Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer

Director: Martin Scorsese

Reasons to watch: One of the best you can ever get.

Reasons not to watch: Are you out of your freaking mind? WATCH IT!

Storyline: It is 1954 and U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) make their way to Ashcliffe Hospital housing the criminally insane in Shutter Island (one can say it is an equivalent to Alcatraz). As Daniels and his new partner try to solve the case of the disappearance of a particularly violent patient Rachel Solando, Daniels’ suspicion moves to a particular lighthouse and Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the chief physician at the penitentiary. As the Marshals dig their way into the case, they realize that there is some secret that connects all the patients and orderlies in the hospital.

Daniels who is already suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the death of his wife (Michelle Williams), has trouble keeping his cool and gets frustrated with insufficient answers from the hospital staff. With constant hallucinations about his time at Dachau in World War II that get intensified by a hurricane walloping the island, Daniels and Aule figure out that they immediately need to get out of the island but soon realize that making an exit is impossible. Shutter Island is a grotesque creation of mystery, that gives us an access into Scorsese’s expansive proficiency of film-making. Perfectly schemed and stirringly orchestrated,  Shutter Island is an ode to dementia by director Martin Scorsese.

Climax Handling: It just can’t get better because it plays with your mind. It takes a while before you can actually comprehend what is going on. Watching the movie for the second time will make the climax seem obvious right from the first scene onwards.

Points:

Dr. John Cawley: We don’t know how she got out of her room. It’s as if she evaporated, straight through the walls.

Rating: 8.5/10

Comments: Well, if you thought Shutter Island was going to be one hysterical train-wreck like most suspense thrillers with a stereotypical climax; think again! This is Scorsese we’re talking about. Don’t miss it!

Language:

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Cast: Jessica Alba, Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Taylor Lautner, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, Hector Elizondo, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts

Director: Garry Marshall

Music: John Debney

Reasons to watch: The star-cast.

Reasons not to watch: Absolutely no realism. Stone-age humor.

Storyline: It’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. The locals in Los Angeles are bracing themselves for all the chances on offer and the romantic cherry pies that is definitive of V-Day. Florist Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) has proposed to girlfriend Morley Clarkson (Jessica Alba) who is uncertain and reluctant to take the next step forward; Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner), a school teacher is all set to floor her apparently on-a-business-trip doc boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey); football star Sean Jackson (Eric Dane) is healing from the wounds of a bad breakup and is considering to ‘move on’; a long flight journey brings together Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts) and Holden (Bradley Cooper); having entered a new relationship with Jake (Topher Grace), phone sex employee Liz (Anne Hathaway) battles to sustain her ‘knack’ at daily gigs; sports correspondent Kelvin Moore (Jamie Foxx) hooks up with public relations consultant Kara Monahan (Jessica Biel) by hearing her out on a day she expresses deep sorrow and sings the blues; Grace (Emma Roberts) has a very important American Pie-like agenda of flummoxing her virginity before getting out of college for good; and finally (wait let me take a breather)…  yes, and finally after 50 years of happy married life, infidelity surfaces in the lives of Edgar (Hector Elizondo) and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine).

Climax Handling: You watch this movie and it will haunt you forever making you feel guilty for having spoiled a wonderful day because after 122 excruciatingly painful minutes, the movie is fittingly endless.

Points:

Holden: Stalin once said, “No retreat, no surrender.”
Kate: I think that was from a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

The movie is totally anachronistic like Holden’s statement and as ignorant as Kate’s response.

Rating: 4/10

Comments: Don’t waste your V-Day watching this mass celebrity gimmick. Save your money… Save your time…. And save your love!

David Twohy, writer and director of Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick will be directing this movie for which he also pens down the screenplay. Grapevine has it that the movie will not be anything like the previous edition of Chronicles and will be more along a Pitch Black like dark character-driven storyline.

It is also known that production won’t begin until Diesel is done with Fast Five, the fifth movie in The Fast & The Furious franchise.

It is known that Depp will continue to play the role of Captain Jack Sparrow who sets off on a quest to find the Fountain of Youth. Previous reports say that Cruz’s character will be “Sparrow’s foil and equal in many ways”.

The fourth Pirates movie will be helmed by director Rob Marshall of Nine fame and is all set for a May 2011 release with shooting to begin this Summer at Hawaii.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Cast: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel

Release Date: July 2nd 2010

Summary: Based on a Nickelodeon TV series, The Last Airbender is about the dangerous journey of a hesitant young child who strives to bring unity in a war torn world where civilization exists as four mighty empires.

The movie which is still untitled will go into production later this year and director Marc Webb who gave us 500 Days of Summer will be directing the much awaited reboot with screenplay by James Vanderbilt. Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin will be producing the movie.

The month of July in 2012 will see two big releases – one being the Spidey reboot and the other being the sequel to the most critical reboot hit of the year Star Trek.

Having come out with the news during Disney’s first quarter financial call, Cars 2 will now occupy the release date previously occupied by Disney’s The Bear and The Bow. So with these two movies set for close releases, it is quite obvious that one of the two will be shifted to an early 2012 release.

The sequel Cars 2 features Lightning McQueen and Mater competing in a race that tracks the whole world.

Felton known for his role as Draco Malfoy in the Potter franchise, will be playing the role of an expert dealing with the supernatural in the movie.

The story based on true events, is about the haunting of a young couple by a supernatural being which gets accidentally unleashed when a college experiment goes haywire.

Production work started this week and the movie has raised expectations with both Twilight and Harry Potter stars coming together for the first time.

Dear John exceeded expectations when it made a collection of $32.4 million in it’s weekend opening in North America. This put an end to Avatar’s rule in the box office. With a weekend collection of $23.6 million, Cameron’s epic saga has hauled $2.2 billion globally of which $630 million is from the US.

At the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Cameron was asked about the upcoming sequel to Avatar. And his reply was, “I definitely have a story arc in mind for the second film and even on a very vague base for a third film. That doesn’t mean we’ll do a third film – it doesn’t mean we’ll stop at a third film. We’ll just have to see where it goes.”

But this doesn’t necessarily have to be Cameron’s next release. So we just need to do what we are used to doing…. Wait and watch!

Repo Men

Director: Miguel Sapochnik

Cast: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker

Previous Release date: April 2nd 2010

New Release date: March 19th 2010

Reason cited: To avoid competition with Clash of the Titans.

The Kids Are All Right

Director: Lisa Cholodenko

Cast: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson, Mark Ruffalo

Previous Release date: January 25th 2010

New Release date: July 7th 2010

Priest

Director: Scott Stewart

Cast: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, Christopher Plummer

Previous Release date: August 20th 2010

New Release date: January 14th 2011

Reason cited: The film will now be a Digital 3D release.

Takers

Director: John Luessenhop

Cast: Zoe Saldana, Hayden Christensen, Chris Brown, Paul Walker, Matt Dillon, Jay Hernandez, Michael Ealy

Previous Release date: May 14th 2010

New Release date: August 20th 2010

Reason cited: Priest’s move to 2011 spurred this change.

The Roommate

Director: Christian E. Christiansen

Cast: Cam Gigandet, Minka Kelly, Billy Zane, Denneel Harris

Previous Release date: September 17th 2010

New Release date: February 4th 2011

Easy A

Director: Will Gluck

Cast: Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow, Stanley Tucci, Thomas Haden Church, Malcolm McDowell

Previous Release date: Was not announced.

New Release date: September 17th 2010

Reason cited: Release in place of The Roommate.

Cowboys & Aliens

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Olivia Wilde, Daniel Craig, Jon Favreau (Voice rendering)

Official Release date: July 29th 2011

Underworld IV

Director: Unconfirmed

Cast: Len Wiseman, Kate Beckinsale

Previous Release date: January 14th 2011

New Release date: September 23rd 2010

Reason cited: It will not be in Digital 3D as it was previously slated to be.

Battleship

Director: Peter Berg

Cast: Taylor Lautner (confirmed to star as Stretch Armstrong)

Previous Release date: July 2011

New Release date: May 25th 2012

Reason cited: According to a press release, the reason behind the delay is to “give it the time and resources to thoroughly realize its huge-scale ambitions.”