Ed's Review Dot Com

Fox Searchlight Pictures, Likely Story,

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, Tavi Gevinson, Tracey Fairaway, Eve Hewson, Anjelah Johnson

Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a divorced single Mom whose Daughter’s best friend is much closer to her than her own daughter. Eva is a masseuse and at a party with one of her clients, Marianne (Catherine Keener) she meets a friendly divorced man, Albert (James Gandofini) who also has a daughter soon heading to college, and they hit it off. But when she finds out that Albert is none other than Marianne’s hated ex-husband, things get complicated as she can’t seem to confess to either one and as you would expect, trouble is on the way.

This romantic comedy from 2013 has been in my queue for ages and ages. This is one of the usual rom/coms that feature mismatched couples trying to make the best of a terrible situation. It’s quite predictable, yet it’s really entertaining with a great group of familiar actors. Besides Dreyfus, Gandolfini, and Keener, we also have Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, and more, and so it’s filled with talent. Although about 4 years old already, it’s very current and a lot of fun. This is a simple comedy with lots of light moments, mixed with some very touching and moving moments as the problems pile up. It’s a complex relationship film, and very well done, and worth giving it a shot.

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Plan B Entertainment, 1984 Private Defense Contractors, Annapurna Pictures,

Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Vincent Curatola, Max Casella, Sam Shepard

Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) runs an illegal poker game. He once hired some guys to rob his own game, but the mob could never prove he was behind it, even though everyone suspected him. A couple of punks got the great idea of hitting the game again, and setting up Markie as the fall guy. But they’re not about to get away with this. Jackie (Brad Pitt) is a hit man, one who is highly professional, but a bit quirky. He doesn’t like to get too close to the people he has to take out, so he calls it “Killing Them Softly” in the is comedy crime film.

This is a very unusual film. It was relatively interesting to watch, but was really weird. It’s definitely a comedy, but I’m not sure the parts that were funny were the parts that were supposed to be funny. I got through the whole film, but found it somewhat mediocre for the most part. Brad Pitt didn’t have a lot going on. He was mostly blah most of the way through, and I really didn’t get him. It was just not a great comedy, nor was it a good gangster movie. If you’re a Brad Pitt fan, or like quirky crime films, then feel free to go for it, but personally, I’d say skip it. It just didn’t have enough going for it to keep me interested or to really care how they worked everything out.

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Columbia Pictures, Annapurna Pictures, First Light Production,

Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Édgar Ramírez , James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt, Reda Kateb, Scott Adkins, Taylor Kinney

Maya (Jessica Chastain) is a CIA operative being trained in the harsh interrogation procedures handled by the CIA on the Al Quaida terrorists. But when she gets a lead on the possible location of Osama bin Laden. After convincing the CIA leaders to go after him, the story tells of the Navy Seals and the events of the day bin Laden was killed.

A lot of people really were blown away by this movie. I was not, and I’m not really sure why. Argo was a much better movie than this was, although Argo wasn’t nearly my choice as the best picture either. I’ve been really struggling with why I didn’t like this story. I guess there are really a couple of reasons. For one, this is a recent event, and it was covered thoroughly by the media, and debated heavily at the time. So the details are really fresh, and there really wasn’t much new here. The story plodded. It wasn’t really very exciting. We’ve seen much better computer animation on the History Channel, and A&E, as well as on the network news. Jessica Chastain’s Maya wasn’t a nice character. She kind of bugged me through the whole movie. She was playing a strong woman who knew she was right, but throughout she was a bit of nagging wench. Furthermore, when the moment of truth came around, it was shot in a Blair Witch kind of shaky, dark camera way, that it was hard to follow what was going on. All in all, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t that great either. I expected a great story told in a grand way, and I got more of a History Channel TV documentary. I was underwhelmed. I waited for it to get really interesting, but there wasn’t anything more to tell, I guess, than what we already knew. This was not the blockbuster film I expected. I think most people fell patriotic about the subject, and so the movie got a lot more attention due to the events that happened than by the actual movie. So if you’re interested, give it a go, but if you’re looking for something to blow your mind, I don’t think it will.

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Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions, Warner Bros. Pictures,

Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn, James Gandolfini, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright, Max von Sydow, Zoe Caldwell, Stephen McKinley Henderson

Oskar Schell(Thomas Horn) is a very talented little boy. He’s an amateur inventor and is very smart, and very close to his father Thomas (Tom Hanks) who tells him stories of interesting adventures. One of his stories is about a mysterious 6th borough of New York that disappeared. Oskar’s Dad was killed in the 9-11 disaster and Oskar begins a downward spiral as he struggles to deal with the loss. But when he finds a mysterious key, he is certain there is a message that his Dad left for him, and he sets out on a quest to solve the mystery and find the secret message his Dad left for him. In the process he meets a lot of interesting people and is not only touched by them, but leaves his mark on them as well in this tale of loss and sorrow following one of our nation’s most horrible and tragic events.

This is a fairly unusual film. I felt it could have been a lot better, but I do have to give credit to the filmmakers for trying to do a film about this historical event, as there have not been much written about the aftermath of the tragedy. I was definitely anxious to see this DVD, but I was quite a bit disappointed. I am not sure what the biggest problem was. It should have been really emotional and touching, but it wasn’t. The characters were flat and one dimensional. There wasn’t a lot of heart, and I don’t feel like it really touched me. The ending didn’t make any sense at all to me, and I don’t want to say anything that will give it away, but when the mystery is “solved” I had no idea what they were talking about. I’m just not sure what the message or meaning of this film was supposed to be. I liked the story of Oskar trying to deal with the loss of his father, but then it spun off on this tangent that seemed to keep Oskar busy but didn’t seem to take the audience anywhere. I didn’t hate this, but I just didn’t feel much at all about it. When it was over, I just sort of shrugged my shoulders and said, “Oh well”. It’s not a story that stayed with me, nor did I think much more about it. Disappointing effort.

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