Ed's Review Dot Com

Atomic Monster, New Line Cinema, RatPac-Dune Entertainment,

Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, Michael Cimino, Samara Lee

The Warrens, Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson) are returning Annabelle to their home where they have a room filled with objects that have been haunted or cursed, or possessed. The sooner Annabell (the doll) is put back in her case and locked up the safer anyone will be. But when they have to leave town and leave their daughter behind for a weekend, they have a couple older girls keep an eye on her. But one of the older girls has some personal issues of her own, and finds the keys and opens the room, but even opening Annabelle’s case allowing the evil spirits to cross over to the house and terrorize everyone for one long scary weekend.

This series of films featuring the real life Warren family have been really outstanding and very scary. Annabelle has been the center of attention before, but this one brings the whole thing back around to the start. In the last movie, we learned the history of Annabelle and where she came from, but in this film Annabelle is not the central character, although she is responsible for being the conduit for all the evil in the film. The Warrens themselves are only a small part of the movie as well, and the main story is about the three teenage girls left behind in the home and what happend to them. As a result, my wife and her sister who watched this with me didn’t care for it and didn’t think it was scary. Their biggest complaint was that the setting was all in one house with only the three girls in the cast, and it was too simplified and not scary enough. I, on the other hand, felt is was extremely creepy and had lots of real suspense without all the cheap “sound” scares, and I really enjoyed it. So consider this, when you decide whether to see this one or not, that it’s different from person to person. I like horror films that are simple not extremely complex and hard to figure out, and this one suited me very nicely. I found it very suspenseful, and at times pretty terrifying, and I recommend this film for horror film junkies like me who like a good scary movie.

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Primate Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Warner Bros.,

Michael Peña, Dax Shepard, Jessica McNamee, Adam Brody, Ryan Hansen, Justin Chatwin, Kristen Bell, Vincent D’Onofrio, Rosa Salazar, Maya Rudolph, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Richard T. Jones, Jane Kaczmarek, Adam Rodriguez, Vida Guerra

Ponch (Michael Pena) is an undercover FBI man looking for dirty cops in the California Highway Patrol. He’s partnered up with a brand new rookie Jon (Dax Shephard) who is the oldest rookie in CHP history. Jon is a former X-Games star, but his failing marriage to Karen (Kristin Bell) causes him to tryout as a policeman to try to win her back. But the corruption runs deep and they don’t know who they can trust as they try to locate the loot and the dirty cops behind the heist. This is based on the popular 80’s TV show CHiPs, and even features a cameo by the original Ponch, Erik Estrada.

They took a different approach with this movie, not really following the story of the tv series, but rather making a comedy satirical parody of the TV show which was a little unintentionally funny in the first place. This one is strictly tongue in cheek and doesn’t even try to take itself seriously. Maybe that wasn’t a bad idea since the history of TV shows turned into feature films has been mostly dreadful. This one didn’t take itself too seriously and was actually really funny. They could go for jokes mocking the original series and beef it up with crazy R rated humor which differentiates it from the TV show. Michael and Dax have fun mocking their characters, and both are cartoonishly over the top performances. The supporting cast is really good too and help them a lot to bring humor to the story. And best of all it’s only a teensy bit over an hour and a half so it doesn’t drag out the joke too far. All in all, I think it was a nice homage to the original TV series done, as I stated, tongue in cheek, but with TLC as well. It wasn’t a bad break from serious movies, and was more like one of the many parody movies with Leslie Nielsen or maybe Charlie Sheen. It wasn’t bad, and worth the time I spent on it.

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Warner Bros., Electric City Entertainment, RatPac-Dune Entertainment,

Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, John Lithgow, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson

Christian Wolff (Ben Afleck) is a genius in math, in fact he really has super powers in that area. He is “The Accountant” and is hired out by companies wanting to know what is happening with the finances in their corporation. He is able to see numbers in patterns that no one else can see and is a master at financial forensics. He also happens to be a master shooter, and is unbelievably good as a hired assassin. But as he works to solve the latest client’s problems along with the assistant provided to him, Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), the body count starts to rise as the police try to pin him as the culprit, and the client wants him to stop investigating. But being who he is, Christian has to solve the problem and determine what is really behind this audacious crime. J.K. Simmons, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Lithgow also appear to further confuse the pot.

This is a very unusual role for Ben Affleck, but he was actually really good in this film. He plays a very quirky person in an excellent portrayal. Kendrick, on the other hand, is in a much more minor role, although she is important to the story. Her role is more wide eyed innocence, as she admires Christian, but is really in awe with what he can do. And neither of them realize the danger that they have to face. This is a suspenseful, action film, with lots of plot twists, although we’re in on what is going on long before the rest of the cast knows. It’s a bit difficult to follow, so you have to pay close attention to what is going on. It’s actually a good story, and I enjoyed the mystery of determining why the characters in this film do the things they do. I enjoyed this story and I can recommend this film for a pleasant evening trying to solve a great mystery.

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Warner Bros., RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Berlanti Productions,

Levi Miller, Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Amanda Seyfried, Cara Delevingne

Peter (Levi Miller) is whisked away to Neverland where he teams up with hero Captain Hook (Garrett Hedlund) to fight the evil pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman). This is the prequel to Peter Pan showing how Peter became the boy who never grew up, tells the early story of when Peter and Hook were still friends.

This is a film that is very beautiful. The look of this film is stunning. The sets and locations are splendid. The story, on the other hand, is somewhat flawed. There are great battles and awesome battle scenes. The action is really great. But Hook, the great Nemesis of Peter Pan is so un-Hook-like that it’s really hard to accept that he’s the same guy. They allude to the fact that later on Pan and Hook will be enemies, yet we never get any inkling of how that could happen. Basically, this could have been a blockbuster film, but I feel it missed on so many, many levels. It was certainly worth watching, but it really disappointed me in many ways. When I saw the movie “Hook” many years ago, I was completely blown away. Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman were so wonderful in that film. But the story was extremely well done and perfectly crafted. This one, on the other hand was a nice try, but just missed the mark.

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Energy Entertainment, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Vertigo Entertainment,

Joel Kinnaman, Common, Genesis Rodriguez, Liam Neeson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ed Harris, Boyd Holbrook

Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) was a hard drinking mob enforcer who had built a strong reputation for his ruthlessness. But he’s left those days long behind. But when his son is marked for death it’s his best friend, mob boss Shawn’s (Ed Harris) son who shows up to take out Michael (Joel Kinnaman), Jimmy has no choice but to take out Shawn’s son. This Shawn cannot forgive, and he wants to make both Jimmy and his son pay for taking his son.

This is a really dark film. I wasn’t really blown away from this, but perhaps because I’ve seen so many, many ex-cop, ex-agent, ex-mob guy, who gets out of the life who gets sucked back into it. Usually set in some unique spot like New Orleans, this one takes place in New York City. That’s not too original, is it. The highlight of the film is the play between Liam Neeson and Ed Harris, both really good actors and those who are able to grab our attention, even if the rest of the story is not so hot. This is definitely not a groundbreaking film. Just the same, I did enjoy watching it, and it’s a rather decent cop story, even it is so familiar feeling. I’d say go for it if you’re a fan of the gritty ex-mafia guys gunning each other down, and especially to see Ed Harris and Liam Neeson take each other on, but if that is not up your alley, it’s definitely not a must see film by any means. So-so.

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