Ed's Review Dot Com

Orange Pictures, Shotgun Pictures, Universum Film (UFA),

Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight Jr., Niklaus Lange, Ali Hillis, Cameron Richardson, Eric Dane

Six friends and a baby are in Mexico on a holiday aboard a luxury yacht looking forward to a wonderful time. Amy (Susan May Pratt) and her husband James (Richard Speight Jr.) and their baby Sara have joined Dan (Eric Dane), the reckless one of the group and his new girlfriend Michelle (Cameron Richardson) and their froends Zach (Niklaus Lange) and Lauren (Ali HIlls). They were college friends and are looking to a swell reunion and to celebrate Zach’s 30th birthday. They stop for a dip in the ocean but are soon horrified to learn that through their fooling around, they forgot to lower the ladder and now are trapped on the side of the ship with no way to get back into the boat. Stranded at sea, able to touch the boat, but they may as well be miles away, as with horror, they realize the baby is still on the boat.

There is a series of three Open Water films. The first one was about a couple of people who were part of a scuba diving group that got left behind out in the ocean without any way back in the heavy shark infested waters. Open Water 3 will be released in a few weeks on DVD and is the third installment. I’m looking forward to that one as well, but this 2006 one came and went and I didn’t even realize it, until I saw the 3 on the new one. So I dropped this into my queue on a lark, figuring to catch up on this 2006 film before the new one is released. I was glad I did. This is an independent film, and the only connection to the first film is the ocean. Otherwise, this is a completely different story, and it was rather interesting. Now I suppose that true sailors will find that it’s really silly and that there is a very simple solution to being stranded on the side of your yacht, but I’m not of a nautical nature, so I will just accept that they’re stranded out there. Then comes the questioning of whose fault it is, and what in the world they could do to solve the problem. This is really point of view camera work, and it’s bound to make you think about what you would do if you were in that situation. This is a small film with a basically unknown cast, made by folks who love to make movies, and it shows. The suspense if very good and the movie’s not that long, so it evolves quickly and is a pretty good escape film that allows you to relax and enjoy the ride. This is another hidden gem of a movie that I didn’t even know existed, but the suspense and pure terror of the plight of these folks made it really fun to watch. Give it a try, it’s a good one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

De Line Pictures

Cher, Christina Aguilera, Eric Dane, Cam Gigandet, Julianne Hough, Alan Cumming, Peter Gallagher, Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci, Dianna Agron

Burlesque is the story of a waitress in a small Iowa town who is sick of her life. In her words, she looked at the lives of everyone in her town and found none that she wanted, so it’s off to Hollywood to follow her dream of being a dancer and a singer. But live in Tinseltown isn’t so easy, and finding work means one rejection after another. Ali (Christina Aguilara) is almost out of options when by accident she runs across a small club called “Burlesque” run by Tess (Cher) a retired dancer who is trying to keep running. With stars in her eyes, Ali enters and tries to find a job there. Tess is obviously in love with her co-conspirator Sean (Stanley Tucci) who is unfortunately into guys, and NOT with her ex-husband and partner Vince (Peter Gallagher) who stands against Tess on about everything. To further complicate things, the dancers lip-sync to classic singers while doing an old fashioned show without a pole or any real nudity, just suggestive dancing, but they all have issues that stand in the way of any form of greatness. Marcus (Eric Dane) is a rich real estate mogul who likes to hang out at the club, blow lots of money, and date the girls. But it appears Tess’ days are number as the club is facing a large balloon payment and has no way to pay the mortgage and is about to lose the club for good. Marcus wants to buy it, and offers her a lot of money, but Tess won’t take it, much to her ex-husbands chagrin, and he has some bad intentions for the choice property on the Sunset Strip.

Burlesque is a simple story. It’s been told many, many times before, and I think that’s what held this film up at the box office. Cher has a couple numbers that are vintage Cher, and excellent, and of course Christina is an amazing singer and plays the poor girl from a little town who had a big voice and makes it big in a hurry. This is her life story for crying out loud. It’s a very old story going back to the silent films and classics like A Star is Born or dozens of others. Actually it could be described as the PG-13 version of Showgirls which probably hurt it as well.

But this is a musical theater drama, and is not bad, (i.e. ok for older kids) and is a good story with redeeming qualities unlike the title would suggest. This is old time classic Burlesque, not a stripper story, and the music is excellent and the acting is pretty decent. Marcus is a bastard, and Sean is a very lovable queen. Tess is the bitchy dragon lady boss with a heart of gold inside, and Ali is the sweet little innocent girl from Iowa who everyone takes advantage of until she learns her way around to save the day in the end. Kristin Bell also appears as Nikki, the lead lip sync’r of the group who has so many issues and tries to torpedo Ali when Ali takes her place by turning off the music track which gives Ali a chance to really sing. Nikki’s part was pretty small, and I was a bit surprised that it wasn’t developed better, but I guess this is the Cristina and Cher show, so there’s not much time for any of the others to step up. But the songs are good, Cher and Christina are awesome singers and everyone is a great dancer. This looks and feels like one of those musicals from the 40’s that filled up the screen and it’s a big movie. I think I understand why it did not kick butt in the theaters with all the competition up against it over the holidays, but it’s definitely worth catching on Blu-Ray, especially if you have a large screen and a great sound system! This is a nice little film that looks very big on the screen. Give it a chance.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

New Line Cinema

Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Carter Jenkins, Ashton Kucher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift

Ok, I listed about 10% of the cast.    I don’t know if I’ll still have room for the review.  🙂    Never since It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, have they hauled out this many stars for a single movie.  If you’ve never seen that one (how could you not?), go get it. It’s a lot funnier than this is.

Of course it was made to be seen on Valentines Day, and it was made in LA, so it’s more of a Valentine present to LA than to the public.   This is a lot of fluff mixed in with a lot of sweet, a lot of tears, a lot of hearbreak, a lot of “Aw gee” moments.  There are a zillion stories going on, and you have to try to follow all of them.  Every trick in the book is going to be used to bring everyone together in the end.  But bring them together they do.

If this film suffers from anything, it’s from trying to do TOO MUCH.  Maybe a couple of the stories could have been left out, and it would be a little easier to follow.  But since they put them in, you just have to try to follow.

All stages of love are represented here.  And they all end up fitting together.  It’s not classic film making and it’s not deep or thought provoking, but it is a delightful romantic comedy.  If you hate romantic comedies, then you might be one of the haters of this film.  But if you don’t expect Sheakespear, and just go with the flow, it’s a cute, suprisingly funny little Valentines Day romp that will not disappoint.