Machete
Three years ago, director Robert Rodriguez included a fake trailer, Machete, with the Grindhouse films.  After watching the faux trailer, which contained one of the most memorable lines “…..they just ?#@*&% with the wrong Mexican!” , my first thought was “if only that were an actual movie.” Sure enough, Rodriguez delivered a Mexploitation film that is one of the best action movies of the year.  Machete is packed with loads of hardcore-action violence (the good B-movie kind), well developed characters, and just a really good story.  Oh, and yes, there is lots of eye candy!      The film revolves around Machete (Danny Trejo), a former Mexican Federale, who becomes a day laborer in the streets of a Texas town,... READ MORE >>>

Takers
Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  On that note, Takers can rightfully take its place among the best bank heist movies.     The film centers around a group of high level thieves that meticulously plan out sporadic heists, do the job, hibernate for a year or so until things cool off and so on.  This is until they get an offer from their newly freed partner Ghost (Tip "T.I" Harris), who brings them a chance for another, bigger score.  However, this one has to be done real soon, as in less than a week.  He feels the crew owes him at least that much since he kept his mouth shut while doing time.      First time writer,... READ MORE >>>

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
I’ll be honest with you; I think most modern art is pure rubbish.  The last time I went to the museum I was with my mom for her birthday to see a Yoko Ono exhibit.  As I explored the museum, I found 3 blank canvases, a painting with some squiggly lines that you would see in a day care and a toilet in a glass maze, which were all being debated by young people wearing sweaters that their grandparents gave them.   Why do I start off a review telling you about my opinion of modern art?  I’m telling you because Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child is a journey into the modern art community and basically reinforces... READ MORE >>>

Eat, Pray, Love
In the film adaption of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir “Eat Pray Love”, Liz (Julia Roberts) is a writer in search of a word that defines her. “Daughter” is not quite sufficient and “wife” even worse since she is recently divorced. She is, at the very least, admittedly under-inspired and sets out to find herself in her travels, first to enjoy the food of Italy, then to meditate in India. She ends her voyage in Bali, where she comes into a true psychic gravity and stumbles on love again. Sultry and charismatic, Javier Bardem plays a younger looking version of Gilbert’s real life husband, Phillipe.     Directed by Ryan Murphy (“Running with Scissors”), “Eat Pray Love” is like... READ MORE >>>

Te Extrano (I Miss You)
I had hoped to be blown away by Fabian Hoffman’s film “Te Extraño”. Hofman’s semi-autobiographical story, shown as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, has all of the makings of a story that should pull me in: a government-“disappeared” older brother and an out of touch grandmother; a chronicling of political dissidence; and a coming of age tale.      The Moishes are Argentinian Jews living in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War of the 1970s. Javi (Fermin Volcoff) is the younger, more reclusive brother of Adrian Moish (Martin Slipak), who when the story opens has just been let out of military prison for his involvement in the Peronist guerrilla group, the Monteneros. Screenwriter Diana Cardozo and Hofman chose to play down the Moishes’... READ MORE >>>