The Samaritan

A Contemplative Actioner With A Solid Samuel Jackson Lead: Intriguing, But Falls Short In The Final Act
Anyone anticipating "The Samaritan" to be a high octane thrill ride will probably have those expectations thwarted. Truthfully, I also didn't expect much from this Blu-ray and thought it would be an exercise in conventional action mayhem. It is, however, a movie with a lot more on its mind. "The Samaritan" is a surprisingly contemplative film about redemption and second chances. Featuring a solid Samuel Jackson, the screenplay takes its time in building a genuinely interesting story. Jackson gives one of his more complex performances as a man struggling to create a new life, a new identity, and start afresh. He's great and the movie serves up some terrifically unpleasant surprises (the twist at the half way point is a doozy)! But just as the movie approaches the final act, it falters. An intricate con to swindle a crime lord out of millions of dollars is set up with almost zero preparation and back story. If a clever grift is essential to your screenplay, however, it needs to...

Family ties!
This is a very good movie that will keep you guessing all the way to the end. Samuel L. Jackson performance is outstanding as always. Ruth Negga, a newcomer, is also really good.

Foley (Jackson) gets released from prison after serving 25 years for killing his partner. His partner's son wants revenge. Not the usual kind, a different kind of revenge. Then Iris (Ruth Negga), appears and falls in love with Foley. Everything is slow and for a moment we think is a love story or a back stubbing plot. At the 40 minute mark of the movie the plots gets really twisted and then we start guessing all the way to the end which is a surprise.

Four stars for the decent plot and the acting. Look forward to watch more movies with Ruth Negga. She has a great future in the business.

First rate movie for a great price
This movie is pretty good. It really makes me cringe and keeps me thinking about it days after I've seen it. I recommend it to all adults.

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Golden Winter

Golden Winter
Great movie for families to watch. This one movie that is very interesting to watch and enjoy by yourself or with someone.

Great movie
My 8 year old grandson loved this movie. He said it was very funny. He watched it with his mom and she thought it was cute.

Cute movie
Since I love Golden Retrievers so much this is a feel good movie for sure. I will enjoy watching it often.

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The Man from Beijing

Masterpiece of Suspenseful Drama
It is an excellent movie that will help you reflect on one of the current world issues - revenge based on historical injustice. It is masterfully centered around great abuses that ocurred to the Chinese immigrants who came to America in the 1800s, but the revenge for the abuses are being carried out now. The movie involves the last member of a Swedish family, the only member to have accidentally survived the revenge of a Chinese man who is well trained with the sword. Both social realities for how to see historical abuse are represented in the story. It is a drama that is driven along with a tension of suspense, a suspense driven by when is she going to get it. There are many questions a viewer will take from this thought provoker. A question that I took away from the story is how independent should my family loyalty be in light of a government's design to have all people individualized into the government's mode of behavior as defined by the terms "an obedient citizen"...

This Film was a Major Disappointment
After watching the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, which was excellent, I was looking forward to a film with similar qualities. I regret that this film failed on all counts. Although the concept for the plot was good, the script, the acting and almost every aspect of the film failed to meet my expectations. I gave the film two stars and that was being generous.

If all of the judges in Sweden have the same lack of common sense and intelligence as shown by the main character, the country is in serious trouble. The plot failed to meet the "it could happen" test in this regard. The lead police detective character has the same problem. If she is an example of the average Swedish detective, God help the victims of crime in Sweden. A judge that finds themselves in a situation where the lead detective treats the only surviving family member of a massacre in that way would be on the phone to any number of political and judicial connections to get the situation under control...

Good movie. And it is in Taiwan but not China at all..
The 1st part is much better than the 2nd part. The 2nd part is out of the control. The ancient scenes are ok. But the scenes in China are all shot in Taiwan which makes them not real at all. And many scenes in the 2nd Part not really logical.

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Kiss Me

Captivating...
Mia (Ruth Vega Fernandez) announces her engagement to boyfriend Tim (Joakim Natterqvist) at her father's 60th Birthday Party. Her father Lasse (Krister Henriksson) has just asked his partner Elizabeth (Lena Endre) to marry him. When Mia meets Elizabeth's fun-loving daughter Frida (Liv Mjones), she is initially wary. Reluctantly, she agrees to a weekend getaway on the island of Fyn with Frida and Elizabeth. Forced to share a bedroom with Frida, Mia finds herself fascinated by the other woman's free-spirited enjoyment of life. While out walking in the woods, Mia boldly kisses Frida leading to an amorous embrace. Frida is ready and willing to reciprocate and the women soon feverishly make love for the first time.

The weekend over, Mia must return to Stockholm and her life with Tim and Frida to her partner Elin. Both women find it hard to put the intimacy they shared behind them. Escaping into the windswept Swedish countryside, the women shed their inhibitions once more and...

Kiss Me
"Kiss Me" is a critically acclaimed film about lesbian love, and, once you watch it, you'll understand why. It not only addresses the love between two women, but also the emotional impact that it leaves in all the involved parties. It is smart, sexy, authentic - perhaps the best lesbian movie that I have had the pleasure the watch, period.

Mia (Ruth Vega Fernandez) is happily engaged to Tim (Joakim Nätterqvist), and we meet them at the beginning of the film, making passionate love, and then rushing over to Mia's father, Lasse (Krister Henriksson), 60th birthday party. Once at the party, we are introduced to Lasse's fabulous wife Elisabeth (Lena Endre), and her precious daughter Frida (Liv Mjönes). All is well until Mia and Frida later on go to visit Elisabeth at her country house, in a beautiful island. Lasse was supposed to go, but didn't make it. Mia was not happy about it, because she wanted to talk to her father. This situation, of course, forces Mia and...

The Best Lesbian Film Since Imagine Me & You
I was captivated by the intensity and chemistry between the two female leads in this film. Kiss Me is the best lesbian film I've seen since Imagine Me & You. And unlike Imagine Me & You, it not only has a lovemaking scene, but four of them that were so realistically and tenderly done.

While I didn't like that the two women were cheating on their partners, I had to appreciate the romance, great acting, fantastic love scenes, and Swedish countryside in this film. I highly recommend this film to anyone who loves love, especially between two women.

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Sleepless Night

A Relentless French Thriller That Provides Clever Twists With Non-Stop Action Mayhem
The French thriller "Sleepless Night" is a movie that pulls no punches. It doesn't have lofty goals or meaningful subtext and that's perfectly all right. It aspires to entertain by being a mean and relentless excursion into action movie mayhem and it easily succeeds as one of the year's most exhilarating adventures. By serving up a high octane thrill ride, "Sleepless Night" becomes (for me) one of the year's biggest surprises. In case you can't tell, I really loved this down and dirty film! From a plotting standpoint, you've certainly seen it all before. There are good cops, bad cops, drug lords, and local gangsters all on the prowl for a cache of narcotics. What makes the movie so enjoyably twisted, however, is that most of the action takes place in an immense nightclub on the outskirts of Paris. The various parties collide or evade one another in congested parking lots, busy kitchens, labyrinthine back offices, rollicking dance floors, and bustling pool halls. This is one...

It's like a high tension wire.
This movie really moves! I caught it online because I missed it during the tribeca film festival, but I'm glad I saw it. It's a thriller where a dirty cop's son is kidnapped, and in his pursuit to return to the life he had, he takes paths in which there is no going back. What is refreshing is that this movie "goes there" in that it not so much breaks cliches as ignores them, and as this thriller veers aways from the familiar formula of thrillers, you start to realize that you have absolutely no idea what is going to happen next.

"BRILLIANT, SUSPENSEFUL, THRILLING!"
Vincent is a police officer, but is also involved with drug deals and the mob. His involvement with the mob gets more-and-more dangerous as he makes deliveries, pick-ups, and promises. After he gets into deep trouble from problems with the mob, his son is kidnapped. The clock ticks fast as time is not on his side, and his situation could be tragedy for him and his son. Action-Packed, edge-of-your-seat suspense, and thrilling from start to finish. Highly Recommended!

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388 Arletta Avenue [HD]

388 ARLETTA AVENUE Might Be 'Creepy' For All the Wrong Reasons
On first blush, 388 ARLETTA AVENUE might seem like a clever idea: the motion picture is yet another of the `found footage' flicks, a story edited together from multiple independent cameras videotaping the life and times of a young couple trapped within a curious set of circumstances. However, on closer inspection, I thought much of the decisions made by writer/director Randall Cole were slightly off-kilter to produce anything greater than a bloated vanity project, a curious failure worth watching for curiosity's sake but perhaps little else.

[NOTE: for the record, ARLETTA is one of those films that has an ending that makes it difficult to discuss the plot/premise without some modest spoilers. I've done the best I can with the material, but be warned: there will be minor spoilers contained below.]

James Deakin (played by Nick Stahl) eeks out an existence as an advertising executive. He's married to a lovely woman, Amy (Mia Kirshner), and, while they're not...

Good movie, but viewpoint is getting old.
This is a good movie but I feel it would've been much better if told like a normal movie, rather than only from a voyueristic viewpoint. The 'Blaine Witch Project'/hidden camera viewpoint is getting a little overused and seems like a lazy way to make a movie. It's very restricted and doesn't allow you to follow the storyline in depth, which can be very frustrating. Overall a good story, but the way it was filmed leaves a lot to be desired.

A Voyeuristic Thriller That Remains Far Too Distant To Be Truly Impactful
Randall Cole's "388 Arletta Avenue" is an interesting idea of a movie, but that's about all it is. Beyond the initial premise, the screenplay doesn't even attempt to provide much story and/or characterization for its audience to grasp onto. It is an unconventional choice, but one that left me completely disconnected to any potential tension or thrills in this half-baked and vague idea of a plot. Styled similarly to the "found footage" genre of filmmaking, every scene in "388 Arletta Avenue" is grainy, unfocused, and captured from a distance. As a young couple (played by Nick Stahl and Mia Kirshner) is watched by a mysterious stranger, their lives are being taped and this scrutiny starts to unnerve our pair (and rightly so). Just who is this intruder into their lives and what is his goal? And does it matter? Ultimately, Cole seems to think that motive or ANY type of back story is completely unnecessary--so you'll just have to go with the flow as the unseen villain gets closer and...

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Hard Boiled Sweets

Good film, interesting premise
The first few scenes had such unfortunate musical choices that I nearly stopped watching, but I'm glad I saw it through.
It was a cute premise, and a good film for those who like crime films.

Lacks Substance
This production is slick, but it has very little depth. We have all seen some variation of this movie before: a bunch of lowlifes, who may be wearing expensive threads, covet big stacks of money. All of them have the morality of the proverbial alley cat. This version is set in the seedy underworld of an English seaside city.

A common theme runs through it all: we get to know a character fairly well, for the acting is solid. Then the character gets "popped" at close range or weighed down (in one case, with a car wheel that he is forced to carry) and tossed off the pier.

It's all backed by an effective soundtrack that underscores a spirit of decadence and doom. The cinematography is sound; there are some spectacular shots.

Half-boiled film
The british always have a cool way of doing Lundun villains with assorted wise-cracks of the saucy bastard type. Hard Boiled Sweets started out with alot of promise when it laid the ground-work by introducing a mix of colourful characters. It was amusing to hear them nick-named after a different candy. Incase you americans didn't know - the english word for candy is sweets.
A visting king-pin is visting a sea-side resort to pick up his share of earning from the various gambling and whoring racket run by the local mob, who reckon they want to kill him and take his spoils instead. The spice to the plot is they got the same idea at different times. So the film takes some unpredictable turns. But in the last 1/4, , the film becomes diluted and and unlikely. It was light-fare to begin with, which was amusing as a yarn, but the film could not survive a dose of the unlikelies well. Villains need their integrity. So it ends up as 3 star. The screen-play and plot failed to take up a...

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