Ed's Review Dot Com

Foresight Unlimited, VIP Media Group, Michael Mailer Films,

Charlie Hunnam, Terrence Howard, Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson, Jaqueline Fleming, Jillian Batherson, Mike Pniewski, Dean J. West, Katia Gomez

Detective Hollis Lucetti (Terrence Howard) is having a bad day. He just found out he is unable to have children, but what does that say about the two kids he has raised? To top it off, he’s assigned to talk a man, Gavin Nichols (Charlie Hunnam) down from the ledge of a tall building. But he senses there is more to the story than meets his eye. Gavin has some time, so he starts telling the story to Hollis. It’s about a girl, Shana Harris (Liv Tyler) and her jealous self righteous and religious husband Joe Harris (Patrick Wilson). But the clock is ticking and soon Gavin is going to jump.

This is an interesting film. Not to be confused with the other recent release “Man on a Ledge” which was also pretty good, this film has a really interesting story as well. The back story of the detective and his marriage crisis takes a back seat to the real reason why Gavin is up on the ledge, but we, of course, have no idea what’s going on. Then bit by bit, he tells us the story (in flash back) in an intriguing tale of what led to this horrible ending. The acting is very good. All 4 of the leads are superb. They play off one another very well. This is not a big budget film, but it is a perfect example of how to make a small budget film. It’s too bad this didn’t get better promotion, but it’s very much worth watching. This is definitely one of those that fell off everyone’s radar, and I feel it’s a very good film and well worth the effort to track it down. It’s quite unique in the story it tells.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Film & Entertainment VIP Medienfonds 4 GmbH & Co. KG (I), Foresight Unlimited, Modern VideoFilm

Patrick Dempsey, Ashley Judd, Jeffrey Tambor, Mekhi Phifer, Tim Blake Nelson, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Curtis Armstrong, Octavia Spencer, Rob Huebel, John Ventimiglia

Tripp (Patrick Dempsey) walks into the bank to get some change. The teller is a recently “engaged” Kaitlin (Ashley Judd) who Tripp instantly falls for. But suddenly the bank is being robbed by two different gangs. Tripp has a unique talent at extreme multitasking. SO his neurotic fast speaking way of talking takes us along for the ride, plus he’s always a step or two ahead of everyone else. But nothing is at all as it appears. Tripp takes Kaitlin and the rest of us through his thought process step by step by step as he unravels what’s really going on at a frantic pace.

This film was a great surprise. I didn’t expect it to be very good, but was I wrong. This movie is a lot like “Clue” in the way the mystery is solved (and explained to the audience) but it’s really funny. The Peanut Butter and Jelly gang are easily as incompetent as “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and the other gang is hard core and very technical. But nobody knows what’s really going on and who’s being manipulated by whom until the final credits. It’s a very funny movie. I really enjoyed it, and I recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of films like “Dog Day Afternoon” or “Ocean’s Eleven” or anything like that in the crime comedy genre. You’ll be caught up in the action while you laugh you head off at the funny caper. It’s a really good film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

RKO Pictures, Foresight Unlimited

Jesse Metcalfe, Amber Tamblyn, Michael Douglas

This film is available on “Watch Instantly” on Netflix.  This is one of my favorite genres, the courtroom drama.   A young reporter just knows that the DA is falsifying evidence so that he NEVER loses a murder case.  So to try to prove it, this nut decides to frame himself in a murder case to prove that he’s falsifying evidence.  Gee, how could that go wrong?

People either love this or hate it.  I find myself somewhere in between.  I guess it’s because I love courtroom dramas, and the fact that there are some really big holes in the story are not really that important.  If you ride it out and ignore the stupid things that nit-pickers like to fuss about, the story is kind of fun.

It’s low budget, and I’m not sure how they got Michael Douglas to do it.  He must be friends with the director, and he didn’t really have much to do.   But they are a few twists and turns.   Oh, and I guess I should mention this is a remake of at 1956 film by the same name.  I haven’t seen that one, but I hear it shows up on Turner Classic Movies once in a while.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.

So the point of the movie isn’t as some think, the value of direct versus circumstancial evidence.  The point is more about false evidence.  But it’s not really about that.  Twists and turns happen and for a while you’re not sure what’s up anymore.  I rated this movie in the middle, as I enjoyed the plot twists and the courtroom antics,  and the car chase wasn’t so bad either.  But it’s not a great movie either.  It could have been paced a bit better.  All in all though, I’m glad I slipped this into my “instant” queue.   The price was right!