Ed's Review Dot Com

Amblin Entertainment, DreamWorks SKG, Marc Platt Productions,

Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Édgar Ramírez , Laura Prepon, Allison Janney, Darren Goldstein, Lisa Kudrow

This new thriller is the story of three women and a man named Tom (Justin Theroux). Rachel (Emily Blunt) is a very sad alcoholic woman who has not been able to function since her husband left her for their neighbor, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). Every day on the train to the city, Rachel sits on the same side of the train to look and see what is going on in the perfect house with the perfect woman who has the perfect life that Rachel misses dearly. She is obsessed with the woman who lives in her house filled with all the things she used to own. Even worse is the new baby that Anna has that Rachel wanted so bad. Anna has a nanny who lives with them named Megan (Haley Bennett) who takes care of the baby so that Anna can do the charity work that she longs to do to fill the empty life she thinks she has. Megan is a tramp who is deeply disturbed and seeing a shrink to try to find some meaning to her life. When suddenly Megan disappears, things get very confusing as their lives are about to come crashing together as everyone is a suspect. Problem is, that Rachel can’t remember what happened the night Megan went missing.

This is a very slow paced, but highly thrilling “who done it” mystery and suspense film. All three women in the lead roles are very good, and though each is different in many ways, they all are portrayed excellently. Actually everyone in this film is very good and the script is very suspenseful. It’s well scripted, for sure, and the dreary rainy suburban NYC setting is very appropriate and adds a lot to the mood. It’s based on the novel, naturally, and a good one it must be. I haven’t read it, so the movie was a new story for me. My only complaint is the male bashing typical all men are pigs theme that always shows up in this kind of film. For this reason, it’s not a great thriller for the guys to watch. It’s much more of a chick flick in that respect. Even the wise old police chief trying to solve the crime is female played by Allison Janey who is pretty good, but who seems to be the only one who isn’t out to blame everything on the men in the story. It is fairly slow developing, but the purposefully way they build the characters. One other notable thing is that the beginning of the movie is a bit confusing as it does go through each of the three ladies to introduce them to us, but they do it in a disjointed…… “Six months ago” “Two Weeks Ago” “Last Night” “Last Month” kind of way that was very hard for me to follow until I got the gist of who these people were. Emily Blunt was easy to follow, but I was constantly confused as to why she was watching Megan instead of Anna and since they were both blondes, until I got the whole story I was constantly confusing which was which as they jumped around from time to time. Once the story got going it was a lot better. I did enjoy it, and found it interesting, and I can recommend this as a decent mystery story, especially for the ladies.

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DreamWorks SKG, Touchstone Pictures,

Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders, Britt Robertson, Jack Reynor, Bobby Moynihan

David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) is a loser. He’s never been able to pull it together. His girlfriend, Emma (Cobie Smulders) tells him she if pregnant, but she’s willing to do it all alone because he just can’t be counted on. But a lawyer approaches him and tells him the 20 years ago he was a sperm donor and he has over 500 children. 142 of them have filed a lawsuit to force the courts to identify their father, even though they signed a paper agreeing that it would be anonymous. The lawyer assures David he will win the case, hands down, but David just can’t help being curious and decides to secretly meet some of these children that are biologically his without divulging his identity.

I really enjoyed Vince in this film. I was a bit surprised that it wasn’t outrageously funny, as I expected it to be. Instead, it was very heartwarming. Vince can play this guy too, who can crack you up one moment, and make you cry the next. I think this character is probably closest to Fred Claus, another film where Vince plays a lovable loser who finds his good side. I was really impressed with his performance here. This is a touching story about failure and redemption, and though it’s probably obvious where it’s going to end up, it’s not the destination, but the journey that is the fun in this film. I recommend it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

DreamWorks SKG, Reliance Entertainment, Participant Media,

Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander, Carice van Houten

The biographical story of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Daniel Berg, partner and usually the spokesman for Wikileaks and perhaps one of those who most tried to limit and control Julian without much luck. These folks started out disturbed by the way mainstream media repeated what they were fed, and didn’t really seek out the truth most of the time. The internet brought the idea of citizen news rather than big corporate news organizations, and Julian was fascinated with the idea of getting his hands on top secret documents and publishing them to the world without censorship of any kind. Others tried to limit that, as many names and addresses were published without blacking them out, causing a lot of dangerous situations for a lot of people. Some people praise him as a genius innovator, and others as a threat to humanity. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Is this movie a Documentary? Certainly not. It’s based on several books about Wikileaks, and is played by actors and dramatized. Is it true? I have no way to know that as I have no knowledge of what really happened. Julian Assange himself said it was lie upon lie and not much of it’s true. I don’t suspect that’s exactly the case, especially because he liked the way he was portrayed. What I figured out was that he was a very strange character, and rather creepy. As for the movie, I learned very little about the story that isn’t common knowledge, and I found it very difficult to sit through more than two hours of this stuff. I don’t think the story was done very well, and it certainly wasn’t very interesting. I think it probably could have been a lot better and is another of those lost opportunities. Perhaps there’s just not much to the story, but in that case, a totally fictionalized version would have been far more enjoyable than this movie. The phrase “watching paint dry” really describes how I felt watching this. I really didn’t get into the story, and I was relieved when it was finally over. I don’t recommend this story unless you’re really interested in the story, although a visit to Wikipedia might give you more information than this movie did.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

DreamWorks SKG, Kurtzman Orci Paper Products, Reliance Entertainment,

Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Jon Favreau, Michelle Pfeiffer, Philip Baker Hall, Michael Hall D’Addario

Sam (Chris Pine) is a high pressure salesman who has just made a serious error in judgement which could cost him his career, when a sudden phone call sends him home to help his mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) to bury his father who suddenly passed away. While settling his father’s estate, he learns a shocking secret. He has a secret, and his father has entrusted him to send a small fortune to his half sister, but when he meets her and her young son, he becomes much more involved than he intended, keeping the money, and the secret that he is her brother. Things get much more convoluted and highly charged as he works through the issues he has with his mother, and with himself in his own life and the problems he faces.

This is a surprising well done drama about families and trust and respect. He learns that his father led a secret life, but he doesn’t know anything about it, so he has a lot of changing to do. Chris Pine does a really good job of playing this role, not going over the top, and not getting sappy and sloppy either. Elizabeth Banks is also very good playing a young single mother who is over her head in problems and debt and challenged by a very precocious young son who seems to always be getting in trouble. This movie has a lot of heart, and is a really good relationship film without the complications of a love story, because they are brother and sister (even though she doesn’t know it till the end). But there is a lot of tension between Sam and his mother as well, not to mention the legal problems he faces. With everything crashing around him, he is searching for his inner self. It’s a very well done family drama that is intense, but funny and sweet all at the same time. The acting is very good, and the story is very well crafted. Once again I came into this film not expecting a lot, and came away with a lot of respect for the film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

DreamWorks SKG, Saturn Films, Varsity Pictures

Eddie Murphy, Kerry Washington, Cliff Curtis, Clark Duke, Ruby Dee, Allison Janney, Ariel Winter, Justina Machado, John Witherspoon, Jack McBrayer, Jordan-Claire Green

Jack McCall (Eddie Murphy) is a fast talker. He’s a literary agent, and wants to sign the new book of the latest Indian Guru at any cost. He strikes up a deal, makes some huge promises and promptly finds it all falling apart. When he arrives home, he finds a strange tree in his yard. The tree loses a single leaf for every single word he utters. Jack needs to learn the consequences of the things he says.

I went into this film not expecting much. Poor Eddie’s had a rough time lately, and I was afraid this would be horrible. It appears a lot of people agreed, because it came and went without any attention whatsoever. So when it arrived on DVD, I figured it was worth taking a chance on it. It’s a very small and understated film. I expected crazy, over the top humor. It wasn’t. It was very low key, with good jokes and humor that fit the story, but with a touching story that really gets to the point. It reminded me of Liar Liar in a way, but was still unique in the way Eddie played it. I expected that it was a curse set upon him by the guru, but it appears it was simply Karma teaching him a lesson. It was a hard lesson for poor Jack to learn, but in the end, he found out what is really valuable and what is trash. This is not the kind of movie you run out to spend $13.00 to see in the cinema, but it’s well worth watching on DVD. I recommend you take a quiet even and pop this one on and see what you missed. One of those hidden gems that we miss in the theater and DVD gives us a chance to enjoy. This is not Beverly Hills Cop or The Nutty Professor, but it’s definitely worth watching and enjoying.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog