THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (2011)
MyRating: YYYDirector: George Nolfi
Cast: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Terence Stamp
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, some sexuality and a violent image
What if, there are unseen forces that control our whole destiny? On who we will become, on where we will end up in life, on whom we will fall in love. A promising young politician running for the U.S. Senate, David Norris (Matt Damon), finds out that there are mysterious people under an organization who seem to overly interested in his life and future. When he falls in love with a beautiful ballet dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), David learns that these people are conspiring to keep them apart. For the love of a woman, he has to decide whether he has to run against his fate, that seems to be fully controlled by this bureau, and lose his bright career and future, or to lose the woman that may never come twice in his life.
An interesting and original idea about how our fate is being determined. Do we run our life with our own free will? Or do we not? Good story but a bit slow in execution. Good performance by Matt Damon and a lovely performance by Emily Blunt as well. Their chemistry worked well and their love story was involving, as we wanted them to have a good end. But are they suppossed to be? This movie has a huge potential, but in my opinion it never really reached a maximum climax. It could be made more dramatically with a more dramatic result. However, it was exciting to see Damon & Blunt running from one door to another, didn't know exactly where those doors will lead them, just reminding us of Monsters, Inc. A good and unique movie, but could have been better. (MJ)
HANNA (2011)
What if, there are unseen forces that control our whole destiny? On who we will become, on where we will end up in life, on whom we will fall in love. A promising young politician running for the U.S. Senate, David Norris (Matt Damon), finds out that there are mysterious people under an organization who seem to overly interested in his life and future. When he falls in love with a beautiful ballet dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), David learns that these people are conspiring to keep them apart. For the love of a woman, he has to decide whether he has to run against his fate, that seems to be fully controlled by this bureau, and lose his bright career and future, or to lose the woman that may never come twice in his life.
An interesting and original idea about how our fate is being determined. Do we run our life with our own free will? Or do we not? Good story but a bit slow in execution. Good performance by Matt Damon and a lovely performance by Emily Blunt as well. Their chemistry worked well and their love story was involving, as we wanted them to have a good end. But are they suppossed to be? This movie has a huge potential, but in my opinion it never really reached a maximum climax. It could be made more dramatically with a more dramatic result. However, it was exciting to see Damon & Blunt running from one door to another, didn't know exactly where those doors will lead them, just reminding us of Monsters, Inc. A good and unique movie, but could have been better. (MJ)
HANNA (2011)
MyRating: YYYDirector: Joe Wright
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual material and language
A teenage girl, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), has been trained to become a perfect assassin all her life. Raising and trained by her father Erik (Eric Bana), a former CIA agent, in the wilderness of Finland, she has all the strength, agility and fighting abilities that no other normal teenagers possess. When her time comes, she has to embark a journey across Europe on a mission, all by her own. Chasing by a ruthless CIA agent, Marissa (Cate Blanchett), and her henchmen, Hanna has to stay alive with all the surviving skills that she has been equipped, and finish her mission. But at one point of time, she starts to question about her true self and all her incredible abilities, on how she could possibly possess them and how she could become the way she is.
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual material and language
A teenage girl, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), has been trained to become a perfect assassin all her life. Raising and trained by her father Erik (Eric Bana), a former CIA agent, in the wilderness of Finland, she has all the strength, agility and fighting abilities that no other normal teenagers possess. When her time comes, she has to embark a journey across Europe on a mission, all by her own. Chasing by a ruthless CIA agent, Marissa (Cate Blanchett), and her henchmen, Hanna has to stay alive with all the surviving skills that she has been equipped, and finish her mission. But at one point of time, she starts to question about her true self and all her incredible abilities, on how she could possibly possess them and how she could become the way she is.
An action spy thriller with an intriguing storyline and a thick European film atmosphere. This movie has its own style, including the camera works and the cinematography, sometimes felt a bit artistic. The movie was well acted, with good character development. Saoirse Ronan kicked asses and gave a terrific performance as the teenage assassin. She looked innocent but lethal. Eric Bana gave a good performance himself as the father, with his own moments in the film. The actions were decent, interesting but not spectacular, and maybe not as much as what you expected. The ending of this movie may left some questions unanswered. Overall a good one, but not great. (MJ)
LET ME IN (2010)
LET ME IN (2010)
MyRating: YYYY
Director: Matt Reeves
MPAA: Rated R for strong bloody horror violence, language and a brief sexual situation
A remake from 2008 Swedish horror film Let the Right One In, about a frienship between Owen (Kodi-Smit McPhee), a bullied 12-year-old lonely boy, with Abby (Chloe Moretz), a girl who has been 12 years old for a very long time. When he finds out that she is a vampire, he has developed a pure friendship with the girl and falls for her, but at the same time also starts to fear her. And when a murder investigation leads a police detective all the way to his new neighbor, Owen may react to protect her existence. But can he? As he may be the one that needs the protection from the girl.
This movie has its charms as an intelligent vampire movie with a bittersweet young romance. A gripping dark story that gets better and better as the story goes. It's a different look of a vampire story, as it focused on the drama side. It was almost a precise remake from the original with many exactly similar scenes, but it has never a dull moment even if you have watched the original, due to the very well-made movie and the faster pace, including the charming performance by Chloe Moretz. She was really-really good in capturing the loneliness and the pain inside as a vampire, with her strong face expressions. A very talented and promising young actress. The scene in the swimming pool at the end of the movie still captured the chills effectively, which is also the most iconic scene of the movie. This is a little gem, as was its original. An excellent and brilliant remake. Even though it could not beat the original in terms of originality (for sure), but for some reasons, I liked this remake more than the original. (MJ)
MyRating: YYYY1/2Director: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona RyderMPAA: Rated R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use
Natalie Portman gave an Oscar winning performance in this psychological thriller as Nina Sayers, a New York City ballerina who takes her obssessions towards perfection a bit too far that turns her into psychotic. When being offered a role as the prime ballerina by the artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) in the upcoming season of the prestigious ballet production Swan Lake, to play both the innocent White Swan and her evil twin Black Swan, Nina knows that this is her time to shine. But Nina is not the only choice available in the company, as she has to face a competition with another young talented dancer Lily (Mila Kunis). Desperately wants the role, as she lives to dance more than anyone else, Nina pushes herself towards her edge of perfection in order to prove that she is the right choice for the role. However, the pressure of a big production and a competition may be a bit too difficult for her to handle, as she starts to mingle with her dark side that may break her totally apart.
A well crafted direction by Darren Aronofsky, who successfully translated the great script into a great movie. The story was dark and mysterious, disturbing at times, which blurred the line between reality and hallucination that Nina was in. It took its time to develop the characters, as it slowly moved into more and more bizarre situations that drove the characters further beyond the limit, and ended up with a haunting and dramatic ending. A perfect role for Natalie Portman, who played her character brilliantly and elegantly, blended deep inside her character as a perfectionist obssessed ballerina. And she danced beautifully. In one scene, you can see her evil expressions bursted out while she danced fearlessly. Not only Portman, the other supporting casts were wonderful as well. Vincent Cassel gave an awesome performance and nailed every scene he was in. And Mila Kunis was great with her driven and competitive character. The hot scene between Portman and Kunis was becoming the hot talks. One of the great and memorable films of 2010 that will leave you think about it. (MJ)
BLUE VALENTINE (2010)
BLUE VALENTINE (2010)
MyRating: YY1/2Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Mike Vogel
MPAA: Rated NC-17 for a scene of explicit sexual content (original rating); Rated R (re-rating after appeal)
A young married couple, Dean and Cindy Pereira (Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams), trying hard to work out their troubled relationship, finds out that their love towards each other may not be enough to save their marriage from falling apart. Both came from a dysfunctional family, they are going through hard times in their lives and relationship. Dean, who never finished high school, is a rude and frustrated guy, often drunk and has no real ambition in his life outside of his mediocre work. While Cindy, who works as a nurse, used to believe that Dean has so much potential in his life, but due to years of their constant quarelling, she has burned out towards their relationship and him. Even though deep down inside, they still love each other, but the pains they are going through are destroying them. Can they get a second chance for their marriage, for the sake of their love?
This is a bleak and devastating love story about 'love' that slowly turns into 'hate' in a supposed to be happily ever after marriage. But life was never easy to them. The story was told back and forth in time, from the old time when they started to know each other and fell in love, to the current time where they have to fight for what was left in their marriage. Both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, who have great chemistry together, gave wonderful performances as the worn out couple, who were helplessly hurting each other despite the love they have. And when the story was flashback to the past, it also showed the romantic side of the two. But aside from the actings that worked well, I have to give my honest opinion on my feeling towards this movie. The story didn't exactly work for me, as I felt the plot was minimal, and more on showing the emotional and devastating atmosphere of the couple throughout the movie, with the 'let it flow' storyline. I didn't like the camera works that seemed to shoot to many close-ups, gave a feeling like a documentary filmmaking. In overall, I didn't really like the movie, even though I like the two stars in it. There were steamy sex scenes between Gosling and Williams, in which originally this film got an NC-17 rating, before finally being downgraded to R rating. (MJ)
MYMOVIE CRITIC - REVIEWING MOVIES FROM THE AUDIENCE'S STANDPOINT
