Caro the Movie Critic

Selena Gomez and Ethan Hawke are having the ride of their lives. I do not really think that this review should be considered a serious review. When you have car pictures, it is a suggestion that a director is creating a movie full of craftsmanship staging the car chases, the explosions, and the neat car tricks. I think I was describing Fast and Furious 6 . This movie is not in the same league in terms of the craftsmanship. Brent (Ethan Hawke) is a former NASCAR race car driver who is exhausted with unfortunate and unpretentious luck. He returns home to Bulgaria where he finds his little habitat unsatisfying and messy and does not hear from his wife (Rebecca Budig). A mysterious voice (Jon Voight) calls Brent and informs him that if Brent does not follow the instructions clearly as told, then his wife will die. I have heard this formula many times and the premise is familiar and is basically a straight-forward predictable march or drive to the end. There's also references fr...

Ryan Gosling ready to fight. Sometimes, a director can get away with his vision which interferes with the fundamentals of the project. Nicolas Winding Refn, from Bronson and Drive fame, is back to direct Ryan Gosling again to see what the dark limelights and life is like in the streets of Bangkok. We have to explore each character's conscience but ultimately drags with no interest whatsoever in what happens to the characters in this insanely, dull movie. Gosling plays Julian, an American outcast who has a boxing club but is actually running as a drug operation. He finds out that his brother is brutally murdered by Lieutenant Chang (Vithaya Pansingram) because Julian's brother, Billy, raped and killed an underage prostitute. Julian finds this out and he and his gang visit one of the people who had something to do with his brother's death. I cannot tell you if he resolves the situation with this guy. Julian's mother, Crystal, (Kristen Scott Thomas) visits to ident...

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg. When you have a large bodybuilding crew who plans to try and commit criminal activities, a person has to think twice to better stop them and fight them or just simply just fight them. I don't know. But, Michael Bay, the director fresh from his over-the-top, noisy Transformers trilogy, decides to take a step backward and let the actors have a little comedic action with some routine action that is just pure signature from Bay. Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is a convict who was released for committing Medicare fraud. His owner from the gym wants to have him hired and turn it into a more fitness-type of gym. Lugo increases his membership at the gym and meets Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie), who is another bodybuilder who uses steroids but causes erectile dysfunction. When he attends a seminar hosted by a motivational speaker (Ken Jeong), he is galvanized by his speech and begins to extort Victor Kershaw (Tony ...

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. Baz Luhrmann takes the effort to adapt his own version of the masterful novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is courageous because there are some details that can be revolved and be certified as both a work of art of the author and the director. It is like a co-production. Although, it is an ambitious effort from Luhrmann, he takes his vision a little too far in certain scenes. But, nevertheless, the film is quite an entertainment anchored by a remarkable performance. Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) has moved to New York in the midst of the Roaring Twenties in 1922 to work as a bond salesman. He rents a small cottage next to a lavish mansion which is occupied by a mysterious neighbor named Jay Gatsby, a mysterious and aloof businessman who throws parties. Nick goes to East Bay to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), and her husband, Tom (Joel Edgerton), an old buddy from college. He also meets Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki), a...

I wanted to post this particular blog to address that I will usually accept requests to review a movie from anybody as long as I have seen it. If I have not seen it, then I will humbly and kindly reply to your request negatively and then probably review it some time in the future. Also, I have reviewed movies that came out over the summer on a private line, but I will definitely make a revised and longer review of some movies as for example, The Great Gatsby,  coming out on DVD and Blu-ray. Thank you.

Blanchett, Clay and Hawkins mingling around with some company. Woody Allen has made some very fine movies (Midnight in Paris, Match Point) and some ok movies (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, To Rome with Love) in the latter stages of his career. But the one thing that is certain is that Allen never seems to stop what he enjoys best and that's good. He is one of the most appreciated filmmakers in cinema and anybody can anticipate one of his works every single year and this year is definitely one of his most interesting works. A wealthy couple, Hal and Jasmine Francis (Alec Baldwin and Cate Blanchett) are having a great life enriching everything pure: yachts, mansions, expensive wine & champagne, and socially wealthy visitors. After a sudden loved one's suicidal death in prison, Jasmine has to go move in with his sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins). She basically criticizes different aspects of her apartment, from the size to the composition of the architecture and decor of the in...

Two frightened people cuddling after seeing the sign. Another good horror movie? Wow, we had The Conjuring , which I thought was the scariest film I have seen in a long time, even better than the slasher film last year,  The Cabin in the Woods  (which I still thought was very good too) . But, this movie is more than just a slasher film. The genre of horror integrates itself with the genre of a dysfunctional black comedy. The setup is that the Davison family gathers for an anniversary party celebrating the 35th anniversary of the parents (Rob Moran and Barbara Crampton). Each child has brought home a date and mockingly insults each other verbally and with some rude gestures. The family's boyfriends and girlfriends are not making a very good first impression. Imagine somebody bringing a boyfriend or a girlfriend to a party and you might not know what expectations he or she will bring. This looks kind of stupid to begin with setting up the booby traps with arrows coming o...

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and the gang. This is the third movie of the Cornetto Ice Cream Trilogy where there's an "easter egg" flavor in all three movies. (See Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. ) Whereas, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost back in their comic ways to delight and surprise the audience. This year has been weird because you cannot suppress the fact that for example, This is the End , these demonic creatures are inhabiting the Earth while the planet is going to apocalyptic hellish ruins. With The World's End , hell is loose again while being on a journey to a pub. Wow! Gary (Simon Pegg) wants to complete the Golden Mile, a pub crawl that is scattered across 12 pubs in Newtown Haven. He and his friends want to redeem themselves from their childhood past due to failing their attempt to reach the final pub, The World's End. Gary persuades Peter, Oliver, Steven and Andy (Eddie Marsan, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine and Nick Frost) to join him to perform thi...

Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson 2012 was a heck of a year for the Oscar season. I mean we had Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Skyfall, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, and so on... But, there are films towards the end of the year that could attract audiences, either as Oscar buzz or just one of the blockbusters of the winter. So, let's take a look. 10. Frozen Disney has made a turnaround with Tangled  and Wreck-It Ralph . But, why not Frozen?  Anna (Kristen Bell) teams up with a mountain man and a reindeer to go rescue the Snow Queen, Anna's sister. This could be a funny and delightful treat for kids and adults alike. 9. The Counselor Cormac McCarthy has inspired filmmakers to adapt his novels into movies. I mean, look at what The Coen Brothers did to "No Country for Old Men". It won Oscars including Best Picture. Even, Javier Bardem created one of the scariest villains on screen. I mean, why not follow a lawyer who is involved with a mi...

Amanda Seyfried as Linda Lovelace In the 1970s, the era was a Golden Age for the porn industry. Hollywood and porn industries were two separated groups and two separated audiences. Each industry would get its own attention and marketing. The difference between back then and now is that Hollywood films can be viewed by anyone and that pornographic films are quite illegal to show publicly. Very few porn actors got attention but one person got recognizable attention from the start because of her figure and likability factor, but also she changed peoples' insights on the porn industry. Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) moves in and lives with her parents (Robert Patrick and Sharon Stone) due to an unplanned pregnancy. Each parent are disappointed with what she does in her life. But, her mother is more demanding than her father. Her father and Linda share a good scene when he tries to console her. Lovelace works as a dancer at a nightclub with her friend (Juno Temple). She is rec...

Matt Damon in action. It's 2154. The 1% of the human population live on Elysium, an advanced utopian space station where the wealthy live secluded from the rest of the others. The space station is built by a advanced machinery factory. The rest of the population live on a ravaged Earth full of garbage and debris that has a dystopian look. They do not have much food, money and many people are contracted with sickness and weak health.  Many poor and unhealthy immigrants are obligated to get into Elysium to cure some sickness in a medical pod that basically looks like the med pod from "Prometheus". Jodie Foster plays Secretary Delacourt who does not mind killing immigrants, even women and children, who enter the barrier into Elysium. She employs Kruger (Sharlto Copley), a vicious mercenary, to kill them. She basically wants to control the presidency and because of her actions, Kruger is let go and fired. Max De Costa (Matt Damon) is a parolee on Earth who lives ...

Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker I don't get why the title is a little odd and generic because I would have preferred The Butler  as a title instead of Lee Daniels' The Butler . Warner Bros. was a little malignant to claim that they used the previous title in a silent film in 1916. Hollywood, these days. The studios tend to get competitive in copyrighting work for a studio. Anyway, let's forget the titular controversy and on to the movie... Forest Whitaker stars as Cecil Gaines, a butler who is hard-working and discovers the history going on while serving eight presidents in the White House. But, as a boy, he is raised on a cotton plantation in Georgia in the 1920s, while he disturbingly witnesses his owner (Alex Pettyfer) raping his mother (Mariah Carey) and his father's (David Banner) death. He is reassigned by a caretaker (Vanessa Redgrave) to become a houseservant. Trouble ensues when he breaks in a pastry shop and now has to pay the price by working there ...

Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller. I have to confess that I have not seen a great teenage movie in a long time where it deals with a slowly revolving relationship that involves two mismatched people. Of course, we had bad comedies about it. But, a teenage drama. This is going to be high praise coming from me. I think this movie really ranks with the John Hughes movies with "Sixteen Candles" and "The Break fast Club" and also with "Say Anything". It's that good. Sutter (Miles Teller) is a high school senior who works at a clothing store and has no plans for the future. After he was dumped by his girlfriend (Brie Larson), he goes into a depression which consumes him into alcoholism. He does not have great relationships with his sister, mother and father. (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kyle Chandler). He is found on a lawn by Aimee (Shailene Woodley), a nice girl who has an outlook of her future. They both challenge each other on wha...

Josh Gad and Ashton Kutcher as Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs It takes guts to drop out of college, right? Many students, like any other ordinary educated bystander, would strive and pursue their education in college. But one particular person dropped out: Steve Jobs.  The film opens in 2001 where Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) introduces the wonderful invention, IPod, at a Town Hall Meeting. But, we flashback to 1974 in Reed College where he drops out and meets the Dean (James Woods) and approves him of auditing classes, which he invests his time to learn about calligraphy. He meets a friend named Daniel (Lukas Haas) and goes to India because they were both influenced by a book about spirituality. It's 1976 and he is living with his adoptive parents and working for Atari. He is under dubious pressure until he sees his childhood friend, Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad). Woz and Jobs work and create the Apple I and also called their company "Apple".  They are looking for a ...