Skyfall
Given the wild success of the Daniel Craig Bond films, this latest installment is an action-packed no-brainer. It’s got all the best features of a Bond classic, with none of the filler: mystery and intrigue (surrounding the past of M, played by Judi Dench), a sexy exotic Bond girl (courtesy of French bombshell Bérénice Marlohe), an egomaniacal villain (Javier Bardem!), and an iconic theme song (+1, Adele). With a complex plot and plenty of action to boot, this film is bound to put him in (or, arguably above) the pantheon of noteworthy great Bonds Sean Connery and Roger Moore.
Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino’s mercurial, long-produced and controversial blaxsploitation spaghetti Western is ready to crash Christmas this year, serving as a timely gift for those who can’t get enough of the guns, guts and glory-obsessed auteur. Jaimee Foxx plays the titular role as a freed slave who travels with a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) across the Deep South to track down a pair of murderers, leaving a bloody trail in their wake. Gory and action-packed, this off-the-rails plot (bolstered by a particularly villainous Leonardo DiCaprio) is shocking and satisfying for thrill-seekers.
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
The terrifying truth: much of what you and I wear, eat, read — even how we think, depends largely on the brands we’re exposed to, and how we view them psychologically. Infamous documentary maker Morgan Spurlock decided to crack the code by defining the concept of ‘selling out’. He created the POM Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold – which could be another attempt at product placement (that’s your call). Released in April 2011, the film goes deep into marketing and advertising on both a national and personal level. Fun fact: the brands that acquiesced to being acknowleged and featured in this film-turned-awareness campaign placed Spurlock in the center of their own campaigns. How’s that for reverse marketing?
Margin Call
An independent film written, conceived and directed by J.C. Chandor takes place and ends over the course of almost two days at an investment bank in 2008 – right when the world tumbled slowly into the depths of one of the hardest financial recessions we’ve experienced since the Great Depression. Stanley Tucci and Kevin Spacey round out Margin Call’s dynamic cast, transforming what could have been just another film about Wall Street’s demise into an action-packed drama that explores and exploits capitalism and the motives behind investment banking as we know it.
Inside Job
It’s election time in the U.S., and it’s no better time than to take stock of how we got here before we go to the polls. And, given the economic status at home as well as countries the world over, it’s safe to say that we can trace the lackluster, sluggish financial and employment numbers back to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Get caught up with the specifics with this Academy award-winning documentary, which recounts the mechanics leading up to and beyond the year the economy crashed. Developed by critically acclaimed filmmaker Chris Ferguson and narrated by Matt Damon, you’ll not only be informed of how our global economics system got so wonky, but also you’ll have the good sense to supply your friends with helpful factoids about its recovery.
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