Black Swan is about Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a dancer from the New York ballet company. With the company’s go-to lead Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder) going to retirement, the company’s director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) chose Nina to play the White Swan in the upcoming rendition of the Swan Lake.

Just as Nina’s career is going her way, a new rival arrives in form of Lily (Mila Kunis). Plus, there’s the demand for perfection from director Thomas and her strict mother Erica (Barbara Hershey). This started her transformation that made Nina more suitable to be the Black Swan than the White Swan.

Nina (Natalie Portman): It’s about a girl who gets turned into a swan and she needs love to break the spell, but her prince falls for the wrong girl so she kills herself.

Black Swan is an emotional experience from start to the end. You can’t simply take your eyes off the screen even for just a second. And it’s not just because of Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder or even Mila Kunis. The movie requires the viewer to pay attention to everything that happens on the screen.

What made Black Swan effective is Director Darren Aronofsky’s way to separate black from white and at the same time throw some form of ambiguity to throw the audience off. This allows the audience to think about the true intentions of the characters. The sense of vagueness is heightened by elements of reflection.

Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel): I got a little homework assignment for you. Go home and touch yourself. Live a little.

Natalie Portman deserved her Oscar Award for Best Actress for her performance in Black Swan. She perfectly portrayed Nina as an innocent, sexually repressed girl who just wants to please her mother. And as the movie progressed, she turned into the sexually depraved woman who wants to break away from her grasps. You can pinpoint the time when her character changed. Portman proved that she’s one of Hollywood’s best actresses of her generation.

Lily (Mila Kunis): Hey! You were amazing. Seriously, I know that things got all messed up between us. I mean, holy shit you completely blew me away!

The supporting cast complemented, if not enhanced, Portman’s performance in Black Swan. I never considered Mila Kunis as a serious actress before but this changed after seeing her in this movie. There were some scenes where she managed to steal the spotlight away from Portman.

Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel): You all have had the chance and the privilege to be enchanted, transported, and even sometimes devastated by the performances of this true artist of our company. She’s been a crucial inspiration to my work. A role model to all dancers and even more than that a deeply appreciated presence on our stage. You all know who I’m talking about. Ladies and gentlemen, Beth Macintyre.

Winona Ryder only appeared for a couple of minutes in Black Swan but she delivered some of the most unforgettable moments from the movie. No one else could have played the role of Beth better than her.

Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel): We all know the story. Virginal girl, pure and sweet, trapped in the body of a swan. She desires freedom but only true love can break the spell. Her wish is nearly granted in the form of a prince, but before he can declare his love her lustful twin, the black swan, tricks and seduces him. Devastated the white swan leaps of a cliff killing herself and, in death, finds freedom.

Black Swan definitely deserved all the hype it got when it was released in cinemas around the world. It made a boring subject such as ballet into something interesting. It is an intense movie that would hypnotize the audience from start to finish. It is definitely one of the best movies made in 2010.

Most characters are back, including Millennium co-owner Erika Berger (Lena Endre) and Lisbeth’s girlfriend Miriam Wu (Yasmine Garbi). Then there are new characters, including ex-boxer Paolo Roberto (Paolo Roberto) and the invincible thug Ronald Niedermann (Micke Spreitz).

Character develop made by Stieg Larsson is butchered by the movie. Some thrilling elements are removed. This might be due to time constraints because even all the cuts in the story, the total runtime of The Girl Who Played with Fire is 129 minutes.

There is a fight between Paolo and Niedermann that I expected to be interesting because I enjoyed that part in the book. But it didn’t translate well in the movie. The fight was more exciting in the book than in the movie. The Girl Who Played with Fire movie is not as loyal to the book as the first movie of the Millennium Trilogy. I found the book to be more stimulating. One thing that the movie didn’t touch on is the conflict within the police force, which I thought added flavor to the story.

The Girl Who Played with Fire movie is less thrilling than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The suspenseful novel was turned into an average detective movie.

Christian Bale really takes his method acting seriously. In The Machinist, you can literally see all his bones. It seems that he has no fat in his body at all. It is similar to his crack-addict character in The Fighter. This factor brings the tension of the movie to another level. His thin frame alone creates the right mood that helps make the movie less tedious.

Character development is excellent in The Machinist. Aside from turning himself into a walking skeleton, Christian Bale gives a near perfect performance in this movie. The rest of the casts also did a good job that contributed to the dark mood of the film.

Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale): Right now I wanna sleep. I just want to sleep.

On the contrary, The Machinist would not induce sleep. It is a gripping movie that you’ll talk about for days after watching it. Watch it with an open mind and let it take you to a trip full of mysteries and suspense.

Years later, Mok Hyeong died and his son Ryu Hae Guk went to the village to find out what happened to his father. Once he arrived, he knew something was not right about the village. He sought the help of Park Min Wook (Yoo Joon Sang), a public prosecutor who he had problems with in the past. Hae Guk caused Min Wook’s demotion but he was desperate and the prosecutor is the only name that he knew could help him out.

If you’re looking for a good mystery movie then watch Moss. Just when you thought that the story was becoming predictable, it hit you with a twist from nowhere. The story was gripping and you wouldn’t notice the time. Every second of its 2 hour and 40 minute run time was worth it.

Jung Jae Young had to transform into an old man for the role and the prosthetics department did a good job. I thought the old Yong Duk and the one in the flashbacks were two different actors. Jung Jae Young did a good job as the vile village foreman. Yoo Sun played Lee Young Ji, the only female villager who belonged within Yong Duk’s inner circle. You’ll feel bad about her character and she provided one of the best twists in Moss. After this movie, I saw Jung Jae Young and Yoo Seon together again in the baseball movie GLove, where they also gave stellar performances once more.

Moss will be remembered among the best mystery thrillers that came from the Korean movie industry. Even though I already know the twists of the story, I wouldn’t mind watching it again. It is that good. It was unpredictable until the end. I can usually guess who the culprits are in movies but Moss got me stumped.

Sherlock Holmes starts with the duo catching Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). He is executed but strange things happened that it seemed like the Lord Blackwood has risen from his grave. It is up to Holmes and Watson to find the logical explanations for the supernatural events.

Rachel McAdams plays the feisty Irene Adler, the only criminal who managed to outthink Sherlock Holmes. I love Rachel McAdams but her performance in this movie is outshone by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.): You have the grand gift of silence, Watson; it makes you quite invaluable as a companion.

Robert Downey Jr. is at home with Sherlock Holmes as much as he is with his Tony Stark character in the Iron Man movies. Well at one point, I expected Sherlock to come out in an armor suit. He exudes a lot of confidence that is evident in the characters he plays.

Jude Law as Watson is an excellent complement to Downey’s Holmes. He is different from the rest of Doc Watson versions, who were the comic relief in the previous Sherlock movies. Here, he is competent and kicks ass as good as his partner. Plus, he had me worried a bit when I thought he died.

Credits for this masterpiece should also go to Guy Richie. He managed to make a classic appealing to the present day audience. The action scenes are good and very entertaining. Plus, he used the set well in the sequences.

Ask the younger generation if they read any Sherlock Holmes book and chances are a lot of them will answer no. At least they are introduced to him via this movie. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadow, which will also have Guy Richie as director, will be out this December. I can’t wait to watch that one. And I promise I wouldn’t be late in writing the review for that one.

Lisbeth Salander is played by Noomi Rapace. She is depicted as how I’ve imagined her to be while reading the book. She is perfect for the character and managed to carry the movie. Mikael Blomkvist, the journalist who helped Lisbeth, is played by Michael Nyqvist. I imagined the Mikael character to be older but Michael Nyqvist is a capable actor but his character’s development was rushed. The two leads made the movie bearable but their chemistry was not there. Their relationship not established.

I don’t know why The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie got all the hype it received. I did find the movie entertaining but I found some flaws in it. The movie was loyal to the novel and this might be one of the reasons why it didn’t translate well into the big screen.

The transitions between sequences were too abrupt. There were moments when you feel that the scene could have been shortened. Its runtime of 152 minutes is too long as there were parts of the movie that was too dragging for my liking. The final scene didn’t make any sense at all unless you have read the book.

Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist): I would have never done it, Lisbeth. But I understand why you did. I don’t know what you have experienced. But I was about to die in that cellar, and you saved my life. Whatever you have seen, you don’t need to tell me. I’m just happy that you’re here.

The filmmakers tried to be loyal to the book but they left out some important plot points and relationships in the movie adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Some characters are missing. The Vanger Family is just a footnote in the movie, which was not the case in the novel.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie could have been better. There’s an upcoming Hollywood version that will be released later this year. I hope that it would be based on the book and not on this movie.

Two years after, Hee Soo was advised by her long-time publisher to stash herself in a rural cabin. She brought along her daughter Yeon Hee (Park Sa Rang) with her. She hoped that she’ll find inspiration there.

And the trip did the trick, as Hee Soo managed to write another Bestseller. Just when everything is turning around for her, she was hit with another plagiarism charge for her new novel because an old book had the same subject as her novel.

Bestseller might be a mystery movie but it had some elements of a good horror flick. Hee Soo’s new novel was about the murder of a girl in a small town. This was also the topic of the old book. What brought about the plagiarism charges was that both books had the same details of the murder. It was as if the authors were there when the girl was killed. Hee Soo was helped by her daughter while the other author supposedly got help from his dead wife.

Uhm Jung Hwa shined as the deranged writer. Most of her emotions were triggered by what her daughter did. You’ll be left guessing as to whether Yeon Hee told the truth or everything was just her imagination.

Now Hee Soo became obsessed with who or what was feeding the information to Yeon Hee. She returned to the cabin to find the truth behind the murder. From this point the eeriness of the first part was exorcised and Bestseller became a straight mystery movie.

From this part on of Bestseller, Hee Soo stumbled upon the real killer of her Bestseller. He was not who I suspected him to be. Though Bestseller is unpredictable, the ending was a bit of a letdown. It felt that I saw two different movies. The first one was a chilly horror and the second one was a mystery thriller. You could actually sense the gap between the two parts.

As always, Uhm Jung Hwa did well in Bestseller but it was not enough to save it. It had a good start but it wasn’t sustained until the end. Bestseller is not a bestseller in my book but if you like an unpredictable mystery then you should watch this one.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Cobb, an extractor who is paid to steal secret by invading one’s dreams. Then one day Saito (Ken Watanabe) hired him to do the opposite, which is an Inception. He had to plant an idea into rival businessman Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy) rather than extract one.

Cobb had to assemble the best team for the job. Aside from his longtime partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), he needed Ariadne the Architect (Ellen Page), Eames the Forger (Tom Hardy), and Yusuf the Chemist (Dileep Rao).

Eames (Tom Hardy): If we are gonna perform Inception then we need imagination.

What happens next is probably the weirdest but best heist I’ve ever seen in a movie. If you think Avatar was amazing, then you should see Inception’s set design and special effects because it managed to be better. The movie is not done in 3D but you’ll feel that you’re there. It’s like a two hour dream. Music by Hans Zimmer helped create the perfect dreamscape.

The actors did a good job in Inception. Leonardo DiCaprio might be Jack Dawson of the Titanic but after Inception he will be Cobb in my mind forever. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page did a good job as supports. Plus they provided one of the highlights in the movie.

Inception is a fucking mind fuck that’s worth seeing more than once. It’s the perfect dream after the nightmare called Eclipse. I do think that Christopher Nolan has successfully done an inception. He managed to open the audiences’ minds to the possibilities and complexities of an alternative reality without making it hard for them to understand. For now, I’ll keep my totem in my pocket just to be sure.

Be sure to catch Inception in the big screen. The experience will definitely be mind-blowing. Don’t just take my word for it. Go out now to the nearest cinema before it’s too late.

Except for the names of the suspects and the victim, everything in The Case of Itaewon Homicide is real that it can pass for a documentary.  Director Hong Ki Seon spent years researching about the case before shooting the movie.  Being true-to-life, the movie shows how the gruesome murder was done.  This is not a pretty sight and this should serve as a warning to the faint of heart.

The Case of Itaewon Homicide shows how Pearson and Alex managed to get away with murder.  The audience can feel the frustration of Public prosecutor Park (Jeong Jin Yeong).  Both sides have shown how they could not be the murderer and the insufficient evidence points to no one. Jang Geun-Suk, Sin Seung Hwan and Jeong Jin Yeong did a good job in portraying their characters and showing why the case remains unsolved until today.

The Case of Itaewon Homicide stayed true to the original crime and it got me guessing where the story was going.  Then the end came and it felt like it was abrupt.  There was no closure and just like in real life, the case remained unsolved.  It did manage to show how the Korean justice system managed to botch a simple homicide where the suspects were freed when one of them was the real killer.

Old Boy is Oh Dae Su (Choi Min Sik), who got drunk and was arrested by the police. His best friend No Joo Hwan (Ji Dae Han) managed to bail him out of prison.  Joo Hwan was just calling someone on the payphone when Dae Su disappears from his side.  He was kidnapped and placed in a room for fifteen years.  After that period he was released and just like his abduction, his release is a mystery to him.

What makes Old Boy stand out from the rest is that it has everything you’re looking for in a movie.  It was intelligent, heartwarming and disgusting at the same time.  Everyone is talking about the memorable octopus scene from the movie but I was not prepared for the scene where Dae Su cut his own tongue.  Choi Min Sik did a good job in making the unbelievable believable.

Lee Woo Jin (Yoo Ji Tae):  You want to torture me, but I can simply kill myself first.  Do you want revenge, or do you want the truth?

Old Boy wants to warn us that small things we did in the past can lead to dire consequences in the present.  Woo-jin is behind Dae Su’s imprisonment for fifteen years.  Dae Su said something about Woo-jin’s sister that became the talk of the town.  She can’t take it anymore and it led to her suicide.

But why fifteen years you might ask.  Woo Jin planned the worst thing that can happen to any father like Dae Su but his scheme needed time for it to push through.  His plan is to release Dae Su and make him fall in love with Mi Do (Kang Hye Jeong), not knowing that she’s his daughter.  Dae Su doesn’t want Mi Do to find out about this and he begged Woo Jin to forgive him and this led to the tongue cutting scene.

People say that Old Boy had excessive sex and violence but it is not a Disney movie. It’s for mature audiences.  When I say mature, I’m pertaining to those with enough IQ to understand what the movie is trying to convey and go beyond the sex and violent scenes to see the big picture.  Old Boy is a must-see and I just hope that the Will Smith remake would give this Park Chan Wook masterpiece some justice.