A very near future cities are submerge in high crime rate, from Chicago, Caracas, Rio de Janiero and Johannesburg. High cost of living, corruption and taxation are the biggest obstacles to make police effective in this cities. The corporation Tetraval offered a very easy solution, "Scouts" this police robot completely design to enforce and reduce crime rate is a big success for this corporation, but like any other company, there is struggle to succeed in the art of weapon and protection endeavor…

This is the setting of the film, Chappie directed Neil Blomkamp (District 9 and Elysium) is the story of Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) is the maker of the "Scouts" a very effective police robot, with the finest technology to solve Johannesburg crime rate, but also make Tetraval company millionaire. Like any other company, their employees compete to make their inventions come alive and be part of the corporation products. That's the case of Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) a ex military who design MOOSE a attack robot that is capable to self transportation and warfare attack. Moore is jealous of Deon and his success with the Scouts.
During a ambush a group of gang members who lost an important quantity of money on a sting, comes with the idea of kidnap Deon and force him to make a Scout a criminal. This comes as a coincidence while Deon steal a deactivated Scout and pretend to use it as a test with chip that creates to makes this robot more human, with a consciousness. Tetraval company don't believe in this project so Deon is just trying to achieve something beyond the corporation ideals of sells weapons. Chappie is the name of Deon's project, his mission, learn from life itself and become a less violent robot.

Chappie comes as a mash up of Paul Verhoeven 1987 Robocop, Disney's Pinocchio and Short Circuit. We have two robot projects so like in Robocop, one more human than the other and also one more lethal than the other. The similarities are so scary because the settings are basically the same. Detroit vs Johannesburg, which one is more violent? Scouts and MOOSE vs Robocop and ED-209 are similar weapons build with the promise of a better and more safer city, but also build with greed from one to another. Deon is the maker of Chappie, like Geppetto was the make of Pinocchio, a wooden toy who wants to be human, but it needs to learn the way of life like Chappie was forced to do the same in order to become a robot criminal. Like any other film robot Chappie learn from the American culture, from He-Man, to the bling-bling this robot learn the bad things of life and will discover that this world is not that beautiful.

Technology in Chappie is what it is vulnerable, limited by energy in a UN-replaceable battery, the human controlling and determine what is worth it, but also how the power of a maternal love and his maker will develop in a pseudo homage to Bjork's "All is Full of Love" music video.

Chappie bring back some of the interesting ideas from District 9, but also become a messy third act trying to justify the evilness of unprepared villains, like Vincent Moore.

Two guys on a British bar talking about someone they know. Then a bunch of street thugs walks in and that's when the fun start... Hollywood have done so many films about spies, but the blueprint of James bonds continues shaping some of this films. From the music, the gals, the costumes etc.

Actors like Leslie Nielsen, Bruce Willis, Mike Meyers, Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matt Damon and others have played spies or secret agents. Their stories have drama, sacrifice and also rewards. In the breed of this actors Matthew Vaughn bring us Kingsman: The Secret Service.

The film presents Harry Hart (Colin Firth) a veteran Kingsman who lost his friend at the beginning of the year. Harry feel responsible for his death so he commit to take care of his friend son, when the time comes. Kingsman is a secret service agency using a high end tailoring shop as a cover. Chester King (Michael Caine) is the leader of the organization and Merlin (Mark Strong) is s Kingsman agent and trainer.

Seventeen years have pass and Eggsy Harry's friend son have is all grown up. Eggsy's life is really hard, his mom remarry to a abusive guy, connected to a band of thugs. Among that the kid is a mess, Eggsy is a robber and car stealer, but he have talents. After a recent car robbery Harry rescue him from jail with the commitment of become a Kingsman. Eggys accept.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a great action pack film about a kid who follow the footsteps of his father to become a highly powerful secret agent. Matthew Vaughn delivers a entertaining and fun film with great performance. The film also introduce you to a new breed of young actors who probably will be in new Hollywood films. The scenes are well choreographed and amazingly edited.

Colin Firth, Michael Caine and Mark Strong are great. Newcomer Aron Egerton and Sophie Cookson are really good too. Dancer Sofie Boutella is perfect for her role. Probably my biggest disappointment was Samuel L Jackson character. I don't know, after seen so many apis films, you are hoping that the villain will be sinister and evil, not a technology mogul with speech impediment.

Since Slumdog Millionare in 2008 it seems like Hollywood might be in love with India. Life of Pi, The Million Dollar Arm, One Hundred Foot Journey and the First movie of Marigold Hotel. What is Hollywood looking with the Indian culture? The biggest value of those stories is the struggle of one person to overcome a obstacle, from love, sports, money, food and even second chances movies with Indian themes are powerful but fades because of the big industry just tell some stories about Indian people, but not as compelling as the films imported from India, like a recent film with a very compelling and simple story "The Lunchbox"

In The Second Best Marigold Hotel, directed by John Madden brings A group of elderly British who meet again in the hot and colorful India. This time we meet the same characters from the first film, but also have new ones who try to evolve the dynamic of relationships and new personal goals. Now Sonny (Dev Patel) is about to marry Sunaina (Tina Desai) his fiance and the Marigold Hotel is up and running, but needs more work, the arrangements for the wedding are also creating conflicts between the bride and groom.

Evelyn Greenslade (Judi Dench) is now a successful textile specialist, Magde (Celia Imrie) is a specialist in have several relationships with wealth Indian millionaires, Muriel (Maggie Smith) manages the hotel with Sonny, but also is his best advisory in personal life and Douglas still in love with Evelyn, like the rest of the cast they are still in soul searching.

The Second Best Marigold Hotel is a film about mortality, this what John Madden said in a recent Q&A about the film. We see the characters come and go, not only because this hotel is a transitioning place, is also a place to let things go…

Most of the characters are in the search for something, that can be a second chance, but also a way to rediscover their new age period with the colors and the happiness of the Indian people. Richard Gere character fit perfectly in this analogy. He went to review a project and he discover and new project to live or Magde who goes left and right for love, but may be the center is the best direction to go...

The film is fun and cheerful, everyone is pretty charming, probably my main concern is the film is long to tell so many stories…

A vibrant day in Cambridge 1963 while two young guys riding bikes, chasing to reach the first place in a race of knowledge. This is the begging of "The Theory of Everything"

Stephen Hawkins (Eddie Redmayne) is a smart student who have all, great friends, professors who support them and praise their virtues of this astrophysics student. Suddenly in a party he meets Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones) a fellow student of literature. Their relationship develop pretty quickly. Jane is attracted to the corkiness of Stephen, but also his energetic passion about science. Over the course of the the school year he develop some neuron disease which make them loose his ability to move, but his brain will remain untouched. After all this happening Jane confess her love to Stephen and she is willing to be with him to even marry him.

In the upcoming years together they will have a son, but also Stephen disease get worse, when he is presenting his thesis obtaining a doctorate.

James Marsh direct this beautiful film about the life of Jane and Stephen Hawkins their struggled marriage, success and also their family. In essence this movie is not about Stephen Hawkins, is about Jane, how she sacrifice her career to take care of her husband. This is a story of how to overcome obstacles, but also how important is to let go when life choices are not the right ones and pursuing love with the right one.

The film is beautifully crafted, from directing, to editing, original score and cinematography. Redmayne and Jones are fantastic as the Hawkins couple.

In essence The Theory of Everything is a great biopic about the wonders of science and the people behind them.

In the mist of the most dangerous and bloody year for the city of NYC 1981 Morales family are struggling to keep their Oil business alive. JC Chandor directs "A Most Violent Year" tells the story of Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) a business owner of Standard Oil a company that distribute heating to residential properties. His business is in jeopardy by constant hijacking of his trucks and attacks to the drivers. Abel is loosing money with the stole heating oil. He still believe that there is a non violent solution to the problem. But his wife Anna Morales (Jessica Chastain) thinks differently. Anna believes that there perpetrators are not the kind of people that you can negotiate to talk about the problem. Violence is the only who can solve this problem.

Abel have another problems to solve. Abel Morales and his company under investigation by Assistant of the District attorney (David Oyelowo) for tax evasion, and other illegal practice. Finally Abel is working for commercial independence by teaming up with his attorney Andrew Walsh (Albert Brooks) to struck a deal with a Jewsih group to own a fuel oil terminal on the NY East River.

This three events are the main arch of "A Most Violent Year" But with is the whole relationship with the main titles and these events. The film takes place like I mentioned earlier in 1981 which is considered the most violent year in city's history. The events shape the Morales family to the point that the most honest man will doubt about how many things you can achieve with the use of force in order to show everyone that your in charge. No matter what you do. Violence is the probably the last action to take. But Knowing that you are surrounded by violence why not use it?

Competition, Illegality and growth. These are the three elements that defines the main plot of "A Most Violent Year". Abel suffer by the constant attacks of his competitors while the law want Abel's head and his business while he just want to make a living. He is a family man, a good father, he cares about the employees, but most of all he wants to grow.

J.C. Chandor creates this Goodfellaseske world in the early 80's with less bloodiness like Scorsese does. But he does with style A Most Violent year is a tense drama with nuance of violence and action. The film develops with a excellent assemble cast. Oscar and Isaac and Jessica Chastain plays perfect as a marriage couple, but play excellent roles as a businessman and matriarch of the Morales family. Albert Brooks is excellent as well. While David Oyelowo perform a good supporting role that needs more time on screen. The film is beautifully shot by Bradford Young and perfectly edited by Ron Patane.

The daily lives of any person in this world is filled with failures, success good times, bad times, and crazy times. This could be the easy way to explain the film Damián Szifrón "Wild Tales". Following the footsteps of famous directors like Robert Altman with Short Cuts and Paris, je t'aime with the directors: Gus Van Sant, Joel and Ethan Coen, Walters Salles, Alfonzo Cuarón, Wes Crave and Alexander Payne.

Wild Tales is a collection of 6 short films compiled in a single film. Every stories doesn't have a particular connection from each other, but the relationship of success, failure, death, revenge, love and life, is present and should be the crucial link from each tale that you see on film.

With Argentinian all stars such as Ricardo Darín (The Secret in Their Eyes and Nine Queens) Darío Grandinetti ( The Dark side of the heart) Leonardo Sbaraglia (Cenizas del Paraiso) is just a few of the actors who bring to life the stories:

-Pasternak the story of a disappointed human being who finds the revenge by get rid of everyone who hurt him.
-The Rats The story of a waitress revenge against the responsible of her family demise.
-The Strongest The story of two drivers who clash till the end to see who is the bravest.
-Little Bomb the story of a explosive specialist haunting unfairness in the daily life system.
-The Proposal: A hit and run will turn into a greedy fight for money.
-Until death do us part a wedding turn into a bloody war

There is no much to say about this film, is masterful with a very dark humor and realistic situations that appeal to everyone who wanted to fight the system and find meaning to daily conflicts in daily life.

Pedro Almodovar produce this instant classic, Gustavo Santaloalla delivers a beautiful score and Javier Juliá create a wonderful cinematography inspired in the look of several films.

Music and relationships always comes together on film. The capacity of music to generate several emotions for people who fall in love, hate each other, laugh and end up relationships.
Films such as Once, Begin Again, The Bodyguard, Across The Universe, Mamma Mia and Pitch Perfect constitute a good number of films that use music as a vehicle for relationships of any kind, from friendship, love interest and artistically collaboration.

In the film Song One directed by Kate Barker-Froyland, Anne Hathaway plays Franny an archeology student who suddenly return to NYC after her brother Henry (Ben Rosenfield) was hit by a car and end up on coma. Franny decided to dig into Henry personal objects discovering a diary with places and sounds from the city as well his devotion to this folk artist name James Forrester (Johnny Flynn) Fanny attends to James Forester show, finally meeting him sharing the story of what happen to Henry.

The story continues with several situations where you discover Fanny's conflict with her mom play by Mary Steenburgen and born relationship with Fanny and James.

Song One is pretty interesting film, with beautiful music that sadly doesn't appeal the way that other films do. In fact the music can be forgettable in some point. The power of sound in this film overcome so much making it one of the main protagonist.

The story is flat and only reach some levels of the emotion in the conclusion of the film.
Anne Hatthaway and Johnny Flynn are good as a couple and have chemistry, but there love story can be slightly believable.

Song One is a great attempt from a first time director. The film as a whole doesn't work, is more about separate scenes that really work.