Martin Scorsese's Hugo is a cross between The Artist and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (all three are Oscar-nominated for Best Picture this year).

It's Paris in 1930s, and Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfiled; The Boy in the Sriped Pyjamas), is an orphaned boy living behind the clock-face in Gare Montparnasse railway station. His everyday routine is to wind the station's clocks (in place of his missing uncle, the station's clock-winder), and try to evade the railway inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen; Bruno), lest he wants to be thrown into an orphanage. And from time to time, Hugo also tries to steal mechanical parts from an old toy owner (Ben Kingsley) to fix his Automaton-- a creepy mechanical man left behind by his late father (Jude Law), in the hopes that...(READ FULL REVIEW)

While watching Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, nominated for this year's Oscar Best Picture, I was feeling extremely restless and incredibly annoyed.

Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is about a 9-year-old  autistic boy, Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), who lost his father (Tom Hanks) in the 9/11 attacks. Unable to move on, the strange key Oskar accidentally finds in his father's closet inspires him to search for the matching lock and find closure for his extreme loss and incredible grief. And we follow Oskar as he goes on a Reconnaissance Expedition in New York, meeting various people along the way.

Directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot), the movie is clearly intended to break your heart by the drama and the child's loss and determination for closure. However, because the Oskar character is supremely obnoxious and insufferable, you are unable to sympathize with his loss. You feel indifferent to his search, and you wish...(READ THE  FULL ARTICLE)

So far it's the best action flick that came out in the cinema since the start of the year.

The dynamic Denzel Washigton resurrected in Hollywood in the spy thriller Safe House. This movie is his rebirth; elevated him once again as the compelling anti-hero, a force to be reckoned with.

Partnered with the fresh-faced Ryan Reynolds in this almost obscure, off-the-radar espionage thriller, Washington plays Tobin Frost, a legendary CIA renegade, who after trading national secrets to enemies for nine years, surprisingly turns himself in at the U.S. Consulate, and is immediately transported to the CIA Safe House. Young housekeeper, low-level agent Matt Weston (Reynolds), after a year of being bored on duty, suddenly finds himself with the dangerous Tobin Frost, right under his watch. Will he allow Frost to get inside his head?

Set in the pulsating streets and colorful slums of Cape Town, South Africa, Safe House is an intelligent and delicious spy thriller that provides a...(READ MORE)

Another docu-style popularized by the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, comes Chronicle, a disturbing movie about the misuse of powers.

High school students Matt (Alex Russell), Steve (Michael B. Jordan), and Andrew (Dane DeHaan), after a strange underground encounter, find themselves with telekinetic powers that they harmlessly use to entertain themselves, with Andrew chronicling everything with his camera.

What comes across as a seemingly paranormal movie no different from an X-files episode, Chronicle surprisingly takes a darker and more serious turn; we suddenly find ourselves watching a bullied and abused high school boy Andrew, who is the male counterpart of Carrie. And with trepidation, we know that abuse plus telekinetic powers is equals to...(READ MORE)

The all-American Gil (Owen Wilson), with his California-surfer looks, is enamored with romantic Paris, especially Paris in the rain, just as his fiancé Inez (Rachel McAdams) is enamored with the pseudo-intellectual Paul. The young, and completely opposite, engaged couple tags along to the French capital with Inez’s parents for a business trip. And while the highly romantic Gil professes excitement and desire to move to Paris after their wedding, daydreaming about Paris in the ‘20s, reliving the time of great writers and artists, the annoyed Inez is frustrated with his penchant for the past and his romanticism.

Written and directed by Woody Allen, and nominated for this year’s Oscar Best Picture, Midnight in Paris is a delightful fantasy-romantic-comedy that will transport you right into the heart of Paris for an unexpected adventure. Because whenever the clock strikes midnight in Paris, magic happens to Gil that even you, the viewer...(READ MORE)

Alexander Payne’s poignant drama-comedy, the unforgettable masterpiece Sideways (2004), is enough to give credence to The Descendants, another drama-comedy directed and co-written by Payne and starring George Clooney, even if you haven’t seen it yet.

Based on the novel of the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants, nominated Best Picture in this year’s Oscar, is about a father (Clooney) coping with a double trauma: the sudden comatose of his wife, and then finding out that she was cheating on him. On top of the struggle of losing a brain-dead wife and unable to confront her, he also has to deal with his two difficult daughters who are alien to him, not made easy by a friend of his eldest daughter, a tactless (and hilarious) teenage boy who tags along in the family’s life changing and painful journey... (READ MORE)

Recently, Spielberg has been in the habit of giving us nostalgic movies; the style and storytelling distinctly and refreshingly old-fashioned, like Super 8, The Adventures of Tintin, and now the Oscar-nominated Best Picture, and the most old-fashioned of all, War Horse.

The two-hour-and-a-half epic tale about the adventures of wartime horse Joey, a stunningly beautiful thoroughbred, has cinematic style reminiscent of Gone with the Wind. Watching War Horse feels like watching a movie on Turner Classics channel—the sweeping and dramatic landscapes, lush rolling hills, silhouettes against sunsets, storybook cottages and windmills, soaring musical score, and Joey’s teenage owner Albert (Jeremy Irvine) having the classic good looks.

From the time he was a pony, Joey exudes animal magnetism, no pun intended. Aside from his picture-perfect horse physique, there is something extraordinary and almost magical about the horse. Ultimately separated from Albert who raised him, and passed on from one owner to another in the midst of World War I, Joey shows remarkable traits and almost human empathy. And in the end, the great weeper and animal-lover that I am, my throat inevitably constricted and tears trickled down my cheeks.

But that’s me. I easily cry. Objectively speaking, there’s nothing extraordinary or lingering about the linear story. In fact, War Horse is dragging and boring, the story lackluster and requires intense concentration to finish it right until the predictable albeit touching ending. The war scenes grab the attention, though; the superb camera angles, the war sounds, and falling soldiers feel real-- the only gripping scenes in the movie, bringing life into the monotonous flow of the story.

Joey was not even given major presence in the movie; rather, the movie’s substance focus on the lives of each  passing owner; the horse’s effect on them, the joy that Joey brings into their lives even for only a brief period of time, and of course, their emotional attachment to the remarkable beast. Joey, with eyes so alive and so human, rarely displays awesome characteristics; he is simply strong, determined, and compassionate.

If you are a fan of the classics, and a lover of horses, you might appreciate War Horse. Its distinct, slightly charming old-fashioned style, as well as the seriously meticulous production, may have earned its right to be Oscar nominated. However, it definitely won’t take home the Oscar gold.

2 out of 5 stars

When Clint Eastwood directs a biopic, brace yourself for a lengthy ‘talkies’ experience. Unless you are fascinated with the early beginnings of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), particularly with J. Edgar Hoover, who headed the bureau for 50 years, then skip the movie... (READ MORE)

If you are in the mood for cheap thrills, or perhaps thinking of bringing your date to a juvenile alien adventure where not much concentration is required, then The Darkest Hour is your best pick.No, there’s nothing wrong with popcorn movies manufactured for light Friday night entertainment at the cinemas. And with 3D effects, these sorts of films can de-stress a moviegoer-- and if lingeringly good, can even be a good conversation starter. But the problem with The Darkest Hour, it is shallower than the acceptable level of shallowness of popcorn movies.

Sean (Emile Hirsche) and Brad (Max Minghella) are hanging out one night in a stuffy bar in the heart of Moscow, meeting new people, when there is a sudden blackout, and then strange beautiful lights started appearing in the Russian sky. Soon after, these lights started wiping out humanity-- (READ MORE)

When Lars von Trier channels his experience with depression through filmmaking, the result is an astonishingly surreal beauty. Slowly falling horses and colliding planets, stars and ravens, snow and ashes. Like slowly moving surreal paintings right before your eyes, resonating with a kind of melancholy that is both achingly beautiful and suffocating.

Melancholia is an art house fantasy drama about the impending apocalypse: a planet called Melancholia will hit the Earth in five days' time and we watch how the clinically depressed Justine (Kirsten Dunst), and her sister  Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), come to terms with the imminent End.

The movie, which premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Fest, is...(READ MORE)