Ed's Review Dot Com

FilmNation Entertainment, Gravier Productions, Perdido Productions,

Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll, Ken Stott

It’s the 1930’s and Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) is a a naive Jewish boy living with his Mom and Pop in New York City who dreams of going to Hollywood to experience a new life. Bobby’s Uncle, Phil Stern (Steve Carell) is a power agent working the biggest stars in Hollywood and is a very busy guy, so Bobby’s Mom calls in a favor and asks Phil to watch over him. When Bobby arrives, he fits into the glitz and glamor of 1930’s Hollywood very quickly, but it thrown for a loop when he meets Vonnie (Kristen Stewart) and he falls very hard. But things are complicated because Vonnie is dating a married man and things get complicated very quickly. This is a Woody Allen film.

When Woody Allen makes a film, there is certainly a specific feel and mood to the story. This is very classic Woody, a homage to old Hollywood which I feel Allen must find very appealing. And as such, with all Woody films, it could be hit or miss. This one wasn’t too bad at all. I think this movie out La La Lands “La La Land” [Click Here for Ed’s Review] . Ever since “The Artist” [Click Here for Ed’s Review] came out in 2011 and grabbed Best Picture at the Oscars, old time Hollywood has been in, and this is a very good period picture. Steve Carell does an excellent job as the power agent of the stars and he didn’t overplay it. He showed multiple facets to his character without missing the effects that being such a big shot would have on his personality. Jesse Eisenberg is also very well cast as the young Jewish boy longing for the bright lights and glamor of Hollywood either. What really surprised me was Kristen Stewart who I am usually unimpressed by. With all the wooden performances in the Twilight series, and the underwhelming disaster that was Snow White and the Huntsman, I had soft of given up on her, but she did a really good job in this movie, and I don’t know if it was Woody’s talent in pulling this performance out of her, or if she is really getting it, but I think she may have some really good performances in there waiting to come out. Great job. With the other characters too there are are some really good performances there. All in all, it was a nice simple film that took us way back to a much easier time and was a refreshing change of pace. I actually enjoyed this film, and unless you’re one of those who simply hate Woody Allen for his personal life choices, you may want to give this a try. It was an interesting story and felt like a trip back in time.

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Annapurna Pictures, Likely Story, Media Rights Capital,

Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Michael Hall, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave

In 1999 the news screamed out the story of the richest man in history to be convicted of murder, when John DuPont (Steve Carell) heir to the DuPont chemical fortune was sent to prison for murdering David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) in the driveway of DuPont’s guest house where he and his wife and children were living. The Schultz bothers, older brother David, and younger brother Mark (Channing Tatum) were a couple of the best gold medal winning wrestling champions in US History. This film is Mark’s story of how we met John DuPont and John’s efforts to buy his way into Olympic wrestling in a effort to maintain a level of importance. He opened the Foxcatcher facility and trained many US Olympic wrestlers there with the help of the Schultz brothers. This is the story of what happened and though we may never know why it happened, at least it is an interesting tale of the events of that day that shocked the country when the new came out.

This is an interesting biographical film. Like most Hollywood versions of true story, it is based upon the events that happened, but not absolutely true to all the facts. What we have though is a very strong cast acting their way through a fascinating story. Steve Carell was even nominated as best actor for his performance, a very somber role for the usually funny Mr. carell, but certenly within his wheelhouse for sure. Channing Tatum gave a really strong performance as did Mark Ruffalo. Even Vanessa Redgrave gave a charming performance as John DuPont’s mother, even though it’s very short. It is still a great performance. Critics of the film call it slow. It does certainly plod along, and at 2 hours and 15 minutes, it probably could have been shorter, but I didn’t find it boring at any point. The time was well used to develop the characteristics of each of these characters, and with the star cast, it takes time to fully develop that. In the end, even at over 2 hours running time, it feels like we’ve missed some of the facts, and it was off to Wikipedia to learn more about the story. I give credit to the writers, directors, and producers for presenting a great feature film on the subject, and am really impressed with the level of acting that went into it. I found it an interesting story, and recommend this film to those who enjoy biographical historical tales that are stranger than fiction.

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Plan B Entertainment, Regency Enterprises,

Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, Marisa Tomei, Tracy Letts, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Byron Mann, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Finn Wittrock

Several separate and distinct stories are being told simultaneously based upon the real events and real characters who had the audacity to bet against the mortgage industry when they were the only ones smart enough to foresee the housing crash of 2007. Nobody bets against the mortgage industry because it was as solid as America itself, and everyone pays their mortgage, right? This story tries to break it down and show us what happened, and how a few made a bundle off of betting against the world economy. Hysterically funny at one moment and a tragedy at the next, this is based on the real story and the actual characters who saw it coming.

First off, the cast is fantastic. So many big names are here and they bring all their skills with them to these roles. Sometimes is is absolutely hysterical, but the seriousness of what they are playing with is one of the greatest scams in human history. These guys just foresaw what was going down and jumped in with both feet to try to profit over it. Using many different techniques (such as totally annihilating the forth wall and having “cameo” celebrities explain the concepts using every day examples) they try to fill us in on what was actually happening. This is the thing I liked most about this film, as it does try to let us in on what the hell happened to the banks, and how the government managed to give billions of dollars (which the banks happily passed out to their executives as giant bonuses) to try and save the economy. This is a cleverly put together film, and if you are at all interested in what the Big Short was about, then this is fine way to learn about it. This is not a mind blowing blockbuster, but it is a solid little film that is quite interesting, and well worth the time to watch it.

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Walt Disney Pictures, 21 Laps Entertainment, The Jim Henson Company,

Jennifer Garner, Steve Carell, Bella Thorne, Jennifer Coolidge, Megan Mullally

Alexander Cooper’s (Ed Oxenbould) day is starting out really awful. His birthday is coming, and everything is going wrong. When he gets the chance to make his birthday wish, he simply wishes the rest of the family could understand what a terrible day is like. It appears he has cursed his whole family on a very important day as his wish comes true. See, Alexander’s family doesn’t understand how hard it is to be a young boy today. His Dad, Ben (Steve Carell) is the ultimate optimist. Mom (Jennifer Garner) isn’t much better with her gung ho attitude. But today is an important day for everyone, and it’s going very, very, very badly for all of them. The family needs to pull together to get through this and life through till tomorrow.

This is a family film, and so it follows the line of dozens and dozens of other Disney live action films that go back to the 50’s and 60’s. Likewise, it’s based on a book, like a number of the other films of this genre. But that’s exactly how Walt did it too. He’d find a book that his daughters loved and made it into a film. With this film, you get exactly what you would expect which burns up a lot of people. There are many haters out there. This is not “American Pie” or “Superbad” and it never tries to be. It’s been a good while since we’ve had a good family film like this, and with the appearance of Steve Carell as the Disney family Dad, he’s not bad at all at it. He does his best to be a cool guy, but the bumbling Michael Scott character comes out when he’s trying his best, but everything is literally burning down around him. I thought it was really funny, in a PG sort of way that is appropriate for youngsters, especially boys. There are lots of good pre-teen girl movies out there, but the boys typically get either cartoon superheroes or sports movies, which are good in their own right, but it’s nice to see a family togetherness movie aimed at boys. So if your kids haven’t seen it, it’s out on DVD now, so be sure to spend an evening and watch it with them. It’s not spectacular cinema and special effect explosions, but it’s got a lot of childish humor and it really is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

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Paramount Pictures, Apatow Productions, Gary Sanchez Productions,

Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, Meagan Good, Kristen Wiig, James Marsden

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is back, news anchor in New York City, along with his friends, Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and Champ Kind (David Koechner). Ron loses his job to Veronica (Christina Applegate) but and moves back to San Diego a broken man, and a performer at Sea World, when the chance comes to take a job at the first 24 hour news network, Global Network News (GNN). Ron puts the gang back together and they take the graveyard shift, but Ron has some ideas on how to become the biggest thing in New York since the Beatles.

I have to give one thing to this movie. This has to be the highest promoted movie in cinema history. Will started years early to bring back the Ron Burgundy character and used him at appearances everywhere. For 6 months or more there were previews, posters at the theaters, and everything you can think of to remind you that Anchorman 2 was coming out for Christmas 2013. It came out, and I’m sure it made a few bucks. IMDB gives it $50 million, with a $26 million dollar opening weekend. Not that big of a hit, and I can see why. I was kind of disappointed in this film, as it just didn’t really impress me much. Will Ferrell is doing the same schtick over and over again, and it’s starting to get old. There were some really funny lines in this film, mostly from Steve Carell and David Koechner, but Will can set off a zinger every now and then. He comes up with some off the wall things that are really funny. For that reason, It’s well worth renting this movie or watching it on TV. After all, if you’re a Ferrell fan, you gotta see it (although if you’re a fan, you probably already did). But it’s not horrible, and it’s worth taking the time to watch it, but with all the hype, it just didn’t live up to it. Perhaps you can oversell something, till it becomes something you just HAVE to see to see what all the hype is about, and then you’re always disappointed when you expect too much. I was feeling bad I missed it in the theater with all the stuff going on around the holidays, but it turns out I was happy I didn’t spend my 13 bucks on this. It just isn’t that great. So there are a lot of cameos in here, and a bunch of comedy stars doing the best they can with this, but it’s somehow too much over the top, kind of like a Three Stooges type comedy that is too much slapstick, too much cheap swear words to try to shock you, and way over the top overacting to try to be too funny. If they’d dialed it back a bit and had a bit of a better story, it would have been a better film. But then, I guess it wouldn’t be a Will Ferrell movie in that respect, and if you know the way he does his stuff, it’s more of the same. A lot more of the same.

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