Ed's Review Dot Com

Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Strike Entertainment,

Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, Olivia Wilde, Johnny Galecki, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew Bomer, Yaya DaCosta, Ethan Peck, Toby Hemingway

In the future, money doesn’t matter, time does. At 25 years old, a clock embedded in your wrist suddenly activates. The good news is that you never age a day past 25. But the bad news is that you only get one more year. Everything costs time. If you are lucky to be born wealthy, you’ll have an unlimited supply of time and you can live forever, but if you are the unlucky one to be born poor, you must never let your clock drop to zero or you will die. Will Salas is one of those who never seems to have more than one day left, is suddenly given the gift of a century from a rich man who is tired of living for centuries and wants to die. With the help of the Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), the rich daughter of the worlds richest man, Will sets out to help others and fight the system. The Time Keepers, a sort of police squad, are after them as they have become infamous robin hood like robbers.

This is most of all an allegory. TTime is money in this story, and the real underlying story is as simple as rich versus poor. But it’s very interesting because of the clever way they tell the story. There are so many zinger lines and puns about time being like money, that they’re fun to look for as you go through the story. Then, in addition, it is an exciting action film with very suspenseful chase scenes and car crashes.

This is a very intriguing story, and very interesting to watch. With the benefit of the action and adventure, that’s a sure winner. I enjoyed this film, and I recommend it.

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Mandalay Vision, Saint Aire Production, 10th Hole Productions

Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson, Yaya DaCosta, Kunal Sharma, Eddie Hassell, Zosia Mamet, Joaquin Garrido, Robecca Lawrence

Nic and Jules (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) are committed in a loving, but certainly strained, relationship.  Each was artificially inseminated and they had two children, a boy and a girl.  Nic is a doctor and s very controlling and demanding whereas Jules is kind of happy to have someone in charge as she is very insecure, and has struggled with her brand new career as a landscaper.  In the past she has failed at most jobs and spent most of the time as a stay at home mom.  The children Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutherson) are teens, Joni is 18 and Laser is 15.   Laser very much wants to know who their sperm donor father is, but you must be 18 to inquire and if the donor refuses it is kept secret.  Laser begs Joni to request the name.   The father is Paul (Mark Ruffalo) a co-op farmer and a restaurant owner, though he has always shirked any kind of responsibility.  Reluctantly Joni agrees to try to contact him for her brother.  They meet, but both Paul and Laser want to try to build some kind of bond, so they start to bring Paul into the family bit by bit.  The mom’s agree, for Laser’s sake, but it gets uncomfortable as he gets more and more involved.  Paul hires Jules to landscape his yard, and the two spend much more time in the bedroom than actually working on the yard.  This triggers Nic’s jealousy and as things progress it really gets out of control for everyone.

This is a strange film.  I cannot say I was completely blown away by it, neither did I hate it.  Sort of like a syncopated rhythm, it keeps you off balance all the time and you always feel you’re a little too close to the edge of the cliff and about to fall all the time.  If I were to describe it, like Stephen Wright once said,  “You know that feeling when you’re leaning back on your chair and it goes a little too far and you feel like you’re going to fall but you catch yourself at the last second???  Well I feel like that all the time.”   That’s the feeling this movie gives.  It’s nice that Jules has feelings for Paul, but what the heck?  Everyone is pretty creepy and a little off.  Eventually though, most of the chaos gets resolved, and all in all it’s not a bad movie.  It’s just not hitting on all cylinders and missing the mark a little bit.  For example, the love scenes between Jules and Paul are not extremely graphic, but it feels really uncomfortable watching it, and I found myself looking away, feeling almost embarrassed for the actress.  Also, there seemed to be something going on between Paul and his daughter Joni, but that is too creepy to even think about.  It’s only hinted, but it also causes you to feel uncomfortable.  Perhaps that’s what the director is going for, an uncomfortable and unflinching look at real life without any filters.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

LivePlanet, Walt Disney Pictures

Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Oliva Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain, Beau Garrett, Michael Sheen, Anis Cheurfa, Serinda Swan, Yaya DaCosta, Elizabeth Mathis, Kis Yurij

Sam Flynn’s Dad, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) disappeared years ago when Sam (Garrett Hedlund) was only a kid.  Now he’s 27 and rightfully should be the head of his father’s empire.  But he’s kind of lost his way and though he’s a computer genius, he’s wasting his time away pulling an annual prank on the company.  But a contact from Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) and he’s pulled back into his father’s disappearance.  Finding a secret room in the old Flynn’s Arcade, he is transported into the grid and finds himself looking for allies and trying to locate his father, and fighting off the mistaken programs that were created that are running wild.

TRON was one of my favorite films back in the early days of computing.  Since I’ve been in IT since the mid 80’s I was always fascinated with the concept and vision of the original film.  Then to see Tron: Legacy is going back in time and seeing the world again as it has evolved.  It’s more modern and advanced about as much as the real world technology has advanced.   Everything works a lot the same, but it’s much faster and more dangerous these days.  The visuals and action are stunning, and folks who are fans of the original will probably love to see how it’s aged in these 20 some odd years.  The effects that were done to make Jeff Bridges look 25 years younger got a lot of press too.  It is resonably so, since it is really kind of creepy.  He looks like the characters in CGI films like Polar Express or Jim Carrey in A Christmas Carol last year.  They look sort of real, but sort of fake at the same time and it’s disconcerting.  But it is a computer created character that has not aged since that time, so it makes sense inside the game that Clu is a little different looking (ok, A LOT different looking) than Flynn.  They also made him look young in the real word flashback as well, but it’s short and done in a way that is not near as creepy as Clu is. So I think it’s fine the way they did it, amazing really.  As I said, the action is fantastic, and the graphics are worthy of all the time and money Disney put into it.  There are those who hated the original Tron, and so it’s doubtful that those folks will be impressed with this one either, but for those of us who loved the orignal, it’s wonderful, and I suspect it will pick up lots of new younger fans that cannot remember the original.  I was very impressed and enjoyed every minute.  And at just slightly over 2 hours, it’s EPIC without being a bladder buster!  I am a fan of both Flynns.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog