5 Days of War (2011)

The Georgian War of 2008, a debacle sparked solely by Mikhail Sakashvili's military adventurism, get a glossed-up retelling where Georgia was the victim and hero.

Funded by Georgian businessmen, it has the best (or most desperate) Hollywood talent their money can buy.

Watch for: Renny Harlin's action direction. Despite his long Hollywood exile, he still knows how to make a good-looking film. As a war film with serious truth issues, watch as a doublebill with In the land of blood and honey.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 29 February 2012.

In the land of blood and honey (2011)

War movies are propaganda films, especially if they're very serious movies not intended for entertainment.

Angelina Jolie's directorial debut tries to tell a very serious story about true things, very bad things that happened in the Yugoslavian War while mixing it with a Romeo and Juliet narrative.

As a highly selective, virulently anti-Serbian account, the only thing it proves is how easy it is to manipulate a know-nothing liberal with good intentions into backing the wrong dog in a war where everyone tried to wipe out everyone else.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 29 February 2012.

LOL (2012)

A mom from the era of sexual liberation raises a hormonal teenage daughter. Hilarity ensues.

Almost a line for line and scene for scene remake of the French film (also called LOL), this one features a cast that equates 'acting a teenager' with 'being really, really obnoxious'.

Skip this. Watch the original; it has Sophie Marceau.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 29 February 2012.

Runway Beat (ランウェイ☆ビート) (2011)

The key rule of the Japanese high school genre: it's a coming-of-age drama where everyone in the class finds something inspiring to do as their senior year class project.

The gimmick here is our skirt-wearing, scissor-wielding hero wants his class to put on a fashion show.

Watch for: a slightly quirky take on a predictable genre, Koji Seto in skirts and boots all the time.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 22 February 2012.

The Grey (2011)

A plane crash leaves a group of tough miners stranded in a forest occupied by a pack of very large and very fierce wolves. In the frozen forest, no one can hear you scream!

It's brilliant how this Survival Epic cribs horror film conventions and sensibilities and in effect remakes the horror genre.

Watch it for: crazy genius genre writing, Liam Neeson being badass.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 22 February 2012.

Moneyball (2011)

Underdog team triumphs (or goes almost all the way) through sheer hard work, perseverance, integrity, talent, and enterprising spirit.

Moneyball adds a twist and a gimmick: the team is truly screwed up, the manager put it together because he believes in statistical voodoo.

Plays as though Freakanomics were a sports movie. Equally entertaining.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 15 February 2012.

Albert Nobbs (2011)

Hard times breed hard folk. Or folk more willing to transgress boundaries.

Albert Nobbs is really a woman in drag who finds herself inspired settle down with a girl and get respectably married.

Far more tragic than the stage adaptation, Nobbs is an ideal companion piece to Remains of the Day, which features a protagonist who is simultaneously trapped and liberated by his choices.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 15 February 2012.

The Iron Lady (2011)

The controversial Margaret Thatcher is the feature of a biopic that doesn't give a clue why she was controversial.

This is an enormous letdown to both fans and detractors of the Iron Lady.

Meryl Streep's mimicry of Thatcher is spot-on but shouldn't be the justification for the film.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 15 February 2012.

J Edgar (2011)

J Edgar was brilliant. J Edgar was powerful. J Edgar was very nasty and unpleasant.

For a man of such contradictions, the collaboration between conservative Clint Eastwood and LGBT activist Dustin Lance Black pays off.

We get a biopic that's both professional, historical, as well as personal without dipping into hagiography, whitewashing, or sensationalism.

Watch for: Crazy good acting from Leo DiCaprio and Arnie Hammer.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 8 February 2012.

The Billionaire (Top Secret: วัยรุ่นพันล้าน) (2011)

This biopic of a self-made billionaire chronicles his transformation from a penny-wise, pound-foolish teen entrepreneur to the head of an actually successful big venture.

This film plays like a business school textbook where the entrepreneur protagonist makes every blunder in the book.

You'll get your kicks from watching him slip up in one financial misadventure after another until he somehow gets it all right.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 8 February 2012.

The Wedding Diary (结婚那件事) (2012)

Poor Asian boy meets rich Asian girl, falls in love with girl, announces wedding. Hilarity ensues.

Sadly, the directors don't really know what they want out of their film.

It is all over the place; the 3-act structure groans to accommodate the progression of non sequitur plot lines while the audience groans at a caper that doesn't work in a caper, a romcom that doesn't work in any romance, a class comedy that doesn't work in the class divide.

Watch: Only if you want to watch the SEQUEL, which is just as bad.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 8 February 2012.

Underworld: Awakening (2012)

JM Straczynski (Babylon 5, Changeling, various comics) takes the putrid Underworld series and turns it upside down and blows it up!

This film is a showcase of JMS's worldbuilding expertise as well as his sense for a fine script.

Watch for: JMS doing what he does best; Kate Beckinsale doing what she always does.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 1 February 2012.

Quick (퀵) (2011)

A speed demon turned motorcycle courier is forcibly recruited into planting bombs all over Seoul by an unknown terrorist.

Very likely a homage to 80s Hollywood blockbuster action comedies, this film features car chases, massive vehicular chaos, loud pyrotechnics, or people running or riding away from fireballs with such regularity you can time your watch to them.

Watch for: the nostalgia factor, knowing that films like this are now out of fashion in Hollywood.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 1 February 2012.