Ed's Review Dot Com

Atlas Entertainment, DC Comics, DC Entertainment,

Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevingne, Viola Davis, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Adam Beach, Jay Hernandez, Karen Fukuhara

Our government is once again petrified that the next Superman that comes along may be a really bad guy who might be ready to wipe out humanity, so they figure they got to do something proactively to prepare in case a bad space alien shows up. So the plan is to put together a team of really bad folks with superpowers and keep them safely locked up and protected, but to hold something over their heads so that in case something bad happens, the will have a desire to do what is asked of them for their own greedy purposes. But when the super villains figure out that maybe they’re being used, many decide to go out on their own wreaking havoc and destruction everywhere as the rest try to contain them. What follows is an epic battle of evil vs more evil.

Each time I watch and review a movie featuring comic book characters, I mention the fact that I have never been a huge comic book/ comic book movie fan. But there have been some that have really impressed me and make me really glad I watched it. This one, however, isn’t one of those. I found this one really tedious, I’m sorry to say. But as I read other users and their comments, I figured out pretty quick that my feelings were felt by many other people as well which sort of validated my indecisiveness about this film. I was afraid it was my fault as a non-comics guy, but it’s more than that. I was bothered by Will Smith as DeadShot. He is a bit too recognizable to take on a role like that, and it bothered me all the way through that it was Will playing the part. There were a LOT of characters that are not really very recognizable, and it took a lot of effort to try to figure out all those characters and what their back story and motivation was so we could know where they were coming from. The battle scenes weren’t bad, but the feeling that I got was that it was all being done just to have something to do to fill up the time. The story did not catch me, and I was very apathetic as to whether they succeeded or not. The whole movie was just a bit chaotic for my taste and I sure got distracted all the way through. When it was over, I said, “That’s it?”, but then realized that I wasn’t playing that much attention to it. Not a great experience for me, so unless you’re a big Comic Book fan, there are many better choices that this one. Guardian of the Galaxy (which this movie obviously tried to cash in on) was a much better movie, for sure.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Dark Horse Entertainment, Jerry Weintraub Productions, Riche Productions,

Alexander Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie, Djimon Hounsou, Christoph Waltz, John Hurt

As we all remember, John Clayton (Alexander Skarsgard) was lost in Africa as a baby and grew up raised by the apes as Tarzan, King of the Jungle. Later he was rescued (?) and brought to England and reclaimed his rightful right as British nobility. This story picks up when he is requested to return to Africa to investigate potential slave trade and the rape and pillage of the Congo.

I must admit up front that I have never been enthralled with the Tarzan stories ever. Even as a kid, my friends loved to spend Saturdays watching Johnny Weismuller wrestle crocodiles and snakes and rescue the poor natives from the evil white hunters. None of the dozens and dozens of attempts to tell this story every impressed me greatly, including Disney’s cartoon version which was destroyed by Rosie O’Donnell. This one I have to admit is done very, very well. This is the best “looking” version of Tarzan I’ve ever seen. It helps that I saw it in Imax I suppose. But the story was really confusing. We kept jumping though time to see Greystoke in Parliament, then a baby in the jungle, then on the trip down to Africa to fight the slavers, then as Tarzan the ape man, then as an Englishman again. Now he’s traveling with Jane, now he hasn’t met her yet, now she needs rescued, but then she’s with him again, then finally he goes back to rescue her from somebody back in time somewhere. It was all very confusing. Furthermore, you don’t really care about the outcome of anything. Cristoph Waltz once again plays a really, really nasty villain, which is he is really good at, and Samuel L Jackson is around for comedic distraction now and again, but the whole thing was so disjointed I gave up. I am really not sure where to recommend you toss your dollars to the theater owners this weekend, but surely there must be something decent out of the mess of films that seem to be foundering. If you’ve got small kids who have not seen Tarzan and they will be impressed with the vicious apes and crocodiles shown in terror-vision, they are really good CGI moments, and the kids my enjoy this. But if you grew up on Tarzan, this is not going to be an impressive trip down memory lane. My best recommendation is to skip this one, or at least wait till the DVD comes out.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Broadway Video, Little Stranger, Paramount Pictures,

Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Billy Bob Thornton, Nicholas Braun, Christopher Abbott, Sheila Vand, Stephen Peacocke, Evan Jonigkeit, Josh Charles

Based on the memoirs of Kim Baker (Tina Fey) this is the story of a news reporter who is embedded with the Marines in Afghanistan and the dangers and excitement of trying to get the scoop and bet out other reporters while being in harms way every moment. This is the true story of this reporters experiences over a number of years in the early years of the 2000’s.

I was caught off guard by this film. Knowing it’s Tina Fey, and looking at the posters in the theaters, and not knowing anything about the content in advance, I expected a comedy romp through the middle east. This is NOT a comedy by any means. Now I have lots of respect for Tina Fey, and I don’t think she did really bad in this serious role, but still it was a little off putting to have her play such a dramatic and dark role. I ended up having a hard time keeping my attention on this film and found my mind wandering away. The story is interesting enough, but other than a few short episodes, most of it was bad romance and lots of talking and talking. One highlight was Bill Bob Thorton who plays the commander of the team Kim is placed in. He did a really good job, though it wasn’t a big role, playing this guy as tough as nails with a kind streak a mile long. I enjoyed him any time he was on the screen. But for the most part, it dragged and was not really that interesting to me. I was not highly impressed with this movie, and I guess the public pretty much agreed with me as it really disappeared in a hurry and ended up on DVD pretty quickly. If you are really interested in the subject of a female reporter in Afghanistan, the you’ll probably do better reading the book, and if you’re not particularly interested in the subject, then there’s probably not enough substance here to make it worth watching this nearly 2 hour film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Kramer & Sigman Films, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Zaftig Films,

Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro

Nicky (Will Smith) is an experienced con-man. He’s a the top of his trade, but when he meets scammer Jess (Margot Robbie) who wants to be his apprentice he is apprehensive. But she’s insisting, and she does really have talent, so he introduces her to the rest of the team, and she becomes one of the gang. In the end, they are going to try to pull off one big scam.

I had no idea going in what this movie was about. The NetFlix description did not do justice to this movie. I feel that this is a nod to the original con-man movie “Sting” because of the format of the film and the surprise (sort of) ending in the end. Basically it’s a movie in two distinct parts. Part one is when Harry Met Sally. I mean when Nicky met Jess. Then it jumps to a whole new story three years later. There’s no indication what has been happening between the two in the missing years. That is an interesting way to tell the story and makes it a bit more mysterious. Like any good mystery story, there’s a lot you don’t know and it’s hard to know who’s scamming who until it’s all played out and the credits are crawling up the screen. I was not blown away, a phrase that I love to overuse, but I have to admit it was an interesting story. A lot of people did not appreciate this film, probably because they expected something different than what it was. Instead it was cleverly put together, very interesting to watch, and quite cool. This is the best I’ve seen Will Smith in a long time, although he was way down on the list of people they wanted to play Nicky, it turned out that he did a very good job. He didn’t overplay it, and kept his cool, and played the perfect con-man in my opinion. I was very impressed. Furthermore his kids were nowhere to be seen, so that’s a definite plus. This is one that caught me by surprised, and I was pleased at how easy it was to get into the story. I can recommend this one as worthwhile to spend some time on.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Paramount Pictures, Red Granite Pictures, Appian Way,

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Rob Reiner, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Cristin Milioti, Christine Ebersole, Shea Whigham, Katarina Cas, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Ethan Suplee

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) was a Wall Street broker, who loved the lavish lifestyle and the living in the fast lane. But the sudden stock market crash put him out of business. Like a fish out of water, he couldn’t find work and was really lost until he ran across a shop that sold penny stocks. When he found they were not regulated, he put to practice his skills as a high pressure Wall Street guy in the penny stock market, and put together a bunch of rag tag wannabe’s led by Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill). Jordan spent 36 months in prison for defrauding his customers after joining with Shoe Designer Steve Madden.

This story is based upon a real story involving real people. This dramatized version of it is a mix of really funny comedy mixed in with the truth. Actually it is a humorous story, and it did garner a lot of praise for the awards season including Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Jonah Hill, and Best Achievement in Directing Martin Scorsese. This is certainly one of the best roles I’ve seen Jonah Hill perform. He was good in Moneyball too last year, but this was a really great role for him. The story is pretty easy to follow and as I said, there is a lot of really funny scenes, especially when Belfort shows the gang of misfits what he can do. Guys who were used to selling $10.00 worth of stock at a time, were suddenly taking 10k or 100k orders. There is a lot of fooling around, a lot of drug use, and basically guys being guys, but the basis of the story is really pretty funny. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and it was worthy of all the awards it won.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog