Ed's Review Dot Com

Lionsgate, Grindstone Entertainment Group, Gold Star Films,

J.D. Evermore, Joely Richardson, Bryce Romero, Aiden Flowers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Whitman Groves, Carsen Flowers, Douglas M. Griffin, Dana Gourrier, Abigail Breslin, Jodie Moore, Raeden Greer, Laura Cayouette

A zombie apocalypse has struck the town, and tough father Wade Vogel’s (Arnold Schwarzenegger) beloved daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has been infected. She realizes the danger she is to her family, so she runs off, but is captured and being held in a quarantine facility. Wade sets out to find her, and is able to persuade the town leaders to allow him to bring her home to care for her, but if she gets worse and becomes a danger to the family, he has to either bring her in to the quarantine center where she’ll be killed, or take care of it himself. But Wade is unable to accept the truth, that Maggie is serious trouble, and spends his time in denial until everything comes to a crashing climax.

This is an unusual science fiction movie that cares more about the characters than the horror. Most zombie films are all about the danger and the gore, and the chase to keep away from the monsters. This film is quite different, as the zombie disease is secondary to the feelings and pain that the family goes through, and that Maggie goes through as she loses herself little by little, but is somehow aware of the tragedy that is falling upon her and her family. It’s very touching and very moving and a very different zombie movie than you’ve ever seen before. Done with a minuscule budget, if not for the backing of Arnold who once he saw the script, knew it was meant for him created sort of a new career for the former Governor of California. As he says in his interview, there is no way he would have ever accepted this role in his younger days when success was measured in the number of kills and the size and quantity of big guns. But he has changed too as he’s matured and has a family or two of his own. He was so touched by the script, that he jumped all in and without his backing this probably could not have been made. As it is, it’s a very touching story with great emotional scenes that make you go through a whole range of emotions. Arnold was good, but so was Abigail who played a very difficult role and nailed it exceptionally. This movie was well worth the time I spent watching it, and though it’s mostly unheard of, it’s well worth looking out for it. Excellent.

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Lionsgate, Room 101, Snoot Entertainment,

James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Brandon Scott, Valorie Curry, Corbin Reid, Wes Robinson

Though no one has found the Blair Witch, nor any trace of the girl who disappeared there, a group of college kids think they have a great idea to camp out in the woods and search, using a drone, for a clearing and the house that was in the found footage of the first film. Something, or someone is out there in the woods with them.

I have been dreading watching this film. I saw it released on DVD this week, and was sorely tempted to skip it. But I figured I had a duty to see if there was anything here. Well, my first ideas were right, and I should have skipped it, as should everyone, but especially those who appreciate horror. This isn’t a very good film. First of all, the vast majority of shots in this movie are of leaves, lights, fires, eyes, noses, rocks, etc. I am so tired with the shaky handheld crap and it’s so far past time to stop doing that. If you don’t have any money to make a movie, don’t fall for this trap of making a movie with no budget by using a handheld cheap ass camera and just swinging it around so that nobody can see that you don’t have anything. Truthfully, most of the time is spent on stuff you can’t recognize. Even the so called ending is flashes and glimpses of shaky images that don’t show anything. Secondly it’s mostly dark, which makes it even tougher to see anything, although I admit, there’s nothing scary in that woods in the daytime. Finally, nothing new has happened since the first film almost 20 years ago, as it’s essentially identical in plot to the original. I must admit I have never appreciated the Blair Witch movies, although the first one, when it came out, was really well advertised with a fake website that convinced everyone that this was a true story and on the level. This film can’t do that, and them saying that this poor girls is still wandering around out there is not going to be convincing to anyone who knows about the original. There was just no need to make this movie, and I’m not sure why they even tried. This is the most boring thing I have ever seen. Stay far far away from this one. I warned you!

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Allison Shearmur Productions, Keep Your Head, Lionsgate,

Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Juliette Lewis, Emily Meade, Miles Heizer, Kimiko Glenn, Samira Wiley, Marc John Jefferies

Vee (Emma Roberts) is a high school senior, and a shy wallflower type of girl. Her best friend, Sydney (Emily Meade) is outgoing and very popular, although she is hiding her own problems. Sydney introduces Vee to a new underground app called Nerve which is like Truth or Dare without the truth option. When joining the app, you choose to be a watcher or a player. By embarrassing Vee, she dares her into becoming a player, but once you start you cannot quit, and things escalate quickly as the dares grow more and more insane. This is a high action thriller right out of the pages of today’s social media world.

This was a very refreshing story, very modernistic, and quite suspenseful. Eama Roberts and Dave Franco are awesome as a team and Emma is really turning into a daredevil here. (Watch the special features on the DVD to see her experiences filming this.) The rest of the cast is very good as well. The action scenes are very well done and the special effects are awesome. All in all, this is a really spectacular film, filled with really good characters doing really crazy and dangerous things for fame and money, just like real life! The script is excellent. I would love to find the book, it seems like a really good read. The director team did a splendid job as well, and all the performers are really good, so this this is a solid film, and one I can recommend. See it.

Lionsgate, Red Wagon Entertainment, Summit Entertainment,

Maggie Q, Octavia Spencer, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz, Ansel Elgort, Bill Skarsgård, Jeff Daniels, Naomi Watts, Miles Teller, Ray Stevenson, Theo James

After the devastating events of the previous film, the four escape outside the wall to discover what’s out there. Tris and her three friends find a world outside that may hold the answers to how she came to be Divergent in the first place, but naturally trouble looms from all sides, and they have to make some hard choices as to where to put their allegiance in the future. This is the final film in the Divergent series, oops, surprise! This is part one of the last film in the series. The last one, word has it is coming out as a TV movie without a theatrical release.

I wasn’t impressed very much by this film. Hopefully the last one, if it does eventually come out, will be a little bit better. I guess the dump at the box office has destined this to be finshed as a TV movie. I guess my disappointment in this one was shared by the rest of the world. Perhaps there have been so many similar series and all the hype has jaded us a bit, or perhaps there’s just too much special effects and too little story. This was step by step predictable from the start to the end. There’s no real tension as it’s easy to tell what’s going to happen each step of the way, and very little suspense. The characters in this story is not nearly as likeable, and not as easy to care much about. I don’t know if it’s a weakness in the story, the screen play, the actors, or what. Perhaps, as I suggested earlier, it just was too much pizazz and not enough story, I don’t know. But in any case, this is by far the weakest of the films so far, and each one has dropped a star as we through them. I had higher hopes for this film, as I haven’t had the time to read the books, but I was kind of let down by this one. Glad I waited for the DVD instead of paying top dollar to see it in the theater. There’s lots of better films out there. This is probably okay to skip unless you’re really a big fan. Sorry.

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Color Force, Lionsgate, Studio Babelsberg,

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland

At the end of Part One, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) was back, but severely affected by this time in the capital where he was brainwashed. He jumped at Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and tried to strangle her leaving her in the hospital severely injured. But as we pick it up, she’s recovering and the rebel alliance is planning to bring all the districts together to take on the capitol and President Snow (Donald Sutherland). The want to leave Katniss out of it, but you know she’s going to do her own thing and sets off on her own secret mission to assassinate President Snow. This is a fight to the finish with a war designed to determine the outcome of a free democratic Panem once and for all. But the odds are not so good.

THis is a very fitting finish to this series of films, and it’s sad to see it end. Jennifer Lawrence has grown so much through these films and it opened so many new avenues for her. She deserves all the praise she gets. This is filled with so many big stars, but we don’t even notice as they are all so well familiar to us at this point. This is one hell of a story, and the production values are out of this world. This one, however, if filled with nitty-gritty down and dirty fighting less so much of the super glitzy special effects that the other ones had, but still the scenes of the capitol are very awesome. Some of the traps that the defenders of Panem have set are amazing to watch. There’s plenty of action, lots of excitement, and explosions galore! The only negative I could think of is that as it wraps up, there are a couple “surprises” thrown in that are so predictable, that probably any of us could have written the screenplay to wrap this up. But that’s okay, we still enjoy watching it. This is a must see film, and a superb ending to what is one of the classic series of all time. See it!

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