Alice (1990)****

Seen on 21-2-2010 - Zee Studio

A brilliantly comic insight into the illusions that we cover ourselves with and uses whimsical fantasy, magic, magic potions, herbs and what have you as short-cuts to probe into disturbances that haunt us deep within.

"Woody Allen's "Alice" snatches its heroine out of the cradle of luxury and takes her on a dizzying tour of the truths in her life, fueled by the mysterious herbal teas of an enigmatic acupuncturist.

It's a strange, magical film, in which Allen uses the arts of the ancient Chinese healer as a shortcut to psychoanalysis; at the end of the film, which covers only a few days, Alice has learned truths about her husband, her parents, her marriage, her family and herself, and has undergone a profound conversion in values. Because this is a Woody Allenfilm, a lot of that metaphysical process is very funny."---Roger Ebert

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were a man like Dr. Yang, a deus ex machina to drop into our lives with his herbs and paraphernalia, and lift the scales from our eyes, and free us from our petty routines and selfishness, and allow us to practice the sainthood we have always suspected lies buried deep inside?"--Ebert

Milk (2008)***

Seen on 21-2-2010 - HBO

The Wedding Date*

seen on 15-2-2010

Two Lovers**

Seen on 15-2-2010

The Rich Man's Wife (1996)**

Seen on 12-2-2010 - Zee Studio

Cast: Halle Berry, Clive Owen

A very suspenseful murder mystery with a very surprising and most unsuspecting ending.

"A rich man's wife finds she has a bad prenuptial agreement with an even worse husband. Over drinks with a stranger, she fantasizes about doing her husband in to void the prenupt. The stranger decides to turn her imagination into reality much to the wife's surprise."---IMDB Summary

Evelyn (2002)*

Seen on 11-2-2010 - Zee Studio

Cast: Pierce Brosnan

Dir.: Bruce Bersford

This about a man whose wife has left him leaving behind three little children. Being without a steady job and a wife, Irish State that his children be taken away to be raised by orphanages until he settles down with a job and wife. But the man grows desperate over his separation from children and fights all the courts there are for getting his children back.

First Wives Club (1996)*

Seen on 11-2-2010 - HBO

Cast: Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler

Dir.:Hugh Wilson

"After years of helping their hubbies climb the ladder of success, three wives have been dumped for newer, curvier models. But the trio is determined to turn their pain into gain. They come up with a cleverly devious plan to hit their exes where it really hurts - in the wallet! Sit back and watch the sparks fly as The Wives get mad, get even and get it all. Justice has seldom been so sweet. Or so much fun."--IMDB summary

It's fun movie.

Michael Clayton (2007)*

Seen on 10-2-2010 - Star Movies

Cast: George Cloony, Tom Wilkinson

About class-action suit against a multi-billion chemical company, U/North who are guilty of producing material harmful to human kind. A big law firm is engaged and its very competent lawyer has a break-down half way through the case. A fixer is pressed into service who ends up making a $10-m deal with firm by blackmailing it for suppression information he has come into possession.

A very convoluted litigation that we couldn't really follow.

Untraceable (2008)*+

Seen on 9-2-2010 - Star movies

Cast: Diane Lane

Dir. : Gregory Holbit

Diane Lane plays the harried FBI agent on the trail of a psychopath serial killer whose sophisticated method consisted of putting the victim on internet while he dies as fast as the number of hits the site gets. Eventually when she is about to figure it out, the killer first gets her colleague and finally herself. In the final moments when we are sure that she cannot escape certain death, she snaps into action even though she is tied hands and feet and hung upside down while a garden mower is menacingly moving towards her. The police, as usual, reach the spot after she has overpowered the killer but right on the dot to shoot him before she is harmed.

It was a tense drama at the end.

I sat through while Mom got bored at the beginning. The initial patience paid off it seems.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull (2008)*

Seen on 8-2-2010 - HBO movie

Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett

Dir.: Steven Spielberg

It was surprising to know that this otherwise trashy/fun movie was by Speilberg. But its free-wheeling indulgence of fantasy and the supernatural was pure fun. Incidentally though, this unbelievable movie also sends cliche of message: that human court risk and self-destruction in pursuing in god-like knowledge and power. But you'll like it if you are willing momentarily to suspend disbelief. Here's the IMDB summary copy-pasted for ready reference:

"During the Cold War, Soviet agents watch Professor Henry Jones when a young man brings him a coded message from an aged, demented colleague, Henry Oxley. Led by the brilliant Irina Spalko, the Soviets tail Jones and the young man, Mutt, to Peru. With Oxley's code, they find a legendary skull made of a single piece of quartz. If Jones can deliver the skull to its rightful place, all may be well; but if Irina takes it to its origin, she'll gain powers that could endanger the West. Aging professor and young buck join forces with a woman from Jones's past to face the dangers of the jungle, Russia, and the supernatural."

Cadillac Records (2008)***

Seen on 7-2-2010 - Star Movies Channel

This is a biopic about setting up of the Chess Records in Chicago of 50s. It follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of the musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howling Wolf, Etta Jones and Chuck Berry. Here the tragic role of Etta Jones is played and sung by Beyonce Knowles herself. And the song, "I'd rather be blind..." and one another which I don't remember now was deeply moving.

Arlington Road (1999)**

Seen on 3-2-10 - Zee Studio

Cast: Jeff Bridges (of "The Door in the Floor," "Mirror Has Two Faces" fame), Tim Robbins

A professor of terrorism has lost his wife, working as FBI agent, in a botched attack and now he begins to suspect that his neighbor is a terrorist. He begins his own investigation and discovers he is indeed a terrorist. Eventually his surviving son is kidnapped by the neighbor in order to force him into silence. At the end, though, the professor, chasing the terrorists, in an attempt to save his son from them gets killed himself. The surviving son goes to his relatives for care.

The ending is bizarre, but gripping.