LIFT, 2024

Lift is a 2024 American heist comedy film directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Daniel Kunka. The film stars Kevin Hart (who also served as a producer), Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D'Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Jacob Batalon, Jean Reno, and Sam Worthington.

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PLOT

Cyrus, a renowned international thief, leads a heist crew that consists of Denton, pilot Camila, hacker Mi-Sun, safecracker Magnus, and engineer Luke. They undertake two simultaneous thefts, stealing a Van Gogh painting in London while staging the fake kidnapping of renowned NFT artist N8 in Venice. The team staged a kidnapping for N8 and Cyrus points out that famous paintings rapidly increase in value after being stolen and he says that his crew stole the Van Gogh painting and sold it in the black market for $20 million to buy N8 NFTs. After being "kidnapped", N8's NFT ballooned in value to $89 million. N8 decides to celebrate with the team after being promised a cut of the money.

Interpol agent Abby Gladwell, a former fling of Cyrus, uncovers evidence implicating Denton, in the theft and arrests him. Rather than proceed with charges against the crew, Abby's superior, Commander Huxley, leverages their legal predicament to force them to help capture billionaire Lars Jorgenson, who intends to make more money by working with the hacking group Leviathan to stage a massive flooding in Europe, allowing him to make billions in profit through stock manipulation. As Leviathan requires payment in untraceable gold bullion, Jorgenson has arranged for a shipment of gold to be taken from his vault in London and flown to Leviathan's bank in Zürich via a commercial airliner. As part of the deal for clean records for Cyrus and all his members, Cyrus insists Abby join the team to provide certain cover for Interpol.

The crew determines they will only be able to steal the gold while the airliner is in mid-air. To do so, they procure a private jet from a rich private art collector named Molsen that Camila will fly directly underneath the airliner, allowing Mi-Sun to switch the radar signals to make it seem like the plane is still on course while the crew diverts it to a private airfield. In exchange for loaning his private jet, Cyrus promises Molsen to persuade N8 to make a special NFT art for him. After Magnus cracks the safe and Jorgenson's henchmen are incapacitated, the crew will extract the gold via the jet.

Their timing is complicated when Jorgenson executes a mole in his organization and moves up the delivery date. Nevertheless, the crew is ready on time. After successfully diverting the plane, Jorgenson's henchmen attempt an hijack, resulting in a fight on board the plane. Magnus, Abby, Cyrus, and Camila are captured. Magnus escapes on the ground, while the remaining three are taken aboard the jet with the gold, headed for Jorgenson's estate in Tuscany.

Desperate for the gold to not reach Jorgenson, Huxley orders the plane shot down by NATO. Harry, the crew's contact at air traffic control, works with Camila to get a message to the pilots that there are hostages on board, forcing them to stand down. Another fight between the crew and Jorgenson's henchmen results in the jet crash landing on the grounds of Jorgenson's villa.

Abby, Cyrus, and Camila are captured at gunpoint by Jorgenson, who also executes Leviathan's representative after they decide to cancel the deal. The Carabinieri arrive, and Cyrus uses N8's NFT technology to show them a recording of Jorgenson murdering the representative. Jorgenson is arrested, while Abby punches Huxley upon learning he authorized the NATO jets. She resigns from Interpol and joins Cyrus.

Weeks later, Cyrus reveals to Abby that the crew stole the gold shipment during the heist on the airliner, replacing the actual shipment with iron bars painted to look like gold. Together, the crew recover their gold haul and celebrate their success while Cyrus and Abby rekindle their relationship.

Rating: 10 Stars

Wednesday, 2022

Wednesday 2022 is an American coming-of-age supernatural mystery television series based on the character Wednesday Addams by Charles Addams. Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jenna Ortega as the titular character, with Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Hunter Doohan, Percy Hynes White, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Georgie Farmer, Naomi J. Ogawa, Christina Ricci, and Moosa Mostafa appearing in supporting roles. Four out of the eight episodes of the first season were directed by Tim Burton, who also serves as executive producer. It revolves around Wednesday Addams, who attempts to solve a murder mystery at her new school.

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Premise

Wednesday Addams is expelled from her school after dumping live piranhas into the school's pool in retaliation for the boys' water polo team bullying her brother Pugsley. Consequently, her parents Gomez and Morticia Addams enroll her at their high school alma mater Nevermore Academy, a private school for monstrous outcasts, in the town of Jericho, Vermont. Wednesday's cold, emotionless personality and her defiant nature make it difficult for her to connect with her schoolmates and cause her to run afoul of the school's principal Larissa Weems. However, she discovers she has inherited her mother's psychic abilities, which allow her to solve a local murder mystery.

She discovers that her parents were involved in the assassination of a student named Garret Gates in the past and she is also investigating who is the werewolf, one of her friend transforms himself in a Hyde, that are killing the students. 

Rating: 10 Stars

THE Beguiled, 2017

The Beguiled is a 2017 American Southern Gothic thriller film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1966 novel of the same name (originally published as A Painted Devil) by Thomas P. Cullinan. It stars Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning. It is the second film adaptation of Cullinan's novel, following Don Siegel's 1971 film of the same name.

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PLOT

Martha Farnsworth runs a girls school in Virginia during the Civil War. By 1864, almost all of the students, teachers, and slaves have left. In addition to Farnsworth herself, only five students and one teacher, Edwina Morrow, remain. While out in the woods searching for mushrooms, Amy, a pupil, comes across John McBurney, a corporal in the Union Army who was wounded in the leg during battle, and has since deserted. Amy brings McBurney to the school where he falls unconscious. The women lock McBurney in one of the rooms while Miss Farnsworth tends to his wounds. All the women and girls in the school are immediately fascinated by the handsome man.

Initially, some of the school's residents want McBurney to be delivered as a prisoner of war to the Confederate Army, but Miss Farnsworth decides that they will let his leg heal before they decide what they will do with him. When Confederate soldiers arrive at the school, Miss Farnsworth does not tell them that a Union soldier is on the premises. While McBurney is recovering, the women and girls subtly vie for his affection by giving him presents, wearing jewellery, and preparing a lavish dinner for him. He returns the affection, concentrating especially on Miss Morrow and Miss Farnsworth. When he is able to move again, he begins to help in the garden. It becomes clear that he fears returning to battle.

When Miss Farnsworth indicates that McBurney is healthy enough and will have to leave the school in a few days, he tries to convince her to let him stay as a gardener, and tells Miss Morrow that he has fallen in love with her. One night, he tells Miss Morrow to await him in her room. When he does not appear and she hears strange noises, she investigates and finds him in bed with Alicia, a teenage pupil. McBurney tries to appease the angry Miss Morrow, but she pushes him away, causing him to fall down the stairs, badly breaking his already injured leg and falling unconscious. Miss Farnsworth decides that the only way to save his life is to amputate the leg.

When he awakes the next day and realizes he has lost his leg, McBurney is devastated and furious, accusing Miss Morrow and Miss Farnsworth of having punished him for going to Alicia's room instead of theirs. He is locked inside the music room, but threatens Alicia into giving him the key. He then breaks out, steals a gun, and loudly threatens the women before storming off. When Miss Farnsworth sends Amy to the gate to signal McBurney's presence to Confederate troops, he spots her and pursues her at gunpoint to a shed, where Miss Farnsworth rescues her by talking him down.

After McBurney storms out, Miss Farnsworth and the students try to find a solution to the issue. Miss Morrow follows McBurney to his room, where she initiates sex. Meanwhile, Marie suggests killing McBurney by preparing him a dinner containing poisonous mushrooms, to which Miss Farnsworth agrees. During the dinner, Miss Morrow, unaware of the plan, is deterred by the others at the last minute from putting the mushrooms on her own plate, but McBurney's suspicions are not aroused. Promptly after eating the mushrooms, he falls to the floor dead.

While the students sew McBurney's body into a shroud, Miss Morrow looks on, devastated. The women drag McBurney's body to the road and attach the signal to the gate so that he will be found by the next Confederate soldiers who pass by.

CAST

Colin Farrell as Corporal John McBurney

Nicole Kidman as Miss Martha Farnsworth

Kirsten Dunst as Miss Edwina Morrow

Elle Fanning as Alicia

Oona Laurence as Amy

Angourie Rice as Jane

Addison Riecke as Marie

Emma Howard as Emily

Wayne Pere as the captain

Matt Story as confederate soldier

Joel Albin as cavalry man

Rating: 10 Stars

Mother of the Bride #TOP 10

 Mother of the Bride  is a 2024 American romantic comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Robin Bernheim. It stars Brooke Shields, Miranda Cosgrove, Sean Teale, Chad Michael Murray, Rachael Harris, and Benjamin Bratt.

After a year abroad in London, Emma returns home and stuns her mother Lana with the news that she's getting married in a month at a resort in Phuket, Thailand. Things get worse when Lana discovers that the husband-to-be RJ is the son of Will, the man who broke her heart years earlier.

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PLOT

After a year working for Discovery Resorts in London, Emma Winslow's boyfriend RJ surprises her with a proposal. She happily accepts, but is concerned about her mother Lana's reaction as it's been just the two of them since her father died when she was only eight. 

In San Francisco, Lana Winslow heads a medical research lab. Emma returns home and announces that, rather than go to grad school or find a job, she's going to run her own business. She'll be receiving a 6-figure-sponsorship in exchange for promoting Discovery.  Emma then stuns Lana with the news that she's getting married in a month at a resort in Phuket, Thailand. Once she convinces her mother that she's sure, Lana insists that she's happy for her. Discovery is footing the bill, in exchange for publicity for the resort.

Arriving in Thailand are Lana's best friend Janice, as well as their friends from Stanford, Scott and Clay, who've recently married. Lana soon discovers that RJ is the son of Will Jackson, Scott's brother and her ex-boyfriend also from Stanford.

Lana goes to Will's room to clear the air, inadvertently seeing him naked. Mortified, she leaves hurriedly. Soon after arriving to dinner, Lana goes to 'freshen up', and Emma follows. In the bathroom, she explains that Will ghosted her after graduation. Devastated, Lana changed her number and moved so he couldn't hurt her again. A geneticist, she fears RJ will do the same to Emma.

Back at the table, Lana and Will agree to be maid-of-honor and best man, then RJ thanks Lana for her gift of a cappuccino maker. Will gifts them his condo in Tribeca. Lana later confides to Janice that she fears she can't compete with him.

Discovery brand manager Camala doesn't want Lana's input for most of the wedding planning, as they are pushing certain brands and designers. Lana meets with Janice to vent, then they meet up with their Stanford crew for pickle ball. Playing mixed doubles, Lana and Will shoulder out Janice and Scott. The game ends abruptly when she launches the ball into his privates.

LA doctor Lucas Campion is in awe of Lana, so asks her out for drinks. She meets him, but doesn't stay for very long. The next day, Camala shows Lana the flamboyant, black designer dress she is to wear in the wedding. She reluctantly agrees to it, feeling the brand manager is taking away the joy of the wedding by imposing plans to make it into an event.

As Lana isn't included in that day's wedding plan, she and the Stanford group head out to a secluded island and go skinny dipping. As it's prohibited on hotel property, they get reprimanded. Camala threatens to pull funding for the wedding, so Emma accuses Lana of intentionally undermining the wedding. Emma asks her to leave.

Will overhears, so takes Lana on a ride to cheer her up. The jeep they take to the remote spot fails to start for their return, so they head down to the nearest beach to flag down a boat. There, they finally talk about their past and make peace.

As Emma regrets scolding Lana, RJ suggests she apologize. Realizing Will and Lana are missing, a resort employee goes to fetch them via boat. They are disrupted just before they can kiss. On their return to the hotel, Lucas sees Will and Lana looking cozy together. So, he asks her to call if things don't work out with Will. At the rehearsal dinner, Lana overhears Will on the phone to a Katrina, saying he cannot live without her. Feeling déjà vu, she immediately distances herself from him.

Emma feels there is something off about her mother, so goes to her room. They talk, and she falls asleep there. The next day, although Lana becomes overwhelmed and cries, the wedding ceremony runs smoothly. When Emma throws the bouquet, Lana dodges it but Will catches it for her.

Confronting Lana, Will demands to know why she's been ignoring him. She asks him about Katrina and he reveals that she is his secretary, who's brought the ring he'd bought for Lana many years ago. Will proposes and, after a moment's hesitation, she accepts.

Rating: 10 Stars