An illiterate “professional” Italian killer, Leon, found himself living with a neighbor’s young girl (Mathilda) whose family got murdered by a bad DEA cop and his gang. The man grew attached to the girl as he taught her to “clean” and learned to “live” a little from the girl.

The final showdown happened when the girl tried to kill unsuccessfully the man who killed her family but rescued by Leon, who cleaned out the DEA office in the process. The cops came back and converged on where they lived with full force. Though both came out alive separately through their smart, Leon was recognized by the bad DEA guy and took a bullet from him. Before he died, he blew himself up along with the bad DEA agent. Mathilda was taken care of when Leon “willed” all his earnings to Mathilda through his arrangement with his Italian boss.

This is an action-packed, gun slinging movie with some heart-warming, funny moments between Leon and Mathilda. The both are better off at the end. I enjoyed the movie a lot.

Boy’s job got outsourced to India. Boy went to India to train the people who will take over his job. Boy met a smart girl. Boy had a “vacation in Goa” and got to understand India and its people. Boy came back home jobless (gave his future Shanghai job to his subordinate) but a much better person, appreciative of culture and family values.

It’s a funny movie about an American man’s journey to a foreign culture. Some of the interesting subplots: got sick from eating shaved ice from a street vendor, hopped on a scooter car instead of taxicab, visit to the poorest part of the town and ate a meal with them, explanation of American idioms and how Americans use some of the merchandises, how Americans hate outsourcing but like the low-costs, Indian culture of arranged marriage from childhood, and etc.

Like the main character, I’ve learned a few things about Indian culture. There is some stereotyping of course but harmless.

Two high-school soon-to-graduate best friends went on the last adventure together to purchase boozes for a party to look cool in front of the girls. With the help of another friend, Fogel, who happened to have a fake ID with “McLovin” last name. The whole ordeal was simply hilarious and the dialog was truly honest and believable with lots of foul languages – just like teenager boys loaded with hormone would do to score with girls. The cops who rode with McLovin were not your typical cops; they were just as loose as your irresponsible teenagers – not quite as believable.

A couple of strange stories stood out for me:
– Seth ended up with a blood stain on his pants from dancing with a girl who’s having a period.
– McLovin got punched on the face while trying to purchase the alcohol drinks with a fake ID.
– Cops’ use of sirens, flashlights and other trickery just to appear to conduct normal police business.
– The boys stayed as virgins after getting so close to scoring.

This movie is hilarious and the plots are something most men can probably associate with and reflect upon during those crazy years with issues of college anxiety, self identity, and high sexual drive. Highly recommended.

This movie reminds me of Chevy Chase’s “National Lampoon’s Vacation” with a “bright” spin to it. The uncle tried to commit suicide and got fired from his job. The brother pledged a vow of silence until fulfilling his dream of entering pilot academy and hated his family. The grandpa got kicked out of his retirement home due to his sexually explicit behavior. The father, a public speaker/motivator who taught his children to be winner, not loser, ended up being a loser in cutting a public engagement deal, reaching his last financial straw. Everyone in this family has problems.

In order to allow Olive to enter Little Miss Sunshine pageant, they drove a broken Voltage Wagon from Albuquerque to California. Throughout the journey, they suffered several setbacks: transmission problem (requiring pushing to start the car and parking the car on top of hill), bad news on the father failed dealing, grandfather’s passing away in the back of the van, and the brother’s discovery of his color blindness, who prevents him from being a pilot, being stopped by a cop, and etc.

When they made it to the pageant, Olive found herself stood out like a sore thumb (too plain) without lots of glitters, costumes and makeup. The shocking thing is her last talent performance, which she learned from her father, turned out to be a the “super freak” strip-tease dance. To show their support, all the family members went up to the stage and danced to music. They were told to never enter another California pageant.

This is a hilarious and heart warming movie. The family member started out broken and at the end came together as a family. The sufferings are what make you learn and love. No pain, no gain.

A fiance’s relentless pursuit of the truth to find out what happened to his fiance after being court- marshaled and sent to the battle field to die – a touching French love story that unfolds as the woman peeled layers and layers of stories from each witness who saw the events from all different perspectives. Along the way, several intriguing stories crossed the path like a grieving widow turning into a serial killer to revenge on her man’s death.

Did her man die or not? She finally found his grave site. Did she give up?

No, she was rewarded at the end seeing her man, memory loss due to the shell shock, in a calm and vastly different environment. He was adopted unknowingly to him by a woman who lost her son to the battle when her son’s tag was swapped.

The movie was long, 2 hrs and 15 mins, but the ending was well worth the wait. I was surprised to see Jodie Foster in this movie playing a widow speaking fluent French.

It was a very long engagement for the couple indeed – from being the childhood sweethearts to his departing for war and re-uniting with and then re-acquainting him all over again. Now that’s love!

A young girl of 10 years old had a crush with a young man, who was in love with her elder sister and vice versa. However, she bore false witness against this young man and accused him of the rape of another girl. As a result, this man was imprisoned and later sent to fight the Nazi during World War II. He and his elder sister never got re-united. The novel, as told through this successful novel writer, re-wrote to make them re-united and happy ever after. This was the atonement, the least she could do to make up for her wrong doing because of her jealousy and foolishness.

The movie was beautifully and brilliantly directed and the country scenes of England were breath-taking. The pace was a little slow and jumped back and forth in time, but it was necessary to develop the characters and seeing the perspectives from both of the sisters. I like the movie. Often we don’t see the consequences of our actions. The consequences are at times very different from what we expected. Being prudence is the moral calling of the story and seizing the moment (so you won’t regret what you could have missed) is another. The two seem to be opposing at times – another paradox of life.