Amazon Studios, Bleeker Street,

Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Knoxville

Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) had finished his stint in the Army. He was well established at this point, and needed something to keep himself occupied. Watching TV, he became obsessed by the troubles in the US, with civil unrest and rampant drug use. Elvis wanted a badge. He had a dream of becoming a CIA agent, and set off to Washington D.C. to deliver a handwritten letter to President Richard Nixon (Kevin Spacey). Surprisingly, the two had a famous meeting in the oval office, and this is the story of the events that led to that meeting and the results afterward.

This is a very interesting film. First, this is my first time (I think) viewing an Amazon Studios film. Yeah, that’s the Amazon.com people who like everybody else are jumping into content creation. This was the first feature film picked up by Amazon. Kevin Spacey was heavily involved in the production of this film, and does a hell of a Nixon impersonation. He was really superior in his portrayal of President Nixon. Michael Shannon does his best to try to be Elvis, but actually he doesn’t look or act much like Elvis and I have seen numerous Elvis impersonators (a few in this film, even) who can do Elvis better than he did. But that’s not a huge deal, as no one is really going to be Elvis. This is actually a fairly decent retelling of the what happened according to the folks who were there at the time. This is a small film, very low budget, and not even 90 minutes long, but still it’s an interesting story, one that I’ve heard tell of for most of my life since it happened in 1970, but something I was never really sure of what actually occurred. This was and interesting experience, and if you are interested, I certainly would recommend you watch it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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BenderSpink, New Line Cinema, RatPac Entertainment,

Chris Pine, Jennifer Aniston, Christoph Waltz, Kevin Spacey, Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day

Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) are back where they left off. They have a new invention and are looking for the funding to make it happen for them. But when they’re swindled by a rich tycoon (Christoph Waltz) and his son (Chris Pine), they are in deep trouble. They have already hired a bunch of folks and rented a location, and now have no money to pay for any of it. So they hatch a plan to kidnap the son and hold him for ransom to get the money to finance their business. Of course nothing turns out as they planned, and they are the most inept and dumb characters since Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. Even with the help of the kidnapee, these guys don’t have a chance of getting away with all the schemes they can think of in this comedy sequel.

The original Horrible Bosses wasn’t that great of film, and this one really tanked, But I have to admit, I enjoyed it all the way through. It was kind of a guilty pleasure. I guess it was my growing up in Pittsburgh when Curly, Larry, and Moe made their huge comeback on Paul Shannon’s Adventure Time that made me a fan of silly slapstick comedy. But I’ve always had a thing for those kinds of movies. When you go to see Horrible Bosses 2 you know exactly what to expect, and that’s what you get. Not a spot of intelligence as these dummies do one stupid thing after another. Jennifer Aniston reprieves her sex addicted character Dr. Julia Harris, D.D.S. and she is getting pretty good at playing off Jason Sudeikis’ maniacal roles (such as the one in “We’re the Millers”) and though it’s a small role, she’s pretty funny too. I recently reviews “Dumb and Dumber To”, and I feel pretty much the same way about this one as I do about that one. You have to know what you’re in for when you choose to watch this, so why complain that it’s silly and low brow humor, as that’s what it is all about. I enjoyed seeing this one, and though it’s not superb cinema, it’s a laugh fest for you and your friend in low places, so stop with the snobbery and just forget all your troubles and laugh at these guys with me. I mean, really.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Before The Door Pictures, Benaroya Pictures, Washington Square Films,

Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Aasif Mandvi

This exciting drama brings us into the middle of a large investment bank on a day when half of the floor is being let go to lower costs. Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) has been with the company nineteen years, and has been working on some theoretical financial formulas that are likely to cause chaos in the entire financial world. As he is walked out of the building, he hands a zip drive to one of his co-workers with the instructions to look at this right away. His last words were, “Be careful”. Then he walks out and disappears. As the co-worker discovers, all hell is about to break loose, and he calls his new boss who calls his boss who calls the CEO and they set out on an all night marathon session to decide whether to do the right thing or to cut their losses and run, trying to liquidate before anyone catches on.

I found this drama to be very exciting. The cast is awesome, with Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, and many more. The pace is exciting and they explain the financial world in a way that’s possible to understand. I usually find banking and finance rather boring,but this one was very interesting from start to the very end. In a week where I was really disappointed in the films I got to watch, this was one bright spot. I didn’t expect a lot going in, but was very pleasantly surprised. There was a lot of dialog, but it did explore each person’s concerns and their set of values under which they operate. It was interesting to see how each person dealt with the situation when everything was out of their control. This is typical of big business in general. Some are the greedy bastards, just looking out for themselves, and others really have a conscience. This was a very interesting film.

Click here for the trailer for Margin Call.

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** Fred Claus (2007)

Warner Bros. Pictures, Silver Pictures, David Dobkin Productions

Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Kevin Spacey, Kathy Bates, Elizabeth Banks, Ludacris, Rachel Weisz, John Michael Higgins

Nicholas Claus (Paul Giamatti) had an older brother Fred (Vince Vaughn). Now Fred was happy to have a little brother, but unfortunately Nick was perfect and Fred just couldn’t keep up with him. Then when they made little Nick a saint, it was more then Fred could handle. So he went off on his own, shunning the family business and basically hating everything that had to do with Christmas. But one of Fred’s scams gets him in serious trouble, and he needs to humble himself to ask little brother for a loan, but Nick only will give him the money if he comes up and earns it by working at the North Pole for a few weeks. Of course he’s going to try to win him over, much to the chagrin of everyone else including Mrs. Claus. But there’s more going on as well. In an attempt to help Santa, and miserable old guy named Clyde is trying to close down the North Pole for good, and he’s trying to use Fred to sabotage Santa. Can Santa and Fred come together and learn enough from each other to save the workshop?

This is one of my favorite fairly recent Christmas films. It was missed by many people because it appeared to be too silly, but it’s really got a lot of heart. I loved Paul Giamatti as Santa. He really did a great job of playing the jolly old elf. Also, Kevin Spacey was really good. If there is a weak link, it’s probably Vince Vaughn, as he has a one dimensional character for sure. He’s pretty much played the same guy in every movie he’s been in, but in this one it kinda works. He’s a decent guy who just has never been able to compete with his stunning little brother. We can feel his pain. With other actors such as Miranda Richardson, Rachel Wisz, Kathy bates, and Ludicris, how can you go wrong? (Ludicris is really hysterical as DJ Donnie, rock master of the elves workshop)

I really enjoyed this film when I originally saw it in the theater way back in 2007, and it was nice to watch it again. I really enjoyed it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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New Line Cinema, Rat Entertainment

Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Julie Bowen, Donald Sutherland, Lindsay Sloane

Horrible Bosses is the story of three friends. Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) works for a big corporation run by Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) who is a jerk of a boss who has been running Nick through the ringer for years for no purpose other than to degrade him. Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) works at a chemical plant for a gentle boss (played by Donald Sutherland) who promises him that someday he’ll run the company. But he quickly croaks, and his coke head idiot son, Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell) takes over the company and is destroying the company with his coke habit, hookers, and lack of any redeeming value at all. Finally Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) works for the boss from hell, dentist Dr. Julia Harris D.D.S. (Jennifer Aniston) who is a sex crazed, blackmailing pervert of a boss who won’t stop harassing him even though he’s engaged. The three of the hate their jobs and their bosses, so they dream up a plan to hire a hit man (Jamie Fox) to kill all three of their bosses. Naturally everything goes downhill from there, and anything that can go wrong, does go wrong in this laugh fest from start to finish.

This truly is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a very long time. I laughed from start to finish in this thing. It was hysterical. The jokes are rapid fire, and the characters are wonderful. The bad guys are real jerks, and the 3 friends have the perfect chemistry. One is the straight man, afraid of doing the wrong things, scared not to toe the line, but talked into things that are spinning out of control by his funny sex crazed friend who is willing to try everything but can’t keep his mind off the ladies, to the third guy who is just plain nuts. Every character is perfectly developed and very, very funny. This film has a great collection of stars who had a riot filming this thing, as shown by the bloopers and outtakes in the closing credits. It was total fun, and just about the closest I’ve had to a 5 Star Comedy in a long time. This one is really good. It’s a bit crude, as most modern comedies are, but nothing in extreme bad taste, and it comes off as a real good comedy.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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