Reviews by Reno

This movie was known as 'Writers' then changed to 'Stuck in Love'. It was a good move, the present title was way better than the initial one and stands for it. Well, I am seeing lots of debutante filmmakers in recent time and one of those is the director of this movie. It might be his first though grabbed the best cast to play in with a fine story. This movie is not yet finished already his next projects are making some noise. Okay, let us talk about this movie's goods and bads.

This movie illustrates mainly a family and their troubles with each others and others. We can call it the three layers of the story of a family. (1) Two middle aged parents and their complicated marital issue. (2) Their daughter who is suffering from not mingling with others and (3) her younger brother who just going through the difficulties in his first ever love affair. Together all these stories with a few characters from the outside upheld to the movie's success in a right standards.

Some of the stuff in the story kept secret and used as a twist for the last segment. Was not a powerful, though worked well with clean blend. I think the engaging multiple story rotated screen presentation in a good pace throughout worked well. There are many things that we can learn from the mistakes of this family, though it was not a proverb movie. No depth in character developments, but flat and predictable, though there was something in it that grabs our complete attention.

Based on a novel of the same name which is directed by the first timer. It was not a time traveler fantasy drama like 'Midnight in Paris', but it exhibits the lifestyle and cultural difference between two different centuries.

According to the story the past was brought to the present by restoring with detailed customs that forgotten where modern people can enjoy the true experience. I don't know whether it happens in reality, but good as in a movie.

A simple idea is good for a novel to write, as a movie, it did not fall back a much which chronicles a middle aged American woman who is obsessed with Jane Austen novels. She travels to Jane Austen theme park in England, looking for a life changing experience with full of romance. Would she get what she was looking is the movie progresses with the intense story till the end.

Well made movie that a bit different than usual concept. Kinda enjoyed it mainly because of the main role that played by Keri Russell. She was the true fan of 'Pride and Prejudice' story and how her latest visit to Austenland transforms her back to the reality was shown in quite a nice approach. Not a rocket science, easy to predict the scenes. The point is the place where movie sets in and variety of roles with the delightful atmosphere captured throughout helps us to stick.

It was a remake of the Canadian movie 'Starbuck'. For those who saw both the versions are not happy with this. I admit that I have not seen the original, but this movie is not bad at all, especially if you are seeing for the first time. It was one of the best comedy of the year.

The credit must go for everyone who worked for the movie. The director did a fine job for the second time with the same script. The main difference came from the Vince Vaughn with his usual performance exhibition and expressions.

The theme was kind of fresh, at least to me. Just like the expanded version of 'The Kids are All Right'. It was funny in parts and also filled with meanings about the life with light sentiments. The sudden change of scene from comedy to seriousness transforms along the viewer's mood. When you are smiling at one point it makes you to hold back after emotions strike.

I was hesitated before the watch, but now I am glad that I saw this diverged movie. A variety of movies like this can be watched in any given day with quality narration. The pace was well controlled, not dragged to stretch or hurried to reach the final. Can't recommend though it may surprise you a little if you wanna try.

A perfect little movie with the good cast and performances. Many experienced actors taking chances in direction field and most of them had tasted the success. Good story won't do everything, managing cast, crew and the locations are the key to bright best out of them. It was not a smash hit movie, but Lake Bell should be proud and happy for carving a movie like this in her first attempt as a director. She really did a wonderful job here in all the three departments, including as a writer and in a lead role.

Well, when it comes to the concept, it was simple as well good enough to entertain the audience. The movie was about the dubbing artists, especially who render their voice for the movie promos. As far I remember in those movies I had watched I never saw a story belong to people from this field, it was first. So that might a another reason the movie to cause interest in me.

The movie revolves the story of father-daughter relationship. A father who never stood for her and a daughter who fought hard to claim a better position in life. Apart from these two, subplots like romance and relationship between two sisters played a crucial role in the movie's main plot. Well materializes from the women's perspective and their issues in the world of men. A woman oriented movie that can deliver inspiration for many.

6.5/10

From the director who gave 'Save the Green Planet' was carved this action-thriller. It was a good comeback for the director to give such a great movie after a decade of the gap. Also worth waiting for us all these years to get a movie like this. It was the story of a teenager who begin to look for his true identity from what he was known as.

I was so curious after reading synopsis which denoted a boy with the five fathers. Yeah, it is something I did not get at that point, once I began to watch it was convinced me. A boy was raised by the five criminals, later goes in search for the truth after he's forced to step into a killing spree. The more he goes deeper to find the truth the more he risks himself with the dangers ahead. One after another the truth come into the lights which shocks him as well as the audience.

I thought it was another Korean gore movie with gangsters in it. I thought that way all the first half till the twist come into the play. But the real twist was in the last portion which totally blew me. It was attached to a flashback scene, that scene was the best turning point which flipped the movie from its originality into the new perspective.

I am seeing possibly Hollywood remake here. Definitely other industries around the world will show interest in this. Because the story was very nice with excellent characters and twists. One of the best Korean action movie of the year. The cast was good and so the direction with strong scenes everywhere. A sequel could be possible, which may concentrate more on the romance side. You should have this if you love the Korean movies where men are seen with the guns.

Directional debut for Keanu Reeves which was partially based on stuntman Tiger Chen's life story. Since the story was inspired by a Chinese character, the movie was co-produced by Hollywood and China in Cantonese and Mandarin languages with a little English. Keanu Reeves appeared in a negative role and his friend Tiger Chen as himself.

As the Keanu Reeves's first movie as a captain it is evident that he had faced tough challenges to capture in some of the scenes. Clearly the fight choreographies were the best parts of the movie. Since his friend Tiger Chen is a stuntman they had no troubles in those areas. Those who love martial arts will like this movie for its awesome stunt sequences. Drama portions were little sloppy, due to the similar fashion storyline that already we had seen in some of the earlier releases.

It is not a finest martial art movie of the year, but fights were the movie's highlight. I can't appreciate Keanu Reeves direction, but somehow he handled everything nicely from this movie being a junk. He's a good actor than a director, though he may improve in his next project, but I don't know.

I expected this movie to be fast paced, exciting one, but what I got was opposite. The reason was the story of individual character did not fit into as a single movie. For example, Tiger Chen's master and his story, Hong Kong Police and their criminal chase, all these looked a bit weird together. Removing commercial elements could have made it a better movie.

This is not the first time a western director flew to the east to make a movie. It has been done many times in the past in movies like 'The Last Samurai', 'Kundun' and the recent one '47 Ronin' et cetera. So no wonder Keanu Reeves made this with his best friend Tiger Chen. The question is, is this movie worth to have a peek? I would say it was not the best nor the worst.

6.5/10

An art movie about the 16th century's arts. It was based on the book of the same name which details the landscaper Pieter Bruegel's painting 'The Procession to Calvary'. A movie specially made for classical painting lovers.

The movie had very less talkings and everything should be learnt by watching the pictures which depicts painting like series of frames. So there's nothing much to talk about the movie. One of the best ever production designs. Frankly, I was less enjoyed due to lack of knowledge about Bruegel, but glad I saw it and come to know few things about 1500s culture through his paintings.

After all, I was not stranger to 'The Procession to Calvary' only by a few weeks before watching this movie. Recently I saw a movie called 'Museum Hours' and it helped a bit to understand this movie. In that movie a guide, an expert briefs in a scene about this painting and the reason behind it.

It was a very unique movie, which still won't exactly portray as it had happened. A glimpse about the idea of it might have been like that. More like an imaginary world created behind the magnificent art work. Not suitable for all, especially those who watch movies for entertainment should stay away from it.

An Israel-French co-productioned English language movie. The movie was both live action and animation which divides into two equal parts in the 2 hour movie. The movie chronicles the tale of an actress who travels different medium of the world during her second half of the life. The actress role was played by Robin Wright as herself.

Actually, it was better than I expected. It opens with a plain drama about a middle aged actress who suffers from the lack of offers to play in the movies. She has to agree with whatever the proposal comes her way for the sake of the future of her career. And that is the end of live action, then the screenplay begins to turn into an animation which illustrated similar to the movie 'Inception'. In a dream like world, everything can be possible with a creative mind. After becoming old the actress sails into the cartoon world for some reason, but meets a guy in a chaos created by the rebels. What follows next is possibly driven to the confusion between reality and the fictional world.

In the history of world cinema there are plenty of movies we can find where live action and animation collides. This movie was such a concept with extraordinary flavours. Some people did not like the movie mainly for the style of animations that rendered in it, but I was pleased. They did not go for 3D animation, for cast and storyline like this it would have cost a lot which won't earn back in the distribution market. The whole movie to present in live action, people would have complained about copying the idea of 'Inception'. So I feel as it is, it was so cool and clever. You should understand it properly to get the point of the movie the writer and director trying to say. Veritably, it was a fine adaptation from a novel by the visionary sci-fi writer.

A 3D animated sport-movie from Argentina. I do not hail from a football crazy country like South America or Europe, though I love the game. This movie was about foosball, a table football and its game characters.

This story follows when a professional footballer Grosso challenged his old enemy Amadeo to play football on a real turf after he was narrowly lost in a foosball game to him a long ago. Amadeo had no choice but to accept the challenge when his town is under a threat and to save his girlfriend. He's clueless about the preparation and game plan, but under some circumstances foosball characters come to life which offers support to build a team. And what comes next is the most excited game in the last quarter of the movie.

It was a terrific idea like 'Night at the Museum' and many other movies, but lost to a bad story and execution. Technically, it had the upper hand than the entertainment side. I love the animation, especially the foosball characters, very nicely created. A movie that had all the qualities to be a fine short animation than a full length feature. Unfortunately, it was based on a short animation and failed to stretch its runtime with some good scenes.

It was obvious that the many parts of the movie were dull due to poor transition between the scenes. I think the screenwriter was clueless about what to add and not. A great achievement, according to the Argentinian animation industry. But the storyline and characters were more local cultural tradition than universal appeal which might influence audience from the other parts to draw out of the interest except children and foosball fans. The movie was not fun at all, it was pretty serious which should have not been. In my guess I believe adding more jokes should have saved the movie. At least the movie can be watched once with a lower expectation than that from Hollywood.

6.5/10

The movie was adapted from a book called 'The Lost Child of Philomena Lee' which was based on the true story of an Irish woman. The movie chronicles the story of Philomena's quest in search of her long lost son which travels all the way across the ocean to different countries. And again this incredible story ended in the hands of a great director. The director Stephen Fears just put some magic spell on the story and it became a soulful movie with the fine support from his cast and crew.

The movie was just like I wanted. From each level of the story, it surprised with the beautiful turning points. It was a single movie, but I felt I saw part by part, chapter after another with detailed information. 'Philomena' is phenomenal movie of the year. The depth of emotions can be felt through our heart, very touching story. An inspiring movie for other mothers who are still looking for their lost children. One should never lose his 'hope', it can be used as a powerful weapon to discover what had you lost.

I had seen plenty of nature documentaries about a mother and love towards her kids. It might be a polar bear from Arctic or a penguin from Antarctic they all fight for their little ones and ready to give her own life when it matters. In this movie Philomena's (Judi Dench) child was taken away from her under some tough circumstances. She kept it secret in her sealed lip but never stopped to look for him. She waited for 50 year-long, finally with the help of a former BBC journalist, Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), she succeeds to follow the tracks. Whether the mother and son unite or not is the movie's end.

As far I know the best ever performance by Steve Coogan. This movie definitely will boost his confidence for his future project and also will help his professional graph go upwards. Never doubted the James Bond lady (M), Judi Dench as Philomena. Her experience came to very useful to shape up this movie well. Never could have been this much exciting the movie without these two along with the director. Hope they all join hands together for another project in the near future.

9.5/10