Written by / 3/16/2016 / No comments / , , ,

REVIEW OF EDDIE THE EAGLE

A somewhat belated review of a movie to take the family and kids to... or wait a few weeks to stream on your television.
Everyone knows what a genre is. Science-Fiction. Suspense. Action. Adventure. Drama. Comedy. Feel-Good. And in the latter, RUDY probably comes to mind... at least in the sports department. And here we have a RUDY for a new generation, and continent, although he "reigned" around the same time, decades ago... in this particular case, during the 1988 Olympics: He being a short British kid with all the confidence in the world, and then some, named Eddie Edwards. And with a working class father who sees his son's future not in Plastics, but Plaster, a headstrong Eddie, since a very young age shown in a rushed growing-up montage throughout the opening credits, wants to be... something, anything... having to do with the Olympics. And that's that.

Eddie The Eagle Poster
Eventually, he finds his future golden-dreams in Ski Jumping, which is a very quick sport while watching but obviously pretty heart-pounding and dangerous as it occurs to the athlete... When you fall, you fall hard ("the agony of defeat")... But alas, the peril doesn't seem dangerous to either them or us... Often, the film is too arthouse-quirky to celebrate the overall suspenseful thrill of the sport itself. Although the last leap is somewhat of a nail-biter. And not so surprisingly, the Van Halen song JUMP plays afterwards.

With far more cons than pros, the real problem with this biopic, based on Eddie along with his nickname, hence EDDIE THE EAGLE since he flapped his arms like a bird after his first big Olympic win, is that it's just so darn Feel-Good, we hardly get to know the main character beyond his big smiling moon-face with glasses and/or goggles...

Eddie's downright one-dimensional as a cinema "character," to say the very least, unlike the aforementioned Rudy, who we experienced the ups, downs, and all-around torturous heartbreak as a human being, and not just a dreamer whose dreams come true, much too easily...

Hugh Jackman
That's somewhat thanks to a snow-plowing, cliché has-been drunk (and chain smoker) who used to be (for a very short time) one of the best Ski Jumpers in the world, and reluctantly becomes Eddie's coach. In the role of Bronson Peary, Hugh Jackson goes through the motions, and beyond a Hall & Oates grooving three minute athletic montage, he seems more like a big brother (for better or worse) than a trainer.

RUDY image
Meanwhile, Eddie himself (played by Taron Egerton, a visual cross between a nerdy Daniel Radcliff; a skinnier Jack Black; a future random serial killer; and the every-kid you half remember who lived down the street) is way too confident and dedicated, from the very beginning to the very end, that all the things getting in his way, from a narrow-minded father; a narrower-minded Olympic committee (trumping even the snobs in CHARIOTS OF FIRE); school yard and team member bullies; and especially the mere fact he's not that athletically inclined, ultimately making EDDIE THE EAGLE as forgettable a film as it's a much too easy climb defeating the odds, because there just doesn't seem to be many. Odds, that is. Mostly because our hero just doesn't care, and we kinda need him to – so that we can.

Eddie the Eagle
RATING: **
TRIVIA: For a James Bond movie that has some great Snow Skiing sport action shots including assassinations during the Olympics, check out (and read the Cult Film Freak review of) FOR YOUR EYES ONLY • "The agony of defeat," a sentenced mentioned in the review, is an iconic line from THE WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS opening narration when they show a skier biting the dust... or rather, the snow • The Plaster not Plastics is an "inside joke" to movie buffs relating to THE GRADUATE starring another movie underdog played by Dustin Hoffman... by the way, thanks for putting up with so much pop culture in these reviews, for it just cannot be helped • Beware, Christopher Walken fans, don't get your hopes up... he's hardy in the piece at all • In CHARIOTS OF FIRE, the masterpiece Oscar Winner from 1981, the Olympic Committee doesn't want to listen to one of the main characters like they ignore Eddie, but at least they saw that Scottish athlete as legitimate • For the few who don't know, RUDY starred LORD OF THE RINGS second-banana Hobbit and, at that point, just-grown GOONIES child actor Sean Astin, about a kid dying (not literally, but almost) to be part of the Notre Dame football team, first having to make the grades to go to the school, and remain there • For people into great and obscure classic rock music; on the opposite side of Van Halen's pop hit JUMP, while Jackman's character does a run to prove his former worth, a very obscure Thin Lizzy track, COWBOY SONG, blares awesomely... and it's quite nice hearing an unknown Lizzy tune instead of the overplayed BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN... few people know how great that band really was • And while this is a true story, it's said to be "inspired by actual events," and Eddie Edwards is his name, in the movie... But in real life, Eddie is actually the nickname for his last name, "Eddie," and his first name is Michael.
Share This Post :
Tags : , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

All Time Popular

Featured Post

ROBERT BEATTY WITH TERRY MOORE IN 'POSTMARK FOR DANGER'

Title: POSTMARK FOR DANGER Year: 1955 Rating: ** Twenty years before Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, involving a first-act wher...

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM
Movie Reviews, Interviews, Articles and Pop Culture from White Heat to Blue City

RIP ACTOR KEN HUTCHISON

TOTAL HITS

Popular Trending

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE
RANDOM QUOTE: "The Love Generation... Vicious little creeps!" Peter Strauss, Rich Man Poor Man

FILM NOIR & NEO NOIR CRIME

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)JUNGLE STREET 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)SHARKS' TREASURE 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)THE BREAK 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)HIDDEN FEAR 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)NIGHT CREATURES 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)EASY LIVING 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)FRENZY 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)CHARLES BRONSON1)VIRGINIA MAYO 2)SUE LYON 3)GENE TIERNEY 4)MERRY ANDERS 5)FAYE DUNAWAY DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)JOHN CARPENTER 10)MICHAEL WINNER

BRITISH NEW WAVE CINEMA

RARITIES AND EXPLOITATION

HAMMER HORROR & THRILLER

Popular This Month

CHARLES BRONSON CINEMA

CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

WESTERN GENRE REVIEWS

PEAKING INTO THE SIXTIES

KICKING IN THE EIGHTIES

TALES AND REFLECTIONS

REVVING THE SEVENTIES

FOR HORROR MOVIE REVIEWS

Most Popular Last Year

RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE