Cosmopolis
A super-rich CEO spends the day driving around in his limousine. I wasn’t sure how to take this when I read the book, and I’m still a little unsure what DeLillo is doing. Cronenberg adds his usual graphic elements to the mix, but that sheds no light on anything, not really. Liked the language and dialogue. Everybody does a very good job. **

A Late Quartet
Everything in this film about the tribulations of a string quartet is extremely refined. Unfortunately, all the food value has been refined right out of it. All the characters, and their interactions, are clichés. Terrible waste of incredible acting ability. Not horrible, just really pale. **

Open City
Interesting Korean film about a sinister pick-pocket manipulating a policeman and his pick-pocket mother. Emotionally brutal, well acted, and a cohesive and believable narrative. It isn’t great, but I enjoyed watching it. **

Zero Dark Thirty
Interesting, well-acted movie about the hunt and assassination of Osama bin Laden. There is an emotional distance created, perhaps, by the ambivalent main character. Really well directed. Really glad I saw it. **

Total Recall
Remake of the film of the Philip K. Dick story about a future where you can be given any memories you want. The question becomes, how do you tell them from reality. Stylish, adequately acted, and ultimately empty because, like the Schwarzenegger version, it never deals with the real issue. Another useless remake. *

End of Watch
Movie about two L. A. cops working the mean streets. While the narrative unfolded I was really invested, and worried about them. But, there are narrative, especially POV, inconsistencies, and as soon as it ended, I felt like I had been artificially manipulated. Really disliked the very end. But Gyllenhaal and Peña were good, and I’m glad I saw it. **

Men in Black 3
Pretty good installment in the series. Imaginative and entertaining early versions of some of the characters. Not as good as the first one and way better than the irritating second one. **

Housewife’s Afternoon Delight
Japanese film about a bored housewife who starts an affair with a door-to-door salesman. Turns bad for everyone, especially him. Not too original, but well-enough done. **

I Am an S&M Writer
Excellent Japanese film about a guy who writes S&M novels and his relationship with his wife. Thoughtful, beautifully filmed, and ultimately very sad. Well worth it. **

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome
Marginally interesting spin-off from the TV series about an intelligence plot to end the first Cylon war. Would like to see the unedited version. Adequate entertainment. **

Rainbow Eyes
Really interesting Korean murder mystery about cops trying to solve a series of murders of former soldiers. Interesting plot twists. Very well done, really enjoyed it. **

Immoral Affairs
Japanese film about a woman who get involved in extra-marital affairs because her marriage is stale. Of course, things go bad from there. Pretty good.**

Iron Sky
Hilarious and entertaining movie about Nazis hiding on the moon until they can re-take earth. Lots of campy fun. Enjoyed it. **

Scout Man
Sad and depressing Japanese movie about a young couple in Tokyo from the sticks who get involved in the sex trade. A scout man is a guy who recruits young women off the street. Well enough done. **

Vengeance
Marginally interesting movie about a Frenchman in Macau and Hong Kong who avenges the murders of his daughter and her family. Pretty good Asian violence. Not great but not a waste of time either. **

Moss
Fascinating Korean film about a man who goes to a small village for the funeral of his father. That’s when all the trouble starts. Complexity of characterizations added to the plot intricacies. Very well written and a great ending. Very enjoyable. **

Looper
Very good science fiction film about time travel, organized crime, assassination, and dreams of the future. Excellent acting by Gordon-Leavitt, Willis, and Blount. Excellent writing, and a superb ending. Best Hollywood film I’ve seen in a long time. Really liked it. ***

Who’s Camus Anyway
Odd but interesting Japanese film about film students making a film and struggling with all the things students struggle with. Mostly love and each other. Tons of film references throughout. Kind of enjoyable. **

Howling
For the most part, an interesting Korean police procedural about a series of murders committed by a wolf dog. More interesting was the struggle of the woman police officer to be accepted by the male police officers. Got weirdly sentimental at the end about the dog. But OK. **

Meatball Machine
Surprisingly interesting Japanese horror film about aliens using humans as hosts to kill each other. I don’t usually like these gory Japanese movies where people get turned into machines, but this one didn’t bother me as much. **

You Will Be Mine
Fairly interesting French film about one roommate who falls in love with the other roommate, who isn’t interested. Several levels of psychological struggle between the two women that produces questions about their attachment to each other. OK. Liked seeing France. **

Drool
Easily one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Don’t even want to talk about it.

The Countess
Historical and psychological movie about a medieval Hungarian countess who believes that bathing in the blood of virgins will preserve her beauty. Very good cast and directed by Ms. Delpy herself. Kind of OK. **

Gomorrah
Raw, brutal fictional study of war between two mafia groups in Italy and the young men it destroys. Very well filmed and acted. Completely convincing and depressing. **

Wife to be Sacrificed
Surprisingly graphic and interesting Japanese film from 1974 about the sado-masochistic relationship between a woman and her ex-husband. Much better than I expected. Enjoyed it. **

Love, In Between
Strange Korean film about a woman who befriends her husband’s lover. Initially she plans to do her harm, but they end up getting very close. Didn’t like the ending, but not too bad. **

Sex Machine
Slapstick Japanese comedy about a woman who wants to have a relationship but sleeps with pretty much everyone. Pretty dumb and weird at the end. *

Caterpillar
Interesting Japanese film about a WWII “war hero” who comes home without arms or legs and the wife who now has to care for him. Very well acted indictment of the Japanese mentality during the war. Good, serious film. ***

Bitter Sweet
Japanese film about a woman who wants to have an affair in the last weeks before she gets married. Things don’t work out the way she planned. Fairly interesting study of the nature of relationships as some dissolve and others begin. **

The Yellow Sea
Brutal, depressing Korean film about a cab driver who agrees to do a contract killing to try to find his wife. Nobody gets out alive. Very interesting, well acted, and filmed. Tough to watch, though. ***

Skyfall
As a lot of people have been saying, the best Bond film cinematically. Brings the series full circle so it can start again. But I missed all the things that make the series so enjoyable, the women, high tech gadgets, and mayhem. Javier Bardem was superb, as usual. Visually beautiful. Since I have seen and enjoyed every Bond film to varying dgrees, never a thought of missing it. **

13 Assassins
Very enjoyable historical samurai film about 13 assassins, thus the title, who band together to punish an injustice. Enjoyable in every way; good acting, period sets, and action. Not Kurosawa, but really had fun watching it. ***

The Amazing Spider-man
Deeply disappointing remake of the comic. Poorly written and directed, there was absolutely no need for this movie to be made. Waste of time. *

The Bourne Legacy
Pretty enjoyable fourth installment in this series, this time with Jeremy Renner as the next generation of super spys. Renner is a very good actor and I always enjoy Rachel Weisz. She was convincing as a brilliant scientist. Not quite the pop of the first three, but enjoyable. **

Dark Passage
1947 Bogart and Bacall film about an escaped convict who has plastic surgery. Somewhat interesting use of POV filming at the beginning. Completely unconvincing that the woman helps the guy out, though, and the coincidental relationships were very hard to believe. But I liked watching two great film stars work. **

The Raid: Redemption
Nothing but brutal action in this Indonesian movie about a SWAT team fighting its way out of a high-rise controlled by a crime boss. Action, especially the fighting, is excellent, but that’s all there is. Pretty OK. **