Ed's Review Dot Com

21 Laps Entertainment, FilmNation Entertainment, Lava Bear Films,

Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma

Twelve mysterious flying objects from space arrive across the globe in a twelve different locations. One is in Montana in the U.S. Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) is responsible to find out what it going on and has a team that is trying to determine if there is anyone or anything inside and if there is, what they want with us. One thing for sure is these devices are not from this planet. Colonel Weber chooses Louise Banks (Amy Adams) an expert linguist and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) a top scientist, to head up the team that go into the ship and attempt to communicate with whatever they find in there. No one knows if they are coming to attack, or to make friends, or if there is some other motive, or if there is anything in there at all. This is a highly suspenseful sci-fi thriller.

This film arrived in the theaters in November of 2016, but with all the other big films coming out over the holidays, I missed this. While it’s still in the theaters, I wanted to make a trip to get to see it on a big screen. I’m glad I did. Though not quite as impressive as Passenger was, this is more of a scientific adventure. We get to witness the secret goings-on behind the scenes of this investigation and lots of things that would be held back from the public to avoid panic and chaos. It’s also not a mistake that they arrived in 12 different locations at the same time in all the top military countries. Discussions with the British, the Chinese, the Russians, and lots of other groups is critical to determine the proper response to the situation. This is a very well developed script, and played very well by the three top actors in this project. Amy Adams was really good as a scholarly and highly learned linguist and college professor. Jeremy on the other hands brings a scientific look to the problem, and the coordination between the two outlooks is portrayed very well and I found very believable. The suspense is very intense, and it was very well done. We only get bits and pieces of the story in the same manner as the characters. Each revelation is a surprise and very well portrayed. This is a excellent story to begin with which they turned into a really entertaining film. I was quite impressed with this film, and it was very though provoking. It made me think. I highly enjoyed this movie, and I do recommend it. The more you like science fiction and alien stories, the more you will likely enjoy this film, but I feel like it’s exciting enough for action-adventure as well.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

AI-Film, Lava Bear Films,

Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Eoin Macken

Sarah (Natalie Dormer) gets a call from the Tokyo police department that her twin sister Jess (Natalie Dormer) has gone into the infamous Suicide Forest on the north side of Mt. Fuji on a school field trip (she’s a teacher) and was lost and has not returned and is presumed dead. But Sarah can feel that she’s still alive with a kind of intuition, so she sets out to Japan to find her sister. The Suicide Forest is a very, very dangerous place. There are very strict rules for going in there, and no one wants to be a guide. But in her despair she meets Rob (Eoin Macken) who offers to take her with a local Japanese man who is familiar with the forest and finds the suicide victims for the local police to haul out. Together they head deep into the forbidden forest and face the always present dangers in there, in this brand new horror film.

This film was bashed a lot by the critics. I am a horror fan, and I like films like this one. The ending is quite twisted, and rather hard to figure out. I like the open ending but I can see several theories on what actually happened and what was illusion. I found the story very refreshing as the Suicide Forest is a real thing, and the Japanese government forbids photography in this location so the movie had to be filmed elsewhere. I don’t need to explain the truth of this place as it is well covered in the film, and the research I was able to do pretty much agrees with what we are told in the movie. But the story itself I found really creepy. The “scariness” of the film is what seems to be bashed most, as I am sure people are used to partially undressed teen-age girls running through the woods being chased by a guy with a machete, but this is much more cerebral than that which is what the director was after. I found the unknown to be very suspenseful, and had a good time trying to figure this one out. I was tempted to rate it higher than 4.0 stars, but I do have to admit that even though I enjoyed the film, there are some problems. The acting wasn’t real bad, especially if you are a fan of the Japanese and Korean horror films that have crossed over to the U.S. in recent years. There is no major blood and guts, but it is shocking and builds quite a bit of suspense as we come crashing to the somewhat surprise ending. If any part of the film could use a bit more work, perhaps it is the ending. But the truth is, the way he ended it does allow you a lot of wiggle room to come up with your own meaning to it all. I liked this film, and was glad to see that it exceeded it’s budget so it wasn’t a loss for the producers. Go see it if you like smart horror films, rather than the brainless ones.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Porchlight Films, Lava Bear Films, Blue-Tongue Films,

Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, Scoot McNairy, Anthony Hayes, Gillian Jones, David Field, Susan Prior, Nash Edgerton