Mr. Popcorn (mrpopcorn)

"Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France..."

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

REVIEW
Quentin Tarantino's epic homage to WWII 'men on a mission' films like "The Dirty Dozen" gets his ya-yas out big time in the Herculean task of a revenge fantasy involving the titular band of brothers, a platoon of 8 Jewish American soldiers led by the no- guts, no-glory Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt, chewing every morsel of cinematic sinew from the bone, in QT's nod to film god Aldo Ray), a Hillbilly from hell, who are out to scalp & kill Nazis while a feverish plan to off the German's military elite - including Hitler ? in a world premiere event at a French occupied cinema run by survivor Shosanna Dreyfus (the beguilingly stoic Laurent), who also wants blood-soaked revenge for the murders of her family by Nazi detective Col. Hans Landa (Waltz, a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor, as the evil hubris loving baddie here) whose uncanny knack for finding the truth may be his Achilles' heel. Blood-drenched with enough gallows' humor & QT's signature dialogue spewing get the best of the film's intentions in the long run but how can you fault him when this is clearly a valentine to cinema overall. One of the year's best.

"Your son has such beautiful eyes, like a baby deer."

A mother desperately searches for the killer that framed her son for their horrific murder.

REVIEW
This marvelous and intelligent psychological murder mystery from Korea is about a young man who appears to be somewhat mentally challenged who is accused of murdering a teenage school girl in a village in South Korea. His mom, in a fairly stellar performance by Kim Hye-ja, sets out to prove his innocence by doing detective work, as the police think its an open and shut case. What makes this film stand alone is its tenacity. It doesn't let you go, it keeps on trying in the form of the mother attempting to follow every trail. Its a great premise and you are kept guessing throughout. You may be slightly put off by the unusually close nature of the relationship between mother and son, but director Bong Joon-ho, who is probably on the short list of excellent contemporary directors from Asia, keeps the main focus on the core story, the mystery.

Mother is a far more restrained and thoughtful film from Joon-ho Bong, better known for his over the top horror films like The Host. With its careful development of suspense and sly injections of humour, this outstanding psychological thriller is reminiscent of vintage Hitchcock (Rear Window, Vertigo, etc). At first it is hard to warm to Kim's character, but as the film progresses audiences begin to sympathise with this unusual heroine and her obsession. Highly recommended.

"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free." Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency. REVIEW It is very hard to think of something bad about this film.The direction is incredible, bringing about highly memorable performances, and a beautifully shot film. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are sensational, carrying this film on their shoulders as if it were the easiest job in the world - a tribute to them as this film must have been an incredibly demanding shoot - it is a long and emotional film. The development of their friendship is wonderful to watch, as is Andy's gradual assimilation into the prison society - however sad it may well be. Frank Darabont it seems was the ideal man to take the helm of this movie. Many films in this sort of genre can feel like they are missing something, as if there were sections left on the editing room floor - not this film, everything fits perfectly in to place. This leads to a very long film, (which could perhaps be its only criticism - be warned it is long - though the longer the better for me) but one which sucks you right into the prison world, and keeps you right there until the utterly stunning last shot of the film! Viewers should be warned that some scenes are of a disturbing nature, dealing with issues that may offend some people. However, this should not put you off seeing this film. It deals with the realities of prison, and in no way glorifies the goings on. What we must realise however, is that this film is not necessarily about the brutality of prison and the way prison society operates, it is about human connection and interaction, and the indomitable nature of the human spirit. By the last scene we should feel uplifted at what has been achieved - not only by the characters in the story however, but by the film makers!

"Where's Olive?" A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus. REVIEW Much of "Little Miss Sunshine" shouldn't work, yet almost all of it does. One of the best ensemble casts in recent memory delivers this outrageous material with a tremendous amount of heart and conviction and, as a result, a screenplay that threatens to stretch the bounds of credibility comes across as believable and achingly poignant. The characters are given such strong motivations for their actions that everything they do and say feels utterly plausible, even when the film itself threatens to teeter into Faulknerian Southern Gothic crossed with National Lampoon's "Vacation." The writers, director and cast stubbornly refuse to allow us any tidy character assessments. Therefore, we see the brittle and harsh side of Toni Collette's otherwise loving mom; the warm, charming and please-like-me vulnerability of Greg Kinnear's otherwise smarmy and nearly intolerable dad; the intellectual pompousness and snobbery that peeks its head through Steve Carell's otherwise emotionally wounded suicide case; and the affectionate patriarch lurking behind the otherwise gruff and offensive exterior of Alan Arkin's grandfather, whose greatest crime may be that he's too honest. "Little Miss Sunshine" hands over this motley cast of characters and lets us glory in their imperfections, and through doing so helps us feel better about our own. As the movie points out, perfection isn't possible, and the aggressive pressure in American culture to achieve it is only making people miserable about failing at something they never had a chance of succeeding at in the first place. The movie is so warm hearted though, that its ultimate lesson isn't a downer. At the end, this close-knit family realizes that they're proud to be ordinary, and dammit, so am I.