The film is about a 39 year old street performer in Dublin (Glen Hansard). He plays songs for the people in the day, and his own songs at night, while fighting off junkies who try and steal his earnings. One night a lovely 17 year old Czech immigrant worker (Markéta Iglová) who works selling flowers is lured in by his music. She can only give 10 pence, but she is interested in the ex girlfriend that the song is about, and when she learns that he fixes vacuum cleaners at his father’s shop by day, she promises to bring her broken one the next day. She arrives with vacuum in hand, and he does not want to take it, but does agree to let her go to lunch with him. He learns she is a musician as well, having learned piano from her violin playing father before he died. The two go to a local music shop where the owner lets her play, and he teachers her his song about his ex, an they play it together (this if Falling Slowly which won the academy award), making the song even better than it was. And the two begin to like each other. They head back to his father’s shop and she meets his father (BIll Hodnett) and they fix his vacuum. They then chat, and he tells her about his ex having cheated on him and left him for London. She tells him if he played the song for her, he would win her back. She says she has to go home, and he asks her to stay, but she is offended and leaves in a huff.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The next day, he searches for her and apologizes, and patches things up, agreeing to meet again. This time they go to her house, meeting her mother (Danuse Ktrestova) and her 2 year old daughter (Kate Haugh), whose father is back home. He ends up playing a song for her without lyrics, and asking her to write the lyrics. Giving her a CD of his music, with the song, and lending her his CD player to listen to the music. The batteries die, and she must go to the store to get more, taking money from her daughters piggy bank, which she promises to pay back, and sings the lyrics as she walks back from the store listening to the music.

The two become closer, going to a party with his friends, where musicians all sing and perform.

Through her convincing he decides to move to London with some recordings of his music, and try to win his ex back. He asks her to record with him, and she readily agrees. They go and get a bank loan, where the loan office (Sean Miller) also is a musician, so quickly gives the loan, and the are able to rent a professional studio. And they go out and convince street musicians to play with them.

They end up going out for a day on his dad’s motorcycle, where he finds out she is still married to the an older man, but there is nothing there anymore. When he asks if she still loves her husband, she replies in Czech, Miliju tebe, which is not translated, but means that she loves him.

They go to the recording studio, where the engineer Eamon (Geoff Minogue) is depressed, thinking these yokels are wasting his time, but is blown away as soon as he hears the guys first song (When Your Mind’s Made Up).

On a brake at night the guy sees the girl playing her own song on piano (The Hill) which tells of her romantic frustrations. She breaks down, and he asks her to come to London with him, but she says she cannot bring her mother and baby allong.

They record all night, and as they walk back, he asks her if she wants to hang out longer, and she says it will only lead to hanky panky, which she does not seem to mind, but thinks it will be abad idea. They do agree to meet one more time, but she stands him up, and he can’t find her when he is leaving for the airport.

The Guy’s father listened to the demo, and gave him some money to start in London, and the guy calls his ex and agrees to come and find her. On the way to the airport he stops by the record shop and buys the girl a piano, which is delivered and she is delighted by it.

•••

Really a lovely little story of love that does not really work out, but from the music really should have, and I guess it did in real life for a while as the two toured together (the chemistry is obvious).

A must see film.

Ichi (Ayase Haruka from Cyborg She) is a poor homeless goze singer, a blind singer and entertainer who has been cast out of her home. We know this happens when a goze singer has relations with a man, but we are not shown exactly what happened to her, but she is not an ordinary goze singer, she is also a master swordsman who uses a unique underhand sword style, and the power of her amazingly trained ears to dispatch any opponent. She is taking shelter at the house of another cast out goze, this one now now working as a prostitute. The gangster who sleeps with her does not pay though, and she is beaten by him and his two men. Ichi does nothing, but then they see her, and she is much more beautiful than the other, so they begin to bother her. She is about to draw her sword, when the slightly bumbling Toma (Osawa Takao) shows up and challenges them, but then starts shaking when he tries to draw his sword, so he tries to buy them off. They take the money, and then plan to kill him anyway, but Ichi quickly dispatches all three. Toma is blown away and starts following her, and he says he lost all his money because of her (it was cut in half when she killed the Yakuza). They run into a kid while going into town, who takes them to a gambling house. Toma tries to earn some money, and Ichi gives him hints, using her exceptional ears, earning back his 10 ryo. As they leave some gangsters come on them and are going to kill them for the money, but Ichi quickly kills them all. The local town chief’s son comes upon them, this is Shirakawa Toraji (Yosuke Kubozuka) who thinks that Toma has done it, and hires him as the family bodyguard to protect them from the evil Banki (Nakamura Shido) and his henchmen.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Ichi sticks around as she has heard of a rumor of a blind master swordsman coming to town to entertain an official who will be arriving, and she hopes it is her master. We learn that she was raised by a blind swordsman (I am assuming this is Zatoichi) who trained her in the ways of the sword, and then had her installed as a goze. He still came and visited her, and taught her the sword though, but she has not seen him in years, and especially since she has been cast out, and wants to find out if he is in fact her father.

At the goze she was raped, and when she confronted the man, he attacked her and she killed him, so she was cast out of the one place where she was truly happy.

Toma is held up highly by Toraji and his men, but when the battle comes he can’t draw his sword, and causes more harm than good, and Toraji’s father is killed.

He goes out and finds Ichi, and ends up dueling her with a wooden stick, with which he bests her. His father was a master swordsman who ran a school, and as a child he accidentally blinded his mother with a sword, and has not been able to draw a sword since. His father ended up adopting his best student as his son and heir and Toma has been wandering for the last 5 years trying to be able to draw his sword again.

Ichi ends up learning that Banki knew the blind swordsman, so she goes to confront him, but is captured by his men, and locked up. Banki wants to break her and make her his woman, and he says he knew her father, who died of a sickness.

Toma comes and with the kid and his father manages to escape with the wounded Ichi. Ichi realizes she has feelings for Toma for the first time, and this may be a reason to live, as her only previous one was to find her master and see if he was her father. She awakens to find Toma is gone.

Toma is with Toraji in town at the final big battle between the two gangs. Toma still is having trouble drawing his sword, but finally manages when he goes to fight Banki, and the two strike each other down.

Ichi rushes to Toma and holds him as he dies, and he tells her to please live, for him, and then dies (this is the point I figured out early, that he must die, so she can wander at the end, or this could only be a one shot). Banki is not dead though, and he gets up, but Ichi cuts him down.

She leaves the town taking Toma’s robes to his family, to prove he was a true warrior, but she tells the child she will return, because she now has the will to live.

•••

I have heard many bad things about this film, but honestly I really enjoyed it.

Sure Ichi is distant for most of the film, but that is the character. She does not want to get close to anyone, nor help anyone, she just has her quest, but is slowly drawn out, and begins to care again, and that is what makes her human. And Haruka is gorgeous to watch, and plays the character very well.

And the film has some great action, and looks absolutely gorgeous so is really worth checking out. A really good film.

In 1922 the 18 year old Salvador Dáli (Robert Pattinson) came to university in Madrid. The strange introverted painter, was taken into a group of friend’s by the gregarious filmmaker Luis Bunuel (Matthew McNulty) where he meets the writer Federico García Loca (Javier Beltran). They become fast friends in a group of collegiate modernists. Luis dreams of going to Paris and being something in the world, while Federico hopes to change Spain and make it a better place. Federico is pursued by the writer Magdalena (Marina Gatell), but he never succumbs, and he and Salvador become fast friends. Salvador and Federico spend the summer together at Salvador’s families home.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The pair become closer and closer, eventually kissing while swimming in the water at night. The two never fully have sex, as Salvador is hurt, and pushes Federico away.
Back at school things are different. Luis feels left out. He is already homophobic, and when he ends up reading Federico’s journal he is appalled. Luis ends up going to the gay pickup part of town and beating up a gay man. He then leaves for Paris to find his own fortune.

Dali can’t handle Federico anymore either, and eventually he leaves to go with Luis to Paris.

Federico is completely crushed by this. Magdalena tries to get him to go away with her, but he won’t, especially when he sees that Dali has returned.

Dali is totally different now, and he ends up dropping out of school. Federico tries to get close to Salvadore again, but he pushes him away, though stays when Magdalena shows up and makes love to Federico while Dali watches.

Years pass, and Dalí has become involved with a woman named Gala (Arly Jover) who is already married, and who is still sleeping all around town. Luis meanwhile has become friends again with Federico since he is no longer friends with Salvador. Salvador is a bit nuts, affecting the total artist, who has even been kicked out of the surrealist art movement for his love of money.

Salvador calls for Federico to come and visit him in Paris. Federico barely knows the man anymore, who does not care for the people anymore (while Federico actively helps the people in Span). Salvador tries to convince Federico to join him and Gala and head to America to take it by storm, as Salvador has obviously realized his love for Federico.

Federico leaves Salvador for the last time, heading back to Spain. Luis warns him to hide because the government is after him, but Federico refuses, and returns to his home town. While he is there, he is picked up by the Fascist government and is executed.

Salvador is crushed, but does not show it, and goes on with his life, only talking about the relationship at the end of his life.

•••

Quite an enjoyable film, though I would love to know just how much of this is accurate, and how much is conjecture. Pattinson does an amazing job as Dali though, showing depth I have never seen, and really going crazy with him at the end.

Worth checking out, though not amazing.

Nicholas Cage is a hitman named Joe, who lives by 3 rules, which keeps him out of contact of not only anyone alive, but his clients, and keeps him a rich man, and at the top of his game. In Europe he makes a kill, and has decided to take a 4 part job in Bangkok, and then retire. He overdoses his local fixer with heroin, severing any ties with him, and disappears to Bangkok, where he is going to work for the local ganglord Surat (Nirattisai Kajareuk), but he works to keep his identity always secret. Quickly he spots a local pickpocket named Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm), who decides to make his local fixer, the one who will pick up his assignments and keep a layer between him and Surat. Kong goes to get Sarat’s assignments from a beautiful hostess named Aom (Panward Hemmanee) who works at an upscale club. He takes a liking to her right away, and wants to prove himself, buying her jewelry and the like.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Joe’s first kill, against a guy in a car, goes slightly badly when a kid sees him, and the kid keeps following, and to avoid hitting the kid, Joe ends up hurting his arm, hitting it on some rebar. He goes to a local pharmacy, and that is where he meets the deaf and dumb Fon (Charlie Yeung Choi Lei), who though she can’t speak manages to give him stuff that really helps his arm, and he is quickly smitten by the sweet girl.

Surat decides to have his men follow Kong, but Kong realizes it, and calls Joe, and Joe sends the case back with a phone, and calls Surat, and as Surat looks at his wife and sees a laser site on her head, he tells him that if he sees his men again, that his wife will pay the price.

Joe kills his second assignment, a man Kong called a very bad man, who takes young women from the country and sells them for sex. He drowns him in a pool with a body guard and naked girl on the side completely oblivious.

Joe starts seeing Fon as much as he can, meeting her grandmother and becoming a fixture in her life.

Kong had gotten heroin from Surat to kill Kong when he was done, but instead he takes him on as a student, and begins to train him in the art of being the perfect assassin. Showing him how to always be aware of his surroundings, and even giving him a brand new motorcycle.

Kong goes with Joe for the third kill at the floating market, which starts to go bad, and a huge chase ensues. Joe ends up chasing his target who is in a boat on a motorcycle, but manages to take him out.

Joe and Fon go to a temple, and on the way out they are mugged, but Joe quickly kills the two attackers, and Fon sees it. In horror she runs away never wanting to see Joe again.

Joe gets his fourth kill and it is a big wig fighting crime in Thailand, someone that Kong says is a very good man. Joe realizes he has 2 choices, to not do the job, or to get a bunch more money, do it and get out, and he decides to do it, elaborately setting up so he can get away.

Surat though is not taking chances and decides to take Joe out to leave no connection. His men rape Aom and take her, and when Kong goes to get her, they take him too.

Joe goes to do the killing, but when he sees the faces of the people adoring the man he is supposed to kill, he can’t do it, and in his hesitation, he is seen, and the military opens fire on him. Joe manages to escape and get home, but Surat’s men show up, so he blows up his house, and sets out to save Kong and Aom, but first leaving a note apologizing to Fon and saying goodbye.

Joe heads to Surat’s headquarters and starts taking down gang members in a swath, looking for Kong. He finally gets to him, and sets Kong and Aom to get out safe, while he goes for Surat, a really bad man.

Joe manages to corner Surat in his car, but the cops have shown up, and Joe has been badly shot. So he goes into the car, and sits next to Surat, putting the gun to his head, and his head next to Surat’s, and shooting and killing them both, but saving Kong and Aom.

••••

Really a good action film, with a great story of redemption. Sure Joe could not survive, but he did redeem himself a bit, and he did want to be a better person, and he did finally do some good as well.

My only real complaint int he film is seeing Fon dance, how can a deaf and dumb girl dance, she can’t hear the music!

The action is improved, and the film looks great. This did not get the best reviews, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kong (Pawalit Mongkolpisit) is a fead and dumb assassin, and is very good at his job. He gets his jobs from a bar hostess named Aom (Patharawarin Timkul) who is the ex of his best friend Jo (Pisek Intrakanchit). Jo is the assassin who trained Kong, but can no longer shoot himself since he got a bullet through his right hand. We learn that Kong used to be taunted as a child because of his deafness, and he started working cleaning up at a gun range. He showed impressive skills, mainly because he did not flinch from the sound of the gun, and Jo and Aom saw him, and had him shoot, and Jo took him under his wing, and trained him to be an assassin. Kong goes to Hong Kong on a hit, and when he returns he has a cold, so he goes to a pharmacy, where he begins to fall for a beautiful pharmacist who helps him named Fon (Premsinee Ratanasopha).

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Kong and Fon start to see a lot of each other, and obviously get along pretty well. Kong is the happiest he has ever been.

Aom meanwhile when getting the hits from the big boss, was watched by one of his henchmen, who stalks her, and when she refuses him, he and his men rape and beat her. When Jo finds out he is furious. Jo only broke up with Aom because he feels useless now since he can no longer shoot. He promises to never leave Aom again, and goes and kills the henchmen and his men using his left hand.

The Boss figures out who did it, and gives another job to Jo, but this time betrays him, giving him a gun full of blanks, and he is killed.

Kong is out with Fon, when some muggers attack, and Kong moves into action, quickly killing the two, and scaring the hell out of Fon, who runs away from him, never wanting to see him again.

Kong and Aom find out that Jo has been killed, and Kong wants to revenge for his friend, but the Boss’s men show up and chase them, and Aom is shot and dies in Kong’s arms. He decides to go kill the Boss who killed his friends.

Kong leaves a letter for Fon telling him he is sorry, and that he won’t see her again, and she goes after him.

Kong goes to the bosses hide out, and takes out all his men, and finally gets to the boss, but the place is surrounded by cops. Fon shows up, and Kong takes his gun and puts his head next to the bosses and shoots himself and the bad guy.

••••

A sad story, and while we do finally see Kong feeling some remorse for his actions, it is not until after he has killed, and after he has seen Fon’s reaction that he feels anything, so he does not get much redemption, just revenge.

Stil as I said a really impressive low budget, first film from the Pangs.

Werner travels with his cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger to Antarctica, starting with McMurdo Station, the biggest settlement on the continent. Here they learn about the changing ice, and see the encampment that Werner seems to hate. They then take field training to be able to go out on the ice, and head to a seal camp.

At the seal camp we hear unearthly recordings of the seal calls underwater, which sound like something from a Pink Floyd album.

Next they go to the diving camp where they meet research diver Henry Kaiser and see footage of his trips into the other world under the ice. They are studying a strange organism that lives in the sand and shows almost an intelligence.

They travel to the original camp of Enest Shackleton.

Then they see a Penguin going the wrong way to his certain death, and talk to a scientist named David Ainley about it. They do not know why some penguins just go the wrong way and travel hundreds of miles to their deaths.

Werner travels to Mount Erebus, and active volcano that is easier to study than many in more volatile countries. They have cameras set up and scientific equipment, and we see footage of an earlier attempt to try and get into the base, that ended with wounded scientists. There are frozen ice tunnels created by steam called Fumaroles, and they go deep into one.

We go under the north pole, where there is a frozen sturgeon and ice carvings in the ice walls.

Scientists launch a helium balloon with a neutrino detector, covered in Hawaiian artwork and talk to the chief scientist Peter Corham.

Along the way they see the people who have drifted to Antarctica. People who do entertainment shows, and philosophers who work maintenance. A man who is descended from Mayan royalty as all his fingers are the same length.

A really interesting bunch that match the strangeness of the undersea footage that highlights the film, and was the reason for Werner’s visit.

••••

The film is worth seeing for the seal and underwater footage, but the most interesting thing is the trip into the mind of filmmaker Werner Herzog, because he has some strange ideas about people and life, and he does not hold anything back. A very interesting man.

Check this film out.

In the 1400’s in Thailand during a period of great feudal unrest, we see Tien (who will grow up to be Tony Jaa) the son of a high official being chased by men bent on killing him, and only through the sacrifice of the warrior protecting him, does Tien escape death. Of course things are not that easy, and Tien is picked up by a slave trader, and taken to a slave market. When he pisses off the slave trader, he is thrown into a water filled pit with a crocodile. Just at that point a band of guerilla warriorsc alled Pha Beek Krut led by Cher Nung (Sorapong Chatree) attack the slave market. Cher Nung sees something in young Tien and gives him a knife, with which he able to kill the crocodile, and ends up joining Cher Nung as his new protege, being groomed to replace the leader.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Tien trains hard, and becomes one of the best that the Pha Beek Krut have to offer. He learns all forms of martial arts, and takes a series of tests to prove himself their master, of which he of course comes out on top, as the best warrior he could ever be.

Here we learn the back story of his father being a great lord for the king, who was against the wars, and was betrayed. He sent his son to safety to learn dancing from a master. Here he met a young girl who he grows very close too. Tien senaks away to find his father, and saw him and his mother killed by a masked warrior who was working for Lord Rajasena (Sarunyoo Wongkrachang). Tien is saved by one of his father’s men, as we saw in the open.

Tien goes for revenge, first against the slave traders, and then Lord Rajasena. He sees the girl he loved as a child dancing for the lord, and tries to kill him, but is stopped and fails because of the Lord’s hidden armor. Tien flees back to the Pha Beek Krut camp.

Tien fights through endless warriors, before Lord Rajasena shows up, with the masked warrior who killed his parents, who turns out to be Tien’s adopted father, Cher Nung.

Cher Nung and Tien fight, and Cher Nung allows his adopted son to kill him to avenge his father’s murder, though Tien does not want to do it.

Tien is then surrounded by more warriors, and eventually taken, and ordered to be killed, but a voice over makes it sound like he might get away (and I am sure find the girl again in Ong Bak 3 I am sure).

•••

Worth it to see Jaa in action once again. He is so amazing to watch. I would love to see him do something with Jackie Chan, where Chan can play a mentor, and direct, and Jaa can do the action, because Jaa cannot act as well as Jackie, but his martial arts may surpass him.

Hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) arrive in the “fairy tale” town of Bruges in Belgium, waiting for word from their employer Harry Waters (Ralph Fiennes). Something went badly with a hit of Ray’s, and they have to lay low, so Harry has sent them to Bruges. Ken is happy about it, as he wants to see the medieval town, but this is not the town for Ray at all. Ray hates Bruges with a passion. It is not at all where he wants to be, and he can’t stop complaining about it. We eventually learn that Ray was sent to kill a Priest ( Ciarán Hinds), which he did, but accidentally killed a child (Theo Stevenson) who was in the church praying, and Ray is wracked with guilt about it. All he wants to do is go out and get hammered and drunk, and try and forget, but their orders are to be in at night, to wait for Harry’s call. Ken feels for Ray, and they do end up going and seeing a film being shot in town. The film has an American midget named Jimmy (Jordan Prentice) who Ray is fascinsated with. And he he sneaks onto the set to talk to the beautiful Chloë (Clémence Poésy) who turns out to be a local drug dealer, who agrees to go on a date with him the next night. Of course because they were out they missed Harry’s call and he is none too happy about it.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Ken likes Ray, and ends up agreeing to stay in and take the call so that Ray can go on his date.

Harry calls, and tells Ken that he is to kill Ray, and basically the trip to Bruges was to give Ray one last good memory before he died. He just can’t take a child being killed for any reason. Ken is crushed. He does not want to kill his friend, but he knows he must.

Ray goes out with Chloé, getting in a fight with some tourists (Željko Ivanek and Stephanie Carey) at dinner. They end up back at her place, and when things are getting hot and heavy, Chloé’s ex boyfriend Eirik (Jérémie Renier) and starts waving a gun at him. Ray takes the gun, and it is full of blanks, so Eirik pulls a knife, but Ray just fires the blanks into Eirik’s face at close range, damaging his eye. It turns out that Eirik and Chloé often rob tourists. Ray is not surprised, as he did not think he could get such a hot girl, but as she leaves to take Eirik to the hospital, she gestures for Ray to call her.

Ray ends up finding her stash filling with cocaine and ecstasy, and steals it and heads back to Ken at the b&b where they are staying. Ray and Ken have drinks in the local pub, when Jimmy comes in with a hooker. Ray is loaded out of his mind on coke, and he and Ken and 3 hookers end up going back to Jimmy’s hotel room, where they drink and do coke. Jimmy proves to be a racist with a whole theory of a war with colored people coming soon. And things get a little crazy, and Ray and Ken end up storming out.

The next morning, haunted by his killing of the boy, Ray heads to a park with a gun. Ken meanwhile goes and picks up a handgun to kill Ray with. Ken approaches Ray from behind, and sees him going to kill himself, and he stops him. Ken then takes Ray’s gun, and sends him off on the train, to go on the lamb.

Ken calls Harry, who is enraged, and immediately leaves his family to go take care of Ken, and hopefully Ray.

Ray meanwhile is arrested on the train for hitting the tourist, and is sent back to the jail in Bruges. He ends up getting Chloé to come and get him, and the two start a little romance, as they walk the town.

Harry shows up and meets with Ken, and they agree to a gunfight in the closed at night carillon tower. Ken doesn’t want to fight, but thinks that Ray should get redemption for his sins. Harry shoots him in the leg. As they stumble down the stairs, Eirik shows up (he had met Harry when he got a gun, and we learned he was blinded in one eye by Ray) to tell Harry that Ray is outside.

Harry rushes down to get Ray, while Ken drags himself up to the top of the tower, and throws himself off to warn Ray. Ray sees Ken hit the ground and being torn apart, and he runs up. Ken tells him Harry is there, but Ken’s gun has broken in the fall, so he runs.

Harry chases Ray and keeps shooting, hitting and wounding him. Ray tries to escape on a boat, and ends up in the town with the film shooting. Harry catches up and guns Ray down, but accidentally shoots and kills Jimmy, blowing his head off. And since Jimmy is dressed as a school boy, he thinks he has killed a child. Ray tries to tell him differently, but Harry is a man of his word, and quickly kills himself.

The badly wounded Ray is taken away in an ambulance. He sees Eirik and Chloé, and thinks that maybe hell is living forever in Bruges, and realizes he wants to live. The film closes with the audience not knowing what happens to Ray.

•••

A very enjoyable film about honor and guilt and redemption. Ray finds love in Chloé and he really seems to want this love, after all this was only his first kill as a hitman. And Ken values friendship above all else, willing to die for his friend. And Harry is so honorable, that when he thinks he has done what Ray has done, he kills himself almost instantly.

A very enjoyable and well written film. I would not be surprised to see some American studio remake this, though they should not!

Check it out if you get a chance, you will not be disappointing.

Boris Ylnikoff (Larry David) who loves to break the 4th wall and talk to the audience is a crotchety old man, formerly a married professor, but now a man who teaches chess for a living and lives to rant and rave about politics. And he has a permanent limp from when he woke up a few years back with a panic attack and jumped out the window and survived. He then divorced his wife (Carolyn McCormick) and left his job, and lives the life of a shut in, complaining that everyone else is not as smart as him. One night when he comes home there is a young girl sleeping on his door step. He reluctantly lets Melody (the girl played by Evan Rachel Wood) in for a meal. In short steps he has heard her story about running away from her heavily Christian family in Mississippi and not knowing anyone, and amazingly is letter her stay there, first for a night, and then for longer. His friends (Adam Brooks, Michael McKean and Lyle Kanouse) are all blown away, and wonder when he will get rid of her. Boris and Melodie travel the city together with him imparting his wisdom, or cynicism to her, and Melodie begins to love Boris, and starts to adopt some of his views. She starts working walking dogs and makes a date with a boy, but after so much time with Boris, she finds him boring and stupid. She admits to Boris that she loves him, and they get married!

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Melodie’s mother Marietta (Patricia Clarkson) snows up, having left her husband John (Ed Begley Jr.) after he cheated on her and lost everything in the stock market. Marietta instantly hates Boris, but they go around the city together, while Marietta tries to get melodie to divorce her husband.

Marietta meets a cute English boy named Randy James (Henry Cavill) who is attracted to Melodie, and Marietta decides to get them together.

Marietta meets Boris’s friend Leo (Conleth Hill) and they go out. He sees her photography and loves it, and he makes plans for her to have an art show. The two get drunk and have sex, and Marietta loves it for the first time in her life! Boris tells us that Marietta became a professional photography, and started living in a ménage a trois with Leo and his friend Morgenstern (Olek Krupa)

Marietta takes Melonie out shopping and they “accidentally” run into Randy who asks her help in buying something, and gives it to her. And again he runs into her in a woman’s clothing store, and she admits her marriage is not perfect. The two go onto the boat where he lives and start kissing and have sex.

The next day at Marietta’s gallery showing Melodie acts strangely because of the affair, and when they arrive home, her father, John arrives looking for Marietta. It seems his affair ended and h wants his wife back. When John finds out what she has become, seeing her artwork, he goes to a bar and drinks.

At the bar John meets Howard (Christopher Evan Welch) a recently divorced gay man. The two start chatting, and John comes to realize he is gay.

Melodie finally admits the affair to Boris, who is disheartened, but seemed to know this would come. Boris jumps out of his window again, but lands on Helena (Jessica Hecht), breaking ehr legs.

Boris visits Helena in the hospital, and she asks him to take her out to dinner when she gets out.

The film ends with a New Year’s Eve party at Boris’s place. Marietta is with her two men, John is with Howard, Melodie with Randy and Boris with Helena.

Boris turns to the audience and says to do what they can to find enjoyment, because you can have whatever works.

••••

Maybe this would have worked better in the 1970’s, but I am not sure. Maybe it would have been wackier? I don’t know. It just falls totally flat for me.

A trio of cops who specialize in bugs and wiretaps are working with the CCB or Commercial Crime Bureau to investigate insider trading. The cops are Johnny (Lau Ching Wan) who is dating Mandy (Zhang Jinchu, who is amazingly lovely and I first saw in Huayao Bride in Shangrila and then Seven Swords) the estranged wife of his kind of friend, and boss Kelvin (Alex Fong Chung-Sun). Max is the smart kid, who is marrying into money, and now spends at least 3 days a week with the chief of police and his father in law playing gold, when not doing nights on the police force. The final friend is Gene (Louis Koo Tin-Lok) a married man whose son has cancer, and he has 3 other young children, and not nearly enough money, especially once he finds out that his son will be fine, but he won’t last another year. They almost were caught when they planted mics and cameras into the offices they are spying on, but use their brains and get out. They trio do night duty listening to Executive Mr. Low (the great Waise Lee Chi-Hung) having sex with secretary (Quennie Chu) and using their ability to listen to any Cell Phone with a battery in to spy on their feelow cops (William Chan Wai-Ting and Sharon Luk Tze Wan) who are having an affair, though she is the big inspector’s girlfriend. On the job, while Johnny is out for a smoke, Gene and Max hear their mark, executive Mr. Low giving a tip about some stock that is going to go way up the next day, and Gene convinces Max to help him erase the recording, to get money for his family, and Max needs money since his father in law wants him to quit the force and work for him. The next morning Gene and Max go with their life savings to invest in E&T stock, and Johnny wants to stop them, but he is such a nice guy, they get him to go along, because they need the money, and the stock does quickly rise, but then is frozen for illegal trading, and they may have lost all their money.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Now Johnny is in over his head, and already lying to his friends about his affair with Mandy, and then they hear about the big boss (Michael Wong Mun-Tak) going to kill Mr. Low. Johnny can’t stand it, since the run on the stock was partially there fault, so he makes the other two go to save Mr. Low and his mistress on his boat, knocking out the killer, but Johnny’s face is seen by the Mistress, so they end up taking them all hostage until the stock deal can be taken care of after the weekend, and hiding them in Max’s brand new house.

On Monday they go to sell their stock, but amazingly when the stock starts trading, the money goes up and up, and they make a ton of money selling it, and are able to let their hostages go, threatening them to run.

Johny then proposes to Mandy, though he has yet to tell Kelvin. And Gene calls his wife to get her and the kids from the grandmother’s, after they had left when he took all their money out of there joint account.

The cops think that their unit is at fault though, and take all their gear, and Johnny ends up having to lead them as they break into their own HQ to destroy the computer that could incriminate them, while Max convinces the broker to launder the money and take a bribe, ending up with 15 million out of the 25 million they earned.

And the big boss isn’t too happy either, and he goes after and takes Max, and has Gene and his car with his family smashed. Johnny goes to run with Mandy, but Kelvin shows up and shoots her, but then is shot and killed by an assassin sent to kill Johnny.

Johnny gets Mandy to the hospital, and sees Gene lose a leg and arm, and his whole family dies. The Inspector tries to get him to go in, but he sneaks out to find Max, and finds him dead, and is taken to the wilderness and shot while the big boss watches.

A year later, the big boss is making deals, and calling for more deaths, and then has a big speech at a charity event he is hosting, when the cops play the video of him doing illegal dealings and ordering deaths, and Johnny comes up and arrests him. It seems Johnny used the 15 million to pay off his assassin, and the man did not shoot, but shot next to him, and took the money, and Johnny has since worked to take him down.

They go back to the station, but the big boss goes in his own car, making calls to try to save himself, but the car veers away from the police onto an unfinished bridge and we see the driver is Gene, with a missing arm and leg, who drives them both right off the bridge into the water, and to their death!

And Gene is of course saddened by his friends deaths, for the acts that they did.

••••

As I said a pretty enjoyable thriller that looks great, and has a pretty good story, though as I said I would like to see the good guys who did bad things, maybe not have to pay with their lives, but that is how it is has been in Hong Kong cinema since the handover.

Worth checking out, and Michael Wong is as hysterical as ever. I love him talking half in chinese and english, and acting like everyone always understands him all the time, as if he was speaking one language. He is comedy itself, but I like him for some reason. Didn’t even realize he was in the film until I saw his back and heard his unmistakable voice! Oh the comedy.

Damn I want Lau Ching Wan to get more movies like this. He is never better than in Police Dramas!

The Brothers Bloom are orphan children, we have the older Stephen (Max Records, who grows up to be Mark Ruffalo) and his brother Bloom (Zachary Gordon who grows up to be Adrien Brody). The kids go through life pulling stunts on their peers, and trying to con all the money they can, which gets them kicked out of one foster home after another. They run a scam about a cave with a magical creature in it. They collect money and go and Stephen tricks them with lights, and Bloom gets caught up in the magic as well, until he sees his brother and the magic is broken. The children love it, but their parents don’t and they are forced to give the money back, but then we see the real con, which was taking a cut of the business from the local cleaner! And we see Bloom, have young love, but get pulled from it by his love for his brother, and then pulling into his self. 25 years later the brothers finish another Con, and Bloom wonders off, disheartened by his life’s lack of any real meaning, or any reality, as he is always playing someone else. He has no life of his own, and his brother chooses what he does, so he decides to finally makes good on all his threats to quit, and moves to Montenegro. 3 months later Stephen finds him and convinces him to come along with their other partner, the explosive loving Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi in the best role in the film) to play a huge last con. This con will be on a wealthy heiress from New Jersey named Penelope Stamp (Rachel Weisz). Penelope is totally socially isolated, having been told as a child she had life threatening allergies, which she in fact did not have. So she spent most of her life alone, and has read every book, and taught herself to do almost everything, but just has no social graces. Bloom agrees, and they head to New Jersey.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Stephen plans for Bloom to get in an accident that Penelope will cause, and get into her life. It does not work exactly as planned, but does work, and Bloom goes with her to her house, having a long conversation about her and her collection of hobbies ranging from photography to juggling. Bloom mentions that he and his brother will be leaving on a ship the next day.

Of course Penelope shows up and goes with them. On the long trip to Europe, a man that Stephen named Maximillen “The Curator” Melville (Robbie Coltrane) “accidentally” bumps into them. He tells Penelope how they are actually not Antique dealers, but Antique smugglers, and gets her hooked on a big smuggling job. They are to steal an ancient book from a museum in Prague and sell it to an Argentinian man.

Penelope convinces the Brothers to go, though that of course was the con, to get her to want to do it. In Prague they meet up with Maximillen, who gives them the location of the book, but cons Penelope out of a million dollars, which was the idea to begin with.

Penelope though decides to steal the book. Bang Bang is supposed to set off an explosion at Prague Castle to set off fire alarms and evacuate, but he explosion is huge, blowing up a whole tower, and causing the police to be called in, with Penelope inside.

Penelope gets the book, but tries to escape through a ventilation shaft and is caught, but somehow she convinces the police to let her go.

They return to their hotel, where Bloom runs into their former mentor, Diamond Dog (Maximilian Schell). He tries to get Bloom to leave Stephen to join him. Stephen shows up and stabs Diamond Dogs hand with a broken bottle.

They all head to Mexico to end the con. Bloom admits to Penelope that they are con men, but Stephen knew this would happen, and is waiting where the money is stashed.

Bloom and Stephen fight and a gun is accidentally knocked down and shoots Stephen, and he seemingly dies in his brothers arms. Penelope realizes that this was all faked, and leaves with a broken heart. And Bloom pissed at his brother leaves again for Montenegro.

After a few months Penelope shows up, having blown up her house, to join bloom as a Con artist. He loves her, so he agrees and they go to do a final con with Stephen.

They head to Russia to see the book to the Russian mob, and Stephen hired Diamond Dog to assist, but they are betrayed. Stephen is taken and ransomed for 1.75 million dollars.

Bloom is pretty sure he is being conned again, and they are just trying to steal Penelope’s money, but she sends the money anyway.

Bang Bang meanwhile has left the group, and disappears in a car bomb, but she had just showed up, an had promised to just leave one day as well.

Bloom goes to make the exchange in an old theater and finds Stephen beaten and tied up. Diamond Dogs men are there, and a shoot out ensues. Stephen once again dies in Bloom’s arms, but this time with Bloom asking if he is being conned in the perfect con.

Stephen gets up, and he is of course fine, and he conned him, and sends Bloom to go leave with Penelope.

In the car later, Bloom sees the blood stains turn brown, which only real blood does, not fake blood.

We see Stephen still in the theater, and he dies from his wounds.

Bloom realizes what has happened and is crushed, but he realizes that this is the perfect con from Stephen, because everyone got what they wanted. Bloom got Penelope, whom Stephen knew was perfect for brother, and Stephen wanted to make a con so real, it was real, making the love between Bloom and Penelope.

Bloom and Penelope leave into the sunset.

•••

Really a let down. Overly complicated, and without a good enough resolution. It really seemed to flail around by the end.

Not worth wasting your time on.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Interior Design

Directed by Michel Gondry.

A young couple moves to Tokyo with all their possessions in there beater of a car. This is Hiroko (Fujitani Ayako) and Akira (Kase Ryo) and they go to stay with their college friend Akemi (Ito Ayumi) in her microscopic apartment, promising to find their own place. Akira is a filmmaker, who makes really low budget, strange films, and his film is going to be screened at a local porn theater, and gets a job wrapping paper at a local store. Hiroko does not do much, sitting around and cutting out photos from magazines and making collages, and halfheartedly looking for an apartment, though there is nothing good that they can afford.

Akira shows his film, which gets some seemingly good response (though it seems that most people are just trying to be nice), and starts questioning if Hiroko has any drive.

Hiroko starts to question her relationship with Akira, and when out on a walk around the city, begins a literal transformation into a chair. First changing part by part, then fully into a chair, and changing back into her naked self, only to change again into a chair.

Hiroko as a chair gets taken to a cute guys apartment, and starts to live her life as his chair. Looking over his shoulder as he works. And his chair does keep moving, even being found in the bath.

Hiroko writes Akira a letter, telling him about how happy she is with her new life.

•••

So very very strange, but enjoyable, and the effects are great too. It seems like a normal story, then just goes nuts with her turning into a chair. Really fun.

____________________________________________

Merde
Directed by Léos Carax.

Tokyo is invaded by a strange sewer dwelling creature named Merde (Denis Lavante). He comes out of his sewer and causes mayhem, stealing money and eating it. Taking cigarettes and phones, and whatever he can. He licks women, and causes chaos before going back into the sewers. This causes an uproar in Tokyo, and they send police underground to find him.

Underground Merde finds a cache of grenades from World War 2 and comes up and starts throwing grenades everywhere, killing many innocent bystanders. Merde is finally captured and taken to prison, but no one can speak his strange language.

A lawyer from France named Maítre Voland (Jean-Francois Balmer) who has a very similar look to the sewer creature and seems to be able to speak the creatures language. He represents Merde in court.

The court obviously does not like Merde, and he tells them that he does not like them, and he always awakes living in the place with the people he hates he most. He is found guilty and set to be killed.

Merde is hung, bu then the lights go out and when they come back on, Merde has escaped!

••••

Just plain weird, and not at all enjoyable. I am sure there was a message about media in there, but it was so covered, literally in Merde that I don’t even want to think about it.

____________________________________________

Shaking Tokyo

Directed by Bong Joon-ho

The story of a Tokyo shut-in or hikikomori (Kagawa Teruyuki) who has not left his apartment in a decade. He lives off of money sent by his father, and orders everything in, leaving stacks of his pizza boxes. He even falls asleep on the toilet next to the stack of toilet paper rolls. And he never watches TV, just reads and rereads old books.

Then one day is different when a beautiful young pizza deliver girl (Aoi Yu) with tattoos manages to catch his eye.

An Earthquake then happens and the girl faints into his apartment, and the hikikomori is stuck. He has to help her, but doesn’t want to touch her. He gets her water. Then sees that she has tattoos, and finds one for coma, and pushes it, and she instantly wakes up. Asking if he pushed the button. She walks around his apartment, declaring it perfect, except one of his stacked pizza boxes is upside down, which he fixes. She then leaves, but he is totally and utterly in love with her.

The hikikomori excited calls to get her to deliver pizza again, but finds a gruff older man (the great Takenaka Naoto) who barges in and uses the phone, scaring the man badly. It turns out he is the owner, and the girl just quit, leaving him to deliver Pizza by himself.

The hikikomori realizes that she is a new Hikikomori, and is becoming a shut in, and decides he must go see her, and save her from a life of lonliness.

The man slowly heads out across the city, scared of his own shadow and the sunlight, but he manages to find her place, just as another Earthquake hits.

He manages to get her to open the door, but she won’t come out, until he grabs her arm, and hits her tatoo for love. Leaving them both hopelessly in love.

•••

Very strange, but enjoyable. Amazing that people like this exist, and a cute love story using these trappings. fun.

____________________________________________

Overall a very strange set of films. You might want to see them, but don’t expect to be blown out of the water, and I would recommend skipping Merde all together!

In 1965 Ernesto “Che” Guevera (Benicio del Toro) says he is going to check on Sugar growing, and he leaves Cuba, leaving a letter which Fidel Castro (Demian Bichir) reads on the TV to the Cuban people. In it Che gives up his Cuban citizenship, to go foment revolution elsewhere, leaving his family behind. He first went to the Congo, but this film focuses on him in 1966 when he goes to Bolivia, disguised as a middle aged Uraguayan businessman. He heads out into the woods to foment revolition, having trouble at first because he is an Argentine and not a Bolivian, but he has fought through that before. He wants the overthrow of American backed President René Barrientos (Joaquim de Almeida), but has problems right from the get go.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Che hides his identity, as they know Barrientos will go for him, if he knows where he is, and he attempts to recruit the peasants to help them, but they are constantly betrayed. Some think they are cocaine dealers, and believe they can make more money, and many believe government lies, but also the Army goes in and will kill the peasants if they help Che, so he and his people are constantly betrayed.

There are food shortages, and many problems between his Cuban soldiers and the Bolivian ones.

By Day 113 there are deserters and the Bolivian army get their basecamp.

Tamara “Tania” Bunke (Franka Potente) screws up and lost their identity and gave away the basecamp and 5 years of planning. She is wounded and ends up with a wounded group trying to get back to Che’s unit.

And Mario Monje (Lou Diamon Phillips) the head of the Bolivian Communist Party does not want armed conflict, so he does all he can to hurt the revolution.

And the CIA has set up a training camp to train a special forces of the Bolivian Army to do counterinsurgency, and they also give helicopters and airplanes, and men trained in Vietnam.

By day 280 Che is very sick from his asthma, and he had left his medication at the basecamp, and can’t get any more, so he is in bad shape.

On day 302 Tania and the wounded are killed by the Bolivian army, having been betrayed by peasants as they crossed a river.

On day 340 Che and his forces enter a seemingly abandoned town, and are surrounded and taken out one by one. Che is wounded and captured, and locked in a hut.

Cuban American CIA agent Félix Rodriguez comes to talk to Che, who won’t talk to a traitor, but Che had his uncle executed in Cuba. The Bolivian government gives approved to execute him, and a soldier volunteers and shoots him in the hut, bringing out his corpse on a helicopter.

•••

A sad film about a man who could easily have lived the good life in Cuba, but even though he had such bad Asthma wanted to go on and fight the good fight, but was unsuccessful, and was killed doing what he believed was right. Benicio del Toro is amazing, as always, and deserved best actor at Cannes!

Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) is a bright and intelligent high school girl, with big plans for her life, which all may soon change. On the way home in the rain from a chior practice, where she plays cello, she gets a ride from a charming older man named David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard). The two strike up a friendship, and quickly a relationship. David manages to charm her parents Jack (the always amazing Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour), and Jenny starts to date David. Jenny quickly meets David’s friends, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and his cute but dumb as a post girlfriend Helen (Rosamund Pike), and they all start having a wonderful time, but David’s world is not all good, because he is an amazing liar, and not everything he does seems to be on the up and up.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Jenny even ends up going to Paris with her new friends, losing her virginity, and drawing the ire of the teachers at her school. Miss Walters (Emma Thompson) the school mistress will not allow anything like this to happen at her school, and Jenny’s favorite teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) does not want to see Jenny get hurt, or ruin her future, but Jenny has fallen in love and does not want to listen.

Jenny starts to see the dark side of David’s life, where he swindles people for money. He moves black families into flats, so he can buy the other ones for cheap. And David and Danny go into houses for sale, and steal paintings and other valuables. Jenny doesn’t like it, but she is in love, and lets it go, especially once David proposes to her.

Danny tries to get David to not hurt Jenny, because he knows he will, knowing more about the man than Jenny.

Jenny’s dad quickly agrees to his daughter getting married to such a fine man (as far as he knows), since to him her going to college was only so she could find a good man anyway. Jenny does not like aspect, but loves David, so she wants to get married. Jenny ends up dropping out of school, leaving behind school, and her final year of studying.

While driving with David, Jenny looks in his glove compartment and sees letters addressed to him and his wife! She gets him to promise to tell her parents that he is already married, but instead he just drives off.

Jenny is absolutely crushed, and wants to go back to school, but Mrs. Walters will not allow her back. She has already made her bed.

Jenny goes to Miss Stubbs, and gets her to help her study, and Jenny manages to get into Oxford, studying English, as she wanted.

And she pretends like none of it happened, acting the innocent when dating the boys at school, but she is not quite so innocent anymore, having gotten a very harsh education in the ways of the world.

•••

Amazing performances, and a great story. Just a really good film with an amazing cast all the way around. I really look forward to Lone’s next film.

The film is intercut between 1964 and starting in 1955 at a gathering in Mexico City where the Cuban Revolution really began, and Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Benicio del Toro) first met Fidel Castro (Demian Bichir). In 1964 we have Che being interviewed by Lisa Howard (Julia Ormond), which is intercut through the film, as well as Che’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly about the Imperialism of the United States in South and Central America. In 1955 Che, Castro and around 80 others head to Cuba via boat, and start the armed revolution in Cuba. It is not easy for Che, who has asthma. At first he is not trusted by many because he is an Argentine, and not Cuban, and even Castro ends up demoting from him division, and putting him in charge of the wounded, but it is there that he learns to truly be a soldier.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Che’s time moving the wounded, where he uses not only his skills as a solider, but his skills as a doctor. Also going to the people, and helping as many peasants as they can, and buying everything they use, and making the people like them. Punishing those troops who do not respect the peasants.

Eventually Che takes back over a military unit, and becomes one of the revolutions top soldiers, taking his troops into the Battle of Santa Clara, that breaks the back of the US backed Batista, and winning the revolution. On the way heading to Havana he says, we have won the war, but the revolution starts now.

The film ends back in the room in Mexico where Che first met Castro, and we see the two talking. Che admits Castro is a bit crazy, but then he says he will join him if Castro promises that the Revolution will not end there, but will go on and encompass all of South America.

•••

A really great film. I loved it, I really did. Especially the intercutting with the battle sequences with the scenes of Che after the war being interviewed and talking to the UN, which really give a great counterpoint. Really amazing. I highly recommend this film!

London, 1891, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) on his last mission with his friend and associate Watson (Jude Law) run into a ritual for a human sacrifice, where Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) is about to kill a young girl. The pair manage to stop the ceremony, and arrest Blackwood, though someone does escape. Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan) comes in and takes possession of Blackwood, and he is set to be hung in 3 months time. In that time Holmes becomes a hermit in his room, never leaving or doing much useful, while Watson prepares to move out to his new place, where he plans on living with Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly) whom he intends to wed. Blackwood requests that Holmes comes before his execution. Holmes finds everyone scared of Blackwood, who has supposedly made a guard sick, and has covered his cell with occult symbols. Blackwood promises there will be 3 more deaths after his execution, and that it will change the world, and outfox Holmes. Watson is there at the hanging and declares Blackwood dead. Holmes has a visitor in the form of Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) the one person who has managed to outwit him, and the love of his life, though she is a thief. She wants him to find a red haired midget for her. Holmes follows her, disguising himself as a beggar, and seeing a man hidden in her coach with a gun in his sleeve. A few days after Blackwood’s execution, Holmes gets a call from Lestrade that Blackwood has rissen from the grave, and broken out from the inside. Holmes takes Watson, as it his reputation as a doctor on the line, and they go to investigate. The game is afoot.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Holmes inspects the Tomb, which has been broken out from the inside. Watson looks at the Witness who is in shock and all he can say is he saw Blackwood. They remove the coffin and in is the red headed dwarf that Irene was looking for. Watson palms a pocket watch on the corpse which leads him to the midget’s home and laboratory, where they discover the remains of various experiments, and some burnt paper with Blackwood’s crest on it. 2 Arsonists and a huge French Giant come in and they have a huge fight, and end up getting arrested for property damage, as they end up sinking a huge ship in a drydock for repairs.

Watson is bailed out by Mary, and Holmes must wait until Lestrade comes and gets him and he is taken to the Temple of the Four Orders, a secret society in which Blackwood was a member. Holmes is asked by the Home secretary Lord Coward (Hans Matheson) and Blackwood’s father to Blackwood.

Blackwood ends up killing his father in his bath, and another who opposes him at a society meeting, where the man shoots his gun and bursts into flames. Blackwood then takes control of the order, and has Coward order an arrest warrant for Holmes.

Holmes and Watson go to a slaughterhouse, and find that Blackwhood has captured Irene, and they just manage to rescue her, but as they escape Watson trips an explosion. Holmes sees Watson wounded in the hospital in disguise and then goes to solve the mystery.

Holmes figures out that the target is parliament from Lord Coward and what he said, and then dives from a window and is rescued by Watson and Irene on a waiting rescue boat.

Homes, Watson and Irene go into the tunnels below Parliament and find a machine guarded again by the French Giant. It was made by the red haired midget, and will release cyanide on cue and kill parliament, except the followers of the order (whome Blackwood has already given the antidote.

THey manage to stop the machine, and Irene runs with the cyanide cylinder, with Holmes chasing her to the unfinished Tower Bridge, and followed by Blackwood. Blackwood knocks her off the tower, though she lands on a lower platform. Holmes explains how all of Blackwood’s mysticism were simple science, and there was no occult.

A crane falls, and ends up entangling Blackwood, and he ends up falling and hanging off the bridge (huh? Why did this happen? Could have been done so much better!).

Holmes confronts Irene about her motives, and learns that the man in the carriage was Professor Moriarty (who we all know to be Holmes big nemesis), and allows her to leave.

Holmes explains to Watson how Blackwood fakes his own death with a drug, and was hung on a harness, and his tomb was preset to break and made to look whole, but was easily broken.

Now it is time to investigate Moriarty.

•••

Decent, but not too impressive. Could have been wittier, and the whole thing with the crane was just stupid. Come on, Holmes can fight, so lets see a fight and Blackwood fall, but not just him getting killed by a crane!!

It is the year 2154, and a Space Marine Corporal named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who suffered a spinal injury and can’t use his legs is on his way to the planet Pandora, being put under for 6 years to make the trip. He is going to replace his brother had trained for years for the mission, but was killed, and Sam could replace him because of his genetics, even without any training. The Planet Pandora is a jungle planet run by the Company, where humans want to strip mine for the mineral unobtanium (the stupidest name I have ever heard), and the planet is run by Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), and security is headed by ex-space marine Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). The planet Pandora is already inhabited. Along with a rich flora and fauna, there is a native race named the Na’vi, which are huge, 9 feet tall with blue skin, carbon fiber bones, and a propensity to use huge arrows and knives. They worship nature and their god lives in the trees and is named Eywa. The Company wants to move the tribe away from their huge sacred tree so they can get the large deposit of unobtanium underneath it. The Company employs a team of scientists led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who run the Avatar Program, where a human/Na’vi is grown, and their minds are projected into the creature so they can go and talk to the natives, and affect a diplomatic solution. Jake’s brother was going to be part of it, so Jake now is, but he is co-opted by the Colonel to spy for them and get information to help use if the Na’vi do not agree to deal. Grace knows of this, but tolerates it, because she knows that it is the company that sponsors her science. Jake very quickly takes to his Na’vi body, loving the ability to use his legs again (his sick legs effect looks amazing). On one of their first outings into the jungle, they are flown out by Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez) and go along with Jake’s brother’s friend Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) another Avatar driver and Grace in her Avatar form. Jake has a run in with a huge local creature, but he stands his ground, and is OK, until a more viscous predator, a Thanator attacks, forcing him to run and jump down a waterfall, and become separated. The other’s try to find him, but they according to the Colonels orders there are no night ops, so Jake is left alone in a hostile jungle to fend for himself. Jake does not do to well, and is surrounded by a pack of dog like things, and is going to be killed by a Na’vi female named Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña who played Uhura in the new Star Trek film), but when the seeds of the Na’vi’s sacred tree land on her arrow, she instead saves him. And she is going to leave him, but again the pure creatures land all over him, and so she takes them back to her clan, the Omaticaya. Jake meets the aggressive Tsu’Tey (Laz Alonso) who is betrothed to Neytiri and will become the Cheiftan of the tribe, the Chieftan, Neytiri’s father, Eytucan (Wes Studi) and the spirital leader, Neytiri’s mother Mo’at (C.C.H. Pounder). Mo’at sees something in Jake, and since he is a warrior, unlike the scientists, they decide to bring him into the tribe, and teach him all of their ways, and Neytiri is forced to be his teacher.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

As Jake’s Avatar goes to sleep each night, he awakens back in his chamber, and when Grace sees him giving tactical info to the Colonel, she decides to move the science team to a remote location in the floating mountains, where conventional radar and tech do not work right, making flying hard.

Jake is a slow learner, but has a good teacher, and he begins to learn the way of the tribe, learning to ride their versions of horses, which they control by connecting some feelers that come out of what looks like their hair. This is also how they control the flying creatures that each warrior must master to become a warrior and be accepted into the tribe.

Jake knows he is supposed to be working on getting the Na’vi to move or figuring out their weaknesses, but he begins to like his life in his Avatar more than in his paralyzed body. He finally falls in love with Neytiri.

Jake becomes a warrior and picks his own flying ride, showing he is a true warrior, and he and Neytiri fly together, almost being killed by a nastier predator, the Toruk.

Jake is called to talk to the Colonel, who informs him that he has done all he needs to, given him all the info he needs, and he will be sent back the next day, and get his legs back, but Jake wants to go back to the tribe, as he will become a member of the tribe the next day. Jake goes back and becomes one with the tribe, and Neytiri tells him he can chose a woman, and he choses her and they mate, which for the Na’vi is for life.

The next morning, while Jake is still back as a human, the bulldozers arrive, and Neytiri can’t awaken Jake, but when she does, he smashes the camera of a bulldozer, but is seen, and the Colonel knows he is a traitor. He confronts them and uses Jake’s own video which has him saying that the Na’vi will never leave, and the mission is useless.

Jake and the scientists are taken back to base, but they Grace manages to convince Selfriedge to let them try one more time as the Colonel is going to destroy the Omaticaya’s home tree. They go in and try to convince the people to leave, and he reveals his mission, and Neytiri accuses him of betraying them and her, and he and Grace are tied up.

The Military arrives and quickly destroy the home tree, and kill Eytucan, and the tribe must leave for it’s holiest place, the Tree of Souls, in the center of the floating mountains, though the Colonel plans on following and destroying their holiest place, and them along with it. He also awakens Jake and Grace. The tribe take Grace, but leave Jake’s body behind.

The team is imprisoned, but Trudy helps them escape, but Grace is badly wounded by shots from the Colonel as they leave. They move their Avatar projection machines deeper into the woods, and Jake realizes their is only one way for him to get back into the tribe.

He has learned that at times a Na’vi warrior had bonded with huge air predator, and was able to unite the tribes, so he uses his air creature and manages to take over the Toruk, and heads to the tribe, convincing Tsu-Tey to help him unite the other tribes against the humans. He also re-united with his love Neytiri, and her mother attempts to move grace permanently into her Na’vi body, but the wounds are too great, and she is only transfered to be with their god, the network of plants on the planet that they worship, and which is conscious on it’s own. They bring in the horse tribes and other airborne tribes to fight.

The colonel has loaded the shuttle with explosives and plans on dropping them onto the Tree of Souls as a daisy cutter, and brings in a huge force in the air and on the ground with Amplified Mobility Platform suits on the ground.

The Na’vi fight back, with huge casualties. Trudy is killed, as is Norm’s avatar, and Tsu’Tey trying to destroy the shuttle, though Jake manages to do it. And the creatures of the planet come to help, as Jake asked the intelligence to help get the humans, and make them leave.

He then goes against the Colonel, and the two end up fighting on the ground after his command platform is destroyed, him in an AMP and Jake in his Avatar, but they are near the chamber with Jake’s real body, and the Colonel manages to break the glass, and Jake can’t get to an air supply. Neytiri kills the colonel and finds Jake’s real body, saving him.

The humans are driven from the planet, and Jake goes and is transferred into his Na’vi body permanently, and the film ends as he opens his eyes.

••••

Not only a feast for the eyes, but a really enjoyable film all the way around. I would see it in 3D a third time. Hell it makes me want a 3D TV! I like it that much! What a great and enjoyable film. Cameron has really done it again.

Set during the first World War in France, Scottish Private Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates) is sent into a town that was known to be occupied by the retreating Germans. The German’s have set a large cache of explosives, and the Scots know about this because they had someone spying for them in town. What they do not know is that the entire Town has in fact run, and the German’s have left, but the door to the insane assylum has been left open, by Plumpick himself who was hiding from German’s, and the lunatics have taken over the town.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…Plumpick wanders around the town, interacting with all the inmates, who he believes are the real people. As he searches for the German bombs which are hidden under a stage in the town center.

Eventually Plumpick finds love in a crazy high wire artist named Coquelicto (Genevieve Bujold), and is crowned the King of Hearts.

Plumpick does manage to disable the bombs, but the German’s return as the Scots also move into town, and they end up killing each other completely off.

The lunatics have meanwhile returned to the Asylum, not wanting to be part of this crazy world. Plumpick realizes that this must be the smarted thing to do, and shows up at the asylum doors totally naked, carrying a bird in a cage, and is welcomed by his friends with open arms.

•••

Really a lovely little film. Most worth watching.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a man without a home. He has an apartment in Omaha, Nebraska, where his company is based, but it is not his home. His home is in the air and in the hotels around the country where he does his work, and he is constantly on the move. In fact he dreams of being the 16th person to ever get 10 million air miles on American Airlines, and getting the super special platinum card, actually made out of. Ryan’s job is travel around the country and fire people, and he is the absolute best at what he does. He also gives motivational speeches on having the simplest life with the least connections to other people, literally being able to live out of a backpack, much as he lives out of his carry on suitcase. Ryan ends up meeting another frequent flying named Alex (Vera Farmiga) who is impressed by his frequent flyer status, and they start a casual relationship, but then Ryan is called back to the main office, because something is afoot that may permanently change his life.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Up get’s called back to Omaha by his boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) for an important meeting. They have a new young executive at the company named Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) straight out of Cornell, who a new idea for an efficient layoff system that will make Ryan, and skill set obsolete. Natalie wants to start doing layoffs via teleconference, where the person is handed a packet, and then the whole layoff is done via computer from trained people back in Omaha. It will save tons of money.

Ryan hates the idea and wants to prove how wrong it is, saying people will just walk away, and that she doesn’t how to fire people and do it well, so Craig teams her up with him, and he has to show her the ropes on firings that he sets out to do.

Over the course of the film Ryan stars to like Natalie, and she starts to see just how hard it is to fire people, and do it without causing pain, especially when they see one woman say she will commit suicide.

Ryan also starts to really fall for Alex, and wants the relationship to be something more. Ending up getting her to go with him to his sisters wedding. At the wedding he offers to walk his sister Julie (Melanie Lynskey) down the isle, but she passes, as he has never really been there for her or his other sister Kara (Amy Morton). He does save the wedding though when Julie’s fiancee Kim Miller (Danny R. McBride) gets cold feet. He actually manages to give a motivational speech about how important people are, and starts to even convince himself.

Natalie’s boyfriend ends up leaving her, and she had turned down big jobs and moved to Omaha for him, as she wanted the relationship and she is crushed.

Ryan meanwhile has rushed to see Alex at home as he realizes he loves her, but her kid opens the door, and he finds she is married, and he is literally only a fling, that means nothing to to her. On the way back Alex hits 10,000,000 miles, and is given his special card by Maynard Finch (Sam Elliot) the chief pilot, but the moment he waited so long for, no longer has the meaning it once did, he no longer knows if he wants this detached life.

Ryan return to Omaha and is horrified to see employees being trained to tele-fire people, but it all comes crashing down, when the woman who threatened suicide kills herself, and Natalie quits, and Craig wants Ryan back, doing what he always did best, even though it is no longer the life he really wants.

•••
Wow, such a good film. I really do enjoy it. A powerful story about the importance of relationships in ones life. And that one can take it too far and move for someone that is not important, but it is better, than believing you don’t need anyone at all.

Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is a 14 year old girl living happily with her family in 1973, who we learn will soon be brutally murdered. Susie could not be a happier girl, living with her family, her accountant father Jack (Mark Wahlberg), her mother Abigail (Rachel Weisz), her younger sister Lindsey (Rose Mclver) and the youngest child Buckley (Christian Thomas Ashdale). Susie is smitten with an Indian boy from England Ray Singh (Reece Ritchie), and with some pushing from her Grandmother Lynn (Susuan Sarandon) and his like for her agrees to go meet him at the mall. Susie also takes a lot of photos with the 110 camera her parents gave her, going through 24 rolls in a short time, much to the chagrin of her parents who agree to develop only one a month, but she may have a photo of her killer in it.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Susie has as strange neighbor though, who makes doll houses that sell at the mall. This is George Harvey (Stanley Tucci looking completely different than I have ever seen him!). He goes out in a local corn field that winter, and digs a room in the ground, and manages to lure Susie into it one day, where he kills her. We see her running away, and one strange girl in her class Ruth Conners (Carolyn Dando) who sees things, sees Susie’s ghost running away, and finds the poem that was given to her by Ray, which leads her into a relationship with Ray.

Susie wakes up in the place in between Heaven and Earth, filled with things from both, where see meets a young chinese girl who calls herself Holly Go Lightly (Nikki Soohoo) and who tries to get Susie to go to Heaven, but Susie is not ready to give up the real world, or the helping her family find who killed her.

Police detective Len Fenerman (Michael Imperioli) is brought in to investigate, but he finds nothing, and Jack becomes obsessed with finding his daughters killer, even being convinced Susie is still there, when she reaches for him from the other side. Abigail doesn’t cope well, and Jack brings in her mother Lynn to help, and Abigail ends up taking off, going to pick apples.

Jack keeps working, bothering Fenerman, trying to find the killer, while Susie plays with Holly. Susie wants revenge and when Jack, as well as Lindsey both begin to suspect George, things start to go bad.

Susie pushes her dad, who goes out in the fully grown corn field with a bat, but runs into high schoolers making out, and he is beaten almost to death. Lindsey ends up sneaking into George’s house, and is almost caught by him, but finds his notebook with the plans for the kill room, and even a lock of Susie’s hair. She is going to show it to her dad, but her mom returns, and by the time the cops go for George, he is gone, and has gotten rid of the body in a safe into a local sync hole.

Susie is almost ready to go to Heaven, and she meets all the other girls murdered by George, and decides to go back for one more thing. Susie goes back and takes over the body of Ruth, so she can talk to and kiss Ray before going to Heaven for good.

The film ends with George trying to get another girl, but an icicle falls and hits him, making him slip and fall down a cliff, smashing his head.

••••

I really enjoyed the film, and the feel of Heavenly Creatures (though not the performance of Kate Winslett in that, which was so amazing). This is not the best film of the year, but certainly enjoyable, and worth checking out!