went into hoping for the best and a bored nearly to tears throughout. In the end, there wasn’t anything worth recommending. I am not sure with the original story, but people rave about it. Maybe the transfer to America during the Reagan days, just did not work. Avoid it, unless you really like art house movies for some reason.

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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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Everest Entertainment, Cha Cha Cha, Mockingbird Pictures

Alexandria Salling, Connor Kramme, Annette Bening, Eileen Ryan, Samuel L Jackson, Naomi Watts, Cherry Jones, Kerry Washington,  David Ramsey, Kay, D’Arcy, Bradford Alex, Jimmy Smits, Elipida Carrillo, Simone Lopez, Carla Gallo

Mother and Child is one of those trilogies in a single movie stories.  It’s basically about 3 women.  First is Karen (Annette Benning) who became pregnant when she was 14 and gave the baby up for adaption.  Now 35 years later, she’s always regretted what she has done and is a very bitter, actually mean, person.   The second is her daughter, Elizabeth (Naomi Watts) who has grown into a woman with hardly any heart.  She’s a tough cookie and doesn’t trust anyone, especially men, but not opposed in the least to use her attractiveness to gain whatever advantage she can.  She went to Mexico for a tubal ligation when she was 17 and was shocked when she suddenly turned up pregnant.   The third story is about an African American wife who wants a child but cannot have one.  She and her husband are given the opportunity to adopt, but later complications arise.  The mother decides to keep the baby and the husband decides something even worse.

This is a typical indie type film, very, very slow to develop.  In one way the story is very cut and dried and you’re certain where it’s going to end up.  But there are a number of surprises coming along, and not what you would expect.  The way the lives of the three women cross is really strange and amazing.  There are twists and turns galore.  Truly it’s very ironic and very sad, and I would say depressing in a lot of ways.   This is not a friend family feel good picture by any means.  It’s very dark and deep, and it develops very, very slowly.  If you stick with it to the end, you will see that it’s very well written and the actors are very good as well.  But my fear is that a lot of people are not going to want to stick through the whole thing to get the the twist ending where two people meet who you would never have expected to get together.  If you like deep sincere indie films, you’ll like this one I’m sure, but be warned that it is a very slow developing relationship picture and not an easy thing to watch.  If you’re looking just to be entertained, this isn’t it, but if you don’t mind working through an intense film, it’s good.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog