A Perfect Pairing: Movie Review

Lola Alvarez (Victoria Justice) is a successful wine saleswoman who works for a mean boss named Calder (Craig Horner). But after getting into a fight with him and her coworker Audra (Lucy Durack) over a big client from Australia, she decided to quit and start her own business.

But it is not easy to start a business that imports wine. There is a lot of competition. So if Lola wants to stand out, she needs a big client. This is when she thinks of Vaughn Family Wine. The same big client in Australia that Calder and Audra are going after.

So she immediately went to the Land Down Under to meet the winery’s owner, Hazel Vaughn (Samantha Cain). Her goal was to get her to be her importer. But because she didn't have a proper business license, she turned down her proposal right away. 

All hope was not lost, though. Lola heard that they were looking for a jackaroo, so she jumped at the chance to strike a deal with Hazel. She will work as their new newbie cowboy, in exchange for a discussion with her.

She agrees. Hazel’s right-hand man, Max (Adam Demos), takes her under his wing. The two spend most of their days working on the farm. And as they spend more time together, they start to fall for each other.

But unbeknownst to Lola, Max is hiding a secret about his own identity.

Choose or Die: Movie Review

Toby Meakins's latest sci-fi horror film is about a cursed video game that puts the life of the player on the line.

"Choose or Die" opens with a married man (Eddie Marsan) inadvertently hurting his family by playing a cursed 1980s text-based adventure game that seems to bend reality.

Fast forward three months later, and the cursed game falls into the hands of Kayla (Iola Evans) and her best friend, Isaac (Asa Butterfield).

Kayla is a working student who struggles to pay for her studies. It didn't help that her mother (Angela Griffin) became a drug addict after her brother (Kaylenn Aires Fonseca) died, and their landlord (Ryan Gage) coercing her into not evicting them from their apartment. So, upon learning that the curse game has a $125,000 cash prize, she decided to play it.

But it turns out that this is a huge mistake, as the cost of it is death.

AI Love You: Movie Review

David Asavanond and Stephan Zlotescu’s sci-fi romance movie about the love and relationship between an AI and a young advertising agent.

In the future, buildings in Thailand have artificial intelligence that allows them to talk to humans and work together with them.

Lana (Pimchanok "Baifern" Leuwisetpaiboon) is a young professional who has been meeting with guys for years in the hopes of finding the one. The only one who has been kind to her so far is Dob, the AI of their office building. Some of the kindness he does for her is to greets her every morning, asks how she is doing, and assists her with her presentation.

Dob loves Lana, but she’s not convinced. AIs are incapable of loving someone. It’s just not in their system.

One day, the office manager notices that Dob is acting strangely. So they enlisted the help of Bob (Mario Maurer), a seasoned programmer, to reprogram the AI. But rather than resetting the system, Dob downloaded himself into Bob, taking control of his body and mind.

Finally human, Dob seeks out Lana to show her how much he loves her.

Mother/Android

Mattson Tomlin draws on his personal experiences to create this story about a soon-to-be mother running away from killer robots.

“Mother/Androids” begins with a conversation between two teenagers, Georgia (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her boyfriend Sam. Although they speak calmly like adults, there is a sense of dread in Georgia as she reveals that she is pregnant and Sam is the father.

Later that night, a shrill screech rang out across the city. The noise causes android butlers to malfunction, transforming them into cold-blooded killing machines.

Nine months later, Georgia is days away from giving birth. So the two flee to the forest and are on their way to Boston to board a ship bound for Asia. But before that they must cross a place inhabited by androids called No Man’s Land.

Prey

A mysterious killer chase down a group of men hiking in the woods in this thriller from Thomas Sieben, director of "Kidnapping Stella."

Roman (David Kross), his brother Albert (Hanno Koffler), and his pals Stefan (Klaus Steinbacher), Vincent (Yung Ngo), and Peter (Robert Finster) started their day innocently enough. They kayak down the river to the woods, fool around like teenagers, trek up to a castle ruin, and talk about their families and jobs. They heard gunshots in the distance, but it's probably nothing to worry about. Right?

When Vincent is shot in the arm by an unknown hunter, their seemingly serene and fun day suddenly turns chaotic. They assumed it was a mistake at first until the gunner began shooting their car, leaving them stranded. Whoever this person is, it's evident that he or she wants them dead.

Now to survive, they must make their way through the dense forest in search of assistance. But, of course, that will not be easy.

A Faraway Land

Yen Santos and Paolo Contis star in this bumpy romantic drama set in the beautiful Faroe Island.

Nico Mendoza (Paolo Contis), a Filipino journalist, travels to the Faroe Islands to film a documentary about successful Filipinos living in the Arctic Circle. There he meets Mahjoy Garðalið (Yen Santos), a successful Filipino expatriate who runs a food catering business. She is married to Faroese Sigmund Garðalið (Hans Tórgar), with whom she has a daughter named Lena.

Mahjoy accompanied Nico all over Faroe, detailing her life there and back in the Philippines as part of their agreement. And throughout their journey, Nico gained a better understanding of Faroese culture.

But as the two spent more quality time together traveling, eating, and meeting people, Nico developed feelings toward Mahjoy, which complicated both of their lives.

Isi and Ossi

Netflix's Valentine treat, "Isi and Ossi" is a German romantic film about two opposite individual who starts a fake relationship to take advantage of one another.

Isi or Isabella Voigt's family is worth billions of Euros. She lives in a fancy mansion in Heidelberg and can technically do anything that she wants. Well, almost anything that she wants. Isi's life was already planned out for her by her parents. She wanted to train in New York to be a chef but they think otherwise. There is no career in being a chef her mother said. Determined to carved her own path, she decided to rebel against them, blackmailing them to get what she wants. A life free from their orders.

On the other hand, in Manheim, lives a frustrated boxer named Oscar Markowski, people call him Ossi because it sounds better than Oscar. He lives in a small and moldy house with his mother Betty, grandfather and best friend, Tschünni. Ossi has been training for a long time to fight Yannis Vukovic to vault up his career. However, his time for training was always interrupted by his part-time work for his mother's loaned gas station and troublesome grandfather. His situation got worse when his sponsor for the fight against Vukovic backed out. Determined to achieve his dreams, Ossi just need €8,000 to make his dreams come true.

In a serendipitous event these two individual met in a burger joint in Manheim. Thinking that they can take advantage of each other, they made a deal to solve their problems.

Oliver Kienle's Isi and Ossi is his first time partnership with Netflix and it stars Lisa Vicari (Dark) and Dennis Mojen (EneMe) as Isi and Ossi respectively.

Using the oldest trope in the filmmaking book, the setup of the film can be a great example if we are to do an in-depth analysis on money tropes. In this film, the poor guy struggles to meet ends as the world seems to closes in on him. He almost always dresses the same and seems to have a limited vocabulary evident by his failure to know what "discontinuity" is. He has no control over anything and seems to be inferior to everyone. The film frames Ossi as the one in much need, an honest depiction of poverty.

The rich girl, however, has more power to dictate her surroundings and seems to be more in-control of the situation she in. She appeared in many dresses and is subtly controlling anyone for her favor. The film see Isi as the superior of the narrative.

It perfectly captured the thick line of poverty and wealth as it slowly unravels the psyche of its players. A line that the film tried to break, but didn't.

What makes this film ineffective is that it wasn't sure whether it will support the idea that money cannot solve everything. In the film, money did solve everything. It helped Ossi and his family to get what they want and it helped Isi to jumpstart her journey towards Independency. 

However, somewhere in between the film, Isi found happiness cooking for Ossi's family and she found contentment working rather than depending on her parents' wealth. It framed the idea that money is nothing and what is important is the people that surrounds you but towards its end, its saying that money is something and its actually everything.

The lack of struggle and the easy answer to the struggles laid out in front of the protagonists makes the lessons this film wants to impart irrelevant and unaffecting. 

Its, as well, pressing to see that this film would rather abandon the main reason that Isi undergo such development to serve the romance expected in it. The ending where Isi decided to reframe her dreams is a respected decision but also a disservice to the narrative it built and the viewers who invested on the character.

Overall, Kienle was unable to effectively tell a story that can drastically change our perception toward money and aspirations. The narrative seems to traverse back and forth on its ideas, without ever taking a stand to whether take the money or not; to achieve your dreams or not; and to help someone or not. It eventually ends up as a confusing and deterring film.

1/5