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. 

Starring Ricardo Darin. Soledad Villamil Pablo Rago, Javier Godino

Directed by Juan Jose Campanella

Grand Jury Prize Winner, Cannes, 2009

Starring Tahat Rahim, Niels Arestrup

Directed by Jacques Audiard

Directed by Giles Borg

Excellent, funny and touching film about an English indie band struggling to stay together and make it. 

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

Starring Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson, Justin Long

Directed by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo

Directed by Paul Greengrass

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.