Latest Bellwether Films: 23 May 2010

(L) Belgium's Virginie Efira in 'L'amour, c'est mieu a deux', and Korea's Seo Woo and (R) Do-yeon Jeon in 'The Housemaid'

amour, c’est mieux à deux, L’ (Love is better with two) - French big date repartee romantic-comedy

Thirty-something Michel (Clovis Cornillac) believes he’ll meet his dream girl by pure chance, just like his parents and his grandparents. Vincent (Manu Payet) believes times have changed. Men pick their mates more aggressively, based more on physical attraction than brains. These contrasting views get completely shot down the moment they come in contact with Angèle (Virginie Efira) and Nathalie (Annelise Hesme). Satisfaction ratings: ABOVE AVERAGE - 71

Babies (Bébés) - Indiewood domestic topical documentary

One year in the life of four babies in different parts of the world (Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco and Tokyo) focusing on cultural differences and similarities. Satisfaction ratings: ABOVE AVERAGE - 62

Badmaash Company - Bollywood business romance drama

BOMBAY (now MUMBAI), 1994. Four new college graduates (Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das, Meiyang Chang) start an instantly successful business by smuggling foreign goods into India to avoid the heavy import taxes. As the company prospers, greed quickly drives a wedge between the partners, threatening both their professional and their personal lives. Upshot: “Badmaash” means scoundrel, echoing a theme about the self-destructive nature of underhanded business practices. Satisfaction rating: GOOD - 57

Farsan (Dad) - Scandinavian domestic goofball romantic-comedy

Encouraged on by his married son (Hamadi Khemiri), a widowered bicycle repairman (Jan Fares) romances his boss’ (Torkel Petersson) mother (Anita Wall). Satisfaction rating: GOOD - 52

Housemaid, The (하녀) - Korean domestic erotic suspense

An attractive thirty-something divorcee (Do-yeon Jeon - 전도연) accepts the live-in maid job with an upper class family. Soon the husband (Jung-Jae Lee - 이정재) uses his social position to bed the new maid. His bedroom visits become frequent. The old housemaid (Yeo-jong Yoon) reports the affair to his wife’s mother (Ji-yeong Park). The wife’s mother decides to use the scandal to give the wife (Seo Woo - 서우) dominance over her husband. Then the maid turns up pregnant and wants to keep the baby. Despite pleas to the contrary, the wife’s mother forces the maid to abort. Upon discovery, the husband angrily confronts his mother-in-law: illegitimate or not, the baby should have been born. Meanwhile, the maid’s mental condition deteriorates to the point that she decides to seek revenge against the whole family. Upshot: A competent re-imagining of the 1960 Korean classic and was selected for competition at the just-wrapped 2010 Cannes. Satisfaction rating: ABOVE AVERAGE - 65

MacGruber - Hollywood conspiracy action comedy

Ten years after his fiancée’s death, ex-special forces operative MacGruber (Will Forte) is called back to action from his Ecuadorian retreat to recover the nuclear warhead stolen by his archenemy Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer). He assembles an elite team (including Ryan Phillippe and Kristen Wiig) to stop Von Cunth’s plot to nuke Washington, D.C. Upshot: One-note comedy based on an NBC-TV’s Saturday Night Live sketch. Satisfaction rating: GOOD - 55

Mammuth - French road trip true-to-life drama

An about-to-retire slaughterhouse worker (Gérard Depardieu), nicknamed “Mammuth,” discovers that some former employers failed to turn in the requisite paperwork to secure his full retirement benefits. At the urging of his wife (Yolande Moreau), he jumps on the back of his 1970s Mammuth motorcycle in search of his old bosses and the missing documents. During the journey, he relives his youth and remembers his first true love who died in a tragic motorcycle accident. Satisfaction ratings: ABOVE AVERAGE - 74

My Darling Is a Foreigner (ダーリンは外国人) - Japanese domestic drama romantic-comedy

A manga artist (Mao Inoue - 井上真央) falls in love with a Danish-American language geek (Jonathan Sherr - ジョナサン・シェア) in Japan, but once they marry, cultural differences put their relationship at risk. Inspired by the true story of Saori Oguri and her husband Tony Laszio. Satisfaction rating: ABOVE AVERAGE - 71

Prince of Persia - Hollywood supergenre subgenre genre

A rogue Prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (Gemma Arterton) and, together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capabale of releasting the Sands Of Time - a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. (Disney Pictures) Upshot: Inspired by the video game. Satisfaction rating: ABOVE AVERAGE - 62

Shrek Forever After - Hollywood alternate world adventure animation

Nostalgic for his carefree life as a single ogre, Shrek signs a one-day magic contract with smoothtalker Rumpelstiltskin and finds himself transported to an alternate Far Far Away. Rumpelstiltskin is king, ogres are hunted, Fiona leads a resistance movement and Shrek was never born. Shrek has 24 hours to reclaim his disbelieving true love or lose his happy family forever. Upshot: An enchanted reimagining of the elements that made Shrek beloved by audiences. However the sharp price increase for 3D/IMAX produced a softer than expected opening, throwing an obvious chink in Hollywood’s plan to use 3D premium prices as a substitute for diminished video revenues. Satisfaction rating: ABOVE AVERAGE - 67

Snabba Cash (Easy Money) - Scandinavian crime thriller suspense

Desperate to keep up with his ritzy upper class girlfriend friend (Lisa Henni), a young financial wizard (Joel Kinnaman) becomes a runner for a coke dealer (Mahmut Suvaki) which, in turn, puts him on a deadly collision course with an escaped convict (Matias Padin Varela) and a Yugoslavian mafia hit man (Dragomir Mrsic). Upshot: Warner Brother won the intense bidding war for a Hollywood remake to star Zac Efron. Based on a novel by Stockholm defense lawyer Jens Lapidus. Satisfaction rating: ABOVE AVERAGE - 75

Trick 3: Psychic Battle Royale (劇場版TRICK 霊能力者バトルロイヤル) - Japanese crime comedy suspense

Female magician Naoko (Yukie Nakama - 仲間由紀恵) and genius physicist Jiro (Hiroshi Abe - 阿部寛) re-team to solve a new supernatural mystery. When a renowned clairvoyant dies, his mountain village holds a psychic battle royale to find his successor. Naoko enters the contest in hopes of winning the cash prize. Meanwhile, a villager who wants to end the village’s psychic tradition calls in Jiro to demonstrate that psychic powers do not really exist. Unbeknownst to all, another contestant has advance-rigged a dangerous trick to walk away on top. Upshot: A third theatrical spin-off based of the three-year comedic Ashai-TV series about a beautiful magician and a shrew physicist who debunk fraudulent spiritualists. Satisfaction rating: ABOVE AVERAGE - 66

World's Favorite Films 2010

World's Favorite Foreign Language Films 2010

Aftershock (Chinese)

L'arnacoeur (French)

The Borrower Arietty (Japanese)

Ip Man 2 (Chinese)

Pokemon: Phanton Ruler Zoroark (Japanese)

Confessions (Japanese)

My Name Is Khan (Bollywood)

Nodame Cantabile 2 (Japanese)

Blood Brothers: Secret Reunion (Korean)

Doraemon: Mermaid Adventure (Japanese)

Raajneeti (Bollywood)

Little Big Soldier (Chinese)

La Rafle (French)

Les Aventures Extraordinaire d'Adele Blanc-Sec (French)

Io, loro e Lara (Italian)

Liar Game (Japanese)

Our Rossiya (Russian)

Moss (Korean)

71 - Into the Gunfire (Korean)

Housefull (Bollywood)