Latest Bellwether Films: 30 May 2010
Greenberg - Indiewood personal comedy drama
Recently released from a New York mental hospital, an unhappy unemployed 40-year-old (Ben Stiller) returns to his old Los Angeles neighborhood to housesit for his very successful married brother (Chris Messina). He tries to restart his life by reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and former band mate (Rhys Ifans) but, ultimately, finds a reason for hope through his budding relationship with his brother’s personal assistant (Greta Gerwig). Upshot: Dark-edged humor warms up an otherwise hard-to-like protagonist. Satisfaction rating: ABOVE AVERAGE - 79
Kites - Bollywood crime action romance
When Las Vegas dance instructor Jay (Hrithik Roshan) pursues his student Gina, the daughter (Kangana Ranaut) of a wealthy casino owner, he finds himself welcomed to the family in time for her brother Tony’s (Nicholas Brown) wedding. Unbeknownst to the family, Jay had previously married-for-hire the brother’s Mexican fiancée Natasha (Barbara Mori) to help her secure a green card. On the night before the wedding, Jay catches Tony smacking her around and, unable to tolerate this abuse, runs off with his ex-wife. What follows is a life-and-death race to escape Tony’s wrath. Satisfaction rating: GOOD - 59
Sex and the City 2 - Hollywood relationships ensemble comedy
TWO YEARS LATER. Newlywed Carrie’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) marriage to “Big” (Chris Noth) is strained when an all-expenses-paid girls-only trip to Abu Dhabi with her girlfriends (Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon) leads to a chance meeting with her former fiancé (John Corbett). Upshot: Not much sex, much less city. How do you have a single-girl-in-New York romantic-comedy with happily-married protagists in Arabia? Still, if you liked the TV show, you may like catching up with the show’s characters. Satisfaction rating: BELOW AVERAGE - 27
StreetDance 3D - British competition dance drama
When Carly (Nichola Burley) and her streetdance crew lose both their leader and their rehearsal space while training for the UK Streetdance Championships, a ballet headmistress (Charlotte Rampling) offers use of her school’s rehearsal facilities in return for an injection of the street dance intensity lacking in her classically-trained students. The two disparate teams must work together to win the competition. Upshot: Predictable plot uplifted by exceptional dancing that includes Britain’s Got Talent champs George Sampson, Flawless and Diversity. Satisfaction rating: GOOD - 41








































