Starring Michael Nyquist, Sven-Bertil Taube, Noomi Rapace
Directed by Neils Arden Oplev
Based on the Swedish thriller by Stieg Larsson
A journalist is hired by a wealthy industrialist to find out what happened to a sixteen-year-old girl who disappeared without a trace forty years earlier.
This March a new version of Alice in Wonderland will be released to theatres, giving audiences the chance to see this classic fairy tale through the lens of Tim Burton’s imagination. The new version has a number of changes, such as portraying Alice in her teens, and uses many themes from the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. But before you rush out to view this updated classic, here is a quick list of some of the main characters that were originally brought to life by Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll. It’s a quick refresher that should get you up to speed on this timeless tale and have you ready to experience the new movie. ]
The Caterpillar - This character is probably best known for smoking a hookah and instructing Alice on how to eat a special mushroom in order to grow or shrink to help her on her journey. Although Alice is mostly annoyed with the Caterpillar initially, she does benefit from his help and advice.
“Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief” My 0-10 rating: 8 Genre: Adventure, Fantasy Director: Chris Columbus Screenwriter: Craig Titley, based on the Rick Riordan novels Starring: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Steve Coogan, Melina Kanakaredes, Jack Abel, Catherine Keener, Kevin McKidd, Joe Pantoliano, Uma Thurman Time: 1 hr., 59 min. Rating: PG (for action violence and peril, some scary images, suggestive material, mild vulgarity)
Hey, big surprise. “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief” is almost totally fun for everybody, with enormously imaginative and spellbinding digital effects, has a pretty decent script and is terrifically educational while being never less than top entertainment.
Critically, it’s being compared unfavorably to Harry Potter. Unfair. This is not Harry Potter and isn’t supposed to be. It has its own singular delights and its concepts of what Greek gods do are often very humorous. Granted, by virtue of its attractive and appealing leads, it’s pitched hard to teenagers, but its attractions are numerous and never cheap.
“Shutter Island” My 0-10 rating: 9 Genre: Psychological Thriller Director: Martin Scorsese Screenwriter: Laeta Kalogridis, based on the Dennis Lehane 2003 novel Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Max von Sydow Time: 2 hrs., 18 min. Rating: R (for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity)
A superior crime thriller of the first magnitude, “Shutter Island” is a masterpiece of exquisite depression, creative bleakness, relentless twists and a surprise ending to end all.
This is master director Martin Scorcese outdoing himself. Mostly known for the recent “The Departed,” his classics were “Gangs of New York,” “Age of Innocence” and, of course, “Goodfellas.”
Here he designs a mercilessly dreary story of a remote island hospital for the criminally insane whose vivid characters — staff, inmates and federal investigators — and their secret motivations become hypnotically fascinating. Scorcese’s constant balance between clues, schemes and tinderbox violence develops into a welling suspense tale which proceeds to an ingenious ending that wraps up the unwrappable.
BOTTOM LINE: Misguided, uneven and poorly executed, this re-telling of “The Wolfman” is by and large a waste of time, despite some excellent production design and visuals.
THE GOOD: Starting from good source material, “The Wolfman” seeks to tell the classic tale of the man cursed to turn in to a werewolf whenever the moon is full. Benicio Del Toro plays Lawrence Talbot, the prodigal son who returns to the family estate of his father Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins) upon hearing the news of the death of his brother Ben at the hands of a wild animal. Wanting to find answers, Lawrence eventually becomes cursed himself when he is attacked by the werewolf. Condemned to damnation and life as a werewolf when the moon turns full, Lawrence eventually discovers the truth about his father, and his mother’s death, which leads to a violent confrontation and resolution between them
Ajami is the name of a neighbourhood in the Israeli port city of Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv, but retaining its own ancient character. The city blends Jewish and Arabic culture, and this blending is vividly depicted in the use of the Hebrew and Arabic languages in the film of the same name, Ajami. The film was also co-directed by an Israeli Arab, Scandar Copti, and Yaron Shani, an Israeli Jew. Ajani is nominated for an Academy Award this year for best foreign-language film. It was runner up for the Camera D’Or at Cannes last year.
The film’s themes of tribal conflict and enmity between ethnic and religious groups are portrayed in a gritty, documentary style with non-professional actors. The directors trained the “actors” in improvisation workshops, then filmed the story without a conventional script. They use flashbacks and multiple points of view to show events from different perspectives and reveal more and more about the characters and situations.
Roman Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland and did not attend, has won the Best Director award at the Berlin Film Festival for his new movie The Ghost Writer. The movie is about a ghost writer hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister, said to be based on Tony Blair. Polanski reportedly worked on the nearly finished film in his prison cell, transferring it via the prison warden to his film editor outside.
A zany, camp spoof of the Western genre, Quick Gun Murugun pits the lonely, vegetarian cowboy against super-baddie Rice Plate Reddy (Nassar), the scheming capitalist who aims for world domination with his McDosa franchise. Quick Gun Murugun believes only vegetarianism can save the world and his mission is to protect the cows of the world. He is torn between love for the vivacious Mango Dolly (Rhamba), and his first love, Locket Lover (Anu Menon). Think Blazing Saddles set in South India, with references to Clint Eastwood films and send-ups of Bollywood conventions.
Mind it!
With song and dance numbers like Kootchi Kootchi Twist and Aunties on the Dance Floor, it’s no wonder the film has become a cult hit already.
Directed byKaushik Mukherjee (aka Q) Running Time: 91 mins English and Bengali/Hindi/Tamil with English subtitles
A personal. even intimate documentary film in which director Q looks at his own relationship with his girlfriend and at sexuality in general in the land of the Kama Sutra. Contradictions abound in this country where women are often mistreated and talk of sex is practically taboo in polite society.
Two thumbs up from Roger Ebert and excellent reviews everywhere for his thriller from South Korea about an ex-cop who now makes his living as a pimp. When his girls start to go missing without paying him what they owe him, he starts to suspect a serial killer on the loose. Roger Ebert writes “When I see a film like this it reminds me of what we’re (the American audience) missing.”
It has some scenes, especially one involving a child’s death that will bruise you. Yet despite all this, My Name is Khan never becomes the empowering, inspiring Forest Gump-like epic. Mainly because the connective tissue tying it together is deeply flawed and in places, embarrassingly naive.
Khan is the story of Rizwan Khan, played by Shah Rukh, who has Asperger’s syndrome. This milder form of autism impairs Rizwan’s social communication skills and gives him some decidedly odd behavior patterns - he can’t stand loud sounds or the colour yellow.
He rotates stones obsessively and can barely bring himself to hug someone. Rizwan is far from crazy but he definitely moves to the beat of a different drummer. Despite this he finds love and a family with Mandira, played by Kajol.
I have been a Hollywood Make-up Artist for almost ten years now. I love being on shoots and being a part of the staging of what eventually becomes a finished work of art. And that is what it is, a work of art, not natural beauty.
We know everyone is beautiful. You are beautiful! You are perfectly imperfect exactly the way you are… from head to toe. You are the only one with that nose. Your freckles are adorable. Your teeth make up an unforgettable smile. Your hair has the nicest tone and cutest cut. Your skin is soft and your feet are graceful. Could you improve a few things? Sure, maybe. But you will NEVER be perfect and that is great! How boring would it be if we all were perfect and not uniquely beautiful?
It is my job to make people close to perfect for shoots. Because of what I do, people are always asking for beauty advice. But I make it my living to point out each person’s unique beauty.
Film director Billy Wilder left his native Austria to evade the Nazis, and after emigrating to the U.S., became the quintessential American director. He started as a screenwriter for Ernst Lubisch and others then began directing with The Front Page, later re-filmed as His Girl Friday.
Double Indemnity (1944) was Wilder’s third, but first stylistically serious film, and is given credit for the birth of film noir, literally “night film”. This term describes a visual style and moods of a type of dramatic film, usually crime, that’s much more gritty and realistic than most films prior to this era.
Film noir was mostly shot at night or in dark interiors; there’s lots of use of shadows, dimly lit edges, light from Venetian blinds which simulates bars across characters who may be headed for the real thing, and backlit smoke. Indemnity uses both cigars and cigarettes, characters smoking whenever it gets tense, or even to relax after sex.