Monday, September 30, 2013

The Color of Freedom 2007


The Color of Freedom

     This film is also listed under the title Goodbye Bafana.  Based on the true story of James Gregory, he was a white South African racist with the job of guarding Nelson Mandela.  James once lived on a farm and he was a friend of Bafana.  Now he is really a plant in the prison to spy on Mandela as the censor of all written and verbal communications as well as their visitors.  Mandela has become the African National Congress Leader.  As James begins to know Mandela better now that they are both adults, he begins to understand why he became a rebel.  James also witnesses the harsh conditions in the prison plus the brutal police and security officers’ treatment of civilians, including women and infants.
     Written from a different point of view, features the lives of the guards and their families.  The guards are under as much surveillance as the prisoners and they only know part of the story of what is happening.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

118 min, Drama directed by Bille August with Joseph Fiennes, Dennis Haysbert, Diane Kruger, Patrick Lyster, Shiloh Henderson, Tyrone Keogh, Megan Smith, Jessica Manuel, Faith Ndukwana.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 7.0 out of 10. 44% critic 64% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.


Sunday, September 29, 2013

Inescapable 2012

Inescapable     The government in Tunisia is crumbling and it’s not a good time for Muna to pay a visit to see her father’s homeland.  Adib Abdul-Kareem lives in Canada with his wife and two daughters but he is originally from Syria.  He has not shared any of the details of his life in Syria with his daughters.  This has made his journalist daughter Muna curious and now she has gone missing in Damascus.  Adib contacts his friend Fatima and ask her to help him search for his eldest daughter.  Adib has not been back to Damascus in 20 years. 
     This movie was not filmed in Syria but in Johannesburg.  I kept hoping this would get better but it doesn’t.  There is a lot of created tension but it seems to always be going nowhere.  2* (I didn’t like this movie) 

93 min, Drama directed by Ruba Nadda with Alexander Siddig, Marisa Tomei, Joshua Jackson, Oded Fehr, Saad Dissiqui, Fadia Nadda, Bonnie Lee Bouman, Jay Anstey.

Note:  Blockbuster 1 ½*, imdb 4.8 out of 10, 19% critic 31% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Ginger & Rosa 2012

Ginger & Rosa     London teen friends Ginger and Rosa do everything together until Ginger gets very involved with missiles.  This is 1962 and the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis between the Soviet Union and the US.  Ginger is going to meetings to ban the bombs and beginning to attend protest rallies.  She is also having a difficult time since her parents’ recent separation.  This has happened before but it has increased her fear of war and the end of life on earth.  The days of their friendship may be numbered after Rosa begins seeing Ginger’s father.
     Ginger’s father, Roland, is a real piece of work!!  He is the adult here and he’s coming between his daughter and her best friend.  This is bad enough but he is still married to Ginger’s mother!!  Seems to spread itself slightly thin with the addition of Spall, Platt, Benning.  Has a touch of soap opera too.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

90 min, Drama directed by Sally Potter with Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Allessandro Nivola, Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt, Annette Benning, Christina Hendricks.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 6.0 out of 10, 79% critic 53% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Friday, September 27, 2013

The House I Live In 2011

The House I Live In     The War on Drugs has been going on four decades and more than 45 million people have been arrested.  Each person jailed destroys a family.  Most of those arrested are men.  This removes another father from a home and sets the children in the family, especially the boys, down the same path the father took.  Since men are the higher wage earners, this leads to more poverty in the family.  When groups of people are segregated into housing projects, it causes more poverty and lack of jobs.  Lack of jobs and poverty lead to finding the only way to make money and that is dealing drugs.  People segregated, in poverty, without jobs, without hope turn to drugs to relieve their pain and to supply themselves with drugs, they deal.
     There are a lot of problems, mandatory minimum sentences, disparity between sentences for crack cocaine and powdered cocaine, asset seizure, police enforcement supported by the assets and prisons as a business venture.  What are the answers?  What we are doing that isn’t working?  Will 40 more years go by with America expecting different results?  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

108 min, Doc directed by Eugene Jarecki with Nannie Jeter, David Simon, Michelle Alexander, Shaniqua Benitez, Mark Bennett, Mike Carpenter, Larry Cearly, Eric Franklin.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 7.7 out of 10, 94% critic 87% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Nobody Else But You 2011

Nobody Else But You     The original title of this film is Poupoupidou.  David Rouosseau is a popular French crime novelist working on a new book but also looking for a new story.  Candice Lecoeur is a young and attractive woman who thinks her life is following along the lines of Marilyn Monroe.  She was born in a remote location in France but she is discovered working at a gas station and selected as a model for a small cheese company in the area.  She becomes a local star and also does the weather.  Her body is found buried in the snow at the border of France and Switzerland.  This is a no-man’s land and there will not be an investigation of her death.  Rousseau believes she did not commit suicide by sleeping pills.
     This is a different style of film and the character of Candice does draw you into the story.  Rouosseau will use any means legal or not to find out the details of this case.  The sound track has hits from the 60’s, including a remake of the Mamas and Papas California Dreamin.  3 ½* (I liked this movie) 

102 min, Crime directed by Gerald Hustache-Mathieu with Jean-Paul Rouve, Sophie Quinton, Guillaume Gouix, Olivier Rabourdin, Clara Ponsot, Arsinee Khanjian.

Note:  Imdb 6.5 out of 10, 82% critic 67% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Filly Brown 2012

Filly Brown     Majo Tonorio has struggled with her mother being behind bars.  Majo is hoping developing her skills as a rap artist will lead to a better life.  She also wants to get money to help her mother get a new trial.  She gets help with her music career from a local record producer and this is the opportunity of a lifetime.  What she doesn’t know is the rap words her mother gave her were stolen from another earlier obscure rap artist.  Everyone finds out the words are stolen, the producer wants his money back and she has turned her back on her friends as she gained fame.
     Rap is not my thing, the back story is still good in this film and it’s filled with urban Latino life situations.  Jenni Rivera, the late banda singer-songwriter, plays the role of the lying, selfish, addicted, double-dealing mother.  This is her first and only feature film performance.  3* (This movie is OK)

99 min, Drama directed by Youssef Delara, Michael D. Olmos with Gina Rodriguez, Jenni Rivera, Lou Diamond Philips, Lala Romero, Jorge Diaz, Edward James Olmos.

Note:  Blockbuster 3*, imdb 4.4 out of 10, 45% critic 76% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Venus and Serena 2012

Venus And Serena     Based on their lives during 2011 and a profile of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams.  During this year, Venus was diagnosed with autoimmune disease and Serena had a life-threatening pulmonary embolism.  Explores their lives, careers, approaches to the game, training, temperaments and how others perceive them.  Includes highlights of some of their important matches.  
     I don’t feel I know very much more about them after watching this film.  It doesn’t go very much into their lives except as tennis professionals and some information about their family.  This is not a personal portrait of two world-famous women but only about two incredible athletes.  3* (This movie is OK)

100 min, Doc directed by Michelle Major, Maiken Baird with Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, Richard Williams, Anna Wintour, Bill Clinton, Arnon Milchan.

Note:  Blockbuster 3*, imdb 5.6 out of 10, 77% critic 71% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Surviving Progress 2011

Surviving Progress     A novel by Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress, inspired this film. The speed of progress is often used to track humanity’s ascent.  Could it be possible that progress is actually pushing us downward toward collapse?  Civilizations in the past were destroyed by belief systems that served immediate needs but jeopardized the future.  Pressures on the resources of the Earth are accelerating at a pace that cannot be continued.  Large amounts of money in the hands of the few are bankrupting nations.  It’s becoming a vicious cycle.  Natural resources are used to pay back what is loaned now but what will be used to pay back the loans of the future when all the resources are gone?
     The facts and information are undeniable but the presentation is hard to keep following.  I wanted to maintain my interest but found it very difficult.  It’s possible because this is a review of the problems but without solutions?  3* (This movie is OK)

86 min, Doc directed by Harold Crooks, Mathieu Roy with Ronald Wright, Mark Levine, Marina Silva, Kambale Musavuli, Vaclav Smil, Colin Bevan, Michael Hudson.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, 75% critic 79% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Confession 2013

Product Details     This film is based on a novel by Beverly Lewis.  She is a New York Times best-selling author.  This is a continuation of the story told in the film The Shunning.  Katie Lapp has grown up in an Amish community and she missed meeting her birth mother when she came searching for her.  Katie has moved away from her adoptive parents and she calls numbers from the phone book every day looking for her mother.  She finally gets the right number but a man says her mother has passed away.  Katie knew her mother was ill, that was one of the reasons she was searching for Katie.  She is shocked and had been hoping her mother was still alive.
      In The Shunning film, Katie begins to wonder about her family and the rules that define her sheltered Amish life.  In The Confession, she takes steps to find out about her mother and a different life.  You wonder how her mother’s husband can be such a liar, a person without any feelings and so interested only in his own gain?  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

88 min, Drama directed by Michael Landon Jr. with Katie LeClerc, Julia Whelan, Sherry Stringfield, Cameron Deane Stewart, Adian Paul, Bill Oberst, Jr., Michael Rupnow.

Note:  Imdb 5.5 out of 10, 29% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.
Special Note:  This will probably be a trilogy with another movie to follow this one.  Because I had distance between the first and second movie, it didn’t bother me that the lead character is played by a different actress than the first film.





Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Girl 2013


The Girl


     Ashley lives in a trailer, works at a big box store in Austin and is trying to get her life together.  She is struggling after Child Protective Services removed her five-year-old son from her custody.  She feels he will remain with his current foster mother no matter what she does because she is poor and the foster mother has everything.  She owns a home, lives in a nice neighborhood and has a fenced yard and a swing set.  How can Ashley compete?  Ashley’s father pays a surprise visit and he takes her to Mexico in his commercial truck.  He gives her some money and she learns he has made the money by smuggling Mexicans over the border.  This gives her an idea.
     This is a quiet, slow moving film filled with a lot of contemplation.  You want to root for Ashley but she doesn’t seem to “get” what it will really take to get her son back.  The young girl she meets in Mexico already has all the qualities Ashley is lacking.  3 ½* (I liked this movie) 

94 min, Drama directed by David Riker with Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rivas, Austin West, Annalee Jefferies, Will Patton, Giovanna Zacarias, Luci Christian, Tia Carrere.

Note:  Blockbuster 2 ½*, imdb 5.4 out of 10, 53% critic 42% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Movie 43 2013


Movie 43     This film is a series of 13 short films that connect together with the opening story line of a washed-up producer pitching insane story lines.  A woman has a blind date with a very attractive man who has testicles hanging from his neck.  Two parents take home schooling to extremes with their teenage son.  A woman offers her neck for her boyfriend to poop on as a sign of commitment and love.
     There are 10 more short films but I could watch only the first two, the beginning of the third and then I could not take anymore.  This is really ridiculous and I found the first one to be strangely funny, the second very weird and the third unwatchable. Judging from the reviews, I am not the only one who didn’t like this film.  1 ½*  (I really didn’t like this movie)

94 min, Comedy directed by Rusty Cundieff, Will Graham, Jonathan Van Tulleken with Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Gerard Butler, Kate Winslet, Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Chole Grace Mortex, Live Schreiber, Terrence Howard, Richard Gere.

Note:  Blockbuster 2 ½*, imdb 4.4 out of 10, 4% critic 26% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Road from Coorain 2002


The Road from Coorain

     This film was originally a two-hour television biography about the early years of Australian feminist Jill-Ker-Conway.  She was from a British family and grew up in the Outback of New South Wales in the 1930's.  Her mother Eve was very domineering and becomes more so after the death of Jill's father.  The beginning years were an intense struggle to make their sheep ranch profitable but Eve becomes wealthy later on due to wise investments.  Despite her financial success and the struggles now behind her, Eve turns to alcohol for comfort.  She forces Jill to go out into the world and make a place for herself.  Eve also wanted her older son the supervise the ranch but he was killed and her younger son was pushed to take this job.  Jill falls in love with Alec, an American mining engineer but he is married.  Later he decides to leave his marriage but Jill learned first hand how difficult it is to lose a father and she can't let this happen to another child.
     I thought this was very good.  Eve needed to be very strong to survive her situation but her husband basically gave in because of the constant loss.  This caused Eve to need to be even stronger but this drove her too far and she went over the edge in another way.  She also pushed her children very hard which caused more loss.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)


97 min, Drama directed by Brendan Maher with Juliet Stevenson, Richard Roxburgh, Katerine Slattery, Tim Guinee, John Howard, Alex Tomasetti, Alexandra Galwey, Bernard Curry, Sam Dunn, Andrew Keating.


Note:  Blockbuster 2 1/2*, imdb 7.0 out of 10, 63% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.







Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Olympus Has Fallen 2013


Olympus Has Fallen     The President and First Lady are going to an event by limousine.  There are two cars of Secret Service agents, one in front and one in back.  It is dark and snowing, the limo has an accident on a bridge and the car is half on the road and half over the side.  The agents pull the President from the vehicle, try to keep it from going over the side but they are unable to save the First Lady.  The car went over the side with her in the car.  It wasn’t Mike Banning’s fault but the President doesn’t want to be reminded every day of the accident so Banning is transferred to other duties.  A powerful terrorist group takes command of the White House by force and they have the President and other political leaders captive in the bunker.  The Speaker of the house becomes the acting President.  Banning is the only operative still alive inside the White House with the abilities to overturn the situation.
     I thought this would be good but everything about it screams improbable, impossible, preposterous, paranoid, unbelievable and unlikely.  Relies on body count without brains to impress.  1 ½* (I really didn’t like this movie)

119 min, Action directed by Antoine Fuqua with Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhard, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd, Finley Jacobsen.
Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 6.5 out 10, 47% critic 70% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

A Place at the Table 2012


A Place at the Table     The lives of three families are shown to illustrate people in America who have food insecurity.  Children going to school hungry and parents struggling to provide even with full-time jobs. We have the means and resources to feed everyone who is hungry but this is not a Government priority.  The Farm Bill and the subsidizing of huge agribusiness companies is more important.  The price of healthy food such as fruits and vegetables has gone up 40% but the cheaper food which are not a healthy diet have gone down 40% in cost.  One in four children in this country do not get enough to eat.
     This is good!  Barbie is a single mother in Philadelphia.  She was hungry as a child and she’s determined her two children won’t experience this but they are.  Rose is a second-grader in Colorado, sometimes she can only think about food during her class.   Her teacher delivers food to people in the area but it is not nutritious food they need.  Tremonica lives in Mississippi and she is struggling with asthma that is worse because of the diet her mother can afford.  4* (I really liked this movie)

84 min, Doc directed by Lori Silverbush, Kristi Jacobson with Jeff Bridges, Tom Colicchio, Ken Cook, Marion Nestle, Janet Poppendieck, Mariana Chilton.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 6.4 out of 10, 89% critic 71% audience on Rotten Tomatoes. 
Special Note:  I really wonder why we sent a boatload of money to Egypt when we have people hungry in our own country?  If we don’t value our children and their health, what do we value?  How can we expect them to be of any success in their future lives if they can’t get their basic needs during their years of growth?  I also noticed the absence of fathers, men make more money than woman in the workforce and this contribution is lacking in 2 out of 3 of the examples presented.





Monday, September 16, 2013

Ratatouille 2007


Ratatouille

     Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef in spite of his family’s doubts and his biggest drawback is that he is a rat.  He has an exceptional nose and he appreciates the finer foods in life.  He is suddenly swept away by the sewers of Paris and finds himself under a restaurant formerly owned by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau.  At first, Remy doesn’t think he has a chance to work at this respected establishment.  He helps the newly hired garbage boy correct the seasonings in the soup du jour and he’s on his way to a career.  There are many mishaps and missteps along his path.
      I have seen this before but I forgot how funny it really is.  Remy controls the garbage boy in cooking by pulling his hair underneath his chef hat.  The current chef thinks he keeps seeing a rat in the kitchen but how can that be?  4* (I really liked this movie)
 
111 min, Pixar Animation directed by Brand Bird, Jan Pinkava with the voices of Brad Garrett, Lou Romano, Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm Biran Dennehy, Peter Sohn.

Note:  Blockbuster 4*, imdb 8.0 out of 10, 96% critic 84% audience on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Sunday, September 15, 2013

The Place Beyond the Pines 2012

The Place Beyond The Pines     Luke is a talented motorcycle stunt man working for a traveling carnival.  He's in one place for a short amount of time before the carnival moves on to another town.  He’s in Schenectady New York looking for a former girlfriend, Romina.  What he doesn't know is that Romina delivered his son.  When he meets his son for the first time, Luke feels a powerful attachment to Romina and the child.  He wants to stay here, provide for them and become a part of their lives.  There are problems, he quits his job at the carnival but Romina has moved on with another man and they live in this man's home.  Luke meets Robin, he owns a repair shop and Luke starts working for him but they don't have much business.  Robin tells Luke he robbed several banks for the money but it became more dangerous and he stopped.  They devise a plan that later changes everything.  Time passes and fifteen years go by.  The story continues with Luke's son Jason, Avery, the policeman who chased Luke after his latest robbery and Avery’s son.
     I didn’t know anything about this film before viewing except for the information in the trailer.  After watching, I thought about it a lot afterward because there are deep messages in this story.  The rich, the poor, fate, circumstances and the inheritances received from DNA.  4* (I really liked this movie)

140 min, Drama directed by Derek Cianfrance with Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne, Craig Van Hook, Mahershala Ali, Ben Mendelsohn, Ray Liotta.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 7.4 out of 10, 82% critic 78% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.  







Saturday, September 14, 2013

One True Thing 1998

One True Thing     This film is adapted from a 1995 novel by Anna Quindlen who was a former New York Times columnist.  Ellen goes home for Thanksgiving in 1987 and her father asks her to stay home to take care of her mother who is being treated for cancer.  Ellen would like to go back to New York to her apartment and her New York Magazine job.  She is working on an investigative article and it's her biggest story.  She has always wanted to be different from her mother but being at home makes her like her mother.  Kate is just 48 and she doesn’t want care.   She really needs help even though she doesn’t want to stop doing everything she used to do.  Ellen’s attitude changes when her mother’s condition continues to worsen and the next Thanksgiving could be her last.
     Locations in New Jersey were used for the Eastern coastal college town feel.  You really want to kick William Hurt’s character as the father.  Is this really the time to be thinking about yourself when your wife is dying?  The story and characters seem real and you wish the circumstances were different for Ellen and Kate.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

128 min, Drama directed by Carl Franklin with Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger, William Hurt, Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham Nicky Katt, James Eckhouse, Patrick Breen, Gerritt Graham.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 6.8 out of 10, 89% critic and 65% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.  





Friday, September 13, 2013

The Sorcerer and the White Snake 2011


The Sorcerer and the White Snake


      Two 1000 year-old snake demons, one white and one green are traveling together.  They come across a group of men gathering herbs on a steep hillside.  The white snake rescues one of the young herbalists from drowning and she wants to change into a woman in order to see him again.  The green snake doesn’t think this is a good idea but she does the same thing to try to meet the same man.  The white snake woman falls in love with the man and they marry.  The green snake remains nearby to keep an eye on the white snake woman.  When a master monk discovers what is going on, he gives the white snake woman a warning.  She must leave the man or he will destroy her if he sees her again.  He wants to save the soul of this man from the demon.  A contest of psychic powers results in major mayhem.
     This is a very different movie with a lot of computer-generated images and based on Chinese Folklore.  At first I didn’t know if I would be able to keep watching this or if it was worth it but it gets better as it goes along.  3* (This movie is OK)

93 min, Action directed by Tony Ching Siu-Tung Ching and SiuTung Ching with Jet Li, Shengyi Huang, Raymond Lam Fung, Charlene Choi, Zhang Wen, Vivian Hsu, Miriam Yeung Chin Wah, Kar-Ying Law.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 5.7 out of 10, 27% critic 50% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.
Special Note:  There have been other earlier movies with this snake theme.  Madame White Snake 1956, Panda and the Magic Serpent 1958, Madam White Snake 1960, Bai she zhun 1962, Ching se 1993, Legend of the Snake Spirits 2001, TV Series.





Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Last Stand 2013

The Last Stand     Gabriel Cortez is the most notorious and wanted drug kingpin in the western hemisphere.  While being transferred, he stages an escape from an FBI convoy.  A heavy magnet picks up the entire car from the street.  He quickly changes clothes and he has a couple of guys dressed in prison colors run interference.  His getaway car is a recently stolen modified and supercharged Cyber Gray Metallic Corvette ZR1 (C6) reported to be able to go faster than flying in a helicopter at 200mph.
     OK, this is not too bad, cheesy one-liners but a lot of action and some big guns with bullets flying.  Schwarzenegger is now 65 years old, he seems a little rusty and he does not look younger!! 3* (This movie is OK)

107 min, Action directed by Kim Jee-Woon with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Luis Guzman, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander.
 
Note:  Blockbuster 3*, imdb 6.5 out of 10, 60% critic 57% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.
Special Note:  The cars are the real stars of this film.  The 2012 Corvette C6 ZR1 is worth $120,000 and the real horsepower is not 1000 but 638.   A Victory Red Camaro ZL1 worth $60,000 with 580 horsepower was also used in a side-to-side race together with the Corvette.  The Corvette can do 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and the Camaro is 0-60 in 3.9 seconds.   Seven cars were used in the filming and two were returned in reasonable condition.

Rogue River 2012

     Mara leaves home to spread her father’s ashes on the Rogue River.  She used to camp there with her father when she was a young girl.  An older man comes up to her at the shore of the river and tells her that she needs to get a permit.  It will be illegal for her to put the ashes in the river without the permit.  She walks back to the road with Jon and finds her car is gone?  She doesn’t have any options other than walk or accept a ride to town with him.  Jon says he needs to stop by his house first and let his wife, Lea, know he will be going into town.  Lea suggests that Mara spend the night at their house and not stay at a hotel overnight in town.
     DO NOT WATCH this film unless you like the genre of movies involving physical and physiological torture.  I only got just beyond Mara staying for dinner, she hands Lea a dish to wash and Lea drops it intentionally on the floor.  Lea gives Mara a deep cut on her palm with the broken dish.  Then Mara sews up the cut with a needle while the husband holds her still!!  That was enough viewing for me!!  1 ½* (I really didn’t like this movie) 

82 min, Thriller directed by Jourdan McClure with Michelle Page, Bill Moseley, Art Alexakis, Chris Coy, Michael Cudlitz, Lucinda Jenney.

Note: imdb 4.2, 21% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Battle for Brooklyn 2010


Battle for Brooklyn

     Government and big business want to tear down a historic neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.  More than a dozen skyscrapers can be built in this area and a new basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets.  The plan is to use eminent domain laws to raze Prospect Heights for this Atlantic Yards project.  Locals become divided on the project.  Bringing new jobs to the area is the positive side.  The other side does not want to be forcefully evicted from their homes.  A contract is awarded by the city to the private developer Forest City Ratner.
     It would be a shock to anyone to be evicted from their home or apartment.  The reason is not because of anything they have done but what others want to do.  Some of the owners and tenants really put everything into fighting this.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

93 min, Doc directed by Suki Hawley, Michael Galinsky with Daniel Goldstein.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 6.8 out of 10, 78% critic 79% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Extraterrestrial 2011

Extraterrestrial     What are the people supposed to do when there are 30 UFO’s in different areas of Spain?  There are two choices, you can leave in a convoy of cars headed by the military or you can remain in your apartment.  What would you do if you have just met the girl of your dreams as this invasion starts?
     I didn’t think this was funny and nothing is happening!?  I kept hoping it would get better but it doesn’t and it’s not worth reading the subtitles.  A lot of promises but no delivery!?  1 1/2* (I really didn’t like this movie)

90 min, Comedy directed by Nacho Vigalondo with Julian Villagran, Michelle Jenner, Carlos Areces, Raul Cimas, Miguel Noguera.

Note: Blockbuster 2 ½*, imdb 5.7 out of 10, 68% critic 47% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.