Ed's Review Dot Com

Franklin Street, Myriad Pictures, Parkside Pictures,

Shirley MacLaine, Amanda Seyfried, Anne Heche, AnnJewel Lee Dixon, Thomas Sadoski, Tom Everett Scott, Philip Baker Hall, Alanna Ubach, Joel Murray, Adina Porter, Sarah Baker, Steven Culp, Basil Hoffman, Gedde Watanabe

Harriet is a retired businessman, and very wealthy woman. She is also the worlds biggest control freak and everyone hates her. She lives in a small town, and over the years was the primary supporter of the local paper due to her advertising revenue. One day, while reading the obituaries, she notices that the beautiful words describe people in the greatest light, even though she really didn’t like any of them. Then she got an idea. She decides to visit the paper and find the girl, Anne, a frustrated writer who wants to be so much more than an obituary writer. She informs Anna that she is now hired to write her obituary now, while she’s still alive, so that Harret can make sure it’s done well enough. She doesn’t want to leave it to chance. So she provides Anna with a list of all her contacts, her estranged daughter, her ex-husband, and everyone else in her life. Problem is that no one has anything good to say about Harriet.

This comedy is really in the wheelhouse for Shirley. She nails the grumpy old lady who has her way 100% of the time. No one can every do anything right in her eyes, and though she’s sweet at the center, the harsh exterior is played perfectly. It’s a great role for AManda as well and she works with Shirley very well. It’s a very interesting story, and very, very funny. This might have appealed to me more as a Senior Citizen myself, but I found it really funny. It’s very cleverly written, the script is excellent, and the acting is really well performed. All the cylinders are firing, and I found this to be a very pleasant surprise. I enjoyed this movie, and I recommend it for a bunch of laughs and a pleasant time.

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Wild Pictures, Defiant Pictures, Alliance Cinema,

Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Lange, Demi Moore, Judd Hirsch, Santiago Segura, Howard Hesseman

Eva (Shirley MacLaine) is a widowed retired school teacher who is looking for a $50,000 check from the insurance company to pay out her husband’s life insurance. She’s a bit taken aback when a check for $5,000.000.00 arrives instead. She wants to return it but once her best friend Maddie (Jessica Lange) finds out about it, she talks her into depositing the check and heading out of a vacation to Spain. Of course the insurance company is embarrassed to learn about the mistake and send out soon to retire insurance investigator, Vespucci (Howard Hesseman) out to try to recover the money. He teams up with Eva’s uptight daughter Crystal (Demi Moore) to try to round her up, but before long, everyone is out after them while they enjoy the sun and a couple new love interests.

This is a rather clever comedy that is pretty funny. Younger folks may have a problem with this movie as they won’t get the humor that is definitely aimed at senior citizens, but the truth is that the jokes are pretty funny. This is like the male version of the story, 2013’s “Last Vegas” with Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, and Morgan Freeman. Shirley MacLaine is really funny in this role, and is well suited for this movie! Jessica Lange is a bit young for the role, or appears to be, and she is not quite as good as Shirley, but holds her own. Billy Connolly has a small role as Eva’s love interest which is really funny. He even cracked up Shirley to the point where they had to stop filming for 11 minutes while she laughed and laughed. One of the jewels in this film is the annoying uptight daughter Crystal played joyfully by Demi Moore. The character is so different than her real personality, so it’s a riot watching her strut through this role. All in all it was a pleasure to see this, and I was pleasantly surprised by how funny I found it. Don’t expect the young folks to get this, but they ought to see it too to learn how us old folks enjoy ourselves once in a while! Good little movie!

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Hallmark Channel,

Kristin Davis, Eric McCormack, Shirley MacLaine, Daniel Bacon, Lossen Chambers, Keith Dallas, Vincent Gale, Glen Gordon, Lauren Guci, Dakota Guppy, Emily Holmes, Kate Isaac, Alexander Jando, Karen Kruper, Merren McMahon

Eve (Kristin Davis) is a workaholic. She neglects her family and abuses her subordinates making them work on the holidays, and never taking time off for herself. She’s got her sights set on becoming a Partner at all costs. But a sudden accident and she finds out she is in heaven and an angel in training as her boss, Pearl (Shirley MacLaine) sets her on her first trial assignment. She is sent back to Earth to help Max (Eric McCormack) a lonely single Dad and his little niece who he is caring for, but who may be taken away from him due to his inability to care for her properly. But as she spends time with the little family, she finds herself falling in love with him which is highly forbidden.

This movie teaches us that there are more than one kind of angel, and Eve is a Christmas Angel. That means she has to work her magic before Christmas Eve. This is a Hallmark Hall of Fame production premier for the 2016 season. Kristin Davis is very good in this little film. She’s very likeable and moves from Scrooge-like evil to a really sweet person in a short time, and she’s believable on both sides of the coin. Eric McCormack is also very good in his sad sack role, a musician who has lost his nerve. This is a step above most of the other new films due to the excellent job from the cast who bring a lot to the story. Another good film from the Hallmark folks that are killing this year.

Here is the Hallmark page for this film.

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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, TSG Entertainment, Samuel Goldwyn Films,

Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Shirley MacLaine

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is the magazine guy who is responsible for the photos that get sent in from the field. Somehow he lost shot 25 which the owner has determined should be the last cover before the magazine folds. But Walter is a boring guy, attracted to one of his co-workers Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), but is too shy to approach her. But Walter has a fantastic imagination and spends his days daydreaming of romance, adventure, and excitement.

I just don’t know about Ben Stiller. I really love him at times and in certain movies, but he then comes out with klinker after klinker. I was mildly looking forward to this movie, as I remember fondly reading James Thurber’s short story in Grade School and enjoying the story. I was not impressed with this movie. Technically a remake of the 1947 Danny Kaye film, this is a total update and modernization of the story. But I totally felt “ho-hum” through the whole thing. The snappy wit didn’t come through, and neither did Stiller’s personality. In fact, his sidekick, played by Patton Oswalt, at the office was a lot funnier than he was. Wiig also didn’t have much comedy to do. Now perhaps they weren’t going for comedy, but if they weren’t, I don’t get the point. Probably the best character in the film is the photographer played by Sean Penn. Who would have thought Sean Penn would be the high point in a comedy? But his part is really small and he’s not on-screen very much. This film was just a bad idea and not very well executed which the box office showed, and is another strike for Ben Stiller. This is another case where he tried to do everything, including directing the thing. Maybe that was a mistake. I’m not sure why this was green lighted, but it makes a much better short story than a feature film. I just did not connect with this movie, and I don’t really recommend it. It was a waste of talent.

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Mandalay Vision, Wind Dancer Productions, Detour Filmproduction,

Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey, Brady Coleman, Richard Robichaux, Rick Dial,

Bernie Tiede (Jack Black) is a small Texas town mortician who is a very friendly guy. He makes friends with everyone with his mild and gentle demeanor, but especially the elderly ladies who flock to him. But he strikes up a close friendship with a mean old lonely widow who is the richest lady in town, and one whom everyone either hates or fears. But when she turns up missing, the sheriff (Matthew McConaughey) has his eyes on Bernie, but no one in town would believe anything but the very best of good old Bernie.

This is a very dark comedy, but done is a very light way. This is based on a true story, and just like all the townsfolk who can’t believe anything bad about Bernie, even though we know the truth, we can’t accept it either, and we keep waiting for the surprise ending to come. In the end, I guess it is a surprise at that. But this is done in the mockumentary style of so many other great jokester films, but yet it’s supposedly “mostly” true. The characters in this film are really good, and I think I’ve enjoyed Shirley MacLaine more in this film than I have in any of her films in a long time. She is really mean and funny at the same time. She does a great job and really shows her skills. The movie is really funny in a dark and twisted way, and not so much laugh out loud funny, but it runs at a high level of humor all the way through from start to finish. Even the discussion from the townsfolk as to whether Bernie is gay or not is never resolved and both sides have a good argument. Also good is Marjorie Nugent’s (Shirley MacLaine’s character) stock broker who is hilarious. He’s the most concerned about poor old Marjorie, but everyone simply believes he’s mad because he can’t get his hands on any more of her money now that she only trusts Bernie. That’s probably true. Available as a “Watch Instantly” film on NetFlix, this was a very pleasant surprise for me. I had no clue what to expect, but with the cast, I was willing to take a chance on it. I was really glad I did.

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