The Whistleblower

Weisz (The Mummy) plays a real life cop that takes a job with a private company that is hired by the UN as peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia. She helps a local officer investigate and bring to justice a wife beater - new for the area especially for a Muslim woman. This gets the attention of a UN official played by Redgrave (Letters to Juliet). Redgrave puts her in charge of gender affairs which leads to Weisz to uncover a sex trafficking ring involving UN officials, diplomats, private companies like the one she works for, and many others. These foreigners are raping, torturing, and abusing the women (often taking pictures and downloading them and videos onto the websites and sending them in emails to others) - this part of the movie is extremely difficult to watch like the scene in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo only so much worse - SO MUCH WORSE. What makes it bad - it really happened and probably continues to happen. All these men have immunity and the UN covers it up - people are paid off and people are laid off including Weisz. Many of the men from the film (not the actors but the real men they portray) are sent home to their countries and their families have no idea what atrocities they committed. They are never prosecuted. This happens more than anyone knows the stats are out there - there are organization that rely on donations from people like us that use the money to buy the women out of slavery, pay to return them home with medical treatment, help prosecute offenders, and to put the faces of these men in local papers where they live, so their neighbours and family find out what they have done. This is the new slavery - why is it allowed to happen - why isn't more being done? All in all, I say: SEE IT if you are ignorant or apathetic about sex-trafficking / SKIP IT if you know and support organizations that work to end it because you already know what those women have gone through.

Uprising: Hip Hop and the LA Riots

A VHI Documentary about the music that warned America a change/ a revolution was coming especially in LA where the cops were corrupt and racist. Also, the music that came out of the riots. Rodney King is on the documentary as well Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. Snoop Dog narrates. Some of it is disturbing to say the least. I didn't feel especially positive at the end. I have only seen the cop movies that show the corruption, so it does present a different side. All in all, I say: SEE IT - very informative.

Avengers

Stan Lee has a cameo. Best part of this: written and directed by Joss Whedon. It takes Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye to defeat Loki (Thor's cast out brother) and the cube thing that Captain America sunk himself with in the ocean. The banter was signature Whedon. The action was excellent, the digital work and animation excellent, and the actors did a bang up job. Surprise - Ruffalo play Hulk - not sure why Bana or Norton didn't do it. Also, "Robin" from How I Met Your Mother was in it. There is one sad part. Stay for all the previews - good stuff after. All in all, I say: SEE IT, but skip the soundtrack.

Firelight

Starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. this movie is a Hallmark movie. It's about young girls that made some wrong decisions and are in a minimum security facility. Gooding's character believes in rehabilitation. The facility is in an area that is prone to a lot of fires. The girls with potential train to help fight fires. The best part of this movie was the commercials - a lot of Hallmark commercials I haven't seen before. All in all, I say: WATCH IT on tv if you need something uplifting.

The Way

Emilio Estevez writes and directs his father, Martin Sheen, in the movie about self-discovery and mourning. Sheen's character goes to France to claim the his son's body. His son dies on the 1st day of a several month journey to hike the "El Camino de Santiago" sort of a religious/hiking trek. Along the way he ends up hiking with 3 other people each with their own reason for the trek. Sheen is walking in place of his son - to finish the journey. The character's stories are believable and although I am not religious - you didn't have to be to understand or feel connected to them. All in all, I say: STREAM IT.

Safe

IMDb writes, "Mei, a young girl whose memory holds a priceless numerical code, finds herself pursued by the Triads, the Russian mob, and corrupt NYC cops. Coming to her aid is an ex-cage fighter whose life was destroyed by the gangsters on Mei's trail." Statham's (who only loses his shirt once, but does all his own stunts) character is also an ex-CIA, ex-cop - they forgot that tidbit. At the end of the movie there is about to be a fight between Statham and the bad guy (played by Anson Mount from Hell on Wheels), but something happens that is unexpected and funny - although I really wanted to see a good fight. The action doesn't disappoint - I'm just saying the more the better because Statham just looks so smooth. He makes martial arts look like a dance. The  make-up and sometimes the editing are distracting. It's a tad more complicated than I think it needed to be - it felt like the director was trying to emulate Guy Ritchie. All in all, I say: RENT IT if you like action.

Raven

Cusack plays Edgar Allen Poe - a drunk because of losing the love of his life and not being appreciated by the American public. He has met a young lady and fallen in love. The movie was written to explain what happened to Poe at the end of his life. Why he was found half dead. A serial killer has been imitating Poe's stories with real people. After Poe's new love is captured by the killer to force Poe to play his game, Poe and the head police detective work to rescue her. I like Cusack but his performance looked forced. I like Detective Fields played by Luke Evans (from Wales, but no accent in the movie). I thought he did a great job in Immortals and Clash of the Titans - he's going to be in the Hobbit series too as Bard. He did a really good job. There was just something lacking and I keep going back to Cusack - I just don't think he was he best for the part. All in all, I say: although plot was unique SKIP IT

The First Grader

Based on a true story about an 84 year old farmer that hears the government of Kenya is offering free education. He knows knowledge is power. He has received a letter from the President which he wants to be able to read for himself, so he walks to a local primary school. The opening scene where all the kids are running and cheering as they head to school made me cry because our kids take education for granted. The 1st day he is turned away and told that he must have a pencil and 2 textbooks. He leaves, the 2nd day he is told that everyone has to have a uniform. He has to make some hard sacrifices to get the clothes - he is very poor. This makes me cry. They let him enter 1st grade - he has never even held a pencil before - I cry. He flashes back to the times when he was tortured in the British camps where he was held after being captured - I cry. He was part of the rebellion after his wife and 2 kids were killed - all the flashbacks make me cry. Basically, the movie should have been called "You'll cry your eyes out!" The community has a difficult time, but the teacher stands her ground and the students do what it right. There are some difficult scenes to watch, but to understand Kenya you have to watch them. All in all, I say: STREAM IT and cry, cry,cry,cry....

Jane By Design

It's like Devil Wears Prada for teenagers. Jane applies for an internship with a fashion design company. By mistake they hire her as a part time assistant. She has high school in the am & assistant in the pm. She lives with her brother since their dad died and they haven't seen mom in years - so you know she'll pop up eventually. Jane lies to everyone but her best friend about the job. At the end of season one - she has dumped the football guy she has been drooling over forever, designed some clothes for the clothing line, told her brother the truth, and her best friend is about to tell her that he loves her when - that's right - end season. All in all, I say: STREAM IT if you like cutesy AMC family shows.