Ed's Review Dot Com

Blue Sky Studios,

Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Nicki Minaj, Aubrey Graham, Jennifer Lopez, Queen Latifah, Aziz Ansari, Joy Behar, Peter Dinklage, Keke Palmer, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Wanda Sykes, Patrick Stewart, Heather Morris, Rebel Wilson, Josh Gad

A catastrophic event sends Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo) drifting away from Ellie (Queen Latifa) and the rest of the herd. They’re trying to work their way back when they are captured by bloodthirsty pirates. After escaping they try to steal the ship and make the long trek back home in this 4th installment of the Ice Age series of animated films.

I will admit that I was never a big fan of the Ice Age movies, not even the first one. I just didn’t get into the characters, nor the story from the beginning, although several of them I have tried to watch multiple times. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I went into this one. I stared at it in the “new releases” before finally deciding to give it a try and put it in my queue. Well, I was not surprised to come to the realization that I’m just tired of this story. Through about seventeen “Land Before Time” straight to video sequels, I didn’t find myself as bored as I was through Continental Drift. In the very beginning we’re treated to another round of that stupid squirrel trying to get his acorn and starting the earth to break up and the continents to split apart. Trouble is that unlike Luxor the Lamp from Pixar or Tinkerbell and the castle from Disney films, they aren’t just a mascot that appears during the opening seconds. We’re instead treated to a mini cartoon with this hysterical (not) creature chasing an acorn. Now Wile E Coyote was a one trick Road Runner chaser, but they were very original and were fun to watch. But this mini cartoon to introduce the film was completely shown in the trailer, so it was absolutely nothing new to see in the movie. I realize that they always do that, but it’s always annoyed me for some reason. (I just watched Wreck-It Ralph again in the bargain theater because my Grandson wanted to see it again, and watched with pleasure the opening cartoon about the guy and girl and the paper airplanes that was as fresh this time as the last time.) But I had seen the trailer for IA4 so many times that I know that bit about the core of the earth too well to enjoy watching it again.

The story is typical of Ice Age films, and a lot like the rest, and also a lot like other animated stories (like Happy Feet Two for example) but just left me disappointed. This has been a rough week, as I faced both Frankenweenie and this one in the same week. Of the two, I’d choose this one, but not by much. Now I must say that the younger folk won’t mind so much that the story is so similar. I have grandkids that have watched Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo hundreds and hundreds of times! The kids will enjoy the action and the animated characters just fine, and if you have a little one to entertain, you can put this on and they’ll love it. I don’t condemn the film, but just feel for me I’ve worn out the concept and I doubt I’ll be watching Ice Age 5 when it’s sure to come around. When it was over, I just said, “Eh!” and shrugged my shoulders. Not awful but just not very exciting.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Alcon Entertainment, Farrell Paura Productions, Gospel Truth Pictures,

Queen Latifah, Dolly Parton, Keke Palmer, Jeremy Jordan, Kris Kristofferson, Jesse L. Martin, Courtney B. Vance, Dexter Darden

In a very small Georgia town, a choir is performing in a Praise music contest. Suddenly their director, Bernard Sparrow, takes ill. We learn that he was the beloved choir director, but as he has suddenly passed away, the pastor wants the choir to continue. The board chooses Vi Rose Hill (Queen Latifah) who is always at wits end with the major benefactor and rich lady of the congregation, Bernard’s wife, G.G> Sparrow (Dolly Parton). This sets of a battle between these two. Vi Rose has a very beautiful 16 year old daughter who is one of the best voices in the choir, Olivia Hill (Keke Palmer). G.G. has a young grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan) who has arrived to live with her with a reputation as a troubled teen, but he is also a good musician. As the choir prepares for the competition, a Romeo and Juliet love affair begins between Olivia and Randy which everyone wants to nip in the bud.

This new film is about gospel music, but it’s not really about pushing Christianity. In fact, these folks seem about as worldly as the rest of us, except that they really love to sing. Obviously there is a lot of conflict, and the film is full of colorful characters. It’s really funny, but the humor is very pg-13. This is really a fun movie, and it’s good fun. It’s down home Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres kind of humor, but there are some things that stand out as NOT an issue. Although the congregation is half black and half white, there is no real mention of race anywhere. The movie is color blind, and what color a person is has no meaning to the story. Kudos for that! Also, there is a lot of bickering and fighting, but it’s all done with love and caring. It’s standard family and friend type fights, but nobody goes over the line to meanness. There are also several side stories going on that adds a lot to the movie. But most of all, the music is really special! Not since Sister Act, has a movie about gospel singing contained so many great musical numbers. It’s one of the most outstanding features of the film. The performance at the national finals is well worth the price of admission by itself.

It’s a good-hearted movie that has a lot of warmth and humor, and good lessons. It’s not deep or thought provoking. It’s just good old fashioned entertainment. I think they did a wonderful job, and I hope people will take time out from their busy lives, and relax and enjoy this for a real different change of pace.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Optimum Releasing, Imagine Entertainment, Spyglass Entertainment

Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah, Clint Howard

Ronny Valentine(Vince Vaughn) and Nick Brannen (Kevin James) have been best friends since college days. They run a small independent auto shop where they’re working on an add-on for an electric car to give it the big roar and vibration of the muscle cars. They’ve won a chance to talk to GM about this and this looks like the big break they’ve been looking for. But something happens that threatens everything. Ronny sees Nick’s wife kissing someone else. Should he tell? What will happen if he does? This is the dilemma that faces a lot of friends. The old, “kill the messenger” routine. This gets a lot fouled up before everything comes to a head. Will Nick and Ronny survive? That’s the dilemma.

The Dilemma is a pretty funny movie. But parts of it are tragic. We know that Ronny has his issues, and he seems to think it’s his job to resolve everything himself. We think the problem will be that he witnessed something and jumped to a funny conclusion, but this is not the way the movie goes. Who has the biggest issues after all? Well, I guess everyone does. It’s a very deep film in addressing the goodness and the deficiencies in all the characters. These people are human. Vince Vaughn plays it for yucks the way he always does, but he pulls of the sad eyed little boy very well too. This is a similar role to “Chuck and Larry” for Kevin James as well, the goodhearted nice guy who gets the worst of it. Many folks felt Jennifer Connelly’s role is way beneath her talent, but I don’t think so. She is one of the key cornerstones of the film and without her character for Vince to play off of, it would have turned out a lot weaker. If anyone is miscast in this pic, it would be Winona Ryder, but I think she did a pretty good job with it, and deserves credit for making the bad guy still likable. All in all, this is a nice date night out movie. I think both men and women will like it. There’s enough romance and relationship issues for the ladies, and the men will like the pratfalls, sticky situations Vince finds himself in, and of course some sweet cars!!! Basically I think this has something for all the adults, and I thought it was a really fun romantic comedy.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Fox Searchlight Pictures, Flavor Unit Entertainment

Queen Latifah, Common, Paula Patton, James Pickens Jr., Phylicia Rashad, Pam Grier, Laz Alonso

There is nothing wrong with Just Wright.  It’s a sweet romantic comedy with a basketball background, so it ought to be fun.  But it didn’t work for me simply because every single step of the movie was so absolutely predictable that there was nothing at all to surprise you in the least.  Each step is crafted and follow the formula in every aspect.  Therefore I couldn’t even enjoy it, and was really bored.   I just thought it was completely ho-hum!

Queen Latifa plays Leslie Wright, as a physical therapist/New Jersey Nets fanatical fan who lives with her cousin who is a major gold digger.  Her goal in life is to marry an NBA star, and she’s set out a plan to snatch one.

Naturally Scott McKnight (Common), N.J. nets aging star gets injured, and Leslie is the just right (Just Wright) person to nurse him back to health.  But to her chagrin, McKnight is smitten with her beautiful cousin and soon is engaged.  Naturally you could write the rest of the story.

The good news is that there’s nothing wrong with the story, other than it’s predictability.  It has heart, and a little bit of humor, and for a mindless romantic comedy, it meets the goal.  The acting is passable, and it’s a good time if you don’t expect too much.

Bad news is that besides the predictability, it appears the Nets have a rather bizzare schedule where they only play the Orlando Magic.  I think there are only two teams now in the NBA East.  Apparently these are the only two that survived.  Strange! 

I don’t want to bash the movie too much, cause if you’re a romantic comedy junkie, you would probably enjoy it, but for me, it just doesn’t make it, and I was very disappointed.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

New Line Cinema

Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Carter Jenkins, Ashton Kucher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift

Ok, I listed about 10% of the cast.    I don’t know if I’ll still have room for the review.  🙂    Never since It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, have they hauled out this many stars for a single movie.  If you’ve never seen that one (how could you not?), go get it. It’s a lot funnier than this is.

Of course it was made to be seen on Valentines Day, and it was made in LA, so it’s more of a Valentine present to LA than to the public.   This is a lot of fluff mixed in with a lot of sweet, a lot of tears, a lot of hearbreak, a lot of “Aw gee” moments.  There are a zillion stories going on, and you have to try to follow all of them.  Every trick in the book is going to be used to bring everyone together in the end.  But bring them together they do.

If this film suffers from anything, it’s from trying to do TOO MUCH.  Maybe a couple of the stories could have been left out, and it would be a little easier to follow.  But since they put them in, you just have to try to follow.

All stages of love are represented here.  And they all end up fitting together.  It’s not classic film making and it’s not deep or thought provoking, but it is a delightful romantic comedy.  If you hate romantic comedies, then you might be one of the haters of this film.  But if you don’t expect Sheakespear, and just go with the flow, it’s a cute, suprisingly funny little Valentines Day romp that will not disappoint.