THE A-TEAM (USA 2010) ***
Directed by Joe Carnahan

THE A-TEAM follows very loosely the footsteps of director Joe Carnahan’s SMOKIN’ ACES.  It is a high octane paced action thriller with super paced editing and even faster talking characters.  And one has to throw all logic out the window as well to enjoy the film that ironically states that to succeed, one needs a plan.

IT CAME FROM KUCHAR (USA 2010) ****
Directed by Jennifer M. Kroot

IT CAME FROM KUCHAR (the title of the film obviously inspired from Edward Wood’s low budget ultra bad movie IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE) is an eye-popping, extremely entertaining (am talking countless laugh-out loud moments here) and informative documentary about underground twin filmmakers Mike and George Kuchar.  George has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute film studies for more than 27 years.

THE KARATE KID (USA /China 2010) ***
Directed by Harald Zwart

The magic question is whether the 2010 version of THE KARATE KID is worth seeing.  Never mind the similarities and difference with the 1984 version.  The answer fortunately is a yes.  The KARATE KID 2010 works as a kids ROCKY movie (never mind that the original was also directed by the same director as ROCKY) full of martial-arts action, comedy while delivering an effective message in an updated global setting.

GET HIM TO THE GREEK (USA 2010) **
Directed by Nicholas Stoller

Based on the characters created by Jason Siegel in the hilarious comedy FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, the minor character of British rock star, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) is now the lead in this no-brainer comedy.

MARMADUKE (USA 2010) **
Directed by Tom Dey

It is not surprising that 20th Century Fox took on the MARMADUKE project.  The largely syndicated cartoon started by Brad Anderson in 1954 that even drew protests in 1999 when it was removed from the Toronto Star paper, MARMADUKE follows the daily antics of a huge pet Great Dane owned by the Winslow family.