CBS Films, Closest to the Hole Productions,

Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, J.K. Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, Alex Wolff, Themo Melikidze, Melissa Benoist

April 15, 2013 at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, two pressure cooker bombs went off shooting shrapnel into the crowd of people watching the race and even the participants in the race. All of the law enforcement agencies came together to put together the pieces and to quickly identify the terrorists as the Tsarnaev brothers, home grown terrorists who wanted to bring mayhem and death to the city. When they realized law enforcement was closing in on them, they made an attempt to escape to continue their mayhem in the largest city in the United States, New York City. The whole crew pulled out every trick in their arsenal to try to defeat these two.

A very well told story of the horror and the brave first responders who cane together to bring the city together is very well told. It stars some great actors like Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, and J.K. Simmons to tell the story clearly and completely. We heard the story in the news as it was happening, but this movie gives us the opportunity to get to know the men and women who worked together to solve this case. With the help of the public and with all the tools at their hands, and a little luck we get to see how the teams work. Of course, I don’t know how accurate this all is, but it seems a great deal of effort was put into making this as truthful as possible. The pace of the story is fine. It takes it time to set the stage, then show the explosions and the horror after the bombs went off. Then it goes through the efforts of each of the teams, and the difficulty of determining who’s in charge at what time. The acting is really good, and the reenactments are very well done. All in all this is an exciting and inspiring story that seems to fairly show the difficulty in trying to prevent things like this from happening. Very well done, and I am glad this film was released to see in the theater, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s now available on DVD and well worth watching.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Blumhouse Productions, Chapter One Films,

Kevin Bacon, Radha Mitchell, Lucy Fry, David Mazouz, Ming-Na Wen, Paul Reiser

The Taylor family comes home from the Grand Canyon bringing something back! The family consists of the Father (Kevin Bacon), and the Mother (Radha Mitchell) and two children, anxiety ridden drama queen Stephanie (Lucy Fry) and autistic son Michael (David Mazouz). An ancient curse has befallen the family causing havoc and destruction unless the find out the cause of the curse and rid themselves of it before it’s too late.

This is a solid horror film with surprisingly good acting from all the major characters. I expected, walking in, a cheesy B horror movie with no budget and no special effects. That’s not what i got. Surprisingly, the acting was good, the effects were really well done, and the suspense was on point. What is holding this movie back is the fact that there are only so many horror films to write and it’s really, really hard not to look like a rip off of something else. The plot of this film has been done many times over. Still, I enjoy a good horror film, and this one satisfied me. I did not run out screaming it’s praises as the best film I’ve ever seen, but it was exactly what I wanted. The suspense was real, and the story made sense. There was a general feeling of dread over what would or could happen to this poor family that grew and built up until the end. Meanwhile, there was some good old fashioned scares that came from things you didn’t expect heightened by a loud sound at the right moment. I typically call these cheap scares, but in this case they worked, although I’m not sure I could put a finger on why. There are a lot of haters out there toward this film, mostly because of the similarity to other films of the same genre, but I don’t see how this could be helped. I enjoyed the film, I admit to it’s flaws, but I didn’t really case as I had a good time and that’s all that mattered. If you’re a fan of horror, then this is not a bad investment of your time.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Universal Pictures, Original Film, Dark Horse Entertainment,

Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak, James Hong, Marisa Miller, Robert Knepper, Mike O’Malley, Devin Ratray, Larry Joe Campbell

Recently deceased cop Nick finds himself at a crossroads. His only valid choice is to agree to join the Rest In Peace Department, an after death police squad and return to earth to help find and convict his murderer. But he’s obviously not allowed to look like himself, because it might scare anyone who knew him, so he appears as an old Asian guy and is partnered with rough veteran dead policeman Roy (Jeff Bridges) who’s been dead a long time, but knows the ropes. What follows is a buddy cop action adventure comedy.

I had visions of Men in Black and Beetlejuice in my mind as I watched the previews of this movie, but when I watched it I was kind of disappointed. It’s definitely a knock of of those two movies, but not as good as either one of them. There are a few chuckles here and there, but it did not capture my attention at all. Having been anxious to watch this, perhaps that’s why I was let down, because my expectations were too high. Perhaps if you set out with low expectations and expect a little time burning comedy action flick with the twist that the main characters are already dead, you can enjoy it better, but I did expect more bang for the buck. Jeff Bridges is adequate as the old veteran burned out cop having a lot of tricks under his sleeve based upon his long existence and experience. Ryan Reynolds did not hit the mark with his performance. Given the fact that he came from the police force in life, he should have had the skills to be an R.I.P.D. cop, but he struggles to keep up throughout the film. Basically, unless you’re willing to accept the lack of a script and the bad performances and bad jokes that come this it, this is a good film to skip and keep looking for something a bit better for your time.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Millennium Films, Swingin’ Productions,

Kevin Bacon, Djimon Hounsou, Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Ron Smoorenburg, Abhijati “Meuk” Jusakul, Byron Gibson, Weeraprawat Wongpuapan, Creighton Mark Johnson

Curtie Church (Djimon Hounsou) is a hired assassin, hired by a businessman to kill six men. His next job is to kill the lord of the human traffickers who killed his daughter. As Curtie seeks out the bad guys, he enlists the aid of Englishman Jimmy (Kevin Bacon) who supplies him with the special weapons needed to start a gang war helping him to kill the traffickers. While doing his job, he meets Mae (Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul), a young prostitute who guides him, torments him, and keeps vanishing when he needs her around. Through lots of intense battles, fast chases, and tough scrapes, Curtie, little by little, is able to free the girls and figure out what it’s all about.

This is a movie that took on a serious subject and tried to present the horrors of it. But it falls short on a number of levels. Kevin Bacon’s accent is atrocious, and every moment that he’s on screen is pure torture. Djimon Hounsou seems a nice enough guy, but I don’t believe his character. We need a Vin Diesel kind of guy for this role, although he isn’t horrible. The bright spot, perhaps, is Mae, as her character is very interesting, and it’s hard to figure out who she is and what she’s really up to. You’re going to figure it out 3 or 4 times only to be wrong. Good news is that it’s available on The Movie Channel, or other cable channels, a “Watch Instantly” film on Netflix, so it’s readily available for very low cost, but this is probably not good enough to warrant a slot in your DVD queue. Nice try, but it just didn’t cut it. This is not a very good movie in my opinion.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Carousel Productions (II)

Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Joey King, Liza Lapira

While out on the town, and trying to decide what they want, Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) decides on Creme Brulet and his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore) wants a divorce. As it gets worse, Cal finds out she’s been cheating on him, so he separates and tries to make a life for himself in an apartment. Naturally there are kids involved and they don’t want the parents to divorce. But in trying to find himself, Cal becomes friends with super-playboy Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling) who is willing to teach him all his best moves to turn Cal into a ladies man.

This is one of those romantic comedies, with lots of emphasis on the comedy, where there are 3 or 4 sub stories going on and eventually everything, though completely disjointed, comes together in a chaotic laugh fest of an ending. There’s plenty of misunderstandings and people jumping to conclusions and the ending is really a hoot. This is an extremely funny film, with a lot of seriousness in it too. Steve Carell is the best at breaking your heart as a sad, lonely guy, and cracking you up as a hysterical comedy at the same time. He can turn it on and off like a switch. Everyone else is really good as well. This is one of Steve’s better films. It’s rated PG-13, but it is rather edgy. Nothing much is shown, but it’s probably not really good for younger kids as it’s a little raunchy in subject matter. But for older teens and adults (especially adults) it’s really funny with a lot of punch behind it. A good mix of comedy and drama, I highly recommend this film.

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