Ed's Review Dot Com

Stereo D, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation,

Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Liam Hemsworth, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe, Sela Ward, Judd Hirsch, Angelababy, Joey King, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Fichtner, Deobia Oparei, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Patrick St. Esprit

Twenty years have passed since the original battle for freedom from the aliens was fought. There is a new lady president (to show it’s fiction) and the original President Whitmore is much the worse for wear, but his daughter has grown and is now an emissary to the white house. Captain Hiller is long gone, but his son, Dylan (Jesse T Usher) is a crack pilot and ready to step in to his fathers shoes to fight off the aliens once again who have come back, this time more than double the size of the last time. This time Earth has no chance, but they are going to give it their best shot. They have been improving over the last 20 years, but have they done enough?

This is a big budget blockbuster summer film that falls a little short. There is no way to match the scope of the first one, which caught us all by surprise. They did a really good job of bringing back the major characters and it’s easy to age them 20 years, since the original was released in 1996, 20 years ago! The story is done very well, and the characters are good. Furthermore, the special effects are extremely well done. The battle scenes are awesome, and I was totally entertained throughout the entire film. It’s a very well done movie, and very worthwhile to watch. So why the bad press, and the less than stellar box office? Well, there is no choice but to compare this to the experience 20 years ago of the original, and that’s a no win situation. If you were to watch these back to back now, it would become very clear how well done the new one is, and how the old one is 20 years old, but this is not a remake, it’s a sequel. A long after 20 years in the making sequel. I think they did an excellent job as well, and if this was a brand new story, It’s probably five stars, but you can’t help but compare the feeling you had coming out of the first one, completely exhausted and blown away, and the way you come out of this one thinking, “It’s not as good as the first one”. I probably is better, but can never be seen that way. It’s just a fact of human nature that the awe and wonder of the first one can’t be recreated. But I am glad to know what happened to this alien bunch and can’t help hoping they get what’s coming to them. Just don’t let the naysayers get to you, and go see it while you can.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

A+E Studios, Big Indie Pictures, Killer Films,

Kevin Kline, Dakota Fanning, Susan Sarandon, Max Casella, Jane McNeill, Bryan Batt, Matt Kane, Patrick St. Esprit, Jason Davis, Ric Reitz

As the film opens, Errol Flynn (Kevin Kline) has been reported to have died in the arms of his 4th wife, a young girl named Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning). Beverly’s mother, Florence (Susan Sarandon) is at the airport to meet her daughter when they are confronted by a host of reporters trying to get a glimpse of the girl who was with the famous actor when he died. The premise of the story is Florence’s attempt at fame herself, and perhaps the Hollywood mother a bit too push trying to get her daughter’s career going, has met a writer who wants to interview her about her daughter Beverly and the last days of Errol Flynn. The book is done without Beverly’s knowledge or consent, but via flashback, we get to see the entire story from the very beginning up until the time the book is released.

This is a biographical story. It seems that’s all I’ve been seeing lately, which is a bit odd, but that’s what it is. This is a bit sordid, but I must admit Susan Sarandon did an amazing job as Florence the Hollywood mom, who though she didn’t push her daughter into engagement with a movie star knows to have a thing for very young girls, she certainly enabled it when she had a chance to stop it. Kevin Kline is perhaps not the perfect choice for Errol Flynn, although he did a decent job of the role and kept it interesting. This is not his story anyway. Dakota Fanning, on the other hand, always seems to get into these roles. She’s playing a girl of 15 who has a fake birth certificate and is actually in the chorus line at Warner Brothers as a pretend 18 year old when Errol picks her out of the chorus and makes his predatory advance toward her. It is a bit creepy of a role, and I was never quite comfortable watching it, although I suppose since it’s really her mother’s view of the story, we have no way to know what’s true and what is the mother’s fantasy of the whole thing. All in all, it’s a bit slow, and painful to watch, and is not superbly done, but for an independent film, and a biography of the glory days of Hollywood after all, it’s not all bad. After watching the film, I researched some of the facts, and it seems like it was rather devastating time for Beverly, and despite her pleas to her mother, Florence just had to go through with the book for the fame and notoriety. It is a tragedy and a love story, and I don’t think any of the people in the story can be totally blamed for what happened, even the old lecher Errol Flynn himself who really seemed smitten by the girl, and certainly had the means to make it happen. This is a look at the seedy side of the old Hollywood studio days when movies were king.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog