Ed's Review Dot Com

Mas Films, Paradox Films, StudioCanal,

Liam Neeson, Micheal Richarson, Tom Bateman, Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum, Domenick Lombardozzi, Julia Jones, John Doman, Laura Dern, William Forsythe, Aleks Paunovic, Ben Hollingsworth, Nathaniel Arcand, Glen Gould, Bradley Stryker, Elizabeth Thai

Nels (Liam Neeson) is a simple hardworking snow plow driver who keeps the road open to a popular resort destination in Colorado. Its a small town, but has really gotten very popular after a fancy ski resort opened. When his son, Kyle (Micheal Richarson) turns up dead from a heroin overdose, Nels doesn’t believe it was an accident. He starts to investigate on his own, and finds a connection so some very shady drug racketeers from Denver he stars seeking vengeance on them This leads to one final showdown that is really something to see!

This is a typical Liam Neeson movie of revenge hunting to the max. This is a bit darker than most of the others, but has a lot of similarities. The best part of the film is the beautiful scenery in the Rockies in the wintertime. It is truly breathtaking. The suspense is really intense, and it’s easy to follow. It took a while to get everything straight as the beginning jumped around a bit and made it kind of hard for me to follow for a while, but after I got every straightened out in my head, it was really easy to follow. Laura Dern is a great actress and was kind of wasted in this movie, and I’m not sure why. She didn’t have much to do, and her character was very superficial. I wish she had been given more to do. In some respects it is a bit over simplified. It is extremely violent, though, with lots of blood and guys all the way through, so it earns it’s R rating for the extreme violence, but it is a very exciting roller coaster of a movie. It was very intense, and well worth the time.

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Apaches Entertainment, La Trini, A Monster Calls,

Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Lewis MacDougall, Liam Neeson, Toby Kebbell

Conor (Lewis MacDougall) is a young boy struggling with life in the private school where he is being bullied by some of his classmates. A horrible tragedy has struck, and Conor’s Mum (Felicity Jones) and his Dad (Toby Kebbell) have separated and Dad lives in the U.S. Conor is staying with his Grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) who is very strict and quite cross. To keep his sanity, Conor has a tree monster friend (Liam Neeson) who has promised to tell him three stories, then Conor must tell the fourth to solve his problem and relieve his pain. In the end, Conor must face the truth of his situation.

This was a very surprising film. It looked like a typical kids fantasy story, but is much, much more. This is a very difficult story to tell and to make it interesting enough for adults, yet not too extreme for younger folks. This is not a fantasy science fiction-y fairy tale, but a true life story of love, loss, death, and pain, told in a gentle way. The power of this story is impressive, and the director J.A. Bayona did an amazing job of bringing this story to the screen. Lewis MacDougall was absolutely amazing as Conor. He deserves a lot of praise for the professional way he played his role. Sigourney Weaver, of course, was fantastic too. In fact, the entire cast was really awesome. This is such a touching story, and one that was so very well presented, that I was really moved. The Monster in this film, is mostly real as well, with many different pieces of the tree built as practical set pieces that could be used for filming. Kudos for not resorting to CGI for most of it. Excellent choice. I have to recommend this film, a great fantasy, with such a powerful story that you’ll never forget it. This is a must see film.

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Cappa Defina Productions, Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films (EFO Films), Fábrica de Cine,

Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Ciarán Hinds

In the 16th Century Japan had over 300,000 Christians. In a move to ban western ideas from Japan, the Emperor banned the religion and began to persecute not only the priests who served their congregation, but the Japanese Christians as well to drive them out of the country. Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) was one of the greatest priests in Japan, but he has disappeared and not heard from in many years. Two young Portuguese Priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver) beg for the opportunity to go to Japan and determine what could have happened to Ferreira. Reluctantly they are allowed to take with them a drunken Japanese guide who promised to lead them to where Ferreira was last seen. But upon arrival, they find it extremely dangerous and filled with hardships for both them and for their tiny flock. They have to endure much torture and see so much suffering before they are able to learn the truth of their former mentor.

This is a very long and very dark tale with lots of extreme cruelty and lots of gory torture and death. These are Catholic priests and so this is definitely a religious film. These facts will make films like this difficult for some people. But this is a Scorsese film, and a labor of love for him since it took nearly 30 years to bring this to life. The novel is from 1966 so it is an old work, and this was made once before in 1971. This one is very authentic looking, although it was filmed in Taiwan, not in Japan, but the look and feel is very well done. The dark rocky shores lead you to believe you are in Japan This is a long movie, but kept me enthralled throughout. The story was told with such stark realism that you could almost feel the suffering. It was hard not to shed a tear or two during some of the endings. This also a morality play with no black and white, but many, many different shades of gray. Each person has a breaking point and how far can they be pushed before they will have to break. It also shows how extremely hard the Japanese people were. All in all, this is a really amazing story, and a new epic tale worthy of the great biblical films of long ago. This film did not get a lot of traction in the box office, and I think that’s really sad because there is an awful lot to love about this adventure, but I think some built in prejudice against Scorsese himself, along with the religious aspect of it affected a lot of the negative about it. I felt it was extremely well done, but people don’t want to see a movie about the Catholic church unless it’s got an exorcism or two in it, and a monster or two. Sad, because this was a very good film.

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Energy Entertainment, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Vertigo Entertainment,

Joel Kinnaman, Common, Genesis Rodriguez, Liam Neeson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ed Harris, Boyd Holbrook

Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) was a hard drinking mob enforcer who had built a strong reputation for his ruthlessness. But he’s left those days long behind. But when his son is marked for death it’s his best friend, mob boss Shawn’s (Ed Harris) son who shows up to take out Michael (Joel Kinnaman), Jimmy has no choice but to take out Shawn’s son. This Shawn cannot forgive, and he wants to make both Jimmy and his son pay for taking his son.

This is a really dark film. I wasn’t really blown away from this, but perhaps because I’ve seen so many, many ex-cop, ex-agent, ex-mob guy, who gets out of the life who gets sucked back into it. Usually set in some unique spot like New Orleans, this one takes place in New York City. That’s not too original, is it. The highlight of the film is the play between Liam Neeson and Ed Harris, both really good actors and those who are able to grab our attention, even if the rest of the story is not so hot. This is definitely not a groundbreaking film. Just the same, I did enjoy watching it, and it’s a rather decent cop story, even it is so familiar feeling. I’d say go for it if you’re a fan of the gritty ex-mafia guys gunning each other down, and especially to see Ed Harris and Liam Neeson take each other on, but if that is not up your alley, it’s definitely not a must see film by any means. So-so.

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Gulfstream Pictures, Red Rover International, ToonBox Entertainment,

Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham, Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl, Stephen Lang, Maya Rudolph, Sarah Gadon, James Rankin

Surly the Squirrel (Will Arnett) has a bad attitude and can’t seem to get along with the other animals in the park. But he’s planning a big heist of peanuts from the processing plant, so he figures to con the others into helping him with the heist. But the humans are also planning a heist, as the processing plant is next to the bank. This creates a whole bunch of problems interfering with both jobs.

This animated adventure story covers the wild animals in the park trying to survive in the world filled with humans. With plenty of well known voices, lots of action, and some pretty darn good artwork, there’s a lot going for this story. It kind of felt like the old Don Bluth films from the Land Before Time series, and An American Tale. The feeling is similar. There are some drawbacks. There’s a lot going on here on many different levels. The film is pretty short. It doesn’t make it to 90 minutes, and so it seems really rushed. Animated films are usually pretty short, but if they’re going to take on all this material they need to give us a little bit more background on the characters. As it is, things happen so fast that it’s hard to keep it all straight. I would think the kids will really like this film. The look and feel is very good, and the artwork surrounding the characters is very good making it very realistic looking. I think there’s enough material to keep the grown-ups entertained as well. Since it’s rather unique in a lot of ways, its not a bad story, and I can recommend this as a family friendly animated film that is something a bit different.

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