★★

Directed by: Scott Hicks
Written by: Carol Fuchs, Sandra Nettelbeck
Starring: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin

While Hollywood reheats the German romantic-drama Mostly Martha with the hopes of dishing out an easy-to-watch, likable and heart-warming flick, No Reservations doesn’t taste quite right, despite having all the right ingredients. Mixing the competitive culinary world with the challenge of parenting, No Reservations tries to balance tragedy with love but delivers uninteresting results.

Kate (Zeta-Jones) is a top chef. When it comes to cuisine, Kate is a god, but when her sister unexpectedly dies and leaves her daughter in Kate’s care, she finds herself absolutely helpless. As her boss recommends she see a psychologist, and a new eccentric, opera-loving chef, Nick (Eckhart) mixes things up in her kitchen, Kate must open up and let go of past pains in order to embrace a new life and a new love.

Played by Zeta-Jones, Kate is not simply a difficult character, but one that is difficult to like. While her closed off, bland personality leaves enough room for change throughout the course of the film, her seat in the psychologist’s office and inexperienced, cold approach to parenting are cliche. For one thing, Kate’s spirit and passion in cooking is played down with Zeta-Jones simply giving orders around the kitchen and adding neat little touches to extravagant meals. It is this lack of flair (even a serious kind of flair) that makes No Reservationsa dull watch.  Aaron Eckhart, however, makes up for the lack of creativity taken with the character of Kate as his light sense of humor and adorable qualities are easy to digest. Having said that, much of the romance is lost to the weightier issue of having lost a loved one, and with a story that loses its steam far too quickly and easily, No Reservations turns out to be a fancy-looking dish without much flavor at all.

Can you... not do that?

★★★★★… and a few more ★★

Directed by: Michel Hazanavicius
Written by: Michel Hazanavicius
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo and John Goodman

People often turn to Hollywood’s silent films when looking for the visual wit and kinetic energy that made film what it is today. Our archives are usually where we look to when blockbusters flood our cinemas and our eyes get weary from skimming too many fast-moving, clumsy plotlines that unfold with unnecessarily added dimensions. In the future, The Artist will stand as something to be studied and returned to when movies at the cinema have gone to shit.

A show you won't want to miss

George Valentin (Dujardin) is a silent movie star who enjoys his fame. When he bumps into dancer-wannabe-film star Peppy Miller (Bejo), a small spark of romance goes a long way into the sound era.

With so many insightful nods to the medium of film itself, using self-reflexive editing techniques and shot compositions, The Artist not only draws its audience into the visual capacities of the screen – untainted by special effects or showy stunts – but also emphasizes the stellar performances delivered through a reliance on facial expressions, gesture and dance.

While our tastes in films may lean towards faster and more action-driven films (even in terms of a story’s pace and subject matter), The Artist takes a step back in time, style and cinematic qualities, forcing us to rethink what makes great cinema and how it is such a powerful mode of storytelling.

★★★★

Directed by: Sang-il Lee
Written by: Sang-il Lee, Daisuke Habara
Starring: Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa and Yû Aoi

Building a Hawaiian center to encourage tourism in Iwaki – a north-eastern Japanese city dependent on coal mines for its economy - is a leap of faith. For Madoka Hirayama, teaching a group of girls to wash their soot-stained hands and mimic the graceful gestures of Hawaiian hula dancers is an even greater one.

Hawaii brought to Japan

With a little bit of faith, vibrant performances and an emphasis on community spirit and passion, Hula Girls is an inspiring and fun journey that finds happiness and achievement in circumstances that appear bleak. In balancing likable characters with the more serious issues of unemployment and the stubborness of older generations, who deem it their duty to continue mining as the only source of income due their ancestors’ own hard work, Hula Girls combines humor, drama and an uplifting message that draws on symbolism and dance to convey its story.

★

Directed by: Rob Reiner
Written by: Rob Reiner, Andrew Schienman
Starring: Madeline Carroll, Callan McAuliffe, Rebecca De Mornay

If you’re thinking to read the novel by Wendelin Vaan Drannen before you see the film Flipped, don’t bother. The film is basically the audio book version, only you get a couple of young picture perfect actors to play it out for you as well. Completely narrated by the voices overs of the two protagonists, Julie (Carroll) and Bryce (Callan), Flipped strings together two different perspectives with post production transitions that could well come from dinosaur-old editing software. While the innocent romance has the best intentions to produce a heart-warming and simple story, Flipped is too saccharine sweet  for adults whilst lacking the action and humor made appealing to a younger audience.

How to lose a guy in one day

While the film’s flipping (quite literally) between two different perspectives could have been a creatively funny and original take on giving “both sides of the story”, Flipped introduces too many situational conflicts and dramatic turns, without fully resolving them. As a result, the film becomes too distracted by multiple events that don’t necessarily affect the characters in significant ways, or even effectively bring them closer together. While the love story at the heart of the film is sweet, and the performances  by Carroll and Callan are perfect for the roles, Flipped offers too many emotional obstacles without delivering a sense of progression, or at the very least, some fun.

★★★★

Directed by: Shane Meadows
Written by:Shane Meadows
Starring: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley

It’s the eighties and the neighborhoods of working class England are as unattractive as the hair styles of the era. While fond memories of that time may turn to music and passing fashion trends, This Is England opens with scenes from the Falkland Wars, violent riots provoked by the National Front and a military report coming through radio speakers.

We're a lot nicer than we look

After being teased, bullied and beaten as per usual at school, twelve year old Shaun (Turgoose) is stopped by a small group of skinheads who take him in with a friendliness that is infectious and impossible to resist. As Shaun follows in the footsteps of these clean shaven, Doc Martin-wearing misfits, his relationship with them soon takes an unexpected turn when National Front enthusiast, Combo (Graham) comes home from prison.

Set against a backdrop of turbulence, violence and clumsy graffiti, This Is England uses complex and charismatically flawed characters to engage the audience beyond just the politics of the film’s historical and national setting – turning the twisted ideals of nationalism into a story about one boy’s efforts to be loved, and find compensation for his father’s death in the form of friends, a sense of purpose and a newly found identity. The performances support this undeniably human and deeply affecting story, coupled with an eye for dramatic tension and a powerful emotional impact.

★★★

Directed by: George Lucas
Written by: George Lucas
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman

At movie theaters, not so far far away, Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menacehas returned to the big screen with an added dimension. While light sabers and Queen Amidala’s outfits will never go out of fashion, 3D does little to lift this 1999 prequel from its weak plot progression and bring something new to the already impressive visuals.

3D or no 3D, Jar Jar Binx is still annoying.

As evil from the Trade Federation disrupts the peaceful planet of Naboo, two Jedi Knights – Qui-Gon Jinn (Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor) – are sent to negotiate with its leaders. When the negotiations prove to be a failure, the two Jedis flee to the planet of Tatooine with the Queen Amidala (Portman), befriending a young Anakin Skywalker on the way and discovering a Sith apprentice on their trail.

While the film’s action takes full advantage of 3D in the pod race, laser shoot-outs and double-ended light saber fights, these momentary excitements are not enough to sustain our interest in a story that is too simple and flatly scripted, yet too political and difficult for children. This may have something to do with the fact that The Phantom Menace lacks a clearly defined perspective as multiple characters merely push the story forward. Had the film focused on the experience of one protagonist, such as Obi-Wan, The Phantom Menace may have proven to be a lot more engaging, exciting and insightful in terms of its characters and the galaxies far, far away.

★★★

Directed by: Nicole Holofcener
Written by: Nicole Holofcener
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand, Catherine Keener

Nicole Holofcener’s Friends with Money allows us to eavesdrop on the lives of four very different ladies, all going through issues in their relationships when it comes to partners, blind dates and careers. While the story is relatively tame and unexciting, the characters are brought to life with strong performances by a well-cast ensemble of female actresses no one would have thought to put together until now.

Not quite the Sex and the City group

Within the group, there is no one protagonist. Christine (Keener) is building a second story to her house to compensate for the deteriorating relationship between her and her husband, who happens to be her co-screenwriter. Franny (Joan Cusack) sits on a lot of money, but doesn’t know what to do with it when all her friends around her are enriched by their careers. Jane (McDormand) finds herself growing increasingly frustrated and depressed by everything around her, and Olivia (Aniston) can’t help comparing her single self to her married friends whilst juggling a job as a maid and longing for a past lover.

Friends with Money touches on the odd dynamics of such friendship groups with a ring of reality and familiarity as the conversations had behind each other’s backs, or in each other’s faces reveal more about the nature of each character than what actually happens in the film. In this sense, Friends with Money uses its dialogue with a sharp understanding of how friendships work, and how the individual problems of each character are shaped through the support and commentary that are given by their friends. The details behind the film’s conflicts and obstacles are never blatant or cliched. They are exposed with a vulnerability that can only come from a good script and convincing performances.

While Friends with Money doesn’t necessarily try to extend beyond the ordinary desires and struggles of relatively ordinary people, the film does lack the compelling qualities fit for a dramatic film. The stakes aren’t high enough, and as a result, the outcome is neither exciting or anticipated with curiosity or a sense of eagerness from the audience – putting a well-written script and outstanding performances (particularly from Jennifer Aniston) to waste.

★★★

Directed by: Jon Favreau
Written by: David Koepp, Chris Van Allsburg (book)
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo and Dax Shepard

Think Jumanji set in space. Zathura: A Space Adventure is an innocent family-fun film that uproots an entire house and throws it into the centre of the universe, amidst man-eating lizard beings and meteor showers, to bring two brothers closer than they have ever been before.

It's all good. This outer space adventure includes oxygen.

After their parents’ divorce, Walter (Hutcherson) and Danny (Bobo) hang with their father in his new house, fighting over his attention and love. But when Danny comes across a board game that takes the entire house across the galaxy while their father is out on business, he leaves Walter and his older sister Lisa (Kirsten Stewart) a rather heavy obligation to protect each other from everything the board game throws their way.

While Zathura wows us with flying space objects and the large-scale nature of the space adventure, it’s the performances delivered by the two young leads (Josh Hutcherson’s being particularly impressive) that stand as the film’s strongest point. The script, however, disappoints in its predictability and quick solutions. In light of the film’s family-friendly tone and target audience, we can forgive the moving brotherly affections and character changes that we can see lightyears away. But when it comes to the film’s conclusion and the ways in which some of the dangers are eluded by the two boys, with the help of a lost astronaut (Shepard), we’re not so convinced.

★

Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman
Written by: Darren Lynn Bousman and Leigh Whannell
Starring: Donnie Wahlberg, Beverley Mitchell and Franky G

With the popular reception of the first Saw film, it wasn’t a surprise when the makers dished out sequel after sequel after sequel like never-ending intestines. The serial killer Jigsaw returns in Saw II with more gruesome ways of offing people who don’t fit into his rigorous moral code.

Who knew a serial killer would look like an albino John Lithgow

In Saw II, Jigsaw takes a personal interest in Detective Matthews – a cop who is better at his job than being a father and husband. Taking Detective Matthews’ son and other young people hostage, Jigsaw challenges the police force to try and find them before they’re all killed.

While the first film was like fresh meat for a genre slipping into remakes and cheap thrills, Jigsaw loses his edge now that his shroud of mystery is gone in this disappointing sequel. Rather than being scared shitless by the sense of unknown, scratching our heads as to how to get out of Jigsaw’s sadistic riddles alive, Saw II loses its compelling quality in that it involves too many characters, all looking for the same way out. It’s almost like watching a game of A-mazing with more screams and gore. And with players who all deliver relatively B grade performances for B grade characters, we can’t help but feel indifferent to their struggle for survival.

Despite the millions of dollars that the Saw franchise has managed to scrape together, it seems the original scare that Jigsaw afforded us in the first film fails to be conquered in its sequel and beyond.

★★★

Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Written by: Eric Roth
Starring: Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore

Lucky You takes its chances with the two familiar faces of Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore, with a script churned out by award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (the brain behind Munich, Forrest Gump, The Horse Whisperer and many more), but fails to be as clever and charming as it could be. With characters that lack creativity and likability – no matter how capable the actors are in portraying them – Lucky You deals a losing hand in its direction and execution.

Ma poker face

Huck (Bana) is a confident poker player. Hating the father who taught him everything he knows, Huck hopes to win the world tournament poker championship that his father has won twice in the past. But when a young singer called Billy, looking to make it in Las Vegas, turns up in Huck’s life, he realizes that he can’t gamble people’s feelings or put a price on love.

It’s as cheesy as it sounds. With one hand on the unknown outcome of Huck’s gambling dreams and another hand on the chemistry between Bana and Barrymore, Lucky You goes all in but comes out with relatively unimpressive results. In the opening scene, Bana hooks us in with a proposition to a pawnshop owner, trying to sell a camera for more than its worth. We’re hooked and interested in how this character will develop throughout the film with his natural wit and charm. But once the film turns to romance as a way of suggesting higher stakes and a change in Huck’s lonely routine, there is an undeniable sense of jarring between the two actors that is slightly uncomfortable and awkward to watch. What Lucky You required were more engaging characters that make us care more about them than  the stakes of the game. Unfortunately, the story is played with conventionality and predictability that leaves it audiences with nothing but poker faces.