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Michael Clayton [2007]

starring: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack
directed by: Tony Gilroy

February 18, 2008
Really enjoyed this film and I am really am not easy to please (so I am told). No need for me to add words to what other more literate reviewers have said. Really good.

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Rendition [2007]

starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, J.K. Simmons, Alan Arkin, Reese Witherspoon
directed by: Gavin Hood

March 24, 2008
I see a previous reviewer thought this film might be more light-hearted. Hello? It's called RENDITION.
Anyway. The acting isn't all it might have been and a rather unsatisfactory script leaves those all-important mobile phone calls completely unexplained.
But the torture scenes (and the standout performance by the north African torturer-in-chief) are well done and will (hopefully)leave audiences feeling highly uncomfortable.

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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford [2007]

starring: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Mary-Louise Parker, Sam Rockwell, Brooklynn Proulx
directed by: Andrew Dominik

March 31, 2008
There are several adjectives that describe this film, and ponderous is the first that came to my mind after watching it. The second was pretentious. Whilst Brad Pitt gives a creditable performance other actors are wooden and wholly unconvincing. The film could quite easily have been edited down from two and a half gruelling hours to a more tolerable 90 minutes without losing a word of dialogue or even any of the "moody" shots that supposedly lend it its contrived atmosphere. Other relevant adjectives: boring, disconnected, and of course predictable, since we already know the ending before it begins. In short, eminently forgettable.

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3:10 To Yuma [2007]

starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Dallas Roberts
directed by: James Mangold

January 28, 2008
I have to start by saying that I enjoyed this film way more than I expected to. Not being a fan of Westerns or Russell Crowe, I wasn't expecting great things, but this film surprised me by keeping my entertained and completely 'in' the film the whole way through. The scenery and direction is superb, the acting is mainly good, the story, although implausible at times, was fun and interesting enough to keep me watching and the overall package makes for two hours of film viewing that is not too heavy and with plenty of fights and action sequences to boot. The actor who plays 'Charlie' is especially good and Crowe even managed to endear himself to me this time. For fans of the genre you may either love this or be disappointed depending on your take, ... Read More:

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The Kite Runner [2007]

starring: Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub
directed by: Marc Forster

June 02, 2008
A good poetic look on Afghan pre-wars (80') society, with a rich and poors, casts and kites. All vanished in the storm of russian invasion and taliban's terror. Two boys, two brothers, a sad story of violence and treason, with a "sugar" happy final (but the movie isn't a "easy" film). Good cast, good plot. Only some scenes "a little" unreal, like the David vs Goliath escape from Talibans.

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The Kingdom [2007]

starring: Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven
directed by: Peter Berg

January 28, 2008
the film starts off well showing the political ties between the countries over the years , then comes the terrorist bombing and again its well done then its over to the fbi headquarters and i found this stage of the film up until they start investigating the bomb site in saudi arabia a bit boring and jumping from scene to scene following the different characters is always confusing {i found it far easier reading the subtitles }.
i found the way this is filmed very similar to black hawk down and if you liked that film you will love this one , once the fbi and saudi police start tracking the terrorist it gets very tense and exciting and i won't spoil anything but the last 30 minutes of this film is utterly fantastic and some of the action sequences ... Read More:

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Charlie Wilson's War [2007]

starring: Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ned Beatty
directed by: Mike Nichols

May 05, 2008
The film is not very good. It is simply not a very cinematic story, and it has not been dramatically filmed. It's just a bunch of people talking about funding a secret war, but with the intricacies of the politics and deceptions simplified to the point of rendering everything bland and dull.

An example: Hanks tells the President of Pakistan that he has probably broken the Logan Act in his dealings. The President asks what this is, Hanks does not explain. So most of the audience are left in the dark. As I have read the book I know that the Logan Act states that it is treason for anyone apart from the President of America to conduct foreign policy (ie. only the President can start a war, which is pretty much what Charlie Wilson has done ... Read More:

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The Painted Veil [2007]

starring: Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schrieber, Diana Rigg, Toby Jones
directed by: John Curran

September 03, 2007
For some reason this film bypassed me on its first release, but eventually I caught up with it at the cinema and on dvd. If you like intelligent, beautifully acted literary adaptations, if you like beautiful scenery, and if you like real emotional content in your films, I heartily recommend The Painted Veil.

It's set in China during the rise of the Nationalist movement (1920s), and really benefits from actually being filmed there. It revolves around the relationship of a married couple Walter and Kitty Fane - brilliantly portrayed by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.
Kitty marries Walter to escape from her mother, despite not being in love with him. They begin married life in Shanghai, where they are soon in the middle of the ex-pat British community ... Read More:

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Elizabeth: The Golden Age [2007]

starring: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Rhys Ifans, Abbie Cornish
directed by: Shekhar Kapur

February 25, 2008
At once more ambitious and less intriguing than its predecessor, Elizabeth: The Golden Age certainly isn't the abject disaster reviewers claimed on its theatrical release, although it's not nearly as engrossing as the original. Unfortunately, while Shekhar Kapur opens up the action and opts for a much lighter palate this time round, with at least a trailer's worth of striking visuals, the results are not particularly compelling. By focusing on the best-known part of the Virgin Queen's reign there's less of the constant sense of danger that marked its predecessor even though it amps up the threat by pitting her not against her own court but the might of the Spanish Empire and its Armada. Yet, being a sequel, it adheres to the `the same but different,' and there's certainly a strong ... Read More:

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The Invasion [2007]

starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond
directed by: James McTiegue

February 25, 2008
The whole film is nice since the start, but the ending part is a bit thin. may be it is because the film time is limited. over all good film!