Ed's Review Dot Com

TriStar Pictures, Media Rights Capital, QED International,

Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, Michael Shanks, Talisa Soto

The year is 2159 and like Wall-E, the greedy people of Earth have destroyed it. The planet is a mess, and the rich people have built a great space city called Elysium with beautiful gardens and homes, and high technology medical treatments that can cure anything. Meanwhile, the poor people on Earth are not allowed to go to Elysium unless they can afford it. They have to live with crime, disease, and poverty. Max (Matt Damon) has had a dream of escaping to Elysium since he was a small child, but his life has not worked out that way. Coming out of prison and trying to go straight, he’s forced into working with some unsavory characters to save his life. Meanwhile Delacourt (Jody Foster) is the security chief looking to oust the weak President and take control of Elysium in a sort of coup attempt.

Earth is a nasty place in 2159, all right. Obviously Obama has managed to push his immigration reform through, as Los Angeles is a real mess, and everyone speaks Spanish. What are the odds? Meanwhile all the white people have escaped to Elysium and locked the gates behind them. Don’t think this is an accident. This film made me feel a bit racist, just by being in the theater. Oh well, that aside…this is a very interesting sci-fi movie. It is expected to be really big, and I can’t really predict whether it’s going to catch fire or crash and burn. There is a mixed bag of acting as well. Matt Damon’s character could have been really interesting, but I’m afraid he underplayed it a bit. Jody Foster’s character has a fabulous opportunity to make us hate her. She’s a great villain and she has a chance to really make us hate her, but she’s underused, and it ends up we feel a little bit like she’s maybe right? So I never really got to hate her. On the good side, this movie is stunningly beautiful. The ugliness of Earth is still very well filmed, and the beauty of this space station world is stunning. It’s also a very thought provoking picture. I really enjoyed watching it, and it was a very pleasurable evening. I have heard a lot of criticism of the scientific possibility of the movie. There are a lot of complaints about such things as the exoskeletal suit or the space station’s atmosphere. I suppose I had thoughts about the same things while I was watching this, but I passed it off as unimportant issues. If you are going to get the message of the movie, you have to accept the world that it’s in. Granted that sometimes little things like this can kill the enjoyment, but I don’t think that’s fair in this particular story. There’s a limited amount of time, and taking the time to explain the environment would have really slowed down the film. So just accept the world as it is, and look deeper into the tale.

So this is not a perfect film, but it was very unusual, and very interesting. I really enjoyed it, and I think it was well worth watching.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

SBS Productions, Constantin Film Produktion, SPI Film Studio,

Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz, Elvis Polanski, Eliot Berger

While walking home from school in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Ethan Longstreet is struck in the face by classmate Zachary Cowan in a scuffle. Ethan has damage to two teeth and will likely lose at least one of them. Mr. and Mrs Longstreet (John C Reilly and Jodie Foster) invite Zachary’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cowan (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) to their home to discuss the situation. The night escalates as each of the four seem to have remarkably different personalities and certainly their own problems. As things start out very civil, they soon turn into shouting and sometimes it’s Longstreets versus Cowans, but just as often it seems to be turning men against the women.

This was originally a play,and that is the feel of the entire film. It takes place in the Longstreet’s apartment and except fora short opening scene and a just as short closing scene featuring the boys at quite a distance from the camera, the whole movie is shot inside one room (and briefly the bathroo) of the Longstreet home. As in all stage plays, there isn’t much action, but it’s long on words and discussion. There are long monologues, and very static camera placement and not much moving about. But the character development is awesome, and each of these characters are very unique and bring a lot to the story. In the end you don’t really identify with any of these characters, but you have a good understanding of where they are coming from and why they are flawed like they are, no matter how silly they seem.

I did enjoy this film. It is a serious subject, but humorous throughout, if only through the zany characters in the story. Why the Cowans wouldn’t leave, I don’t know. Perhaps they knew they needed to look into their own problems.All in all, if you would like a slow developing story with lots of character development, this is a very good film of that kind. It is slow, but that helps to set us up to learn about the characters a little at a time. With a cast of these four actors, it is flawless.

Finally, this film is directed by Roman Polanski. For that reason alone, I didn’t want to put this in my queue, as I don’t want to support a cowardly criminal who would run away and hide instead of facing the courts for what he did, but I finally relented for the sake of the actors who put their efforts into this work. I’m glad I did, and although I still don’t want to support Polanski, I thought it was a really good play.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Summit Entertainment, Participant Media, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ

Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Riley Thomas Stewart, Cherry Jones, Kelly Coffield, Michael Rivera, Zachary Booth, Matt Lauer

Walter Black (Mel Gibson) is the CEO of his father’s successful toy company. But he’s suffering from a severe case of depression that is real and completely debilitating. Suddenly he’s about to lose his company, his family, and perhaps even his life as he drifts from day to day, many days never getting out of bed. Drugs and therapy have not helped, but suddenly he begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. Walter can’t talk to anyone, but the Beaver can, and he turns things around in a hurry with the Beaver’s help. But Walter isn’t alone. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter (Anton Yelchin) pushes for his parents to get a divorce. Jodie Foster directs and co-stars as Walter’s wife in this dark comedy that also features Riley Thomas Stewart and Jennifer Lawrence.

The Beaver bombed in the box office and I’m not sure why. Surely a movie about depression must be depressing. Maybe that’s why? Or is it the other summer blockbuster movies that just buried it? Or could it be backlash directed at Mel Gibson who has certain had a run of very bad press of late. When Mariah Carey went through her nutsy phase, Glitter was a huge bomb, but was it really that bad? Well, maybe so, but Brittney’s Crossroads suffered the same fate. Of course it wasn’t very good, really, either. But this isn’t a bad film. I can see why Jody Foster took on the project, and Mel was an excellent Walter, and I really believed him. In fact, maybe making this movie is in some way therapy for the real Mel Gibson, who knows. But it is a warm and touching film about a very real illness. Too many people dismiss depression as something you just need to shake off and move on. Get yourself out of bed and move on. I will never forget the sweetest scene in “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” when Charlie makes it all the way to the National Spelling Bee and loses by misspelling Beagle. (B-E-A-G-E-L). Charlie arrives back in town and no one is there to meet the bus. Next day he doesn’t go to school and stays in bed all day. Linus arrives after school and says, “Charlie Brown, you lost the spelling bee. You lost, but guess what? The world didn’t end.”

This is the message of The Beaver. Depression is real and isn’t something that you can just wish away. It takes lots of help and lots of support. It also takes a lot of effort. Mel shows us this very well. His wife also shows us a real wife. Supportive as she can be, but tired of having no husband, and frustrated. When things start to look up, she’s expecting an instant leap to normalcy, which isn’t ready yet. But the key relationship here is the two boys. The oldest is experiencing many of the same things his dad feels. But Walter’s Dad also had the same illness. It is heredity, and is passed on in many familes. So the life that Walter’s son is moving into could be the same as his father and his grandfather. The relationship between Walter and his sons is also very important to the story. This is a slow moving, and very thoughtful film, but told very well with good characters. I don’t think it should have been completely ignored by the public, and my hope is now that it’s on DVD that it will come back in a strong way in the rental market. It’s time to forgive Mel for his weaknesses, and give this movie a chance. I am certainly glad I watched it. It had a really good story to tell and it was very well done.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog