Ed's Review Dot Com

Lucasfilm, Allison Shearmur Productions, Black Hangar Studios,

Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Wen Jiang, Forest Whitaker

Jyn (Felicity Jones) lives with her parents, farming and mostly hiding out. But Jyn’s Father is a scientist and is recruited by force by the Empire to work on a new project of Lord Vader (James Earl Jones), a death star with the power to destroy a planet. When her father is abducted and her mother is killed, Jyn hides out until she is rescued by rebel fighter Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). As time passes, the death star nears completion, but a plan is hatched to steal the plans and get them to the rebel alliance so that they will know how to destroy the death star. This is the story that fits in between Chapters Three and Chapter Four and tells the background information of what happened before the first Star Wars movie back in 1977.

This Star Wars movie was made for the fans. Perhaps this film wouldn’t be as powerful to someone who did not know the characters. There are no long lasting characters, and it is a fill in film, not part of the main story, but it does fill in some very useful information that makes things a lot easier to understand, and reveals some of the mysteries that are missing between these two films. This was very entertaining film and it was quite a lot of fun. It’s a long movie, but went by so fast. There is a lot of really good action scenes, lots of suspense, and lots of throwbacks to the main films. Felicity Jones isn’t the strongest lead in a Star Wars movie, but in my opinion she was good enough. I think she played her role that she was given. Much like Luke Skywalker she did not ask to be a hero. She was a simple girl who was put into this situation because of who her father was. She has some supporters who have interesting stories too. This is not intended to be as great as the other films, and my personal opinion is that it was better than the “horrible three” Chapters one, two, and three. You just have to set your expectations a little bit lower as it’s not a part of the main series, as I’ve said before, but it’s a wonderful addition to the wealth of the story. This is not one to miss.

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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.

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TriStar Pictures, Media Rights Capital, QED International,

Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, Michael Shanks, Talisa Soto

The year is 2159 and like Wall-E, the greedy people of Earth have destroyed it. The planet is a mess, and the rich people have built a great space city called Elysium with beautiful gardens and homes, and high technology medical treatments that can cure anything. Meanwhile, the poor people on Earth are not allowed to go to Elysium unless they can afford it. They have to live with crime, disease, and poverty. Max (Matt Damon) has had a dream of escaping to Elysium since he was a small child, but his life has not worked out that way. Coming out of prison and trying to go straight, he’s forced into working with some unsavory characters to save his life. Meanwhile Delacourt (Jody Foster) is the security chief looking to oust the weak President and take control of Elysium in a sort of coup attempt.

Earth is a nasty place in 2159, all right. Obviously Obama has managed to push his immigration reform through, as Los Angeles is a real mess, and everyone speaks Spanish. What are the odds? Meanwhile all the white people have escaped to Elysium and locked the gates behind them. Don’t think this is an accident. This film made me feel a bit racist, just by being in the theater. Oh well, that aside…this is a very interesting sci-fi movie. It is expected to be really big, and I can’t really predict whether it’s going to catch fire or crash and burn. There is a mixed bag of acting as well. Matt Damon’s character could have been really interesting, but I’m afraid he underplayed it a bit. Jody Foster’s character has a fabulous opportunity to make us hate her. She’s a great villain and she has a chance to really make us hate her, but she’s underused, and it ends up we feel a little bit like she’s maybe right? So I never really got to hate her. On the good side, this movie is stunningly beautiful. The ugliness of Earth is still very well filmed, and the beauty of this space station world is stunning. It’s also a very thought provoking picture. I really enjoyed watching it, and it was a very pleasurable evening. I have heard a lot of criticism of the scientific possibility of the movie. There are a lot of complaints about such things as the exoskeletal suit or the space station’s atmosphere. I suppose I had thoughts about the same things while I was watching this, but I passed it off as unimportant issues. If you are going to get the message of the movie, you have to accept the world that it’s in. Granted that sometimes little things like this can kill the enjoyment, but I don’t think that’s fair in this particular story. There’s a limited amount of time, and taking the time to explain the environment would have really slowed down the film. So just accept the world as it is, and look deeper into the tale.

So this is not a perfect film, but it was very unusual, and very interesting. I really enjoyed it, and I think it was well worth watching.

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NALA Films, Gary Sanchez Productions,

Will Ferrell, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Genesis Rodriguez, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Nick Offerman

The Alvarez Brothers, Armando (Will Ferrel) and Raul (Diego Luna) are trying to save their ancestral. But Raul has been messing with drugs and set himself against drug lord Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal) and soon are in the middle of a drug war with DEA Agents Parker (Nick Offerman) and Agent 2 (Jerry Collins). What follows is a bloody, violent drug war in this Spanish language Novella spoof.

It helps to be familiar with the Spanish TV Novellas as this is a true parody of those. All the jokes are around that, and if you get that, you’ll be in on all the inside stuff. But even if you’re not, if you’re looking for the right thing, this is a hysterical film. Granted, a lot of people expect to see a serious Western starring Will Ferrell, and are shocked to find a corny story, completely in Spanish, with unbelievable fight sequences. Hey, this is a satire, folks! Will Ferrell can speak Spanish. Yeah, he does all the dialog himself, and even sings in this film. But his horrible American accent and childish dialog is hysterical. But there’s lots of other jokes here as well. Just like some people cannot get the King Arthur gags from Monte Python and the Holy Grail, or the race driving humor of Cannonball Run, or other such movies of satire, it takes a special sense of humor to get this one.

But in my opinion, Ferrell did an amazing job in this movie and it was really funny. As it started, I could only think, “What the heck?” but as I got into it, I found myself laughing harder and harder. A really unusual film with BIG English subtitles for us gringos, and a great sense of humor.

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Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Working Title Films,

Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Caleb Landry Jones, Diego Luna, J.K. Simmons, Lukas Haas, Connor Hill, Bryce McDaniel

Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) has gone straight. Formerly an infamous smuggler, and coming from a smuggling family (His father taught him the business) he’s now a legitimate businessman. But when his brother-in-law screws up and loses a drug shipment, Chris has to leave his family, sign up as a deck hand on a ship going from Panama to New Orleans to repay his brother-in-law’s debt, and to protect his family as well. But the Captain of the ship recognizes him and gives him the most difficult and disgusting tasks. But that’s just the least of the problems. The Captain has his eyes on him. The bad guys have kidnapped his family, and things change very fast as they try to stay one step ahead of disaster.

This is a rip roaring, action packed thriller, and one of Markie Mark’s best in many years! For a small film that got little interest, I was very impressed. There are twists and turns throughout, and we get faked out so many times. I was pretty impressed. The views of New Orleans and Panama are really good, but the action as this movie takes off is really impressive. And Kate Beckinsale is in the film!!!

Seriously, the action is intense, and the story, once it grabs you, doesn’t let good. So I was very surprised by this movie, as I had not heard of it before it came out on DVD. It was a pleasant surprise, and a hidden gem among a whole bunch of clinkers lately! And did I say, Kate Beckinsale was in the movie?

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog