Helen (R) 6.0

Helen (2009): A talented professor is forced to come to terms with her clinical depression. (6.1)

Director: Sandra Nettelbeck
Writer: Sandra Nettelbeck (screenplay)
Stars: Ashley Judd, Goran Visnjic and Lauren Lee Smith

Ashley Judd is superb here in depicting a depressed woman.  However, the writer-director has decided to keep the audience also in the dark about what's going on in the first half of the movie.  Yes, the depression is the story here, but it is about a woman with a history, yet we are not told what's going on.  This is the first movie where I actually went to google to find out what the story is after being frustrated for an hour and a half.  You pick the best storytelling medium and then forget that there is a back-story to be told or answer "why" questions ... I'd say that's a major technical deficiency in this movie.  Believe me, I know all too well about the subject matter.  At one point towards the end the director decides to use voice-over for just one scene; uh, where was that technique to let us in on the happenings at earlier parts of the movie?  Yes, keep the other characters of the movie frustrated, but not the audience.  Brilliant effort with picking the subject matter, but as a movie (not a documentary, mind you) lost the audience ... My Rating: 6.0

Dirty Pretty Things (R) 7.5

Dirty Pretty Things (2002): An illegal Nigerian immigrant discovers the unpalatable side of London life. (7.4)

Director: Stephen Frears
Writer: Steven Knight
Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou and Sophie Okonedo

"The soft underbelly of the civilized society is dirty," is the least of the messages to remember from this movie. The plight of some of the illegal immigrants in London is explored in this movie with a story that has a "yeah, he deserved it," at the end. The acting is superb in that you don't think you are watching a movie, but a documentary. We forget that the unseen immigrants sometimes do the unseen jobs in our society to keep things running smoothly. The story asks more questions than originally anticipated. My Rating: 7.5

Tell No One (R) 7.0

Tell No One (2006) Ne le dis à personne (original title): The pediatrician Alexandre Beck misses his beloved wife Margot Beck, who was brutally murdered eight years ago when he was the prime suspect. When two bodies are found near where the corpse of Margot was dumped, the police reopen the case and Alex becomes suspect again. (7.5)

Director: Guillaume Canet
Writers: Guillaume Canet, Philippe Lefebvre
Stars: François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze and André Dussollier
Language: French

The acting is superb, including that of the supporting cast.  The story is a bit convoluted but not that difficult to follow.  This is a thriller with some chase scenes, so scenes and set aren't the first thing to worry about, but some of the scenes of (I guess) French countryside are quite nice.  (No, that's not Dustin Hoffman playing the lead role. :-)) My Rating: 7.0

Water for Elephants (PG-13) 6.0

Water for Elephants (2011): A veterinary student abandons his studies after his parents are killed and joins a traveling circus as their vet. (6.9)

Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Richard LaGravenese (screenplay), Sara Gruen (novel)
Stars: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz

A quaint story about running away with the circus, but the actors kept reminding me that they are really acting ... that's not good.  The cinematography is good; it is filmed to look like a period movie.  But the story provides lots of good opportunities with the train and the circus but they aren't using it enough, IMHO.  I did enjoy the stuff they had on screen, but it could have been better.  My Rating: 6.0

The Reader (R) 8.0

The Reader: Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself . (7.6)

Director: Stephen Daldry
Writers: David Hare (screenplay), Bernhard Schlink (book)
Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and Bruno Ganz

The meaty part of the story came as a surprise to me as I had selected this on a whim.  I liked it that way.  Made me feel strongly about not only the larger context of the story, but also the about the personal conflicts of the two main characters.  Quite a lot of poignant moments, yet you are conflicted yourself (as an outsider watching it) because of the bigger story and the context.   Perhaps, it affected me more because my own head is messed up, but that's what a powerful story/movie is supposed to do.  Go watch this!  Then ask yourself, what would you have done in each one's shoes.  My Rating: 8.0

Casino (R) 8.0

Casino (1995): Greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two mobster best friends and a trophy wife over a gambling empire. (8.2)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Nicholas Pileggi (book/screenplay), Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci

In a way, this sets the bar for what each of the characters is supposed to look/act like, but looking at it another way, it is quite stereotypical. However, the acting, the direction, the storyline, etc are superb. This is an extension and an evolution of the other mobster movies. Defining work, not only by the director and the writers, but also by the actors as well. One of those "you gotta see this to set your baseline" kind of a movie. My Rating: 8.0

Gosford Park (R) 7.0

Gosford Park (2001): Multiple storylined drama set in 1932, showing the lives of upstairs guest and downstairs servants at a party in a country house in England. (7.3)

Director: Robert Altman
Writers: Robert Altman (idea), Bob Balaban (idea), Julian Fellowes
Stars: Maggie Smith, Ryan Phillippe and Michael Gambon

I had to keep telling myself that this is a movie and my disgust towards that silly English class system should not color my attitude towards this movie. Yes, (I'm told by articles such as the Wikipedia entry) apparently it depicts the 1930's class structure quite well. They speak amazingly fast and even with the subtitles on, I think I missed about 20%. The English wit is hard to catch on a good day, with this fast dialog, I was having a hard time grasping onto the tail of some of the jokes, but it was fine. On the other hand, this is not a who done it Agatha Christie type story in the sense that the detective part is pretty minimal. The same writer has integrated the themes from this movie into Downton Abbey. Those who like that sort of thing would love this movie (does that make sense?), but me, ... I, uh, s'okay I suppose. My Rating: 7.0

Owl and the Sparrow (PG) 7.0

Owl and the Sparrow (2007) Cu va chim se se (original title): In modern-day Saigon, three lonely strangers form a unique family as a ten-year old orphan plays matchmaker to a zookeeper and a beautiful flight attendant. (7.4)

Director: Stephane Gauger
Writer: Stephane Gauger
Stars: Cat Ly, The Lu Le and Han Thi Pham
Language: Vietnamese (w/ English subtitles)

The movie is filmed in the documentary style or the early MTV quick-cut, shaky-camera style. While watching, you keep feeling that this is a real-life documentary, but it is a made-up story. So, in that sense, this gives a very real feeling and, I think, that says something about the quality of acting. I liked the colors; the realism of the scenes; the camerawork; etc. My Rating: 7.0

Jade Warrior (PG-13) 6.0

Jade Warrior (2006) Jadesoturi (original title): Thousands of years ago in ancient China, a love struck sword hero fights against his destiny. He wants another chance to be reunited with his loved one and he gets that chance, in a far away place and a far away time, in the cold north, in modern Finland. (6.1)

Director: Antti-Jussi Annila
Writers: Petri Jokiranta (screenplay), Iiro Küttner (story)
Stars: Tommi Eronen, Markku Peltola and Jingchu Zhang
Language: Finnish | Mandarin (w/ English subtitles)

Interesting story, but there's no substance in it. It is advertised as a martial arts epic, but I'm not sure about that either. Epic, really? Nah! And, some of them just can't act. Why this is rated so high in Netflix, I'll never know. At least Jingchu Zhang is easy on the eyes. :-) But, at the end, the girl is with who? Yeah, like that, the storytelling in this movie isn't the greatest. My Rating: 6.0

The King and the Clown (R) 7.5

The King and the Clown (2005)(왕의 남자; Wang-ui Namja): Two clowns living in the Chosun Dynasty get arrested for staging a play that satirizes the king. They are dragged to the palace and threatened with execution, but are given a chance to save their lives if they can make the king laugh. (7.5)

Director: Jun-ik Lee
Writers: Seok-Hwan Choi, Tae-woong Kim (play)
Stars: Woo-seong Kam, Jin-yeong Jeong and Seong-Yeon Kang
Language: Korean (w/ English subtitles)

The major themes in this movie are the implied homosexuality in the 16th century Korea, the questioning of the authority at various levels, the tyranny of a reckless king, the use of comedy to say what otherwise cannot be said to the court, etc. I think, I may have missed some stuff (jokes, mannerisms, etc) in the translation, but I got the gist of it. A quite well-thought-out story. Nicely and elaborately filmed, specially the scenes of the royal court in session. I liked this movie a lot. My Rating: 7.5

How I Ended This Summer (PG-13) 7.5

How I Ended This Summer (2010) Kak ya provel etim letom (original title): A polar station on a desolate island in the Arctic Ocean. Sergei, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel, a recent college graduate, are spending months in complete isolation on the once strategic research base. Pavel receives an important radio message and is still trying to find the right moment to tell Sergei ... (7.1)

Director: Alexei Popogrebsky
Writer: Alexei Popogrebsky
Stars: Grigoriy Dobrygin, Sergey Puskepalis and Igor Chernevich
Language: Russian (w/ English subtitles)

This is a great movie about the human nature. The isolation, the generation gap, the commitment to work, etc come into play between the two characters. The development of the characters as well as the plot via long sequences of scenes with minimal (or not at all) dialog is used to full extent. It is one of those stories where you begin to ask yourself what goes through the minds of the people involved and then ask yourself what you'd do in the situation. A thinking person's movie. (For me, the isolation doesn't have to be in a remote Arctic island; it can happen while living in the middle of a city ... so to speak.) My Rating: 7.5

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (PG-13) 6.5

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011): A middle-aged husband's life changes dramatically when his wife asks him for a divorce. He seeks to rediscover his manhood with the help of a new-found friend Jacob, learning to pick up girls at bars. (7.5)

Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Writer: Dan Fogelman
Stars: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Julianne Moore

I'm not a huge fan of Steve Carell so I didn't think I'd like this movie. But, I found myself laughing at several instances and some other scenes (ie: denim jeans/sneakers at the mall) hit way too close to home. (heh, really!) A seriously convoluted silliness, but it works as a movie (in RL, probably not, but this is just a movie). No, the story isn't all that emotional or doesn't make you ask what if questions. Amusing. My Rating: 6.5

Paycheck (PG-13) 5.5

Paycheck (2003): What seemed like a breezy idea for an engineer to net him millions of dollars, leaves him on the run for his life and piecing together why he's being chased. (6.1)

Director: John Woo
Writers: Philip K. Dick (short story), Dean Georgaris (screenplay)
Stars: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart and Uma Thurman

Ugh ... 2hrs of my life I'm never gonna get back! I seriously doubt that the movie script is anywhere close to Philip K. Dick's short story (I haven't read). This is just a sequence of special effects and action drama without any plot/character development. This just goes to show you that you can't make a good movie by just throwing money at the project. You know it is a bad script when you yell "oh, come on, really?" at the screen. I have to remember to stay away from the so-called popular sci-fi action flicks. (Yeah, I haven't said why this movie is crap; I can't be bothered.) My Rating: 5.5

Evening (PG-13) 7.5

Evening (2007): A drama exploring the romantic past and emotional present of Ann Grant and her daughters, Constance and Nina. As Ann lays dying, she remembers, and is moved to convey to her daughters, the defining moments in her life 50 years prior, when she was a young woman. (6.4)

Director: Lajos Koltai
Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Natasha Richardson

Multiple time-lines and multiple levels of emotions, not the least of which is dealing with a dying relative. It is a nice story that reminds us that people have pasts, we carry around memories, we try to deal with the present, but in the end, very little matters as there really are no mistakes. Everyone was spot-on with the acting; all the roles were different and the brilliant casting of the right people for the roles brought out the best in them. Better than expected. My Rating: 7.5

Three Times (PG-13) 8.0

Three Times (2005) (最好的時光; Zuì hǎo de shí guāng; lit. 'Best of Times'): Three stories set in three times, 1911, 1966 and 2005. Two actors play the two main characters in each story. (6.9)

Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou
Writers: T'ien-wen Chu, Hsiao-hsien Hou
Stars: Qi Shu, Chen Chang and Fang Mei

"A picture is worth a thousand words," remember that when watching this movie. At times, a single scene says a lot without much (or any) dialog and I loved it. Artsy! The tribute to the silent movie era in the 1911 story is perfect and I found it quite refreshing. I have thought about this movie a lot after watching it ... specifically, would I find the movie (as a whole) different if the 2005 story came first; and 1966 one at the end? I think, I would. But, the whole 2005 story gives a glimpse of the time we live in and its complications. Reminds me of this XKCD on Game Theory. Um, Yeah! Loved Qi Shu's acting. My Rating: 8.0