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Cast: Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi Director: Philippe Loiret Welcome is a film which will have you thinking long after the credits roll.

It's the story of Kurdish refugee Bilal (underplayed with quiet resolve by Firat Ayverdi) who is determined to make it to England to see his recently emigrated girlfriend and to get a better life.

So, initially he tries to get through the French border in a lorry along with a group of fellow refugees - and it's all going well until they hit Calais and Bilal, wearing.

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What can’t Helen Mirren do?  Her brilliantly chameleon-like abilities are apparently limitless.  There’s a joke in the film when someone asks her crippled Nevada brothel owner character Grace ‘Who do you think you are?  The Queen of England?”  And of course, she is that too.

Mirren brings all of her luminous beauty, not disguised under her rather sedate seventies wardrobe, with soulfulness we wouldn’t expect from a woman in her job but of course, must expect.  People are unexpected and Mirren epitomises it.

Sergio Peris-Mencheta, a Spanish actor who plays Bruza her young lover, is a find.  He is a boxer Grace’s husband (Joe Pesci) has taken under his wing, has animal magnetism, something we haven’t seen lately, plus heart, sweetness and tenderness mixed with the violence of his calling.

Bruza falls utterly, selflessly in love with Grace, which is dangerous to his health as Charlie (Pesci) is a brutally violent, selfish man, and criminal.  He neglects Grace until he discovers she has interests elsewhere and his ‘love’ turns to jealous ferocity.  Who does ferocity better than Pesci?  His all consuming evil contrasts well with Bruza’s warm-hearted innocence.

Love Ranch is a character study, Grace’s story; an older woman resigned to a loveless marriage and proscribed life, who has a shot at new life with a hot young Mexican fighter.  It is exciting, romantic and incredibly moving.  The kicker is that its tragedy unfolds and resonates right down to South America, where Bruza was a hero.

There’s a lot going on in this loosely fact-based film on the proprieters of the first legal brothel in Nevada.  It is a fascinating and dangerous world, sleazy and compelling.  Gina Gershon, Tary Manning and Bai Ling are their girls, who not only enjoy their job but also adore their boss Grace.  Charlie describes them as “psychotic whores”, and has affairs with them.  It’s a life cobbled out of lawlessness, control and mob connections but there is underlying humanity.

Charlie’s the only fly in the ointment and in Pesci’s talented hands, he is unforgettable.  He’s sociopathic, involved in shady mob and government dealings, sure of his power and influence, believing himself innocent of murder and sinned against.  Yet another muscular performance from the king of mean.

It’s an amazing story of brothel owners who not only fought to legalise prostitution in Nevada but also opened the first and made a go of it for a long while.  Strangely, for a film about a brothel, there is surprising little sex or salaciousness.

Hackford knows how to make a story get under our skin; his sensitivity and efforts have paid off.  Love Ranch is certain to be remembered during awards season and could land the big prizes.   It’s Hackford’s best film and deserves a wide release, although at this moment, it isn’t getting one.

A movie opening this weekend I wanted to like so much. After seeing the trailers months ago, I was eagerly anticipating its arrival. And you won’t find four more talented people in a movie all year (Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, John C. Reilly, and Catherine Keener). And the studio even set me up with an interview with Tomei. Nothing like sitting in a cabana near a swimming pool, talking to a woman I loved in so many films, and wanting to ask her “Why wasn’t this movie better?”

The movie opens with the clichéd scene of the pathetic, lonely man. He’s caught taking care of himself (for some reason, he does that with rap music blaring in the living room, and heavy metal blaring from his headphones in the bedroom…and with an ex-wife that conveniently shows up and has a key to his house).

What takes down this amazing cast, are two brothers – Jay and Mark Duplass, who wrote and directed this film.The gave us Baghead (What? You missed that one?) and this genre called “mumblecore.” Nothing more annoying than when you have to spend a review explaining a new genre of film, so I’ll skip that. Let’s just say…they get to do a lot of improvising with the script. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t (just ask Christopher Guest). Here, it sometimes does, but usually doesn’t.

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Classic Bollywood love stories have created clichés that we have come to adore. Now when any star runs through a meadow of yellow sunflowers, you immediately think Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

And of course, you can't imagine any snowy Swiss mountain without a chiffon sari-cladded actress and turtle-necked sweater-on-shoulders Shah Rukh Khan in his signature arms-wide-open pose.

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I read the book of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer a while ago and really enjoyed it, so since then, I have wanted to watch the film version. I ordered the two-disc DVD edition from Amazon for £12.98, as it was only £1 more than the single-disc version, but this one had two hours' worth of extras!

I sat down to watch it with my daughters, who were also keen to see it, but haven't yet read the book. They had heard how gorgeous Robert Pattinson was though, so I'm sure that was a good reason to see the film! For those who don't know the story, the idea is a basic High School romance with a twist - Prince Charming and Cinderella meet, but the Prince has fangs! Cinderella is Bella Swann, an Arizona girl who comes to stay with her Dad in a quiet town called Forks, where everyone knows everyone else.

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Winter’s Bone is about a 17-year-old girl who’s forced into being the sole provider for her two younger siblings and sick mother after her father gets sent to prison for cooking up crack. Then one day Johnny Law tells her that her dad’s out of prison.

That he offered up their house as collateral for his bond money, and if he doesn’t show up for his court hearing, the state takes the house and leaves her family to live out in the woods to probably die. So our girl Ree sets out on foot to every last terrifying hillbilly she’s related to (and there’s a lot of ‘em) in the hopes to get some kind of answer as to where the hell her dad is before time runs out.

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The Mani Ratnam directed movie “Raavan” has the impressive star cast of Aishwariya Bachchan and Abhisek Bachchan. The bilingual movie is shot in both Hindi and Tamil. It is the most hyped movie of 2010. The film got rave reviews in the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. However, the box office opening was disappointing.

The movie is a modern day take on the Hindu epic Ramayana by the ace director Mani Ratnam. The three characters of the epic, Ram, Sita and Raavan are portrayed in the movie with a twist. Abhisek Bachchan plays the role of Raavan, Aishwarya is glamorous in portraying Sita and the role of Ram is carried out by Dev in the movie. However, unlike the epic, all the three characters have grey shades in the movie. The music composed by A R Rahman and Gulzar are a delight to the ears.

Jonah Hex Review – No one is expecting Jonah Hex to be the best movie of the summer, or even the biggest blockbuster. There have been a number of reviews for the film that were mixed , but overall the response has been alright.

The main problem with it is that the movie of a whole only feels like a small portion of a film. While most have a decisive plot line, this movie relies much more on their great visuals, and the co-star, Megan Fox, to keep the audience interested in the 73 minutes that it spans.

The flick is almost too short, which is a complaint that you do not often hear from moviegoers. The movie simply does not have a long enough run time to keep the viewers interested, and barely feels like more than a television show than a movie.

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Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is an attempt to tell a significantly different version of events and is much darker and more serious-minded than anything we have seen in the past. Like Casino Royale or the last Star Trek adventure this Robin Hood is all about going back to ground zero and rebuilding a legend.

The thrust of the film is the events leading up to Robin being branded as an outlaw and what inspired his pursuit of justice for all.The film could easily be called “Robin Hood: Origins” as it tells the story of Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) before he became Robin Hood. At the start of this movie Robin is an archer with King Richard the Lion Hearted (Danny Huston).

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Respite and relief. This is exactly how I felt walking out of the cinema after watching Prakash Jha's Raajneeti. Thanks to the filmmaker, we have officially been bestowed with 2010's best film thus far.

Praise the Bollywood God; he has finally been kind on us. My expectations of the director were scorching high considering the film has a boastful cast of some of the best in the industry:

Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgn, Manoj Vajpayee and Naseeruddin Shah. And then there are other actors who have surprised us in the recent past including Arjun Rampal, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif.

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