Ed's Review Dot Com

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Regency Enterprises, TSG Entertainment,

Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Missi Pyle, Sela Ward, Casey Wilson, Patrick Fugit, David Clennon, Lisa Banes, Lola Kirke, Boyd Holbrook

Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) fell instantly in love with Amy (Rosamund Pike), and they were quickly married, but four years later a lot has changed. They’re not feeling close anymore, fighting more than talking, and both feel disappointed in how their lives have turned out. Contemplating divorce, Nick returns home from the bar that he owns with his sister to find his wife is missing. The house is torn up, and it appears like a struggle. As Amy’s family arrives to help, Nick insists he doesn’t know anything about Amy’s disappearance, but as time goes by, everyone seems to turn on him and his alibi is wearing thin.

This is a crime story, right out of today’s headlines, but with plot twists and turns and loads of suspense building, it was a wildly popular film in theaters, and one I wanted to get to see. But the timing was bad, and I never made it. Now it has come out on DVD and I planned a nice evening watching this film. This might be a case where your expectation is too high. Sometimes that backfires, and I was simply not blown away by this movie as I was with some of the others I have seen recently, but knew little about. Ben Affleck was pretty good, and played the frustrated husband with lots of secrets pretty well. I have no complaints with his performance. In fact, it was a very high quality film, and certainly interesting enough to watch. I enjoyed it, and it was an OK thriller with a good cast and an ordinary script. I think my biggest problem here was there were no great AHA! moments, but rather lots of little “ok, sure” moments. I wasn’t shocked by the way the story went, and it was a rather unfulfilling ending at the end. But it fits, and the story is certainly pretty authentic modern America. I don’t want to discourage people from watching this, as it was certainly a good film, but definitely not a GREAT film. Perhaps if you come in with lower expectations you won’t be disappointed.

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Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks,

Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Terry Crews, Kristen Schaal

Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) has saved the world from his horrible food making machine, and is working in a new job, when he finds that his machine is still running and kicking out mutant foods that are terrorizing people. Flint determines that he has to step in and stop it, so he gathers together his crew and sets out to once again save the world.

Sometimes a film doesn’t need a sequel. This one doesn’t. The original film was very clever and unusual. It caught us all off guard, and was very entertaining due to the quirkiness of the story. Every once in a while an off the wall (out of the box) idea comes along and is very refreshing. Then they come along and decide to continue the story with a sequel that doesn’t add anything to the original except for a ton of new puns on food names. Did George Takei write the script?

Some years ago when the Titanic came out, we made jokes about giving away the fact that the ship sank at the end. But when the movie made a gazillion dollars, we quipped about how James Cameron could make a sequel to the story. Someone came up with an idea that Rose arrives in Santa Monica, still grieving her lost Jack who drowned in the icy water when visiting the country club sees a young handsome Jack playing tennis and about has a stroke. But it turns out Jack has an identical twin, and the meet and fall in love in Titanic 2. That way you could bring Leo DiCaprio back too! Another billion dollar film. Of course they had the good sense not to make it. Unfortunately for us, they decided to make this sequel. Nothing is new this time, and it’s no longer quirky, but just weird. Now Andy Samberg can churn out some pretty clever 3 minute short films for TV FunHouse on SNL, but to try to pull that kind of humor for a feature length film is just too much. It’s not near as funny the second time around, and most of the creatures were invented to just tack on funny names. The jokes tend to hang out there, and try as I might, I could not stay interested in this movie. I got bored a number of times and realized I was daydreaming and had to jump back a few minutes to find out what I had missed. The answer to that is, “Not much”. There are some fans of this film, and to them I am glad you liked it, but it just didn’t work for me this time around. This is a good time waster for little kids who will get a kick of the hybrid monster food dishes, but for for anyone over 10 years old, unless you are really a fan of the first, be prepared to lose interest in this sequel that just doesn’t quite cut it.

Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Hemisphere Media Capital,

Neil Patrick Harris, Sofía Vergara, Christina Ricci, Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Alan Cumming, Brendan Gleeson, Hank Azaria, Jayma Mays, Katy Perry, Fred Armisen, J.B. Smoove, George Lopez

For years we’ve known that the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) absolutely hates the Smurfs. But he’s created some little creatures similar to the Smurfs called “The Naughties” who are going to help him with this efforts to replace the Smurfs, but they won’t work. Gargamel needs the Smurf essence to turn them into real Smurfs that he can control. Only Smurfette (Katy Perry) has the knowledge to obtain the essense, so Gargamel convinces her that the Smurfs have forgotten her and kidnaps her and brings her to Paris to help him in his plan. The rest of the Smurfs have to find Smurfette and convince her to come back home.

First of all, I have to warn you that I’m too old to have grown up with the Smurfs. For some reason, I never got into watching them with my kids, so I’m not a Smurf fan by any means, and I always found the little rats a bit annoying. Well, maybe more than a bit. Therefore, the Smurfs start off with a big mark against them in my book. I wasn’t a fan of the first Smurfs movie, but I admit this one was probably at least as good, if not better than the first one. The acting is corny, the animation is corny, but I suspect that’s what the Smurfs are about anyway, so I’m sure anyone with a soft spot for the little fellows and one lone adopted girl Smurf will enjoy this revisit to their world, plus the added benefit of bringing them to Paris for an adventure. I am giving this movie a bit higher rating that I probably would if I was basing it on my own enjoyment, but I do realize there are Smurf fans out there, and this is not that bad of a movie, really. So if you have a Smurf fan in your group, this makes a decent rental film, but of course if you’re a Smurf grouch like I am, it’s more of the same old, same old.

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Kingsgate Films, Mandate Pictures, New Line Cinema

John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Amir Blumenfeld, Paula Garcés, Danneel Ackles, Thomas Lennon, Danny Trejo, David Krumholtz, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Patton Oswalt, Elias Koteas

Six Years have passed, and Harold and Kumar are now living very different lives. Kumar is still a pot head, and his apartment and his life are a total mess. But Harold is married and living in a great home and working in an office. His wife’s family, especially the father-in-law who doesn’t like him very much is coming to visit and brought the perfect Christmas tree. Harold and Kumar don’t see each other anymore. But on Christmas Eve when a strange package addressed to Harold arrives at the door of Kumar’s apartment, he decides to bring it over in person. While there, he burns down the perfect tree, and the two of them set off on a quest to find a replacement tree, all over Manhattan half the night. The movie is their travels all over town from one disaster to another to try to replace the tree.

This film was very funny! In fact, this was much better than I expected, and a vast improvement over the last one. We know these characters already, so they get right down to the humor from the very start. The jokes are rapid fire, and certainly there were a bunch of things I didn’t see coming. The jokes are really funny. The 3D is a real plus, simply because it’s cheesy. They joke around with the 3D effects and make fun of themselves all the while. This is what makes it really worthwhile to watch in 3D so you can be in the middle of the cheesy effects. There are some funny cameos too. Neil Patrick Harris is back again, and hysterical as the lead character in the Christmas Extravaganza. Now, Neil got killed in the last film, but we find out how he survived as well. It’s an adult film, for sure. There are some outrageous things, like a drug addicted baby, the Russian Mafia, and even a White Castle.

This was a fun film to watch in the theater, and I enjoyed it very much. I’m pretty sure it’ll be worth it to catch it on the big screen in 3D, so I’m sure the small screen DVD will work, but the humor is real, and it is a funny film. I enjoyed it a lot.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Red Band (R RATED) Trailer below:

CBS Films, Storefront Films

Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Neil Patrick Harris, Dakota Johnson, Erik Knudsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, Peter Krause, Lisa Gay Hamilton, David Francis

Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is a pompous ass. His Dad is a TV anchor and Kyle is beautiful. He knows it and is very conceited and a real jerk, judging people only by their looks and power. Running for president of the school Green project, Kyle readily admits that he is not the least interested in the cause, and should only be elected because he’s very rich, and handsome and it would look good on his college applications. He steps on and humiliates the school goth chick Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen) who puts a curse on him. She turns him hideously ugly and he has but one year to find someone who will love him for what he is on the inside despite the outside and who will pledge their love to him, the ugly guy. His Dad moves him out of the house and sets him up with a tutor and an apartment of his own so he will not disgrace the family and he’s on his own to find a person who can love him for the changed person he has come to know after he learns his lesson. Up steps Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) who has always had a soft spot for the handsome Kyle, but who never had a chance with him as he was far too popular. This modern day telling of Beauty and Beast is a fairy tale brought into today.

Not a blockbuster film by any means, but nicely done and well performed by the young actors and actresses who played the parts. It feels a lot contrived, but when you’re retelling a fairy tale, it’s bound to come off that way. Still it’s a cute little story, and a nice change of pace. I would certainly give the edge to the Disney version 100%. Vanessa Hudgens is no Belle by any means, but she gave it a good try. Unless you’re a fan of sappy love stories, you’ll probably do good by giving this one a pass, but if you are in the mood for a campy new twist on an old tale, here it is. Beauty and the Beast(ly) is worth 3 1/2 stars.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog