Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is a re-imagining of the classic Lewis Carroll tales found in the two books about his most famous heroine. In this version, Alice is older – a 20-year-old – and she returns to a sadder, more desolate Wonderland as the only one who might possibly be able to overthrow the didactic Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter).

Wonderland is most certainly a wonder to behold: not only are the sets gorgeous, but the costumes and re-imaginings of the some of the most iconic characters are fantastic. The Mad Hatter is given a much more prominent role in this versi...

Valentine’s Day

The premise of Valentine’s Day is simple, really. It’s the story of one city (L.A.), one day (V-Day, of course) and about 320 intersecting romantic storylines. Okay, not really. But it sure feels close to it.

At center of the story is florist Reed (Ashton Kutcher) who has started his morning by proposing to his girlfriend (Jessica Alba). Intersecting in various ways with Reed and his flower shop are a whole host of characters including an older married couple (Shirley MacLaine & Hector Elizondo), an army captain taking a 1-day leave (Julia Roberts), a silly high school couple (Taylor Swift & Taylor Lautner) and a sports star with a big decision to make (Eric Dane).

Valentine’s Day seeks to explore all aspects of romance: first love, lasting love, sex, cheating, secrets. But this is a light romantic comedy after all, and all those subjects – even the serious ones – are handled with a humorous touch. That’s probably because veteran director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) probably knows what he’s doing when it comes to this genre.

The best part of the movie really is seeing every part filled by an A-list star (see list above), sort of like an American version of Love Actually. Funny and frothy, Valentine’s Day could be the perfect movie for those in the mood for love, Hollywood-style.

Upsides:
- its astounding cast list which 725% more A-listers than any other movie ever (we totally made that statistic up)
- a fun and frothy flick.

Downsides:
- don’t expect anything too deep or earth-shattering – but of course you wouldn’t be, would you?

Dear John

Dear John is the story of U.S. soldier John (Channing Tatum) and college student Savannah (Amanda Seyfried), who meet one summer while John is on leave. They spend two romantic weeks together and fall deeply in love. However, circumstances beyond their control threaten to tear them apart as John is deployed and then indefinitely retained in the army after the events of September 11th. Through letters to each other, they try to keep their relationship alive despite the distance.

Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, of The Notebook fame, Dear John delivers on the...

Avatar

14 years in the making, Avatar is writer/director James Cameron’s follow-up to Titanic. And in terms of sheer epic, gutsy filmmaking – it certainly is a worthy successor.

The complex sci-fi story centres on Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), an ex-marine who is now confined to a wheelchair. Jake gets involved in a scientific/military operation on a distant planet called Pandora. To help humans infiltrate the planet’s indigenous population, the Na’vi, scientists have created human/Na’vi hybrids called avatars, bodies that look like the Na’vi but that are controlled by the huma...

Bandslam

Bandslam is the story of Will Burton (Galen Connell), a geeky picked-on kid who gets to do what most geeky kids only dream of: get a fresh start in a brand new high school. This time, he gets befriended by the pretty, popular girl (Alyson Michalka), and gets to fulfil his dream of managing a high school band that has a shot at winning the local talent competition, Bandslam.

The film is very reminiscent of some of the best teen films we can think of: we’re, of course, talking about 80s John Hughes classics like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and ...