Rio

Rio is about this one particular baby blue macaw who was learning  courageously how to fly but was snatched by poachers. During his trip to a pet store in Minnesota by a stroke of luck his cage fell off the truck leaving him on a side of the road on the snowy street. He was found by Linda who named him "Blu" and became his best and only friend. They grew up together as companions, always together,  going to parties or any events in Linda's school. Due to the fact that he was being pampered up to his adulthood he never learned to fly. The story begins when a peculiar ornithologist (Julio) who went all the way to Minnesota to examine Blu and informed Linda that he was the last of his kind. He wanted Blu to mate with the only female bird of the same species named Jewel but she was in Rio de Jainero, Brazil. He offered to take Blu and Linda back to Brazil to save his species but Linda refused. She, however, changed her mind and went to Rio. Blu was introduced to Jewel who was trying to escape. She didn't know Blu so things got complicated in during her attempt to escape from captivity. The first time she saw Blu she tried to clobber him to death. Things even got worst, when they were snatched by another group of poachers who tried to sell them in the black market. They were chained together and eventually escaped. Since Blu can't fly and Jewel did not know this she tried to escape by flying and it turned into a disaster. The story becomes interesting with their escape where they meet new friends and allies and their encounter with a number of villains in the form of a pet cockatoo of the poachers and his cohorts of monkeys.  The chase takes them all over Rio and to the famous carnival. 

Overall the movie is very entertaining and will definitely be enjoyed by all age groups young and old. If you love Samba you will also enjoy some of the songs sang by the cast themselves. The film is a mix of adventure, thrills, romance, musical and comedy.  There were a number of very funny scenes that will surely make you laugh.  The gags of the film were also exceptionally good, especially the glider scene it was brilliantly made. The verdict is 4.5 out 5.0 the music, the story and the 3D animation contributed to making this movie come to life.

HANNA

This is a movie that has a mix of suspense, drama, action with a slight cultural ingredient. The story is about some government experiment to create genetically engineered soldiers through the use of unborn children and Hanna was the only successful candidate.

Unfortunately the experiment was terminated and all of the babies were ordered to be terminated by the lead researcher, Marissa. Erick (one of the CIA recruiters) disagreed with the decision and rescued one of the babies. Marissa was able to terminate all of the babies except for Hanna who escaped with the help of Erick.  Unfortunately, the mother of Hanna was assassinated during the escape.  Erick knew Hanna will be in danger so he trained her to be an assassin and he train her well becoming a fearless assassin. Another advantage of Hanna is her genetically engineered DNA which gives her a well tuned hearing capability, more agility, stronger muscles, quick reflexes and all of the characteristics of an elite soldier. One thing though Hanna did not know this, which is the twist of the story.  During Hanna's travel she met a girl named, Sophie who became her friend and Hanna got to see the other aspect of life which she never experienced and that is being a teenager.

Overall the movie is good and I would give it a three out of five stars. It has the elements of a typical scary scenes you expect in any suspense thriller. One aspect of the movie I do not like is the cinematography when the camera man goes on foot and the scene follows the actor while running. This always gives me a headache and makes me nauseous.  I am not really sure why Hollywood started using this technique of cinematography to create actual actions, it is not creative and makes the audience dizzy. Another thing that is disappointing is the ending for it makes you feel something is missing and leaves you with some unanswered questions.

Arthur

The movie Arthur is a re-make of the original of the same title  released in 1981. I see it as a well polished and new edition with a very formidable cast as well. The original theme of money versus love is still central in this updated version. What makes the new version of Arthur so unique and stand out is the new stuff they added one of which is the magnetic bed, the new vehicles they added like the De Lorean (Back-to-the-Future auto), the Bat Mobile and of course the opulent classic vehicle Rolls-Royce, a carry forward from the old version. In the new version of Arthur the comedy is more livelier and complex. Unlike the old version, the comedy were mere one liners. The change and remake gives this new Arthur film more life and very entertaining to watch. In the old version Arthur witnessed the love of his life, Linda, stealing a tie and she almost got arrested but Arthur came and rescued her with a kiss. In the present version they changed her name to Naomi. The encounter of Arthur with Naomi to me seems more funnier and had more action because of the police chase and the alibi he gave for Naomi's apparent illegal tour of NY but also ended up with a kiss.Given the fact that they change the butler into a nanny, was a bold decision, to me the butler was a major roll in the impact to Arthur's life. But since Helen played the roll of nanny perfectly it really still made the movie better. As far as Arthur's father and grandmother is concern, they made them into one persona in the present Arther (2011)  they made them as his mom. I believe the reason why they made those two character into one persona just so to the fact that this two can be played by one character. so in the end they ended up not including Arthur's grandmother. Last but not least is the other character Susan compare the two in the old Arthur Susan was played in a supporting cast not much rolls for her she only appeared by the half of the movie, as for the present Arthur Susan played a more bigger roll you can say she became a semi antagonist and half supporting cast.

 Overall the Arthur of the 1981 and 2011 didn't change as epic as you would think, As far the movie goes its still a nice film to watch even though you know the story from the original. For the final verdict is three out of  five stars.

Source Code

The great thing about Source Code is it plays with the concept of time and give a whole new perspective to what reality is. This sci-fi movie is a great movie to watch because the combined beautifully made visual effects with a mixture of three dimensional camera panning makes this movie comes to life. The question of who planted the bomb was the whole theme of the story. What is amazing is the very end when you expect the protagonist to die but something else happens and this is where the bending of time takes place. The ending will just blow your mind away since you will not expect for "that" to happen in the end scene. This movie is one of my must watch list, for the movie as a whole was just simply amazing.

Overall: I will rate this a four point five out of five.The theme of the film is not new since time travel has been the subject of older movies.  The only difference is that the movie uses computer software as the medium for time travel.  If you like sci-fi this is a good and entertaining movie to watch.

Sucker Punch

This movie has scenes taken from Japanese samurai films and World War I battles with a sacrificial end.  It starts with the tragic murder of the mother of Baby Doll (the heroine of the movie), by a very greedy step father seeking to get his hands on his wife's wealth. But he realized that the will of his deceased wife left everything to her two daughters. This enraged the step father and this is where that story has a tragic twist. His intention to kill his two step daughters became apparent to Baby Doll and she protected her little sister.  Unfortunately her younger sister wasn't very lucky and was accidentally killed during the struggle. Baby Doll was framed for the killing and was sent to a mental institution (insane asylum). As for the movie the story is complex since there are a number of genres in the film, like musical, samurai sword play, battle scenes, human trafficking and other tragedies. The plot of the film was for Baby Doll to escape from the institution. The escape was both physical and psychological since the plan transpired in Baby Doll's imaginative world with a parallel occurrence in the real world whenever Baby Doll danced.  As for the ending its quite unexpected because you'll be surprised to find out who got out safely and who did not.

All in all this movie is worth of three point five out of five. I gave it this rating because the theme for the whole movie is a typical Japanese samurai with western rich family tragedy, its not a bad thing but the theme is not new to the movies.  The successful intertwining of different genres makes the film very interesting and the cinematography was very creative, although much of which are computer generated.  I still give this one of my "must watch" for the month because the whole music, graphics, and story really comes together and it makes you want to watch it again.