Ed's Review Dot Com

Big Indie Pictures, ShivHans Pictures,

Al Pacino, Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner, Bobby Cannavale, Christopher Plummer, Josh Peck

Danny Collins (Al Pacino) is a rock and roll legend of the 1970’s. He sang some garbage songs that become hugely popular, and here 40 years later, drugs and booze have taken their toll. Danny is still singing the same songs, and wasting as much money as he can. But things are getting rough, and Danny’s best friend and manager Frank Grubman (Christopher Plummer) has set him up with another world tour to bring in some much needed cash. But he has a surprise for him. Frank just got his hands on a letter that was written back in the 70’s from John Lennon himself after a televised Danny Collins concert with some really good advice and invited Danny to call John and discuss it. The letter had never been delivered. Danny was struck deeply by the letter and the advice John gave him and cancels the tour, heads to a hotel in New Jersey to stay long term to change his life around and make thing better. But there are a few other secrets that made Danny choose New Jersey as his estranged son and his family live nearby. With the help of hotel manager Mary Sinclair (Annette Bening) who Danny took a liking toward, he’s trying to change things around. This story is loosely based on a real person who received such a letter from John Lennon that had been undelivered for many years and is based upon his experiences trying to live up to the advice John really did give.

Al Pacino really nailed this role. I was not expecting him to be able to pull this off. Michael Corleone, yeah, or even Satan himself, but a 70’s rock star? Really? He gave it a great deal of effort and played it amazingly. He was extremely funny and quite believable, and really did carry this film. But he had some excellent help. Annette Bening was also very good in her role and it was very nicely done. Jennifer Garner also played the wife of Danny’s son and she had a wide eyed innocence in trying to deal with the whole issue that really added a lot to the film as well. And of course Christopher Plummer was also perfect in his role as the long suffering manager but more of a best friend who really wants to help. All in all, this is a fantastic cast, and I was really blown away with the film. I enjoyed it very much, and highly recommend this movie. I’m not sure how I missed hearing about this one, but this is a great DVD rental and a really enjoyable evening watching this. I was very impressed.

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Saban Films, Code Entertainment, Freedom Media,

John Travolta, Christopher Plummer, Tye Sheridan, Jennifer Ehle, Marcus Thomas, Anson Mount, Abigail Spencer, Travis Aaron Wade

Raymond Cutter (John Travolta) is the worlds best art forger, but he’s been in prison away from his father Joseph (Christopher Plummer) and his son Will (Tye Sheridan). But his son is not well and Ray would do anything to get back home to spend some time with him. So he makes an impossible deal with a big time gangster to paint of forgery of a Monet painting, then break into the museum and steal the original, and replace it with the forgery in return for buying his way out of prison.

This crime story jumped out of the screen and captured my attention. Truthfully I have never been a huge Travolta fan, and he has made some rather bad movies over the years, but he did a really good job in this one. He is an art forger, and a criminal, but still cares about his son and he pulls this off very well. The two have a tight bond by the end of the film. These three together is actually a pleasure to watch. Typical scam and heist films like this one have a lot of twists and turns, and this one is no different, and it was pretty interesting all the way through. I found the story fresh and fun to follow. The script was well done, and the actual heist was really suspenseful. All in all I found this a good film. and if you enjoy a good robbery, mixed with a story of three generations trying to find their common ground, give this one a try.

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation,

Charles Nelson Reilly, Lacey Chabert, Joseph Ashton, Raphael Sbarge, Cathy Cavadini, Christopher Plummer, Susan Silo, Bronson Pinchot, James Belushi, Lindsay Schnebly

It’s only two days till Christmas and the largest order for toys ever has arrived in Toyland where the factory to build the toys for Santa exists. Mean old Barnaby (Christopher Plummer) is a scrooge like old man who hates Christmas and has plans to shut it down for good. The characters from Mother Goose live in Toyland, and with the help of Jack and Jill (Joseph Ashton and Lacey Chabert) and Humpty Dumpty (Charles Nelson Reilly) they set out to defeat Barnaby and keep the toy factory open.

This MGM animation release was intended for a theatrical run, but due to the failure of All Dogs Go to Heaven, it was determined instead to send this straight to video. Unfortunately Disney did a live action version of this story that flopped rather historically. Perhaps the worst flop in Walt’s history, this didn’t do too well. I tried watching the Disney version several times, and found it truly difficult to watch. Fortunately, this animated telling of the story is really well done. Much more interesting than the Disney one, the animation is really good, and the story is much more interesting. I felt that this was really well done, and I get the story a lot better than I ever did from the other version. This story is clear and concise, and I see what they were going for. Barnaby is a great villain is who just hates toys. Very well drawn and concisely told, this is a good version to watch if you’d really like to watch a story of Mother Goose’s characters come to life.

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Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Scott Rudin Productions,

Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson, Geraldine James, Goran Visnjic, Donald Sumpter, Ulf Friberg

Mike Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is a journalist who was convicted of libel and disgraced, but is offered a large sum to investigate a girl who has been missing and presumed dead for 40 years. Off he goes to a remote area to begin the investigation of the girl, a niece of a wealthy philanthropist and his very unusual family. Mike meets a young genius computer hacker with a photographic memory, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) who agrees to help him investigate the missing girl. Together they piece together a puzzle of rape, torture, and murder that spans generations, and the evil and corruption is greater than either of them could imagine.

This was one of those strange stories that intrigues people. I truly expected a lot different because prior to the movie coming out I didn’t know anything at all about the books (a trilogy by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson) and expected perhaps a Chinese martial arts film or something. It turns out it was a very intense story of rather disgusting rich families who think they are above the law. On one hand I found the story rather intense, and I have to admit I was unable to look away in the almost 3 hours that it ran. Half way through I knew I needed to pause and take care of some tasks and finish the film later in the evening, but I just couldn’t stop until I figured out the solution of the mystery. But at the same time, at the end I felt a lot of “Is that all there is”. Perhaps that’s because it’s just the first book of a trilogy, and maybe there is still more story to tell.

My daughter told me this is a sad story with a sad ending. She was certainly right, as the final scene before the credits certainly fits in the story, but certainly hits you with a sucker punch in the gut that you don’t see coming unless you really ponder on it. The acting wasn’t bad. Daniel Craig was pretty good and Rooney Mara as the punk hard ass chick Lisbeth was certainly good. Then with great actors like Christopher Plummer as the head of the Vanger family who hires Mike in the first place, and Joely Richardson, and even Robin Wright (Princess Buttercup from Princess Bride and Jenny from Forrest Gump) are all good in their roles. So I’m really torn on this film. In many ways it was pretty darn good, and in other ways I felt it lacked something, but I just can’t put my finger on it. So I have to rate it in the “fairly decent” category so that you can make your mind up. If you like raw, shocking thriller mystery and crime, you’ll probably like it. If you’re looking for classic cinema and pure entertainment, it’s probably not a good choice. Without being very graphic, it’s certainly dark and evil and disgusting in a lot of ways, kind of like the evening news lately. So I give it a guarded recommendation, as I know a lot of people won’t be crazy about it. But I know others will really love it. Choose wisely. 🙂

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Buckaroo Entertainment, Michael De Luca Productions, Screen Gems

Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Lily Collins, Brad Dourif, Stephen Moyer, Christopher Plummer, Alan Dale, Mädchen Amick

There have always been humans and vampires, and they’ve always fought each other. But in the post-apocalyptic world the battle reached a peak. Humans had the advantage of the sun, but the vampires had the numbers. A special class of warrior was developed that turned the tide and wiped out the vampires. These were a class of super-human priests. After the vampires were defeated, the priests were dangerous, so the church disbanded them, and limited their powers, and kept them from staying together. But one priest (Paul Bettany) had his niece captured and wanted to go out and rescue her as he was sure the vampires were back, but the church disallowed any priest to leave the city, and so he is forced to go rogue to find out what happened. He’s joined in the quest by the sheriff of a small outpost who happens to be the girl’s boyfriend. This turns the Priest into an enemy of the church and he is being chased from all sides.

Priest is based on a comic book story, and typically these kind of movies do not impress me much. But in this case it’s an excellent story. There is enough back story to make it interesting, and as the story unfolds we find out lots of surprising facts to make the story interesting. The battles are extremely well done, and the excitement level is very high. I really enjoyed this film, and I think Paul Bethany did an excellent job as a man driven to do what is right, no matter the cost. The rest of the cast is good as well, and the CGI is impressive. These vampires are certainly NOT Bela Lugosi by any means! This was originally shown in 3D, and I wish I could have seen it in the 3D version, but I still really enjoyed the film. It will probably get lost in all the big summer releases, so make sure to watch for it on DVD soon. This was spirited monster/horror film that was extremely well done. It’s well worth the time spent enjoying it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog