Here’s my thoughts from when I saw **Edge of Tomorrow ** at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago back in Nov 2013 (reviewed for a Disney fan podcast my husband and I host):
The film follows Jim White and his family at Walt Disney World. The day starts for Jim out on his balcony at the Contemporary Resort with a call from his boss in which Jim is fired. He decides to keep the news from his family to allow them to enjoy one more day of vacation.
And what follows is probably the most unusual day anyone has ever experienced at a Disney park. There is a pair of French girls who keep crossing paths with Jim, a man in a wheelchair and his family who keeps showing up, audio- animatronics whose faces turn demonic in front of Jim, an evil underground lair below Spaceship Earth, a strange new form of flu that turns you into a cat, and **lots **of drinking.
But wait, you also get a former Disney princess (with her bizarre stores of emu legs and Disney princesses in their off time) who seduces Jim and then later kidnaps his daughter. Then there’s the Disney cleanup crew that can implant memories directly into a person’s brain, an exploding Spaceship Earth, and more action around the Odyssey bathrooms in Epcot than we’ve ever seen!
Since I knew going in that it was a a guerrilla, experimental type film, I was expecting a non-traditional story, and that’s certainly what we got. I was fascinated by the central idea of someone having a nervous breakdown at a Disney Parks and how they would portray that.
I got some of what I was looking for - the scene in “its’ a small world” was VERY effective! I think the actor playing Jim did a decent job, and his son was truly creepy at times! However, it seems as if the filmmakers had lots of ideas that they wanted to include (flirty French girls, a “cat flu” epidemic, an evil genius with an underground lair) but didn’t think them all the way through in terms of how they would work together for a satisfying ending.
There’s also a bit of a Chekhov’s Gun situation with a hotel balcony that IMHO led viewers to expect one finale to the film, and they went a different (and rather disgusting!) way instead, to the detriment of the overall story. It’s also very much an adult film, in terms of language and brief nudity; but also has crude humor & slapstick.
I did enjoy seeing scenes set in the park - in particular, noting what locations were Walt Disney World (where the film was set) versus Disneyland - the Magic Kingdom scenes were probably almost 50-50 West vs East Coast, but some scenes were also shot in Epcot. In addition to filming on location, there were several “green screen” setups, where the actors performed in front of a background previously filmed in the park.
I’d really only recommend it to those looking for something WAY out of the ordinary. I’m glad I saw it, but am in no hurry to see it again. I’d say it’s worth getting thru Netflix if you’re already on the DVD plan, or streaming for a couple bucks, but not more than that.