Colombiana (2011)

My Rating : 2.5/5 STAR
MovieStudio Quote >> “Zoe packs an action punch, but the script is way too sloppy and impossible, it’s more like an MI franchisee!”

In the action film Colombiana, Zoe Saldana plays Cataleya, a young woman who has grown up to be an assassin after witnessing the murder of her parents as a child.

Turning herself into a professional killer and working for her uncle, she remains focused on her ultimate goal: to hunt down and get revenge on the mobster responsible for her parents’ deaths.

Burning Palms (2010)

My Rating : 3.5/5 STAR
MovieStudio Quote >> “The tag-line was so right, I loved the first and last story. Others are just F%^&ed up!”

BURNING PALMS is a subversive tale that interlaces five stories where no taboo is left unexplored. Framed as a graphic novel come to life, the film unfolds in five popular neighborhoods of Los Angeles as each character careens toward a dark and often comic fate. Santa Monica: Dennis Marx (Dylan McDermott) and Dedra Davenport (Rosamund Pike) are waiting at the airport for Dennis’ 14-year-old daughter Chloe (Emily Meade). From the second she arrives it is clear that she and her father do not have a conventional relationship. Dedra becomes so distraught and jealous that she kills herself.

Westwood: Ginny Chen (Jamie Chung) and Chad Bower (Robert Hoffman) are a young couple in love. When Chad asks Ginny for an unusual sexual request, Ginny continually feels shame for her sin, punishing herself through self mutilation. West Hollywood: Geri (Peter Macdissi) and Tom (Anson Mount) are life partners, though they could not be more different. The two adopt a little girl from Africa named Mahogany (Tiara McKinney), but when the little girl doesn’t meet their expectations of how they feel she should act, they abandon her in a state forest. Holmby Hills: Nicholas (Austin Williams), Trevor (Jake Austin Walker), and Colby Pinter (Addison Black) are three brothers who love making mischief and are raised by their pot smoking nanny Mary Jane (Lake Bell). When the household maid Blanca’s (Paz Vega) dead child’s umbilical cord goes missing, the three boys hold a trial in which a deep secret is revealed about the death of Blanca’s baby, which probes Blanca to kill herself. In Sherman Oaks, Sarah Cotton (Zoe Saldana) is a young woman who finds herself a victim of rape. When her rapist flees, he leaves behind a crucial part of his identity: his wallet. Sarah tracks down Robert G. Kane (Nick Stahl) to a local pizza place. Instead of turning him in, Sarah wants him to rape her again. The underlying story beneath Burning Palms’ five featured stories, is the different kinds of people who live in the unique neighborhoods that make up the entertainment capital of the world: Los Angeles. There have been previous films similar in design, but their separate storylines always intersect at the end. Burning Palms defies those expectations by keeping the stories separate and distinct. The only commonality is the presence of the “bag lady.” There have also been many Los Angeles based films that speak to the ‘magic’ of Hollywood where struggling underdogs venture, and through twists of fate, make it big. But there is one aspect that is often overlooked and ignored in Hollywood: the average person.

This film gives a good look at the people who aren’t gracing magazine covers or starring on the big screen. Yet despite having average lives, these people prove that maybe they have a little bit Hollywood magic of their own-showing the world that nothing is ever like it seems.

Death at a Funeral (2010)

My Rating: 3.5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “Laughed my lungs out, a must see dark comedy!”

Directed by Neil LaBute, “Death at a Funeral” is a hilarious day in the life of an American family come together to put a beloved husband and father to rest.

As mourners gather at the family home, shocking revelations, festering resentments, ugly threats, blackmail and a misdirected corpse unleash lethal and riotous mayhem. Remake of the 2007 British film of the same name.

The Losers (2010)

My Rating: 3.5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “The Losers is a fast paced comedy sealed action flick, but lacks realistic touches many places!”

A tale of double cross and revenge, centered upon the members of an elite U.S. Special Forces unit sent into the Bolivian jungle on a search and destroy mission.

The team-Clay, Jensen, Roque, Pooch and Cougar -find themselves the target of a lethal betrayal instigated from inside by a powerful enemy known only as Max.

Presumed dead, the group makes plans to even the score when they’re joined by the mysterious Aisha, a beautiful operative with her own agenda. Working together, they must remain deep undercover while tracking the heavily-guarded Max, a ruthless man bent on embroiling the world in a new high-tech global war.