The Old Man And The Sea

Robert Redford's All Is Lost reminds all viewers of Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea and Ang Lee's Life of Pi. But its originality trumps any other movie out there this year. It's about an experienced sailor facing mortality in a tempest, but it's also a study of humanity as well as a horror movie at sea!

Hollywood seemed to dwell a lot lately on how men and women combat adversities - whether it's Sandra Bullock stranded in space in Gravity or Our Man, Robert Redford, fighting for survival at sea in this film. The entire movie is almost like a silent one featuring a one-man show. There's no other actor, not even any animals, except for Redford who only uttered two lines in the entire movie.

You don't have to be an avid sailor to appreciate this movie, but if you love to sail, you might even like it better. I loved Margin Call, the first feature film by the same director J.C. Chandor, who earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay last year. With All Is Lost, he tried a totally different genre with men's fight against nature. Maybe it's because Margin Call was first shown at Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival that the 39-year-old up-and-coming director teamed up with the 77-year-old Redford in this unusual work.

If you think you'll be bored during this movie because there's no dialogue, then you're totally wrong! In fact, I kept asking myself throughout the film what possibly would be the next move of Our Man, the character played by Redford. He managed to survive adversity after adversity and his hope never faded. The ending is magnificent and is subject to different interpretations. Like Ron Howard's Rush, which is more than a racecar movie, All Is Lost is really a film about our approach to life.

This year's Academy Awards contention will be very competitive - Redford is rumoured to be definitely nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. Because he's never won an Oscar before, chances of his winning this one at his age are pretty high. I personally think he should definitely be awarded for his efforts - four months of shooting this movie at sea in the Bahamas, California and Mexico without having one dry day. Plus, he refused to use any stunt man even for the most challenging storm scenes. But Redford might have to compete with Forest Whitaker in The Butler, Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years A Slave and possibly Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club.

In the meantime, I'll be interested in your interpretation of the concluding scene of All Is Lost!

High Tension At Sea

The docudrama Captain Phillips has been earning rave reviews from both critics and audiences alike. I saw it over the Thanksgiving weekend and was not disappointed.

I've never been a fan of Tom Hanks, but his performance in this film would probably earn him another Oscar (let's reserve our final judgement until we see Robert Redford in his upcoming movie All Is Lost)! He's so good as a regular guy that even the real-life Captain Richard Phillips was impressed. He met with Hanks three times in the last two years at his Vermont farmhouse prior to filming.

In real life, Hanks is an extremely funny guy. Not only did he disclose to the world that he's suffering from Type 2 diabetes on the Late Show with David Letterman, but he also talked about his friendship with the four Somali actors who were recruited from Minneapolis - the largest concentration of Somalis in the U.S. He joked about their names without sounding like a racist, and it was extremely funny - who else would have friends called Barkhad, Barkhad, Faysal and Mahat? Even though they were novice actors, Barkhad Abdi, who played Muse in the film, was almost as good as Hanks himself. It was reported that Hanks didn't get a chance to meet his Somali co-actors until the first scene when they appeared on board the ship without any translators at work in order to create the tensest scene possible.

Kudos go to director Paul Greengrass, a Cambridge-educated Brit, who's best known for his two movies within the Bourne franchise - The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Supremacy - and United 93. He was able to make a docudrama so tense and captivating that by the end of the movie, my knees were still shaking. In fact, the second half of the film was so tense that you'd almost want to scream aloud for the hijacked captain. Towards the end of the movie, it's obvious that the captain was suffering from intense post-traumatic stress. In fact, the real-life Phillips told USA Today that for a period of time, he would wake up at 5 a.m. every day crying like a baby and remembering how lucky he was to be alive. Although this aftermath was not included in the movie, Tom Hanks gave us a strong enough performance for us to almost weep with him when we saw him safe.

The real-life captain gave a lot of credit to the Navy SEALs whom he regarded as the real heroes who saved him. There have been a lot of movies about the SEALs' bravery, but their action in this film made you wish that every country could have a team of heroes and protectors like Max Martini and his cool SWAT team.

The real tragedy of this whole true story is really the dire livelihood led by millions in Somalia. The deprived fishermen turned pirates consider these hijackings at sea as ordinary business. So until they can find some decent means of making a living, they will continue to be pirates. As Captain Phillips asked in the film, "There's gotta be a better way to live than hijacking ships and harming people?" "Only in America," Muse responded..."Only in America!" And the irony is that he finally got a chance to see America, but from prison!

Kennedy Assassination From A Different Perspective

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the movie Parkland gave an interesting perspective from four different angles - from the doctors and nurses on duty that fatally tragic day in Parkland Hospital, Dallas; from the alleged assassin's family; from the Secret Service and FBI agents' perspective; and from the shop owner who amateurishly filmed the entire assassination from his 8mm camera from a nearby rooftop.

In spite of pretty bad reviews from major film critics, the movie, in my opinion, was kind of refreshing. Many people compared it to Emilio Estevez's Bobby from 2006, but they are really apples and oranges.

It's pure fate that the team of residents and the head nurse from the Parkland Hospital had to have the dying President on their watch. In spite of the traumatic experience and the best rescuing efforts they had given, JFK still passed away in a pool of blood. I've never seen a resident doctor as good looking as Zac Efron, but the entire hospital team gave a credible performance. I've always been a fan of award-winning actor Marcia Gay Harden, who played the role of Parkland's head nurse. I also had the good fortune of recently meeting her in a New York hotel elevator where I've had a two-minute conversation about filming in Toronto with her. She has always been an intense actor, but in this movie, she hardly spoke more than five sentences in the emergency room.

Nobody has ever liked the FBI or Secret Service agents, and in this movie, both teams were portrayed as brutally selfish. The former was concerned only about destroying evidence to cover their asses, and Billy Bob Thornton, who skillfully played the stoic role of the head of Secret Service, Forrest Sorrels, was frustrated only because JFK was the first man he's ever lost on his 30-year watch.

The entire Oswald family was as creepy as the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, himself. James Badge Dale, who was one of the villains in Iron Man 3, played the role of Robert Oswald, Lee Harvey's brother. It's obvious that he was never close to his brother, but blood is thicker than water. Award-winning actor Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) played the Oswald brothers' mother Marguerite, who was portrayed almost as insane as his murdered son. It's true that nobody can conclude, for sure, even to this day that Lee Harvey Oswald was either a U.S. agent who got framed or a Russian agent who was hired to assassinate the President.

As usual, the media love Paul Giamatti who was described by the film critics as the only laudable character (Abraham Zapruder) and actor in the entire movie. This is not a difficult role for Giamatti having seen him in more challenging roles such as Barney's Version and Sideways.

Director Peter Landesman is very much a novice as this was his directorial debut. But given the fact that he adapted the story from Vincent Bugliosi's book Four Days In November and his strong editing work between real footage of the assassination and the fake scenes, he has demonstrated enough potential to carry on with his directing pursuit.

No matter what perspective the film took, one fact remains inarguable - the impact of JFK's death was so huge and overwhelming on all Americans that they will remember his tragedy and legacy to this day and for 50 more years to come!

The Psychology Of Ruthless Competition

I was so reluctant to see Rush when I first watched the trailer. But a New York Times rave review convinced me otherwise. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised emerging from the cinema tonight.

My confidence in Ron Howard the director also explained why I changed my mind about going to this movie. Howard has the track record of undeniably great works, including Apollo 13, Backdraft, A Beautiful Mind and Frost/Nixon. Similar to Ang Lee, his talent is so diverse and he has demonstrated great versatility in a wide range of film genres.

Howard's directorial debut in 1977, Grand Theft Auto, was his only other movie focusing on cars. Other than that, Howard admitted that he knew nothing about car-racing prior to making this movie. It was the talented British screenwriter Peter Morgan, with whom Howard collaborated in Frost/Nixon, who first approached him with the script. Howard became interested and started taking some lessons in Formula Three racing in order to get a feel of the thrill. Morgan, whose wife is Austrian, also met with the real Niki Lauda for some 30 dinners in a Vienna restaurant to get an in-depth analysis from the former world champion himself.

The resulting work is a superb work of art. Howard took the audience right behind and in front of the racecar driver's seat - with the camera so close sometimes that you could almost count the driver's eyelashes. But you don't need to be a racecar fan to enjoy this movie. Technically, it may be a movie about autoracing, but Howard really took the sport to a macro level - it's the psychology of competition between the two rivals - British James Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda (played by Daniel Bruhl) - which was fascinating. Two polar-opposite individuals with different philosophies in life anchored the rivalry, respect and a life-long love-hate relationship between the two top drivers of the 1970s. Howard also left it to the audience to determine whose side are they on. As a director, he was deliberately unbiased.

Both principal actors are superb. Australian heartthrob Chris Hemsworth (best known for his role in Thor) has the good looks and charisma of playboy Hunt, while Spanish-born German actor Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds) demonstrates the precision, determination and ruthlessness of Lauder. Both were world champions, but in the end, the film left you questioning whether you're the living-for-the-present Hunt, or the committed, serious and hard-working Lauda. One may be intoxiated by Hunt, but it's the tough, persevering Lauda that one wants to emulate in life.

In spite of the film's dramatization of the dangerous sport, the movie is also very true to history which makes it all the more fascinating. The 64-year-old Lauder provided a lot of input and the movie was shot in actual racing circuits in 11 locations in England and Germany. Full attention to detail was paid to the era of the 1970s. If you like docu-dramas, you will love this film!

Prisoners - Best YTD 2013 Movie

I've never seen any of Canadian (Quebec) director Denis Villeneuve's previous movies - not even Incendies in 2011which has won so many awards and accolades. But after watching Prisoners today, I will put his works on my must-watch list in the future.

Prisoners is, so far, the best film I've seen this year. In spite of its three hours in length, every screen shot is worth the attention. The film made its debut at the Telluride Film Festival in August followed by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last month and began its appearance in cinemas across Canada today.

The two lead actors Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal are both excellent and there are already a lot of Oscar-nominated projections. The hot-headed Jackman, in his Wolverine kind of way, is a sharp contrast against the calm, cool and intelligent Gyllenhaal. Both actors have to hide their obvious good looks to make their roles convincing.

But the greatest success should go to director Villeneuve who does not under-estimate his audience. He makes us work throughout the movie and never gives us the obvious explanation in any of the sub-plots or even on the suspects. As a crime thriller, he has not only managed to entertain us, but he challenges and provokes us to think, digest, rationalize and analyse. The movie is dark and violent, but the scariest thing is that it closely reflects what's been happening in North America, particularly in the U.S.A., in real life - the kidnapping and disappearance of so many kids! The most poignant question raised by the film is - how far would parents go to find and save their children when they've been abducted and kidnapped?

I've seen many crime dramas both on TV and on the big screen, so it's not difficult for me at all to guess very early on who's the responsible criminal - obviously not the usual suspects. But even so, the director puts us, the audience, in the difficult situation faced by parents. There are threads and clues in every scene, and we have to put them all together ourselves. Villeneuve also mocks religion and fate throughout the movie. Is God really looking after us and can we really control fate?

Keller Dover's  (Hugh Jackman) motto in life has always been "pray for the best, and be prepared for the worst," but was he ready for the worst when his daughter was kidnapped? Unfortunately, his motto has also always been mine as well, and this movie makes me wonder whether this point of view towards life is realistic or not since there's so much in life that we cannot control!

The cold, wet Pennsylvania weather, where the story takes place (the movie was actually shot in Georgia), exhibits a character of its own - just like the role of Seattle in the AMC crime drama The Killing. As the plot thickens and both cop and father get more desperate and frustrated, the weather also further dampens and worsens.

Kudos to Villeneuve and screen writer Aaron Guzikowski who went into great lengths to portray a good, workaholic cop who has a conscience and on whom law and order can be trusted. Mark Wahlberg is one of the executive producers of this film and was once considered in the lead role. I'm convinced that having played a similar character in The Lovely Bones, he could have played Jackman's part equally well.

I'm not sure whether this film can be stomached by parents who have young kids. But I'm definitely giving this flick a two thumbs up!

So What On A Gigantic Scale

There are movies with a lot of hype and famous actors, but they end up being very disappointing. Then there are others with less famous actors, adapted from a true story, but are equally disappointing. In fact, both The Place Beyond The Pines and The Iceman belong to these categories.

The Place Beyond The Pines came with a lot of hype - Canada's golden boy Ryan Gosling all tattooed up and People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive last year, Bradley Cooper, collaborating in a movie for the first time. Director Derek Cianfrance made Blue Valentine after more than 10 years of hard work and produced an excellent work of art. He and Ryan Gosling worked together again in their latest movie and naturally I have huge expectations. After all, Gosling is also Hollywood's 'it' boy at the moment and he can pick any script he likes. Apart from The Hangover sequel, Bradley Cooper was also seldom in a bad flick.

So how come The Place Beyond The Pines is a big disappointment? Because at the end of the movie, you'll ask, "So what's the point?" Are we supposed to have empathy for Luke the motorcycle stunt rider turned bank robber (played by Gosling)? Or is Cianfrance trying to tell us that DNA is the most important component of the second generation - like father like son? Or are we supposed to feel bad for the guilty cop Avery (played by Cooper) trying to make up for what he did wrong to a bank robber ages ago? Cianfrance always focuses on small-town, blue-collar folks, but somehow in this movie, I just don't see the point.

What makes The Iceman even more disappointing is that it's based on a true story. Pollack Richard Kuklinski (played by the very talented Michael Shannon who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in Revolutionary Road) spent his entire life as a contract killer while being a family man at the same time. So I get it that Kuklinski has a double identity but because he's so violent and morally chilling, I don't end up empathizing with him or his family at all. His wife Deborah (played by Winona Ryder), particularly, seems to be primarily motivated by material things in life.

The only pleasant surprises are Friends' David Schwimmer who's almost unrecognizable in his role as gangster Josh; and James Franco, playing a very minor role in the film. I've never heard of the director Ariel Vromen who should, perhaps, have made a documentary instead of producing an entire movie sporting violence with no connection with the audience at all.
A movie adapted from a true story of a contract killer - so what?

Mud: A Contemporary Huckleberry Finn

The very southern movie Mud was very misleading in its trailer as it could be misconstrued as just another fugitive-hunting thriller. In fact, it's a very poetic, modern version of a Huckleberry Finn story.

I wasn't familiar with director/writer Jeff Nichols's previous works as this is only his third feature film and I've never seen his other two - Take Shelter and Shotgun Stories. But the Arkansas-born director has totally earned my confidence after this latest work of his. The film was shot throughout Arkansas and the beauty of the river, the animals, the birds and the weather are as important as the principal characters. The movie is ironic and poetic at the same time. Set against a southern town with a dishevelled fugitive, powerful bounty hunters, a mysterious ex-vet loner, a messed-up female white-trash, and two teenage boys, the flick oozes dirty masculinity and childish sentimentalism at the same time. The teenage boy wants to be a romantic, heroic adult and the adult fugitive is actually a romantic kid at heart.

Matthew McConaughey continues to surprise me as he ages. Here's an actor who was once voted People's Magazine Sexiest Man Alive and gained popularity via numerous roles in romantic comedies. But recently, he's turned into a character actor and dazzled us with his performance in Magic Mike, Killer Joe  and, now, Mud. The 43-year-old actor with Paul Newman's eyes is definitely having a ball and entering new territories with his film career. I've never paid any attention to his acting until Magic Mike  and Mud just confirms that McConaughey is comfortable in his own skin and no longer relies on his good looks.

All the supporting actors are excellent in this movie, particularly Tye Sheridan who has matured since his acting debut in The Tree of Life. I was quite shocked to see Sam Shepard aging so badly in this movie. What has happened to the handsome, rugged Renaissance man who's had Jessica Lange's heart for so song?

The recently omnipresent Michael Shannon (who's nominated for an Academy Award in his supporting role in Revolutionary Road) has a minor, ordinary part in this film; and apart from confirming that he can play a normal, average guy, his huge talent as an actor is really wasted in this movie.

Mud is a very pleasant surprise, but a very memorable one too!

The Cruelty Of Old Money

I was never a fan of Baz Luhrmann's movies - most of them were too avant garde and pretentious! But I have to admit that I was totally swept off my feet by The Great Gatsby.

After all the anticipation, the real thing dazzled me! It's not a traditional interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic, but I would not expect anything traditional from Luhrmann. It's one of those rare love-story dramas that was shot in 3D and the decadent parties, costumes and music as well as the ill-fated love story all play a part in dazzling the audience.

I couldn't help comparing Luhrmann's version with the older movie featuring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow although fortunately, Baz Luhrmann deliberately chose not to see the other version. The new one is so much better, mainly due to the brilliant performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan as Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan respectively. A Botoxed-up DiCaprio is mature enough now to look and act the part of the charming yet tormented Jay Gatsby. And Carey Mulligan just plays the role of Daisy Buchanan to such perfection that you want certain scenes of hers to be frozen on the big screen!

Understandably, every actress would want to be cast as Daisy because she's so glamorous and yet so complex and vulnerable. I read that Carey Mulligan beat other renowned actresses such as Natalie Portman, Blake Lively and Michelle Williams primarily because of her kissing scene with DiCaprio in the audition. And to play this role, Mulligan has obviously shed quite a few pounds from her Shame days and looks absolutely picture-perfect in all the Prada dresses.

I would not expect any lesser performance from DiCaprio and Mulligan, but I thought Australian actor Joel Edgerton did an outstanding job as Tom Buchanan. I read that Ben Affleck was originally considered for this role but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts and Edgerton eventually beat out Bradley Cooper and Luke Evans. Tobey Maguire, who's best friend with DiCaprio in real life, is a talented actor but turns out to be very mediocre in his role as Nick Carraway, the narrator.

Apart from the acting and the direction, three things really stood out in the entire movie - the music, the costumes and the use of technology. You would not have imagined that hip-hop music would fit in with a story written in the jazz age, but surprisingly, Jay-Z's score works brilliantly. And what could be a better fit than Lana Del Rey's  melancholic voice?

The director's wife, Catherine Martin, who won two Oscars for her work in Moulin Rouge (another one of the husband-and-wife collaboration) would probably, once again, win two Academy Awards for Production and Costume Designs for this movie.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel in southern France and the story was set on Long Island, New York. Luhrmann, however, shot the entire film in Sydney, Australia, using many wonderful production sets and, of course, 3D filming and CGT wonders. This is such a cool movie that you would want to watch it many times, but what ultimately strikes me is not just the visuals. Luhrmann successfully conveys the tragic elements of Fitzgerald's novel - the cruelty of old money versus the nouveau riche; the unfortunate timings of the love story; and the failure in the pursuit of an American dream. It's not surprising that when I was watching this movie, another dark drama popped up in my mind - AMC's Mad Men. Both are beautiful, dark and brilliant works of art!

Does The Man Make The Suit In Iron Man 3?

I've missed Iron Man 2, but thoroughly enjoyed Iron Man 3. All these Marvel comic-book storylines more or less follow the same formula: the good conquering the evil. The hero will never die - even if dead, only temporarily.

In this movie, industrialist Tony Stark (Iron Man) answers his own question: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man? It's obviously the former and Writer/Director Shane Black (Lethal Weapon fame) did a terrific job of giving the audience more scenes of Robert Downey Jr. without his Iron Man armour. We see more of the Iron Man in vulnerable situations in this movie more than the rest in the sequel. But they make this comic-book hero more human at times.

We see Tony Stark as a playboy and a possibly good father figure. I love his interaction with the 11-year-old kid Harley Keener (played by Ty Simpkins who's also in Revolutionary Road). Stark is protective, witty and cool with kids. His playboy role is less impressive. The role of Maya Hansen, the researcher, is kind of superfluous and what a waste of Rebecca Hall's (Sir Peter Hall's daughter and famous for her roles in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Frost Nixon) talent to play that role!

For those of you who are Ben Kingsley fans like me, you've all seen how he can be chillingly villainous in Sexy Beast (Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actor), but as The Mandarin, the 69-year-old Kingsley is just downright hilarious!

I've never liked Gwyneth Paltrow and find her as irritating as ever in this flick. Guy Pearce and Don Cheadle are both talented actors, but very mediocre in their respective roles as Colonel James Rhodes and Aldrich Killian in this film.

China is becoming a huge market for American films, so it's no wonder that Iron Man 3 got funding and input from DMG, a Chinese marketing and entertainment group. Apart from the villain, The Mandarin, I could hardly see any other Chinese elements. The movie was shot primarily in North Carolina and California, so I was disappointed when I mistakenly thought that it's partially shot in China. I heard that there's a Chinese version of the movie which added an extra four minutes to include a minor, irrelevant plot twist and a few shots of female heart-throb Fan Bingbing and another local star, Wang Xueqi. Maybe this is why the film has been compromised without Susan Downey (Robert Downey Jr.'s wife) as a producer for the first time in the Iron Man sequel!

Redford On Boomer Regrets

Robert Redford's latest movie, The Company You Keep, is a film for boomers who are going to the cinemas in full force to support this film. As a poster boy in the 60s and 70s, Redford has transformed himself from just a pretty face on the big screen to one of the most respected filmmakers, philanthropists and environmentalists in the 21st century.

Redford is always more talented as a director than an actor. Among the nine films directed by him since 1980, I like Ordinary People (won him the Best Director Award at the Oscars in 1981), The Horse Whisperer, The Conspirator and now The Company You Keep. They are always subtle and non-traditional. In the last 30 years, Redford has also never made a movie with the box office in mind. Perhaps, now he can afford to do so just for the art alone.

Baby boomers often reminisce about we have done in our youth. Perhaps some of us even regret about our past follies. The Company You Keep is about how a group of former activists under the umbrella name of Weather Underground all resurface again to confront their own demons. It is about doing what's right for the younger generation. The thriller keeps you on the edge of your seats but the plot is never that complex. When you've watched about two-thirds of the movie, you can sort of guess where the plot is going. The film was beautifully shot in Vancouver and is a very classy, intelligen and concise thriller that only Redford can make.

What's most delightful about the film is the gang of boomer actors who were all superstars in their gloriest days - Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie, Chirs Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Brenda Gleeson, Nick Nolte and Sam Elliott. The only two young actors in the film - Shia LaBeouf and Brit Marling - carry their own weights in front of the veteran actors. A talented actor like Terrence Howard does not need to play the role of the FBI chief in this film, but I guess if Robert Redford calls, you just don't say no! I read about Julie Christie initially refusing her role, but Redford went to Canadian director Sarah Polley, who directed Christie in Away From Her, for advice. Christie finally accepted the invitation and gave a brilliant performance as the irresistible Mimi.

I have to admit, however, that it's scary to watch how Redford has been aging over the years. At 76, he's still cool as a cucumber, but his face on the big screen looks like plastic surgery gone awry. There's also a scene where a jogging Redford could easily be mistaken for an old woman running in the park. Perhaps it's time for Redford to consider just staying behind the camera instead of still appearing in front of it?

Playing Games With Memories

In spite of the critics' lack of enthusiasm for Danny Boyle's new movie Trance, I had to pay attention to anything that the director produced after his Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. Plus, Vincent Cassel (who won a Cesar award for his role in Mesrine) is one of my most favourite actors.

This is another flick that constantly works your brains. Just when I thought that I had the whole plot figured out, there came another surprise - layers and layers of it! The ending is shocking and incredible, but if you constantly question the storyline of movies, half of them would not be watchable!

This stylistic heist is a big play on human memory. Somehow, this has lately become a popular theme for movies - Inception, Total Recall, Oblivion and now Trance. But if you believe in the power of hypnotics, then this is the movie for you. But coming from Boyle, the movie is a bit disappointing. This is a thriller with a lot of violence and action, but short of brilliance. It's as if Boyle, after his witty direction of the London Olympics, wants to continue with showing off London in its best form. Under his direction, London is hip, mysterious, romantic, stylish, sinister and foggy. But style trumps substance - that's where the problem lies.

But at least the actors are strong, particularly Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson. James McAvoy's innocent looks always limit his versatility as an actor. He always gives 150 percent but efforts do not necessarily imply impact and depth.

For us Vincent Cassel fans, we always wonder why he's not a bigger star in North America. He has won numerous awards in France and appeared in many Hollywood movies (Eastern Promises, Black Swan and Ocean's Trilogy). But he's always just the bad guy, that's it. I understand that he's currently living with his family in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he's producing a new movie. Maybe it would be finally a movie with him demonstrating his full acting talent without strutting his animal magnetism?

Rosario Dawson is always a formidable actress and talented artist. Whether it's her teaming up with Prince for the re-release of his 1980s hit "1999," or her performance in Quentin Tarentino's Death Proof, she's always got a cool factor in her. Because of her exotic ethnicity - Puerto Rican and Afro-Cuban descent - a lot of film critics find her beautiful.  Judging from her romantic history (she's dated former Sex and the City star Jason Lewis for two years and then dated Danny Boyle in 2012 when they were shooting this movie), obviously the men in the acting world agreed. Although most of the film critics raved about the sex scene between her and Cassel in this movie, I just didn't find it that significant. But Dawson might garner an Oscar nomination for her performance as Elisabeth Lamb, the hynotherapist who turns the world upside down in the film.

I salute the director for keeping me guessing till the end, but is the conclusion ridiculously unbelievable? Yes it is, but I like it even though I'm disappointed with Boyle.

Tom Cruise Surprises Again

I was never a fan of Tom Cruise or sci-fi movies, and originally had no intention of watching his latest movie Oblivion. But to make a long story short, I ended up in the cinema on the first night when the movie premiered. Once again, I have to say - Cruise surprises me!

Most of the film critics panned the movie, so I went with the lowest of expectations. But whether you like Tom Cruise or not, this is a visually stunning movie. Credit, of course, goes to director of cinematography Claudio Miranda, who won an Oscar this year with The Life of Pi. With a combination of digital effects and brilliant cinematography with a huge budget, your breath will be swept away by the power of the universe - mountains, cliffs, bridges, valleys, caves, waterfalls and volcanoes. The use of minimalistic white for the interior shots is equally stunning and effective. I wouldn't be surprised if Miranda wins another Oscar next year.

I read that this is only director Joseph Kosinski's second movie (his first was Tron: Legacy) which he adapted from his never-published comic book. His latest work was fiercely criticized by reviewers who claimed that it was a mishmash of a number of other renowned epics. It's true that the film reminds you of Blade Runner, Total Recall, The Matrix, The Planet of the Apes, Inception and many others. But the plot kind of makes sense in a sci-fi kind of way and before you realize it, you're entertained by Tom Cruise (playing the technician Jack Harper in 2077) again - and he doesn't even need to smile!

The film is also a love story and Cruise's leading ladies do not disappoint. Ukranian-French model/actress Olga Kurylenko (as Julia) is so ethereally beautiful that I wonder why she was hardly noticeable as a Bond girl in Casino Royale. I understand that Kurylenko got the role only when Jessica Chastain dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.

Andrea Riseborough who plays Cruise's partner Victoria is appropriately chilling and aloof in her performance. After playing Wallis Simpson in Madonna's WE, the British actress has once again proven her versatility.

The US$120 million production partially accounts for the technical supremacy and flawless filming in eight locations including Reykjavik and Jarlhettur in Iceland; New Orleans, St. Francisville and Baton Rouge in Louisiana; June Lake and Mammoth Lakes in California; and New York City. If the film were edited down by 30 minutes and some of the sappy music be replaced by more original scores, Oblivion could have been a better sci-fi movie.

Ginger & Rosa A Must-See

The new BBC-Produced movie Ginger & Rosa was an absolute delight to watch. It's the tumultuous world of 1962 as seen through the eyes of two British teenagers - Ginger played by the flawlessly natural and gifted American Elle Fanning; and Rosa played by the18-year-old Australian actress, Alice Englert, daughter of renowned New Zealand director Jane Campion (The Piano).

I've never seen any of writer and director Sally Potter's previous movies. But having seen her latest, I've concluded that she's a creative force to reckon with. The movie stays away from cliches but still reminds us of our own teenaged years or offsprings. Only a woman writer/director can produce such a masterpiece with a strong screenplay coupled with sense and sensitivity.

But what makes the movie almost perfect is the wonderful cast ensemble (apart from the two teenaged leads) - Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks (Joan from Mad Men) and Annette Bening. The music (from Schubert to Charlie Parker to Miles Davis) and poetry are also great icings on the cake.

Elle and Dakota Fanning are probably two of the best-known child actresses in North America. But the younger Fanning even outshines her older sibling with her accomplishments so far. Her performance in this movie reminds me of the very young Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver and has already garnered her nominations for the Best Actress Award at the British Independent Film Awards and also the Best Young Actress Award by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The 5'8" lanky teenager from Georgia, U.S.A., who has been acting since she was three, will further win numerous accolades as she matures.

I'm really proud to see that Canada is one of the producing countries of this film in addition to the BBC and other independent film companies from Denmark and Croatia.

Noomi Rapace Underutilized In Dead Man Down

Dead Man Down is one of those movies shot for the big screen, but could be perceived as a made-for-TV crime drama. Danish director Niels Arden Oplev, best known for his Swedish movie The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, built his career from the production of a series of TV movies. The 2009 Swedish thriller - the first in a trilogy - made such an impact internationally that it not only made Oplev famous, but also generated worldwide attention to its leading actress Noomi Rapace as well.

When comparing the Hollywood version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with its Swedish counterpart, the latter is definitely stronger and more impactful. But that's why, perhaps, Dead Man Down is disappointing since I expected Oplev's American theatrical debut to have a bigger 'wow' impact. It's entertaining and suspenseful if you like thrillers and action movies, but the plot is too weak to be credible. The story tries to paint revenge as the biggest priority for crime kingpins and assassins, but the attempt to add a good conscience to the underworld characters is just not convincing enough. Unlike Quentin Tarentino whose movies are very often about revenge as well, this flick lacks depth and poetry.

But the weakest link in the entire film is that Noomi Rapace's talents are very underutilized. Rapace's performance as Lisabeth Salander in the Millennium Trilogy was breathtakingly excellent and will, probably, continue to haunt audiences around the world for a long time to come. But her accolades throughout her career - from her stellar stage-performing record to her Best Actress award at Sweden's prestigious Guldbagge Awards - should lead to an ongoing expansion of her roles rather than repetitive and limiting ones. The Spanish-Swedish actress should really stop playing physically and emotionally tormented women on screen. She undertook such an insignificant and totally dispensable role as the gypsy in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. In Dead Man Down, she once again plays a physically-abused, but tough woman seeking revenge.

Along the same line, Colin Farrell's talent as an actor is also not maximized. Having seen his performance in Phone Booth, I continue to wonder why he continuously chooses action-hero roles with very few facial expressions required. I can only say that the star power of Oplev and Rapace had to be the only reason why there's a cast of renowned actors in very minor, supportive roles in this movie - Oscar-Award nominee Terrence Howard, French actress Isabelle Huppert and the always charismatic Armand Assante.

The Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo may be more successful, but Rooney Mara has moved on beyond her Lisabeth Salender role whereas Noomi Rapace still has not.

Building A Positive Future Trumps Chilean Dictatorship

As a marketing professional, I'm particularly interested in the Spanish-language film No directed by Chilean director Pablo Larrain. Like Argo, the film is based on history, albeit an overdramatization of what happened during the 1988 plebiscite. The premise of the film is very simple - an advertising executive devised and implemented a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum peacefully after 15 years of dictatorship.

The film was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at this year's Oscars but lost to the French movie Amour. Its simplicity drew many criticisms, but I think it's the simplicity that resulted in a nomination. The ad campaign drives home a direct message: both politics and marketing are built on dreams of the future. Pinochet's camp and its Yes marketing team didn't get that and underestimated the opposition. General Pinochet's administration further tried to suppress and intimidate the No team with oppressive moves.

The movie was filmed video-style to give an impression of a documentary-like cinema piece in the 80s. Of course, we all understand that it took more than an advertising campaign to overthrow the Pinochet autocracy, but the message of a happy and promising future free of dictatorship was too irresistible for Chileans. Yes, the ad campaign might be tacky and plagiaristic at times, but the marketing goal was ultimately achieved.

The film is successful because it's serious and funny at the same time. We see the real footage of the oppression and the intimidation. At the same time, we also see the strengths and weaknesses of what marketing can and cannot do. We also witness the power of third-party endorsement when real footage of Hollywood celebrities showed their support for the No campaign - Superman Christopher Reeve, Jane Fonda in her activist mode, and Richard Dreyfuss expressing his support on TV in Spanish. 

But the film's success is largely attributed to its lead actor, Mexican superstar Gael Garcia Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries), who's renowned not only for his acting talent, but also for his choice of roles. Bernal expressed in fluent English in a London TV interview that politics is very much part of everyday life in Latin America, and this became the essence of the movie No. Even though he started his career as a TV soap opera heartthrob in Mexico, Bernal became the first Mexican actor to be accepted at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London at the age of 19. His acting is a combination of emotional intensity with the authenticity of an everyday hero. Bernal is a thinking woman's Romeo in Latin America - no wonder Natalie Portman dated him for several years before moving on to others and marrying ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied.

This movie is an intelligent production, but like the Academy Awards jurors, I prefer Amour even more.

A Stunning Hitchcockian Thriller

I've not seen such a masterpiece in the thriller genre for a long time - watching Stoker today was like simultaneously reading a poem and a suspense novel!

South Korean director Park Chan-Wook's first English-language film is a stunner - visually mesmerizing, sumptuous in imageries, and Hitchcockian in suspense! No wonder the film garnered a lot of attention at the recent Sundance Festival. Park is famous for stylistic violence, but with this English-language film debut, he has ascended to superstardom. Park's background is so interesting - a former philosophy student and a former film critic, he decided to try to become a filmmaker after seeing Hitchcock's Vertigo. After winning the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for his film Oldboy, he became famous for The Vengeance Trilogy. It's not surprising that director Quentin Tarentino is a huge fan of Park's.

Like Chinese-American director Ang Lee, Park used an interpreter on set even though he speaks English. But Park's accomplishment with Stoker is obviously supported by many other pleasant surprises, First and foremost, there is a total of eight producers including such famous names as Ridley and Tony Scott and Wentworth Miller, the hugely-popular leading star of the TV drama Prison Break. A Princeton graduate who majored in English Literature, Miller also debuted with his screenwriting talent in this movie, proving that he's not just a pretty face.

The cast is absolutely excellent - Mia Wasikowska (the lead actress in Jane Eyre) as the 18-year-old India Stoker; Nicole Kidman as her unhappy, self-destructive mother; and Matthew Goode (from Woody Allen's Match Point) as the ultimate creepy charmer, Charles Stoker. British composer Clint Mansell also wrote a mesmerizing score for the film.

For thrillers to be successful, they need to make the audience guess what's going to happen next. Stoker not only makes our brains work fast, it also makes us crave more - that's the creepy success of this masterpiece!

Best Oscar Show In Last Decade

The Academy Awards live broadcast finally has a dim of hope - last night's Oscars show was probably the best in the last decade. Seth MacFarlane proved to be an excellent choice as the new host - he was comfortable in his own skin, self-deprecating and not afraid to make some bold jokes. The authorities picked him because they thought he might attract a younger audience with his Family Guy and Ted fame. While we're still waiting for the Nielsen numbers to see whether the desired demographics tuned in or not, this boomer and others were glued to the TV set last night. In fact, it was quite difficult to get up from the couch and do other tasks such as taking a shower or going for a bathroom break.

MacFarlane even looked good in his white tux. I read that he has consulted veteran host Billy Crystal who has given him some tips. I've always liked Crystal, but let's not forget - MacFarlane is much younger, looks good and can sing!

Having Captain Kirk (the very overweight Canadian William Shatner) beamed in to offer his two cents worth and inviting First Lady Michelle Obama to announce the Best Picture at the end were pleasant surprises. The song and dance portions, including goddess-like Charlize Theron dancing a number with the Hollywood 'it' boy at the moment, Channing Tatum (Tatum strutted his stuff in Magic Mike and the Step Up movies while Theron was trained as a ballet dancer and performed in New York productions of Swan Lake and the Nutcracker); the entire principal cast ensemble from Les Miserables performing on stage; Barbra Streisand singing The Way We Were in memory of the late Marvin Hamlisch and for the first time at the Oscars in 36 years; Dame Shirley Bassey performing for the first time ever at the Academy Awards; all added to the glamour and pizzazz that the Awards show should represent.

Because it's MacFarlane writing some of the materials, the show was also fun for the first time in years - Mark Wahlberg and his teddy bear buddy cracking a few jokes (Ted was a successful Seth MacFarlane creation); Joseph Gordon-Levitt performing a duet with Daniel Radcliffe; and the muppets reenacting the cockpit scene in Flight were all good fun to watch.

I also like the pairing of the presenters - children of film legends who are now legends themselves (Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas); the lead cast of Chicago celebrating its 10th anniversary in film; the lead actors from The Avengers (but where's Scarlett Johansson?); the physically-opposite Charlize Theron and Dustin Hoffman. These are the people and the reasons why we love to go to movies. Obviously there was the usual protocol to expect - last year's award winners respectively gave out this year's Oscars. But the ceremony seemed to be shorter this year even though in duration, it was still three-and-a-half-hour long. The program also wisely shrunk the tributes and lifetime awards into reports from earlier ceremonies rather than having the actual ceremonies live.

The only surprises of the coveted Awards were only good ones - Life Of Pi won Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Visual Effect and Best Cinematography - and most of them associated with Canadian artists. I was also overjoyed to see my favourite director Quintin Tarantino winning the Best Original Screenplay for Django Unchained, a brilliant movie on slavery emancipation.

The evening's best-dressed awards should go to Charlize Theron with her stunning short hair and in a white Dior gown and Catherine Zeta-Jones in a gold-sequined Zuhair Murad gown. Overgilded, according to some fashion critics? Well, they have no idea what glamour means!

Was the show perfect? Of course, not. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise, they should have all lead actors of the Bond movies all appearing on stage. I'm also tired of Jack Nicholson and his sunglasses. The production team of the Academy Awards show, get rid of Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep next year, keep MacFarlane as the host, and surprise us even more: then perhaps your show might even be a resounding success in the near future!

Painful But Honest Masterpiece About Power of Love

I finally got a chance to go see the critically-acclaimed Amour. And I'm now convinced that this will win the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Movie.

The film, directed by Austrian Michael Haneke, deserves to sweep the 2012 Palm d'Or at Cannes, two awards (Best Leading Actress and Best Film Not in the English Language) at the 66th British Academy Film Awards and four awards at the 25th European Film Awards.

What a great salute to senior film-makers and actors - director Michael Haneke just turned 70 and the two principal actors in the film, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, are both in their 80s. This is particularly a big feat for the director to have successfully brought Trintignant on board as the actor has retired from films since 1998! Emmanuelle Riva is not only beyond excellent in her role as the dying Anne, but she's also stunning at 86, both with or without clothes.

European movies are always more subtle and potent than North American ones, but this film manages to invite us, the audience, to participate in and observe the long and painful process of the body withering away. Ninety percent of the film was shot within the elegant Parisian apartment and we're witnessing just daily chores of what could be happening to ourselves or to our friends' families. But the apartment, as well as our bodies, could be prisons and the film is painful to watch because all of us either have experienced this kind of pain or, even worse, to see the cinematic mirror reflecting the imminent winter of our our own aging bodies!

The director is honest and minimalistic, but at the same time, brutal and raw in depicting the pain and truth of mortality. What's happening with the well-cultured and well-to-do octogenarians could happen to many, many others in different parts of the world. The couple has always been self-reliant throughout their lives and until the very end. Unfortunately, boomer kids are depicted as useless and only enhance the burden of the helpless couple. Yes, life is cruel, but it's also beautiful according to Anne (played by Riva)who's leafing through her photo albums during her last days.

We're never told what exactly happened to Georges (played by Trintignant) towards the end; but this is where I'm interested in comparing notes with my friends because the conclusion is subject to different interpretations. And, of course, the metaphor of the visiting pigeon and how Georges described it in his letter.

We learn from this movie that love is passionate, caring, routinely and fun; but more importantly, it's cruel, poignant, strong, violent and it eventually does come to an end like our frail bodies!

Tackling Mental Health In A Warm, Funny Way

I've been meaning to blog about Silver Linings Playbook for a long time. Having seen it twice now, I can conclude that even if you don't like any of the principal characters or actors, you are going to like the movie.

Mental health is a serious issue and many, many movies have chosen it as a main theme, but with a very serious and tragical treatment. With the stigma attached to this illness, comedies about the subject matter are difficult to succeed because any jokes will not be kindly taken. But director David O. Russell (The Fighter) adapted the novel by Matthew Quick into a wonderful warm, funny and touching movie.

The biggest irony of all is that even though the two lead characters in the movie are both former mental illness sufferers - Pat (played by Bradley Cooper) suffered from bipolar disorder and Tiffany (played by Jennifer Lawrence) is a former sex addict - the people who are really currently mentally ill in the movie are all those around them. The key message here is obviously this: let's not discriminate or stigmatize mentally-ill patients because, in reality, all of us may not be as mentally healthy as we think we are.

I've always been a big fan of Bradley Cooper and in addition to playing this role in such a warm, genuine and honest way, he is also the producer of the film. Jennifer Lawrence has already swept both the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Best Actress Awards for her role. At 21 when she was shooting the movie, the makeup director had to put extra liquid eyeliner on her to make her look older. Lawrence apparently fought very hard for the role because both Russell and Cooper thought she's too young to play the 'white trash' Tiffany. Now at 22, Lawrence has proven that she can take on any roles with gusto. She's excellent in this movie, but I thought Jessica Chastain is even better in Zero Dark Thirty. Nevertheless, Lawrence will definitely win the Oscar as well.

The entire cast is great and funny, but I've not seen Robert De Niro so good in a comical role in a long time. As Cooper's father, De Niro is not only extremely funny, but he's also an emotional jock with obsessive-compulsive habits. This movie was shot in Philadelphia where Bradley Cooper grew up in real life. De Niro, with his standard New York accent, was asking Cooper's visiting uncle for help when reading the script to make sure that he got the Philly accent right.

At the SAG Awards event, we also learned from Jennifer Lawrence that David O. Russell was drawn to the story because of the connection to his own son, who is bipolar and has OCD. What a great work of art and let's hope the movie will help motivate all mentally ill patients to get better!

Entertaining But Confusing 'Broken City'

In spite of bad reviews, I found Broken City quite entertaining, particularly if you're a Mark Wahlberg fan. The problem with this flick is that the writer Brian Tucker and director Allen Hughes (The Book of Eli, From Hell) are trying too hard. They make the audience work their brains out and we still can't figure out what the sub-plots mean at the end of the movie. In fact, my friends and I have concluded that some of the sub-plots are just superfluous.

Without being a spoiler, the Police Commissioner Carl Fairbanks (played by Jeffrey Wright) is totally confusing. You never know until the end which side is he playing with. While the hot Natalie Martinez (CSI New York) is still sexy playing Wahlberg's girlfriend, the story line around her is kind of weak. It's not even convincing that they've been together for seven years.

Then, there are the four principal characters: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Barry Pepper. Wahlberg, as usual, plays a damaged former cop trying to fight the bad guys under any circumstances. As I've posted before, Wahlberg needs to take a break on this kind of character trail and should maybe try playing an evil guy. But he continues to produce and perform such roles as the alcoholic Billy Taggart in this movie. While women like to see him taking his shirt off - he did it again in this one - this kind of character just doesn't earn him additional respect. Wahlberg is one of the hottest producers now as both Entourage and Boardwalk Empire are hugely popular. But he needs to break new ground by trying a different genre soon.

There's no actress nowadays that is as glamorous and as good with acting as Catherine Zeta-Jones. There's no doubt that she's done some face work, but even though you can detect those flaws on her face, she's still drop-dead movie-star gorgeous in every scene!

Having just come out of a terrible role at Les Miserables (I meant he literally can't sing), Russell Crowe is actually quite convincing as the crooked mayor of New York, Mayor Hostetler. But it bothers me that except for Canadian actor Barry Pepper who plays Jack Valliant, and perhaps Wahlberg, none of the principal characters seemed to be making any effort in putting on a New York or even American accent. And this is just plain sloppiness! Pepper who played Robert Kennedy in the TV drama The Kennedys,
is so strong an actor that he's mesmerizing in every role he plays including this one.

If you like the principal actors and don't mind being confused every now and then, you will find Broken City entertaining.

Gangster Squad is No Untouchables

Watching Gangster Squad is like watching a very inferior The Untouchables. In fact, it's worse - it wants to be The Untouchables, but director Ruben Fleischer is not Brian De Palma.

Having said that, if your expectations are low, then you'll find the flick very entertaining because the costumes are great and the cast of male actors is very handsome. But why fine actors such as Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling appear in such an empty movie is just beyond any reason. Even though Penn has won many awards, I always find him a bit overacting just like Leonardo DiCaprio. And he's definitely exaggerating his role as Mickey Cohen in this one. The aging Penn seems to have taken his doses of Botox and facial expressions are just lacking - a smirk here and there and always giving a feigned, tough wise-guy kind of look!

Josh Brolin is so handsome that it's almost distracting. Unlike Elliott Ness who is believable because he's got his vulnerabilities, Brolin's character as Sgt. John O'Mara just lacks credibility because he's so focused on being the stubborn, good cop that he seems to be ignoring his friends, colleagues and family.

There's something wrong about Ryan Gosling's performance. As alcoholic Sgt. Jerry Wooters, Gosling almost strikes me as gay in his very effeminate role and voice in the flick. All the actresses in this flick are dispensable, so even Emma Stone's talent is wasted in this one. Stone's strongest asset is never her looks and to cast her as Grace Faraday was a big mistake.

Everything is predictable in this movie and there's no depth either in the plot or the acting. This is really not surprising since director Ruben Fleischer made his fame from Zombieland and music videos. What surprises me is that how did the team of six producers (including Fleischer as executive producer) assemble such a strong cast to play in this souless movie?

A Must-See Controversial Movie About Killing bin Laden

If you didn't know anything about award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow's background, you would have thought that perhaps she's born of a military family. Both of her two most recent works, including the Oscar-award-winning The Hurt Locker and her current Zero Dark Thirty were named after specific military terms which are jargons to lay movie-goers like me. But the 61-year-old woman director was the only girl born to a librarian and a paint factory manager. So with her education in fine arts institutions first as a painter, and then a graduate from the film program at Columbia University, one wonders why she has a track record of picking the most masculine subjects - cops and gansters, bikers, FBI agents, nuclear-powered submarine, the Iraq war and now, more recently, the CIA and the U.S. Navy Seals' capturing and killing of Osama bin Laden.

I have to admit that I wan't a fan of The Hurt Locker even though Jeremy Renner is one of my most favourite actors. But the movie won Bigelow numerous awards including being the first woman to receive an Academy Award for Best Director. Now history might repeat itself again in next month's Academy Awards event except that Bigelow is not among the Best Director nominees for Zero Dark Thirty even though the film is up for five Awards - Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing. The movie is controversial because of the waterboarding torturing of 'detainees' used. We all read about the Acting CIA Director protesting to the film studio and via a media statement that even though CIA operatives have met with the film's production team prior to shooting the movie, the torturing techniques used in the flick were inaccurate. There were speculations that this is the reason why Bigelow didn't get her Best Director nomination this time round.

Whatever people say about the accuracy of the plot details, Zero Dark Thirty (a military term referring to 30 minutes after midnight and is prevailingly pronounced as Oh instead of zero) is a fabulous film! What strikes you is the outstanding screenplay written by Mark Boal who is also one of the producers. He also wrote The Hurt Locker and In The Valley of Elah, another terrific film. While the thrilling plot and war scenes keep you on the edge of the seat, it's the screenplay and the dialogue that's captivating.

The entire cast is very strong, but Jessica Chastain is exceptional as always as CIA agent Maya. Chastain has expressed in various interviews that playing the role of real-life woman CIA operative who was the real heroine behind the capturing and killing of bin Laden was, in a way, Chastain's method of celebrating this woman's accomplishments. I also thought that Australian actor Jason Clarke, who plays another CIA agent Dan, should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Unfortunately, I think because he's the main U.S. agent executing the torture in the film, that's why he might have been snubbed by the Academy.

The movie is so intense that you wouldn't feel that it's 157 minutes long. For most of us movie-goers who already know the story's ending, to keep us biting our fingers throughout the film was a huge feat. When bin Laden was finally killed in the movie, I couldn't help but recall the TV newscasts of President Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and the entire senior U.S. Administration staff watching the whole thing unfolding in the Oval Office's Situation Room.

Even though you may not have a stomach for violence and torture, this is a must-see movie because it's history!

Excellent Screen Adaptation of Epic Musical

I was trying to delay seeing Les Miserables over X'mas because the depressing story didn't seem to fit in well with the jolly Holiday Season. So having finally watched it earlier this week, I was pleasantly surprised. No wonder the movie has garnered eight Oscar nominations - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Production Design, Best Original Music (the new song Suddenly was written for the movie), Best Sound Mixing, Best Costumes, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling - 25 years after the Broadway musical won eight Tony Awards.

Les Miserables was never one of my favourite musicals, but the large-screen adaptation is an excellent masterpiece on all fronts and, in fact, is even better than the stage version itself! Director Tom Hooper makes the transitions between scenes seamless and beautiful. Under his lenses, the distinction between good and evil;  the misery of the poor and deprived; the beautiful love story; and the vigour of the French revolution are all portrayed with perfection. After such great feats as The King's Speech and Les Miserables, Hooper is now added to my most-respected directors list.

The cast is wonderful as far as the acting is concerned. Anne Hathaway is such a talented actress that it's not surprising that she's one of the few leading actors who can really sing. Hugh Jackman's performance as the lead actor in this film certainly transcends his X-Men fame. Having said that, there's acting and there's singing. Apart from Anne Hathaway who is just outstanding as a songstress and actress, most of the other lead actors in the film are just mediocre singers. By now, we've all read about the challenges this film's actors had to face by singing live throughout the movie. Russell Crowe should definitely never take up a musical role ever again - even his acting has been kind of lacklustre of late! I heard that Paul Bettany was originally considered for the role of Inspector Javert and he would have done a much better job than Crowe. Although gifted and trained as a singer, Jackman is more impressive as an actor playing Jean Valjean instead of his vocal skills. Eddie Redmayne is one of those British actors who always exceeds your expectations, but you can never remember his name or which was the last movie he's in.

In spite of my dislike of Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, both of them are convincing as buffoon characters and I'm surprised that Lady Bonham Carter can actually sing! But I thought the most outstanding songstress in this flick is 22-year-old Samantha Barks who plays Eponine. I've read that she won this role over Taylor Swift and this is certainly no small feat.

Hugh Jackman may not beat Daniel Day-Lewis in the Best Actor category, but let's hope Les Miserables the movie can do better than Lincoln at the Oscars next month.

A New Perspective Of Condemning Slavery

I love watching Quentin Tarantino's movies because they are like cartoons with real-life people in it. They are always extravagant, violent, ultra-creative and extremely funny. I guess this sums up his new movie Django Unchained as well - brilliantly original, skillfully crafted, hilariously funny, wildly entertaining and cooler than Jay-Z!

The director's eighth movie took him 130 days to shoot with some of the wild, wild West scenes (taking place in the south, rather than the West) filmed in California, Wyoming and at the National Historic Landmark Evergreen Plantation in Wallace, Louisana, just outside of New Orleans. That's why Candyland looks stunning in the movie - the ultimate castle for all evil white men!

Every Tarantino film has a key message - for Django Unchained, the message is loud and clear: slavery and racial discrimination are despicable and abominable, and should be avenged! Tarantino decided to drive home this message via a Spaghetti-Western genre - his first attempt ever! And it's such an original masterpiece!

As a long-time Tarantino fan (I've seen and loved all his movies), I've come to expect a couple of things when I go experience his works of art: original creativity, clever screenplay, stylish execution, the use of quirky but aptly-selected music, and so much violence that it becomes super comical. All these attributes exist in Django Unchained again. Even then, Tarantino sensitively postponed the worldwide screening of the movie after the horrible Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Connecticut.

The cast is outstanding and each of them deserves an Academy Award for either Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor. I can't even imagine how Will Smith (Tarantino wrote the entire story with Smith in mind for the role of Django Freeman) could have done a better job than Jamie Foxx who rode his own horse Cheetah in the movie and, for his equestrian skills alone, I can go see this film one more time. Although both Leonardo Di Caprio and Christoph Waltz are nominated for a Gloden Globe as Best Supporting Actor, I think this should be given to the latter who manages to outshine everybody else once again or to Samuel L. Jackson who has a powerful, albeit minor role in the film.

I read somewhere that director Spike Lee refused to see the movie because he thought Tarantino misused the 'n' word too many times and that Lee claimed that he respects his ancestors too much to watch such a 'ridiculous' movie. Well, I'm not going to repeat how Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson defended the movie, but to the diehard group of Tarantino's followers and fans, most of whom are young men, the movie is a different and less serious way to condemn black slavery than Roots, Lincoln or The Help.

Tarantino first made his fame in La La Land as a screen writer, so it's not surprising that he's not only up for a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay, but also as Best Director and Best Movie. Let's hope it's not going to be beaten by the very boring Lincoln!