An Intelligent Spy Movie

Having read so many great reviews on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I went and saw it today prior to the new year. The remake of the BBC TV series, based on John Le Carré's 1974 novel, reminds me of Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd - an extremely intelligent spy movie shot with a lot of smoke, dark alleys and old houses. There's no dazzling hi-tech cinematography a la Mission Impossible or the James Bond franchises.

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson is not particularly well known in North America, but nowadays, anybody and anything Swedish is kind of hot. And he did an excellent job in directing a group of stellar British actors - Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch.

I can't remember how many times I've seen John Hurt performing as a spy in movies. Toby Jones is just omnipresent nowadays in all British movies. And Mark Strong, for once, is not acting a villain's role. This is a dream flick for spy-movie fans like me - very few women (in fact, only one young Russian and another older Brit) who all play supporting roles. M16 has always been an old boys' club, and still is in its present days.

Everything is so old-fashioned in this movie, and deliberately so. In spite of its Cold War era, it's still very relevant to contemporary espionage. Everything is a code name in this movie and you will spend the entire time trying to follow the names of the characters and wondering who the mole is. Of course, things are not what they seem and nothing is genuine in fiction as in reality.

Gary Oldman is constantly compared to Sir Alec Guinness who played George Smiley in the BBC TV series. From the way the reviews are going, the former probably will earn an Oscar nomination.  I might be having too great an expectation of the movie, so as a result, I just found it intriguing but not outstanding. This is a movie that takes a lot of thinking and close following, so my advice is only go see it when you're in top condition. It is enticing enough for me to buy the Le Carré novel after seeing the movie.

Polanski's Achilles Heel

I've been dying to see Roman Polanski's Carnage since I loved the Tony-Award-winning Broadway production of God Of Carnage in 2009. It's still a good movie, and an extremely strong satire. But I don't think the play was ever written for the big screen, and  it certainly doesn't warrant the talent of Roman Polanski to direct it. As per the Broadway production, the script is so strong that all you need are some really strong actors and any director can make the movie come alive.

The acting is every bit as strong as the stage production - you can't ask for better actors than the foursome: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz. Could Polanski just simply use the Broadway cast: Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini? Probably, but in spite of the huge popularity of the Broadway play, the latter cast might not have been a strong boxoffice draw.

French playwright Yasmina Reza, winner of numerous Moliere Awards in France and other international awards, is probably one of my most favourite playwrights together with Sir Tom Stoppard, Chekhov, Oscar Wilde and, of course, Shakespeare. I've seen Reza's Art on stage two times in addition to God of Carnage. Reza's satires are so potent, intense and ironic that they make you laugh so hard, and many times, at the human race itself.

The principle of the whole plot is based on the premiss that every human being has an inborn desire of aggression - it lurks below the basic civility and politeness in everyday life but will emerge as a monster when the right opportunity comes. The two pairs of class-conscious Brooklyn couples started off as a first-time, but friendly encounter trying to focus on the big picture. Bullying on a Brooklyn playground became a subject of confrontation - two unhappy marriages and relationships; the husbands belittling the wives; the bonding between men and the commiseration between the two women; the narcissism  and self absorption of all four characters; and the victimization of art by the Philistines. The movie/play is about hypocrisy and claustrophobia. The irony is what makes the movie extremely funny.

I love how all four actors interpret the characters, but Jodie Foster's depiction of her character Penelope (in spite of her aging complexion) deserves an Oscar nomination! From the stage production, Hope Davis is a much weaker character but you can't miss Penelope's impact from the movie. It's always challenging to convert a play into a movie, even though Reza assisted Polanski with the screenplay of the film. The shocking impact of the play is totally lost in the movie version because the theatre and its audience share the same space, whereas in a movie, the space is just not the same.

I can understand why Polanski chose to shoot a film version of the play - this movie is a study in claustrophobia, one of Polanski's expert subject matters from RoseMary's Baby to The Pianist to this one. He has also collaborated with Reza in the past when he asked her to translate Kafka's The Metamorphosis from German into French in 1988. This translation earned Reza a nomination for the Best Translation in the Moliere Awards and God of Carnage's London stage productioon won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and went on to win Best Play at the 2009 Tony Awards with an American cast.

But the power of the play has not been transferred to the screen version, even behind Polanski's camera. The whole movie was shot in Paris even though the story happens in Brooklyn. This is the first movie shot by Polanski when he first received news about the release of his long exile from the U.S.A. Maybe he's also secretly agreeing with the premiss of the play about his own Carnage instincts from his crime? Every director has his Achilles heel, and perhaps this movie allows us to have a glimpse of Polanski's.

Mission Impossible Franchise Excels

In spite of my dislike of Tom Cruise, I've seen almost all his movies, including all the previous Mission Impossible ones. I went and saw the fourth film from the MI franchise: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol after watching Cruise interviewed by David Letterman on the latter's late night talk show. Cruise was a lousy interviewee, but he does look very good and fit at 49. But I was most intrigued by the line when he was equipped with the climbing gloves before jumping off the tallest building in Dubai and in the world - "blue is glue, and red is dead"!

Let's face it, the scene from the Dubai building is definitely worth the $20 IMAX ticket price. Plus the sand storm as a backdrop is absolutely amazing. I'm surprised that director Brad Bird has only done four movies - most of which were associated with Disney or animations. But Bird has managed to win rave reviews for each of his three previous movies - The Incredibles, The Iron Giant and Ratatouille which won him an Oscar not too long ago. This one is no exception - in fact, I think it's the best among the four MI movies.

Like the James Bond character, Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt is not particularly credible but he's well known for doing all his stunts himself and you have to respect a baby-boomer mega star for taking such risks. Leading actress Paula Patton is attractive at 36, particularly having just given birth to a son about a year ago. But she just can't act - even Maggie Q was better in a previous MI version. Patton is erstwhile best known as the daughter-in-law of Canadian actor Alan Thicke and the wife of Grammy Award singer Robin Thicke. Dashing Lost star Josh Holloway has a brief appearance in this movie but too short a time to make any impact. And God knows why Cruise has to give Anil Kapoor such an unchallenging role as a Mumbai billionaire!

But the star of the film is Jeremy Renner who always steals the show in all the movies he's in whether he's the lead actor or not. He received Oscar nominations for Best Actor in The Hurt Locker and also as Best Supporting Actor in The Town. Now that he has inherited the Bourne sequel from Matt Damon, his star power is only going to further advance. Rumour has it that he will inherit the MI franchise too when Cruise retires.

If you're looking for pure entertainment without any logic, Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol will not disppoint you this Holiday Season.

A Powerful Remake About Girl Power

Having just seen the Swedish original of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I was almost determined not to like the Hollywood remake starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer and Robin Wright. But the American version is a better movie in a lot of ways.

Director David Fincher is always superb at making tight and enticing movies. I've seen most of his previous productions and I do like his most recent ones such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network. On The Girl movie, he's got such a challenging task given the huge popularity of both the Trilogy books and movies. But he did an excellent job and most professional film critics also like it.

I like the U.S. version better because, first and foremost, I'm not a huge foreign movie fan. I always feel that reading English subtitles without understanding the language in the movie is a big loss. This is particularly true with such a complicated murder plot. Under Fincher's lens, Helstad in Sweden is so frostily beautiful and serene as a backdrop for a crime scene. The pace of the movie is also much tighter and faster than the original version.

There is, of course, the comparison of the actors and a huge hoopla about Rooney Mara who plays the American version of Lisabeth Salender. Well, she's excellent all right, but I prefer her Swedish counterpart Noom Rapace who's cooler and even more void of emotions than Mara. Also, even with her shaved eyebrows, Mara is still too good-looking as the punk heroine Salender. The very significant rape and revenge scenes which take place at the probation officer's bedroom are much more powerful and chilling in the Swedish film than the American one. But Fincher deliberately leaves much of the imagination to the audience without as much graphic demonstration. Mara will probably win The Golden Globe Award but Noom Rapace should have won the Oscar.

Daniel Craig did a great job as journalist Mikael Blomkvist. But even when he looks tired and beaten up, he can't contain his sex appeal. No journalist in real life would ever have that body and look so good even under the down coat and jeans. Craig is one of those rare actors who looks good both half-naked and fully-clothed without his Bond tuxedo. Both Christopher Plummer and Robin Wright are strong in their respective roles but so were their Swedish counterparts.

With this U.S. version, you will be impressed by the stark minimalism of Martin's home; the frigid landscape of Sweden; and the mesmerizing musical score throughout the film. But, more importantly, you will have a very strong lasting impression of ultra feminism exhibited by the movie's protagonist Salender - if you wrong me, I will eat you alive and give you back 10 times what men gave women. To Salender, everything is proactive and taking charge, even in all the sex scenes. But that's why the ending of the Hollywood version is kind of disappointing. Salender is not supposed to care about any relationships with men at all, and yet in this movie, she does and that really makes her character a bit weaker than the Swedish original. I would be interested to know how the novel from the first Millennium Trilogy ends.

Another Movie On Wall Street Greed

Margin Call is a good movie, but not an excellent one. I had in mind the TV movie Too Big To Fail to compare and the latter is a much stronger production in every way.

However, given the low budget and the excellent cast, Margin Call did a reasonably good job in portraying the greed not only of Wall Street, but also of everybody's. There are a few lessons learned from this flick: money can't buy you happiness; the current global economic recession is the outcome of universal greed; and corporate slaves have to be sacrificed when the going gets tough.

Even if you don't like the story, you must like the stellar cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons and Simon Baker (from The Mentalist). Paul Bettany has always been a great actor, but he outshines everybody else, even Irons and Spacey, in this one. Well, he plays a gum-chewing, foul-mouthed investment banker who nails why his firm is in the doldrums - these brokers are there to save their bosses' asses and to save the normal people and everybody is the victim of their own greed.

His speech towards the end sums up the destiny of Wall Street: "...People want to live like this in their cars and their big f...ing houses that they can't pay for....I take my hand off and the whole world gets really f...ing fair really f...ing quickly and nobody wants that. They say they do, but they don't! They also want to play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from. That’s more hypocrisy than I’m willing to swallow. F... them. F... normal people!"

Demi Moore doesn't have a huge role in this film, but she has aged a lot - not all the plastic surgery in this world could save her from reality. And this movie was shot prior to her breakup with Ashton Kutcher. Cut that waist-long hair and maybe she'll look a bit younger?

If you like this movie, go rent the DVD Too Big To Fail and this will pale by comparison. If you don't like this movie, then all the more you'll have to see the made-for-TV movie starring every good actor under the sun including a cameo role of Christine Lagarde before her ascension to the IMF throne.

Eastwood's Biggest Flop

I went and saw J. Edgar because I always like Clint Eastwood as a director. Unfortunately it's a big disappointment, and probably one of Eastwood's worst movies in my opinion.

Watching this movie is like reading a biography without any punch lines or great quotes. The flick is kind of disjointed with flash backs between Hoover's younger and older days. But there's absolutely no climax, no suspense, no thread sewing all the parts together. And it's plain boring!

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of fine acting - from Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Josh Lucas and, particularly, Hoover's love interest Clyde Polson played by the dashing Armie Hammer (the twins in Social Network). I never understood Hollywood's fascination with Leonardo Di Caprio as an actor, and his performance in this movie is once again overdone and exaggerated as he did in his other biographic epic - portraying Howard Hughes in The Aviator. It scares me to think about sitting through another two movies he's currently filming - The Great Gatsby and Sinatra.

I also thought the make-up in this movie is not particularly well done - too contrived and unnatural. But the same happened in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain and it ended up winning a lot of awards!

Clint Eastwood definitely can do much better!

No Empathy For Sex Addiction In 'Shame'

I can see why the Cannes Film Festival was fascinated by British artist Steve McQueen's Shame. Lead actor Michael Fassbender (Hollywood's It boy this year) won the Best Actor Award at the Festival. McQueen himself won the Festival's first-time director award a couple of years ago with his first movie Hunger, also starring Fassbender.

With its extremely slow pace and artistic shots of New York City - its subway, its dark alleys, its wide extensive highways and its stunning architecture, you almost have to appreciate this movie not because of its content, but art for art's sake. McQueen is best known for making a couple of silent movies and believes that 'less is more' in terms of screenplay. He also represented Britain at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

But other than its art, I just can't build up any empathy for the sex addict in the film. The whole movie is extremely disturbing - polar-opposite brother and sister, Brandon (Fassbender) and Sissie (Carey Mulligan), are both perturbed, self-destructive individuals. The cold yet beautiful architecture in New York City emphasizes Brandon's loneliness. But the whole movie lacks rationale - there are just art and emotion or the lack of emotion in the case of Brandon. The director and writers see no need to explain what brought Brandon to this pitiful state. Everything is subject to the audience's own interpretation, including the movie's ending.

Nobody can resist Fassbender with his sculpted body in a lot of stark nudity, but I can't understand why he won the Best Actor Award at Cannes. I also don't get his pain. In North America, when you have an addiction, you go get treatment, not to forever indulge in your problem. I guess I'm too rational to appreciate this kind of art! The only merit in this movie is Sissie's performance of the song New York, New York in a totally unique way.

You should stay away from this movie if you can't stomach darkness and self-destruction!

No More Alohas Please

Here's where I once again disagreed with professional movie critics. George Clooney in Hawaiian shirts in The Descendants just doesn't work for me.

First of all, the movie is so slow. It takes a while for the plot to really unfold. The bottom line about the story is a dysfunctional American family achieving harmony after a major tragedy. Well, how novel is that? Apart from a few witty lines here and there, mostly from the kids and teenagers in the flick, everything else is predictable.

Director Alexander Payne has a good track record - I like About Schmidt and the Oscar-award-winning Sideways. I also like his ex-wife Canadian actor Sandra Oh. For such a fine screenplay writer to come up with this movie just puzzles me. He's consistent with his style of focusing on adulterous relationships in married couples, but I don't like a predictable movie. I'm in the cinema to be wowed, surprised and entertained. The Descendants didn't accomplish any of that.

There's one saving grace for this movie - Shailene Woodley who plays Clooney's 17-year-old daughter is a good actress with a fresh, angelic face. There are also talks about Clooney getting an Oscar nomination for this role, but I really don't think that's going to happen. He's beginning to bug me immensely in both his private and professional lives lately. The whole emphasis on his handsome looks is really overdone. He's never a good actor because he always plays himself in all the movies.

What's most annoying about this film is the irritating Hawaiian-themed music throughout the movie. I guess it all depends on how much you like Hawaii - I can't stand the place, not to mention its music.

Call me prejudiced, but anything about cheesy Hawaii is just not for me!

Movie Star Versus Actor

I've read  mixed reviews about My Week With Marilyn but the movie turned out to be an exquisite delight for me today when I finally saw it. Without being a spoiler, this Weinstein/BBC production adapted a true story from the memoirs of documentary maker Colin Clark about his week spent on- and off-set with Marilyn Monroe when she was in the U.K. filming The Prince and The Showgirl directed by Sir Lawrence Olivier in 1956.

The movie is about infatuation, innocence, celebrity, jealousy, insecurities, vulnerabilities, and competitiveness among famous actors. Moreover, it explores the ultimate question: is bombshell Monroe a dazzling movie star or a serious actor or both? As with all BBC productions, the film was shot with such nostalgia, beauty and subtlety that we boomers just can't help but fall in love with it.

Kudos go to British film director Simon Curtis who until recently has been making TV movies and programs for 20 years before this debut feature film. He's also married to the American actress Elizabeth McGovern who currently has a prominent role in the renowned TV series Downton Abbey. Curtis disclosed in his interview with The Toronto Sun that his parents actually met in Toronto which was considered a very glamorous city during the post-war era when England was recovering.

I was never a big fan of Michelle Williams's, but I have to give her credit for having done an amazing job in portraying Monroe. There might be another actress who looks more captivating than Williams, but she did it with such ease and natural charm without overdoing it as other actresses have done in the past - no high-pitching voice but enough giggling and femininity to remind us of the film goddess. She's not as voluptuous and attractive as the character she's portraying, but it's her vulnerability that makes Williams the ultimate Monroe. She also has amazing skin and complexion in the movie and boy, she can sing! I don't know what Williams has done to her voice training since her Blue Valentine role, but she is definitely a much better singer this time round. I can't even recall that Monroe herself could sing that well.

But the rest of the cast is equally amazing particularly Kenneth Branagh who plays Sir Lawrence Olivier, Julia Ormond who plays his wife Vivien Leigh and Eddie Redmayne who plays the 23-year-old Clark. Dame Judi Dench is her same magnificent self in every role she plays but Emma Watson as Lucy is totally replaceable. The fact that this is a true story makes the movie even more mesmerizing. Monroe's inner demons and the everlasting loneliness drove her men both crazy and infatuated. This also applied to her director Olivier. There are talks about Williams nominated for an Oscar for her role in this film. I, for one, would not be unhappy if she won.

Is Shakespeare A Fraud?

In spite of a couple of bad reviews about the new movie Anonymous, my girlfriend and I, who both majored in Shakespeare at university, went and saw it on its first day of screening and actually love the controversial flick!

First of all, two thumbs up to the bold German-born director Roland Emmerich who had the guts to question the authenticity of the Bard's works. He must have already foreseen the numerous Shakespearean scholars who would be up in arms after seeing this movie - including James Shaprio, English Professor, Columbia University, who also wrote a negative op-ed piece in The New York Times - when he shot the film with a screenplay that was written some 10 years ago. It's also hard to believe that this is the same director behind such Hollywood epics as Independence Day, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow.

I can fully understand why there's such an uproar. Not only was Shakespeare, the greatest writer and playwright of all times, portrayed as a total fraud, but he was an illiterate buffoon, a scheming blackmailer and murderer, and a whoring commoner with no scruples. This is not the first time that the authenticity of Shakespeare as the real author of his plays is being challenged. Sigmund Freud, Henry James and other notable greats have also raised the same doubts. But Emmerich explored the big question mark in great depths.

But whether you agree with this premiss at all, the strongest merit of this movie is that it's so well done and written in such a witty way that even the Bard himself would have approved in spite of the atrocious defamy of his reputation! I love the Shakespearean themes of the 'play within the play';' the use of the Prologue with Sir Derek Jacobi; the female roles played by male actors in the Elizabethan era; the interactive nature of the plays being staged; a quick glance at some of the most famous scenes from Shakespeare's plays being staged in the movie, including Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Richard III, Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and many others; and The Globe Theatre filmed in its full glory.

Also, who could dispute the excellent English cast? Vanessa Redgrave played the older Queen Elizabeth while her daughter Joely Richardson (of Nip, Tuck fame) played the younger monarch. But the most pleasantly surprising performance came from Welsh actor Rhys Ifans (best remembered as Spike in Notting Hill) who played the middle-aged, but still dashing, pensive Duke of Oxford. By playing such credible characters who are distinctly different from movie to movie, Ifans's acting excellence should be admired.

I don't believe the plot has any truth to it, but I would highly recommend this movie because like all other admirable works of art, this film is both provocative and irresistibly attractive and entertaining at the same time. The greatest line in this movie is, "All art is political, otherwise, it's only decorative." The flashbacks and the many characters in their young and old forms can be confusing at times; so, try to go see this movie when you're in top form!

A Movie That Connects With You Emotionally

Earlier this week, I attended an advanced screening of the movie The Way starring Martin Sheen (of Apocalpyse Now and West Wing fame) and was written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez (Bobby). I'm not a very easy audience to please, but I have to admit that there are no words that can possibly do justice to this movie - the flick is close to perfection!

Pilgrimages have long been the subjects of movies, but this Christian pilgrimage to El Camino de Santiago is different. This is a journey of life - as the movie's promotional tagline sums it all up: "Life is too long to walk it alone."

The four pilgrims who are the protagonists of this film all embarked on the journey for different reasons. Tom, the Californian ophthalmologist (Sheen), wanted to walk it alone because he wished to remember his deceased son Daniel (Estevez) with whom he never managed to get along. The father never understood the son's "the life you live and the life you choose" philosophy. Along came Dutchman Joost (Yorick van Wageneingen) who's innately kind, but could be annoying because he was stalking Tom and chose to embark on this pilgrimage only to try to lose some weight because his wife refused to sleep with him. Then there's the bitter, chain-smoking and self-deprecating Canadian Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger of Spider and Combat Hospital fame), who went on this trip to run away from her abusive former husband and the pain of aborting her baby. Her resentment of the boomer generation explained why she kept calling Tom 'Boomer' throughout almost the entire journey. And about three-quarters of the way, the three of them met Jack (James Nesbitt), the Irish writer who had a writer's block and was looking for inspiration and material.

The movie is full of metaphors and ironies - of life, relationships, love, family, friendship, racial tolerance, inter-generation conflicts, motherhood, religious faith and many others. There are many breathtakingly beautiful shots of the Spanish scenery, but it's the emotional connection that the movie makes with its audience that becomes a flawless memory. This is a movie that will make you laugh and cry many times during the two hours.

After Bobby, which earned a long standing ovation at its debut in the Venice Film Festival in 2006, nobody will ever doubt Estevez's ability to write and direct a good movie. But The Way has just made him one of the most respected writers-directors of North America. At the question-and-answer session after the screening of the movie, Estevez said that he's glad that the audience liked his movie because he felt this was a great story of his own life and family that he needed to tell. And what a story - one that connects with us on many levels. The audience at Varsity Cinema was also classy enought that nobody asked Sheen and Estevez any questions relating to Charlie Sheen.

I understand that this movie will be shown in Canadian cinemas next week. Please do yourself a favour and don't sit on the couch and wait to see it on DVD - go to the cinema and share Estevez's passion! It will make you a happier and more fulfilled person!

A Delightful Dessert!

We need more comedies nowadays - flicks that can make us laugh our hearts out such as Extract! Having said that, I find comedies always difficult to please than tragedies. Slapstick comedies never work for me  - anything by Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy and the list goes on and on. I'm a Woody Allen fan, but there's only ONE Woody Allen in this world.

So when I watched Extract (at no extra cost apart from my monthly TMN subscription) on The Movie Network last night, I was absolutely thrilled. Jason Bateman, who's every woman's boyfriend, is once again outrageously funny. I never paid attention to Mila Kunis when she was on That 70's Show, but I started to take note of her femme fatale performance in Black Swan. In Extract, she's just the naughty, trashy con woman who traps every single man with her sexy and seductive looks. Even Ben Affleck is a pleasant surprise in this flick playing the ultimate hippy bartender who's always stoned.

If there's ever such a kind hearted, real-life man like Jason Bateman, even I will marry him! This movie just proves that what I've been saying about men is once again true - all men are ruled by their dicks! But this film is more than that - it's a funny, realistic picture about the clash between the middle class and the working class. Add in racial stigma, mid-life crises for both men and women, labour relations and brainless gigolos - these all constitute a very funny and delightful movie. It's like having a carrot cake for dessert!

What's Wrong With The Lincoln Lawyer?

I was disappointed withThe Lincoln Lawyer after seeing it over the weekend with a girfriend for the first time in the AMC Theatres at Yonge and Dundas. This flick has a lot of twists, but all of them are pretty predictable.

I don't know how popular Michael Connelly's novel was when it first came out in 2005, but the plot, based on this novel, is kind of weak. What is the motivation to kill and why didn't Ryan Phillipe finish all of his victims instead of leaving this one half dead?

Contrary to what most film critics said, I find this flick weak on a number of fronts. The first half of the film is so slow that it can put anybody to sleep. When the movie finally picks up its pace, the vulnerabilities start to appear - one by one. Brad Furman is not a famous director having just got only one movie within his portfolio (The Take) prior to this one. But what was he thinking by using the same bungalow of Ryan Gosling's in the 2007 Fracture as Matthew McConnaughey's house on a Los Angeles hilltop? Did he think that moviegoers would not be able to recognize and remember the same location at all?

Also, movie trailers are supposed to build suspense, but NOT give the entire story line away. For The Lincoln Lawyer, the bikers scene was already in the promotion trailer and we all knew that Phillipe is the bad guy before going to see the movie!

Having said that, this is one of the better movies that Matthew McConaughey has made after his rise to fame. But it's the supporting cast that made this movie a half success - particularly, Shea Whigham who plays an outstanding jailhouse snitch summoned as a court witness. He steals the entire show with just 10 minutes of air time! All the male supporting actors carry the movie - William H. Macy, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo (I'm dying to see his new one-man show on Broadway!), Michael Pena and Bryan Cranston.

I guess I would have been happier if I didn't have to pay full price for this flick!

This Is True Grit

2:22 is a movie you'd love to hate. The cast and promotion misled you to thinking that big stars like Gabriel Byrne and Val Kilmer are in the lead cast - not true. In fact, the whole movie features a cast that is not particularly well known, but they are all good! Byrne and Kilmer are just supporting actors, each appearing for probably less than 10 minutes in the whole film.

But I didn't end up disliking the movie - I actually quite liked it! This is true grit in its literal form - dark, depressing, no faith in human beings, friendship and loyalty. Leading man Mick Rossi won the Best Actor Award in the 2010 Milan International Film Festival. He's a complicated man - kind, ruthless, calculating and spontaneous all encompassed within his character. Producer Lenny Pitondo is from Toronto, but I also get an impression that this film was shot in Toronto, although I'm not 100 percent sure.

What on earth happened to Val Kilmer? The dashing young pilot, outshining Tom Cruise in Top Gun, has turned into a sloppy, overweight, very unattractive middle-aged man. It obviously doesn't help that he kept taking on 'loser' roles in recent movies.

This movie intrigues me because it took me by surprise. I recognize the Toronto scenes but the film is very European in style and ambiance. It's like watching a European mafia movie - violent, dark but artistic. And that's Mick Rossi too - apparently he's a very accomplished guitar player prior to his acting career.

Jeremy Irons Rocks

I've never doubted that I would love the new TV drama The Borgias which debuted last Sunday night on Bravo! But it turned out that the first two episodes of the nine-part, hour-long TV series exceeded all my expectations. It's like watching The Tudors, but even better.

Set at the 15th century Italy in 1492 at the height of the Renaissance, this period drama is all about hypocrisy, sex, power and animal magnetism. Jeremy Irons as the Papal Rodrigo Borgia is the ultimate evil holy man. At 62, Irons still has that 'creepiness' in him since his Dead Ringers days.

Shot in Hungary which serves as the ancient Rome, the cinematography is unparalleled. Neil Jordan of The Crying Game fame is in the Director chair in this Canadian, Hungarian and Irish international co-production.

Canadian veteran actor Colm Feore is at his best as Borgia's arch rival Cardinal Della Rovere. Another Canadian Francois Arnaud is mesmerizing as Rodrigo's son Cesare. The suspense built up by The New York Times just prior to its debut really intrigued me. Jeremy Irons was commenting on the fact that when he first received the script, he told director Neil Jordan that he found it difficult to play Roderigo who was so bloated that he could hardly fit his coffin when he passed away. But judging from the first two episodes, the tall and lanky Irons played the role with perfection. And the women who played his daughter and his first mistress are heavenly beauties.

I'll be very surprised if this TV drama doesn't move forward to win numerous awards in the coming months.                                              

This Drug Is Worth Addicted To

You know how a good or bad movie can sometimes make or break your weekend? I saw Limitless last night and it definitely made me feel great about this weekend.

Apart from Inception, this must be one of the most creative flicks lately. In my opinion, this film is worth at least one Oscar award. From a crazy yet convincing plot to the outstanding cinematography to the edgy music and a witty screenplay, this movie entertains and intrigues you. You'll walk out of the cinema saying there's a reason why you still want to see movies when they first come out because of such brilliant productions.

If you don't like Bradley Cooper, you shouldn't go see this movie because he's in almost every single scene. But who doesn't like Cooper in this day and age? He's a boy next door with deep, piercing blue eyes and a 6'1" physique plus he's one of the genius producers of this film as well. He's funny, charming, natural and would not even let Robert de Niro steal the show. I'm sure no woman fan of his was disappointed when he finally broke up with Renee Zellweger. Rumour has it that he's dating his co-star in this movie - Australian actor Abbie Cornish who looks like a young Sharon Stone.

What constitutes a great thriller? An ingenious plot with unexpected twists; and an impossible but convincing story line that stretches your imagination. This thriller keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat, but even better, it makes you laugh as well. What dream drug can make you suddenly speak every single foreign language (although his Chinese is hardly comprehensible) and fight like Bruce Lee? I'll gladly be addicted to NZT!

Two thumbs up for this movie even though I was not familiar with the director Neil Burger, a Yale fine arts graduate, who directed The Illusionists as well.

Old Man My Ass!

The farcical comedy RED, made by boomers for boomers, is delightful to watch. All actors are boomers and seniors who can still carry their own weight - Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Mary-Louise Parker with Morgan Freeman, Brian Cox and Helen Mirren. The only non-boomer is Karl Urban, the Kiwi supporting actor who plays the CIA hot shot William Cooper.

The entire movie is a farce because the plot is about a team of former CIA agents coded RED (Retired but Extremely Dangerous) who's not ready to retire into oblivion yet. They group together to once again fight the evil government system which trained all of them.

The characters are all pretty strong in their own personalities - Bruce Willis as the tough guy turned romantic suitor; Brian Cox and Helen Mirren as the former CIA love birds who only now ironically reunite after their retirement; John Malkovich as the eccentric spy who lives underneath a car and is paranoid about everything and everbody who comes near him; and finally Morgan Freeman who kills his would-be murderer in a hospital where he's going through the last stage of liver cancer.

This movie is not a masterpiece, but it makes boomers feel good when the key message strikes home - retired experts are still better than their younger counterparts who are continually clumsy and outwitted by the older group of agents.

The movie is best summed up by John Malkovich's character in the film - "Old Man My Ass!!!"

Director Ruined By A Weak Plot

I usually select my movies based on at least one of these three criteria: a director with a great track record; actors who can make a bad movie look good; and word-of-mouth referral by friends and critics alike.

So I was disappointed when I saw The Next Three Days directed by award-winning Canadian director Paul Haggis and featuring Russell Crowe and Elisabeth Banks. I remember when the movie first came out last year, the reviews were bad. But I don't always agree with what the film critics said. For this flick, I should have believed what I read.

The movie itself was not bad so long as you're convinced by the plot. But how could such a ridiculous story line be believable? A jovial community school teacher breaking into prison to save his wrongly accused wife? A dutiful son and a family man suddently turned into a criminal shooting guns and killing dirt-bag drug dealers? Such a plot never connected with the audience, at least not with me.

There was the attention to detail throughout the movie that was surprisingly good - the Canadian coins as a clue for the cops to figure out that the fugitives might be going to Canada, and only a Canadian director could think of that! There was also the smart flashback towards the end of the movie about who the real murderer was. But none of these fine details nor one of the best directors of our era could have saved such a weak plot. It's surprising to see that Haggis wrote the screeplay as well.

A Monster Train

I understand that Unstoppable was not a success at the box office, but it's still worth renting as a DVD.

You can always depend on Tony Scott as the director of thrillers. I quite like his Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and this one also kept me sitting on the edge of my couch for most part of the film.  I always love trains and see them as a 'romantic' mode of transportation. But Scott made the runaway train in Pensylvannia look like a monster - an engulfing one throughout the movie!

Denzel Washington is aging as a boomer, but his acting is getting better and better. A boomer and a rookie worked together to become heroes at a railway company, and as usual, all their supervisors and corporate big guns are incompetent. Chris Pine is not bad at all - piercing blue eyes and a credible actor holding his own next to veteran Washington.

Washington and Scott have made five movies together. The synergy and partnership are obvious in this movie. This is a thriller without cops and bad guys, and it became more convincing because it's inspired by true events.

Coping With Grief

How could I have missed The Greatest when it first came out in 2009? We need to pay more attention to unnoticed movies that just came out with very little publicity and financial support. Yet, they are always par excellence!

This is a movie about dealing with grief. Losing a family member is always tough, but nothing can be worse than losing an offspring. I'm not a mother, but I can only imagine the deepest cut in the heart when your beloved child just passed away, very often, when you least expected it.

Pierce Brosnan never strikes me as a strong actor. His Bond movies and brand character are probably putting him in a box. But having discovered that he's the producer of this movie, I began to have more respect for him as a film maker. And he knew how to pick his actors - Susan Sarandon and Carey Mulligan before she became the darling of the U.S. and British film industries.

This is a very simple story of how people are coping with grief - anger, remorse, emotional suppression, self denial, plain memories. But this is also a story about life, and how we're often struck by the least expected tragedy, and yet how we always manage to survive in spite of the pain.

Best Movie I've Ever Seen

I saw Clint Eastwood's Hereafter tonight upon one of my best friends' recommendation and I have to agree with her that this is one of the best, if not the best movie I've ever seen.

Life after death is always a mystery to us humans. For boomers and seniors who are coming to grips with their mortality, this movie is more real than ever. The tsunami scene in Indonesia was a close reflection of what's just happened in Japan. The beauty of this movie is the synergy of the past, present and future and the flawless integration of three separate stories of the brush with death and afterlife.

Matt Damon has never won an Oscar award for acting, but he must be one of the most credible and versatile actors in our era. I've developed a habit of watching every movie of his because he's just never made a mistake in selecting his roles and the movies he's in. From Invictus to Hereafter to the recent Adjustment Bureau, he excelled in all of them.

Cécile de France is equally good and convincing. Clint Eastwood's passion for music is once again being demonstrated throughout this film.

This is one of the most beautiful and poetic movies ever made, and whether you believe in psychics or not, this flick will move you to tears! I just don't understand why it's a box office flop.

Best Jane Eyre Movie Ever Made?

Saw the wonderful Jane Eyre yesterday - its first day of release. I must salute anybody who's trying to produce and direct a Victorian classic, particularly on any of the Bronte sisters' works. I love the movie, but can't agree with The Globe and Mail's film critic that this is the best Jane Eyre movie ever made.

Casting is always so important to movies and this film made two casting mistakes - Mr. Rochester and his locked up wife. Both are too young and too 'handsome'. Where's the animal magnetism of Mr. Rochester and the bone-chilling insanity of the wife?

I was surprised to find a full-house cinema with a lot of younger audiences as well. Charlotte Bronte would have been pleased!