Ed's Review Dot Com

Columbia Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, LStar Capital, Mid Atlantic Films

Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Irrfan Khan, Ben Foster, Sidse Babett Knudsen

Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is back for the third installment of the Dan Brown novel in the “Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” series. This time he wakes up in a hospital in Italy with virtually no memory of what happened to him. His nurse, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) tries to help him with his recovery and with his memory, but someone is out to get him, and so the end up chasing all over Europe trying to solve the mystery of a evil plot to release the plague virus on the world. This time it’s based on a picture of the levels of hell in Dante’s “Inferno” and trying to decode the message and save the world is a very challenging task in this high energy spy like thriller.

What is it they call Robert? It’s like symbologist or something like that, if that’s a word. Is there such a thing? Anyway, this film is directed by Ron Howard, so it’s a high tech action thriller and all that. I wasn’t completely sold on the whole thing. There wasn’t anything wrong with Tom Hanks or Felicity Jones’ performance that put me off, and there was lots of explosions, tension, chases, suspense, and all that, but I find these stories a little bit confusing and hard to follow. Yes, eventually they figure it all out and they get it, but the focus on how he decodes these ancient messages from common works of art is sometimes just more than I care to know. Ian Fleming’s 007 has been saving the world from evil madmen for years and years, and it never gets old because the villain always takes to time to tell his plot to take over the world and manages to keep it simple stupid. (KISS). In these series of films the effort is in trying to make me understand how he uses symbols, solves clues, and gets secret decoder ring messages in a way that totally loses my interest and goes over my head. This is a prime reason why I have not really liked any of these three films. It’s just a bit off putting for me, and though Hanks and Jones and their friends and enemies put in a really good effort with wonderful acting and though it is exciting and looks great, one cylinder was missing and I was just bombarded by the hidden meaning of rearranging Dante’s levels of hell that I found, let’s face it, basically tedious and boring. That’s why I think a lot of these types of films are better done than the Da Vinci Code series, and why I’ve never had a desire to read the books, either. I wouldn’t say that it’s not worth it to watch it, especially on DVD or streaming, but just don’t expect to be blown away with the wonderful plot. Goldfinger’s plan to set off a nuclear bomb in Fort Knox to turn all the gold toxic was a lot easier for me to follow. 🙂 Ron Howard did a good job and it looks great, but the novel was a bit hard to turn into a movie that popped.

Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, Legendary Pictures,

Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jake Johnson, B.D. Wong, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, Ty Simpkins, Judy Greer, Lauren Lapkus, Nick Robinson, Brian Tee

Twenty years ago Jurassic Park almost opened. Just before opening, however, things went horribly wrong and many people died, and the park was virtually destroyed. After 20 years of more careful genetic engineering, and with a lot of very effective marketing, The bigger and much better Jurassic World is now open. They, like Sea World, are doing a combination of educational, rescue, and ecological work. But they need a new bigger attraction to keep the gate turnstiles spinning, so a secret plan to genetically engineer a whole new breed of dinosaur is under way. Though there were very many precautions, this new dinosaur is a lot smarted and faster than her predecessors. Naturally things once again go very wrong, and though this new monster is not on display yet, but housed back near the ruins of the original park, when it gets free, thousands of guests and workers are in serious trouble. This sequel to the original (pretending the sequels do not exist) is tearing up the box office this summer of 2015.

This week Ed and his wife celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary. We took a very nice and relaxing trip to the sleepy town of Avalon on Catalina Island. While we were there we saw a large round building known as “Avalon Casino”. It’s a very iconic building and the emblem most associated with Catalina. Inside this beautiful building is a ballroom on the top floor and a movie theater on the main floor. This beautifully decorated movie theater is very old; It was the first theater in the US that was built for talking pictures, and has been in use since it’s construction. It is the only movie screen on Catalina, and they have one showing a day, at 7:15 PM, 7 days a week. The week were were there, Jurassic World was playing so we made our way out to the Casino (Casino is an Italian word that means “place of gathering”, so there is no, and has never been, gambling in this facility.) to see this film in this iconic theater. What a wonderful experience that was! The theater seats over 1100 people and is certainly beautiful.

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As to the movie, it was very, very good. The excitement level was off the charts, and the special effects and CGI was outstanding. The story is a really good sequel to the original, and when they revisited some of the original park sites which are now dilapidated and in ruins it was really nice to revisit the original. There are some family stories going on, a couple little boys, some worried parents, and an all business aunt who is supposed to be watching the visiting youngsters but passes them off to her assistant to care for, but the forefront story going on, though the major part of the story, is not near the best parts. When thing go wrong, they go really wrong, and between some greedy folks who want to profit from the situation and Chris Pratt who is an animal expert who is trying to protect and save the animals, the push and shove between these two is the real story. The action is spectacular and the suspense is thrilling. This is a real summer blockbuster, and perhaps it may end up the biggest film of all times. The original story was excellent, but this sequel is what every sequel should be, every bit as good if not better than its predecessor This is a MUST SEE film, and if you haven’t been there yet, what are you waiting for? Don’t wait for DVD for this film (unless of course you want to own it) Get out there and see it on the BIG screen with as many special effects you can get. This is the best film I’ve seen in several years, I swear.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Eyeworks Fine & Mellow, Film i Väst, Filmgate Films,

James Franco, Kate Hudson, Omar Sy, Tom Wilkinson

Tom (James Franco) and Ann Wright (Kate Hudson) are young married couple that are struggling financially. They want desperately to have a child, but can’t afford the treatments to make it happen. They rent their basement apartment to a guy who turns up dead, and who seems to be involved with some nasty characters. Tom and Ann find a bag full of money hidden in their basement and they are good people who just need a little help to get through a rough financial patch, so they decide to only use a little bit of it. But when the hoods show up looking for the cash, they are in big, big trouble.

This crime drama feels familiar. We’ve certainly been through this scenario before. But this movie is really well done. With James Franco, Kate Hudson, and Tom Wilkinson performing here, we know we’re going to get a first class performance from all of them. The don’t disappoint. They are really good. The back story on Tom Wilkinson’s character is so tragic and touching that we really feel for him, and his presence adds a lot to the film. The bad guys are bad, and the action and suspense are both extremely well done. If it were not for the familiarity of the story, this would have been a really top notch thriller. So we pretty much know where it’s going to go and how it’s going to end up, but for this film, it’s not the destination, but the journey that makes it worthwhile. I would call this a great film, but it’s certainly worthy of watching, and is very well done.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog