Reviews by Reno

Based on the real incident that happened in the back 80s in New York city. The story of missing baby, Carlina White, who finally found her biological parents after 23 years later. Totally unbearable and heartbreaking story that no one ever wants to face in their life. Almost similar kinda story to 'October Baby' which was also based on the real. In that movie where a baby is forsaken by the birth parent. After many years later the grown up baby finds her real parents. But in this one, it was same, rather abandon it was abducted. Both the movies were emotionally delightful, just like what tearjerkers expecting.

When Carlina White was a two week old baby she was abducted by a woman called Ann Pettway. Pettway who had three straight miscarriages is no longer can carry another baby. With a desperate to have a child she decides to kidnap Carlina and raises as her own by giving another name to her as Nejdra 'Netty' Nance. The real parents never stop searching for their missing child. The years pass, after two decades later they finally find her and the remaining briefs very clearly the rest.

The story does not end after the reunification of parents and child. It takes a little further where the time come for Ann Pettway to suffer for her unlawful act. And also Carlina White, who find herself in a confusion state between two identities of her. In all her life she was known as Netty, to find herself surrounded by unknown people with a birth name puts life into stake. The story explains from all the movie character's perspective. From a mother and father who lost their child to the kidnapper's view as well the grown up baby's. A movie never wants to miss which was inspired by the remarkable true story.

Hong Kong, Chinese, Taiwanese and now Jiao Xu, the 'CJ7' fame kid forayed into the Korean film industry. She was quite impressive in all her movies, we can call her a Disney girl from east. Her performance and flawless CGI character(s) are the movie's advantage. Frankly, I never expected such a clean graphical character like western's big production house do.

Last time I heard was these eastern countries fought for the rights of Senkaku islands. But now it is good to see they are together for this wonderful movie. It won't be your favourite flick, but will be a cool movie to watch with children. For the moment I even thought did they hired Andy Serkis to do motion capture for the Gorilla. Because it was that perfect and Serkis is the only known who is a master in giving such performance.



After losing their elders in an earthquake, a young circus ringmaster, Wei Wei and other children struggle to rebuild the business. When load shark threatens to take the kids and sell animals to cover the debt, Wei Wei comes up with a plan. To make a big buck that she must leave China for South Korea with her beloved pet, a gorilla called Ling Ling to take participate in the baseball series. Soon their popularity reaches far east, where many Japanese baseball franchises stand in the queue to sign Ling Ling in their team. When everything was going fine, the problem arises after money lender follows her there with another plan.

It is a Korean's answer to Hollywood in the field of live shot movie with merge of an animated character. We must appreciate the filmmakers for their contribution to this movie from impossible theme to making possible. The plot is not believable, a gorilla to play baseball? Humans are no match with a gorilla's strength, then how can they allow to participate the tournament. It was a comedy flick so there you go that mean it is nothing more than an entertainment. In the perspective of family audience and kids, it is worth giving a shot.

7.5/10

Fun filled travel based comedy from China. This road movie was similar to 'Due Date' and 'Planes, Trains & Automobile'. Like those two titles, our protagonist from this movie must team up with a crazy man to accomplish the unexpected hurdles in his trip. Actually, in another perspective, it was like 'Rat Race' and 'Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World' where characters from the movie must reach their destination before one another. So they are ready to take any kinda risk to achieve their goal. Those wild journeys are what we are going to enjoy in this movie. Excellent pace and non stop engaging plot keeps you alive throughout.

Two scientists invented a formula to increase the volume of any kinda liquid. So these Chinese scientists begin the quest to find their biggest shareholder who is in Thailand. But they got different agenda, one to get a funding contract to study further and another to sell it to a French company. In the race they encounter each other's trap which drag them a simple expedition to long lasting.

This has been the highest gross movie ever in China and breaking all the previous records, including James Cameron's 'Avatar'. I have seen many similar movies from Hollywood and Europe, but not that many from Asia so I found it a nice one. The lead actor himself directed it for the first time and did a wonderful job. The movie had captured lots of beautiful places from interior Thailand. If entertainment is your top priority then it will fulfill your wish. If you are expecting good story, still it will convince but depends on the way you take it. Chinese and Hong Kong movies are famous for presenting martial art in it. That is how many from west know about movies from these places so if you wanna try other than that it will do a justice.

Ron Howard, the master of biographical picture maker. As I know of him, he never failed to transform biographical stories into a movie. In fact, many of his movies are my favourites. This time he picked up a true story of two rivalry formula 1 drivers from the 70s. This biographical sports drama was nothing short in all the aspects compared to his earlier movies. So his legacy continues with a series of masterpieces in his filmography. I am always fond of his works because the mix of sentiments in his movies is powerfully appealing just like I wanted. The emotion tool was very wisely utilized in this movie as well.

The races from the movie were shot awesomely with the old automobile models and sets around. It was a perfect direction utilizing this inspiring true story with two great actors. It won't only tells about races but also the inexplicable friendship between them, which is hard to predict as we are not they. As per my observation I did not detect any flaws, especially races were exceptionally shot, totally to-notch. From the fast pace story narration due to the fine editing to background score and visual effects, we must recognize the A1 quality of the production house.

This movie portrays about the 1976 Formula 1 season where two new comer drivers from Europe, James Hunt and Niki Lauda are considered the top rivalries to grab the world championship title. So their's stunning entry from lower class race to the big event, the clash between them were exhibited very well. Two equally great drivers with different mantras in their life as well implement in the race track was just mind blowing. The story was told from the perspective of both of them where narration frequently switches.

Initially I was not favour to give it a shot. The reason behind it was the Chris Hemsworth, I am not a big fan of his performance. Most of his movies are commercially feel good kind ones so I was a bit hesitated to put my faith in this. And a couple of Ron Howard's last movies as well not like I expected but was just good. This movie completely reformed these two guys and redefined their's capability once again. Regretting for not saw it earlier, but feels good that I did not miss it after all. A highly recommended movie, which was one of the best sports movie from 2013 along with '42'.

9.5/10

9.5/10

You can call it as this year's 'The Help'. This historical drama speaks about an Afro-American orphan kid, which is loosely based on a real person's story. The movie looked more like a television movie than a silver screen movie, but somehow worked very well for me. A man's journey passing through different generation about 90 years of life was remarkably showed in this 2 hours cinema.

The movie focuses on a white house butler called Cecil Gaines. His journey from a farmland to he become a most notable butler who witness changing presidents for the times. Not only it describes his story, but also the historical events that happened in his time during the services he provide for the house. It totally blew me away to know a man who saw vast changes in history, from black people's slavery to become a president of the new world. It is a rare kinda movie like the movie 'Benjamin Button', I loved it.

From the director who gave impressive 'Precious' has made this movie as well and proved his skills for the second time. The transformation of the period of times from one to another was really well cinematiced. You might require to be watched other movies about Martin Luther King, JFK, Nixon, Vietnam war et cetera to understand the other side of the story other than from Cecil's perspective of history. It was just a thought I am giving you, so this movie will work for those who got no knowledge about those stuffs. Definitely it will be one of a prominent movie in the career for both, Forest Whitake as well the director.

The first movie was very simple, about surviving in an unknown planet by avoiding the attacks of the alien creatures. But the second movie was totally different with broad in story expansion about humans and human like creature's invasion of different planets of the universe. So this third Riddick movie was very much similar to the first which had very lesser characters. If you ever liked the first, probably you will like this as well.

You keep what you kill, so Riddick becomes the new Lord Marshall of the Necromonger. But he's far more away from their faith, so he makes a deal with the commander Vaako. But the deal goes wrong when he was escorted to a wrong planet. Once again, Riddick finds the threats from alien animals from the planet where he is stranded. On the other side, the bounty hunters trouble him, but he must fight to get one of their ships to sail to the planet Furya. Would he succeed or not is the story briefs in the remains.

As the per the entertainment prospect this movie was very good. It had great stunts and graphics. As usual the Vin diesel was breathtaking as Riddick. But if you are expecting a story to continue from where the second installment ended you will be sadden. Actually the story follows from the second, but the theme flips back to similar to the first. For me it was a well made movie in the series to fit in and as the third. Those who are disappointed will be brightened up in the next follow up movie for sure. So I believe it is not for everyone, except those who seek a good entertainment.

This movie was based on the series of actual crime committed by the teenagers of the California. It was a quite nice black comedy than I thought. But many people did not like it, maybe because of satirical presentation which was more like a documentary style than typical. Music was another drawback, actually there were no background score except those disco musics that come very often.

I have not seen the television version movie of this story of same name. But Sofia Coppolo was successful making an another movie about female oriented subject. For me the surprise was the characters and their behaviours, especially I was thinking the real ones not from the movie. They were aware of what they are doing even the consequences, but they did not care any of that. At some moment it looked like a kids play without any seriousness of life.

Glad this movie was made and I saw because newspapers from other than this region of the world won't quote about it. So people might miss something like this about their favourite Hollywood celebrities who encounter in reality. Again, this movie is not for everyone, probably if you from outside United States you may like it. Only by a small margin as a movie that's based on the real events.

Probably the best anime I have seen recently. From the director of 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' gives us this wonderful fantasy-drama. This movie is kinda resembling Miyazaki's 'My Neighbour Totoro', only the place it takes place and a bit with the characters. Other than that it is an awesome movie with a totally fresh concept as per my knowledge.

All the three main characters, a mother and her two kids were lovable. Aoi Miyazaki never stops impressing me where she appears here as a mother. Her roles from various movies are always coming with a surprise who peaking high and higher, she really rocks. The two kids' characters as well very adorable. Like the two sisters in 'My Neighbour Totoro' these two made the movie look great. Actually it was a tale about a mother who raises two wolf children. As a single parent, her hard work and dedication to the kids to grow up having a normal and happy childhood she must sacrifice her life.



When her husband dies, Hana must take care of the kids where she lacks the knowledge of their kind to give support. She finds difficulties in city to raise them so she decides to move to a rural where she can cut the communications with the other humans. Growing her own vegetables in the backyard, facing the different seasons and going through all the ups and down in life she almost achieves her ambition.

It did not look like an anime movie, it looked almost a real one with many cool and colourful frames. The story commenced with a nice love story with a little heartbreak. Then the most enjoyable parts begin with lots of laughs until the approach of the end where it brings lots of emotions before concluding with a powerful howl. It had very nice background score in all the crucial portion of the tale. In other word to say, the movie was just like what I expected and more than that. I felt the movie was short and was not ready to accept the end. You know, it is better being short and sweet than with unnecessary drag in a tale. This is a movie that everyone will love, especially kids and families. Like I said if you are a die hard 'My Neighbour Totoro' movie fan then you must not miss it. So highly recommended by me.

Well intended small storied movie with backdrop of war between Israel and Lebanon. Well cast and shot in exotic places. From the Hollywood actor of 'Brake' fame and the director of 'Lemon Tree' joined hands together for this project. A couple of years ago I saw 'Lemon Tree', this director is really a master rendering movies with complicated theme. From characters to concept and emotions it was well balanced. The second half is what gives more depth in human emotions than the conflict between two people. Definitely it is not a masterpiece, but where it takes place and what it deals were much reasonable to praise.

It is set in 1982 in war torn Lebanon. An Israeli pilot Yoni, who crash land in Beirut is taken captive by Palestine Liberation Organization. There he meets a 12 year old boy Fahed whose father was recently killed in an Israeli air strike. He knows that he's not him, but the boy raged with full of anger to take revenge. For the reason he must give up it and should cope with the prisoner to fulfil his father's wish. So they make a deal before teaming up and try to escape from there. The rest of the story is a journey that happens on the road to their freedom.

The title represents an olive plant that carried all the time by the boy in the movie. As it an Arabic title of an Israeli movie, various languages spoken throughout. For me everything was just same because I was depended on a subtitle. The movie won my heart for the reason that the main two characters considered as enemies to each other, but the time being they begin to understand. Theirs journey on a dangerous path against all the human created boundary was really touched me. Better than I expected, kinda partially rare movie should be recognised in vastly.

Based on a book of the same name about a 15 year old girl Alma's sexual fantasies. A simple story for a silly reason takes place in a small Norwegian village. Occasionally, additional scenes that try to merge with the main story stream are totally a diversion to the viewers. Sometime what is real and what is fiction are too hard to differentiate from each other. Especially this whole story happens in the backdrop of an incident that takes place in the beginning of the movie. For that, to make clear to ourselves, we have to wait till the end where it explains. But still I am not sure whether it is a real or fantasy of Alma.

The story is set in a small town called Skoddeheimen located somewhere in Norway. A teenager, Alma is attracted to her classmate Artur and she filled with sex fantasies about him. One day at a party, her long pending desire gets fulfilled when she makes out the night with Artur. So she tells that to her two close friends, but they deny it as they are jealous of it. The relationship end there and friendship with Artur too. She's been outcasted by her schoolmates, instantly she's been teased by calling dick-Alma. As one side, she is obsessed with fantasies and other side bad remarks against her, will she rise from all these is what remaining portraits.

Yeah, kinda chick movie, but without any regret I enjoyed it. It was just like the American movies about teenagers problems that they face in their school except it was not lousy. That mean not like a commercial movie where a protagonist rises from the ground with a master plan and take a revenge. More like a reality in presentation with nice characters and shot in a beautiful place. In other word, it is exactly same movie to Kristen Stewart's 'Speak' but story travels in the opposite direction with comedy as its genre.

7.5/10