Ed's Review Dot Com

Seraphim Films Inc., Windy Hill Pictures,

Danny Aiello, Tom Berenger, Lauren Cohan, Kevin Connolly, Terry Crews, Cary Elwes, Kelsey Grammer, Omari Hardwick, Elizabeth Henstridge, Thomas Jane, Ryan Kwanten, Nelly, David O’Hara, Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Sizemore, Sylvester Stallone, Danny Trejo

This story is about a mysterious unknown stranger who wrote a self-help book called “REACH ME” that is the hit of town. This little book has helped SO many people overcome obstacles and change their lives. Everyone wants to find out who the author is to follow him like a sort of Dali Lama figure. There are many different stories going on, most of which criss-cross in one way or another as everyone looks for the man. But he’s not up to the challenge, and has troubles of his own in this tale of many stories within a story.

This was a horrible movie. None of the stories made much sense, and the whole thing was a mish-mash of nonsense. I really am not sure how they got all these people involved in a script, and to agree to make this. Perhaps in reading it wasn’t so obvious of all the flaws in the story. There are some big names here. The premise is okay to start with, but things go awry pretty quickly. When we do find out how the book was written, we soon come to realize that it’s not based on anything worthwhile. More than anything, it reminded me of the excellent Bob Newhart skit on SNL a few years ago where he was a psychiatrist with a foolproof method of getting people to end serious bad habits. He would just scream at them “Just STOP IT” every time they would try to explain their problem. This 10 minute skit has more substance than this whole film. There are some actions in this movie that are just insane. There are some actions that are dangerous as well as illegal, but they are treated as simply normal behavior. This was dumb from the opening until the end, and I really have not found many movies I can’t make something decent out of, but this one was just bad. Avoid this one for sure. Don’t waste your time. Netflix categorizes this as a “drama” so I guess that’s what I will check too, but I’m tempted to categorize this movie as “uncategorized”.

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Huayi Brothers Media, Lakeshore Entertainment, STX Entertainment,

Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle

Greta Evans (Lauren Cohen) is a young American woman hiding out from the abusive ex by taking a job for a few weeks as a nanny for an English family Mr. and Mrs. Heelshire (Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle). Their son Brahms is an unusual fellow. When he was eight years old there was a terrible fire, and Brahms didn’t make it out, so the family keeps a doll named Brahms as their son, and expects Greta to watch over him while they take a holiday for a few weeks. But Brahms has very specific rules and though Greta’s only assistance comes from the grocery boy Malcom (Rupert Evans), it is soon quickly aware that as she disobeys the rules once the parents are gone, Brahms is very angry. This new horror film was a nail biter.

There were a lot of good movies to see, but due to the trailer, I just had to see this film right away. I was not disappointed. I don’t know why dolls are creepy, but this one as did Chucky and Anabelle before, really gave me the creeps. Filled with never-ending tension and lots of screams, the theater actually applauded this when it was over. On the other hand, we were at an early evening screen that was filled with young teens who were definitely the rudest audience I have seen in a long time. Talking out loud throughout, and going up to the back to make shadows on the screen were just a couple of their annoying pranks. But aside from that (and many thanks to the gentleman who yelled “Shut Up” as loud as he could), I really enjoyed this movie. I’m a horror buff, and I can see where a lot of folks may get turned off by the way things are rather simple, but I felt is was quite creepy. This is Lauren Cohen’s first attempt as the lead in a horror film, and I felt she did a great job. She reminds me a lot of Jamie Lee Curtis way back in the original Halloween with here fresh approach to being first laughing, thinking it’s a joke, to realizing that her life is in danger and this is deadly serious. She fights well, and stand up like a hero instead of letting everyone else rescue her, and she’s tough, yet very charming and sweet. I thought the story was original, with a couple twists along the way that turn things around several times. I enjoyed this one, and regardless of what the critics say, I recommend this one as a great way to scare yourself half to death.

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