Ed's Review Dot Com

BenderSpink, David Dobkin Productions, New Line Cinema,

Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Chris Hemsworth, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, Keegan-Michael Key, Regina Hall, Charlie Day

Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) is grown up now, married to his lovely wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) with two sons. Rusty is a pilot with EconoAir flying back and forth from Indiana to Chicago and spends every vacation with his family up at a rustic cabin. The family makes the best of it, but it’s getting really old. When Rusty overhears Debbie complaining about it, he stumbles across some old photos of his family, Mom and Dad and his sister Audrey on the 1950’s  1970’s  journey across the country to Disneyland  Walley World which he fondly remembers. (Don’t we all?)   So he rents a car and plans a cross country journey just like his Dad to bond the family together. Naturally everything that can go wrong in the next generation Griswold family disaster.

It makes sense that a reboot of Vacation would be about Rusty. Rusty was the most normal one in the family, and we all knew he would group up to be like his Dad, with a great heart and a losing streak a mile long. Now many people are upset that this movie touches sacred ground. The original 1983 movie is holy to some folks. Personally I suffered through the it’s different than the story back in 1983. The original short story was published in National Lampoon Magazine long before it was a movie. I had a subscription to three magazines in those days, and they were 3 of the best. The first was Mad Magazine, and the second was a somewhat inferior but still pretty good copy cat magazine called Cracked, and the third was National Lampoon. There was a series of articles over a number of monthly issues about the court case between Wile E Coyote vs. the Acme Corporation. I followed that month after month as they had the court transcripts, and I couldn’t imagine how the judge would rule, but the ending was absolutely perfect and the judge got it right. If you want to know the decision, you can email me at admin@edsreview.com and I’ll be glad to reply. But the original Vacation was a short story about a family who packed up in a station wagon and drove across country to Disneyland in 1956 because they watched the damn advertisements every Sunday on ABC, the brand new network who helped finance Walt, and who needed content for their upstart network, and what could have been better than Walt’s Disneyland TV show. It was a match made in heaven. Well, I was in Kindergarten in 1955 when Disneyland opened, and my Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa and my brothers and I made the journey from Pittsburgh to Anaheim to visit Disneyland because we HAD TO in our hardly road worth blue Ford station wagon my dad recovered from the junk yard and fixed up. Actually most of the gags from the original movie were in the story, but changing it to Walley World and moving it ahead a few decades in time did really hurt the story a bit, but needed to be done. Now don’t get me wrong. The 1983 movie was unbelievably funny and one of the greatest films ever made, and certainly one of my personal favorites of all times. The critics of this new version that are tearing it to pieces for two basic reasons. First, because this one is a lot more filthy R rated than the original which was shocking in a way, but still mostly family friendly. This one definitely is a hard R film and is not kid friendly at all. My answer to that is that this is a different time, and those of us who remember the original from it’s original release are at least 40 years old now and can handle the dirtier version. The second reason that people hate it is because it is such a treasured film and didn’t need a remake. Well, my answer to that is that it NOT by any means a remake, and is simply a 2015 version of the next generation Rusty trying to rescue his struggling family and relive the best memories of his youth. When you think of that, Clark actually did succeed.

No sign of Uncle Eddie here, as I suspect Randy Quaid is still struggling to right the sailboat he took off on. But we get to see how Audrey ended up, and the little tramp settled down, or did she? As for this film, I was shocked at how absolutely funny it really was. Granted, knowing the original, you had to know where the jokes were headed, but when they arrived they were so outrageous that the whole theater was laughing out loud time after time. I thought my poor wife was going to bust a gut sometimes. It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed that hard. Perhaps the first time I saw Porky’s (the original) in the theater was the last time. It too was a rather raunchy comedy, but just so outrageously funny. This is the same thing. No, this Vacation is not really as good as the original, nothing could be, but dang it, I liked this better than the original Hangover, even. I would be lying if I didn’t rate this 5 stars for me. Another criticism have heard was that Walley World was the greatest destination in the world, and the prime goal of the original and the visit to Walley World here really ends up as almost a cameo. Certainly it was not the prime destination. Well, Disneyland in 1956 was the place everybody in the world wanted to go to, but today it’s not nearly the ultimate destination it was in the beginning. This film gets that right because it’s not about going to Walley World, it’s about getting the family together when it’s falling apart, and the destination wasn’t important. It was to Rusty because of his own memories, but not to everyone else. As for the performances, everyone was about perfect. This is, I think, the best performance Ed Helms has ever done. I think he was perfect as Rusty. Christina Applegate as Debbie did a great job and really performed some great scenes. The two boys were just like me and my brother (My brother and me) in the way the had such a hard time getting along. Chris Hemsworth has a small part as Audrey’s husband, but he certainly steals the movie every time he’s on screen. In fact, the weakest parts could be when they finally make it to Clark (Chevy Chase) and Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo)’s place in San Francisco to borrow a certain green station wagon to finish the journey to Los Angeles. But is was necessary to have them in it to tie it all up. The two of them have aged just like Clark and Ellen would have anyway.

I’m sorry that I’ve over 1200 words already, as I am excited by this film, and could watch this one over and over as I have with my two favorites of the series (The original and Christmas Vacation). If you are going to get offended by the swimming in sewage, pedophile truck driver jokes, and other sexual references, then stay far away, as the raunchiness is up there with Hangover or Superbad, but if you can handle the light-hearted shock comedy, don’t miss this one. Just go in with an open mind, and realize they are not trying to take the original 1983 Vacation away from you, but to show you what happens 30 or so years later. Watch and listen to the rest of the theater laughing and you’ll realize it’s just a lot of good fun and not to be taken so seriously.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Reel FX Creative Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Chatrone,

Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Danny Trejo, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, Cheech Marin

Producer Guillermo del Toro and director Jorge Gutierrez come together to bring a very unusual and unique animated film to life. The film is based on Latin American culture and images in a very colorful and fanciful way. Manalo is faced with the choice of what to do with his life. He has dreams, but the family insists that their tradition insists that he become a bullfighter which is the family’s chosen profession. Manalo has two childhood friends who are off on their own adventures. But when two supernatural beings that head the afterlife locations of Land of the Remembered and Land of the Forgotten decide to make a wager on where the trio will end up after death. But they can’t play fair and start the trio on a journey through both lands of the dead and back again to the land of the living in this very interesting and well done animated adventure that is unlike any other.

The animation style of this is very different. The colors are bright and extremely colorful, but the shapes and designs of the world and the people are very out of the ordinary. The story follows traditions common in Latin America but not so well known in other parts of the world, so for many viewers, this will be a new and unexpected experience. Try not to be put off with this as it’s not your typical angels and devils type of afterlife, but it’s very well done. The soundtrack which is done by Argentinian composer Gustavo Santaolalla (who also did classic film scores like Brokeback Mountain) adds a great deal of value to the production, as do the mix of eclectic old and not so old pop tunes mixed in to the fun. All in all this is a very well done little animated film, and something that is unusual, so it’s quite original in the style and storyline. (I am told it is based on characters on the Nickelodeon show that director Jorge Gutierrez also did called “El Tigre:The Adventures of Manny Rivera”. Since I don’t have kids of Nickelodeon age these days I have never seen it, so I can’t comment on similarities or differences, but as a stand alone film, I was really surprised at how interested I was in the outcome. Almost a morality play, it does have a great many good values, but they are shown in such an unoppressive way that it does not preach and is not in your face. I feel like the uniqueness of the characters and all the colors will keep the younger folk entranced (along with the great music) and certainly the older among us who have more life experience will appreciate the culture and superstitions that abound in the Latin American realm. A good movie for everyone, I highly recommend this film as one you ought to see, especially if you love animation as I do. One last comment. The voice actors in this film are a wonderful collection of great actors who do an excellent job of bringing to life the characters. This was one case where I was not put off by famous voices doing the soundtrack as it was just so well done.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Paramount Pictures, Apatow Productions, Gary Sanchez Productions,

Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, Meagan Good, Kristen Wiig, James Marsden

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is back, news anchor in New York City, along with his friends, Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and Champ Kind (David Koechner). Ron loses his job to Veronica (Christina Applegate) but and moves back to San Diego a broken man, and a performer at Sea World, when the chance comes to take a job at the first 24 hour news network, Global Network News (GNN). Ron puts the gang back together and they take the graveyard shift, but Ron has some ideas on how to become the biggest thing in New York since the Beatles.

I have to give one thing to this movie. This has to be the highest promoted movie in cinema history. Will started years early to bring back the Ron Burgundy character and used him at appearances everywhere. For 6 months or more there were previews, posters at the theaters, and everything you can think of to remind you that Anchorman 2 was coming out for Christmas 2013. It came out, and I’m sure it made a few bucks. IMDB gives it $50 million, with a $26 million dollar opening weekend. Not that big of a hit, and I can see why. I was kind of disappointed in this film, as it just didn’t really impress me much. Will Ferrell is doing the same schtick over and over again, and it’s starting to get old. There were some really funny lines in this film, mostly from Steve Carell and David Koechner, but Will can set off a zinger every now and then. He comes up with some off the wall things that are really funny. For that reason, It’s well worth renting this movie or watching it on TV. After all, if you’re a Ferrell fan, you gotta see it (although if you’re a fan, you probably already did). But it’s not horrible, and it’s worth taking the time to watch it, but with all the hype, it just didn’t live up to it. Perhaps you can oversell something, till it becomes something you just HAVE to see to see what all the hype is about, and then you’re always disappointed when you expect too much. I was feeling bad I missed it in the theater with all the stuff going on around the holidays, but it turns out I was happy I didn’t spend my 13 bucks on this. It just isn’t that great. So there are a lot of cameos in here, and a bunch of comedy stars doing the best they can with this, but it’s somehow too much over the top, kind of like a Three Stooges type comedy that is too much slapstick, too much cheap swear words to try to shock you, and way over the top overacting to try to be too funny. If they’d dialed it back a bit and had a bit of a better story, it would have been a better film. But then, I guess it wouldn’t be a Will Ferrell movie in that respect, and if you know the way he does his stuff, it’s more of the same. A lot more of the same.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Bagdasarian Productions,

Justin Long, Jesse McCartney, Matthew Gray Gubler, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris, Jason Lee, Alyssa Milano, David Cross, Andy Buckley, Tucker Albrizzi

The Chipmunks and the Chipettes are on a cruise vacation when accidentally they are carried overboard and end up on a desert island. But is it really deserted? Things get really weird as the Chipmunks try their best to get along and survive being castaways.

This is the 3rd in the recent Chipmunk movies. The first one felt really nostalgic and it was fun to see the boys again. The second was a bit tedious, and this one is nearly awful. But the kids, especially really little kids are probably going to love it. But it’s not one of those films that work well with adults and kids alike, so now that it’s out on DVD you can bring this home, and let the kids go at it while you pay bills or cook dinner! It’s really a good kids film. It doesn’t have anything bad in it, and the kids will really like it. But I gave it a middle rating, but actually I’d say that’s an average of 4 or 4.5 for those under 12 and definitely about a 2 for those over 12!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

CD2 Films, Mad Choice, Polymorphic Pictures

James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Christina Applegate, Katt Williams, Bette Midler, Neil Patrick Harris, Sean Hayes, Wallace Shawn,  Roger Moore, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Clarke Dun can, Chris O’Donnell, Jack McBrayer, Fred Armisen, Kiernan Shipka

The battle between Cats and Dogs has been going on for centuries.  But in this war, one feline took it a step too far.  Kitty Galore, formerly an agent for MEOWS (a cat spy organization) has gone rogue and has a plan to bring her canine enemies under her power, but also to take down the rest of the cats, and rule the world of cats and dogs herself.  She uses and evil invention (a low frequency signal only dogs will react to) to turn dogs into her own personal slave robots.  They must do what she says.  She had an ugly hairless cat henchman sent off on a the quest to conquer the world.  The rest of the cats and the dogs have to band together to try to overthrow her and save mankind!

I really did not like this movie at all.  I didn’t think any of it was really funny, and although they had tons of stars lending their voices to the characters, there story is really bad.  They are mostly puns.  Roger Moore’s character, for example, is named Tab Lazenby.  How cute.  Make fun of another Bond actor.  The plot is like a bad “Pinky and the Brain” epsiode, except that Pinky and the Brain was somewhat funny, and only lasted about 15 minutes at a shot.  Truly I would much rather attend a Phineas and Ferb marathon that this film! It would be much, much more entertaining.   It was so boring that I could hardly make it through.   Seriously, 1950’s Saturday Morning adventure cartoons were more interesting than this stuff.  The original Cats and Dogs came out a decade ago.  What happened in the 9 years that have passed since then?  Why this stinky sequel?  I don’t think a little kid would be able to enjoy this film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog