Limitless

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a would-be author whose life is going nowhere. He's got writer's block, doesn't wash, lives in a penniless mess and his girlfriend has just dumped him. So when a friend introduces him to a revolutionary new drug that will help him to tap into his full potential he decides to give it a try.

Fresh, fast paced, original and thoroughly entertaining and by far the best thing Bradley Cooper has done, proving that he is quite capable of holding his own even in scenes with the legendary Robert De Niro.



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Gattaca (1997)

A genetically inferior man (Ethan Hawke) assumes the indentity of a genetically superior man (Jude Law) in order to pursue his dream of space travel.

This is a Sci-fi drama set in the future where one's life is determined by genetic engineering. Rich people can choose the makeup of their offspring and people are designed to fit into whatever role is decided for them before their birth. But what happens when someone wants a life different from the one chosen for him?

Nasa says that 'Gattaca' is the most plausible sci-fi movie ever and therefore watching this film brings a chilling thought of what could happen if technology is left unchecked. Gattaca is an intelligent thriller that is visually stunning and morally complex and well worth digging up from the archives for another view.

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The Visitor

A widowed college professor travels to New York to attend a conference and finds a strange couple living in his apartment.

A simple story that embraces loneliness, sadness, laughter, heartbreak and ultimately frustration. Richard Jenkins portrays Walter, a college professor who has nothing to live for since the death of his wife. When he travels from his home in Connecticut to attend a conference he plans to stay at his New York apartment only to discover two illegal immigrants, Tarek and Zainab, living there. Walter befriends them and slowly discovers a way to bring joy back into his life. But when Tarek is arrested and on the brink of deportation, Walter and Tarek's mother find themselves fighting a cruel immigration system. This is ultimately a heartwarming film that highlights how immigrants are dealt with since 9/11. Although it seems to end quite abruptly, the film makes a point and leaves you with plenty to think about.

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The Social Network

In a nutshell - the story of how the social networking website 'Facebook' was found.

Directed by two of our absolute favourites, the brilliant David Fincher (Fight Club) and written by the equally brilliant Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) we didn't expect this movie to fail us and thank goodness, it didn't. It begins in 2003 with a breathless, wordy scene in a noisy bar and, to be honest, we hadn't a clue what was being said because of Jessie Eisenbergs fast paced delivery and the music. Nevertheless we were soon drawn into a story that was totally compelling. Jessie Eisenberg is superb as Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield as Zuckerberg's best friend, Eduardo Saverin. Although we didn't pay much attention to Saverin at first, by the end of the movie we all felt really sorry for the guy. It is just ironic that Zuckerberg created the world's greatest tool for communicating with people and yet, in reality, he couldn't communicate.

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Source Code

When soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an unknown man he discovers he is part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. As part of a government experiment called Source Code he is able to cross over into another man's indentity during the mans last eight minutes of life on the train.

Keen to see this new Duncan Jones movie after the brilliant 'Moon' we experienced a thriller that was both gripping and intelligent. An entertaining puzzle that kept us guessing but wasn't without emotion and a little humour. Some call it Groundhog Day meets Inception. All we know is Duncan Jones didn't disappoint. This movie is brilliant!

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Citizen Kane

Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final words.

It was made 70 years ago and by today standards certain aspects are not great, but that's because we are used to seeing great things in movies. But in Citizen Kane everything was, for want of a better word, ground-breaking. Some of the shots are brilliant and the acting is superb.

Still, when we came to watch this movie and comment on it, it was difficult (and not just because each actor seem to speak a thousand words a minute - boy did they talk fast in those days!) because we'd been told, often enough, this was the greatest movie of all time.

It's one of those movies you will enjoy much more when you reflect on what you've experienced. When you consider how old it is, it really is a remarkable piece of movie-making that has truly stood the test of time.

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Inception

Imagine a world where technology exists that allows you to enter a human mind through dream invasion.

This film was awesome. I mean like really awesome. Like really, really awesome. Like totally awesomely, awesome! And we're not telling you anymore because we don't want to spoil it (not that anyone reads this blog) So if you haven't seen this movie, go and see it now. I mean NOW. RIGHT NOW!

we're not going to put how many elephants in case this is a dream but it is a high number, possibly a herd.

The Book Of Eli

A post-apocalyptic world in which a lone man fights his way across American in order to protect a sacred book.

Denzel Washington is easy to watch. As loner, Eli, trudging across a violent America he cuts an enigmatic figure in a Mad Max world. The book of Eli wanders along and for the first part of the movie the viewer is not sure where the story is going to go. It's not until Gary Oldman as the evil Carnegie - ruler of a shanty town - gets involved that the story takes a very interesting turn. It's a stick-with-it movie with a nice twist in the tail ending. Our only criticism would be the ending drags on a bit.

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Moon

Director Duncan Jones' first feature film about Sam Bell an employee who is contracted by Lunar Industries to work on the moon and that's all we're saying because we don't want to give away the plot.

Trawling through the films on Love Film I came across this movie and without even reading the synopsis put it on the list because it had such a cool poster. Months later it turned up and before we watched it I was repeatedly asked what it was about, to which I replied 'the moon, I guess.' But when we came to watch it we were blown away. This should have got Sam Rockwell an Oscar nod - at least. It's incredible to think this movie was made for just $5m, it looks as if it's been filmed on location - on the moon! The entire movie literally has only one actor in it. It's a fantastic film. Brilliantly directed and superbly acted.
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Best line - Sam: Gerty, is there someone else in the room?

The Bucket List

Two Terminally ill men, Carter Chambers and Edward Cole (Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) on a road trip with a wish list of things to do before they 'kick the bucket.'

Things we didn't like about this movie:
1. The bucket list road trip was not the theme of the movie.
2. Sentimental overkill.
3. Depressing to the extreme!

We conclude that Freeman and Nicholson are tremendous actors and that is this movie's only saving grace. And speaking of grace (you might have to pray for some to get you through this depressing tale) the only thing we liked was 'ex Will and Grace' actor Sean Hayes who played Edward Cole's long suffering, and often amusing, assistant.

Best line: "We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round."

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Shooter

Ex-army marksman, Bob Lee Swagger, is living in exile when he is persuaded back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president. But ultimately framed for the attempted assassination he goes on the run to catch the real killer and find out who has set him up.

Rambo meets Jason Bourne. Which means lots of heads and arms being shot off but with a good story to accompany the blood lust. Basically one man's struggle against a powerful and corrupt system bent on framing him for something he didn't do. Who could he trust? Hell. We didn't know. The movie made us feel as uncertain as Swagger did himself. It kept us guessing. Would he outsmart the bad guy as he stepped into one trap after another? A movie that involved it's viewer - always a good thing. It's sustains tension and kept us guessing. And we so wanted Swagger to come out on top.

Best line: "You can's shoot me, I'm a U.S. senator."
"Exactly."
pow!

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The Invasion

An alien life form attaches itself to a space shuttle that crashes back to earth. Anyone coming in contact with debris from the shuttle and therefore the alien life form, becomes infected and contagious. When they fall asleep their DNA is recoded and they are robbed of all emotion. (Obviously this happened to Nicole Kidman before the film started!)

If you can get past Miss Kidman's frozen features and Daniel Craig's hair (was it a wig???) there is a one in a million chance you might enjoy it. This remake starts off well enough but come the third act it just seems the script writers ran out of steam and just thought 'c'mon guys, let's wrap this up asap.' The resolution was pathetic. And while we're at it, Nicole Kidman's running -- well, she just shouldn't.

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Inside Man

From a cell, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) tells us he carried out the perfect bank robbery and invites the audience to watch how he did it. But while he was committing the crime he had to outsmart Detective Frazier (Denzel Washington) and just to throw a little something else into the mix, the bank's president had something in the safe deposit box he was eager to protect. Enter Madeleine White (Jodie Foster) a high-powered fixer or as we like to think of her role ' the token bitch.'

Not your run of the mill cops and robbers film. The plot was fast paced, smart and very clever. The only spoiler - Jodie Foster's role in it. It could have been played by any actor. As good as Jodie Foster is, somehow she didn't bring anything to this film. Nevertheless, we loved this movie for it's originality and are pleased to hear they are making a sequel.

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The Shawshank Redemption

Based on the Stephen King novel the Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) a young and successful banker who is given a double life sentence for the murder of his young wife and her lover. At Shawshank prison he gains the respect of Red (Morgan Freeman) the prison 'fixer' and together they embark on a life changing journey.

In essence the secret of a good movie is simple. It isn't the cinematography, it isn't the direction, the lighting, the music. It isn't even the cast. It is quite simply the story. A good story has you enthralled from beginning to end. It makes you care so much for the protagonist that you hope and pray that somehow everything will turn out all right. A good story makes you hate the corrupt and feel for the broken. The Shawshank Redemption is such a story. If there is a list of movies you want to see before you die. This movie should be on it...no, it must be on it.

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Seven Pound

Two years ago Tim Thomas (Will Smith) caused the death of seven people. In an effort to redeem himself he set about donating bits of his body. A lung lobe to his brother, a piece of his liver to a child services officer, a kidney to a hockey coach, bone marrow to a young boy. For his final donations he steals his brothers IRS ID and searches for worthy recipients. Ezra Turner, a blind meat sales person is to receive his eyes. Connie Tepos, a young woman, his heart. But to donate these final pieces he has to commit suicide and in such a way that his vital organs are preserved.

This movie should come with a health warning. Watching it will make you seriously depressed. It's basically Will Smith, with a strange, tortured look on his face, fumbling about, tears dribbling down his cheeks as he sets about fulfilling his quest. It was as if he was trying to get an Oscar by crying a lot. Never before have we watched a film that has left us so utterly depressed. It was pointless and unrealistic. One of the least enjoyable films we have ever watched and enough to turn anyone to drink to blot out the depression it yielded on any viewer.

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The Sentinel

Peter Garrison (Michael Douglas) is a secret service agent and personal bodyguard to the First Lady of the United States, Sarah Ballentine (Kim Basinger) with whom he is having an affair. He finds himself embroiled in an investigation to an assassin plot against the President. Each agent is ordered to take a polygraph test and, because he has to hide his affair with the First Lady, he fails. Thus finding himself an unwitting suspect for providing information to the would-be assassins.

Rotten Tomatoes reviews this as a film as boring as watching ink dry on a U.N Treaty. Well stuff them. This actually wasn't that bad. Although it was slightly worrying that when looking at the DVD and seeing that the film starred Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria...but somehow we'd never heard of it. Nevertheless, it was a good story, kept our attention and watching an OAP (Michael Douglas) beat up half of the U.S Secret Service was entertaining if not a little amusing. Watch but don't expect a classic.

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Half Nelson

Inner City high school teacher Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a brilliant teacher, yet he spends his time outside school in a drug induced haze. He also coaches the girls basketball team and one of his young players - Drey - inadvertently catches him getting high after practice. As the story unfolds we delve into the lives of both Dan and Drey as they try to save each other from the consequences of their troubled lives.

Ryan Gosling's performance in this 2006 movie earned him an academy nomination. A slow burner, this movie has the feel of an Oscar winner (or something they would like, anyway.) It's emotionally moving in an understated way and you feel as if you've watched a really good movie at the end of it -- which you have!

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The Day the Earth Stood Still

A remake of a 1951 Sci-Fi movie. A sphere lands in Central Park in New York and Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) a representative of a group of aliens has come to assess whether humans can reverse the damage it has inflicted on planet earth.

This is a perfect role for Keanu Reeves as he has to play someone who does not have any emotion. Our favourite line in the movie is when Klaatu is asked by the Secretary of Defence (Kathy Bates) why he has come to their planet. Klaatu replies "Your planet?" Keanu Reeves says it with such detachment it's actually funny. An okay movie. But no wow factor.

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Jackie Chan's First Strike

Jackie Chan takes part in a sting operation on an international spy ring. But when one of them gets away he is chases him, and a missing nuclear warhead, to Australia.

We had this 1990's Jackie Chan movie sitting on our shelves gathering dust and had never watched it. So this weekend we decided to give it a view. It's only 88 minutes long but it's packed lots of action and the obligatory fight scenes Jackie is so famous for. In these depressing times when all everyone talks about is the economy and swine flu you can always reply on Jackie Chan to entertain and make you forget your problems.

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Jet Li's Fearless (Huo Yuan Jia)

The true story of the Chinese martial arts master, Huo Yuan Jia. The founder of the Jin Wu Sports Federation.

Yeah, we know. Another Jet Li film. But we like him, okay?? Jet Li stars in this true story of the most famous fighter in all of China at the turn of the 20th century. Spectacular fight scenes and an absorbing story that highlights how the West affected the Chinese culture when it ploughed into China. Brilliantly acted with some very emotional scenes and amazing set pieces. This is a great film, despite the horrible haircuts! Humour aside, we highly recommend this film.

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