Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, DiNovi Pictures,

Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner, Sharon Morris, Jay R. Ferguson, Riley Thomas Stewart, Joe Chrest, Robert Hayes, Jillian Batherson, Adam LeFevre, Russ Comegys

A Marine Veteran Logan (Zac Efron) while involved in a horrible battle, found a photograph of a young lady. He considered the photo a lucky charm and claimed it was what kept him alive. After returning home, he began searching for the lady in the photo and found the woman living with her Mom, in North Carolina, and tried to explain about the photo, but things spiraled out of his control and he ended up working for her. Naturally Mom takes a liking to him, but the town cop, who is her ex-boyfriend does not, and lots of complications and trouble ensue in this romantic comedy/drama about chance, fate, and love.

I once rented a Christmas film from Netflix called “The Christmas Card” [Click here for Ed’s Review]. This 2006 film is nearly the exact same movie as this 2006 Christmas movie. (I don’t know if you’ve been reading long enough to know about Ed’s Christmas Movie on TV project every year, but it’s one of those Christmas films that now ends up on TV every year. The Christmas Card nailed this story. This film pales in comparison. Since Christmas is coming, (I even saw this film is coming on Hallmark already and it’s still October) I’d suggest catching The Christmas Card instead of this inferior copy. They took out all the snow and lights and Christmas music and traditions, and it left an all-seasons film. Zac does his best, and it’s good to see him tackling the adult roles now, and he’s left the High School Musical stuff behind, but he is just not as good by comparison. So if you’re a Zac Efron fan, and I’ll admit he is a good looking guy, and you are a chick who loves chick flicks, then this could do it. It’s not a bad story, and the love story part is pretty good. But after seeing the other film, there’s just no comparison, so I can’t get excited about this movie. It was such a rip off. So that’s where I am on this movie. If I had never seen the other film, then maybe I would be more gung ho about it, but I’m serious. At this time of the year, go check out the other one!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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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

 

 

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Fifth Quarter, Park Entertainment, The

Ryan Merriman, Aidan Quinn, Andie MacDowell, Andrea Powell, Jillian Batherson, Anessa Ramsey, Bonnie Johnson, Michael Harding, Patrick Stogner

Jon Abbate (Ryan Merriman) is the oldest son in a nice Christian family, and a very good football player at Wake Forest University. His younger brother, Luke, was suddenly killed in an auto accident at 15, and sent the whole family into a period of grief. Jon wanted to honor his brother, and led the Wake Forest Devil Demons to an awesome best season ever, and started a new tradition of the 5th quarter, named after Luke’s uniform number 5 as a tribute to his brother. Ande MacDowell and Aidan Quinn star as Jon and Luke’s parents. This inspirational film was based on the true story.

The film was shot at Wake Forest, on location, in North Carolina. This is first and foremost a Christian film with really good values and core honor and respect. It is not preachy in the least. This is not a Christianity conversion tool at all. It just tells the story as it is, and the faith of this wonderful family is at the heart of how they survived this terrible ordeal.

This is a very uplifting movie, in the end. It’s sad, of course, but the accident portion of the film was very low tech, not believable at all. This is not the spectacular CGI car crashes in ultra slow motion from Final Destination. This is almost an aside, not graphic at all. This is because it’s the feelings and emotions of the actors that is important, so it’s not trying to shock or horrify you. The decisions they have to make and the problems getting back to a normal life after the tragedy are very well portrayed. The acting is excellent, and it’s very realistic. This has been called a football movie, but it’s not really, as football is the sideline. There are some exciting football moments, but the story is about a family dealing with the sudden unexpected loss of a son and brother. I was very impressed with the way this story was told, and I enjoyed it very much. There are a lot of great characters here, and the emotions are very real. Excellent actors in each of the roles make a great story. I highly recommend this now that it’s available on DVD, and it’s a very worthwhile story. The fact that in the end you get to see the real people make it even better.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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