MOVIE REVIEW: Two Days One Night (Deux Jours, Une Nuit)

In Two Days One Night, French superstar Marion Cotillard gave her best performance since she won the Oscar best actress as chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. She portrays Sandra Bya, a worker at the Solwal solar plant who after being hospitalized finds herself with no job after her co-workers opted to vote her out for a bonus instead.

But when Sandra was able to persuade the company's head Dumont (Baptiste Sornin) to go on a second ballot after she found out that their supervisor Jean Marc (Olivier Gourmet) persuaded the workers, she together with her loving husband Manu (Fabrizio Rongione in an affecting performance) reached out to her co-workers to vote for her over the weekend hence the title.

Cotillard with her sad eyes and frail frame is perfection as Sandra. You can't help but be sympathize for her as she talks to everyone on the ballot uncertain on the outcome. The best thing about Sandra is that her character can easily be made a saint/martyr but her bouts with depression, relying on the pills she takes only makes her human.

Directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne showed the other side of present time Europe which we don't see in the movies. The struggles of the working class and their individual response on how to face it make Two Days One Night a socially relevant movie to come out of the region yet a highly entertaining one due to it being a highly unpredictable suspense film anchored by Marion Cotillard's amazing performance.

MOVIE REVIEW: Kingsman: The Secret Service

The TV ads and it's movie poster are misleading. Kingsman: The Secret Service doesn't fall into the Spy Kids and Agent Cody Banks genre of film aimed primarily on kids, this is venturing more into Kick Ass territory with a substantial amount of violence and profanity that makes any James Bond movie tame.

Make no mistake however, the film is a pure delight to watch which comes as a no surprise as the movie is directed by Matthew Vaughn of X-Men First Class (2011) which for me was the best one of the series and the first Kick Ass. 

When an old super-secret spy organization disguised as a tailoring shop named Kingsman in London's famed Saville Row lost one of it's membesrs, it's up to Agent Harry Hart aka Galahad (Colin Firth playing a well mannered British gentleman which is right on his alley yet who does all those fight scenes that is all new to us as moviegoers) to look for a new member as a tech CEO (Samuel L. Jackson) slowly plans to control the world.

Alongside with Michael Caine and perrenial villain playing a good guy for a change Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), it is amazing to watch Firth and Jackson all together on the big screen having fun and newcomer Taron Egerton who played it's young new recruit Eggsy held up well on his own with his veteran co-actors.

MOVIE REVIEW: Selma

Selma chronicles one of the lesser known incidents in US history (as far as I'm concerned) in the 1960's, in the deep South when the Civil Rights movement attempted to march peacefully from Selma, Alabama to the State capital of Montgomery to demand voting rights for African-Americans in the time where segregation was still fully implemented and recognized in that State. 

Working from a wonderful unsentimental script by Paul Webb, and ably directed by Ava DuVerney, Selma is a powerful film in a chapter of Martin Luther King Jr.'s remarkable life as he fights the sitting US President at that time Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act. 

British actor David Oyelowo was born to portray the Civil Rights leader. Aside from some strking resemblance to MLK Jr., he gave a passionate performance that showed Dr. King was really a highly principled and charismatic man who never accepted violence as means to get their point across the nation and yet he was no saint. It is only in this movie that I found out that he was having problems with his wife Coretta (an elegant Carmen Ejogo) about infidelity. Selma proved that Martin Luther King Jr. was human after all. 

It's amazing that four of the major characters in the movie were portrayed by British actors. Oyelowo (MLK Jr.), Ejogo (Coretta), President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) and Alabama Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth). All of them were great. 

The heart of the movie though belongs to the film's producer Oprah Winfrey, who played Annie Lee Cooper. In one of the film's early scenes, she displayed firmness yet surrender as she was trying to register to vote. This is a different Oprah from her previous film The Butler as well as the talk show host the world has learned to love. She may not have much scenes compared to the other actors but when you're Oprah, you better make sure your supporting role would be a memorable one and she passed with flying colors.

Selma is a perfect companion piece to 2013's Oscar Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave, we can see how civil rights in the world's most powerful country has progressed and sadly until now there's still a long way to go.

MOVIE REVIEW: Into the Woods

Meryl Streep leads the all star cast of Into the Woods, the film version of Stephen Sondheim's 1987 Broadway musical that intertwines fairy tale stories that we all know and grew up with and this time with new characters such as Streep's The Witch to form an original story. 

When the Witch tasks a childless baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt who have great chemistry together) to find four items to reverse a curse, that's when the fun part of the movie begins. Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, Lilla Crawford as Red Riding Hood and Daniel Huttlestone as Jack all have great pipes but the biggest surprise of the film was Chris Pine, who was a scene stealer as Prince Charming. Who knew that he could sing well or even be funny??!! Acclaimed veteran comic actresses Christine Baranski as Cinderella's Stepmother and Tracey Ullman as Jack's mother provide great support

as well as Johnny Depp playing Mr. Wolf in a variation of his regular quirky character that he usually does in most of his films.

The songs aren't as memorable and the second half of the film which veers towards adult territory but aided by an excellent ensemble and great cinematography and costume design by Oscar winners Dion Beebe and Colleen Atwood repsectively, director Rob Marshall redeems himself from his last musical that bombed both at the box office and with the critics - Nine. Into the Woods is his best film since the Oscar winning Chicago.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

When you split the final book of a bestselling series into two movies, it is expected that the first  would be like an extended trailer of the final one which is the pinnacle. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is just like that.  It is basically a build up to the final film which as people who had read the book would know is the just reward that the lead Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) will reap after overcoming all those trials that she encountered throughout the series. Don't expect those action packed scenes from the games of the first two movies.

What saves the film from total boredom is the cast itself. The always great Lawrence was born to play the lead character and in Mockingjay Part 1, she showed more range and depth as her character struggles to bring back into the fold the one guy she has affections for: Peeta Melark (Josh Hutcherson) who was brainwashed by the evil President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and amidst the PR maneuvering of the rebellion's leader President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and her spinmaster Plutarch Heavensbee (the late great Phillip Seymour Hoffman) to be the face of the rebellion. Lawrence, Moore, Hoffman and the other member of the cast Woody Harrelson earned a combined two wins and 13 nominations in the Oscars. With that acting pedigree alone, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is well worth your time and ticket at the movies.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Theory of Everything

Ever since I was a kid, I always associate Stephen Hawking as a paralytic intellectual who's always in a wheelchair with a robotic voice, then after watching The Theory of Everything, which is basically his love story with Jane Wilde Hawking whose book "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen" was the basis for the film, the childhood impression still stays but it added something else: that he has a heart and an inspiration for people for all ages in the best love story I'd seen in 2014.

Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables, My Week with Marilyn) was born to play Stephen Hawking with a performance that complimented his physical built to his character's eventual physical deterioration due to motor-neuron disease. Add to that with both natural charm and a sharp sense of humor, Redmayne's acting won't be forgotten once awards season starts in a few weeks from now, alongside Felicity Jones (The Amazing Spider-Man 2)'s quiet yet domineering performance as Jane the wife. Part My Left Foot part A Beautiful Mind, The Theory of Everything is one of 2014's best films.

MOVIE REVIEW: Big Hero 6

The merger of Marvel into the Disney group of companies is fully realized in Big Hero 6. Loosely based on one of it's obscure titles in enormous comic catalog, it is the story of  Hiro Hamada, a prodigy who ends up with a robot named Baymax, after his older brother tech geek Tadashi gets killed in an unfortunate accident. Together with his group of friends, they form the group hence the title to find out the truth about the incident that put them all together.

It could have been one of those generic cartoons with the themes of family love and the antagonist who wants control of the world but Big Hero 6 triumphs with a great story from a group of writers led by Don Hall (who also directed the film). He also wrote the sweet new version of Winnie the Pooh (2011) as well as 2009's The Princess and the Frog. The setting of the city of San Fransokyo also compliments the film: blending east and west, it is one of the best looking animated cities since last year's San Franjose from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. I guess that you can never go wrong with the City by the Bay!!

Disney also finds a merchandising goldmine with Baymax the robot. With it's marshmallow like body and gentle loving personality, kids who saw the film would want to have one to call their own. And unlike Disney Pixar's Cars which spun spin off films and millions of dollars of merchandise revenues to the company, Big Hero 6 is a far off better film that deserves more than what the automotive animated films franchise gets. Can't wait for the sequel.