SALT

Three Cheers For Women Everywhere!!!

The Adidas slogan ‘Impossible is Nothing’ certainly applies to Angelina Jolie in her spy role as SALT. As a CIA agent who may or may not be a Russian spy, the complex double-crossing conspiracies and surprise moles of the twist-and-turn plot accompanied by her magnificient stunt acting made this a truly ‘solid’ movie to watch!

Tom Cruise was originally cast in the role, but he apparently turned the part down because he felt "Salt" was too similar to his "Mission: Impossible" films.

The plot is enjoyably convoluted, centering around "Day X" when hundreds of Russian sleeper agents, planted in the United States as children, will be ordered to rise up and complete their mission to take down the U.S. government. Salt is accused by a mysterious Russian defector of being one of those agents, and she immediately goes on the run, trying to track down her husband, who has vanished.

Her boss, Ted (Liev Schreiber), wants to believe she isn't a mole, but counter intelligence agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has no such bias. She ran – and as far as he's concerned, she’s guilty.

SALT is a very action-packed thriller. Chase scenes are long, on-the-edge and involved without getting too ridiculous or boring, and they are even occasionally clever (like when Salt, trapped in the back seat of a cop car, uses a Taser to make the muscles in the driver's legs contract so he'll push the accelerator when she wants).

Whether SALT is your cup of tea or not will depend on how much you like the spy thriller genre.

The Karate Kid

Sticks pretty close to the original. Twelve year old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) is charming while Hollywood star Jackie Chan as reclusive handyman Mr Han is surprisingly in his element as a father figure.

Superbly dramatised fighting skills set amidst breathtaking glimpses of Beijing and The Great Wall make this movie memorable. Dre, who is actor Will Smith’s son, has certainly inherited his father’s acting skills and good looks, albeit his small frame.

The late Pat Morita would have been proud of the New Karate Kid!

Bounty Hunter

As good as it gets - great acting alongside  a winning combination of action, adventure, humour and romance.

Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler), a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter, gets his dream job when he is assigned to track down his bail-jumping ex-wife, reporter Nicole Hurly (Jennifer Aniston) whom he secretly still oves. He thinks that’s an easy paycheck, but when Nicole gives him the slip so she can chase a lead on a murder cover-up, Milo realizes that nothing is ever simple with him and Nicole. The ex-es continually stab each other – until they find themselves on the run for their lives! They thought their promise to love, honor and obey was tough - but staying alive is proving to be a whole lot tougher.

Armored

It’s not a new theme - the ugly truth of greed - but Armored comes well-packaged with hot stars and great action. A heist thriller as good as it gets.

Trying to pull his life together after the death of his parents and a military tour in Iraq, Ty (Columbus Short) has taken a job as an armored car guard, standing alongside his friend, Mike (Matt Dillon). Mike propositions Ty with a risky offer, asking the enthusiastic young man to help hijack $42 m from a bank with the assistance of some sleek moves and a few needy co-workers (including Laurence Fishburne and Jean Reno). Ty, initially hesitant, eventually agrees to go along with the theft, if only to help keep his troubled younger brother (Andre Kinney) out of foster care. While the plan launches without a hitch, a series of accidents and panic attacks lead Ty to fear for his life, sealing himself inside one of the trucks while Mike and the boys work out a plan to retrieve the money and kill the unexpected traitor.

Written by James V. Simpson, the action-packed thriller delivers a captivating set-up and a believable plot that goes horribly wrong. Splendid acting (Fishburne, Reno, Dillon, Short, and Ventimiglia) with a generous amount of suspense. A good movie to catch!  

Everybody's Fine . . . Or Are They?

Robert De Niro is full of regrets in this sad and rather nostalgic family drama that WILL make you want to call your own father to tell him you love him.

Who’s fine? No one, really, but we all know that, right? When does wearring a mask stop and uncomfortable truth begin, before burdening someone with the unvarnished truth? The movie ponders these things in a somber and intelligent way that belies its gay movie poster.

Robert De Niro plays Frank, an aging widower who spends his lonely days keeping his empty nest tidy and its surrounding garden foliage immaculate. He dearly misses the absence of his four grown-up children since the recent death of his wife, and when they all back out of a planned holiday gathering at the family home, he decides to pack up his bag and travel across the country to see each one as a surprise. As he goes from home to home, he begins to realize some uncomfortable truths about the distant relationship he has with them and, even worse, that there’s a big secret they’re all conspiring to hide.

Frank’s children are played by Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and Drew Barrymore, but the audience sees them only through De Niro's eyes ; his pain and his regrets.

OLD DOGS

Who let the dogs out?

Screen veterans and ‘oldies’ Robin Williams and John Travolta have proven that they still have what it takes to create onscreen chemistry as two best friends, Dan and Charlie, business partners in sports marketing.

Dan has been unlucky in love and twice-divorced. His second marriage was extremely short-lived, and, seven years later, his second wife Vicki (Kelly Preston) re-appears with 7-year-old twins. You guessed right. Dan is the dad who never knew he had kids and now wants to play daddy and reunite with Vicki - and enlists Charlie, the playboy bachelor (who ‘hits’ on anything still breathing) to help him. Turns out that Vicki has to go to jail for a short time and doesn't know where else to dump her kids. What a touching story!

Slapstick humour notwithstanding, ‘Old Dogs’ was highly entertaining and believable. Fine quality acting from the two veteran stars!

Zombieland, A Comedy that Kills You Laughing!

In a world overrun by zombies, who you’re gonna call? Zombie Busters, naive Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and gun-toting redneck Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) - an odd pair of normal human survivors. But right now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: surviving each other!

It would be really scary if it wasn’t quite so funny. This horror comedy is considered by many critics to be the biggest and most pleasant surprise the genre has offered, so warmly received that Sony Pictures is already putting the finishing touches to a sequel in 3D, getting the two hero stars back on board. Zombieland is clearly one movie that will benefit from it.

Disney’s The Princess and the Frog

What happened after the Princess kissed the slimy frog?

No one knew till now! This lovable animated family movie, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Is based on the novel ‘The Frog Princess’ and inspired by the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "The Frog Prince".

The scene is a broadway-styled musical set in the French Quarter of New Orleans. A prince named Naveen (Bruno Campos) from Maldonia is transformed into a frog by the evil scheming voodoo magician Dr. Facilier (Keith David). The frog prince mistakes a girl named Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) for a princess and has her kiss him to break the spell. However, the kiss doesn't break the spell, but instead turns Tiana into a frog as well. Together, they must reach the good voodoo priestess of the Bayou, Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), while befriending a trumpet-playing alligator and a hopelessly romantic firefly along the way.

Indeed a refreshing take on an old classic fairytale!

Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Treasure Planet, with songs and score composed by Randy Newman, featuring the voices of Anika Noni Rose (as Princess Tiana), Oprah Winfrey, Keith David, Jim Cummings, John Goodman, Jenifer Lewis, Bruno Campos, Michael-Leon Wooley, Peter Bartlett and Terrence Howard.

Disney’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL in 3D 

The classic Dickens movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ relives the book, first published in December 1843, which has endured as a much-beloved Christmas favourite. 

The fantasy adventure sees Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) beginning the Christmas holiday with his usual miserly contempt, barking at his faithful clerk (Gary Oldman) and his cheery nephew (Colin Firth).  But when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come take him on an eye-opening journey, revealing scary truths that  Old Scrooge is reluctant to face, he must open his heart to undo years of ill will before it’s too late. 

Superb acting by the multi-faceted Jim Carrey as he tackles seven roles, including Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. The movie offers a multi-sensory thrill ride re-envisioned by Academy Award -winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, capturing the fantastic essence of the classic tale in groundbreaking 3-D. 

Watch out for ‘A Christmas Carol’ out in theatres from 19 November 09.