Red Road

Jackie (Kate Dickie) watches people for a living as a closed circuit TV operator for City Eye, a web of networked cameras that keep a watchful eye on the well being of its citizens. When she finds someone from her past staring back at her, she find herself inadvertently tracking him. You are kept in the dark for most of the film while director reveals the plot slowly to you as if untying an intricate knot with great patience.

Rating: * * +

The Hunted

Aaron Hallman (Benicio Del Toro) is a US government trained assasin who has lost the plot. LT Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) is the man who taught him how to kill and the one sent to reign him in. An unlikely duo in an action flick that involves a lot of close quarter knife fights. Both actors should have stuck to character roles and leave such films to Steven Seagal.

Rating: *

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight continues the fine tradition started by Batman Begins. Akin to how Frank Miller made Batman relevant again in the graphic novel arena, Christopher Nolan has given the brooding hero a breath of fresh intense air on the big screen. In print sometimes a certain character takes over the whole book and somehow enthralls the reader holding him in a vice like grip. Heath Ledger does exactly that in his role of the Joker. The film heralds the arrival of the laughing madman in the life of Batman and shows us the tip of the titanic struggle that will enshroud the rest of their existence. But with the passing of Ledger, one wonders who can replicate his panache and screen presence as the Joker...

Rating: * * *

Crazy Stone

A precious jade stone is found at the site of a struggling factory. The owner decides to exhibit it and then sell it for millions to save the factory and its workers. The security for the exhibition is in the hands of the trusted security guard, Bao (Tao Guo) who is forced to use urinal sensors as a motion detector thanks to his tight budget. Stone attracts thieves of many sizes and shapes and only Bao stands in their way. A Chinese heist flick that is a cross between Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Ocean's Eleven, is funny in bits but a tad dragging as a whole.

Rating: * +

Halla Bol

Sameer Khan (Ajay Devgan) is an arrogant actor with nary a scruple. But seeing a girl being murdered causes him to magically remember the conscience he once had. After an hour, I realized that even the presence of Pankaj Kapur and Vidya Balan couldn't save this cliche filled sorry excuse of a film.



Rating: +

After the Wedding

Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen) found his calling in life running an orphanage in India. But when it runs out of money he is forced to fly to Copenhagen to schmooze with a rich donor. Unfortunately the donation comes with strange appendages with tendrils from the past that puts his future in question. A film that is swollen with promise but is it just a Bollywood one?

Rating: * *

Adam's Apple

Adam Pederson (Ulrich Thomsen) is a neo-Nazi for whom being evil is a job description. He is sentenced to community service at a Danish countryside church where he meets Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen). Ivan can only see good in the world and fanatically blocks out the bad by blaming the Devil. Adam is tasked with looking after an apple tree to bake a pie at the end of his sentence. But the task he undertakes is to show Ivan that evil is in man and the Devil has no part in it. A dark comedy that will strangely have you in splits during moments of grave sadness and utmost gravity.

Rating: * * +

The Lookout

Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is on a joyride with his girlfriend and friends, trying to catch fireflies on a dark country road. But what catches him is the jaw of death in the form of a stationary trailer. Death unfortunately only nips him, so he goes from being the local jock with a promising life, to a washed up broken man recovering from a brain injury, working as a janitor at a bank. Hardly able to hold a thought, he lives with the blind Lewis (Jeff Daniels) who helps him get through his day. This is when Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode) befriends him and talks him into helping with a bank robbery. Needless to say, rest of the film was very predictable.

Rating: * *

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is back and he snarls even more in this installment. His lover Liz (Selma Blair) is at her fiery best and Abe (Doug Jones) continues to be the bumbling nerd. This time around rather than battling the forces of darkness, it is a war against the faeiry folk and their army who have broken their truce with humanity. It is very obvious that del Toro has allowed the world of Pan's Labyrinth to sneak in here. The visuals are phantasmagorical and the fight sequences are stunning. But in spite of all that you are left with a vague sense of dissatisfaction at the end of the film.

Rating: * *

A World Without Thieves

Sha Gen (Baoqiang Wang) believes that world is filled with kind souls who wouldn't dream of lightening him of his hard earned money. He meets Wang Bo (Andy Lau) and Wang Li (Rene Liu) who are master con artists, on the train ride back to his village. Strangely moved by his over the top honest nature, Li decides to adopt him as her little brother. The train is teeming with a gang of thieves led by Uncle Li (You Ge), out to relieve the passenger of their precious burdens. Soon a cat and mouse game ensues with Bo and Li acting as Sha's guardians. A very craftily made film with some deadly cinematography but if only it was a tad grittier sans the slow motion melodrama, a masterpiece could have been well at hand.



Rating: * * +

Private Fears in Public Places

The film opens with a realtor being berated by his client on his poor choice of the apartment that he is showing her.The camera the effectively flits through their lives and bringing in more characters each with a few degrees of separation from the others. Some of them lonely and aching for human contact while the others wanting a touch of a different kind. In spite of its promising layout, this flick directed by highly acclaimed French legend, Alain Resnais, had the effect of a mild sedative.



Rating: *

Journey from the Fall

1975, the Communist have taken over Vietnam and the people are fleeing its shores. Long (Long Nguyen) unable to see his country suffer, convinces his family to escape to the US and stays behind to find for the Nationalists. But rather than finding freedom for his country he ends up in a re-education camp. His struggle for survival is juxtaposed beautifully with what his family go through on the ocean to freedom. As the film winds around it just shows that in war, freedom is usually just a point of view and hope sometimes is a dangerous but powerful thing.

Rating: * * *

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

The early 20th century sees the citizen's of Ireland in an upheaval against the ruling British empire. This struggle is shown through Damian (Cillian Murphy), who gives up a budding career in medicine to join in his brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney) in the fight against the Irish oppressors. The events careen towards a peace treaty that only implodes the country into a bloody civil war and the IRA we know of today is born. The film tries to put a human spin to its birth though it is rather unclear if the director was a tad too sympathetic or realistic.

Rating: * * +

The Taste of Tea

The Katsuhito Ishii film captures the the Haruno family at a time where all its members are at the peak of their quirkiness. In fact calling them quirky is an understatement. Young Hajime (Takahiro Sato) is in grips of teenage love and angst. Adolescent Sachiko (Maya Banno) can't seem to get rid of her giant self that keeps watching over her. Mother Yoshiko (Satomi Tezuka) is trying to get her anime career back on track with help from crazy Grandpa (Tatsuya Gashuin) who is a master of strange poses. Uncle Tayano (Tadanobu Asano), a famous DJ and music mixer, wanders around lost in his own world. The slightly normal member seems to be the hypnotist father (Tomokazu Miura). A Japanese film which has a very Wes Anderson like feel to it.



Rating: * * * +