Ed's Review Dot Com

Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Hemisphere Media Capital,

Neil Patrick Harris, Sofía Vergara, Christina Ricci, Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Alan Cumming, Brendan Gleeson, Hank Azaria, Jayma Mays, Katy Perry, Fred Armisen, J.B. Smoove, George Lopez

For years we’ve known that the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) absolutely hates the Smurfs. But he’s created some little creatures similar to the Smurfs called “The Naughties” who are going to help him with this efforts to replace the Smurfs, but they won’t work. Gargamel needs the Smurf essence to turn them into real Smurfs that he can control. Only Smurfette (Katy Perry) has the knowledge to obtain the essense, so Gargamel convinces her that the Smurfs have forgotten her and kidnaps her and brings her to Paris to help him in his plan. The rest of the Smurfs have to find Smurfette and convince her to come back home.

First of all, I have to warn you that I’m too old to have grown up with the Smurfs. For some reason, I never got into watching them with my kids, so I’m not a Smurf fan by any means, and I always found the little rats a bit annoying. Well, maybe more than a bit. Therefore, the Smurfs start off with a big mark against them in my book. I wasn’t a fan of the first Smurfs movie, but I admit this one was probably at least as good, if not better than the first one. The acting is corny, the animation is corny, but I suspect that’s what the Smurfs are about anyway, so I’m sure anyone with a soft spot for the little fellows and one lone adopted girl Smurf will enjoy this revisit to their world, plus the added benefit of bringing them to Paris for an adventure. I am giving this movie a bit higher rating that I probably would if I was basing it on my own enjoyment, but I do realize there are Smurf fans out there, and this is not that bad of a movie, really. So if you have a Smurf fan in your group, this makes a decent rental film, but of course if you’re a Smurf grouch like I am, it’s more of the same old, same old.

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Happy Madison Productions, Miles Deep Productions,

Nick Swardson, Christina Ricci, Don Johnson, Stephen Dorff, Ido Mosseri, Kevin Nealon, Edward Herrmann, Miriam Flynn, Mario Joyner, Tyler Spindel

This silly little movie is the story of Bucky Larson, a small town, very naive virginal kid who accidentally finds a video of his parents who were secretly big name porn stars in the 1970’s. Instead of being appalled, Bucky decides it is his destiny to be a porn star too, so he heads for California, only to find out that his unusual talent is his lack of physical prowess. No one wants to talk to him, but he becomes a huge YouTube sensation for his ability to make any man feel “hugely” successful in the love department. A ruthless washed up porn producer tries to exploit Bucky to make him the next big porn start.

This “Happy Madison” film contains a lot of cameos of famous folk. A lot of stars show up here and there. Basically I bypassed this film for a long, long time because I expected it to be very, very stupid. Well, it was stupid, but a lot funnier than I could have ever expected. I truly cracked up a dozen times through this film. No, this isn’t classic cinema. It’s got a lot of good actors though playing camp to the peak, and doing a great job. Everyone has an angle, and it’s funny to see them all competing with each other to try to scam the other. This reminds me of a film like “Cannonball Run” where everyone’s out to beat the other at their own game. The subject matter is tongue in cheek, and not really taking things seriously, but it’s adult themed and not really for younger folk. But if you want to enjoy some Adam Sandler style humor, this is a pretty funny little film.

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Crest Animation Production, Lion’s gate Family Entertainment

Justin Long, Hayden Panettiere, Dennis Hopper, Danny Glover, Larry Miller, Eric Price, Vicki Lewis, Chris Carmack, Kevin Sussman, Brian Donovan, Christina Ricci

Kate (Hayden Panettiere) is an Alpha wolf. This means she’s destined to marry Garth (Chris Carmack) of the Eastern Pack to unite the packs and bring the wolves together. Humphrey (Justin Long), on the other hand is an Omega. Way on the other end of the social scale, they are not allowed to hang out together. All things are well in Jasper Park in Canada when suddenlyl Kate and Humphrey are captured, tranquilized, and transferred to Idaho and told to repopulate the wolf population. Kate knows she must get home immediately and Humphrey (along with two strange geese) offer to assist. They depart on the long and dangerous journey back to Canada and home in Jasper.

This is a really nice film for kids. It teaches lots of values, and teaches lots of good lessons in tolerance, obedience, loyalty, and kindness among many others. It’s certainly interesting for the kids, but an intelligent enough film not to bore the older folks to tears. It’s funny, and has a lot of interesting calamities along the way. It reminds me a lot of the original Land Before Time where they were trying to make the journey to the safe place. The interesting part is in the journey from Idaho to Jasper. Of course Humphrey gets them into one jam after another. But his heart is in the right place and he’s trying to help Kate as best he can. I highly recommend this for kids and their parents. It’s a really good animated film.

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LLeju Productions, Anchor Bay Films

Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson, Justin Long

Creepy little movie.  Laying on a slab, unable to move, in a funeral parlor, and you can’t get out.  This movie goes to great lengths to keep you off kilter.  You can never relax.  In the end, you don’t know for sure what happened.  People have spent months arguing about the most basic aspects of the ending.  

This is a pretty good scary movie.  It keeps your attention all the way through.  From one twist to another, from one crisis to another, from one unexplained mystery to another, and it keeps you on edge.  I may be giving the writers too much credit here, but I think there’s way, way much more to the story that the literal story.  You’re supposed to think.  You’re supposed to wonder, and to feel.   It looks at life and death, but it is more.  It’s got a moral much deeper than the physical.  Why do we go through life by just making the motions.  Day after day, year after year, the same thing.  No real life.  So are we all really dead and don’t know it?

These are the things you ponder while watching this delightful film.  It’s a horror movie that’s a morality play.

Who in this movie is alive and who is dead?  You may never know for sure, but you’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come.  And I’m afraid I have more questions after it’s over than while watching it.  But it doesn’t really matter.  Choose a side and fight that you’re right.  I truly think anyone can take any side, and argue it you want to.
“You all say you’re scared of death.  But you’re more scared of life!”