Jack the Giant Slayer
Inventive British re-imagining of the Jack in the Beanstalk tale with lots of action. Outstanding cast who do it justice. More entertaining than I thought it would be. **

Shanghai Dreams
Superb Chinese film by Wang Xiaoshuai about a family in a tiny factory town trying to get back to Shanghai. A lot of Chinese history I didn’t explain. Excellent acting, Wang’s beautiful and cinematic directing, and an excellent study of familial and community relationships. Very, very good. ****

Drifters
Excellent, though hard to watch, Chinese film about a man recently returned from the U.S. who is not allowed to see his son. Very well directed and acted. Beautifully composed shots. Want to see more films by Wang Xiaoshuai. Very good. ***

A Beautiful Life
Cheesy, but well-enough done, Chinese movie about the romance between a staid policeman and a beautiful, glamorous real estate agent. Way too much like it was written by Nicholas Sparks. But the parts about Chinese life and culture were interesting. **

Red 2
Like the first one, surprisingly delightful thriller about supposedly retired spies. Everybody is very good, but Malkovich is stupendous. Really enjoyed every second of it. I may have had a grin on my face throughout. Very enjoyable. **

We’re the Millers
Putrid. I fell for the marketing even though I knew better. Even at $1.20, a waste of money.

The Warrior’s Way
Stylized, but entertaining movie about the greatest swordsman in the world who comes to the American wild west. Quirky, plenty of CGI violence, and fun. Found myself enjoying it against my better judgment. Good cast well used. **

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
Documentary about the influential writer. Good first-hand accounts of his life and influence. Very influential in a variety of genres. Even after seeing it, maybe even more so after seeing it, Burroughs remains a writer that doesn’t interest me. **

Dinosaur Wars
Documentary about the professional battles between the two founders of American Paleontology in the second half of the 19^th Century. Very informative historically and scientifically. Enjoyed it. **

Sacrifice
Chinese epic about a doctor who protects a child from the slaughter of his entire clan so he can grow up to revenge them. Not really an action movie, but a good story well developed and acted. Enjoyable. **

Wind Blast
Action-packed Chinese movie about assassins and police chasing a hit man and his pregnant girlfriend across the Gobi desert. Plenty of violence and stunts. Very modern Chinese ending. Well done and fun. **

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Stylish and entertaining Chinese movie about a detective brought out of prison to solve a mystery of murders occurring around the inauguration of the first female empress. Pretty entertaining and a good resolution. **

Valley of the Sun
Movie about a burned out male porn star who goes to stay with his parents in their gated retirement community in Arizona. Dopey, but OK. Surprisingly good cast who actually try. Not too bad. **

Sex Sells: The Making of Touché
Mockumentary about the making of a porn movie on no budget. Silly relationships develop. Not quite as bad as it sounds, but not good. *

Female Convict Scorpion
Stylized and dopey Japanese movie about a mild-mannered woman who is forced to kill someone. She goes to prison and becomes a kick-ass fighter to save her life. See what I mean. Not that good. *

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Re-watched this third element of Park Chan-wook’s revenge trilogy. Very well done in every way. Forgot that it has some extremely hard-to-watch scenes. Luckily, this time, I could fast forward through them. Still, very good. ***

The Boys are Back
Affecting and accomplished film about a sportswriter’s struggle to deal with his wife’s death and take care of his two sons. Based on a true story. Very well acted. Perfect Clive Owen vehicle. Enjoyed it. **

Textures of Skin
Interesting Korean film about a photographer who is having an affair with an old girlfriend who is now married. But he is also having visions of a woman who lived in his apartment before he did. Odd, incomprehensible ending to the version I watched on Netflix. **

Rammboch
Wonderful German zombie movie that focuses on the people trying to survive more than the violence and gore of the attacks. Intelligent and well acted. Great ending, even kind of touching. Really liked it. ***

Drug War
Excellent Chinese film about drug officers who try to use a captured kingpin to roll up a large drug network. Very violent, nearly everyone gets killed in the end. A little creepy the way the government comes in at the end. Really well directed. Very enjoyable. **

2013 was a very disappointing film year. I have seen a lot of movies in my adult life, and so it’s difficult to find anything that seems original. Also, my financial constraints are so severe that I can’t really afford to go to any films in a theatre. Early in the year, when I had a little money, I was able to see a few. Netflix streaming is my primary source of film. Sometimes Red Box as well. So, very limited. Really disappointed that I didn’t finish writing all the reviews until now.

Alien Uprising
British movie about an alien invasion. Starts out as a marginally interesting study of the effect the invasion has on people, but ends up just going splat. Really dumb by the end. *

In Love We Trust
Fascinating Chinese film about divorced parents who have to try to produce a sibling for their young daughter who has cancer and needs a bone marrow transplant. Each is currently married, and the film is really about how this affects the relationships. Excellent. ***

Too Young to Die
Interesting cinema verité Korean film about two octogenarians who meet, fall in love, and move in together. The Netflix version I saw had big narrative gaps and was only 62 minutes long. Even so, I really liked it. **

I Saw the Devil
Outstanding Korean film about a government agent who tracks down the serial killer who raped and killed his pregnant wife. Deals with questions about what you have to become to defeat evil. Really well acted and directed. ***

Secret Sunshine
Emotionally raw portrayal of a woman trying to come to terms with her devastation when her son is abducted and murdered. In the midst of all that, a pretty hilarious character who is in love with her. Extremely well acted by the entire cast. **

Barbara
German film about a doctor in the old East Germany who is trying to escape to the west. Of course, her personal involvements gum up the works. Well acted, and a good portrayal of the creepy power of the totalitarian state. **

Boat
Interesting and engaging Korean/Japanese film about a guy who unknowingly works as a drug courier from Korea to Japan. Evolves into a story about friendship and family. Very well acted. Ending is disappointing, but I still really liked it. **

Variety
The version of this film that I watched on Netflix had obviously been cut up quite a bit. So, besides the fact that that really makes me mad, I can’t really make a judgment about it. Too bad.

Holiday
Emotionally and cinematically overwrought Korean film about a harmful law put in place to keep criminals in jail for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Whole thing was too over the top for me, though it wasn’t poorly done. *

New World
Excellent Korean film about a deep-cover policemman rising through the Korean mafia. Very well written and acted. Interesting characters and twists. Really enjoyed it. ***

The Taste of Money
Excellent Korean film about the machinations of a super rich and powerful family. Centers on the moral dilemmas for one of the employees and his relationships with the generations. Well done and interesting cautionary tale. Really enjoyed it. ***

Electric Shadows
Affecting Chinese film about the role of movies in peoples’ lives demonstrated through the improbable encounter of two strangers. Really liked the way the narrative is reconstructed, the portrayal of the harsh realities of Mao’s China, and even the completely impossible ending. **

Conan the Barbarian
Bad remake of the Schwartzenegger vehicle. Really liked Rose McGowan as the evil sorceress, but everything else was really bad. *

El Infierno
Raw, and physically and emotionally brutal, Mexican film about a town controlled by a drug cartel. Very harsh vision of the state of Mexican society. Rated NC-17 for the violence. Really well acted. **

Rango
Entertaining animated movie with animals in the old west. A gecko hero, an extremely creepy snake, and a damsel in distress. The CGI was stupendous, the plot a cliché, and the voicing of the characters excellent. Enjoyed it quite a bit. **

The Iceman
Movie about a New York mob hit man in the 70s and 80s who’s a loving family man. Even though he’s got the face for it, Michael Shannon doesn’t really bring across the evil or menace of the killer half of the character. OK. **

The Good, the Bad, the Weird
Extremely witty and entertaining Korean re-imagining of the Sergio Leone western set in 1930s Korea. Great characters and outstanding action. Lots of fun, and very well done. ***

The Chambermaid
Same actors and crew who made Angst, about a hotel manager who abuses a chambermaid who works for him. Sordid, bleak, and looney. Can’t believe I watched the whole thing. *

Dance in the Vampire Bund
Entertaining and enjoyable anime about the queen of the Vampires and her attempts to build a secluded vampire community. Mostly about all the relationships of the people close to her. Nicely done and lots of fun for me. **

A Woman in Berlin
Well-done adaptation of the memoir of life in Berlin at the end of World War II, though it is sanitized. Good history, though. Tough now to imagine a situation where women greeted each other with how many times they’d been raped. Glad I saw it. **

The Hunger Games
Found it hard to believe that a young woman can kill other young people without much blood or any emotional damage. But that’s the YA factor, I guess. I like Jennifer Lawrence as an adult much better. But I think it was just what they wanted it to be. **

Don’t Let Me Die on a Sunday
Deeply dark French film about a guy whose despair is so deep he tries anything to be stimulated. The big event is that while having sex with a corpse in the morgue, she wakes up, so they are tied together. There’s a light undertone of humor and friendship, but it is emotionally brutal and bleak. **

The Thieves
Very entertaining Korean/Chinese movie about thieves who knock over a Macao casino. First half is deeply derivative, in plot and style, of the Clooney-Pitt Ocean’s movies, but the second half takes some turns. Lots of action and a twisting plot. Well done and a lot of fun. **

Jedi Junkies
Pretty interesting documentary about avid Star Wars collectors and convention goers. Didn’t know whether to feel sorry for some of these people or envy their joy they get out of it all. **

My Awkward Sexual Adventure
Mostly stupid TV-movie like film about a really awkward accountant who enlists the help of a stripper to get his girlfriend back. Hard to figure out what happens, right? Lame. *

Angst
Schlock English B movie about a woman whose vagina devours the men she has sex with. I know, I laughed writing that sentence. Dumb and not at all good. I was amazed that the cast took it so seriously. *

Female Vampire (Les avaleuses)
Very enjoyable 1973 X-rated (what is now NC-17) movie about a female vampire feeding on people in a resort town. Scene after scene of graphic female nudity and some simulated sex, interspersed with weird attempts at meaningfulness. Very 70s, and quite entertaining, if you like that kind of thing. *

Charlotte Sometimes
Very independent-looking character study of the friendship/relationship between a female renter and her male landlord in San Francisco. Some attempted plot twists. Well acted and accomplished. **

House of Pleasures (Souvenirs de la maison close)
Interesting movie about a brothel in fin de siècle Paris. Well acted. Trying to be an art movie. Point seems to be that hookers had it much better then. OK. **

Redemption
Disappointing Jason Statham vehicle about an Iraq War veteran who wants to make up for evil he’s done, and exact revenge on other evil doers. Way too predictable. A dopey, unbelievable affair with a nun. *

Thor
OK adaptation of the comic. Found the whole thing dopey, though much of that may have been intentional. Maybe I would have liked it if I were 10 years old. *

Painted Skin: The Resurrection
Chinese fantasy about a demon who needs to change places with a human to escape eternal imprisonment. Kind of schlocky and way too sentimentally romantic. A lot of production effort wasted. **

Home
Delightful French comedy about a family who lives right next to a closed highway that is re-opened. I love Isabelle Huppert and, as usual, she is great. All the acting is excellent. Offbeat and very enjoyable. **

The Counselor
Beautifully written and acted cautionary tale about a lawyer who gets involved in the drug trade along the border because his lifestyle has gotten out of control. Excellent cast does justice to Cormac McCarthy’s script. Some of the images will stay for a long time. **

Hammer of the Gods
Movie about a Viking sent to find his brother so he can be the new king of the Vikings who are conquering England. Gets weirder as it goes. Clumsy directing and overwrought acting. Even though I was hopeful, it didn’t ever really catch my interest.

Gravity
Visually stunning chick flick about a female astronaut feeling bad about herself who triumphs over her tribulations to become strong again through her fight for survival. Too bad the plot was so dopey. Visually, it was magnificent. **

Invisible Waves
Interesting film about a Japanese cook who kills his boss’s wife for him, then is sent on vacation to Thailand. But the vacation, of course, is not what it seems. Interesting and well done, and, as usual, Asano Tadanobu is excellent. Enjoyed it. **

The World’s End
Disappointing Simon Pegg vehicle about buddies trying to get all the way through a pub crawl to the last pub called The World’s End. Turns out, it’s run by aliens taking over the world. Excellent cast. I think it accomplished what it wanted, but it wasn’t really what I wanted. Too bad. **
Let the Right One In
Outstanding Norwegian film about a bullied kid who makes friends with the vampire girl who lives next to him. Beautifully filmed, well directed, unsentimental, and very well acted. Really liked it. ***
Tai Chi Hero
Continuation of Tai Chi Zero where the hero triumphs, gets the girl, evil is overcome, and a new form of kung fu is born. Not as good as the first one, but enjoyable and inventive. **
Edo Porn
Japanese biopic about the man who became Hokusai. I really like Ken Ogata, and it was well enough done, though a little overwrought. Worth it. **
Young and Wild
Very interesting and enjoyable Spanish film about a sexually adventurous young woman who is part of a very strict evangelical family and works at the church’s radio station as punishment. Really liked it. **
Not of this Earth
Cheesy science fiction tale about aliens invading Earth that spotlights Tracy Lords’ fantastic assets. That’s about it. Campy and kind of enjoyable. **

Empire of Silver
Pretentious and romanticized Chinese film about a banking family and true love in turbulent early 20^th century China. Visually good, what so many recent Chinese films look like, but disappointing plot. **

Dream Home
Interesting and very gory Korean film about a woman who will stop at nothing to get the apartment she wants. Some sympathy for her. Done well for what it wanted to accomplish. **

Man of Steel
Fairly entertaining re-imagining of the Superman comic and 50s TV series. Way too much Russell Crowe. A lot of pointless destruction. Glad I paid only a discount price for it. **

Elysium
Disappointing science fiction film about a dystopian future earth. Characters are all just cutouts, needed more backstory for them to be sympathetic. The jumpy camera really diminished the effectiveness of the action. Excellent special effects couldn’t overcome the other problems. Too bad. **

The Intimate
Well-acted Korean film about two strangers, one is leaving the country and one is engaged, who have an affair. We’re tantalized by the possibility of their time together becoming permanent, but in the end, the woman gets exactly what she wanted all along. **

Failan
Sentimental and brutal Korean film about a Chinese woman who agrees to an arranged marriage with a man she never sees so she can stay in Korea. Story is really about the husband. Well acted and affecting. **

In the Electric Mist
Bad movie version of the James Lee Burke novel. Excellent cast wasted by mediocre dialogue and clumsy directing. Had the aspect of a made-for-TV movie from the 80s. Waste of time. *

The Wolverine
Disappointing movie that brings the X-Man up to date. Took Elijah because Wolverine is his favorite super hero. Even he didn’t think it was very good. Beautiful women, but that was about it. Lame, and as Elijah said, not enough fighting. *

Robot & Frank
Disappointing independent film about an old man in the near future who is given a robot to help with his dementia. Langella is excellent, as always, but the narrative kind of veers around to nothing. Too bad. **

Secret
Enjoyable Korean thriller about a police detective investigating the murder of a gangster. When evidence points to his estranged wife as the murderer, he has to try to stay ahead of the investigation. Well done, some interesting twists, sub-plots, and revelations. Good distraction. **

Shoot the Piano Player
It had been nearly forty years since I had seen this Truffaut homage to noir films. A piano played gets involved with deadly criminals. Surprisingly enjoyable interplay of humor and violence. Not one of my favorites of Truffaut, but really enjoyed seeing it again. **

The Secret World of Arriety
Another delightfully accomplished anime from Studio Ghibli. This one is based on The Borrowers. Perfect graphics and a sweet plot. Want my grandson to see it. Wonderful. **

Pacific Rim
Absolutely delightful live-action homage to mech anime. del Torro got everything just right, as you would expect from him. Only problem was it was too short. Really enjoyed it. **

Stand Up Guys
Disappointingly shallow and poorly written movie about three old gangsters reunited when one of then finally gets out of prison. Incredible waste of superb acting talent. *

Spring Breakers
Excellent film about four young women who go to spring break in Florida to find who they really are. Well acted, very well directed, and an especially good job by James Franco as the incredibly creepy gansta. Surprisingly well done. ***

The Lone Ranger
Unbelievably bad film version of the wonderful 50s TV show. Horrible plot, incomprehensible tone, stupid, cartoonish action, and characters you end up despising. Really bad. *

Star Trek
Watched it again and still really enjoyed the way it builds the back-story of the TV characters. Lots of fun and very good action. ***

Mob Sister
Over-stylized and shallow Chinese movie about a woman dealing with the assassination of her Triad father. I doubt it could have been more adolescent and pretentious. Waste of time. *

Heartbreak Library
Sickly sweet Korean movie about a librarian who helps a man find the book he’s looking for to deal with his grief. Of course, they end up together in the end. Really shallow. *

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
Really bad version of the fairy tale where the primary addition seems to be artificial use of the f word. Confused tone and plot, and a waste of excellent acting talent. Really dumb. *

A Good Day to Die Hard
Very disappointing installment in this Bruce Willis franchise. Just action that is primarily unconvincing and really lame dialogue. Too bad, I’ve enjoyed most of these. *

World War Z
Movie about a UN employee’s attempts to identify the source of the contagion turning everyone into zombies. Done well enough, but there is no gore, all the horrible violence is speedy and kept at a distance. So, there’s no real horror. As a result, kind of lifeless. **

Bedeviled
Brutal Korean movie about an abused woman on an isolated island who has finally had enough. Sub plot about the friend she tries to get to help her. Emotionally bleak and hopeless, but well done. **

Doomsday Book
A trilogy of short Korean films about the end of the world, at least as we know it: a robot achieves enlightenment, zombies take over, and a woman brings destruction through and online purchase. All done well enough to be entertaining. **

Mulholland Drive
David Lynch’s movie about making it in Hollywood. Every time I watch this film I’m reminded how good it is and how much I like it. Really enjoyed watching it again this time as well. Naomi Watts, who is always good, has never been better. ***

Sensation
Offbeat Irish film about a young farmer who sets up a prostitution business and his attempt to have a relationship with the madam. A little funny, well acted, but sordid and sad. **

Early Summer
Magnificent Japanese film about a family in the 1960s worrying about getting a daughter married. Ozu’s exquisite camera and direction, excellent acting, and a simple, moving story. Second time I’ve seen it. Noticed a lot more of the humor and irony this time. Ozu is one of my all time favorites. ****

The Numbers Station
Kind of entertaining and fairly believable thriller about agents stuck in a secret spy location. But then I like Malin Ackerman and John Cusack a lot, and they worked hard. Worth the free cost anyway. **

Rust and Bone
Excellent character study of a relationship between an aspiring down-and-out boxer and a woman who loses her legs to in a freak accident. Very well acted, written, and directed. Deeply satisfying how these people help each other. Really liked it. ***

Cloud Atlas
Complex, incredibly beautiful film adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel. Very well directed and acted, though the use of such well-known stars hindered the characterizations. I found it overwhelmingly moving when the streams resolved at the end. Loved it and would really like to see it again. ***

A French Gigolo
French comedy about a man forced to become a gigolo to support his family and the client he gets too involved with. Nicely acted, but unfunny, as I find most French comedies. The irony was just sad at the end. **

Blood Rain
Compelling murder mystery set on an island in medieval Korea. Complicated sub-plots and character back stories. Nicely executed, interesting the whole way. Enjoyed it. **

Now and Later
Raw, unusually explicit film chronicling the political education of a man waiting to cross the border into Mexico. The interweaving of conversation and sex was kind of interesting. Better than you would think, better than I would have thought. **

Cold Fish
Excellent Japanese film, based on a true story, about a fish store operator who unwittingly gets involved with the yakuza. Brutal, really gory, explicit, and very bleak. Loved it. **

Love
An ISS astronaut gets stranded and isolated without any communication. Everything gets really weird from then on. Didn’t really get what was being attempted. **

Tai Chi Zero
Delightful kung fu movie about a peasant who wants to be trained in the highest secret kung fu. Liked the historical background. Nothing is resolved at the end so you’ll have to see Tai Chi Hero. Pretty fun. **

Cat Run
Unconvincing movie about two novice private detectives who help a hooker stay alive and get her child back. Poor choice for Paz Vega. As usual, Janet McTeer was great. *

The Avengers
Very entertaining movie about superheroes battling an invasion of earth by Loki. Enjoyed Ironman, as usual. Very much like comics in tone and action. One of the funniest movie scenes I’ve seen in a long time when Hulk slaps Loki around. Watched it again because of Iron Man 3. **

The Master
Best film I’ve seen in a very long time. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is one of the greatest I have ever seen. Visually, thematically exquisite, and perfectly executed. Even though, like all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, it is hard to watch, it’s really, really good. ****

Novo
Light, odd French film about a sexually gifted man who suffers from daily retrograde amnesia and the women battling for him. Very good cast and not too bad, but the resolution resolves nothing. **

Star Trek Into Darkness
Next installment in the J. J. Abrams re-imagining of the TV series. The Kirk/Spock relationship continues to develop, and how Kahn got to be Kahn. Good, but didn’t like it as much as his initial take. Plan to watch it again some time. **

A Tale of Legendary Libido
Lighthearted, absolutely entertaining Korean film about a village starved for virility and the young man who rises to the task. Better than it sounds. I didn’t know every woman in Korea is so beautiful. Fun. **

Hospitalité
Enjoyable Japanese film about a printer who gets conned into housing some illegal aliens. Develops nicely, gets a little creepy, and ends well. Entertaining. **

Lust in Hell 2
Disappointing sequel, half of which is a summary of the previous movie. Though it resolves things, lame. *

Lust in Hell
Surprisingly enjoyable Japanese “horror” movie about a woman who can see people coming from hell while she battles for her sanity. That being said, the female lead was by far the most interesting thing in it. **

High School of the Dead
Absolutely loved this anime series about zombies in high school and the group of students who have to fight their way to safety. Very entertaining. ***

Kiss Me
Movie about an engaged woman who falls in love with her father’s girlfriend’s daughter. Way too adolescent in its approach to their relationship, but at least it dealt with the sorrow it causes. Lame happy ending. **

Iron Man 3
Third installment of this very entertaining trilogy. This one is too busy, too dependent on effects, but not too bad. Not as good as either of the first two, the first one is my favorite. Elijah loved it. Will probably save up and get the blu-ray set when it comes out. **

The Dark Sea
Italian film about a detective investigating a sex murder that begins to affect his relationship at home. A little pretentious and needlessly obscure. There just wasn’t anything there after working into it. Too bad. **

Post Impact
Bad B movie about efforts to recover a device that will help people during the new Ice Age that was caused by a meteor strike. See what I mean by bad. Another waste of time. *

Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
Lighthearted parody of the original Starship Troopers parody of 50s war movies. Not too bad, but that’s a lot of parody. Not a total waste though. Luckily, it was free. *

Joe + Belle
Stupid, unconvincing Israeli dark comedy about two women who fall in love with each other when one kills the other’s abusive boyfriend. Unfortunately, another waste of time. *

On the Doll
Lame movie about the tortured relationships of people in the porn industry. Waste of time. *

Permissive
Raw 1972 film about groupies in England. Even though it was pretty slim, there was an immediacy about it that has stayed with me. Better than it seemed while I was watching it. **

Safety Not Guaranteed
Delightful, quirky film about a guy who claims he is building a time machine, and the tabloid team sent to check it out. He just needs the right companion to help him. Doesn’t everyone. Playful, sweet, and entertaining. **

Ploy
Surreal Thai film about a couple back in their home town for a funeral. She’s a former movie star and he owns a restaurant, and their relationship has problems. Everything else is fantasy and illusion, and it’s hard to tell what happens and what doesn’t. Well done enough. **

From Up On Poppy Hill
Exquisite, lovely love story set in 1960s Japan from Studio Ghibli. Wonderfully nostalgic and endearing. Excellent graphics and narrative. Absolutely loved it. ***

Adrift in Tokyo
Outstanding, off-beat Japanese film about two guys walking across Tokyo. Very entertaining and enjoyable. Wished it wouldn’t end, but of course it had to. Lot of fun. **

Oblivion
Deeply disappointing Tom Cruise science fiction film about a future earth. Fragmented narrative and shallow characters, though the acting wasn’t bad. Implausible ending. Kept thinking throughout how much better it could have been. Too bad. **

Killing them Softly
Entertaining Brad Pitt vehicle about a hit man working a job. Very interesting treatise on the nature of America as corporation. Excellent monologue by Pitt’s character at the very end. Glad I saw it. **

The Sessions
Beautifully and courageously acted film about a polio-crippled guy who works with a sex therapist. Helen Hunt and Hawkes were superb. Got a little unbelievably wonderful at the end, but it is a Hollywood production. Good. **

The Man with the Iron Fists
So bad, I stopped watching after only a few minutes. Outstanding cast completely wasted. Absolutely terrible.

G. I. Joe: Retaliation
Took Elijah to see this one since I gave him the DVD of the first one. They are geared to guys his age, and he loved it. I didn’t mind it too much. Really expensive for two people, even when one is a kid. Glad we did it. **

Clash
Interesting Vietnamese movie about an assassin who works for a crime boss who has kidnapped her daughter. Very violent Asian action. Pretty entertaining, if a bit over the top. The actress is stunning, and a good fighter. **

Vampire Diary
Independent-level movie about a woman making a film about people who pretend to be vampires. Then she falls in love with one of them, a woman who claims to be a real vampire. That’s when things start to come apart. Kind of OK. **

Headhunters
Entertaining thriller based on a Jo Nesbø novella about a head hunter who gets involved in a violent corporate power play. Well done enough. Enjoyed it. **

Miao Miao
Taiwanese movie about the school year a Japanese student spends in Taipei with Miao Miao. Hints of lesbian relationship, but nothing more. A little adolescent, but good at what it attempts. Not a waste of time. **

Silver Linings Playbook
Excellent character study of a guy trying to cope with the loss of his girlfriend while his mom and another woman try to help. The cast and acting was superb. Cooper was as good or better than Lawrence, who won the academy award. Ending is a little too easy as you would expect from Hollywood. Glad I saw it. **

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. **