A grief guru Burke (Aaron Eckhart) finds himself back in Seattle when his agent sets him up for his book tour and self-workshops which he has been reluctant to return to the place where his late wife and family was from. Although he helps people get through their grief of their lost ones, he himself has yet to face his own demons (he lost his wife in a car accident). But when he meets Elouise (Jennifer Aniston) a florist at the hotel where he gives his talks, he was strangely attracted to her and she in turn helps to confront his feelings and demons. If you expect a fluffy sweet rom-com, think you will be disappointed. There were brief romantic sweet moments but these fleet by so quick that you barely get soaked in the sweetness before your focus is switched to Burke trying to help his customers get over their grief esp Walter’s case, a guy who lost his kid son and not got over it by losing his wife and career. Aaron Eckhart hardly gets to play the lead but however, I feel that he has been let down by the plot of this movie. Jennifer’s role felt limited and restricted here, however the special appearance of Martin Sheen and the parrot brought some relief and much needed comical bits. Overall, a nice experience but I did not leave feeling all fuzzy inside.

Waking up in the middle of an empty space shuttle and not remembering a single thing, Cpl Bower (Ben Foster)finds himself frozen for the longest time and that the crew that was suppose to take over his shift nowhere to be found. Along with him Lt Payton (Dennis Quaid)soon wakes up from a time-frozen slumber and both try to figure out what happened to the spacecraft. They soon realise that they were in the company of swift, strong flesh-eating hunting aliens as they find a way to reboot the computer system of the ship and find their way out while fighting against what they call as the Pandorum (which is a little like getting dangerous hallucinations ) effect (this is how the movie got it’s title). The dark and claustrophobic environment was effectively portrayed on screen making the audience feel on their toes however this also played against it as one needs to strain to see what is actually happening. It was exciting as they were being chased and hunted down but the action scenes were lacking in punch and the plot in the end was kinda disappointing. I personally found it not gruesome or squeamish enough. It has been a while since the last alien movie was shown, so if you are a fan of this genre, catch some the Pandorum effect while it lasts.

This is a definitely tear-jerker so get ready your Klennex. When the Fitzgeralds find out that their daughter Kate suffers from leukemia and needs matching body parts, they decide to conceive another their youngest daughter, Anna, via IVF and engineered in a way that Anna’s organs can be used when Kate needs them. Anna, however, gets a lawyer to sue her parents when she turns 11 as she wants her rights to decide what she wants to do with her own body, causing the small cracks in the cancer-stricken family to further deteriorate. Moral, ethical and interpersonal issues arise as each family member deals with the situation. The story is so realistic and issues are true. There are several touching moments like when Kate finds love, how the son in the family was overlooked when the focus was on Kate and how both parents have different views on saving their daughter. Sofia Vassilieva and Abigail Breslin stole the show as the pair of long-suffering sisters who put on brave fronts in the impending death. The entire cast gave their all and made this a wonderfully touching experience from the start till the end of the movie.

J & J is based not on one, but two stories. The 2 stories are cleverly mixed, stirred and diced into bite-size portions and served to the screen. The first is about Julie (Meryl Streep) on how she followed her husband (Stanley Tucci) to France was he was posted. There she took up the prestigious cooking class in Cordon Bleu, where through her determination manages to graduate. Thereafter meets a couple of equally cooking enthusiasts and gets together to write & publish a cookbook. This brings us to Julia (Amy Adams) who in post-9-11 works as a government official and finds solace and happiness in cooking. Bored and inspired, she picks up Julie's cookbook and gave herself a project to cook all the receipes within and blog abt her experience as she aspires to be a writer. Soon she finds out that not that people are reading her blog, she has fans too. But all these do not come without a price as her relations with her husband. Through this project, she soon finds herself and more about her idol, Julie. Peppered with comical and funny moments, J & J is enjoyable especially watching Meryl and Amy light up the screen with their performances. Thrown in with all the right ingredients, the movie simmers to a slow boil, whetting your apetitte, and turns out to be a perfect meal. Not to be watched with an empty stomach!

Tom is a greeting cards writer in LA, believes in true love and finding the ONE, who falls for a newbie in his company, Summer, who unfortunately is the opposite of him in terms of relationships. However, the pair hit it off and goes through the same stages of a real relationship and the eventual breakup. Ok, this is not a spoiler (if you watched the trailer, they did show and say that this is not a love show). However, the presentation of the movie plays out like listening to your music playlist on your iShuffle, alternating from the past to the present. The movie will relate to anyone (that's means literally most of us) who have gone through a relationship, past & present. The one thing I was dismayed abt was the disappointing and forgettable soundtracks (essential for rom-coms! even indie ones for that matter!) The leads were convincing in their roles and played out the comical, sad and angry parts well.

Surrogates reminds me a little of the recent Gamer, minus the game content. In the distant future, mankind can pick robots to live their lives thru their chosen perfect looking robots called surrogates. The story begins when the son of the founder of surrogates gets murdered. Well in this future, not everyone likes the idea of surrogates and chooses to live their life as human beings. They are however congregated into zones where the robots are not welcomed and led by their leader, the Prophet (sounds like Matrix already?). Bruce Willis plays a cop who uses his surrogate to investigate the murder but when his surrogate is destroyed, he is forced to go out into the real world to find out the mystery behind all the murders that are connected to the first. The story can be confusing if you're nt following the plot. Is this human or just a robot? Just remember, the prettier or betterlooking guys and gals are surrogates cos the humans are just worse off than the perfect robots (hence 4 stars for visuals cos there's so much eye-candy every corner you turn). What uncovers is a conspiracy to rid of all surrogates in the world. Catch the movie to find out whether all humans perish or all surrogates are exterminated. Nt as awful as I expect it to be, but I've defintely seen better. Also liked the minor emotional connection between Bruce and his wife, which he tries to reach out through her surrogate.