Amelie: 9.25/10

This gem of a movie starring Audrey Tautou as a waitress unsatisfied with her life, in a different way than you may think, and the world around her. She goes about changing this upon the discovery of what appears to be a young boy's box of favorite items in her apartment, deciding to find out who lived there before and return the box to its owner unbeknown-st to him. Becareful though, she isn't only out to help people, she'll assign an appropriate response to anything she sees as unfair or unjustified. Tautou is absolutely memorizing in this role, making even the most seemingly mundane of tasks interesting, refusing to allow you to look away for even a minute in fear you may miss an intriguing look. Amelie is magicaly shot, and even with subtitles, it crosses the language barrier with ease, causing you to even forget your reading the subtitles, but just absorbing the experience.

It is the definition of an unconventional love story and romance. Sorry for the oxymoron, but it is the only way to describe this unique story, directing, and writing. It is much more interesting than any other love story, most of which I avoid like the plague, but this is one for the DVD rack. I highly recommend you pick this movie up or for sure rent it.

Oldboy: 8.5/10

This movie is not for the faint of heart, or mind. This is a thrill ride from beginning to end, which might be of the most disturbing I've ever been exposed too. A comparison could be made to Saw, with much better story and reasoning, and not as much gore, but in the end your mind is worse for wear and this won't go away for a few days. That coming from someone who is not much of a fan of Saw, or thrillers, but this movie is so unique and interesting that you end up letting your guard down just watching and then it gets you, and gets you good. You won't jump out of your seat, but you will have to watch a couple of Disney movies to regain some of your innocence, even as an adult.

The main character starts out as a drunk slob and a slacking father, only to be imprisoned for as far as he can tell, no reason. He remains in the prison for a number of years before he is inexplicably let go. There is a level of violence in this that deserves the R rating, some of it a nice variation on regular slasher scenes, making them almost comic in their magnitude. Enjoy this movie with a few friends and enjoy the discussions and reactions once the credits role!

Shaolin Soccer: 8/10

Stephen Chow pulls triple duty directing, writing, and starring in this kung fu action parody. While the word 'parody' carries a very B-level movie tag here in America, this movie is anything but. Its absolutely hilarious throughout with outrageous characters, good enough to be entertaining special effects, and absurd kung fu names and moves. You will be rolling on the floor laughing at this movie for all of those reasons.

Stephen Chow plays one of many brothers that are kung fu masters in different versions, and upon being approached by a former player now turned coach, he collects his brothers and they apply their skills to playing soccer, to defeat everyone and become champions. This movie is just absolutely hilarious and should be watched in a group a couple of times for maximum enjoyment. If you end up liking this, which you should if you've got a sense of humor that stretches beyond cheap shots at everyone surrounding you, you will most likely like another Stephen Chow movie, Kung Fu Hustle (8/10), but for pure enjoyment I prefer Shaolin Soccer.

La Vie En Rose: 9.5/10

Marion Cotillard delivers an absolutely powerful performance in her Oscar winning role of the French superstar Edith Piaf in this biopic of her life and career. Cotillard really is the focus of this movie, she commands the screen and there are only a handful of scenes that she isn't in, but is replaced by a younger version of Edith Piaf done by yet another amazing young actress. The supporting cast is acceptional with the likes of Gerard Depardieu.

The movie does run 140 minutes, but it is a biopic and not an action packed adrenaline ride that runs out of fuel at 90 minutes. But as someone who little to nothing of the character, it truely is a captivating movie and with a little research its obvious that if anything, Cotillard might have under-acted her performance of the character that was Edith Piaf. My one complaint is the rather confusing ending sequence, and its helpful to know before hand that while she still lived on the street she did have a young son who ended up dying. After watching the movie i was't sure if this was supposed to be some sort of hilucination or if it was real, it was addressed seemingly as an after thought. But with that cleared up, one of the best written and over all made movies of recent history.