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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Roth Films, Universal Pictures,

Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Nick Frost, Sam Claflin, Rob Brydon

Long before Snow White the kingdoms were run by the evil queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and her sister Freya (Emily Blunt). Freya was in love, but was betrayed and she become bitter and hateful. Her powers arrived and she had the abilities of snow and ice, and headed out to the North to find her own kingdom. Her soldiers would conquer the other kingdoms and bring the young people to her ice castle in the North where she trained them to be her army while outlawing love. But a young huntsman Eric (Chris Hemsworth), the best male warrior and Sara (Jessica Chastain) the greatest female warrior fell in love and found themselves banished while the sisters set out to conquer the whole land and each other in an all out war.

This is such a very well done film. The actors, all four leads, are all extremely accomplished actors in their own right, but together they make an assemblage that is spectacular to watch. The special effects are fantastic, and there’s humor (especially with a group of dwarfs the join the heroes to fight the war) and lots of action in the battle scenes. The settings are breathtaking, including the snow and ice effects and such. The story is very strong and a very fitting prequel to the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This was a really well done film and one of the best I have seen in a long time. Along with Disney’s Jungle Book, this is a very stunning time for feature films. Be sure to see both of these two films. This was a great experience, and this is one of those films you got to see on a big screen. This is what is best about going to theater. You can’t help but enjoy a night out for a blockbuster experience like this. Be sure not to miss it!

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Lucamar Productions, Marc Platt Productions, Walt Disney Pictures,

Anna Kendrick, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Lilla Crawford

A Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) live next door to a wicked witch (Meryl Streep) who informs them that their house is cursed because of something his father did years ago, and they can never have a child unless they retrieve four items from the woods before midnight on the third day. This happens to be a fantasy forest where all of the major fairy tale characters live, such as Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and his mother (Tracy Ullman) and many more. The poor baker and his wife set out into the woods to meet up with all these other characters to try to locate the items in time while lots of perils and troubles plague everyone. This film is a musical based upon the Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim of the same name.

I have been waiting for a long time for this film. I suspect it will get mixed reviews. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of what art is, and one man’s pile of junk is another man’s brilliant sculpture. I went to the theater positive this would garner a 5 star review. I was sorely disappointed. The look of this film is tremendous. The sets and locations are stunning. The effects are dazzling, but the music did not impress me much. They tried to throw all the characters together, which is a lot to bite off, but they cut what they didn’t want, modified the stories to fit the plan, and then drew out parts that seemed like they would never end. Oh, and the music. I wasn’t sure if i heard different songs, or one long song that changed it up once in a while. I won’t remember any of the music tomorrow. It seems like they said a word or two, made a point or shared a value judgement, then everyone stopped to sing about the same thing over and over for quite some time. The songs did not drive the story forward, they seemed more like a timeout every few minutes. Some of the characters were good. Meryl Streep was amazing, of course, and this was a great role for her. If you can’t imagine her as a wicked witch, that’s the idea, cause she pulled it off. Chris Pine has a nice singing voice, and he’s actually a pretty decent guy, really, but this role had nothing for him to do. I have no idea what happened to him towards the end, as he just went insane and faded out of the picture????? In fact, when the story comes to a nice smooth ending, where Cinderella and the Prince get married and the baker and his wife have their baby, everything is swelling up to a fine fairy tale finish and credits, and then this film takes a bizarre turn into a land where no one ought to go. Bodies are piling up, everything turns really, really dark, and no one is unscathed. We plod on and on and on and on, with no end in sight, and it seems like the whole theater turned really restless. Things got pointless, as I said, extremely dark, and not much made sense after that.

This is a PG rated film, that is very violent and extremely dark for kids. You really need to use Parental Guidance on this one. But even more I would hate to unleash this long dragged out musical on the kids who would probably enjoy a 45 minute version of this without any of the music. I’m not sure where the new musical thing came in where there is really no dialog ,but everything is sung. Les Miserables was like that. I would have liked the story much better if they would have talked more and sung much less. Granted there are great songs in Les Mis, but all the singing in between the songs is what drove me nuts. This is even worse as they sing and sing and sing the same stuff over and over making the same points again and again, and it’s really chaotic. I am speaking heresy here, and the Sondheim fans are going to crucify me, but my reviews are my opinions, and I really felt cheated here. I had such high hopes.

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Ada Films,

Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mark Duplass, Mike Birbiglia

Jack (Mark Duplass) is depressed. He’s still mourning the death of his brother and can’t keep to shake it. Jack has been dating his brother’s former girlfriend Iris (Emily Blunt) and needless to say that is quite complicated. Not sure if his relationship is going anywhere and feeling guilty about being attracted to his dead brother’s girl, he’s floundering. Iris is pretty busy, so she sends him to stay at her father’s vacation home on an island. Jack arrives to spend some time alone and get his thoughts together only to learn that Iris’ sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt) is also staying at the house. They decide to stay together, knowing nothing will happen, but after many drinks, both are very drunk and they end up in a drunken tryst that complicates things even more. There is much more to the story, but it’s enough to say that the following days are very revealing on everyone’s part as they try to keep the secret, then decide to bring it all out into the open.

This movie was a good bit better than I ever expected it to be. I chose to watch it because I’ve been pretty impressed with Emily Blunt in a string of movies since “The Devil Wears Prada” when I first noticed her as a pretty good actress holding her own with both Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. But this is a whole different type of movie. It’s a character study as each of the characters has ultimate motives that are quite different from each other, and nothing here is simply black and white. There’s a good deal of humor and some really funny moments, but mostly it’s grinding through the truth and confession portion of finding out who each of these people are and what they really stand for. It’s a small movie, with very little change in location, mostly shot in the vacation home on the island, but the characters are the stars. The movie is definitely not boring, and the lack of real action is filled up with self evaluation and a little introspective look at each of the characters. It’s a romantic comedy/drama with good characters, good acting, and a really decent script to work with. No car chases or suspense, unless you count waiting to see if Iris is going to find out or not, but plenty of character development to keep it interesting. I enjoyed this little film.

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Apatow Productions,

Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Alison Brie, Chris Pratt, Rhys Ifans, Chris Parnell, Mindy Kaling, Brian Posehn, Dakota Johnson, Mimi Kennedy, Kevin Hart, Adam Campbell, Jim Piddock, David Paymer, Jacki Weaver, Michael Ensign, Clement von Franckenstein, Jane Carr, Randall Park, Lauren Weedman

Tom Solomon (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) have been together for a year, living together in San Francisco. Tom has planned a very special night to propose to Violet, and she accepts. But setting the date is a whole ‘nother problem. Tom is a sous chef at a local restaurant and he is running the place while Violet is an experimental psychologist who is hoping for a grant. When that falls through, she takes a job in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tom supports her, and gives up his dream, but has a hard time fitting in and unable to find a decent job. Years go by, and by the time Violet is ready, Tom may have lost his will to get married. This is a romantic real-life story of two people who love each other, but just can’t seem to make it to the end together.

This was a really cute story, that is oddly happy and sad. The pain that these two have to go through is really real, and these two seem to pull it off perfectly. I am amazed at how good Emily Blunt is getting. She’s really good in this movie. It has really good fun, and really touching heartbreak. There are lots of colorful supporting characters, but these two pull off the lead so well, that it would be good anyway. So the addition of the rest of the cast just adds to our enjoyment.

If you’re in the mood for a cute little romantic comedy, this is a pretty good one. It was refreshing, and very enjoyable. I really liked it and recommend it.

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