After The Wedding (2007)

My Rating: 5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “Totally sensational and heartfelt. Rolf Lassgard rocks with his emotional performance!”

Danish director Susanne Bier continues her tradition of finely crafted emotional films with this Oscar-nominated drama. In AFTER THE WEDDING, a businessman (Rolf Lassgard) offers to make a huge donation to an Indian orphanage.

Unfortunately he makes some unreasonable demands on the owner of the orphanage (CASINO ROYALE’s Mads Mikkelsen), including a bizarre request to return to his native Denmark to participate in a wedding. Once he arrives, he realizes that he is caught in the middle of an event that is far more than it appears.

Biers’s film was so highly praised that it led to her making her English-language film debut, the Halle Berry film THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE.

Extraordinary Measures (2010)

My Rating: 3.5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “Extraordinary Miracle!”

Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford and Keri Russell star in “Extraordinary Measures” for CBS Films, the film division within CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). The project, which wrapped principal photography in mid-June 2009, was the first film to go into production for CBS Films. Ford is also executive producer on the project. Tom Vaughan (“Starter for 10,” “What Happens in Vegas”) is directing. In the tradition of great inspirational dramas like the Academy Award nominated film “Erin Brockovich” and “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “Extraordinary Measures” is inspired by the true story of John Crowley, a man who defied conventional wisdom and great odds, and risked his family’s future to pursue a cure for his children’s life threatening disease.

From his working class roots, John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) has finally begun to taste success in corporate America. Supported by his beautiful wife Aileen (Keri Russell) and their three children, John is on the fast track. But just as his career is taking off, Crowley walks away from it all when his two youngest children, Megan and Patrick, are diagnosed with a fatal disease. With Aileen by his side, harnessing all of his skill and determination, Crowley teams up with a brilliant, but unappreciated and unconventional scientist, Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford). Together they form a bio-tech company focused on developing a life-saving drug. One driven to prove himself and his theories, the other by a chance to save his children, this unlikely alliance eventually develops into mutual respect as they battle the medical and business establishments in a fight against the system – and time.

But, at the last minute, when it appears that a solution has been found, the relationship between the two men faces a final test – the outcome of which will affect the fate of John’s children. Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher (“World Trade Center,” “Erin Brockovich”), alongside Carla Santos Shamberg (“Erin Brockovich”), produce through their Double Feature Films banner. Robert Nelson Jacobs (“The Water Horse,” “Chocolat”) wrote the screenplay, which was inspired by the book “The Cure” by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Geeta Anand.

Deadly Impact (2010)

My Rating: 3/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “Flanery has performed well in this thriller, and the movie is a low budget project, so don’t expect ground breaking SFX and stunts!”

Deadly Impact follows hard-nosed cop Thomas Armstrong (Flanery) whose life was shattered when he became the helpless target of a mastermind murderer.

Returning home after a much-needed break, Armstrong joins the FBI to seek revenge and help track down the same killer that threatened his existence, however this time the assassin is back to terrorize not just a single person, but the entire city. In an exhilarating race against time, Armstrong must stay one step ahead to capture the madman and save innocent lives before time runs out.

Dear John (2010)

My Rating: 3.5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “Except for the climax, the movie was tear-jerking and romantically melodious!”

Director Lasse Hallstrom and screenwriter Jamie Lindon collaborate to adapt author Nicolas Sparks’s novel about a young soldier who falls for an idealistic college girl. Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) was on spring break when she first met John Tyree (Channing Tatum) while he was home on temporary leave.

For the smitten soldier, it was practically love at first sight. Though the love letters that Savannah sent John were one of the only things that kept him going over the course of the next seven years, when each deployment seemed more treacherous than the last, those loving and heartfelt correspondences would ultimately yield consequences that neither the brave soldier nor his one true love could have ever foreseen.

Give ’em Hell, Malone (2009)

My Rating: 3.5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “A ‘SHOOT’EM UP’ kinda flick. Funny, thrilling and a comic-book feel!”

A bold blend of cartoonish carnage and noirish sarcasm with a nasty bite, Give ‘Em Hell Malone is thin on plot but a devilishly crafted delight for the eyes and ears. In other words, the storyline is pretty much beside the point, as the brash, buffoonish action nearly takes off into an alternate cinematic universe. Directed by Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction), Give ‘Em Hell Malone stars Hung’s Thomas Jane (The Punisher) as the title character, a detective turned drunken gumshoe following a hit on his wife and son.

Demonstrating a knack for being nearly impossible to kill and rumored to rip out the hearts of his enemies for dinner if he gets into a mad enough mood, Malone takes on the case of suspicious hottie Evelyn (Elsa Pataky). It seems the sultry sexpot is on the hunt for a mysterious attache case likewise being pursued to the death by an assortment of cutthroat baddies. Including crimelord bodyguard in psychotherapy, Boulder (Ving Rhames) and his outlandishly hilarious super-creepy eloquent pyromaniac sidekick, Matchstick (Punisher’s Loony Bin Jim).

Also turning up for some dysfunctional family quality time is Malone’s boozer geriatric mom, played by Sean Penn’s real life mother, Eileen Ryan. This wisecracking, surrealistically laced thriller is never a dull moment goofy gunplay galore, even if the narrative is deliriously going nowhere fast. In other words, who needs to rethink classic noir all over again, when you’ve got Give ‘Em Hell Malone.

Cop Out (2010)

My Rating: 2/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “Crappiest Willis flick to date. Do me a favor, skip this.!”

Directed by Kevin Smith, “Cop Out” features two longtime NYPD partners on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint-condition baseball card who find themselves up against a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed gangster. But before they can recover the prized `52 Pafko, they must first rescue a Mexican beauty who holds the key to millions of dollars in off-shore bank accounts–and who has already witnessed one high-profile murder because of them.

Veteran detective Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) needs to cash in on his perfect Pafko in order to pay for his daughter’s upcoming wedding, but in the tradition of everything that can go wrong…it’s pilfered before he has a chance to collect. Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) is Jimmy’s “partner-against-crime,” whose preoccupation with his wife’s alleged infidelity makes it hard for him to keep his eye on the ball, or his mind on the crime. Already in trouble and with nothing left to lose, Jimmy and Paul will have to break all the rules–including enlisting the aid of stoner thief Dave (Seann William Scott), who’s working Paul’s last nerve as Paul and Jimmy try to work the case.

Wrong Turn at Tahoe (2009)

My Rating: 3/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “An average flick with a not-so-bad story – everything ends with a message!”

A debt collector for the mob (Academy Award-winner (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) finds his fate taking a series of treacherous turns after his powerful boss and mentor (Miguel Ferrer) is caught

in a dangerous double cross with the most dangerous drug dealer around (Academy Award-nominee Harvey Keitel) in this crime thriller from writer/director Franck Khalfoun (P2).

Icarus (2010)

My Rating: 2.5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “A sloppy story with low budget action sequences, feels total home-made!”

Trained KGB assassin, EDWARD GENN (code name ICARUS), worked years ago as a sleeper agent in America. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, he quickly found himself in a foreign country with no one to trust. Determined to escape his muddled existence, EDWARD tries to start over. He assumes a new identity, starts a family and tries to start his own legitimate business that could potentially pull him out of his world of being a hitman. But the deeper EDWARD is pulled into the underworld, the more he is forced to balance his new life as a family man and his old one as a career hitman. But a man like EDWARD can only escape his shady past for so long…
After an unfortunate mishap, EDWARDS identity is blown and his past comes crashing down on him. The hunter has become the hunted, and after a routine job turns into a set-up, EDWARD realizes he is now the target. EDWARD is faced with some of the most deadly assassins and is in a deadly battle for his life. Although EDWARDS cold hard exterior is no stranger to a fight to the death, this time, there is much more on the line.

The men that want him dead will stop at nothing to get to him and that means going after what he cares about the mosthis family. Now EDWARD is forced to face the demons of his past and protect the loved ones in his present. He must fight against everything to save the only thing he has ever done right in life but couldnt keep. He needs to uncover who is after him and get to his family before its too late.

Zoolander (2001)

My Rating: 3/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “A stupid story, but i don’t know how it made me sit the whole movie. Cool!”

Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) isn’t smart, but he looks “really, really good.” An empty-headed yet kindhearted male model, the self-absorbed Derek becomes an unwitting pawn in a international assassination plot masterminded by oddball fashion dictator Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrell). Meanwhile, the clueless cover guy must also contend with a new rival, a blonde hipster named Hansel (Owen Wilson).

Only adding to his troubles is Matilda Jeffries (Christine Taylor), an inquisitive and sensitive journalist. Stiller’s charming and silly comedy liberally skewers the fashion industry while showcasing the actor-director-screenwriter’s quirky humor. He casts his real-life family in the film: wife Christine Taylor, sister Amy Stiller, father Jerry Stiller, and mother Anne Meara. As a director, Stiller invokes entertaining performances from Wilson and Ferrell. He also adds cameos by a multitude of celebrities including David Bowie, Natalie Portman, and Lenny Kravitz.

Precious (2009)

My Rating: 5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “This is one remarkable piece of ART. I bow down to the makers!”

Lee Daniels’s PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write.

Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.

In Official Selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival – Un Certain Regard, and winner of three awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE stars Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and introducing Gabourey Sidibe. Lionsgate in association with Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry present A Lee Daniels Entertainment / Smokewood Entertainment Group Production of PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE, directed by Lee Daniels from a screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher based on the novel Push by Sapphire.