Blumhouse Productions, QC Entertainment,

Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, LilRel Howery, Betty Gabriel, Marcus Henderson, Lakeith Lee Stanfield

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is nervous about meeting his fiance’s family. Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) is a white girl from a very wealthy family and she hasn’t quite told the parents, Missay Armitage (Catherine Keener) and Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) that her fiance is African-American. But Rose insists that her parents are not racist in any way, and that he has nothing to worry about. But Chris’ best friend Walter (Marcus Henderson) a TSA agent at the airport isn’t so sure. Things feel a bit strange up there as the black people who live in the town are acting very strange, and many more are missing, but when Chris gets the warning GET OUT! all hell breaks loose.

This is a good old fashioned horror film that has real terror and a real good story. It’s hard to figure out the truth, and you’re likely going to go through the film thinking it’s easy to figure out only to be blown away at the end. Sure, there’s a few jump scares, and the sound effects and score add a lot to the film which makes this a great one to see on the biggest screen you can with the best sound system you can find. But above and beyond that, this film is really creepy with a lot of suspense thrown in. The ending is especially good. Yes, this is one horror film that is less on the gore, and much ratcheted up on the scary story side. This is one of the better horror films I’ve seen in a long time, and the African-American slant is quite interesting, although not at all essential to the story, and it could have been anybody, really. But the reasoning for why they’re African-American is really twisted. In summary, this is a darn good horror film with lots of new faces. In fact, this was Allison Williams’ first feature film, and she nailed it. Jordan Peele wrote the story and this is his debut as a director, and the story arose out of a discussion in 2008 over whether Hillary as a woman or Barack as an African-America had more right to be president. It grew into this story, and it does cover a lot of moral and ethical ground, but never stops the constant terror and suspense. I recommend this one to horror fans everywhere!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Studio Canal,

Rowan Atkinson, Dominic West, Gillian Anderson, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Kaluuya, Richard Schiff, Ben Miller, Pik Sen Lim, Togo Igawa, Mark Ivanir, Burn Gorman

Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) has been sent off to learn kung fu fighting techniques in a form of rehab. After his screw-ups in Johnny English (2003), he was mostly just sent away to get him out of everyone’s hair. But the leadership of MI-7 has changed, and now Pamela (Gillian Anderson) is in charge, and much to her despair, she’s forced to call Johnny back in to protect the Chinese from assassination by Vortex, the evil group that wants to disrupt the balance of power in the world. Enter Johnny English who does his best to do the job with the help of perhaps his only friend Kate Sumner (Rosamund Pike) who can tell when someone is telling the truth by reading their body language.

Johnny English Reborn is just as silly as the original was. You’ll probably have a hard time remembering back to 2003 when the original came out. It’s been so many years, that I probably should have done a refresher on the old one before watching the sequel. By this time, it’s nearly a new concept again! Of course it’s silly. That’s what Rowan Atkinson does….think of Mr. Bean with a license to kill. He hams it up through his way bungling and screwing-up in a way that actually works, if you wait long enough.

I’ve always been a Mr. Bean fan, so I enjoyed this film a fair amount, just because of the character. It is a ripoff of Peter Sellers work in The Pink Panther and Leslie Neilsen’s Naked Gun movies, for sure, but in a Beany way that makes it ok. My wife and I enjoyed it. But I wouldn’t run out to purchase this one on BluRay to add to your collection, unless you’re really a Rowan Atkinson fan. It is, after all, very silly and probably not worth multiple viewings! But it’s definitely worth a rental if you like films like I mentioned above that have comedy and inept cops or secret agents that stumble their way to success. Personally, I think it’s good harmless fun, and worth renting. But if you’re not a fan of these kinds of “silly” comedies, then avoid it, for goodness sake.

Welcome back Johnny English. Nice work.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Ruby Films

Aaron Johnson, Imogen Poots, Matthew Beard, Hannah Murray, Daniel Kaluuya, Megan Dodds, Michelle Fairley, Nicholas Gleaves, Jacob Anderson, Ophelia Lovibond

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Five teenagers meet and play a game of hide and seek in an on-line chat room, where William (Aaron Johnson) is a bit of a predator. He’s set his sights on his next victim, Jim (Matthew Beard), while Jim’s friends Eva (Imogen Poots), Emily (Hannah Murray) and Mo (Daniel Kaluuya) try to free him from the manipulation of William who has shown himself to be an evil friend. The on-line world blends into the real world.

This is a film that starts out with a clever premise. People who hide out in chatrooms are not always what they seem. Their lives tend to revolve around the chatroom almost as if that’s real and their actual life is fantasy. Also, people who hand out in chatrooms are not always who they seem to be. They did a very clever way of separating what it in the chatroom from what is real. Real life is dull and dreary, and the colors are bright and vibrant in the chat room. The technique in showing the cross-over between the two worlds is clever. In one instance a teenage girl is talking in the voice of an older man. Then suddenly the vision flashes between the the girl and the old guy repeatedly so we get the message that it’s an old creepy guy pretending to be a young girl.

The problem is the rest of the story let me down. It just wasn’t that interesting. Yeah, William is a jerk, and there’s a little bit of drama in the others trying to stop him, but mostly it’s pretty boring stuff. I didn’t get into the film one bit, and it just did not grab me. The acting was very weak, and the suspense was not very grabbing. All in all, it was a mild drama that just didn’t keep my attention. I don’t recommend this film. I’m sure there are those who loved it, and so if you’re one of those, please comment and explain what I’m missing, cause I just didn’t get it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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