Jack Reacher is another solid action film from Tom Cruise. It is well-written, tightly paced, and it has excellent photography and editing. Night-time photography is extremely well done with bright colors and clarity throughout.
Jean-Francois Laguionie's THE PAINTING
The Painting is simultaneously charming, enchanting, and entertaining. A group of characters in a painting are involved in a class struggle:
Eric Khoo's TATSUMI
Tatsumi is an adult animated film about the life and short stories of Yoshihiro Tatsumi who is often credited with starting a movement in Japan to publish adult-themed manga comics.
Kaneto Shindô's “HOKUSAI MANGA”
What a strange but interesting movie this is. It purports to tell the story of 19th century artist Hokusai who painted the world famous The Great Wave off Kanagawa. In the movie the artist also illustrates novels, argues with his daughter, and on the side paints what we now call pornography.
Alexa Gajic's “TECHNOTISE: EDIT & I”
Edit herself is an interesting mix of naïveté, intelligence, raw energy, and stubbornness. Why she hangs out with the losers she does is never fully explained but, taken together, they make up a very entertaining ride that has some of the most interesting technology animation this side of WALL•E.
Jon Wright's GRABBERS
Jon Write’s GRABBERS is a very entertaining monster movie comedy. The story elements are fairly standard: meteor plunges into sea, creature crawls ashore and terrorizes small town, townspeople gather to fight the menace. The way these elements are assembled is original, fun, and occasionally, quite charming.
Tommy Wirkola's HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS
Hansel and Gretel The Witch Hunters is a train wreck of a movie. You know something awful is happening but it’s hard to look away.
Francis Lawrence's THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE
CATCHING FIRE is a roller coaster of a movie. We spend the first half in the station twiddling our thumbs while watching dumb things happen, then the bottom drops out and we careen down a long slope with an adrenaline rush.
Jake Schreier's ROBOT AND FRANK
This is a character driven movie about the near future that tightly focuses on an elderly retired jewel thief who lives by himself in a semi-rural but well-to-do community. His son, concerned about the old man’s mental deterioration, purchases a humanoid style robot to serve as a companion and caregiver.
James Mangold's THE WOLVERINE
While I’ve enjoyed the X-Men movies they haven’t significantly resonated with me as I was never really invested in the Marvel universe. The Wolverine is an exception.
Christian Vincent's HAUTE CUISINE
Prepare to learn something about truffles, cabbage, and salmon!
Sebastián Cordero's “EUROPA REPORT”
When all is said and done this is a good movie that can be enjoyed for what it is: an intelligent and thrilling story, elegantly produced, with excellent acting and beautiful photography.
Robert Zemeckis' FLIGHT
A lot has been written about the harrowing plane crash flight. Yep, it’s pretty harrowing, but I’ll still hold of World War Z, Numbers, and Pitch Black is having comparable crash sequences.
Wong Kar-Wai's FALLEN ANGELS
One thought that popped into my mind at first about Fallen Angels was “style over substance.” That’s simplistic. Yes, there’s a ton of style here. There is also a lot of substance. It’s just that the substance is not the feel-good or warm-and-fuzzy type; at times things get really dark. How the movie is photographed supports that. But it’s a movie well worth watching.
David Twohy's PITCH BLACK
I recently re-watched this scifi-horror film from 2000 and boy was I impressed.
Hark Tsui's “FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE”
Hark Tsui’s FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE at times reminded me of a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s almost Tom-and-Jerry-like in its portrayal of action and violence. Yet it’s immensely entertaining if only for its exotic locations, diverse costumes, visual splendor, and fascinating facial tattoos.
I'm Giving Up On UNDER THE DOME
I loved the book. To say I’m disappointed with the TV series would be an understatement. I’ve watched 5 or 6 episodes so far (via Amazon Prime) but I think I’ll stop there.
Pete Travis' DREDD
Lena Heady proves again she is well on her way to becoming the go-to actor for psychopathic female leaders. This woman does not fool around and is just plain fun to watch. I would love to see her play a character up against “Alice” in the next Resident Evil movie.
Neill Blomkamp's ELYSIUM
You can enjoy it as an action thriller but the underlying stories and significance go way beyond that. I’ll take Elysium over a comic book hero movie any day.
Guillermo del Toro's PACIFIC RIM
A few times I closed my eyes while watching Pacific Rim and — I swear — I was a little boy again watching humans and their technology duke it out on the big screen with aliens.