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World war Z---
Zombies---the new supplement to ghosts as the macabre danger to humanity in the movies.....
Or rather it's the new method to earn moolah---for both Hollywood and Bollywood.....
And unlike ghost movies the scope for zombie movies is vast....
Simple---just show zombies bite normal people to convert them into more zombies and you have the weapon to create mass panic---at least in the movies....
While ghost can terrorize only a house , zombies can terrorize larger areas....
The recent Bollywood movie ' Go Goa gone ' showed people taking a drug and becoming zombies on an island....
Somebody from Hollywood thought---why not show the whole world turn zombie by an epidemic of some viral infection ??
Let them bite each other like rabid dogs and spread zombiedom.....
Actually rabid dogs would be ashamed of the small number of humans they infect compared to the vast numbers that humans can infect when they really start biting.....
Whole gangs or rather mobs of nutcases ( actually they are undead---whatever that means ) roaming the streets and landscapes and indeed entire nations searching for people to bite.....
In fact religious leaders would be flummoxed as to why they didnt think of this idea to convert other people---just bite other people and they get converted to your religion
And from where does the energy to sustain such activity come from---since they dont seem to eat anything after becoming zombie ??
Sshh !! Dont ask uncomfortable questions if you wanna enjoy the movie.....
Leading your foray into this macabre enjoyment is superstar Brad Pitt of Angelina Jolie fame....
He and his family narrowly escape a zombie massacre , and very conveniently he is shown to be so important that the deputy secretary general of UN no less arranges for his and his family's rescue to an aircraft carrier.....
Once rescued it is made clear to him that only essential people have been rescued and he has to take part in the fight against zombies for his family to survive---otherwise its back into zombiedom for them.....
Yeah , he's no Dharmendra or Amitabh to become saviour of innocent people and only reluctantly agrees to help save the earth....
But once he does enter the fray he does so with aplomb and carries out his task rentlessly.....
But the zombies he is up against are rentless as well ( they have to be---to make the movie interesting ) ....
Any noise and they are attracted to it for biting people like a moth is attracted to a flame....
And they develop herd mentality and all of them get violent and agitated if one of them is killed and attack the person who has done the killing.....
And they pile up on each other in one spectacularly shot scene and climb the great wall that the nation of Israel has built to protect itself....
Superbly shot aerial photography shows dense masses of zombies stalking planet earth....
And you get to watch it in the full glory of modern 3D effects....
No place seems to be without these zombies---even the plane carrying Brad Pitt has one on it and the whole plane gets infected.....
However Brad discovers a way of avoiding zombie bites by observing their pattern of behavior....
And if the whole of humankind can be made to avoid zombie bites in the manner discovered by him then there's a way to survive....
But the secret to make humans avoid zombie bites lies on a path being blocked by the zombies themselves.....
Brad will have to walk through it to bring back hope to humanity.....
Walk through a horde of blood crazed zombies waiting to bite---how does Pitt accomplish that ??
Go and watch the movie for that....
Would be a nice outing....
Verdict---good .
rating---3
Nice review :highfive:
I havent seen this yet as I have seen mixed reviews, mostly bad ones so im waiting for the DVD :yup:
I wouldnt say 'Brad Pitt of Angelina Jolie fame' as he was a very successful actor before they were together.
The reluctant fundamentalist---
America in the nineteen nineties.....At the top of the world as it was still enjoying its victory in the cold war.....
.......An innocent time when it was a genuinely free society without the encumbrances of security checks everywhere.....
And above all at the peak of economic prosperity and confidence.....
New York in the nineteen nineties.....Heading towards becoming a real melting pot where people of diverse races and cultures lived with each other---christians and jews and muslims and hindus and sikhs and caucasians and blacks and hispanics and asians.....
And New York was....is the economic centerpiece of America.....
And towering over New York were the Twin towers---elegant as well as brute symbols of America's economic dominance over the world......
Men and women dreamt of working in or near the Twin towers of New York city---for working here meant that you had arrived.....
And then they came down at the start of the twenty first century---destroyed by the most astonishing and devastating terrorist attack on any urban center in the world.....
And lives changed after that.....America changed.....
America's perception of the religion of those who had brought down the Twin towers changed too.....
The hero of the this film ( played by Riz Ahmed ) belongs to that religion---yes he is muslim.....and a Pakistani to boot.....
Riz is is one of those whom Tom Wolfe so famously called ' Masters of the universe ' in his acclaimed novel ' Bonfire of the vanities '.......
Yeah , he has achieved his dream of working at a top position at the firm Underwood Samson in New York.....
And he has a white girlfriend.....
He thinks he's made it.....
......Until it all comes down---thats is , until the towers come down.....
And here he is---sitting in Lahore in Pakistan telling his life story to an American journalist who's come to give a patient hearing to his twisted tale......
The journalist has come to hear as well as record Riz's tale because he is now purported to be a fundamentalist.....
All this is happening under the shadow of the kidnapping of an American professor in Lahore---so times are grim.....
Its upto Changez Khan ( thats Riz's name in the movie and no , he's no mongol emperor ) to convince the American reporter that he may be a fundamentalist but he's a reluctant one---the reluctant fundamentalist.....
So what does the term ' reluctant fundamentalist ' mean ??
It means that he's been forced to become a fundamentalist by circumstances , by people's , by America's behavior towards him---especially after the 9/11 attacks.....
So does he manage to convince the American journalist that he is a fundamentalist of the reluctant variety ??
Go and watch the movie for that.....
The more important matter is----did he manage to convince the audience watching the movie that he is a reluctant fundamentalist ??
This I can answer only for myself.....
And the answer is that at least I wasn't fully convinced.....
Agreed , some of the humiliation Changez had to undergo as America became suspicious of muslims does not make nice viewing.....
He is repeatedly singled out for security checks and on one occasion is forced to strip naked in front of policemen.....
And he becomes a target for minor hate attacks....
Even his girlfriend betrays his trust.....
Agreed with all that.....agreed.....
But would the Pakistanis have behaved less paranoically had their country been attacked by outsiders in a brutal terrorist attack ?? Would their behavior towards the people of the attackers' religion been any different than the Americans' behavior ?? Would Changez behave in a different manner than Americans did with outsiders if his country was attacked by their people ??
And why does Changez have to become a fundamentalist ( however reluctant that fundamentalism may have been ) because America was was not good to him ??
Why does he have to grow a ' fundamentalist ' beard ?? Is it compulsory for people ill treated by America to grow a beard ??
OK , if he does not feel comfortable in America he can go back to Pakistan---but why cant he live a secular life there ?? What is the need for Changez to come close to religion even if America was not good to him ??
For example if an Indian or Chinese or Korean suffers racism in America , then that does not mean he comes close to his religion does he.....
In my opinion these Pakistanis use any excuse to turn to their favourite haunt---religion.....
Its to the credit of the character of Changez that he does not let his fundamentalism divert into terrorism---for his experience as an evaluator has given him enough brains to figure out the sinister aims of those who want to recruit him for terror and refuse them.....
The movie unfolds as a series of flashbacks as Changez tells the American journalist his story and becomes more gripping as it becomes interconnected with the fate of the kidnapped American professsor.....
And aquires the properties of a thriller as it becomes intense and Changez reveals that he knows who the American journalist really is.....
Mohsin Hamid's novel has been well adapted on the screen using several Indian actors like Shabana Azmi and Om Puri who play Changez' parents , and the atmosphere of and contrast between New York and Lahore has been well created .
I found the movie worth a watch....
Verdict---Good .
3
Zero dark thirty---
Osama Bin Laden---the man who dared to take on the might of the most powerful nation on planet earth in the most astonishing manner possible---in a way not even dreamed up by American fiction writers....
The moment he did so , he was a marked man.....
But the onus was on the USA to find him and kill him---it was a question of honour and justice and of prestige.....The world had to be reminded that you cant target the USA without terrible repurcussions on yourself....
But where to find him ?? Especially in a position where elements of the Pakistani establishment were in cahoots with him and protecting him....
Not surprisingly , it was a long and hard wait to get to him.....
And to get him a CIA agent called as Maya worked painstakingly for years in Pakistan collecting information bit by bit till she hit paydirt....
But until she hit paydirt , she had to go through plenty of disappointments and see many tragedies unfold---and she had to see this happening for many years....
Bombs exploded in places where she was eating ( like Marriott hotel ) , she lost her colleagues in terrorist attacks and she herself became a target for assassination bids as news leaked out that she was a CIA agent---but she was unwavering in her devotion to the task of getting Bin Laden....
During this time she rejected any idea of romance in personal life and became detached from her family.....
People who worked with her , including torturers who were beyond caring about human pain , also got tired of their brutal task and left for other more comfortable shores....
But in the end it was a triumph for Maya....so triumphant that a large part of the movie focuses on her and in essence she is the heroine of the movie....
Of course , in the end the raid to kill Bin Laden was carried out by other people , but it was her decisive pinpointing done after extensive research that made it possible....
The movie begins with torture scenes of suspected Al Qaeda members which may make one cringe....and they make even Maya flinch for a moment....
But this tough lady goes through seeing it all and survives grittily to stick to her task....
The movie has expletives being used continually by all Americans---and the word fcuk is most used.....even by Maya , who introduces herself as the motherfcuker who pinpointed the target to the commitee that has to approve the mission to kill Bin Laden.....
And she uses the word in a way that would warm the cockles of your heart if you are a true patriotic Indian ( like I fancy myself to be )---she calls Pakistan a fcuked up country in a way no Bollywood ( of pak appeasement fame ) movie has dared to call in recent times.....Bravo Hollywood !!
The raid which kills Laden is shown like a thriller with a touch of suspense.....and also with some comic relief as a US commando begins to call out ' Osama , Osama ' while searching for him in the house , as if Osama really was going to come out !!---Now did that really happen ??
Acting by the actress playing Maya is great , and the filming of the raid on Osama's house has been done with military precision.....
And in the end you conclude that the USA is made of manly men and courageous women who are kind to those who seek shelter and are unforgivingly vengeful to those who have done them harm---and I wish some of these qualities were embibed by my countrymen....
And I wished that we Indians could similarly rain death on those who seek our destruction....
And with that thought for you to ponder , I conclude....
Verdict---Good .
rating---4
Man of steel IMAX 3D---
Superman---the prince of superheros....the one with the greatest powers of them all....
Young and handsome with a perfect built and appropriately caucasian white and American to boot ( why cant he be black or brown or nonamerican ?? Shh !! Dont ask silly questions !! ).....
But even he has to be reinvented for the 21st century.....
Gone is the underwear worn outside the body....and even the S on his chest has a new meaning---it's a symbol of hope now....
And the story of his birth and journey to the earth is more complicated now....
It's complicated by the fact that people from his original planet ( Krypton ) have come back almost from the dead to colonize the earth by wiping out the human race and replacing it with themselves....
....And the man of steel has to choose as to whose side to take---the earthlings who gave him shelter , or the ones to whose race he belongs....
Ultimately its the power of love which prevails--the love he got from his foster parents on earth....and the love he gets from his ladylove Lois Lane....
So he chooses to fight for his adopted planet for what is right....
But though on earth he is superman , his fellow Kryptonites and their leader General ZoD can fight him as equals....
So can he save the earth and it's civilization from extinction ?? Go and watch the movie for that....
The first part of the movie showing his growing up years is the better half of the movie , and is filled with sentimental moments....
His foster father ( played by Kevin Costner ) advices him to hide his powers and sacrifices his life but does now allow him to display his powers....
Yet situations do occur where he has to use and display his powers in order to save people....
And an intrepid reporter ( Lois Lane ) of Daily planet newspaper gets scent of his unearthly powers and gets on his track....
And what powers !!
Power to flit from one corner of the earth to another in a jiffy.....
Power to lift entire buildings as if he is lifting feathers....
Power to heal fatal wounds in seconds....
Power to fly with beautiful girls in his arms ( Aaahh !! Now why didn't I have that power ?? ).....
It seems the man of steel is set for a ride to superherodom....until his fellow Kryptonites come to conquer the earth in the second part of the movie....
It is this part which does not deliver the goods...
Mind you...its actionpacked all right , but the problem is that it is massively overactionpacked.....
The fighting....it seems less like fighting and more like carnage at times....
....And once the fighting starts , it's unstoppable....it veers to the point of utter destruction....
No breather is given either to superman or the villains or to the viewer.....
And in the end the excessive action tires you out....
Of course , I had the pleasure of watching the movie in the full glory of IMAX 3D....
And IMAX 3D is a different experience in itself....
While I had seen movies in IMAX form separately and 3D form separately , combining the two brings special effects to full flower....
Actually the superman movie series had died out with superman 4 , and the man who played it with awkward perfection in the past ( Christopher Reeve ) was no more....
While this attempt to revive the series is not perfect , it does have its moments....
And in Henry Cavill we have a real new superman---so Christopher Reeve can sleep peacefully in his grave....
Verdict---decent enough .
rating--3
Now you see me---
Four magicians pull off a heist---and with what verve and panache and mind blowing speed.....!!
Yeah , they are the ' four horsemen ' selected by a mysterious person who prefers to remain behind the scenes to carry off three spectacular heists in the form of magic tricks in full view of the audience . They are carefully selected after close observation of their skills and include a card trick player , a mentalist , a conman and a an escape artist---the last being deliciously and sexily feminine.....
The film certainly begins well as the four magicians pull of a sensational robbery of a french bank in a magic show in Las Vegas by teleporting a man to the bank and helping him rob the money---money which is showered on the audience watching it . The special effects are dazzling and a visual treat .
But there's also a person ( played by Morgan Freeman ) who debunks these magicians and shows us just how the magic was not really magic.....
But who cares....There's the next trick to be pulled off.....
The movie moves at electric pace and breakneck speed and leaves you with very little time to wonder and ponder about whether it was really magic or not.....
But as the movie moves on to the next trick you realize that behind it is one man's personal agenda---and that agenda is nothing but revenge.....
Revenge for past wrongs , revenge for past sins committed against someone.....But the question is---whom ??
The second trick dazzles you again , but the vengeful motives of the person behind the whole thing become clear too....
But the police and a beautiful Interpol agent are after the four magicians , though they always manage to stay one step ahead of the cops , and Morgan Freeman the debunker is not far behind too....
The question again is---why all this elaborate deception , and by whom and for what purpose ??
Go and watch the movie for that....
Its in the third trick that the movie fails , for it is way too complicated to watch....and the car chases are something that we have seen in other movies as well....
In the end , the magician's tricks and special effects become too much to handle , and so does the superfast pace of the movie....
There's a twist to the tale in the end as the villain/hero reveals himself and his motives , but to me the bigger question was---why would the four magicians take such risks with the police for another person ?? Why would they go to so much trouble for a person they did not even know ??....and that question was left unanswered....
The movie begins spectacularly but loses its way towards the end....
Had it been the opposite , with the movie starting slowly but getting better towards the end , then it would have been a good one....
But then , not all fridays ( actually I saw the movie in sunday ) are lucky for the audience---are they ??
Verdict---Okay .
rating---2.5
Hummingbird ( in Britain and India )/Redemption( in USA )/Crazy joe ( in France )---
This is what the site spiritanimal.info has to say about hummmingbirds---
'' The hummingbird spirit animal symbolizes the enjoyment of life and lightness of being. Those who have the hummingbird as a totem are invited to enjoy the sweetness of life, lift up negativity wherever it creeps in and express love more fully in their daily endeavors. This fascinating bird is capable of the most amazing feats despite its small size, such as traveling great distances or being able to fly backwards. By affinity with the hummingbird, those who have this bird as totem may be encouraged to develop their adaptability and resiliency while keeping a playful and optimistic outlook. ''
Maybe thats why Jason Statham hallucinates about Hummingbirds in the movie of the same name.....
......For he's got a chance to redeem his wasted life when he accidently breaks into the house of a well off man after being chased by goons after a fight and finds the credit card of the owner of the house . He also finds out that he has the chance of free use of the house for several months as the owner is out of town and country for months....
Those months by the way , are exactly the months that the hummingbird makes its temporary appearance until it migrates to other parts....
And just like the hummingbird , Jason sojourn in the house he's occupied is temporary---only until the owner of the house comes back.....
And also temporary therefore is his lease on respectable life.....
For he's a Afghanistan war veteran ( a trained commando no less....) who has been scarred by his experience in the war and come back to Britain to live on the mean streets of inner city of London snorting drugs....
But Jason wants to believe that he is good man.....
.....And has the urge to justify his self image as one....
So he begins to spread his newly found money around among the poverty struck folks that desperately need help.....
And the more specific target of his largesse is a unconventionally good looking nun who has taken a liking to him.....
.....For she has a story of injustice in her own life too , of having had to commit a crime at a tender age and being forced to live a life of a nun for repentance---a life she did not choose....
Jason shamelessly admits his attraction for the nun when confronted with the situation of being forced to confess it.....
.....And he wants her to wear an attractive red dress when coming to meet him.....
......And he dreams of making torrid love to her on satin sheets....
His own conscience nags him for using another man's credit card and he decides to not use it and tries to find work....
However the only work a man like him can get is in the underworld , and the netherworld again sucks him in....
But his life is turned upside down when he learns that a woman ( not the nun ) he has formerly loved has been killed....
.....And Jason is determined to catch the killer....
So does he succeed in bringing the killer to book ??
And does he get to live his dream of making love to a lovely nun ??
But most importantly , does he get to use his temporary good fortune to turn around his life and do some good deeds ??
.....For he has a daughter somewhere who has dreamt of seeing photos of her father in respectable clothes as a respectable man.....
....And he actually dreams getting such photos taken and wants to personally hand them over to his daughter.....
Above all , does he manage to come out of it all really believing that he is a decent and honourable man as he would like himself to be ??
And will the audience believe that inspite of his bad habits and bad company Jason is a nice guy in the end ??
Watch the movie for that....
For Jason Statham has put a rare display of real acting and tried his best to convince us of his intentions....
Yeah , instead of a slam bang action movie what we have is a nicely slow paced film that goes a low on the action and more on emotion as Jason and his beautiful nun stalk London's dark underbelly.....
......And that underbelly shot at night forms the backdrop of Jason and his nun's attempt at redemption....
.....An attempt at redemption that at the end brings a lump in your throat.....
You really wished things hadn't finished the way they did....
But then , thats real life....
Verdict---At least I liked it....
rating---3
Django unchained---
I have seen very few of Quentin Tarantino's films.....
......But now that I have seen this , I am gonna see them all.....
......And write reviews---thats a promise.....http://emasti.in/styles/default/xenforo/clear.png
Suddenly I have become a fan....
While traditionally Hollywood has been squeamish on the subject of Black slavery , Tarantino takes the subject head on with the attitude of a raging bull in a China shop.....
......And like a raging bull , he creates havoc in the form of spectacular violence.....
And thats what he is creates in all his films---or so I heard.....
Thats why I am gonna watch them all.....
In this film the spectacular violence is not only in the shooting sprees of bullets and explosions of dynamite (of course , all that is there too ) but also in the mindblowing racism of some of the characters in the film and in the ugly scenes it creates......
......Scenes of dogs attacking a black man presumably with the intention of tearing him apart---thankfully the camera turns away at the last moment....
.....Scenes of black people being scourged by long whips till the marks appear on their backs and they writhe in agony.....
......Scenes of a black man pleading for his wife to be spared such a cruel fate till you are choked with emotion....
......Scenes of two black men forced to fight each other till one of them manages to break another's bones and then kill him.....
Now I know why slavery is known as the fate worse than death.....
And amidst all this mayhem one black man is freed by a white man from the chain gang that chains him.....
That black man's name is Django.....
Yeah , this time the Django is a black slave---but Django is now unchained.....
And not only is he unchained , he is unleashed onto us.....
For the German white man who frees him tells him a mythical story of a German princess who has been trapped by her father on top of a mountain with dragons guarding her , and about the hero who saves her because she is worth all that.....
And our hero wants to do the same for his wife who is held as a slave by a brutal slave plantation owner played with aplomb by Leonardo Di Caprio.....
For she is worth all that risk too.....
So Django and his German deliverer set off to that plantation in the fanatically slave holding state of Mississippi where a black man on a horse draws a lot of stares and also some real hostility......
But who is the German deliverer ?? He's a bounty hunter who kills wanted men for money---and Django gets plenty of training for the grim task ahead by killing evil men who have price on their heads......and the audience gets to see a lot of action western style---quick draws of guns by men riding fast horses ; so quick that the other man cant retaliate.....
Yeah , the good old days of Clint Eastwood are back big time.....
But the real danger lies after this phase---that of going to free the beautiful black slave from the clutches of her sinister owners.....
Its task akin to taking food from a lion's mouth.....
For the terrifying slave owners live in a land bristling with guns of all caliber......
So can the hero and his friend save the lovely black lady from the hell she is in....
Go and watch the movie for that.....
Watch the Tarantino style of movie making......
Watch as the tension builds over seemingly normal conversations with violent people on a dinner table with a sense of impending doom.....
......For you know that guns are going to boom any moment.....
And when they do , watch with a smile on your face.....for this is moviemaking at its very best.....
Acting by everyone is faultless , but the icing on the cake is the slave plantation owner's aide played by Samuel L Jackson---a black man who supports the slave system , and is indeed a part and parcel of it ; an embodiment of evil beyond comprehension and also within it---for his livelihood depends on supporting the slave system forced on people of his own race , and whose total dedication to his white master's needs is outrageously infuriating.....
Best dialogues are given to Django's German friend ( played superbly by Christoph Waltz ) who speaks super correct English , and springs some laughs for the audience even in a tense situation.....
Some comic scenes are really hilarious , like the scene in which the white hooded Ku Klux Klan members discover that the eyeholes in their white hoods are improperly made , leading to confusion during a raid....
But it is violence that is king.....
All flames erupting from barrels of guns and blood erupting from bodies of men and explosions rocking the place.....
This is no film for the chicken hearted , and indeed many African Americans have vowed not to see it---for the indignities heaped upon the black slave from Africa are truely heartrending.....
But if you do have a tough heart , it well worth the money spent.....
Verdict---outstanding .
rating---4.5
Mmmm Donuts
10-06-13, 01:47 AM
Glad you enjoyed Django Unchained. Definitely one of the best movies of 2012, it's just awesome.
Lincoln---
The world in the mid 19th century---a world in the grip of colonialism and a world of slavery.....
.......And no one feels the crushing burden of slavery more than the black man of Africa---their alleged mental inferiority and lack of civilization in sub saharan Africa makes them a race looked down upon as subhumans fit only to serve others , their dark skin further deepens this racism , and their considerable physical strength makes them thought of as ideal beasts of burden.....
The slave markets of America and the barbaric middle east are awash with black slaves kidnapped by brutal slave traders from the coasts and interiors of Africa , sometimes aided by their own black brethren.....
While the Turkish sultan needs them in the castrated form as eunuchs to guard his harem , the American white man needs him as laborer on his cotton plantations....
Its the black man's hard labour that drives the economy of the southern part of the United States.....and without him to serve the needs of the whites of the southern United States as a slave the entire way of life of the southerners would collapse like a pack of cards.....
But can they stop the powerful winds of the civilized impulse of emancipation ??
.....For leading the charge of the anti slavery agitation is the President of the United States no less---and his name is Abraham Lincoln.....
Needless to say he is a great man leading a great nation.....
So can Hollywood produce a fittingly great film on him ?? Let's see....
The movie begins in the middle of the war that has been unleashed as the southern states declare their secession from the United States in view of the impending anti slavery decision that is going to be imposed on them by the northern states and Abraham Lincoln declares war on them calling them mere rebels.....
The United States is actually going to civil war for the freedom of people brought from the alien shores of the African continent !! If that is not the measure of the greatness of America then what is ?? For hundreds of thousands of young American men are dying for stopping something like slavery---something that is accepted as part of everyday life in the middle east during that time without batting an eyelid , something that exists as the tyranny of the upper castes on untouchables in the India of that period !!
But in order to foist this greatness upon America , it requires the tireless efforts of a great President.....
And indeed , the emancipation of slaves is the one big aim of his life , something that he stakes his entire political career on.....
He is determined to bring about the end of slavery by all means , by hook or crook.....
By crook ??
Yeah , this great man is ready to use all means whether fair or foul to get votes of congressmen---for those votes are needed for passing the 13th amendment to the US constitution which abolishes slavery . For him the goal is important , not the means to reach it.....and the goal , can anybody doubt its laudability ??
So congressmen are coaxed cajoled browbeaten to bring them to accept his point of view , and his hirelings pass money and promises of opportunities of earning money to recalcitrant congressmen.....all and everything for a good and just cause....
All this while a great war rages on killing people in the thousands....
But like all great men , Lincoln knows that the great questions of the day sometimes have to be settled by the force of arms , and he is not averse to shedding blood for his august goals....
And the blood that may be shed could be of his son , for his son insists on joining the armed forces to the chagrin of Abraham's wailing wife who fears losing another son for she has lost one already.....
Indeed , his wife seems to be ever complaining ever wailing for she simply cannot match his greatness....
But great or not , she is a loyal wife as they used to be in the 19th century---and Lincoln is a deeply attentive husband and father.....
....For he listens to his wife and fulfills his son's wishes only to allow him a posting well behind the war's frontlines.....
So does his nepotism distract from his greatness ??
Hardly....
For as you watch him talking to friends and foes alike convincing them of the need to end slavery you begin to have respect for the man....
......And the interesting stories he tells and the anecdotes he relates in his own inimitable manner give you an idea of his intellect and his sense of humour....
Or maybe it is the acting of Daniel Day Louis that makes accepting Lincoln with his small faults and all his greatness so easy.....
Aiding Lincoln in his quest is an extremist politician who has made it his life's mission to end slavery from the land....but he is too impatient , and Lincoln has to use all his powers of persuation to convince him of the need to be patient and not do anything rash....
They are all good men really , and their sheer enthusiasm makes your heart bat for their ambition....
But the real star of the show is the day the anti slavery amendment is put to vote.....
You can feel your heart pounding as the one by one the votes are counted.....
And when the results of the vote came out---there were tears in my eyes , just like they were there were in the eyes of those black people who had assembled to watch the vote with a mixture of hope and fear....
So were they tears of joy or sadness ?? Of victory or failure ??
To those who know their history well , the answer is well known....
But for those who dont , this is a fine chance to brush up your history ( my fave subject in school , by the way )
Its not an action packed movie , and the its not about the American civil war....
But what it lacks in action , it makes up with emotion as you see history in the making.....
And the emotion makes it well worth a watch.....
At least I thought so....
Verdict---good .
rating---3.5
The host---
The earth has been invaded by aliens . The alien souls enter human bodies and take them over and in this way they have taken over most of the human beings on earth .
How to detect that a human body has been taken over by aliens ?? A strange glow comes into the eyes....
......And most former humans on earth have this glow in their eyes....
Only a few real humans are left . They are hiding in deep crevasses carrying out a guerilla war against the alien occupiers .
The aliens are searching for the remaining humans who are fighting for survival . One of the remaining humans gets caught and her body too is taken over by an alien soul . But her mind is too strong and resists this takeover of her body . She escapes from clutches of the human bodies having alien souls who have captured her and makes her way back to human settlement .
But she still has the strange glow in her eyes that marks her out as a human body taken over by an alien !!
So will the humans accept her as one of their own ??
And what will she achieve among humans when her own body is caught between the alien soul that has occupied her and the exceptionally strong human mind that resists this occupation ??
Watch the movie for that....
So is it another sci fi flick ?? Another one about humans and aliens fighting each other with superadvanced weapons ??
No , in fact it is a film about winning the fight using an old weapon called love and tenderness.....
About romance blossoming---and romance fulfilled---in a confrontation between races from different planets.....
For it is romance and the pining for lost love that makes the heroine's mind resist the alien soul's occupation of her body.....love for her lover and affection for her younger brother.....
And it is the search for that love that makes her run back among humans.....
As the aliens begin to track her down to her hiding hole bringing the whole human settlement at risk another battle is going on within her---her alien soul falls in love with a goodlooking boy much to the chagrin of her mind which loves her old lover !!
Behind all this pining for love I suspected the hand of a sensitive woman....
But the director of the film is a man....
As the credits rolled I found out what I suspected---the movie is based on a novel written by a woman.....
So will love conquer all and everything---just like a woman would like it to happen ??
I really wish that things were that way---that the slogans like ' make love not war ' were translated into reality.....that all soldiers dropped weapons and won hearts rather than wars....
Real life however is different.....
But for those who believe in the power of love there is this movie....
Verdict---Not a bad outing.....
rating---2.5
The call---
America's obsession with crazed psychos continues---this time with ' The Call '......
Halle Berry ( looking attractive in a smart new hairstyle ) works in the police operations room as a officer who takes calls of victims and directs police squads to crime scenes .
.....And like any beautiful sensitive woman ( dont we all like our women that way....) has a propensity to get emotionally mixed up in the plight of the victims she gets calls from.....
But one day Halle loses her peace of mind when a female victim who is being stalked by a psycho and from whom she gets a call gets killed due to a silly mistake Halle has made during the call.....
Halle changes her job while still working for the police , until she is confronted with a similar situation again---that of a young girl being kidnapped by the same crazed man.....
Halle cant fail this time.....not again , especially when confronted with the same killer.....she's got to save the lovely girl she's promised she would save.....
So can she.....???
Watch the film for that.....
The film is an edge of the seat thriller that keeps you tense throughout.....
And where's tension there's interest---from the audience that is.....
If you get entertained by films which bring on the tension then certainly this film is for you.....
.....For as the chase to save the victim in the killer's clutches hots up , so does the body count increase.....
.....And needless to say , the body count is that of innocent people.....
......Innocents being smashed by spades and burnt alive after being doused by petrol---its all there.....
Yeah , nothing works like little bit of cruelty to bring in the viewers.....
Halle has that remarkable propensity that all actors in thrillers possess---that of going without untrammelled fear into dangerous places where others would be scared to tread.....
......And the killer has an obsession with beautiful women like her.....
All the better to give some thrills....
Thrills to bring relaxation of body and mind to your dull existence....
Not a bad outing I had , I would say.....
Verdict---nothing fantastic , but good enough.....
rating---3
The collection---
From the makers of the SAW series comes this new movie.....
And when the makers are of the SAW series you know what to expect---a feast of delicious blood what else.....
So off I went to the cinema hall to engorge myself in a bloodfest.....
And the director didn't disappoint....
For its a movie that proves that as far as blood and gore and sheer imaginative violence is concerned , no one can match Hollywood---and especially the makers of the SAW series......
For who else can think of such devices for killing and maiming people in the worst way possible.....
All horrifying sharp instruments cutting up people , shredding their body parts and dropping on unsuspecting victims from above....
Devices that I can only imagine but cannot name.....
And those devices tearing off peoples' flesh , oozing out their blood and breaking their bones in an awesome crunching sound.....
Of course , there are other methods of pointless barbarism in the movie....like howling wolves attacking their prey , deadly poisonous spiders crawling on human bodies bringing them closer to death....
And those dead bodies are cut up to be exhibited like museum pieces in liquid filled glass cases.....
A special weapon is nails fixing people on the ground by splitting through their hands before the real torture begins....
And people are locked in boxes with small openings to see other victims torn into pieces so that they know what is going to happen to them---as they are next in line for some mindbending cruelty.....
All blood blood blood everywhere.....
And who is presiding over this mayhem ?? Its a mysterious masked man who kills people for no other reason than that of giving pleasure to bloodthirsty people who enjoy such things in the movies and making those bloodthirsty people shell out their money at multiplexes so that the producers rake in the moolah.....
And do I even have to spell out the fact that he shown to be a totally demented psychopath.....
And the story begins as he kills everyone in a nightclub and kidnaps a goodlooking girl.....
big mistake....
.......for the girl has protectors who are ready to spare no method to bring her back.....
And their search leads them to an abandoned hotel where the masked man has created his den of horror.....
But how come he creates such a monstrous place without being noticed by police and authorities ???
And from where does he get the resources and money and supplies to get such weapons and gasoline and machine guns and create such torture chambers ???
SSHH.....Dont ask uncomfortable questions that will spoil your enjoyment of the movie.....if you can enjoy it at all......
.....For its not a film for the fainthearted.....
So do the rescuers of the girl manage to rescue the girl and bring the terrible masked man to justice ??
Watch the movie for that....if you can that is....
Verdict---Okay.
rating---2.5
Taken part 2
Constantinople in Turkey.....now Istanbul.....at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.....where the civilized west meets the barbaric east.....
And what happens when a man from the civilized west takes the danger of venturing into the barbaric east ?? He's TAKEN....or rather kidnapped by men taking revenge for the well deserved justice he meted out to one of them who was a rapist.....
The civilized man taking the risky venture is Liam Neeson.....and the barbarians who are out to seek bloody revenge are Albanian muslims.....
Yeah , its nice to see Islam in the movies....but hey , only in the movies.....all stories of mayhem and murder and loot and destruction and kalashnikovs and massacre.....
And when these savages come to know Liam has come to Istanbul with his exwife and daughter they jump at the opportunity like a dog to a bone.....
......And they plan to kill his wife by cutting her up piece by piece and sell his daughter to a whorehouse to be raped again and again by lust crazed men.....
Yeah , the men Liam is up against have no honour nor dignity nor respect for rights of women.....
All that they see is their ancient call for restoring their honour---by taking an eye for an eye.....
But what they dont know is that Liam is too formidable an enemy.....a man who has survived a hundred battles and has an incorrigible taste for winning this one....
And his daughter is not a wimp either....she's ready to help her dad in every situation.....
And thus---when two powerful teams meet for confrontation there is bound to be hell raising action.....
.....And hell raising action is what I love.....all bullets flying and grenades exploding and jaws getting crunched and cars getting smashed.....all in the shadow of the Aya Sophia mosque which was once Saint Sophia church the largest church in Christiandom.....and also all under the shadow of the flag of Turkey---a republic seemingly powerless to stop all the carnage.....
So whose gonna triumph in the end ?? The bloodthirsty barbarians or the civilized ones ?? The people who look at other people's daughters with an evil eye or people whose mundane dreams include their daughters passing a simple car driving test ??
Go and watch the movie for that....I wasn't disappointed by the experience....
Verdict---Good action .
rating---3
Safe---
Calling all the aficionados of slam bang action......
The movie you dreamt of in your dreams is here.....
Yeah , your dreams are going to come true.....
The dreams you dreamt of seeing pile after pile of dead bodies , of blood being spilled all around , of jaws being smashed and bones being broken---are all gonna come real.....
And doing all the damage is Jason Statham---the half baldie hero of the twenty first century ; the successor to the half baldie hero of the twentieth century---Bruce Willis , who else.....
Yeah , I am remembering the days when Bruce Willis was half bald....
Now he is completely bald , but thats another matter.....he was only half bald in my younger days......:D
Its another matter that Jason cannot compete with Bruce as an actor , but he makes up in brawn for what he lacks in acting.....
Now back to the action.....
Bullets are fired like hail in a hailstorm , or rain in a downpour---take your pick.....
Bodies fly around like ninepins.....
Tables and chairs smashed around like anything.....
Blood spattered around makes neat and colourful configurations on the walls or carpets depending on what the dead body hits after being shot.....
Mean baddies roam around the city lusting for mayhem.....
And they all vie for the post of who is more cruel than the rest.....and man , the competition for that post is pretty tough....
And in the midst of all this is a little Chinese girl whose brain works faster than a computer.....
.....And she's memorised the very long combination number which can open a safe that contains a lot of money.....
Big trouble....
For now everyone's after her to get the number---the Chinese gang , the Russian gang and also the crooked police.....
But triumphing over them all is Jason Statham the one man army cum messiah of the little girl.....
Yeah , she's orphaned and he's lost his family---so they both need each other.....
Thats the story.....
But who cares about the story.....
For there's never a dull moment when Jason is around---as he always is....
And because he's always around , dull moments in the movie are as rare as ice in the deserts of the Sahara and as rare as cactus plants inside the artic circle.....
And towards the end , the lack of dullness is too much , the nonstop action is way too much and the breakneck speed of the movie is a little too much.....
But its still enough for some timepass.....
Verdict---nothing great , but you can call it watchable.....
rating---2.5
Mirror Mirror
Its the story of snow white and the seven dwarfs---retold and remodelled for the modern era.....
.......Or so I assume.....
......Because I have totally forgotten the original fairy tale I liked during my school days , which my mother used to read out to me diligently in childhood .
And remodelling it for the modern era involves it being told to us by the villain herself---Snow white's step mother , who else.....
.....And the evil step mother is played by the ever green Julia Roberts.....
And so in never never land there is a king.....and he's a good king.....
And he has a beautiful daughter---with skin as white as snow and hair that is jet black.....in fact so white she is that she is called Snow white.....
Now wait a minute.....does this mean that whiter the skin more goodlooking the person is , in this politically correct era of ours---where black people are encouraged to be proud about their colour ??
Well , we have to remind ourselves that fairy tales were born in a different era and cant be changed for today---and any attempt to tweak a story too much will be a reason for failure if it deviates from the original too much....
But snow white's mother dies and the king marries Julia Roberts who sends him to the forest from where he does not return......
And Julia takes over the kingdom and misrules , keeping the people in dire poverty while she enjoys....
But the magic mirror she keeps does not hide the truth , and keeps warning her that there is a price to pay for her deeds---deeds which she does by making the mirror cast a spell on anyone she wants to ensnare.....
One day Snow white grows up to be eighteen and eager to see the world.....
......And when she goes out into the world she sees her people suffering.....
But never mind.....
When she goes out into the world she also meets the man of her dreams---a handsome prince of course.....
And she meets and befriends seven lovable dwarfs.....
And many hands make light work.....
In short when allies meet they can change the old and evil order.....
Doesn't matter that the evil step mother falls in love with the handsome prince too , and tries to marry him by casting another spell on him......
As the mirror warns her , its her last spell---and she has to pay the long accumulated price for her evil deeds.....
Time and tide are on Snow white's side....
That and youth and innocence and virginity and goodness of heart.....
In the fairy tales its always the fair and the good who win dont they.....
But before they win , we get to see a world of magic and dances in fairy tale ballrooms and handsome princes and lovely princesses and small adventures and demons and witches and potions and spells---all of which brings nostalgic memories of your childhood alive.....
.......A carefree childhood spent on your mother's lap listening to Grimm's fairy tales free from the worries of the world as only a child can be......
.....And all of it accentuated by modern special effects.....
Now why did the director have to ruin it all by ending the movie by making the actors dance a bollywood-like bhangra ??
Oh , he's an Indian and wanted to have some Indian touch to a Hollywood film......
Never mind again....
Its still a decent watch.....
rating---3
In time---
Remember the old cliche ??--time is money.
Well , hollywood brings the old cliche to life , literally , in this film.
Its about a world where everyone is programmed to die at 25 , and anyone who wants to live longer than that must earn his time .
In short time replaces money .
A room in a luxury hotel costs you 2 months of your life , a ferrari costs even longer , and so on and so forth .
So who can afford to give two months of his life for just a stay in a hotel ??
The answer is that the rich do , for they have earn't more time than they could do with....
For if you are smart enough , or more correctly mean enough , you can earn plenty of time lasting for millions of years--in effect , making you immortal .
And time can be swapped from one person to other by touching each other's hands in the right position....
Which means stealing time from a person is easy.....
And to prevent precisely this kind of theft are the policemen in a new avtar.....they are called timekeepers , literally.....
And they are here to protect the rich--for the mass of common people have no access to large amounts of time , and have a notorious predilection for stealing others time....
Indeed , to protect the rich from thievery , there are special time zones separating rich people literally having plenty of time on their hands ( i mean literally ) from the poor who have none......the separation is done by heavy barriers......
The mass of poor people live in different time zones which are nothing but ghettos for the penniless--or rather the timeless.....
And in such a ghetto is born our hero ( Justin Timberlake ) , son of an idealist who gave up his life fighting against such a cruel and unjust system--and Justin is a son who would make his dead father proud , for he is destined to bring the whole edifice down.....
But before he brings it down , he gets to romance the oh-too-willing daughter of a finance magnate , and escape some hair raising situations , and fight some fights......
The movie is gripping enough in the first half , but meanders in the second half especially towards the end . But you can watch it for the novel idea of time replacing money .
Verdict--just about okay . I would give it 2 and a half stars .
rating---2.5
Fire in Babylon---
Sport and politics have always been inseparable , for as sport grows in prestige it binds the emotions of the teeming millions and becomes a vehicle for expressing popular opinion . In fact sport is more easily understandable to the common man who is least bit interested in politics and binding sport with politics makes a political event of greater interest for him .
' Fire in Babylon '......So what is Babylon ?? I had to search the internet for it.....
And the word has different meanings including a biblical one , so I had to hit upon the right meaning to understand the title in the context of the subject of the movie . It means an oppressive system where a particular race is discriminated against .
' Fire in Babylon ' is not just a documentary on the success of West Indian cricket ; it explores the emotions and the reasons behind the pride felt by people from the Caribbean Islands because of the success of their cricket team in the cricket field . As one explains , it was for the first time that the black people had produced something that was the best in the world and was unbeatable for a long time . The west Indian team of the late 70s and eighties was not just the pride and joy of the black people , it was the manifestation of black power.....
And it was not just that , it was the black challenge to those who felt that blacks were not capable of anything , and it was a fitting rebuke to the unjust system that discriminated against black people---the intention was literally to set fire in Babylon....
Against such a towering and grand backdrop we enter the movie.....
The movie unfolds through the eyes and the voices of legends of West Indian cricket---giants such as Vivian Richards , Micheal Holding , Colin Croft and Andy Roberts....we are truely in august company.....
We hear form the horses' mouths how the West Indian team was a team of gentlemanly losers in the 60s ; a team which produced occasional flashes of brilliance and individual stars like Gary Sobers , but never managed to win consistently . They were called calypso cricketeers , a name based on the brand of music that flourishes in the Caribbean---frivolous people who could not be taken seriously .
And to some dedicated individuals , that fact hurt....
It seemed that the Black man was destined to lose ; his job was to make the white man conscious of his own superiority.....
Cut to 1975---West Indies tour of the Australia.....
The West Indian cricketeers are subjected to racial abuse and physical intimidation by the arrogant Aussies , with fast bowlers like Lilee and Thompson pouring fast balls and scorn in equal measure.....
And a gentle giant of a man , the West Indian captain Clive Loyd makes a decisive decision---He would make use of the immense physical strength of the African male to produce his own fast bowlers....and while Australian fast bowlers hunt in pairs , he would outclass them in their own game by producing a quartet of them ; four menacing lethal fast bowling machines that would rain fire on their opponents....fire in Babylon !!
Its not just reform in West Indian cricket but revolution !! A revolution that is set to move the tectonic plates of the world of cricket....
For a sporting superpower is born....
And as speed demons like Andy Roberts , Micheal Holding , Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall unleash their terror on world cricket the accusations begin to fly thick and fast---of having reduced cricket to war , though the west Indians feel that converting it to war is an elevation not a reduction :cool:
The movie is a feast for those who enjoy the perverse pleasures of seeing faces and bodies of batsmen reduced to bleeding jelly---for interspersed throughout are such shots from real matches.....
And defying all attempts to introduce new rules to curb their speed and lethality , the deadly foursome continue to rule the game ; first defeating India , then Pakistan , then Australia and then England---all in their home countries .
But for all their deeds there is no moolah.....
It is Kerry Packer the Australian billionaire who gives the devil his due by inviting the world's top cricketeers at what seem to be astronomical amounts of money at that time---changing the financial equations of the game....
And then there is the rebel tour to Apartheid struck South Africa---some black men are willing to barter their honour by playing cricket in the mecca of racism.....
Not so the superstar of cricket Vivian Richards , who refuses a million dollar check to play there , a fact appreciated by Nelson Mandela no less....
Amidst all this mayhem there is no mention of One day cricket even though the West Indies lorded over it by winning two world cups---thats because ( as a cricketeer explains ) it is test cricket which is a real TEST of the endurance of a man ; what sets apart the men from the boys . That why its called TEST cricket---other forms of cricket is for minnows .
And West Indian overlordship of test cricket lasts for 15 years---a source of immense satisfaction to dark denizens of the Caribbean isles who justly gloat that in no other sport has anyone dominated for so long.....
Amen to that....
Verdict on the movie---Good if you are a cricket aficionado .
rating---3
Just wanted to let you know I'm sitting here alone and I felt compelled to read a few of your reviews out loud to myself. The punctuation... in particular the ellipses... make this the most dramatic review thread ever.
Just wanted to let you know I'm sitting here alone and I felt compelled to read a few of your reviews out loud to myself. The punctuation... in particular the ellipses... make this the most dramatic review thread ever.
Yes....:)
Just wanted to let you know I'm sitting here alone and I felt compelled to read a few of your reviews out loud to myself. The punctuation... in particular the ellipses... make this the most dramatic review thread ever.
Yes....:)
hope you both enjoyed them anyway :)
Two reviews of movies based on Frederick Forsythe's novels--
Day of the jackal---
I saw this 40 year old movie on VCD at home on a lazy sunday --- instead of going to the cinema hall....err , multiplex---since no really good movie seems to be in the cinemas....err multiplexes .
The movie is based on the classic novel of the same name by Frederick Forsythe ; and mind you , the novel is one of the great thriller novels of all time . The movie is of course an abridged version of the novel .
The plot is placed ten years earlier than the movie , and the year is 1962---exactly fifty years ago .
That year Algeria was liberated from French colonial rule . To give some of the history behind the plot , the French didnt leave Algeria without a fight . In fact it was a bloody fight . When the Algerians revolted against the French , the French used brutal torture to quell the rebellion in what was known as the battle of Algiers ( search google for that ). But this aroused international sympathy for the Algerian cause and when world war hero Charles De Gaulle was elected as president of France he announced that he was going to give independence to Algeria .
But their was one impediment to this---the French who had settled in Algeria who formed a hefty 10 percent of Algeria's population and who believed in the slogan Algeria Francaise , meaning Algeria is France....
And they resolved to kill De Gaulle , the president who dared to think of giving freedom to Algeria .
After numerous attempts to kill De Gaulle ( and here the movie begins ) , they decided to hire a contract killer---a man who for a hefty sum of money would kill Charles De Gaulle......
......And since its a Frederick Forsythe novel , but naturally its an englishman who is chosen......
......And what an englishman......
All blond and blue eyed and lean and fit ---one wonders why he chose to be a contract killer and not an actor or model.....oh I forgot that he IS an actor just playing the role of a contract killer for a movie
....And he is a true professional.....a man on a mission.....
And when he takes up a job he acts like a man possessed......
But the moolah he demands is so much that the organisation that has hired him has to robs banks and jewellery stores and other places to get the required money---thus alerting the French govt to the fact that they are planning something big....
.....And what could be more big in this political atmosphere that the assassination of De Gaulle......
So the govt begins its hunt for the potential killer.....
But thats hardly going to deter our man on a mission---who uses the code name JACKAL.....
He uses various tricks to get multiple passports including stealing the passport of one man in broad daylight , and then kills the man who made the passports for him for daring to blackmail him---no one blackmails the jackal without incurring his wrath ( mind it !! )
And the jackal gets a telescopic gun made for him that can fit in the pipe of a car or the walking stick of a handicapped person....and finetunes it himself by spending hours in practice in the jungle.....
And he is a master of changing his disguise and his appearance like a chameleon would do.....
And using these disguises he crosses borders of nations with ease fooling guards and border security.....
.....And when the police recognise his car he just changes its colour by spraypainting it himself in the woods on his way to Paris......
Both women and gay men swoon on his chiselled features....
But the jackal has not come for fun and games and he has to kill them all to cover his tracks---leaving a pile of dead bodies behind him along the way.....
One word about the killings though---the violence is only hinted at and aficionados of slambang action may pause to frown....there are no brutal fights or bloodcurdling screams in the movie.....the action is all cerebral and the movie is a cerebral thriller.....
But the jackal has not contended for one man---a French police officer who hides a razorsharp brain behind his affable nature ; and who is on his tracks , sometimes missing to catch the jackal by inches....
The jackal is saved in these situations because the organisation he works for has a mole among the very persons the police officer reports to---and who informs the jackal of the police's every move.....
So the game of cat and mouse continues....
But the big question is---will the jackal succeed in his mission , or will the police be able to stop him ?
That can be answered only on liberation day , when De Gaulle will come to witness a parade in the capital city .
And only if the jackal manages to kill the president on the day will that day be known as the day of the jackal.....
So will it be known as that ??
Watch the movie for that.....
I found it a worthy watch......
rating---3.5
The dogs of war---
The tin-pot republic of Zangaro---typical specimen of the hellhole that is Africa.....
Its ruled by a typically brutal dictator called Simba....oh actually it is Zimba....
But Zimba Simba who cares......they are all the same in the banana republics of Africa arent they.....
He's come to power by killing all his enemies , and to make sure no one entertains any future thought of enemity to him , he kills them before they have such thoughts.....
And he lives lavishly with his harem in the midst of his garrisoning troops in their barracks while his country is awash in a sea of crime and injustice.....
Into this godforsaken place comes our hero---posing as a wildlife photographer.....
He's instantly suspected for what he is---for who would come to this hellish place taking photographs if he is not sent by Zimba's enemies for taking measure of Zimba's power and the potential of destroying it.....
......And so he is packed off to jail where amidst myriad tortures , he meets the leader of the democratic movement of Zangaro who is cooling his heels in jail for the past 4 years for preaching democracy.....
But our hero's a white man---a citizen of the United States , and that country wont take the death of its countryman so lightly.....
So he cant be killed and has to be sent home.....
A home where the people who have sent him are waiting for his report on the situation in Zangaro......
For them he is just a mercenary , a dog of war......
.....And such dogs are expendible.......
But before such dogs are expended they have their uses.....
And his use to his handlers is to assemble a pack of dogs like himself and start a revolution in that little corner of Africa called zangaro.....
.....And their plan is to prop up a suitably black president who allows them to loot the mineral resources of his country and make money.....
But our dog is a dog with a mind of his own.....
And above all he's a good dog.....
He's not got long to live due to a fatal disease, and so has no use for the money his handlers are offering him.....
And at the end of his life he wants to do something good for humanity.....
But firstly , does he succeed in bringing revolution to Zangaro ??
Happily he does , and the director torches alight Frederick Forsythe's dull novel by moving away from the script and showing some real action unlike the novel which concentrated only on the planning of the coup and disappointingly stopped before some fighting broke out.....
As President Zimba's palace is swept by a hailstorm of firepower and the invaders fire grenades , rockets and bullets into the garrison protecting Zimba , the question is not whether Zimba will go but in how short a time will Zimba's power collapse.....
But the bigger question is---what is our hero's plan to put idealism in action in Zangaro ??
And will the people who financed him take his betrayal lying down ??
For answers to it , watch THE DOGS OF WAR.....
I found it a decent watch.....
rating---3
The wolf of wall street---
Thank god I don't play on the stock market.....
The kind of greedy selfish and gone case people who are shown to be part of the profession called stock brokers in this film would make a good person quit playing in shares after seeing this film anyway....
The moment Jordan Belfort ( played by Leonardo Di caprio ) enters the profession he receives the following advice from his boss---'' After you have earned your client some money , make him invest the same in buying some more shares on the stock market . So his increased money will remain only on paper . On the other hand you take real moolah in cash , so that your money is real..... ''
And among other advice he gives for fleecing innocent clients , he also recommends regular intake of drugs and sex with prostitutes in order to keep the mind sharp....
With this advice being taken to heart by the leading character , the movie is set on a course of showcasing of unscrupled fraud , insane drug fuelled debauchery , whoring and whatnot....
Of course , it is to the credit of the director that the whole thing is shown in a terribly funny manner , keeping the audience in splits all the time....
Even though it's a long movie , there's hardly a dull moment....
.....And as if to make the dull moments too come alive , Leonardo gives an energetic performance as the man who earns a lot of ill gotten money and fraudulent success but does not know where to stop . Evidently he has not heard of the saying---'' quit while you are ahead ''....
Of course , Jordan Belfort as portrayed in the movie is a totally '' gone case '' person , and it is to the credit of Leonardo Di Caprio that he has put up a convincing performance of such a wild character .
The director does a commendable job too , making us believe that Jordan was some kind of hero inspite of the things he did , and in the end you do feel sympathy for the lead character....
This inspite of the fact that he has no scruples about dumping his first wife for a more beautiful one , and cheating even on her by going to prostitutes and hitting on her old aunt....
The drug addiction of Jordan gives the director ample scope to raise some real laughs--- especially in the scene where he and his associate try a new drug called ' lemmons ' which kicks in late and gives rise to a situation which would have been called terrible if it had been not filmed so brilliantly funnily---full marks to the movie makers for showing a potentially life threatening situation in a comic manner....
Even more hilariously , Jordan wants to have his drugs even when the ship he is sailing on is sinking and in fact dreams of dying in a drug fuelled stupor....
Margot Robbie raises the hots in her role as the second wife by going fully nude and even rubbing her pussy in one scene , but the real triumph of the movie makers is in showing crooked minded people as lovable characters in the movie . In real life you wouldn't want to be near such people but there is an endearing quality about the way they have been shown in the film---even the drug dealers....
Eventually the law in the form of the FBI does try to catch up to these frauds , and Jordan shows the chutzpah of trying to bribe off FBI officers too....
Of course , he is a hero for some people whom he helped become rich . But it's an empire built on shady deals and law breaking scams....
And when the law does catch up with Jordan , it creates havoc even in his personal life leaving it in tatters....
So does he and the motley crowd he has assembled around him get the just desserts for their perfidies ?? And what is Jordan's role if any in getting his colleagues behind bars ??
And does the tiger change his stripes.....In other words does Jordan come out of all this as a changed man ??
Watch the film for that....
It was certainly one of the better outings I made to the movie theater this season....
Verdict---good .
rating---4.5
The American---
This is an art film that has been unfortunately been marketed in India as an action movie ,so many will leave the theater disappointed.
Actually it is a cold hard look at the cold hard world of an professional assassin .
It starts with George Clooney ( the assassin ) taking a vacation with a girlfriend in Sweden , but he is hunted down by his enemies here too ,and has to shoot them .But his girlfriend too has seen this ,and he has to shoot her too ,so that no-one who saw this killing is left alive.........
...........And poof !! goes also any sympathy you may want to feel about Clooney's character ( right from the beginning of the movie itself ).......what sympathy are you going to feel about a man who shot dead his lover ??
............But thats exactly the way the director wants it..........to get the audience to know how it is to be an assassin in real life..........
This life has no thrills ,no excitement ,no fun ,no james bond like lifestyle......
Instead ,its a brutal ,long ,unforgiving fight for survival against enemies who want revenge .........death is constantly round the corner ,and the wait for death is as taut as it gets........
There is no practically no music to the movie .........yet the silence is enough to convey the grim tension that Clooney has to live under.
His handler sends him to Italy to escape from his enemies.......but the life of tension is too much for Clooney ......he wants a way out of this business......
But is there a way ever out of this business ??........His handler asks him to do one last job ........to make a very quiet weapon for a stunningly beautiful woman..........But what Clooney does not know is that he is crafting his own noose........as the weapon is meant to kill him.......
George Clooney emerges as a man who wants to remain aloof from everyone in this movie ........as those who come close to him also come close to death.......
......And yet , even though he speaks very few words ,he conveys the desire that everyone feels for companionship..........in the end he falls for a beautiful prostitute.........but its far too late..........
George has delivered a quiet but superb performance in the movie........watch the scene in which he catches the priest who wants him to confess off guard ,and makes him confess his own sins.
But this strictly is for art-movie parallel cinema lovers........dont expect any thrills........
rating---3
Devil---
'' The devil takes care of his own ''.......evidently not......
At least not in this movie ,where the devil plays the role of god ,bringing to justice some evil doers ........
........But it is the devil's way of delivering justice , after all ........and the devil's way is a dirty death........
A group of people gets trapped in a elevator in a high-rise .
Mysteriously ,one by one they begin to get killed ,as police watch helplessly on their screens via a camera in the elevator .
As the identities of all who are trapped become clear ,it's clear all of them are evil , in one way or the other.......
But those watching on the screen are haunted by their own past........
The devil has evidently chosen his characters with care.......
Only confession of ones sins can give hope........
........For confession can bring out the god in those who have been wronged......
.....And only god can forgive.........
Manoj Night Shyamalan has delivered a uncomplicated thriller that is not too heavy on the senses ,or the intellect , but keeps you interested throughout.
Verdict--watchable.
rating---2.5
You will meet a tall dark stranger---
This is the first film I saw which has been directed by Woody Allen , and its full of extra-marital relationships , of which Woody must know a lot considering his personal life.......
Because anyone in India doesn't know this , let me tell that he and actress Mia Farrow had a long standing relationship , and they raised a lot of adopted children , from many countries , including a little girl from Korea .This girl was raised as his adopted daughter , and he technically had a father-daughter relationship with her ( though he was not her actual father--the girl was an orphan he and Mia had picked up from a visit to Korea ), but as she grew up he began to take sexual interest in her , and when she was twenty , he broke up with Mia Farrow and openly began to have sex with this girl ,who was still technically his daughter , and not even half his age .Later he married this girl.
Mia was so hurt that she sent him a birthday cake with her and their other adopted children's names on it encased in hearts , which were being broken by arrows !! The situation raised a furore , and magazines like TIME and NEWSWEEK ran articles discussing whether a father could have sex with his adopted ( though not legally ) daughter , even though she was not his natural child .
Coming to the film ,its a funny ,though not comedy film on extra-marital relationships , people flitting from one relationship to another.......good for a light fun-filled evening........
The reason I wrote more about director Woody Allen's personal life than about the film is obvious.......his personal life is way much more interesting than the film !!:D:D
rating---2
The hole 3D---
A mother and her two sons move in to a house in a small town from the big city.
In the basement the two sons discover a hole in the ground , and upon opening the doors that keep the hole locked ,they find that the hole is bottomless ;anything thrown into it keeps on going , it leads to infinity.....
But the real power of the hole is that , if you look at it , your worst fears are realised--the thing that you fear worst appears in front of you......
But what are these people from the city doing in some hick town ??
Well , they are running away from something they wanna forget......
And with the hole coming handy in making your worst fears come alive , they are about to be confronted with the very things they have come to the town to escape from......
Helping our friends along in the is the friendly neighborhood blonde , who looks lissome and curvaceous on 3D when she ( occasionally )wears bikinis.
The film gives some scares upto the middle third ,though they can be enjoyed only in digital sound and 3D.
Towards the end however ,the film meanders , and the build up does not end with a bang.....
Verdict--okay , if you are not expecting too much.....
rating---2
Black swan---
Natalie Portman plays a beautiful , fragile , delicate ballerina who is obsessed with perfection . She reaches the top of the profession after she is chosen to play lead role in the ballet Swan lake .
But she feels that her mother , who is a failed ballerina herself , is jealous of her , and doesn't want her to succeed . And has a hunch that another ballerina , seductively played by Mila Kunis , is out to oust her from the position of lead performer by seducing the director of the ballet ( played by Vincent Cassell ) , who himself is a sleazy guy .
And what are those blood-stained scratches appearing on her back every morning ??
Things are not quite what they seem to be.......
All the makings of a thriller movie , eh......or is it really one ??
The photography is terrific , and makes feel that something ominous is going to happen in every frame of the film . Acting is class--by everyone .
Verdict-- good stuff .
rating---3.5
No strings attached---
In this film Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman decide to have a relationship of casual sex with no strings attached.....of emotion ,that is--become sexfriends or fcukbuddies as they call it .
But of course , love has to come in to make the film interesting ,or rather to get it moving .
Actually , the first part ,where they are into casual sex is more funny , and raises quite a few laughs .
After the interval , they fall in love , but the movie becomes somewhat sentimental , and the director loses his grip a little.......a few laughs are still raised , but clearly the first half was better .
verdict--its still watchable , anyway.
rating---2
The rum diary---
As the publicity says , nothing in the movie is in moderation--especially the drinking......
There's plenty of boozing boozing and more boozing....
.....And there's drunks raising hell everywhere and not paying their drinking bills.....
There's even a shot of drunks filling their mouths with alcohol and then spitting it out forcefully on a lighter to create a ball of fire coming from the mouth....
......And getting hauled up in courtroom for that.....
.....Only to vomit in front of the judge !!
And there plenty of fast cars and one even faster woman......
Yeah , the woman.....
A red hot blonde who smoulders fire from head to toe.....
.....And she lights up every scene she walks in.....
Dancing with free abandon in parties.....
Taking her clothes off for men.....
They call her Chenault in the film , but whenever they call her name it curiously sounded Chinaal to me..... ( I hope you know that it means '' loose charactered woman '' in hindi !!)
Hell ,there's even Adolf Hitler's voice bellowing as a old gramophone player suddenly cranks up....
Ooops !! I forgot to add the cockfights adding to the entertainment....
Everything for everyone....
For a person who does not drink much like me , watching chinaal( ;) )...err...Chenault itself was worth it.....
But for those who get a high just watching others drink and raise hell.....well ,this is the movie for them.....
And what about the story ??
Well , Johnny Depp is a journo who lands in Puerto Rico in the 1950s and amidst all the boozing ,uncovers a scam there....
But the story leads nowhere and the ending is disappointing.....
Verdict--If you are not bothered about the disappointing ending , then its good for some laughs .
rating---2
Lord Mountbatten , the last viceroy---
The last viceroy tells the story of the last but momentous chapter in the history of British rule over India---of the end of the empire in a bloodbath of epic proportions .
Lord Louis Mountbatten arrives in India with his wife Edwina to close the 175 year old rule of Great Britain over the Indian subcontinent---the jewel in the King's crown .
He arrives just as a sea of violence is about to erupt in India---for led by the ambitious and powerhungry Muhammad Ali Jinnah , the muslims in the subcontinent are not only demanding the carving out of the nation of Pakistan , but they are also baying for the hindus' blood.....
......For the nation of Pakistan has to live upto its name---pak means pure in urdu , and what better way to make it pure than to ethnically cleanse it of all the infidels who dared inhabit it......
The hindus on the other hand , are led by the apostle of nonviolence---the ' great soul ' mahatma Gandhi who has made himself great by teaching a pacifist ideology and taught the hindus to bow and acceed to the muslims' every demand , including the creation of Pakistan .
But Gandhi has such a hold over the mind of the hindus due to his saintly behaviour that it is said that the capital of India is not at Delhi , but at wherever Gandhi is camping !!
......And this Gandhi is not there to greet Mountbatten as he alights from his plane ,for he has gone to bihar in one of his hopeless attempts to create communal amity between hindus and muslims---a fact which erks Edwina Mountbatten .
On the other hand , she is mightily pleased with the reception given to her by the future prime minister of India Nehru , and this leads to not only mutual attraction between them but a fullscale affair.....
All this happens under the watchful eye of Louis Mountbatten , who not only takes it all in his stride , but also develops a liking for Nehru himself !!
On the other hand , Mountbatten is not impressed by the personality of Jinnah , whom he grows to detest....
While Nehru is all charm , Jinnah is cold and forbidding , and the viceroy finds him quite extravagant in his demands for his new nation .
But first things first , and Mountbatten has to make a tour of the north west frontier . Here on landing , he is confronted by savage pathans in the thousands , all well armed and screaming for being given the Pakistan they want.
Mountbatten is well prepared for this , as he disarmingly waves at the barbaric horde wearing a muslimtype green dress , making them think he has acceeded to their demands and they are appeased without violence !
As everywhere Mountbatten tours he sees scenes of muslims butchering hindus , he not only concludes that Pakistan must be given , but also feels that the British must pull out of India before mayhem is unleashed and thereby makes a fatal mistake---he brings forward the date of declaration of independence from june 1948 to august 1947 , leaving the state machinery no time to cope with the mammoth task of partition .
......For not only is the nation to be partitioned , but govt property has to be divided ; but above all no proper arrangements are made to garrison the state of punjab , where post partition violence is expected .
Mountbatten does make a last attempt to convince Jinnah of the cabinet mission plan of a united by loosely federated India , but Jinnah is unrelenting.....
The ' great soul ' Gandhi goes one step forward by offering Jinnah the prime ministership of undivided India , but Sardar Patel simply refuses to entertain this idea ( thank god !! imagine Jinnah as India's PM..... )
The friendship between the Mountbatten couple and Nehru increases in the cool climes of Shimla , the summer capital of the British raj , where Nehru and Edwina find time to romance......
But Nehru's temper explodes when Mountbatten shows him the future plan of India---it envisages total balkanisation of the subcontinent as the princely states are left to choose to remain independent . Mountbatten has to sooth Nehru by removing that option , leaving them to join either India or Pakistan .
Jinnah is another matter altogether---he is unwavering and says that the Pakistan given to him by Mountbatten is divided into two wings with no link to east Pakistan---he calls it motheaten.....
But Mountbatten proves a tough negotiater and forces Jinnah to accept his partition plan at the meeting of representatives of all religions by forcing him to nod slightly in acceptance of the plan .
The die is cast , and Sir Cyril Radcliffe is given 5 weeks to draw the map diving the nation , giving precious little time for minorities on both sides to shift to the nation where their community is in majority .
The day the Indians have been waiting for a thousand years arrives as the nation awakes to life and freedom at midnight when the world is asleep---in Nehru's words , at least .
Mountbatten invites the press to take photos as the Indians blow conches of triumph , and to his surprise Future president Rajendra Prasad toasts King George with a glass of wine on this august occasion.....
But independence unleashes a torrent of violence as trains carrying dead hindus and sikhs come to India---and hindus and sikhs unleash bloody revenge . Mountbatten's mistake of bringing the independence date forward has produced terrible results......
Gandhi's attempt to save muslims in India only makes them spit on him....
But Nehru sees no choice but to ask Mountbatten to continue as governor general . This is opposed by Edwina who feels she might get too deeply involved with Nehru if this sojourn in India continues .
But Mountbatten's continuance proves lucky for India as he answers Nehru's desperate plea to save his home state of Kashmir from pathan irregulars sent by Pakistan to invade it by sending the Indian army after the maharaja signs the instrument of accsession .
When Mountbatten confronts Jinnah over the rape of scottish nuns by his pathans in Kashmir , Jinnah candidly admits to his hold over them by offering to pull the pathans back if India pulls back its forces .
Back in India , Gandhi has paid for his appeasement of Pakistan by his death at the hands of an assassin---sending Nehru into grief . Mountbatten consoles Nehru and asks him to speak to the Indian people on radio that very night . Nehru responds by making one of the finest speeches in his life .
And its time now for Mountbatten to leave India---his work is over.....
This time Edwina asks him to stay on---as Mountbatten himself admits , she has found love here......
But time and tide wait for none , and the time of the British is over.....
As they leave , the Indian public crowds the last viceroy's motorcade in a moment of brief nostalgia for the raj......
Most nostalgic of them all is Nehru , who gifts a rose to Edwina to cherish the bygone days of love before she ascends into the aircaft that will take her away....
An era has passed......
The halycon days of empire are over.....
And so is the movie....
Verdict----good , if you are a history buff .
rating---3
Today I have posted 8 reviews back to back in this thread itself . I hope you all find time to read them....
Just was digging out my old reviews written for Indian forums earlier .
The fast and furious ( fast five )---
Spoiler alert !!
A gang of nice crooked guys plan to pull off a heist .
And whom do they plan to rob ??--another ( much bigger ) crook.....
This helps to keep their consience clear , and keeps us ( the audience )sympathetic to them
But the bigger crook is smart too , and he keeps his 100 million dollars in a huge vault , which is located in a police station and is protected by police officers .
Yeah ,this is Brazil , and police protect crooks' money ( anything happens here )
So how to do the heist ?? Here's how--
Smash through the police station with an armoured car , lasso the huge vault with the help of strong ropes to a couple of cars , and drag it down the streets through surprised onlookers , and bring it dragging to their adda where it can be opened safely.....
Simple , isn't it......
Well ,there are complications in the form of police cars chasing the vault as it is dragged down the street , but they can be easily resolved by maneuvering the thick-iron-clad vault itself to smash the police cars .
But where do they get the armoured car and all ??
Simple--one of the law enforcers who commands an armoured car has a change of heart as he realises that he is protecting a crooks money , so he joins the bunch who wants to steal it......
But where do you get the tough cars to drag the huge vault down the street at breakneck speed ??
Thats simple too--break open a train transporting the cars , and drive the cars out of the running train , but not before you have piled up some dead bodies ( now thats a must ).....
But where do you get the capital to fund such awesome ventures , and more importantly , people to take such mad risks ??
Shh--dont ask uncomfortable questions......
But , on the other hand , if you want the answer--hollywood has a lot of money to waste on stupid movies , and lot of out-of-work actors are ready to act in them.....
All fast and furious......
Verdict--okay if you are an aficionado of slam bang action......
rating---2.5
cricket
01-16-14, 04:04 PM
Great reviews Ashdoc; I'm glad you also liked The American, very underrated in my mind.
Defiance---
The jews of russia have always suffered pogroms for centuries immemorial ( jews of which country haven't ? ......yeah I remember one nation--India ..:))
,but in 1941 comes another deadly danger..........the germans have invaded mother Russia........
..........and needless to say , the jews are on top of their hitlist.......
This is the story of Russian jews fighting a grim battle for survival in the misery of the second world war........
To say that the odds are stacked against them is to say the obvious........
...........and the courage they have to show would put a Rambo to shame......
Daniel Craig leads their battle for survival , as the battle moves on in the unforgivably cruel russian winter........
Not only the elements are against them , but the Russian army too is indifferent........viewing them as expendables.......
They have to fight the Germans ,and also the epidemic of typhus that war has brought............with the Russians , their own people ,refusing to give them medicines..........
Amidst all this they have time to fall in love , sometimes sing and dance for one of their own's wedding.........and try to keep religion alive.......in a situation where belief in god would be suspended without being noticed.......
To some ,Daniel Craig seems like a new Moses ,destined to lead them to their chosen land........
But does he succeed ??......Go watch the movie for that.......
Some of the moments in the movie are heart-rending ,as the woman who is shot dead deliberately falling in such a way that her finger remains pressing the machine-gun she is firing after she is dead ( did I see a similar scene in Haqeeqat ?)
The movie also shows how miserable a war is.......and is depressing to be honest......
But ,its a good movie ,really.......
rating---3
Hey Doc!
We have just brought the new reviews section online, and we are in the process of tagging all user reviews for the system. If you want to have your reviews listed on the search index, I need you to edit your reviews to use the official MoFo rating system or they won't integrate properly. If you are interested, just add the popcorn rating to each review:
Use this code: [rating]3.5[/rating*]
Just remove the asterisk to make the code live (I broke it here so you can see the example). This particular code would rate the film 3 and one half boxes of popcorn out of five, for instance. just change the middle number to reflect your chosen rating.
Once rated, I can tag each review for the system. Thanks!
Hey Doc!
We have just brought the new reviews section online, and we are in the process of tagging all user reviews for the system. If you want to have your reviews listed on the search index, I need you to edit your reviews to use the official MoFo rating system or they won't integrate properly. If you are interested, just add the popcorn rating to each review:
Use this code: [rating]3.5[/rating*]
Just remove the asterisk to make the code live (I broke it here so you can see the example). This particular code would rate the film 3 and one half boxes of popcorn out of five, for instance. just change the middle number to reflect your chosen rating.
Once rated, I can tag each review for the system. Thanks!
Sorry , I did not read this post until 2 days ago .
I have given ratings for all movies in this thread at least .
Giving ratings for movies in Bollywood movies thread and searching for the movie reviews which i have written in threads dedicated to those movies is going to take a little while more....please bear with me .
The new world ( 2005 )
http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/the-new-world-2006/large_iyewGoeofrRkfeDlwXguen3dzjH.jpg
In 1607 ships carrying men , arms , ammunition arrive in what is going to be called as 'Virginia' by them . The men have one ambition---to achieve a higher standard of living in what they call 'the new world' ; a standard higher than that of the 'old world' with all it's injustices . And for all of them on the ships that have arrived in this corner of America, the old world is merry old England . Among them is a captain with a quintessential english name---John Smith .
Their flag is still a red cross indicating that the scottish flag has not yet been added to it to make it the union jack , but their ambition is to soar across the world's oceans to plant their flag everywhere....
But as they arrive , more pressing problems plague them---like their dwindling ammunition , their dwindling food supplies and their dwindling manpower...
So John Smith ( Colin Farrell ) is elected to lead an expedition upriver to make contact with the chief of the native americans , who are called 'naturals' by those favourably disposed towards them and 'savages' by those who are not so well disposed...
John Smith is nearly killed by the natives , but he is saved by a young girl who has taken a liking for him---Pocahontas ( Q'orianka Kilcher ) , who is the daughter of the native king and also his favourite child . And she not only saves Smith , she loves him and makes love to him and dreams of life with him . And she is too innocent to understand the catastrophe that the ships from the old world have brought for her people .
So Smith is allowed to go back to the fort his people have built on the condition that his people will leave in spring . And when the calamity of famine strikes his camp , it is Pocahontas who arrives with food and supplies to save his people . Smith is torn between his loyalty to the woman he loves and to his countrymen---for they never intend to leave as he has promised , but intend to conquer the land that has been inhabited by the native americans for millennia .
And also Smith has been selected to lead distant expeditions to find other lands for his king , so he has to leave a weeping wailing devastated Pocahontas behind . But she is too beautiful and young not to catch the attention of another englishman (John Rolfe played by Christian Bale ) , and he proposes that she convert to christianity and they get married and settle in England .
So will the native princess accept his proposal ?? Will she be able to adjust to her new home if england is to be that ?? How will she be received by english people if she goes there ?? And most importantly , will she be able to forget her first love ??
Watch the movie for the answers...
The movie has a totally poetic touch to it with the thoughts of each character shown flowing through their minds like sheer poetry . And true to ancient cinematic tradition , the true story of Pocahontas is presented as romance---romance amidst the conflict between the native american and the white man , romance amidst the great sweep of history in which the europeans are destined to rule over the americas , and a romance surprisingly approved by both peoples without any hint of racism .
The music complements the poetic touch of the film flowing seamlessly in between the dialogues and thoughts of each character . The romantic scenes are more like scenes of tenderness....
Both Colin Farrell and Christian Bale look dashingly handsome with their beards and long hair , and Q'orianka Kilcher has her own beauty.
The director shows an idealized depiction of native american people---they are shown to be innocent of greed jealousy and hatred . This is probably the most naive assumption by the director . Are we ( the audience ) supposed to be so naive as to believe this depiction just because the native americans are the conquered people ?? After all they can still kill with their bows and arrows and machetes , though the fight is an admittedly hopeless fight.
Of course , the same depiction of Pocahontas as innocent by nature makes her character so endearing like a flower and her love so look pure and unselfish . Acting is good by everyone , and the photography makes America doubly attractive---all green and verdant and rich with promise , just like the early settlers must have found it to be and just like todays settlers find it too !!....except for the concrete jungles that have been added....
I only wished that the tides of history could have been turned , and that every meeting that the natives had with the white man would have been like the experience of Pocahontas , and that sheer poetry like the film could have been weaved out of that meet....
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Step up revolution 3D ( 2012 )
http://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/movieposters/9047413/p9047413_p_v7_ab.jpg
Welcome to Miami---the freewheeling city in the land of the free...
A land where the best way to make sure of a girl's coming for a date is whisper in her ear that her father will disapprove of it...and bingo !! she's ready...
A land where a billionaire father has to ask '' May I come in '' to enter his daughter's room...
A land where the daughter coolly tells her father over breakfast that she got laid last night and his only mild objection is that she shouldn't have got laid with a slumboy in a slum.....
This is America...
And who is the girl ??
She's actress Kathryn MacCormik , a Natalie Portman lookalike who sets the screen on fire along with leading actor Ryan Guzman in the film called step up revolution...
And how does she set the screen on fire ?? By dirty dancing with a flair that drools our senses...
Yeah , go and watch as she arches her sensational body and curves her sizzling curves by crunching her toned muscles in her dancing moves...
......And she gives you a high that only a hard on can give---a hard on that is a tribute to her smashing body as well as her sexy dancing...
But above all when she dances you feel the white hot wave of liberation sweep through your body along with the sweet passion of unbridled desire....
So whats the story ??
There's leading actor Ryan Guzman who is the leader of a pack of flash mob dancers who surprise people by suddenly erupting in dance in Miami city.....a pack that consists of people of diverse races---whites , hispanics , blacks....
They wanna win a contest to get maximum hits on youtube which has a prize of a hundred grand.....
But their homes are about to be raised by the plans of a real estate developer who has bought the land they live on....
But the real estate developer has a sizzling daughter ( the leading lady ) with a mind of her own.....and a heart of her own too....
.....A heart which beats for leading actor Ryan.....
And when Ryan and Kathryn dance together the gods in the heavens stand still.....or maybe its only the poet in me speaking.....
But as I said the lady has a mind of her own.....
And she tells her friends to dance as a protest against the uprooting of their homes.....
And what dancing.....what moves.....what photography.....
......And all that with heartpounding music....
So does their unique form of protest succeed in stopping the project to tear down their homes ??
Go and watch the movie for that.....its well worth a watch.....
Verdict---electrifying.
3
The woman he loved
http://imagensubida.historiasdepoca.es/53464.jpg
The movie deals with the romance and marriage of an American divorcee with King Edward the eighth , the king/Emperor of the British empire---the man who actually abdicated his kingship for the love of a woman....
She is Mrs Simpson , an American divorcee who has come to Britain with her second husband and gets into the inner circle of the prince's ( he is not yet king ) friends along with her husband . Soon his female partner begins to trust her so much that she leaves for a long foreign hiatus with him in the care of Mrs Simpson---with predictable consequences that she has to face after coming back....
But the movie does not start there ; it actually starts with the death of the duke ( the king is reduced to duke after abdication ) decades later , as his wife sentimentally remembers the time when she and the future king had met....and straightway I must say that the makeup of the duchess in old age is horrendous---she looks like a zombie really .
But she looks better when she is shown in her youth , and the movie has a sentimental quality about it that appeals to the heart....
Of course , Mrs Simpson has been accused to be a gold digger who wanted to marry the rich king and become queen , but the movie shows her to be better than that . It does so by not dwelling upon the part where she and he duke were accused to have pro nazi sympathies later .
As the romance develops between the two , morning walks in rain soon transform into direct meetings in her apartment where her husband himself backs out of the situation like a true gentleman . And alarm bells ring in the British establishment . But no bedroom sessions are shown---the movie does not cross that line .
The crisis of the situation occurs when it is time to become king Edward the eight , but the British people and establishment are not ready to accept an American woman who will be twice divorced ( she will have to divorce her second husband ) when she eventually marries the king . This raises the question as to whether kings should behave like commoners and give importance to romance....should people in positions of power who have fates of millions hanging on their decisions marry for love ?? Should not they give more importance to their political careers and build the nation rather than get embroiled in love like petty people ?? Love is a luxury of commoners that the high and mighty cannot simply afford....
Of course , there is the lobby that says that the king of Britain had very little power anyway because of that thing called democracy....and some say that the abdication was a good thing given the king's pro nazi sympathies and the impending world war with the nazi war machine....
So king Edward the eight chose to follow his heart , and Anthony Simpson and Jane Seymour have acted really well to show the emotions and the pain that they had to go through to take that decision.....and in the end you have to admit that the King was a lucky man indeed---for lucky are those who have found true love....
The music is most appropriate for the situations in the movie and helps accentuate the emotional tone of the movie . And the emotional tone helps in making it a decent watch....
Verdict---three stars .
Optimus
03-18-16, 06:53 AM
I've just watched Devil for my review thread horror section and i really enjoyed it. I thought it was quite scary, and the concept of the movie was very simple yet very entertaing.
The life of pi
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQLik2EaN6bm4GQBKTvI7uIlH4b5kQ29IhY1Tqh_nEoHkUsru82
Its jungle book all over again.....but with a story more like that of Robinson Crusoe.....
Its a world of nature that the director creates....
A world of the rolling sea and the vast ocean.....
Of water all around as far as the eye can see.....
Of thunderstorms and lightening and rain that soaks the body till it becomes bonechilled......
Of schools of flying fish that move like a wave hitting you like hail in a hailstorm.....
Of dolphins and giant whales that splash around with all their force resulting in mighty ripples.....
Of fluorescent fish whose light looks like a magician's dream silhouetted against the dark sky......
Of the sky gleaming with the billions and billions of stars at night.....
Of a remote island with unknown dangers the like of which you have never seen before.....
Of raccoon like creatures moving over your body in the thousands on the island.....
Of mighty carnivorous animals and predators and prey....
And above all a mighty tiger.....
Its the world of Pi....
And who's Pi ?? He's a person with an incredible story about being marooned alongside a lifeboat on the high seas along with a royal bengal tiger for company.....
An astounding tale of survival against all odds.....
And you do get amazed and enchanted by the special 3D effects that go a long way in making the movie pleasurable.....
Its the second half that holds the movie together and silences the sniggerring that the audience was doing at the end of the first half.....
For in the second half Pi learns to tame the tiger , crush his own fears , raise his hopes where there seem to be none and try to reach the realms of land and shore and civilization.....
And while doing so he looks more and more like a modern day mowgli from jungle book....
But does he succeed in his quest ??
Go and watch the movie for that.....
It wont be a bad outing....
Verdict---Good .
The man who captured Eichmann ( 1996 )
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After the German defeat in world war 2 , many of Hitler's top brass ran away to south America . Both Josef Mengele ( who had committed horrible experiments on bodies of live jews ) and Adolf Eichmann ( who had helped in transportation of jews to death camps ) fled to Argentina , where the far right wing government offered them a new identity and a chance to live .
But the Israeli spy agency ( MOSSAD ) was on the lookout for them and not all of them were able to lead peaceful lives . This movie is about the capture of Adolf Eichmann by the MOSSAD in 1960 and his transportation to Israel to face trial . He was eventually executed for his crimes against humanity .
But as the movie shows , identifying Eichmann was not a easy thing as he had acquired a new identity . He was first suspected because the father of the woman his son was dating repelled him as the father of the woman had the serial number of a nazi death camp on his wrist ; the number being a sign that he was a jew . The father contacted the Israeli authorities and they were not sure because the father was blind . But eventually a team is sent to try identify Eichmann , led by MOSSAD agent Peter Malkin ( played by Arliss Howard ) . This team keeps a close watch on the activities of Eichmann and hits pay dirt---for the person they are watching celebrates his marriage anniversary on the same date as Eichmann's marriage anniversary , thus confirming his identity .
The capture of Eichmann is planned to be a relatively simple affair ; just overpower him while he is walking towards his home after alighting from a bus that he regularly alights from , and bundle him in a car and speed off....but the plan almost misfires as the target does not alight from the bus that night and heavy rain starts pouring . But the MOSSAD agents are nothing if not patient and wait till Eichmann alights from another bus later . Luckily by this time the rain has stopped . And the agents succeed before Eichmann's waiting wife can raise a hue and cry .
In the safe house where Eichmann is kept as a captive , the Israeli agents take turns to guard him . And they make him confess his real identity . In the beginning some kind of rapport develops between the captors and captured . But as they talk over food and wine Eichmann tries to deny his culpability in the holocaust . His rants touch a raw nerve and the agents guarding him are utterly repelled from the task of guarding him ; no one wants to give him company .
As arguments start between Eichmann and Peter Malkin , a powerful scene in which Peter goes away from the room to cry his heart out brings out the difference of the jewish experience from the life experience of normal people like us ; Peter cries because he has lost much of his family to the holocaust and hence can't bear Eichmann's rants , and similarly all the other members of the capturing team have lost their families . In effect , they are torn and uprooted people....not a single one of them has led a normal life of security and comfort like us....One wonders why the jews are such a hated people and why have so many atrocities been committed on them ?
Capturing Eichmann is one thing , but taking him out of Argentina is another....for Eichmann's son has contacted the Argentinian police and they are on the lookout for the Israelis ; the police has promised Eichmann's son that all exit points from Argentina are being watched and the Israelis won't be able to take Eichmann to Israel to stand trial .
So how do the Israelis manage take their prisoner out of Argentina to Israel ? Watch the movie for that....
Robert Duvall has put up a good performance as Eichmann and Arliss Howard is good as Peter Malkin . Towards the end the movie comes close to look like a thriller....but it being made for TV , it is hampered by it's low budget . Still it is an okay watch .
Verdict---Okay .
Two and a half stars .
The Gift
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A couple ( played by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall ) moves into Los Angeles from Chicago and they run into an old schoolmate ( played by Joel Edgerton ) of Jason , who begins to regularly drop in their house . Everytime he comes he comes with a gift . Soon his visits get creepier and the gifts become creepier too and the couple soon begins to feel uncomfortable with his visits .
But the really creepy experience is when the two are invited to his house ( I am not telling what is so creepy ) . Jason warns Joel not to ever visit them again . Jason is satisfied with this , but Rebecca is worried and keeps thinking about this whole thing again and again . She steals pills from her neighbour and begins to wonder if someone is constantly in her house watching her every move . Sick with worry , she faints for a prolonged period one day .
After this , the couple receive one last gift with a letter with from Joel in which the Joel says that he is willing to 'let bygones be bygones' . Soon Rebecca become pregnant and the couple forget the whole thing in their happiness , until Rebecca sees Joel watching her in a supermarket one day .
Intrigued by all the events , Rebecca begins an investigation into events of the past and soon secrets begin to tumble out . Rebecca has to soon confront facts about her husband that make her thoroughly uncomfortable about him .
So who is the hero and who is the villain of the story ? What are events of the past that Joel is raking up ? What does he want ?
Watch the movie for the answers....
Joel Edgerton pulls off the feat of looking menacing and a victim at the same time ; a man thoroughly wronged but also doing wrong villainous things....you don't know whether to sympathise with him or to be terrorised by him . For a long time the movie moves smoothly with small hints given of what is going to happen ; subtly the terror descends upon the couple and the audience . Everytime Rebecca is alone in the house is a nerve racking time for the audience ; you feel relived that nothing happens to her when her husband returns from work to give her company , but just as you begin to think nothing has happened to her suddenly your worst fears for her are realized at the climax .
Violence is largely underplayed in the film , but what happens in the climax is worse than violence . An atmosphere of fear is constantly kept in the film , but no garish sound effects or flamboyant visual effects are used . I was rooted to my seat throughout the movie watching experience .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
The Jungle Book
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Sigh....years of watching Discovery channel and National geographic have really taken it's toll on me....
That is , taken it's toll as far as watching 'Jungle book' movie is concerned....
In 1985 , I watched the animated version of 'Jungle book' that had been released in India that year....and I enjoyed it with gusto....
The sights and sounds of animals of the jungle were new to me at that time and that's what made watching the animated movie so special....
Or maybe I enjoyed because at that time I was just a little kid....
But now after years of watching channels like Animal planet etc , watching the new version of 'Jungle book' is like watching the wildlife centred TV channels again....
At least the animated version looked different....
But the fact that the animals have been made so life like in the latest version of 'Jungle book' makes it appear more like a episode of National geographic and Discovery channel....
The only difference from the TV channels is the presence of Mowgli , and he does make a lot of difference....
He is the kid whose father was killed by the tiger Sher Khan and was rescued by a black panther and raised by a group of wolves....
And Sher Khan wants him killed too....
At the pond where all animals gather to drink water he declares his intentions to kill....
But Mowgli has protectors too---a loving female wolf mother who looks tenderly at him with such expressions that only Disney can create on an animal's face ....and a stern but kind wolf father who takes charge of him with fatherly concern....
To save him from Sher Khan they decide to send Mowgli back to where he came from---the humans of course....
But the journey to that destination takes up Mowgli on many adventures....adventures that Rudyard Kipling cleverly imagined in his book....Of coming close to death in the knots of a giant python , of stealing honey from bees for his bear friend , of bowing before tusked elephants and saving their little one , of being kidnapped by monkeys and brought before a giant monkey , of swinging from tree to tree....
But instead of reaching his destination , Mowgli is called upon to complete a mission of revenge....
So what is that mission ??
And is he able to elude the mighty Sher khan ?
Watch the movie for that....
The special effects are undoubtedly great---of rivers flowing with speed , of waterfalls gushing with ferocity , of fires raging to destroy the forest....
The animals seem human , with real feelings....almost .
And Mowgli is all too comfortable with them .
But the whole thing is for kids ; and indeed many children had flooded the cinema hall....
I for one , was out of place---for I am not a kid nor am I the father of one....
Mowgli is the only real actor in the film , and he is played by Neel Sethi . The rest are just voices behind special effects created characters of animals . But the voices have done their job with aplomb , and so has Neel .
So if you have a kid , go take him or her to the nearest theatre to watch this movie...it will be a treat for the children...
Verdict---Good .
3
honeykid
04-26-16, 10:05 AM
Pretty much all kids movies are for adults now. :(
Pele , Birth Of A Legend
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Footballer 'Pele'---meaning 'black diamond' in portuguese , the national language of Brazil . The man justly declared to be the national treasure of that nation . But as the movie reveals , the name 'Pele' was actually a kind of racist slur on his black colour---a slur by his white master's son , for his mother worked as a servant in the house of a white man .
That is how Pele grew up---facing challenges of poverty , racism and the high crime rate of Brazil . He and his friends ( most of them blacks ) grew up in slums and had to steal peanuts in order to get proper shoes for playing football on equal terms with the team of white boys including his white master's son---but the shoes didn't work and they decided to play shoeless anyway ; and 'shoeless ones' was their team's name . But he lost his best friend when the men whom they stole peanuts from chased them and his friend got buried in a swamp---so he was no stranger to tragedy....
But his father ( a former footballer who was deeply affected when Brazil lost the 1950 world cup match ) helped him hone his skills by patiently giving him tips on how to play ; and he wanted his son to escape the drudgery of the menial work of cleaning toilets that he himself did . The son's skills drew the attention of an important football selector , and he decided to send Dico ( Pele's real name ) to a proper football camp for real training .
In the football camp Dico realised that his way of playing football was frowned upon by the higher authorities and the coach ( all whites ) as being primitive , and as the cause of Brazil's defeat in the 1950 world cup . And for a nation in which football is religion , the defeat stung like nothing else .
So what was Pele's version of playing football ? It was known as 'ginga'---based on a martial art that had been developed by african slaves who had escaped into the jungles centuries ago . The whites in higher positions may frown upon it , but it is what is the unique quality of Brazil's game---the way which has made Brazil's football playing so different and flamboyant .
So when will the higher authorities realize that 'ginga' is the Brazilian way of playing football , and playing it is the way Brazil is going to achieve success . But to realize that , the whites have to get it out of their heads that they are no longer europeans that they think themselves to be---that they are Brazilians and their destinies are tied with that land . And watching that happen is an emotional journey in itself , something that made the experience of seeing this movie so special . For the higher ups are made to realize the truth in a non confrontational manner---the Brazilian way ; Brazil is the country where racism has been tackled without major problems between the races , and the movie shows how the white members of the team finally integrate with the non whites without any major confrontation erupting out .
And this integration results in a world cup winning performance , the star of which is the 'black diamond'---Pele . He is just sixteen when he is selected in the team , and does not even play the first few matches of the 1958 world cup as he is ruled out by injury . But when he does play , it's sheer magic---if football played poetry , then Pele would be the poet . And Brazil goes on to win the next world cup too in 1962 , and again in 1970 . The world celebrates the Brazilian way of playing football as the 'beautiful game' .
I particularly liked the flow of the film , which showed Pele's story in an understated manner without any major drama erupting out . It only on the football field that Pele and his game creates drama--- drama that has the world enthralled . Acting by everyone is most satisfying , and music is appropriate for the situations . The film has some sentimental moments---of Pele's parents' joy when he is selected for the national team , and the joy that erupts in Brazil when it wins the world cup .
The highbrow critics have not liked the movie , but who cares....the common people like us will like it . That's the way Pele , a common man who came from the underclass himself , would have preferred it to be....
Verdict---good .
3.5
Money Monster
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George Clooney plays a financial guru who gives advice to people about the stock exchange on his show 'Money monster' . Julia Roberts is the director of the show and George repeatedly asks her out for dinner only to be refused by her . George has advised people to invest in a company called IBIS global capital , but suddenly the company loses 800 million dollars due to what is claimed to be a glitch in a trading algorithm . Obviously that is a story not everybody is willing to buy....especially those who have lost money by investing their money on IBIS .
One day as George is hosting the show , a man ( played by Jack O' Connell ) who has lost his entire life savings on IBIS because he took George's advice comes disguised as a deliveryman and gatecrashes the show with a gun aimed at George . He seems to be a looney who forces George to wear what he claims are explosives and holds the trigger in his hand . He holds George responsible for his misfortunes and threatens to blow him up . Julia takes charge of the situation and along with George tries to clam the man down . The man has forced the camera to telecast live proceedings of all this and soon the spectacle which is unfolding is being watched by millions .
But the CEO of IBIS ( played by Dominic West ) is nowhere to be seen and he has left his communications officer ( played by the svelte Caitriona Balfe ) to answer everything . Caitriona is totally baffled for answers and begins to search for her own answers . All this while the matter has snowballed into a major crisis in the TV studio with the police coming in and planning to take a gunshot at the receiver of the bomb attached to George Clooney , thus potentially threatening his life . And they bring the looney's girlfriend to try to talk to him , but she verbally attacks him so spitefully that the looney is left teetering at the edge of hopelessness in which he could set off the bomb , thus killing everyone in the TV studio .
So how will the crisis end ? Most importantly , where is the CEO of IBIS and what fraud has he done ?
Watch the movie for the answers....
As the crisis snowballs into a bigger confrontation , the director ( Jodie Foster ) does take some cinematic liberty in showing the whole thing escalate from the studio to the streets . The movie is a thriller that does give you some on the spot entertainment as there is never a dull moment in the film . Acting by everyone is decent enough and the sense of crisis is kept looming on throughout the film . But in the end you come out of the theatre feeling that the whole thing was a bit frivolous . Not to a remembered as anything great...
Verdict--decent .
3
Me Before You
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William is a wealthy young man who wants to live life to the full , indulging in adventure sports and hard work in equal measure . But his life is turned upside down in an accident that leaves him paralysed . He loses his girlfriend to another man , and also his will to live .
Enter Louisa , a young woman who comes from a working class background and who takes up the job of William's caretaker because she needs the money . She has no training to take care of a paralysed person , but is confident that her cheerful bright personality will help her in her job . And this fact is proved true beyond her expectations . For using her charm she manages to strike a good relationship with William , who is ill tempered with her at first but soon warms up to Louisa .
Louisa decides to bring the spark back into William's dark life , and takes him out to outings like music concerts , to vacations , to her birthday party , and to his own girlfriend's marriage with another man where she openly flirts with William . She begins to entice William by wearing enticing clothes exposing her body , and cheers him up by doing the things he loves like seeing non english movies with subtitles along with him , and giving him tub baths . And William again begins to laugh and feel better and begins to yearn for her company .
And soon Louisa's relationship with her own boyfriend begins to feel the strain of her outings with William . Very soon Louisa is in love---with the paralysed William !! She begins to care for him deeply and wants to share her life with him and dreams of everlasting romance , and he too seemingly reciprocates her feelings .
But William has actually come to a terrible decision , and unknowing to him Louisa has come to know of his decision !! She is hoping against hope that he will change his decision , and that her company will help in that . It is romance at it's very best , but with a heart rending twist....
So what is the terrible decision that William has taken ? And will Louisa be able to change it ? Watch the movie for the answers....
The movie rests on the good performances of the lead actors , and on their good looks . Sam Claflin who plays William looks too good as the tragic wheelchair ridden hero of the tale---just boyishly handsome , and Emilia Clarke looks and acts wonderfully as Louisa the small town girl with limited ambitions who finds her horizons widened by her association with William and hopes to genuinely bring light in his life . She has such a toothy smile and such infectious laughter , and you smile and laugh with her in the good times and there is a tear in your eye when she is having her bad times .
Janet McTeer and Charles Dance act well as the hapless parents who have seen their young son become paralysed in his youth , fraying relations between even themselves as they struggle to help William . Music is nice too , and is more sentimental than romantic---appropriate for the situations . Photography is good too---of a lonely castle , and the sea and the rains . Women will especially appreciate the sentimental moments in the movie , but men won't be unaffected too---just like I was .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Before the rains ( 2007 )
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i bought this DVD because the movie is shot in some of india's most favoured tourist destinations in the south indian state of kerala---the hill station of munnar situated at the height of 5000 feet above sea level amidst magnificent coffee plantations , and athirapally waterfalls . and the photography and colours of the film are superb indeed , just as i expected .
so what conflict could be emerging in this sylvan bounty of nature ? in fact , it is not conflict but appropriately in the lovely settings it is love....love between a british plantation owner ( linus roache ) and an indian woman ( nandita das ) , during colonial times when the british ruled india . but the love itself is of the kind that inspires conflict , because both are married people who have spouses .
so an illicit affair is on between two lusty people , and it leads to some red hot kissing and love making scenes in the green settings of vegetation and waterfalls . but there is a difference between the positions of the two ; while linus is a scion of the master race the british , nandita is a servant belonging to a conquered race the indians . above all , linus is a man and can get away with anything but nandita is a woman and women are never forgiven for their perfidies !!
so nandita's husband discovers that she is cheating on him , and beats her up . she runs for shelter to her lover , but he proves to be a man of straw . he asks his loyal indian friend ( rahul bose ) to send nandita off and rahul does so , but she returns back . linus refuses to take her , fearing the wrath of his wife ( jennifer ehle ) who loves him dearly and dotes on their son . out of sheer dispair , nandita shoots herself dead with a pistol that linus had given to rahul . linus and rahul dispose off her body in a rivulet despite rahul's misgivings that not giving her a proper hindu cremation will force her soul to remain unreleased from her body .
linus and rahul return to their work of building a road that will help export their plantation's spices to the outside world , and they hope to earn enormous profits after that road is built . this even though whether the road will hold after the onset of the heavy rains that plague this part of india is open to question . however all is not placid in the world around them ; an independence movement is gathering storm to drive the british out of india , and rahul has to resist calls to join the movement . he is torn between his friendship with linus and the call to drive linus's people the british out of his motherland . rahul's father accuses him of forgetting the traditions of his motherland and becoming a slave of the british ways and customs .
the situation comes to boil when nandita's brother asks his villagers to search for her , and her body is found with the bullet that matches the caliber of the gun that linus has given rahul . the villagers drag rahul in front of the elders because they suspect him of having killed nandita . and they ask him to undergo trial by fire to prove his innocence .
so will rahul come out of the trial by fire unscathed ? will he blurt out the truth of the affair of linus and nandita which led to her suicide ? will the real culprit ( linus ) be brought to book ? as the whole drama is being played out just before the onset of the rainy season ( hence the name of the movie ) , will the coming rains destroy the road that is being built or will the road survive ? watch the movie for the answers....
the movie is brought to life by director santosh sivan's great cinematography of the lush greenery of kerala , and some stupendous acting by rahul bose and linus roache and nandita das and jennifer ehle . linus roache particularly has a difficult job to do---play a person committed to his wife but also unwilling to be able to let go of his sexual attraction for nandita for whom he has begun to care , and being forced to dump nandita because he does not have the guts to face the consequences of his actions . music is beautiful too , though there are no songs despite the film being set in india ; it is an english movie after all and not a bollywood film , though some dialogues are in malayalam which is the language of the state of kerala .
the climax has some real meaning but will be disappointing for some viewers ; it will be liked only by those who like art films . the director has managed to create drama throughout the film and help maintain audience interest . but again the drama will be of interest only for the art film buffs .
verdict---decent .
three stars .
Lights Out
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This horror movie I saw today . Predictably , the ghost in this movie can attack only when the lights are out and it's powers wane when the lights are on . So the trick to keep the ghost away is to keep the lights in the haunted house on permanently . But the ghost ( it's a female spirit ) of course is all too desperate to resort to any measures to turn off the lights .
So what do the persons / victims do ??---they keep all sorts of flashlights and torches with them in case the lights go out...and they do go out !! ( remember the name of the movie ) . But the beam of torches and flashlights can be directed only in one direction and in the other direction there is darkness...and in the other direction lies the ghost ( you guessed it :D ) which is waiting to attack...and attack it does , for it is quite a murderous spirit .
There are scenes in which the evil spirit is seen in the darkness and disappears when the light is turned in that direction . But when the flashlight is turned off or in other direction the spirit is again seen... but this time it is closer !! terrifying....for it gets closer every time the torch is switched off....
So who is the spirit ? It's a lunatic woman's spirit ( she had a strange skin disorder too ) ---a woman who was killed in some experiment in the lunatic asylum , but her spirit managed to latch on to another female inmate of the asylum who was released later . And the evil spirit keeps the woman imprisoned , and sets it's evil eyes on destroying her family too....a family consisting of the woman's husband ( whom the spirit kills in the opening of the movie itself ) and her luscious blonde blue eyed daughter and her young cute son and the daughter's boyfriend . The police who come to investigate are not spared either .
I got some jolts watching the movie , and did enjoy it .
Will you get the same enjoyment ? Depends on how much you enjoy horror movies like I do---I am a fan of the genre .
3
SeeingisBelieving
08-07-16, 05:43 PM
Lights Out
This made for a very interesting read, mainly because of what it reminded me of. In Doctor Who in recent years there have been the Weeping Angels, who are 'quantum locked' and can only move when not being observed. Their debut, Blink, established the fact that if a person blinks when confronted by an Angel, it can get closer and closer to them at lightning speed. In total darkness they can move at will, and one scene in their second appearance showed soldiers opening fire on them in the dark, each time partially revealing the Angels' static forms as the light exposed them. It's a brilliant, visual idea.
This also reminds me a little of Entity, which I would recommend.
Secret in their eyes
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Julia Roberts plays a CIA agent who along with her partners is investigating a mosque which may have islamic radicals . But one day her own daughter is found murdered near the mosque . Julia is totally shattered by this , and looks haggard throughout the film---of course , she will probably look haggard in all her films after this unless she does some surgery...she's become old . Nicole Kidman ( her CIA boss ) on the other hand still looks good even at this age---so good in fact that her black colleague hits on her .
Julia's friend ( the black actor who played slave in '12 years a slave' ) decides to track down the killer , who is a psychopath who come from the mosque . He is a serial killer rather than an islamic radical . In fact , he is the contact who is going to give proof to the CIA about the islamic radicalism in the mosque . So the CIA decides not to arrest him , for tracking down islamic radicals ( whose information the man is giving ) is more important !! There are major showdowns over this in the CIA office .
In the midst of this the man escapes to nowhere . Julia is distraught . Her black friend vows to track him down and for 12 years searches for him , finally thinking that he has zeroed down on him . But trying to get to the man costs the CIA some men . In the end the whereabouts of the man all these years are a major surprise to us all---the viewers . That is the major shock at the end .
The movie is based on an argentinian movie , and the argentinian movie is supposed to be much better . This english copy has a 'tired' flavour to it---does not pick up pace . The premise is good , but the movie is slow paced and sloppy .
The gallows
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The movie begins with a play gone horribly wrong in a school---the actor is to be shown to be hanged , but the base on which he is standing crumbles abruptly and he gets stuck in the gallows and gets really hanged to death .
Decades later , the same play is to be enacted again in the same school . All the sets are placed in position , including the gallows of the hangman . But the night before the play , a group of disgruntled students decides to play havoc with the sets .
The students have discovered that a door to the interior of the school has a broken latch and they can enter the school at will in the night . So they enter and find that some attractive female students also want to come in .
Having created havoc with the sets , the students decide to get out---only to discover that the door through which they came in is now firmly closed and they can't get out . To be honest I was expecting this---what else could happen....?
Once trapped inside , the students try to search ways of getting out---only to go deeper and deeper into the quagmire of evil...for predictably , an evil spirit is out to get them inside the school ; indeed , it has haunted the school for ages....
As the body count piles , you wonder if anyone will get out alive . The scares in the movie are pretty routine stuff , but you do get the jolts every now and then . But then , I am a aficionado of horror movies---primarily because I don't get scared much of them and can sleep well at night even after watching them ; yes , not being able to sleep well after watching a horror movie is a major reason for people not watching them . But for me it is not an impediment .
In between the jolts old secrets tumble out and the doomed students realise why everything is happening ; nice to know the reason why you are going to die...
The ending is bad and the director should have thought of some way better to end it .
The way we were ( 1973 )
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The common saying is that opposites are attracted to each other , but this love story will make you lose belief in that saying . The story begins in the 1930s and moves in the 1940s .
Barbra Streisand is a committed communist , making fiery speeches in college espousing communist causes in various wars like the Spanish civil war inspite of fun being poked at her by her college mates . She is a jew . And with curled frizzly hair , she is no beauty . The one thing about her personality is that she is driven for her causes , and has a passion for them that others don't have .
Robert Redford is the the opposite---a person with a laidback lifestyle and no strong views politically , but with a talent for writing . He is a protestant of English ancestry and comes from an affluent family . Above all , he is conventionally handsome with blond hair .
Naturally it is Barbra who is attracted to Robert in college , as he can get any girl he wants . But she is not just attracted to his looks , but also to his writing skills . But they lose touch as the second world war interrupts .
They meet again after the war , and Barbra makes the first move . Opposites attract , and they are soon in a relationship . Barbra irons her hair in order to look conventionally beautiful .
But she begins to have strong arguments with his friends over what they feel are trivial issues for them---political issues , what else . Robert feels rightly that Barbra is does not have the temperament for becoming part of his circle , and tries to cut off . But Barbra is too deeply in love to let him go , and agrees to change herself in a desperate attempt to cling on .
Robert begins to write for TV shows and gets some real money , which allows the two to live a lifestyle . But once again Barbra wants him to do serious writing , and her driven personality clashes with his laid back lifestyle . As suspicion grows in political circles that Hollywood has closet communists , Barbra finds that she cannot keep herself away from politics which is her first love . This bring Robert in trouble .
Barbra is pregnant , but Robert has a one night stand with another girl . This pains Barbra greatly . Robert is however frustrated by her meddling with politics . Finally , they both realise that they are not made for each other . He is never going to realise the potential of the writer that he can become ( and that Barbra wants him to be ) and is satisfied with writing for TV . She is never going to quit politics . They agree to part ways after their daughter is born .
When they meet again years later , they both remember the way they were....and they remember with nostalgia . She has her curled frizzly hair again , and is again fighting for communist causes . He is with a conventionally good looking girlfriend .
And yet they both acknowledge that there was something special in the way they were....he was at his creative best , and that was due to her !! And remembering those times fills her with tears of nostalgia....'the way we were' will be forever in their memories....
Looking at Robert Redford's personality , I was reminded of myself---with some writing skills but not willing to go into serious writing ; instead writing frivolous movie reviews....When will I meet the Barbra Streisand in my life , who will egg me on for serious writing ?:D
I liked the emotional tone of some scenes , and was impressed by the music . The song 'the way we were' ( presumably sung by Streisand ) is simply beautiful , and so is the background music . A fine romantic movie full of nostalgia for the bygone times . But don't see it if you are in the middle of a break up with your partner :nope:
Verdict---good .
Three and a half stars .
Obsessed ( 1992 )---
https://youtu.be/TiGmwVgQzys
This movie I saw on youtube recently .
It's about a young woman ( Shannen Doherty ) who falls in love with an older man . She goes crazy over this man , to the point of trying to sacrifice her own life over him---attempted suicide what else....
She is in her early twenties and he is in his mid fifties . He even has a daughter who is probably older than her !! But she quickly latches on to him , and they make love on satin sheets several times . But she cannot adjust in his older circle and he decides to end the relationship .
On hearing this she is shattered and refuses to end it , forcing herself into his living quarters and his group of friends again and again in sexy clothes....and soon she resorts to increasing violence....
To me the whole idea of a sexy hot young woman falling so quickly in love with a man much older than her was corny to say the least . How many men in their mid fifties get to bed and have a full scale relationship with a much younger woman unless they have a fat account book---nobody I guess , and this guy is not that rich even though he is financially well settled .
But the idea of him tiring of her was even cornier , and I wondered why he wouldn't give even his arm and leg to date a woman so young and hot and sexy . How come he wants to cut off from someone who gives us the hots....??
Who cares anyway---Shannen looks good enough to eat , and shows enough of her body to keep us interested . Her cleavage , her thighs , her legs , her face---all are good enough to not shut off the film . There are one or two love making scenes .
In the end she goes totally bonkers over his rejection and blows off his luxury boat by gasoline . Tries to kill herself and when that fails , to kill his daughter . That fails too---the director was sensible enough not to convert this into a tragedy....
She is admitted to a mental institution by the authorities , and on being released ( how come a person who has committed crimes gets released so quickly ?? this the director only knows ) she latches on to another older man !!....does she not have interest in young men , who would presumably make a beeline for her if she gave them the chance....?
Verdict---film with a stupid premise of a young woman going mad over an older man , but reasonably well executed . Maybe it is for letting old men indulge in their fantasies about bedding young women .
Unindian
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This is an Australian film with a director of Indian origin---for even though the film is called 'Unindian' , it predictably has several Indian characters .
But the star of the show is Australian , and he is none other than Australian sportsman Brett Lee . Brett , who was a fast bowler in the game of cricket was hugely popular in India due to his sporting feats---because India is mad about cricket , which is nothing less than religion for Indians .
The film was released in Australia nearly a year ago , but obviously the big draw of the film will be in India even though the language of the film is mostly english . Thats because the number of Indians who understand english is more than the population of Australia . Brett is hoping to leverage the popularity he enjoys among Indians and Australians to become a film star in India and Australia both .
So how is Brett Lee the actor ? Surprisingly , he has acting talent along with good looks . Women won't fail to be attracted to his natural charm and the way he makes acting look easy . But in the movie he is after one particular woman---dark and dusky Tannishtha Chatterjee , who is not so easy to get . That's because she has parents who frown on any partner for her who is not Indian , and Brett is as 'unindian' as it gets....
Brett's job is to teach how to speak the english language in the aussie way to migrants to Australia , and the setting is Australia's biggest city Sydney . He gets to meet Tannishtha at an Indian celebration of holi ( the festival of colours ) when she throws colours at him by mistake , but then proceeds to colour him up up because that is the way holi is played---you smear colour on each other's bodies . Brett is charmed , and he tries to woo Tannishtha the aussie way---without any hint of subtlety . Tannishtha is intrigued though hesitant , and it takes a little time for her to warm up to Brett .
Meanwhile an Indian suitor selected by her parents for her crops up , and a rivalry begins between him and Brett for her affections . When a chance misunderstanding makes Brett give up , Tannishtha realises that she misses him . As she herself now tries to wean Brett back , it is only a matter of time before kisses ( and there are plenty of them in the movie ) lead to lovemaking in the bedroom....
But will her parents ( and parental opinion is very important among people of Indian origin ) accept Brett---a white man with blonde hair ? More importantly , will her daughter from her first marriage ( yeah , Tannishtha is a divorcee ) adjust to Tannishtha's relationship with another man ? And who is the person who follows the daughter wherever she goes ? Will Brett be able to even keep his job which is threatened by his superior's attitude of not accepting the aussie way of speaking english and concentrating only on Queen's english ? A crisis is building up....
The film has several light hearted and funny moments without making it a comedy ; it remains firmly a romantic film with a mildly emotional ending . The film belongs above all to Brett Lee , and his strength of character is tested as the crisis builds up . Her dusky looks make Tannishtha look sensuous , and she does act properly . Music and songs are more Indian in touch , and are decent to hear . Photography and colours are nice .
Verdict---Nice .
yeah honeykid , i should have written win instead of wean .
Warrior ( 2011 )
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Spoiler alert
A lethal dose of action mixed with real emotion---that's what this movie is all about...about broken family ties and loss and pain and about recovering from it all---but a lot of sweat has to go , a little bit of blood spilled , and a lot of punches traded to make everything all right in the end....
Nick Nolte's family has splintered long ago , primarily because of his heavy drinking . His wife left him long ago , and her younger son ( Tom Hardy ) chose to go along with her . She was sick due to a fatal disease , and Tom had to take care of her alone---because his father and his older brother ( Joel Edgerton ) never knew about that .
Joel too broke ties with his father , but chose to remain in town because he was in love with a local girl ( Jennifer Morrison ) and he married her . He became the more stable of the two brothers because his life was settled by domesticity . But misfortune struck as his daughter was having a heart condition and he had to mortgage his house for treating her . So he decided to earn money by taking part in professional fighting . However , the news reached his school where he has a job as a teacher and he was suspended .
Younger brother Tom Hardy however has been emotionally shattered by his mother's death , which he had to face alone when he was young . He becomes an ace marine who is a real hero because he saves the lives of other soldiers , but is too emotionally distraught to try get a medal for his brave act . He is further emotionally wrecked when he and his comrade are attacked mistakenly by his own country's warplanes in Iraq and his comrade is killed . He deserts the marines and gets a new name because he feels forsaken even by his country . But he decides to help his comrade's wife , and decides to fight in a mixed martial arts tournament to win 5 million dollars and give the wife that money . And whom better to train him than his father Nick Nolte , who was an ace trainer....but as his father ( who has given up alcohol now ) tries to make a bond with him , Tom rejects any personal feelings and refuses to rebuild their relationship .
Nick Nolte now tries to reach out to his older son Joel , and Joel is not ready at first and refuses to let him meet his daughter and wife . But being the more stable of the two brothers , he finally forgives his father . His more pressing concern however is to earn money by entering the mixed martial arts tournament himself .
So both brothers are destined to meet in the ring . It is Tom who is the more powerful of the two , as his life's experiences have made him a meaning killing machine....without emotion , rentless . On the other hand Joel is more capable of taking a beating without backing down and then persisting and beating the opponent . And soon news spreads about Tom's heroism during his marine days and the marines turn up as spectators to cheer him . Joel's students ( whom he taught at school where he was a teacher ) too come to know of his new career and they turn up to watch the tournament to watch him . So both brothers have their own supporters . But whoever of them wins , it's all going to be in the family....or is it ? For there are other fighters in the tournament as well including the unbeatable Koba from Russia .
As the movie gets more violent with what the punches being thrown and kicks landed and wounds inflicted , it also gets more emotional as the three ( father , brother and brother ) grapple with their feelings for one another . But out there in the fighting ring , it's a cruel world where the one who can take maximum punishment can survive . The climax is a gem where inspite of all the animosity that Tom has with Joel for not choosing his mother over his girlfriend , the two estranged brothers are able to make a connection in the ring---but not before we are treated to some real action of mean fighters having a real go at each other .
The acting of all concerned makes the film worthwhile to watch , and so does the fighting in the ring....what is emotion if not mixed with sizzling action after all....
Verdict---Good .
Kundun ( 1997 )
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/71/MPW-35581
This film tells the story of his holiness the Dalai lama , the spiritual and the political leader of Tibet who is affectionately called 'Kundun' by his people . Regarded as the living manifestation of the Lord Buddha , the Dalai lama is regarded as God himself in Tibet . The film was made by Martin Scorsese with co operation of the Dalai lama and his family along with other Tibetans . It tells the story of the Dalai lama while he lived upto his youth in Tibet , but ends at his self imposed exile into India . It does not tell how the Dalai lama spent and continues to spend the rest of his life trying to work out some solution to the brutal Chinese occupation of Tibet .
The film begins with monks coming to the Dalai lama's birth place , first in disguise and then openly to identify him in childhood . He is just a toddler when he is given things to pick , and when he picks out things which were property of the previous Dalai lama then he is identified as the next Dalai lama . He is taken to the Potala palace in Tibetan capital city Lhasa , where his education begins .
Frankly , this first part of the movie was somewhat boring , for it showed us the wonder that the young child felt at the new things around him ; the story simply didn't seem to get a start . Of course , real care has been taken to show tibetan traditions and customs , but to westernized persons these must look like a morass of superstitions and otherworldly traditions . And who cares for the customs of some godforsaken place that is inaccessible across the mighty Himalayas....
What held me however was the enthralling music in true and rich Tibetan style , something that was present throughout the movie . The blow of the Tibetan horns somehow seemed to convey a sense of impending doom , and the doom arrived in due course in the form of the invading Chinese . This was the reason why I was watching the movie anyway , and the reason why it was made ; had Tibet remained an independent country , no one would have made or seen any movie on it---it was the Chinese invasion and rape of that land that made it such a cause celebre.....
From being immersed in some ancient rituals and hanging out among animals like peacocks in his palace , the Dalai lama is rudely awakened to the fact that his country is under foreign occupation and that he can do nothing about it . At first the officers of the Chinese army are respectful to him but as the movie progresses they become more and more rude . Chairman Mao , whom the Dalai lama goes to visit in Peking / Beijing , is outwardly friendly but to him religion and any person practising it is poison .
As his own people tell him of horror stories of Chinese persecution and he comes to know of them being killed by the Chinese , the Dalai lama feels himself in danger . One night he and his entourage flee across the mountains towards India . The last shot of the Dalai lama in Tibet is truly heartrending . He turns to say goodbye to the soldiers who escorted him to the Indian border and has a vision of them bloodspattered and shot dead by the Chinese , for that is exactly what is going to happen to them as also the the rest of the Tibetan people . There is little hope of him ever being able to return to his homeland again....
Of course , given the immense human tragedy of the destruction wrought by the Chinese in Tibet , the necessity of making such a movie is obvious . This is especially true because the Tibetans are a gentle people , wedded to the arts of peace rather than war---one of the few peoples on earth to be so .
As an Indian whose country has given refuge to the Dalai lama and hundreds of thousands of Tibetan refugees , my sympathies invariably lay with the Tibetans....and as the movie progressed I could not help but be moved by what was unfolding on the screen . This despite the fact that I had waited shamelessly for the Chinese to emerge on screen to get the story really moving .
Photography and picturization of Tibet is really perfect , and you get a authentic glimpse into Tibetan culture if you are interested in it---though actually I wasn't to be honest . Every cloth , every frame has been carefully constructed , and is rich with colour . But in the end all the colours are swept away by the hand of fate....for as predicted in the movie , he and his entourage are reduced from kings to wandering people who are saved only because the Indians agree to give refuge to them at terrible price to themselves ; the Indians have to incur the unending enemity of the Chinese for that act ( the last part of the sentence is not shown in the movie , but as an Indian I have to say it ) .
The movie will be liked only by the art film lovers , and also by those interested in history---I am both . But those interested in commercial fare can go for 'Seven years in Tibet ' which tells the story of a German's quest for reaching Tibet and his friendship with the Dalai lama . But 'Kundun' is the more authentic movie , if you are really interested in authenticity .
Verdict--decent .
Unfreedom ( 2015 )
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This review has spoilers
This english film with characters who either live or originate in the Indian subcontinent has been banned in India due to scenes of brutal violence and graphic depiction of lesbian sex---and banning a film is like waving a red rag to a bull as far as I am concerned . The film is easily available on the internet , and I had already been enticed by a clip of the film showing explicit lesbian sex that was circulating on whatsapp .
It deals with two parallel plots ( one originating in Pakistan and the other based in India ) that never intersect , but are interconnected anyway due to the fact that in both plots the victims have to face brutal violence for believing in their beliefs and living their way of life---and the director's message is that though technically India and Pakistan are both free countries , it is 'unfreedom' that prevails .
In one plot a muslim leader ( played by Victor Banerjee ) living in New York is kidnapped by a fundamentalist muslim ( played by Bhanu Uday ) sent from Pakistan . He is kidnapped because he preaches tolerance and moderation and he refuses to recant his views in front of the camera placed by his kidnapper . So he is forced to undergo the most brutal torture by his kidnapper using the most sharp and vile instruments---the kind of savagery which will make you puke if it goes on any further on the screen in front of you . The kidnapper himself is mentally tortured by an incident in his past and this results in a bizarre ending to the torture fest .
The other plot is more tantalising---at least at the start . It is based in Indian capital city Delhi , and here a girl ( Preeti Gupta ) is being forced to marry against her wishes by her policeman father . She cuts her long traditionally Indian hair to short tresses as an act of rebellion . But when her father admonishes her , she tries to kill herself with a pistol . Finally she plucks up enough courage to run away to the the person she romantically loves---another woman , played by Bhavani Lee .
AAH Bhavani Lee....the start of the movie itself shows her strutting about completely naked painting nude paintings and giving fiery speeches espousing lesbian and transgender rights . Her butts and her boobs are just perfect---butts are shapely and boobs are taut and erect . She is bisexual and Preeti Gupta has to shoot Bhavani's male lover ( they are shown having sex in a parked vehicle when Preeti arrives waving gun ) to kidnap Bhavani . Having kidnapped Bhavani they escape across a river and then Preeti proposes marriage to Bhavani . They marry in front of the sacred fire , and then comes what I had been waiting for---their lovemaking scene . The sight of two beautiful naked bodies entwined and gyrating in pleasure and rubbing each others privates is one of the most hot and sexy scenes I have seen in mainstream cinema---and I have seen a lot of mainstream cinema . Bhavani is more fair skinned , while Preeti is dusky in complexion with heavier breasts .
But Preeti's father has policemen after her and two lesbian lovers are caught . In the police station he asks Preeti to leave Bhavani and when she refuses , he does what is the most gruesome act I have seen in a film ever---he makes his fellow policemen rape his own daughter in front of his own eyes as punishment for her lesbianism ( which he feels is against Indian culture ) !!
The director has truly crossed all limits as far as taking cinematic liberty is concerned , and his method of showing the 'unfreedom' in the Indian subcontinent is really too way off....
Of course , the movie does leave a lasting impact and the director has made it with extraordinary zeal . Inspite of the brutal scenes , you have to credit him with that .
The film is obviously not a good advertisement of the subcontinent and will make a westerner have the most horrifying image of south asia and it's people . 'Unfreedom' does exist in both India and Pakistan , but to this degree of violence ? Not surprisingly , it is banned in India .
Acting is good by everyone and the two girls have put real zest in their lovemaking . Photography and music is decent and appropriate for the situations .
Verdict---No holds barred stuff . I would give it three stars out of five .
Don't Breathe
http://cdn2-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/gallery/dont-breathe/dontbreathelarge.jpg
Three burglars decide to rob a blind man who has a large sum of money stacked in the safe in his house---money he got as settlement when his daughter got killed in an accident . The blind man lives in an isolated neighbourhood and lives alone---so the task of robbing him seems to be easy . But the blind man is an army veteran and he has a ferocious dog , so for the first time one of the burglars carries a gun with him , even though they have no experience or intentions to use it . The other two burglars do not know of the gun at all , and are shocked by seeing it later .
One of the burglars is a girl ( played by Jane Levy ) and she is pretty with blond hair . One wonders why such a pretty girl would get mixed up with this kind of crime , but as she explains she has had a tough childhood in which her mother used to keep her locked up in the trunk of a car and even now practically neglects her . The burglar girl dreams of moving to California with her cute little sister , and her motive for the burglary is that the money would help her achieve her dreams . One of the two male burglars is also a cute kid who is initially reluctant to join and scrams off for a while on seeing the gun , before deciding to come back .
As the three give the dog some spiked food to eat which puts it to sleep for a while , they enter the house . But the blind man does not turn unconscious by the gas they propel into his room , and that is where things turn wrong . The blind man has a gun too , and being an army veteran he is more prepared to use it . On the other hand the burglars do not have to guts to use their gun , and this turns things really awry for them .
The blind man has far more physical strength than the three , and he is far more vicious than they think . He is able to fire his gun accurately in the direction of sound , and the sound of heavy breathing ( which the terrified burglars are likely to make in their fright ) is where he will fire . So the key word for the burglars is 'don't breathe' while being confronted by the blind man , which fully justifies the title of the movie .
As the burglars cannot escape from the house , they go deep inside it and that is their mistake---for they stumble upon the blind man's dark secret , and that really sets him on finishing them off . So what is the secret that the man is hiding ? Will any of them escape from the situation alive ?
As the man switches off the lights of the house , the movie is in darkness ; another element is the dog who is ferocious when he finally wakes up and has a serious impact on the proceedings . The movie moves forward in the dark rooms and underground corridors of the house and later outside in the surrounding streets , and keeps you tensed all along . The movie is more thriller than horror , though some jolts in the movie remind you of horror movies especially because they are in the typical setting of horror movies---in a darkened house .
Photography and sound effects are appropriate for the situations and the acting is in capable hands . The triumph of the director is in making the criminals look like victims once inside the house and making you sympathise with them ; I was really hoping that the three would escape from the house and escape with the money they came to loot !! So do they ? Watch the movie for that...
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Sully
http://cdn3-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/gallery/sully/cmizrmkukaas8-9.jpg
This movie is based on a real life incident where an aircraft carrying 155 passengers had to be downed in the Hudson river at New York because both engines had failed due to colliding with birds ( Canadian geese ) . As all passengers were evacuated safely , the pilot Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger became a hero---albeit a momentary one . He was feted wherever he went .
But the movie says that personally the immediate aftermath of the incident was not great for him . According to the movie there was an investigation into the whole episode instigated by insurance companies who frankly did not want to pay the huge amount of money that the plane had been insured for . They tried to prove ( or so says the movie ) that the forced landing into the Hudson river was due to 'human error'---that is , the pilots were the ones who made the mistake . That they could have landed at nearby airports but it was their 'human error' to have not done so .
The movie however shows another immediate aftermath of the episode on Captain Sully ( played by Tom Hanks ) ---he suffers post traumatic stress disorder , whereby he has dreams of him not being able to dive safely towards the river but crashing into nearby buildings . This would have been a repeat of 9/11 if this happened , and indeed was a very real possibility in actuality .
The highlight of the movie is the landing in the Hudson river by the aircraft , which has been filmed well by the moviemakers . It is shown repeatedly in the movie as it is the central event of the film . Also the movie shows the passengers and crew being evacuated by craft moving on the river , but not before some of them are forced to land in the freezing cold water and have to undergo a distressful time .
Captain Sully asks for pilots to simulate the incident in real time on simulators and shown to the public investigating committee on screen by data link . This is because if he is shown to be guilty of human error , then he will be forced to give up flying . So what happens in the public investigation ? Is it Sully and his co pilot's mistake or was the incident unavoidable ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The main problem before the movie makers must have been the fact that they were basing the film on a real life incident and could not bring other dramatic twists to it as it would have compromised the truthfulness of the film . Is that why the landing on the Hudson is shown again---because there is no other drama really to be shown ? Possibly . Is the investigation into the crash perhaps over dramatised to add drama to the movie ? Can't say , but that is possible too . It is a movie after all...
Acting wise , everyone is perfect . Tom Hanks is shown with his hair completely white , just like that of the actual pilot . Photography is good , especially of the landing---another reason to show the landing again ? But the lack of other drama does hamper the pace of the film , and I was not impressed by the first half of the film . Only in the second half does the film pick up pace , and in the end you come out with the impression of a very decent effort .
Verdict---Very decent .
3
The Magnificent Seven
https://geekdad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnificent7.jpg
I must confess that it was the first time I saw any version of 'The magnificent seven' . I haven't seen the original , and the fact that I haven't seen it aided greatly in my cinematic entertainment as I could not compare with the original and did not have the feeling of seeing the same thing again ; the whole movie was brand new for me .
So the setting is in the 1870s somewhere in the north part of the United States , judging from the snow I could see in distant horizons . It is the wild west , and it is as wild as it gets . If the movie is to be believed , in these distant parts there is no such thing as law and order ; might is right . And in this village called snow creek , the might belongs to Bartholomew Bogue ( Peter Sarsgaard ) and his men . He is pitiless ; just slaughters anyone who dares stand up to him , and even many who don't . Of course , he is no rag tag bandit and looks as dapper as anyone can because he is well dressed .
In this situation , a lovely young woman ( Haley Bennett as Emma Cullen ) who Bogue has just made a widow decides to avenge her husband's murder by his men . She is in search of a man who could organise some men who could bring Bogue and his tyranny to heel by coming to snow creek , and chances upon Denzel Washington playing Sam Chisolm, a bounty hunter . Emma asks him to do her bidding for a sum of money , and he agrees . They go about searching for other like minded men who could join , and get Josh Faraday ( Chris Pratt ) , a gambler ; Goodnight Robicheaux ( Ethan Hawke ) , a sharpshooter ; Jack Horne ( Vincent D'Onofrio ) , a tracker ; Billy Rocks ( Byung-hun Lee ) , an assassin ; Vasquez ( Manuel Garcia-Rulfo ) , a Mexican outlaw ; Red Harvest ( Martin Sensmeier ), a Comanche warrior .
The assembled men look like an odd bunch , with Chris Pratt looking the most dashingly handsome without question . All are rough men whose business is firing bullets into live men , or at least firing arrows or knives . But can they inspire the people of snow creek to fight Bogue and his men ? Yes , they can .
The movie does not move an inch without bullets being fired and the boom of guns firing is a constant in the film . There are loads of untrustworthy characters and the answer to their untrustworthiness is a bullet to the head . The body count just piles up like anything and so does the entertainment get jacked up . It seems everyone has a gun and a plentiful supply of ammunition . Bodies slide away to dusty death as if human life is of no count .
But the grand finale outclasses even this . You can feel the fear when news comes that Bogue and his men are coming to deal with the seven men and the village folk they have organised against him . You realise how ancient towns must have felt when they knew that a barbarian army is heading to sack them ; the swiftly descending terror was palpable in the theatre . One last prayer is said and candles are lit by the villagers ; no one knows who is going to survive the coming dawn .
And dawn brings the advance of the terrible army of death . It looks like a dramatic cavalry charge straight from the medieval times and the village looks like a warzone under seige . The coming fight is not just a fight but a battle and the coming morning the village will be converted into a battlefield ; almost like full scale war....
I had seen a Bollywood film called 'Sholay' ( the splinters ) loosely based on this film , but the scale of the fighting in this film totally eclipsed that film . Dynamite and explosives , Gatling guns---all add drama to the proceedings . Many are going to die defending the village , but the surviving ones are going to live with that precious thing called honour...and the seven who help them are going to be honoured with the title 'The magnificent seven' .
So who is going to live and who is going to die ? Watch the film for that . Watch the high action of dynamite exploding and firearms booming and flames and dust erupting and bodies flying . Hear the enthralling music that fills your heart with emotion at the end . Watch a black man save white folk from destruction even as he seeks revenge for atrocities committed on his family in bygone days . Watch an unlikely band of warriors turn heroes....
Acting by anyone is not too spectacular . Denzel Washington is not impressive . But cinematography is better and direction is good enough . A black man leading 'The magnificent seven' soon after a black man played Django is the face of the new politically correct America .
Verdict---Good .
4
Queen Of Katwe
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In the slums of Katwe in Uganda lives a rather uncommon person who is in contrast to the settings---Phiona Mutesi , a young girl who plays the cerebral game of chess ; and she has been recognised as a master of that sport . But it is the struggle that she has to put up in her personal life while she continues her passion for the game that is more inspiring than just her excellence in the sport . For she has to face innumerable obstacles due to the poverty of her slum , and her struggle to rise above all that to excel in such a cerebral game is nearly astonishing .
Remember that this is the dark continent of Africa that we are talking about , and Uganda is more famous for producing a cannibal dictator like Idi Amin . For that nation to produce a chess prodigy is something to cheer about , and the horrid conditions in which that prodigy rose up to create a name for herself is worthy of making a film on .
Phiona's life takes a turn when she is taken under his wing by Robert Katende , who runs a chess class in a ramshackle structure . Other children scoff at the smell that comes from her body because she has not taken a bath , but Katende urges her on and she comes back after bathing for the first time in days . Her talent soon presents itself , and Katende vows to take her with other children to a competition in King's school . He has to raise money to get the children in , for they are slum children coming to a clean place where they are frankly unwelcome . But Katende's efforts pay off and they win the competition .
The rest of the film shows the teacher and the student struggle to make her success even bigger , and the conditions that they have to put up a fight against are truly heart rending . Phiona and her family are evicted by the owner of their rented house , they have no money to pay hospital bills when Phiona's brother is hurt in an accident , their new home is flooded by water when the rains come , her sister is forced to sell herself to earn money , men are lusting after her mother because their father is dead , and soon men will come after Phiona herself....
In all this Katende is Phiona's pillar of strength because he has faith in her talent , and she proves him right by outclassing him in the game . He takes her to an international competition in Sudan and she wins it too . Katende asks his teacher wife to help Phiona read and write , and he even gives up on a better job offer to help Phiona . But Phiona grows too confident of herself and does not win at the bigger chess competition in Russia , which is disappointing . But remember that this is true story and not some film fiction .
In the end Phiona is recognised as master in chess , which is stepping stone to the title of grandmaster . And being so young , one day she might get there too . For her efforts she got a house for herself given by the Ugandan government , and she became a famous figure coming out of that nation . Some of the people I know frankly refused to see the film because they ''didn't want to see a film about black people from some godforsaken part of Africa with only black faces to see'' , which is an indicator of the odds of racism that Phiona must have had to put up to become master of chess .
Acting is good by all actors , and music and photography is good too . Because the story is real , the drama is less flamboyant than fictional movies . But reality is more inspirational than fiction...
Verdict---Decent .
3
SeeingisBelieving
10-10-16, 06:21 PM
Unfreedom ( 2015 )
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I enjoyed reading that review – your description of the lesbian lovemaking scene actually reminded me of when I watched Prey (1977) and was really surprised at how far the equivalent scene went for a film of that era.
Unfreedom sounds like an interesting film and as usual it's good to get a sample of the reaction within the country in which it's set – for instance what you mention about the level of violence relating to "unfreedom" and its veracity.
I started by admiring the typography on the film poster :) – the kerning on the title itself is really excellent; just enough, with the font allowing it to be very readable, and also puts over the idea of claustrophobia and restriction.
for instance what you mention about the level of violence relating to "unfreedom" and its veracity.
yeah . the sight of a father asking his own daughter to be raped by other men in front of his own eyes is too much . she and her lesbian lover are stripped naked in the police station and raped by other policemen on orders of her father !! can't believe such things really happen .
Captain Steel
10-10-16, 10:33 PM
Ashdoc - if you haven't seen ANY version of the Magnificent Seven, then you need to see Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) - the original original!
It's very long, but a cinematic masterpiece and work of art compared to its many copy cats.
The Girl On The train
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Review has spoilers
For starters---the movie should have been named 'The woman on the train' instead of 'girl' , for Emily Blunt is obviously not shown young enough to be called a 'girl' . But the moviemakers probably wanted the movie to appeal to a younger audience .
Emily plays a woman who thinks that her marriage has collapsed because of her drunkenness and the blackouts that occur because of it , and also because she can't conceive a child . She sometimes stalks her ex husband and his new wife and child , taking the baby in her arms one day until his wife forces her to lay it down . Emily no longer goes to her job and her obsession is to travel to and fro by the same train everyday . The train passes by her ex husband's neighbourhood and she can see his family . Also she develops an addiction to watch a beautiful blonde girl and her husband romancing on their house's balcony many times while watching through the train .
But one day Emily sees the girl kissing another man on the same balcony and she is deeply disturbed by the sight of the perfect romantic marriage breaking down . After a drinking binge , she decides to go and confront the girl and call her a whore , but has a blackout as she goes to confront and does not remember what she saw . Later she comes to know that the girl has disappeared....
So what could have happened ? Did the girl just run off with her new lover ? Or was she murdered---but by whom ? The psychiatrist when she was regularly visiting and on whom she was trying to hit on ? Her husband in a fit of jealousy ? Or did Emily herself murder her her but did not remember later due to her blackout ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The movie rests on the acting capabilities of Emily Blunt , and she carries it off with aplomb . Her acting of a person who is unstable due to heavy drinking is perfect ; the voice and expressions and her own anguish at her condition has been thoroughly well acted out . Other actors act well too . Photography is okay and background music is appropriate for the situations .
But even though I have not read the novel on which the movie is based , I could sense that it is not as great as the novel . Of course , except on one point the novel is copied faithfully in the movie according to what I heard . But I was not fully convinced when the mystery was solved . The person who did what he/she did on a reason that does not fully qualify as a valid reason for doing that ; many people would let things solve themselves out if confronted with the same situation . The situation was not extreme enough to warrant taking the step that person did . Or so I thought , for others who see the movie might disagree....
3
The Accountant
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Ben Affleck plays an accountant who was diagnosed as autistic since childhood , but possesses extremely high intelligence . So high that he can account in a short time for internal embezzlement of money from enterprises that others would take a long time to unravel . He now works to do this job for criminals who need to keep tabs on their money and see if any from their organisations have embezzled money . But he donates his money for a neuroscience institute which handles autistic children like him---which means that he is a good man inspite of his criminal connections , establishing him as the hero of the film .
His father was a military officer who was offered the chance to enrol his son to the same neuroscience centre he now donates to , but the father refused as he wanted his son to grow up facing the world rather than remaining sheltered from it . This led to Ben's mother being driven to abandon her family , and the only emotional attachment he had was to his brother . His father toughened him for physical combat since childhood , teaching him to fight bullies who picked on him .
Cut to the present---J K Simmons plays director of financial crimes for treasury department , who forces Cynthia Addai-Robinson ( on pain of her criminal past being exposed ) to try to find out the identity of the accountant . But Ben has his own protector---an unknown 'voice' on phone that normally brokers the tasks given to him to track the embezzlement from criminal enterprises . This time the voice sends him to do the same task for a legitimate company , in order to keep Simmons and Cynthia off track in their pursuit of Ben . But Ben and that company's associate ( played by Anna Kendrick ) uncover a huge scam there too---which leads to a bloodbath....
If you think that the story is getting complicated , then it turns more complicated from here . Lots of twists and turns occur even as the action does hot up . Some of the twists and turns and coincidences are frankly unbelievable , and in the end the story does seem to be dragged too long . Towards the climax there is a lot of needless melodrama , like Ben's long lost brother suddenly being revealed as the long lost sibling . And the revelation of the identity of the 'voice' is too much to believe ; suffice to say that such things happen only in films .
Ben acts in his usual way---with a deadpan expression on his face and with no emotion , which is what is expected from a person with autism . Rest are all okay with their acting . Photography is decent , and so is background music . Colourwise the film is not that impressive . Action is what holds sway in the second half , and it is well pictured . Ben acts as an autistic action hero who is unbeatable in combat and may work for you if you like emotionless deadpan fighting machines without hypermuscled bodies of Stallones and Schwarzeneggers as actors .
Verdict--decent .
3
Inferno
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One of the reasons for me watching this film was the inclusion of Irfan Khan , an Indian Bollywood actor in the cast . And I belong to the same country . When I watched it I found one more 'Indian' thing about the movie . The movie gives us a tour of Florence and it's tourist attractions and in the end adds the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul to be watched in the climax . This is similar to Indian movies like 'Love in Tokyo' and 'An evening in Paris' that were made in the sixties to show Indian audiences the wonders of those cities .
Tom Hanks plays a professor who wakes up in Florence to not remember what he went through in the last few days , but having visions of earth being converted into hell . He has by his bedside Felicity Jones , who says she is a doctor and helps him by tagging along with him for the next few days . And help is needed , as he is promptly attacked by a female assassin and he has to escape .
Among his belongings Tom finds an image projector which projects a modified version of Sandro Botticelli's Map of Hell, which itself is based on Dante's Inferno . This is a clue among a series of clues that were left by a brilliant but deranged geneticist to the location of a virus he had created to decimate much of the world's population as he believed it was growing far too much , but had to commit suicide because armed agents were hounding him . The virus is named inferno .
Obviously other people are after the virus too , some to release it and some to not let that happen . This leads to a chase up and down Florence and some real action . Tom is repeatedly targeted and is repeatedly helped by Felicity . Except for problem of the age difference between the two , it would have been a fine chance to fall in love along the way....
It becomes difficult for Tom to distinguish between the good people ( those who want to stop the virus from being released ) and the bad people ( those who want to release it ) . Who is who ? And why has Tom been chosen to be presented with clues ? Tom has to find out the answers before catastrophe beckons .
The movie is fast paced enough , but I found the action to be disjointed . Surprises do strike in between the movie keeping you in suspense throughout , but I wondered if there were too many of them . Acting by everyone is decent enough . Colours are decent , and photography is touristy and spectacular it you like to see the wonders of famous architectural and artistic marvels from both inside those marvels and also from vantage points .
How is Irfan Khan ? He does have a role of substance in the movie . But his Indian accent stands out like a sore thumb while speaking english . I was not too impressed by his acting . He does look suave though . On the other hand Tom looked harassed throughout the movie while Felicity looked more confident essaying her role .
Verdict---average movie .
2.5
Captain Steel
10-22-16, 03:54 AM
I read the book Inferno. but haven't yet seen the movie.
Don't know if the movie ends the same way (and I won't get into spoilers) but I liked the book's ending.
It was the first time I was rooting for the bad guy's doomsday plan to work (as I'm something of an over-popu-phobe)!
Mr Church
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Review has spoilers
Young Charlotte and her mother ( who is dying of breast cancer ) get a new person in their house all of a sudden---a person ( Eddie Murphy ) who comes as a cook , but soon turns into the caretaker of their life . He has been hired by the mother's ex lover for cooking as long as she lives , and that means an expected six months . After that Henry Church ( Eddie ) will get financially free due to a large monetary settlement he will get for working those six months .
But six months turn into six years , and the mom is still holding on---though she has weakened down . And the amazing thing is---Henry does not show an ounce of desperation for being free from his commitment and being able to go his way . Instead , he relishes coming and helping these people as also he likes making delicious dishes for them to savour . It is obvious that he is doing so and feeling so because he has no family to call his own .
Charlotte has already gone from resenting this black man's presence in her life to depending on him for everything . And she wants to know more about him---where he goes after he completes his job in their house , and where he lives . But that is one topic which rouses the wrath of Mr Church like nothing else . He is not ready to discuss that .
Years pass by , and the mom dies ; but not before she has had the joy of seeing her daughter go to dance with the best looking guy in school at prom . The scenes of caring for her as she nears death were agonising for me to watch---brings the spectre of similar scenes witnessed in personal life . I was shamelessly waiting for the mom to die so that my agony could end....
Charlotte ( played by Britt Robertson ) who has grown up has no money to continue her education , but Mr Church is again the angel of her life---he has saved money from coupons which her mother gave him and thus the education is funded . But she wastes her college opportunity . For she is the daughter of a mother who was free enough to give birth to her outside wedlock . And , like mother like daughter....one day Charlotte arrives at Mr church's door pregnant .
As he opens his heart wide enough to take care of her , her curiosity in his life increases . Why does he go at night to some nightclub ? Why does he come home drunk blabbering to himself ? What is his past and has something dark happened to him in bygone years that he lives all by himself without woman or family just taking care of her ? And this leads to confrontation that nearly costs Charlotte her baby's life....
But as the years roll by , she has to come to terms with the fact that the answers to the questions in her mind are not important and they may never be answered ; that she should be thankful for having such a father figure in her life . And like a daughter takes care of her father , she will be called upon to take care of him in old age .
As Mr Church slid towards a dignified journey towards mortality , this time death was not agonising for me to watch....I was just wrapped in the sentimentality of the scenes and just was not able to stop a tear from coming my eye....
Both Eddie Murphy and Britt Robertson do justice to their roles , and music and photography and colours are appropriate for the situations . There is case for saying that the character played by Eddie Murphy is shown only through Charlotte's eyes and his feelings and his life ( which doubtlessly had an unhappy past ) are not shown . But isn't it better to remember that he redeemed it all by helping another family survive ?
Verdict---good .
3
Mr Church
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Review has spoilers
Young Charlotte and her mother ( who is dying of breast cancer ) get a new person in their house all of a sudden---a person ( Eddie Murphy ) who comes as a cook , but soon turns into the caretaker of their life . He has been hired by the mother's ex lover for cooking as long as she lives , and that means an expected six months . After that Henry Church ( Eddie ) will get financially free due to a large monetary settlement he will get for working those six months .
But six months turn into six years , and the mom is still holding on---though she has weakened down . And the amazing thing is---Henry does not show an ounce of desperation for being free from his commitment and being able to go his way . Instead , he relishes coming and helping these people as also he likes making delicious dishes for them to savour . It is obvious that he is doing so and feeling so because he has no family to call his own .
Charlotte has already gone from resenting this black man's presence in her life to depending on him for everything . And she wants to know more about him---where he goes after he completes his job in their house , and where he lives . But that is one topic which rouses the wrath of Mr Church like nothing else . He is not ready to discuss that .
Years pass by , and the mom dies ; but not before she has had the joy of seeing her daughter go to dance with the best looking guy in school at prom . The scenes of caring for her as she nears death were agonising for me to watch---brings the spectre of similar scenes witnessed in personal life . I was shamelessly waiting for the mom to die so that my agony could end....
Charlotte ( played by Britt Robertson ) who has grown up has no money to continue her education , but Mr Church is again the angel of her life---he has saved money from coupons which her mother gave him and thus the education is funded . But she wastes her college opportunity . For she is the daughter of a mother who was free enough to give birth to her outside wedlock . And , like mother like daughter....one day Charlotte arrives at Mr church's door pregnant .
As he opens his heart wide enough to take care of her , her curiosity in his life increases . Why does he go at night to some nightclub ? Why does he come home drunk blabbering to himself ? What is his past and has something dark happened to him in bygone years that he lives all by himself without woman or family just taking care of her ? And this leads to confrontation that nearly costs Charlotte her baby's life....
But as the years roll by , she has to come to terms with the fact that the answers to the questions in her mind are not important and they may never be answered ; that she should be thankful for having such a father figure in her life . And like a daughter takes care of her father , she will be called upon to take care of him in old age .
As Mr Church slid towards a dignified journey towards mortality , this time death was not agonising for me to watch....I was just wrapped in the sentimentality of the scenes and just was not able to stop a tear from coming my eye....
Both Eddie Murphy and Britt Robertson do justice to their roles , and music and photography and colours are appropriate for the situations . There is case for saying that the character played by Eddie Murphy is shown only through Charlotte's eyes and his feelings and his life ( which doubtlessly had an unhappy past ) are not shown . But isn't it better to remember that he redeemed it all by helping another family survive ?
Verdict---good .
3
the movie has got poor ratings from critics for two reasons .
one i largely missed . mr church is probably gay . but i missed out on that one because he is not shown to be openly gay at all . i did get a faint suspicion because he is without a woman . but to an ordinary viewer like me it is not clear at all . what the highbrow critics are saying is that charlotte is shown saying that she has heard rumours about the nightclub he goes to . and the critics are saying that mention of the rumours could mean only one thing---the nightclub is a gay nightclub .
the other point is that the movie shows a black man serving a white family as if all black men are born to do that . his life and it's struggles are not shown at all ; probably he has gone through worse than charlotte because he is black , but no importance is given to that because he is black . however i dont live in the united states and do not fully understand this living in india .
as an ordinary viewer the film is likeable for me . i am not a highbrow critic to fully understand the finer nuances of the film .
Battle of Kosovo ( Yugoslav movie---having english subtitles on youtube )
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This is a film made in 1989 when the state of Yugoslavia was still in existence , and it was made on the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo . To those who know what happened later in Kosovo , the movie can give some insight into why Serbians hold the ground of that region so sacred---for it was literally strewn with the bodies of martyrs who laid down their lives for protecting Serbia .
1389---The high noon of Turkish expansion in Europe is yet to come , but already the tremors of their armies are being felt all over the western world . One block to their expansion is the medieval state of Serbia , and sultan Murad sets out to destroy the state with all the power of his terrible armies on the battlefield of Kosovo .
The movie begins with a lost man asking an old man as to where do two particular roads lead to--and the old man answers that today all roads lead to Kosovo , for that is where the fate of Serbia is going to be decided . And some people within Serbia itself have already decided that fate , for defeatism has crept in Serbian ranks and crooked people are even minting dinars ( Turkish currency ) anticipating the impending Turkish rule over Serbia . Earlier under emperor Dusan Serbia was a great power , but now it has been divided into fiefdoms where magnates rival each other for power . And these magnates are divided and cannot present a united front for defending it against the Turkish hordes .
One man however decides to fight out with whatever forces are available with him , and that man is prince Lazar---the chief magnate among all the magnates of Serbia . Some other magnates disagree with him and ask him to accept the suzerainty of the Turks , but his wife supports him in his resistance . For as some common people say , even if their suzerainty is accepted the Turks will force their Islamic religion on the Serbs and their forces will trample the land and they will kidnap young girls and even boys to fulfil their sexual lust . Serbs will have to kiss the boots of the Turkish conquerors and Serbs will have to become the slaves of the Turkish overlords . Prince Lazar wants to fight for Serbian honour even though he may lose his life in the coming battle , for only those who fight will be remembered by the common people for centuries as martyrs .
And the common people heed his call , for an army of more than 70,000 men collects to fight for their nation . But they are divided , for the leaders of various contingents that compose the army are divided . And anyway their army is outnumbered by the Turks , who have an endless horde of more than 160,000 men---all waiting like predators to pounce upon their prey ; there will be no mercy for the Christians as Serbia will be looted devastated and it's people massacred after the battle . As a girl lamenting for her fiance even before the battle begins says after the battle , there wont be any men left to marry and to father children after the battle . Catastrophe is beckoning....
At the last dinner before the battle begins next morning , one of the nobles ( Luc Brancovic ) who himself is going to abandon the army to it's fate and turn traitor accuses Serbia's finest warrior ( Obilic ) of having colluded with the enemy because Obilic has protected a turkish spy whose intentions he failed to recognise . Obilic is so incensed by the accusation that he vows to kill the sultan Murad himself on the field of battle .
As the battle begins next morning Obilic surrenders to the Turks by throwing away his weapon . As he is recognised for being Serbia's best warrior , the sultan asks him to come near to pay obeisance to him and the Turkish nobles ask him to kiss the sultan's feet . What they don't know is that Obilic has hidden a dagger within his clothing . As he comes close to the sultan , Obilic murders Murad by plunging his dagger into his abdomen . He is put to death by the sultan's angry soldiers . But Obilic has proven his loyalty to Serbia....
Immediately a rivalry opens between the sultan's two sons , and the elder son Bayazid has his younger brother treacherously strangled by a cord of silk . Bayazid is then proclaimed sultan and he takes command of the Turkish armies . The battle continues . At first the Serbs who fight bravely have made headway into the Turkish flank , but the treachery of Luc Brancovic seals the fate of the Serbian army as Luc flees the battlefield . Prince Lazar is made prisoner and too late he realises the loyalty of Obilic as he sees his head impaled on a pike . His own fate is the same , and a Serbian man volunteers to let one of his hands be cut by the Turks as price for taking Lazar's and Obilic's heads back to their people for a decent Christian burial .
Today it is Prince Lazar and warrior Obilic who are remembered centuries later by the Serbian people , for they were men of honour ; and while power on the earth is fleeting , the glory of having fought with honour is immortal !!
The movie is hampered by it's low budget , for it was produced by a medium sized European country and not by Hollywood with it's big bucks . So the battle could not be reproduced on a vast scale . Instead it is shown as a series of local actions . But acting by everyone is good and background music is decent . The emotions on every Serb's face as they face the impending catastrophe are authentic . The old sultan Murad is a picture of calm as he rentlessly carries out his sinister intentions , and he faces his own assassination by Obilic calmly too . In contrast , his son sultan Bayazid is haughty and arrogant as he carries out his task cruelly .
Those who like history ( like I do ) will be interested in this movie . I would rate it as okay .
Two and a half stars .
La La Land
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This is the first time I watched a Hollywood musical , and I must confess that I dont know how to review a Hollywood musical . Though I review Bollywood musicals all the time ( for almost all Bollywood movies are musicals ) , I am finding out that trying to review a Hollywood musical is difficult .
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are strugglers trying to make ends meet in Los Angeles . They bump by chance into each other again and again---on a crowded flyover as Emma's car blocks Ryan's car , in a restaurant where Ryan plays piano , in a poolside party where Ryan is playing music....and they begin to go out together , trying to help each other in their respective careers .
Emma is a wannabe actress , but her initial attempts at auditioning all fail . But Ryan is the one who eggs her on to not quit but keep on trying . Ryan wants to start his own jazz club , but he has to initially accept being part of a musical group ( led by John Legend ) which does not play music the way he wants it to be played . But he joins because he gets regular pay . The couple fight over this and temporarily break up because Ryan does not find time to show up for Emma's show .
They come together again , but this time a more solid reason comes up for them to break up---they are finding success in their respective careers and both have to go their respective ways . When they see each other years later , their emotions are filled with nostalgia . They imagine in their mind's eye how life would have been if they had chosen to stay together and had children and there is some regret for having to chose career over love . But such is the reality of life that there is a price that has to be paid for achieving success....
Some of the music is pure romantic fantasy , like the scene in which they go to a astronomical observatory at night and a song is filmed with them dancing among the stars in the sky . Acting is good too and photography is decent . J K Simmons' role in the film however is forgettable . I kind of liked the movie , though not as much as the critics who are gushing over it .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Arrival
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Amy Adams plays a linguist who is shown caring for her daughter , but the daughter dies in adolescence due to cancer .However , the situation in the world is turned upside down by the appearance of 12 extraterrestrial craft containing alien species . Amy is hired by the government to make contact and try to communicate with this species using her linguistic skills .
For a layman like me , the best part of the movie was when Amy and her team is taken to the alien spaceship . The sight of Amy and Jeremy Renner ( a military theoretical physicist ) and others suddenly losing the control of gravity over them and floating and walking upwards into the spaceship through a tunnel is enthralling .
Once in contact with the aliens , Amy begins to learn their language using written symbols . Some of their messages nearly send earthlings of other countries on warpath with the aliens .
But as Amy begins to understand what the aliens really want to say , she not only gets a new concept of time and about the past and the future , but begins to understand things about her own life--a life in which Jeremy will play an important role . The aliens have a totally different understanding of time , and the understanding of their language is the key to understanding their concept of time .
It was nice to see movies go beyond the concept of 'little green men' that used to be our image of aliens in the past . But are the intentions of the aliens good or bad ? Why have they come to earth ? The movie does throw up some interesting answers .
Towards the end , I was finding it difficult to make sense of what was happening . Maybe the movie is too intellectual for ignoramuses like me . But actually the most interesting part is towards the climax . But it is only after after reading about it on a couple of sites on the internet later that I could understand it . Once I understood what I had seen , I liked the film . In the theatre I was not fully in sync with the happenings towards the end .
I can only hope that others understand the movie fully and it's 'intellectual' climax does not prove to be a impediment to box office success with the audience not fully understanding it .
Photography is great , of the alien spaceships hanging in the atmosphere full of mist and clouds ; the visuals taken from high up in the sky are breathtaking . Background score and acting by everyone is okay .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Nice reviews :yup: Thanks :)
The Bye Bye Man
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Over 40 years ago , a crazed man living in a particular house shot dead scores of people . The findings of the investigation into the crime were suppressed till the current era . The happenings were long forgotten till a group of three young students ( two males , one female ) decide to lease the same house for themselves because the male and female are in a relationship and want to live in .
As they move in , predictably strange things begin to happen . The first person to make contact with the spirit ( what else it could be....?? ) in the house is a little girl . Now this is typical of horror movies . Small children and especially girls seem more vulnerable and them making contact with the ghost does give you the chills especially because the little girl is alone in a big dark room .
Also the girlfriend develops a peculiar persistent cough , and the boyfriend begins to see things that make him suspect the nature of the relationship between his girlfriend and his friend . Also they begin to find coins again and again in the house , something that the little girl had already found lying in the big room .
They have a seance in the company of another girl and the girl detects the presence of something in the house . Already the boyfriend has found some strange writings written somewhere in the house and in the middle of them are written some words . The speaking of the words in the middle of the seance is the beginning of the horror....
As the boyfriend investigates the past , he finds out that in the house is a curse . Anyone who speaks the cursed words ( which were written in the middle of the strange writings ) gets afflicted by the curse . And he or she begins to go mad and see weird things and suspect wrong things about his near and dear ones . It is like a virus that spreads to anyone who knows about the cursed words .
So what is the solution to this ? The solution is to kill anyone who has heard the cursed words , for if he or she speaks them to other persons then those too are likely to get affected like a viral infection that has no cure . But this solution means a pile of dead bodies....
The movie has the standard tricks of a horror movie . The presence of the house in a remote forested area , the house having plenty dark rooms , also the cellar below that is frightening , the doors slamming shut in the house suddenly without warning---all this is cliched stuff . But the curse which when spoken afflicts the person spoken to---this was new stuff to me at least . And the solution---to kill anyone who has heard the cursed words---was newer still . So the movie had something to hold my interest . The audience was getting nervous during the horror scenes , which meant that the audience was interested too .
The girlfriend ( played by Cressida Bonas ) looked lovely , with a delicate body to go along with her blue eyes and blonde hair . Acting by her boyfriend ( played by Douglas Smith ) and his other friend ( played by Lucien Laviscount ) was not great however . The horror scenes are decently created . But photography and background music leave much to be desired . However , me being a aficionado of the horror movie genre made me find the film interesting enough .
Verdict---Okay .
2.5
Rings
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A cursed videotape causes the death of anyone who sees it seven days after that person has watched it , and immediately after watching it that person gets a phone call informing that he/she has seven days....seven days in which that person has to make another person ( denoted as tail ) watch it so that the curse moves on to the other person and the earlier person is free from the curse . The movie begins with two persons on the same plane having watched the videotape without having a tail . So they are doomed , and the plane crashes . But why did the other passengers in the plane die unnecessarily without having watched the videotape ? Can anyone tell why come they were doomed too ? Shh !! Don't ask uncomfortable questions !!
Two years later a college professor buys the same tape , but he organises an experiment with some of his students to pass on watching the video to a tail . The heroine's boyfriend ( who is the professor's student too ) gets caught up in this too , and our heroine is too deeply in love to let him alone in this...she watches the video too . But her copy of the video has another video inside it that is only for her and to solve the mystery she has to go to this wretched town where it all started...
So what is so special about the heroine that only she gets a video that has another video inside it ? Simple really , our heroine has probably been selected to star in the next part of this movie too what else !!
Problem is---there are hardly any jolts in the film that give you the chills that a horror movie gives . Most jolts look and sound more like jolts from a thriller than a horror movie . Later on as the movie moves to the wretched town and the blind priest and the tomb where lie all the secrets to the happenings , the film has become more a mystery movie with some thrills rather than a normal horror movie . The grip which the movie has in the first half is lost in the second half .
I was missing what I had thought were the usual cliches of a horror movie---haunted mansions , darkened rooms , small children making contact with the ghost first , doors slamming shut , our leading actors searching darkened rooms of haunted mansions with candles....where was all that when I needed it most for my staple of entertainment ? What I had once dismissed as cliches were coming to haunt me by their absence !!
Matilda Lutz and Alex Roe look cute as the leading pair , but otherwise the film is not interesting . It frankly gets overcomplicated in the second half and I wasn't impressed . Photography is decent and so are the colours .
Verdict---Not good .
1.5
Split
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The critics were crowing about this Manoj Night Shyamalan film , and after a long time and a number of bad films he seemed to have found his groove back . So off I went to the theatre , like a loyal Indian to support this director of Indian origin in Hollywood .
The villain is also the leading actor of the film , and he is played by James McAvoy . The heroine is a young girl played by Anya Taylor-Joy . The movie has no hero , for no knight in shining armour comes to save the three young girls including the heroine kidnapped by the villain . The three must try to escape by themselves .
The villain has a strange disorder in which he has multiple personalities . The three young girls must cope with them during their harrowing time with the villain . Sometimes he is menacing , sometimes like a small child , sometimes like a woman , and so on and so forth . But when the girls try to ask his other personalities to help them escape , they don't help . However when the menacing personality comes forth , he is horrible and does bad things to them . The girls are shown in various stages of undress , which makes for some shady viewing . The heroine has a past and present of have suffered sexual abuse , and seems to be most capable of surviving the ordeal because she seems to be capable of manipulating the various personalities for her survival . Maybe the reason is that the villain is a victim of childhood abuse himself in the past .
The villain visits his psychiatrist ( played by Betty Buckley ) regularly , and she detects something wrong since his villainous act . She fancies herself an expert on his condition and delivers international speeches on it . The sufferer of this syndrome can have different physical attributes for his different personalities , and the most dangerous of these personalities gives him awesome physical powers like a superhuman .
The psychiatrist decides to visit his place to see what is wrong , and therein lies the chance for three girls to escape . But can they escape ? Will the villain allow this ? The movie will have to be watched for the answers .
The acting by the leading actors is very good and they show a range of emotions . But the movie drags on and on and a satisfactory conclusion is not reached . Shyamalan tries to make cerebral thrillers , but maybe I am not cerebral enough to like what he makes . It cannot be called regular commercial fare and I could not make out if it was an art film ( non cerebral person you know ) , but maybe the hi fundoo people may like it . I being low fundoo , I didn't particularly care for it .
Background score , photography is good and colours are decent . The movie is low budget and has no fancy locations or any stupendous special effects .
Verdict---Not good .
2
Kong - Skull Island
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A man ( John Goodman playing Bill Randa ) hell bent on proving the existence of monster sized creatures tricks the US military into an expedition to a forbidding island---forbidding because it is surrounded by perpetual storms and getting helicopters into it is not easy . Having got there through those storms the expedition faces the bigger dilemma of getting out safely , because there is only one escape route and the way to it is across a path strewn with monsters ; the fact that Randa is trying to prove is true .
The monsters are nothing new but mostly oversized versions of common creatures---oversized buffaloes , oversized insects etc . But at that size they are enough to terrify humans who look tiny in front of them . Of course , the most terrifying are the most ugly---giant reptiles what else . They are hell bent on killing anything that moves on the island . And the biggest on them has been woken up by the explosives that the military team detonates on the island .
Lording over all these creatures is the 'hero' of the film---the massive ape called King Kong what else . At first Kong has to destroy the helicopters killing many of the expedition's men in order to stop them from exploding explosives which will wake his biggest enemy---the big reptile . This rouses the ire of the military team's leader ( Lt Colonel Packard played by Samuel L . Jackson ) who vows to kill Kong . Little does he realise that Kong is the only hope for the surviving men and women ( the expedition has been joined by female photojournalist Mason Weaver played by Brie Larson ) in the expedition to reach home alive---for only he can counter the big reptile awoken by the explosives who wants to eat the remaining members alive .
I saw the film in IMAX 3D form and straightaway I must say that the film has been tailormade for that form . 3D effects are really good and IMAX lends full glory to the visual beauty of the film . The film's photography is it's strong point---stunning scenes of helicopters weaving their way through storms to reach a beautiful island carpeted by a cover of dense green vegetation pleasing to the eyes , towering shots of the huge monsters on the island including a full scale one of Kong in all his majesty , long range shots of the destruction of the helicopters by Kong , and a superb shot of the delicately vulnerable Mason Weaver held tenderly in his hand by Kong .
The background score is not the strong point of the film , but that is not noticed due to the other strong points of the movie . Action scenes are well pictured too , though they do not convey any seriousness even in life and death situations . Acting is good by everyone , particularly by Samuel L. Jackson , John Goodman and John C. Reilly ( who plays a quirky old soldier stranded on the island for 28 years ) . Brie Larson looks good , particularly with her lovely breasts thrust out from under her top . The native humans of the island look appropriately peaceful and helpful .
The film does manage to convey a sense of impeding mystery and doom as the helicopter ride into the island begins , and also manages to convey a sense of adventure throughout . What else is a non serious adventure film meant to do for entertainment ? Nothing more , I guess .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Beauty And The Beast
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Once upon a time ( this archetypal start means that this is nothing but a fairy tale ) there was a good looking prince ( played by Dan Stevens ) . But he was also arrogant , so arrogant that he refused an enchantress refuge in a snow storm . Angry , she cursed him to become a beast and his entourage to become just pieces of furniture and the castle in which they all lived to be forgotten in the midst of perpetual snow . In order to lift the curse , a beautiful girl has to fall in love with the beast before the petals of a rose the enchantress has planted all fall down .
In a village not far away there exists just such a girl ( played by Emma Watson ) . But a formidable obstacle exists in the form of another suitor ( played by Luke Evans ) who will do anything to get the girl . And that includes attempting to kill the beast . However fate has other plans , and the two lovers are destined to meet...
The film has been created with great attention paid to every small thing especially in the castle . The director sure is a perfectionist . The visual beauty of each and every chamber and the costumes is almost too good . The pieces of furniture ( who are nothing but humans cursed into become furniture ) sure make bedlam while dancing .
Music is the high point of the film ; this fact is very important as the film is a musical . The music just keeps getting better and better as the movie progresses with the music director reserving the best for the climax . The scintillating music sure adds to the grandeur of the film .
Also photography is very good and every frame is rich with colour . The experience is heightened if you see it as I saw it---in IMAX 3D . The visuals of the interiors of the castle , of the snow outside , of both gentle as well as ferocious animals , of the green countryside and hills , of the beauty of the heroine---all are well captured on film .
Emotion is a strong point in the film too , and the film gets more and more high on emotion as the climax approaches ; the emotion is nothing but pure love with pure hate and evil as obstacle....but what is a film without struggle between good and bad .
What could be more debatable is the necessity of the over political correctness of the film . Did blacks really get to mix and dance as equals in the eighteenth century with whites as shown in the film ? Were interracial couples accepted so easily in those times as shown in the film ? The film's villain has a gay sidekick who eventually meets a similarly inclined partner , albeit only for a brief moment ; but what was the need for an old fairy tale to have it's gay moment ?
But the enjoyment of the film is not marred by the debatable issues , and I liked it especially towards the end . The film will be appreciated by those with a yen for romance , and women may make a beeline for the movie in the theatres---as indeed they already have .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Life
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The international space station gets samples of mars soil from a probe sent to that planet , and the crew begins studying the sample for finding extraterrestrial organisms . They do find one which has been dormant , and it begins to grow under their stimulation---too rapidly in fact .
And their worst fears come true . The organism in fact is a very vicious predator and it begins to attack and kill everyone of the crew . It can feed off anything , including coolant gas of the station . And it is very smart and knows it's way around the ship very quickly .
As the cat and mouse game of survival begins between the crew and the predator , things get very thrilling indeed . The predator very rapidly moves from place to place within and even outside the spaceship , and can even temporarily survive without oxygen for a brief period outside . It's ultimate survival however depends on oxygen and the crew tries to lock it outside the spaceship....unsuccessfully , as the too smart predator finds a way to enter even though one crew member has sacrificed her life for keeping it out .
The predator looks ferocious very fully grown , and one wonders if the film can be called a sci fi film or a thriller or is it horror . One by one each member of the crew is finished off by the predator by either going inside the mouth and killing the person and coming out even bigger than before or by latching on to the leg and eating it . The crew now have to find ways of preventing it from reaching the earth , for if it does reach it could devastate population on earth .
The movie has good photography and good colours and decent background score . As usual , I was enthralled by the shots of earth taken from space and by shots of the infinite cosmos beyond . Acting by everyone is good and the the pace of the movie is good too---the thrills keep coming and the speed of the movie never slackens .
But the ending disappointed ; it was typical of horror movies and establishes the movie as from the horror genre . The climax has been created to probably ( in my thinking ) make a part two of the movie just typically like horror movies where endless parts are made one after another . The director had the chance to make the perfect ending and make the movie a great sci fi movie like 'Gravity' or 'Interstellar' but he chose exactly the opposite way out , to my chagrin . The climax brought down my rating from four to three stars . Even the audience , which until then had watched the movie in rapt attention , began to snigger at the climax .
Verdict---Good .
3
Unfreedom
the full film is now available on youtube .
https://youtu.be/u5Ln5ehQNLQ
Lion
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Lion is the true story of an Indian boy adopted by Australian parents , who grew up to search for his long lost biological mother in India decades later .
He remembers calling himself as Saroo , and his brother as Guddu . Real mother's name he does not know , and he remembers her just as 'mother' .
He remembers stealing coal from freight trains for a living , for his mother was too poor to feed him and his brother . His brother was older , and they both used to climb the trains together . One day he insists going with his brother on a longer distance journey , and his brother leaves him asleep on the platform never to return . What happened to his brother ? It takes a quarter century for him to know the truth...
Meanwhile , what happens to him ? Not finding his brother , he takes a train going in the opposite direction of his home to the city of Calcutta . But he is saved from the worst horrors ; runs off when child traffickers try to kidnap him among other street children , runs away again when he feels he is going to be trafficked again by a seemingly kindly woman , and finally a person takes him to the police . They send him to a children's home which is not completely safe too , judging from what happens to another child there .
But he is selected to be adopted by an Australian couple , played by Nicole Kidman ( Sue ) and David Wenham ( John ) . These good people have their own quaint reasons for not having their own children and instead adopting them , which are later revealed in the film . But when Saroo grows up , he discovers he has not left the baggage of his Indian past ; wants to reach out to his origins . I watched his search unfold on screen , and it does fill you with real emotion .
Of course , the first half of the film ( which I have described in short above ) once more brought focus on the west's obsession with the poverty of India . It seems India has to carry the can for all the world's poverty . Africa may be poorer , but the country selected for showcasing poverty is India . Because it is politically incorrect to show african poverty for fear of being labelled racist . Pakistan and Bangladesh have similar poverty , but it is 'communal' to show them as poor because both of them have the same religion . China has poverty too , but it is a dictatorship which firmly closes it's door on foreign media to areas of it which are not worth showing . Only Indians do not mind being denigrated as poverty struck and the west takes full advantage of this attitude . Also , Saroo is everywhere in danger from human traffickers when separated from his brother . Presumably , Indians don't mind being demonised as traffickers too .
The above mentioned dark side of the film is counterbalanced by some great photography . Watch from long distance as only the lights of the train are on as it moves forward in the darkness , and watch an even better shot of the train silhouetted against the backdrop of lightening .
Emotions are of course the highlight of the film , and the film grows more emotional towards the end ; does manage to jerk a tear or two out of you at the climax---all the more because it is a true story . Acting by Sunny Pawar ( the young Saroo ) and Dev Patel ( the grown up Saroo ) and Nicole Kidman is simply great . Music is good too .
So why is the film named 'Lion' ? The reason is revealed in the end . But that is not the only reason why it is worth watching .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
The Salesman
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This Iranian film is currently being screened in India , as it was the winner of an oscar in the best foreign film category . It is in the farsi language I guess , but I saw the movie with english subtitles . One of the reasons for me seeing this film was the insight I would get into the islamic republic of Iran , which since the islamic revolution has become a most interesting place---to watch on film I mean .
Aah , so how is the society of Iran ? The first thing that strikes you is , how goodlooking the people of Iran are . They are so proud of their looks that Iran has a politically incorrect name---Iran means 'Aryan' in the farsi language . The term was inspired by Hitler , who had endorsed the persian peoples aryan origins . Even the cats ( persian cats ) are goodlooking , though I did not see any dogs---they are considered unclean in islam .
So how are the women ? Their hair is partially covered by the scarf which they have to wear since the islamic revolution . But otherwise can wear western clothes , though they have to cover major part of the body . Even the men were wearing full clothes , largely because iranian capital city Tehran ( which is the location of the film's happenings ) is a cold place . But these were modern city women . What is the condition of women in the countryside ? That is not shown .
The people still greet each other 'khuda hafiz' while leaving instead of the 'Allah hafiz' that is common among the muslims of the Indian subcontinent ever since Pakistani dictator Zia ul Haq changed the wording . I could catch a few words from my knowledge of urdu language , which has words of farsi---'azizi' means 'dear' .
So onto the movie . Emad ( Shahab Hosseini ) and Rana ( Taraneh Alidoosti ) are a married couple who act in the theatre . Emad works as a teacher in a school where he is allowed to teach only boys ; girls have separate school because the islamic republic forbids co education . The schoolboys make fun of Emad behind his back and jokingly call him salesman because he and Rana act in a production of 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller . So a play from what Iran calls the 'great satan' ( America ) is allowed to be enacted by authorities , eh ?
The couple is forced to leave their apartment which is collapsing , and have to move in another arranged by a fellow actor called Babak . They move in without knowing that it's former owner was a prostitute . One day while she is alone , Rana is assaulted by a former client of the sex worker . Even though the two do not talk about it openly at first , the couple both know that the assault is sexual . Here their asianness comes in to play . We are not talking of a happening in the west ; it is the backward east we are talking about . And in the east a woman's honour will be tarnished if the matter of sexual assault becomes public knowledge . So even though the neighbours know about it , the couple does not go to the police .
The first half of the movie is about the effect of the grave event on the couple's marriage . Rana is so shaken that she cannot stay alone , and even cannot go to the toilet without her husband standing outside . She breaks down while the play is being enacted and does not allow even her husband to touch her at night . Emad insults Babak who had given them the apartment while on stage enacting a play , because he blames Babak for guiding them towards such a place .
The second half is dominated by the asiatic male's need for revenge for this insult on his family's honour , though Emad is shown to be a relatively civilised man . So he traces the person who did the assault . To be honest his revenge is milder than what I have seen in Bollywood films . But on the screen it seems terrible because of the way it has been brilliantly filmed . The movie really keeps you on tenterhooks as to the fate of the accused . And that is the triumph of the director , I feel .
So how is the revenge taken ? What happens to the couple ? The movie is worth watching for the answers . Acting is good and cinematography is good too . Tehran , which forms the backdrop for the happenings does not seem to be a rich city and has crumbling infrastructure inspite of all of Iran's oil because Iran suffers from sanctions forced by the west . Deservedly so , I suppose .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
The Zookeeper's Wife
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1939---the nazi panzers are going to roll over Europe and ignite the second world war . Poland is going to be the next victim of nazi aggression ( Czechoslovakia was the first ) . One of the biggest zoos in Europe is the zoo of Warsaw , the capital of Poland . It's zookeeper is Jan Zabinski , who is played by Johan Heldenbergh . But the movie's main focus is his lovely wife Antonina , played by Jessica Chastain.
The movie begins with Antonina waking up in a shining figure hugging nightie , and considering her looks and figure , you want more of her to be shown . And she does further entice you by wearing enticing clothes all through the movie---lacy and backless and having put on enticing make up . Her scenes with her nude thighs wrapped around the thighs of her husband and again around her admirer's thighs give you the hots .
Of course , the complaint can be made that this beauty fest takes away from the main theme of the movie---the holocaust . But this is not exactly a holocaust movie anyway . It is not meant to show how jews were murdered by nazis during the world war . It is meant to show how this brave lady saved the quite a number of jews from the nazi killing machine with help from her husband . It is not meant to take us to view a concentration camp and all it's horrors .
Another focus of the movie is the animals of the zoo and their fate . It has quite a few scenes of Antonina caring for animals and fondling the more smaller among them , to the point where I was lusting to be in place of the ones she was fondling ;)....she was holding it quite close to her breasts:D To anyone who is sore that this once again takes away focus from the holocaust , let me remind that the name of the movie is 'The zookeeper's wife' and she is the centrepiece of the film ; the jews she saves are not the centre of the film .
In fact we are not introduced to the names of some of the jews and about their background stories . But the heroine and her husband do take enormous risk in hiding jews and smuggling them out and feeding them out of the rations allotted to them . But the enormity of the risk they take is not properly shown in the film ; seeing the film , their task seems easier than it actually was . They were at the risk of being killed ( or worse ) by the nazis if found out , but somehow you don't 'feel' the risk in the movie . Only at the end when their son is about to be shot dead as punishment for the hiding jews does the enormity of what the couple were doing strike you fully .
Such a beautiful woman is bound to use her beauty to survive at a time when only six percent of Warsaw's population managed to survive the war . She does so by winning the attention of Hitler's chief zoologist ( Lutz Heck played by Daniel Bruhl ) and luring him with her charms to make him accept the idea of making the zoo a farm for breeding pigs for food for the war effort , which she and her husband will run . But this strategy carries it's own price as Heck demands sexual favours with increasing boldness as the movie progresses . It is a measure of the heroine's character that she not only ensures her own survival but also that of jews taking grave risk on herself and her family .
The movie does have a sentimental and 'happy' ending , if such a sordid tale set in a city and nation which is in ruins could have one . That is because her own family and most of the jews the heroine tried to save survived the war . And that was the triumph of the heroine---worthy of making a movie over . One thing the film does not show ( but I forgive the director for that ) is that after the war majority of Polish citizens refused to take back the jews who tried to come back to Poland .
The music of the movie is sweet , the colours and photography are so good---they go a long way in making the movie worth watching . Acting by Jessica Chastain is superb , of being strong and looking vulnerable in the appropriate situations . Daniel Bruhl plays the mean nazi villain , but even his cruelty is tempered ; this being a major flaw of the film , which does not show the full extent of nazi barbarity .
Verdict---Good .
3
cricket
04-29-17, 09:37 AM
As much as I like Jessica Chastain, that movie doesn't interest me at all.
Great review though ash!
As much as I like Jessica Chastain, that movie doesn't interest me at all.
Great review though ash!
Thanks mate !!
The Sense Of An Ending
https://api.curtisbrown.co.uk/media/61236/show/square
'The sense of an ending' could have well been titled 'Making sense of an ending' , for at the end of the movie we are left confused as to who was dating whom and who was fathering whom in the past . The director ( or rather the novelist who wrote the book on which the movie is based ) has deliberately left the events that unfolded in the past somewhat vague , so that endless discussions are made on movie portals and drawing rooms about what exactly had happened in the fateful past . This seems to be the new trend of publicising movies ; 'Inception' movie greatly benefited from the endless discussions on it's vague ending , and this movie may too benefit from the curiosity generated by the discussions .
So on to the story . A grumpy old man ( Jim Broadbent playing Anthony 'Tony' Webster ) leads an ordinary existence in Britain . He owns a small antique camera shop . He is not exactly polite to his customers , is impolite to the mailman , and has been divorced from his wife because of his unpleasant nature---as he himself admits at the end of the film to her . But lately his life has acquired a humdrum nature as he has gotten used to meeting his ex wife and daughter in between while ruminating over past memories of his life---some of those memories being notoriously selective as the events that unfold in the movie prove . The one thing that he can look forward to is the upcoming birth of his grandson , as his daughter is heavily pregnant .
To interrupt in between from an Indian point of view ( as in my country India families are close knit ) , the standard of living of these people in the west is of course high quality but marked by loneliness . The three ( Tony , his wife , his daughter ) live alone in different houses . Yes , even the daughter lives alone without the man who fathered her son even though she is relatively younger , and it is Tony who goes with her to her pregnancy classes rather than her partner . The other thing I noticed was the difference between the past memories ( when native Britons predominated in the population ) and the present ( where society is multiracial , and the pregnancy class has even lesbians ) .
Coming back to the story , the humdrum existence of the lead character is interrupted rather rudely by a letter that he has inherited a sum of money from his ex girlfriend'a mother . Along with that he has also inherited a diary which presumably contains some secrets , but when he tries to lay hands on that diary he cannot get it . Intrigued as to what were the contents of the diary , Tony contacts and meets his ex girlfriend Veronica ( played by Charlotte Rampling ) and when he cannot get her to divulge anything he starts to literally stalk her . During all this the unopened corner of his memories gets opened , and we get to see the flood of past events unfold before us on screen . They are shown to us as flashbacks and give a relaxed feel and languid pace to the film , tinged with nostalgia for what happened and what did not happen and what should have been....
A saga of suspense ran through the film very slowly , taking it's time to unravel secrets at low speed . And that was the way I liked it , for it was getting very cozy in the theatre as I sat pondering the mysteries of life in my cushioned seat as the film never rushed the flow of events even though the director had the chance to make things happen fast and finish it off quickly . And as Tony was handed a letter that he had written and had sparked off a chain of events that led to tragedy , he was being forced to rethink the fundamentals of his own existence . That he turned out into a better and more responsible man at the end of the film is what makes for a positive ending .
Acting by all is good , even by the actors who play the young Tony and Veronica ( Bill Howle and Freya Mavor ) . Background music is decent and colours and photography are okay too . The film is for those who like off beat films without the thrills of high octane entertainment that mainstream cinema provides . Made on a presumably low budget , the film has no special effects or fancy locations . It rather depends on it's story , direction and acting skills of it's actors .
Verdict---decent .
3
Everything , Everything
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Maddy ( played by Amandla Stenberg ) is a cute young girl who is supposed to have an immune disease that will kill her if she comes into contact with the outside world . So her mother ( played by Anika Noni Rose ) who is a doctor keeps her in a controlled environment where everything is sterlized and Maddy does not come into contact with any infection which can kill her because of her weak immune system . She is not allowed to ever go outside her house , and can only dream of the outside world .
The only people who ever are allowed to come into the house are Maddy's nurse ( played by Ana de la Reguera ) and the nurse's daughter . Maddy's life is the internet and has learnt about the outside world due to this . The house in which Maddy lives is real posh and her mother it seems has real money to be able to keep her in such luxury with a nurse in attendance and her every need being taken care of inside the house . But the real need---to be able to breath the fresh air of the outside world ; what about that ?
As if sent to fulfil her need for companionship one day a nice looking young boy named Olly ( played Nick Robinson ) moves into the neighbourhood , and he begins to flirt with Maddy from his window which is directly opposite Maddy's window . A young girl full of hormones kept closed in a house starving for someone to love and share and care...does it get more desperate than that ? Maddy directly hooks to Olly without any ado , and soon the two are messaging and texting each other all day and night .
The two soon meet when her mother is not around and even though warned against physical contact , they can hardly keep their hands off each other . And why not ? For Maddy looks hot and sexy in cleavage baring and breast outlining and leg showing short clothes throughout the movie , and she is not the only one in the room loaded with hormones .
And Maddy is in love....not just with Olly , but with the idea of going out with him and seeing the open sea and feeling the soft ocean breeze against her breath . She wants to explore the outside world and wants her love besides her everywhere and in all places . It is an idea for which she is ready to take all risks with her health and her life . So she asks Olly to elope with her to Hawaii . Love and longing is something for which she is willing to give up on everything , everything---including her very existence on earth....the scene is set for tearjerking tragedy....
Or is it ? For near the end of the film the director turns everything upside down with a revelation....a revelation that makes mockery of everything shown in the film till then....a revelation that will make the true blue critics shake their collective heads in condescension....
But I wasn't shaking my head in disappointment....for I am not a professional critic but am an ordinary person....and like an ordinary person I was rooting for Maddy to get her love....to not just get her love but to acquire it....and not just acquire it but to let her roam freely on the world's oceans like a carefree bird along with her lover...and I wanted to see her kiss her boyfriend with her red hot lips and and I wanted to see her making love on satin sheets....and if the revelation towards the end of the movie was going to make Maddy get what she wanted , then I was willing to let go of my critical sensibilities just for the joy of seeing her get what she wanted....to hell with the critics !!
Photography of the movie is great , with stunning shots of the ocean at sunset in Hawaii and shots of the forest of Hawaii taken from above with it's winding road and great photography of the sea and the waters of the sea . Colours of the movie are rich , and house in which Maddy lives is beautiful . Background music is good , and the songs played in the background are obviously romantic . Acting is decent from all , and the chemistry between the lead pair is good . The film is for those with a yen for romance .
Verdict---Nice .
3
The Lost City Of Z
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To be honest the only thing that prevents this film from being a borefest is the fact that the film is based on real happenings , and the acceptance of that fact that real happenings cannot be made to look as interesting as fiction . Of course , the moment I realised while watching the film that it is based on real exploration I knew that no grand discovery of any ancient civilisation was going to be made in the movie because I had heard of no such discovery in this period . But in the earlier part of the film a person who goes into the theatre without knowing anything about the movie may feel that some epically grand discovery of some ancient civilisation is going to be made in the amazon region of the south american country of Bolivia by the end of the movie .
Charlie Hunnam plays Percy Fawcett---a soldier who is sent to that region to map the border between Bolivia and Brazil . Against orders , he and a few companions undertake a perilous journey deep into the amazon region . Here they are faced many difficulties like with deep forests , hostile natives who shower arrows on them , wild animals like poisonous snakes and black panthers , and strong currents in the river that threaten to sink their raft . The photography of the dense green forest is beautiful and the native americans look all too authentically real , and so do the dangers of the jungle .
But after all the dangers the discovery of a few pieces of pottery in the jungle does not enthuse the viewer of the movie , however interesting it may be from an archaeological point of view . Another point I thought the director missed was showing how adventurous it can be to stay in the jungle in the night . I have lived in the jungle , and believe me---while it is beautiful during the day it is terrifying in the middle of the night . The sounds of jungle give you jitters in the dark .
When Fawcett returns he vows to go back to discover what he feels is a lost civilisation , and he is faced with some ridicule . But biologist James Murray ( played by Angus Macfadyen ) agrees to come to a second expedition . Fawcett's wife Nina ( Played by Sienna Miller ) wants to come too as she dispairs of living years away from her husband , but Fawcett does not allow that . But Murray cannot face the rigours of the jungle and the expedition ends with acrimony .
The first world war prevents a third expedition from being launched , but by this time the Fawcett family has developed an obsession for discovery of lost civilisations in the amazon that can be described only as crazed . So after the war a third expedition is launched . But by this time the movie was drifting into nothingness ; nothing was really happening . And Fawcett and his son never came back....What happened to them has only been guessed by the director , or so I guess....But Nina lives on hope that they are still living among the tribals in the wild , and that hope gives her courage to live on....
The acting by everyone is good , and more so by Charlie Hunnam . Sienna Miller looks really attractive . Colours of the movie are good , and the background music is haunting . But the end result of all the explorations is underwhelming at least to a lay viewer like myself .
Verdict---Okay .
2
cricket
06-04-17, 06:52 PM
I watched Split last week and I agree with you, I thought it was lousy. I also watched Lion and I liked that one alot. I believe I have The Salesman coming for next weekend.
Baby Driver
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Baby ( played by Ansel Elgort ) is the nickname of a fabulously talented car driver who has had the bad luck of being forced to use his skills at driving for the wrong guys---thieves who carry out high profile and big stakes heists . His mom and dad got killed in his childhood when they got involved in an accident , leaving baby to be brought up be a black man named Joseph who also was deaf and mute . Baby got mixed up with gang when he tried to rob the head of the gang ( played by Kevin Spacey ) and was forced to join the gang to pay off his debt to the head . The accident in which his parents died left baby with tinnitus in his ears , and he listens to music all the time on earphones to drown out the noise in his ears . So far so bad for baby....I mean he has had a run of bad luck all of his short life .
The good part about baby is that he is very young and looks kinda cute with a refreshing youthful innocence , which is the reason he is called baby in the first place . The other good part---he has managed to get a good girl for himself ; the kind of girl that not only looks good but is good from the heart as well ; the kind of girl who sticks with her boy through thick and thin and does not leave him even when he is in dire trouble....and we all know the importance of a woman's support in the success of a man don't we....I mean the importance of a girl's support in the success of her boy---they are still kids you know....
Baby's one dream is to break free from his boss and the gang and drive off with his girlfriend Debora ( played by Lily James ) to nowhere without a care in the world and without a plan in mind....yeah , that's what young love is like....but his boss threatens to kill his foster father and his girlfriend if he flees....so baby is forced to take part in the gang's activities against his will....and those activities become increasingly murderous with police officers getting killed and heists going wrong....and soon all hell breaks loose with the police hot on their heels....
In all this mayhem baby never loses his humanity and tries to save innocent people's lives , even though all around him guns are blazing and vehicles are turning topsy turvy after banging with each other . But baby has to take the path of violence too , when bad guys threaten his very existence and also that of his foster father and his girl ; all weapons booming and cars smashing into each other and blood spilling out of bodies...
So will baby and his girl survive in this mess ? I kinda wished they would....but after a very good first half with great thrills and chills , the movie turns corny in the second half and the action becomes ordinary....
Never mind...the film has given some entertainment already....
Music is the hallmark of the film , for our hero has the habit of converting even ordinary conversations into music on cassette tapes . Photography I would rate as good . Colours are decent . It all adds up to a barely decent film . I am giving it three stars because I grew kinda fond of the pair---baby and his girl ; and like the gang leader in the film who finally decides to sacrifice his life for protecting the two kids because he remembers the time when he was young and in love , I too was young and in love once....
Verdict---Three stars .
3
Dunkirk
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For those who don't know , this is the background to Dunkirk . In the second world war , the Germans handed a huge defeat to the defending French and British soldiers in France . A part of the French army and almost all the troops the British had sent to help the French were trapped near the port of Dunkirk on the English channel surrounded by German soldiers on three sides . The only hope the British had was to escape from Dunkirk back to Britain by sea to live to fight another day . So many private boats owned by ordinary British people sailed across the English channel and brought back the soldiers stranded at Dunkirk . Though a retreat , Dunkirk was still hailed by Britons as a evacuation that brought back their army to regroup and re equip to fight the Germans again .
The movie itself gets better and better as it progresses . The fear and the uncertainty of war---it's all there . The tension on the soldiers' faces as they wait on the beaches , the relief when they see dozens of small private boats coming for them , the cheering for those private citizens by the soldiers as they take in the soldiers , the uncertainty of war again as the boats are attacked by German warplanes and some get killed , the shame of having retreated from France , the disbelief when ordinary citizens do not treat them with contempt for having fled the battlefield but instead offer them food and drinks , and the stirring speech in the end by Britain's Prime minister Winston Churchill promising never to surrender---it's all there in the movie .
Individual bravery does form a part , as is shown by the gallantry of a British pilot who has run out of fuel but still manages to shoot a German warplane trying to kill the soldiers on the beach . Individual cowardice too---as in case of a French soldier who tries to escape with the British instead of defending his country's land . Hard decisions taken too form a part , like the one to not use the Royal ( British ) navy to evacuate the soldiers and the Royal air force to help cover the evacuation from air---because they would have to be used later to defend the oncoming German invasion of Britain instead of being sacrificed at Dunkirk .
The movie is well photographed , with the dogfights between British and German fighters in the air shown with precision . The cracking sound of gunfire hitting the aircraft , the thump of onrushing water when it lands into the sea---all look authentic . The desperation of a troop of soldiers who commandeer an abandoned boat on the beach and wait for high tide to come so that it can be put to sea , only to be shot at by Germans and holes drilled by bullets in the boat so the water will rush in when the boat is put to sea and will be sunk---all is well crafted .
There is the heroism of an old man and his son who are joined by the ship's hand who wants to become a hero by saving lives , only to see his bid for heroism thwarted tragically by a shell shocked soldier who is picked up and does not want the boat to go to Dunkirk to get attacked again by Germans . A gunfire damaged German plane crashing into the water to ignite the oil spilled around it endangering the lives of soldiers stranded in the spill---that's the way it is in real war .
The background music complements the events and many of the events are tragic with a suddenness that befuddles---one moment evacuated soldiers are enjoying their sandwiches in a ship , and next moment the ship is hit and drowned and they are in the midst of water....
The movie is relatively short but still delivers the bang for the buck , especially in IMAX form . Colours are authentically pictured and acting by everyone is appropriate .
Verdict---Good .
4
Lolita ( 1997 )
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The full movie is available on youtube in HD quality , so you dont have to go anywhere else . The movie is based on the famous novel---Lolita .
Jeremy Irons catches the fancy of a young girl ( nicknamed Lolita ) played by Dominque Swain . They proceed to have a sexual relationship , and Jeremy marries her mother ( Melanie Griffith ) to stay close to her . But Melanie sends Dominque off to a boarding school , only to discover the relationship later . In a state of shock , she gets killed in an accident . This lets Jeremy get what he wants---guardianship of Dominique , and chance to continue their relationship . As she grows older , Dominique tires of him and wants to break away . Eventually she succeeds by going with a another man who exploits her . Jeremy searches for her in vain because he is in love with her . Finally Dominique sends a letter to him asking for money because she is married and pregnant . Jeremy is by now ashamed of having used her when she was so young and meets her and asks her to forgive him . She does , and he gives her a large sum of money to continue her life . But she also tells him of the man who exploited her and Jeremy is mad with rage and kills the man . He dies in prison and thus repents for his sin , but Lolita dies in childbirth too .
Thus in effect both are equally guilty and deserve to die in the director's eyes ---or so I thought . Though Jeremy is more guilty because he was an adult using the body of a young girl , Dominique ( Lolita ) was not innocent too as she gave herself up readily to him .
There are plenty of erotic scenes between Jeremy and Dominique . Dominique plays the unabashed sex kitten , spreading her soft milky white legs on Jeremy's thighs on innumerable occasions and acting in a sexually provocative manner and repeatedly making lascivious movements . Photography is splendid and so are the colours . Acting is good too from everyone . The movie moves from erotic in the first half to tragic in the climax and changes your mood swiftly .
Verdict---good .
Three and a half stars .
https://youtu.be/oe6FJPzi-bQ
HashtagBrownies
07-29-17, 02:51 PM
Lolita ( 1997 )
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I'd recommend the 60's version if you haven't seen it.
Annabelle : Creation
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Created as a prequel to the movie 'Annabelle' , this movie nevertheless can be seen as an independent horror movie by those who haven't seen the original 'Annabelle' . The basics are the same as any other horror movie . The setting is in a remote house in the countryside with no one around to help if help is needed immediately . The house has plenty of rooms for the characters to roam about when searching for ghosts . Most of the action takes place in the dark , which is obviously more terrifying and gives the chance for the ghosts to pounce suddenly . The victims are goodlooking females mostly , because females seem more vulnerable . And little girls seem even more vulnerable , so the main victims are small girls .
The main difference is that the girl who is most victimised by the ghost is a polio stricken handicapped girl who becomes more handicapped as the movie progresses . So the ghost targets the weakest of the bunch . The movie makers must be thinking as the word 'ghost' or 'spirit' to be too mild and hence they call it 'demonic presence' . The movie has strong religious overtones with the bible being invoked consistently , the cross making it's appearance on several occasions to stop the demonic presence , priests chanting prayers to ward off the evil . But it all proves useless . The demonic presence is unrelenting , or maybe the lure of making the demonic presence unrelenting to make the movie interesting has not been resisted by the makers in the quest to make money . The use of small handwritten notes by the spirit to lure people by announcing it's presence with them is another feature that is different .
A group of female orphans move into a house where tragedy has struck 12 years ago , and the youngest make contact with what seems to be the spirit of a little girl . But the spirit is malignant , and it's actions are evil . It resides in a doll which is scary from the start . As usual in horror movies , the girls tread alone where even adults would fear to go---into darkened rooms and fearsome closets . You really fear for the handicapped girl because she cannot even run quickly , yet she inquisitively opens even the most dangerous doors . The demonic presence comes covered in sheets at first and later reveals itself openly . There is no subtlety to it's moves and the movie is scary from the start . In fact I thought that the first half was more scary than the second . Not that the second half disappoints . It is interesting too as events unravel themselves .
The audience was giggling nervously throughout , especially the women . The photography was decent , colours were regular but the movie was mostly in the dark with only few glimpses of sunlight . There was no underground cellar , but a barn outside containing a possessed scarecrow compensated for that to give us the chills . Background music was appropriate to give us the necessary jolts from time to time . We anticipate the coming jolt and our hair stand on end as we see it coming . And the jolt doesn't disappoint . More of a hammerblow than a jolt . Acting was authentic from all .
Verdict---Fun for aficionados of horror movies .
3.5
It
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The film starts with a kid rowing his paper sailboat made by his elder brother till it goes down a drain , and when he tries to retrieve it a clown appears in the drain . Needless to say , the clown is the evil spirit . And it grabs the kid down the drain like it has grabbed so many kids who are dead but who are floating in empty space down in the drain .
His elder brother is part of the losers' group in school , and they are bullied regularly by the gang of bullies who are tall and lanky and real mean . But the losers' are joined by a goodlooking girl who entices by wearing exposing clothes like bikinis and has earned the reputation of a slut . But she actually is being sexually harassed by her own father and is a good person . Her looks reminded me of a young Nicole Kidman .
Together the losers' group teams up to combat the town's menace---evil spirits what else . The bullies are after them too , and it is difficult to ascertain who is more fearsome---the bullies with their guns and sharp knives , or the evil spirit which keeps on reappearing as a clown which reveals extremely vicious teeth when it opens it's mouth to bite .
The first half of the movie is real scary , with the evil spirit first appearing as a pair of shiny eyes that look real scary in the darkness before it fully manifests itself . But the second half is dragged too long and the movie goes almost to two and a half hours in length . In the end I was waiting for IT to get finished .
Acting is good by everyone and photography and colours are okay . Background music is decent to give you the scares at the right time . I would have given three and a half stars had the movie been shorter , but the length of the movie made me reduce the points by half.
3
The thin red line ( 1998 )
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Film that looks at war philosophically and gives us doses of philosophy through the thoughts of characters along the way . Comrades fight , some of them die , but the war goes on . Soldiers are fighting because they have to , not for some grand cause . One man dreams of being with his wife all through the fighting , only to receive a letter from her that she is divorcing him to marry another man . Their commanding colonel ( Nick Nolte ) is ruthlessly self centred and is ready to send them to their deaths just because he wants the glory of having captured an objective and promotion for himself . The second in command disagrees and is sent back from the fighting . Many soldiers show humanity to other soldiers while others don't . To each his own . Many soldiers are plainly afraid during the fighting and their expressions are ones of fear .
The movie deglamourizes war , more specifically the second world war . The battle shown is for the pacific island of gudalcanal and the americans are trying to wrest it from the japanese . The japanese have a strong bunker on top of a hill there and the american soldiers have to reach near it , give co ordinates for mortar fire and attack it after the mortar shells explode . They succeed at some human cost , but the fighting never ends . More fighting , more lives lost .
The photography of the jungle ( gudalcanal is tropical region ) is ethereal and the flora and fauna of the jungle have been photographed too well . Music in the background is good too . Acting is appropriate for the situations . Shows war shorn of it's glory , and without celebrating it . Tries to show what every individual thought of war when he fought it . The individual soldier's fears and expectations , some justified and some belied .
Verdict---I would give it four stars out of five .
Citizen Rules
09-23-17, 06:47 PM
The thin red line ( 1998 )
The photography of the jungle ( gudalcanal is tropical region ) is ethereal and the flora and fauna of the jungle have been photographed too well . Music in the background is good too . Acting is appropriate for the situations . Shows war shorn of it's glory , and without celebrating it . Tries to show what every individual thought of war when he fought it . The individual soldier's fears and expectations , some justified and some belied .
Verdict---I would give it four stars out of five . Well said Ash, it's been a long while since I seen this one, but I remembered it as being something special.
Suntan ( 2016 )---Greek film
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Middle aged doc arrives on a greek island to practise medicine as general practitioner . First few months he works hard when it is winter . As a doctor he is respected by everybody .
But as summer arrives the island is converted into a hedonistic paradise where groups of totally naked women and men frolic and make love on the beaches , smoking and drinking and partying with abandon . A goodlooking blonde girl half his age arrives with her friends to his clinic , and he soon joins with them to have fun in discos and beaches . Very soon doc and the girl ( named Anna ) are making out .
But the whole affair brings out the doc's deep seated emotional problems . He has been alone for years without a partner or anybody and is yearning for companionship . But the director does the unbelievable--he actually makes the doc get obsessed with Anna and dreaming of a permanent relationship with her , something that only a man totally out of his senses would do . For Anna is a free bird who sleeps with multiple partners even shamelessly in front of the doctor , and one wonders how any sane person can dream of permanent bliss with such a person who often changes partners several times every night .
Worse , the doctor does not back off even after Anna has rejected him several times and goes to make a total mess of himself . He becomes a drunkard , does not attend to his patients , and finally gets kicked out from his job . But the director makes him go even further into the abyss . The mad doctor kidnaps Anna and plans to rape her , but stops himself ( finally !! ) and begins to attend to her wound instead . The director shows the doctor stoop to ever low levels of degeneracy , but at least he does not show him do rape ( whew !! ) .
You get to see some good chicks naked and their lovely breasts and private parts in the movie , but I also had to tolerate seeing naked men with their privates strutting about in complete abandon . As an easterner I wondered about the complete absence of morals of these young people who wander around naked and sleep with anybody . Do they settle down with somebody as they turn older ? I don't know but I certainly hope so !!
Verdict---two and a half stars .
Waterloo ( 1970 )
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Waterloo movie's main achievement is the fact that it manages to win a bit of sympathy for the loser of the battle of Waterloo , Napolean Bonaparte . Inspite of him being a megalomaniac who invaded large parts of Europe , you do feel for the great man as he nears the end of his illustrious career as warrior .
The movie was made with Russian soldiers as extras , which reduced the budget as they demanded less pay than westerners and allowed for the creation of large armies of actual men rather than create them by special effects . That indeed is the special point of the film ; it really shows large armies of real men manoeuvring and skirmishing and clashing in battle .
The movie begins with Napolean surrendering before his enemies and being forced to abdicate to the island of Elba , but a wave of popular emotion in France brings him back to power . The scenes of crowds of French men and women cheering him are authentically portrayed . Marshals who have promised to keep Napolean in an iron cage are forced to accept him back and he forgives them generously because he needs them to command his armies . But his enemies led by the British are not ready to accept him as ruler of France and war is certain .
The British forces are led by Arthur Wellesley , a slim and cool person who is not ruffled by changes in fortune when battle is going on or when persons close to him are killed ; His own daughter's fiance is destined to be killed in the coming encounter . As news comes that Napolean is on the march , Wellesley coolly asks the ball dance that is happening to go on . He shockingly talks about his own soldiers as scum , but accepts before his wife that the scum are wiling to lay their lives for him .
The tension in the two camps on the night before battle is well built up , and Napolean has ill health because of the tension . The battle is all or nothing for him , and France is alone against the armies of Britain and Prussia . The Prussians are led by Blucher but are away and it is not certain whether they will arrive to impact the battle in time .
As the two armies confront each other , it is a grand spectacle for a connoisseur of war movies . The British are in red uniforms , the French are in blue and the Prussians are in black .Perfectly disciplined formations of men go into battle with drums beating and guns roaring and firing yellow flames and acrid smoke . The charges of heavy cavalry are well pictured , with masses of horsemen charging the battleground in ever increasing speed filling you with awe and the enemy with fear .
At first the battle goes in favour of the French as they manage to storm a well defended fortified position of the British , but when Napolean is taking rest his marshal orders a charge of cavalry without infantry support . The British infantry which is well dug in defends doggedly by making several square formations . However Napolean still manages to retrieve the French position and soon Wellesley is in dispair as he is staring at defeat . But the French marshal ( Degrouchy ) who was supposed to stop the Prussians sticks too rigidly to orders and does not follow their forces . This allows Blucher and his Prussians to arrive to attack the main French troops just when needed by their allies the British . The battle decisively swings in the favour of Napolean's enemies because of this and all is lost for him.....his troops however refuse the British offer to surrender and prefer to to be mown down by artillery guns to redeem their honour ; the final scene is full of pathos as the victor ( Arthur Wellesley---the future Duke of Wellington ) surveys the battlefield .
The movie scores in acting , and photography and colours are good . Background music is decent too . I would rate it three stars out of five .
American Made
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This review contains spoilers
It is the swinging seventies and the cold war is in full swing . CIA agent Monty Schafer ( played by Domhnall Gleeson ) surprises TWA pilot Barry Seal ( played by Tom Cruise ) by showing him photos of his smuggling of Cuban cigars , and asks him to join the CIA to fly reconnaissance missions over south America where communist revolution is brewing . Seal is a happy go lucky character who salivates at the thought of his own plane to fly and agrees without a thought . At home however his wife Lucy ( played by Sarah Wright ) has other ideas about the new 'job' which entails going without the perks of a regular salary , but Barry is too hooked to the adventurous life .
Soon the CIA asks Barry to act as courier between themselves and general Noriega of Panama , but here Barry's crooked side manifests itself . He agrees to fly drugs for the Medellin cartel into the USA . His expert flying skills come handy here as he has to fly from a small rough airstrip with a heavy load and has to fly between treetops . But he has a flair for drug smuggling . He even designates the spot where he will drop the loads in USA , overruling the ideas of the drug lords . The drug lords begin to call him 'the crazy gringo who always delivers' and begins to trust him .
But soon he is caught in drug lord Pablo Escobar's lair in a raid by anti narcotics police and the CIA has to rescue him as he is too useful to them . But now he is a slave of the CIA ; after all they can hand him over to the police . But the CIA has grander uses for him . They shift him and his family to a remote town called Mena in Arkansas , and his wife's severe objections to this shift are silenced by Barry by simply throwing what a woman is impressed by most---money what else .
In Mena Barry gets his own airfield to run guns supplied by the CIA for the contras in Nicaragua and soon his operations are expanded to more planes and more pilots . Money begins to flow in such vast amounts that the local bank opens a vault exclusively for Barry and the local sheriff turns a blind eye to the happenings . Wads of cash literally overflow in his house because in return trips after delivering guns Barry brings drugs into USA . Lucy is too happy as long as the money flows in and even brings her brother there . But the brother is caught by the sheriff laundering cash and in return for this perfidy he is killed by the drug mafia . Barry and his family are in a dangerous business indeed .
But the CIA is ever ready to help Barry whenever he is in trouble because he is so useful to them . We soon get to see Barry acquire an aura of invincibility in the film because even if the top lawmakers try to bring him to book , he is saved by the unseen hands of the CIA . He is worth it too . Only he knows how to avoid the patrols of drug police in the air , dodging them by flying low and slow whereas their planes are too fast and run out of fuel too soon . In fact , Barry and his cronies fly so slow that once one of them falls asleep and Barry has to jolt his plane's wing with his own plane's wing to wake him up .
The CIA then asks Barry to fly the contras to USA in order to train them . Mena town soon hosts a mini army of them , but many don't want to fight and disappear in the USA becoming illegal migrants . There are some hilarious incidents like the drug lords ordering their men to shoot down Barry in English and Barry and his co pilot cowering without realising that the man given orders does not understand English and a prank is being pulled off . The whole movie has this breezy air and seems to not take itself seriously . Tom Cruise too has done acting in a self mocking manner that has the audience sniggering at his air of breezy self confidence and his ability to get off serious trouble without a hitch .
But actually this is a very dangerous game . One mistake and you are gone . And this mistake is made by colonel Oliver North when he releases on live television pictures secretly taken by Barry which shows him in company with Pablo Escobar . The CIA once more saves Barry from the law , but from now on Barry is a man marked by the mafia for certain death....Lucy proves her loyalty to him by wanting to stay with him even in this hour of danger , but he forces her to stay separate for sake of the kids . His own days are numbered . He makes a video regretting not having asked more questions when the CIA recruited him , but now it is too late to save his own life....
The movie scores on acting , while colours and photography of the dense green jungles of central and south America is good . Also good is photography of Barry's famed flying skills .Background music is appropriate for the situations .
The whole scandal was occurred in President Ronald Reagan's presidency , and his support for the whole CIA operation is the secret of Barry's invincibility in front of the lawmakers who want to catch him . But the CIA's duplicitous nature is seen when they drop Barry like a hot potato and abandon him when their use for him is over . They even deny the existence of Schafer who was the agent who initially contacted Barry and destroy all papers related to the operation . Of course , Barry is crooked too and worth dropping as he is mixed with the drug mafia . The CIA turns a blind eye to this as long as it suits them but in the long run pawns like Barry have to be sacrificed for the sake of the security of the nation and the sanctity of the democratic order . Of course !!
Verdict---Good .
3
McConnaughay
10-02-17, 05:16 PM
I had a lot of fun with Kong: Skull Island, even if the film had a lot of flaws in-terms of logic, glad you enjoyed it. I can't bring myself to watch the "Life" film. I can't escape the "been there, done that" feel I have from the trailers, even though I really enjoy the cast involved.
Victoria And Abdul
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Review has spoilers
This film deals with the unlikely friendship between Queen Victoria and an Indian servant called Abdul Karim , which the British establishment had tried to be kept hidden because it was embarrassed by it . It was uncovered by Shrabani Basu , who wrote a book on it ; the movie is based on the book .
It is the late nineteenth century and Britain is at the peak of it's power , with the ceremonial monarch being Queen Victoria ( played by Judi Dench ) . She is getting really old and has plenty of children and grandchildren . But she misses her long dead husband and is in need of company .
At this juncture arrives an Indian servant called Abdul Karim ( played by Bollywood actor Ali Fazal ) for presentation of a ceremonial coin to the queen . He catches her eyes by looking directly into them ( something that is forbidden ) . She is intrigued by his strapping good looks and striking tall personality , and asks for him to be bidden to her office to meet her . He immediately strikes up a conversation with her , impressing her with his knowledge of poetry and carpets . He talks about the city of Agra that he comes from , and of the iconic Taj mahal that stands in the city and of the Mughal emperor who built it and other kings of India and Persia . And the lonely queen wants more of his company .
Soon he is everywhere with her , in parties as well as lonely outings to remote lakeside places . The queen even arranges for him to act in a play with him playing Persian king of kings and British women cowering before him . Everywhere he is wearing his Indian turbaned headgear and his Indian clothes . In that era he appears totally out of place in the British establishment . And predictably the British establishment is appalled .
The Prime minister is shocked that the queen has built a durbar hall ( place of audience ) in the Indian style at Abdul's advice , and her son future king Edward is more shocked that she has made this servant her munshi---some sort of secretary . She even plans to made Abdul a knight , and the whole staff practically revolts at this idea and forces her to drop this plan .
Clearly the servant from a conquered people ( the Indians ) has grown too big for his boots and his wings have to be clipped . The chance for doing so arrives when the queen asks the royal doctor to examine him and his wife for not having children . And he is diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease---gonorrhoea . But the Queen asks the doctor in front of her staff to cure his disease , rather than kick him out of his job as they demand . This even though Abdul has been proven to be untruthful about his past ; he has claimed to be from a family of noble origin though actually his family are just clerks who keep records in Indian jails .
Prince Edward approaches Abdul's sidekick ( played by Adeel Akhtar ) to further malign his past in front of the queen . But the sidekick who has been complaining about being forced to remain in Britain flings choice words and expletives about the British empire instead , thus showing his loyalty to his comrade but also inviting his own death ; the British poison him . The queen grows worried about Abdul , who she has begun to regard as her son . She asks him to go back to India for his own safety . But Abdul stays on .
It is only after her death that the British manage to send him back , but only after they have set fire to all evidence of him and destroyed it....or so they think . But in the modern era Shrabani Basu uncovered it all and hence we have this film based on her book .
The movie's setting is in palaces and amidst royal pomp and grandeur . But the lavishness has not been exaggerated . Photography is decent , of dinners set in the backdrop of blinding rain and chats beside expansive lakes . Music is decent too , of trumpets blowing when the Queen makes her appearance in public and of piano and of a Scottish dance . The movie tries to make the ending sentimental but I was not impressed . Judi Dench has put up a reasonably good performance as the Queen . Rest are appropriate in their roles .
2.5
Real life photo of Queen Victoria and her trusted munshi Abdul
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Exodus ( 1960 )
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The real problem for the moviemakers was an impossible one---to match the novel on which the movie was supposed to be based . And EXODUS is one of the most influential novels of the 20th century , a masterpiece if there ever was one ( GODFATHER and CARPETBAGGERS are others ) . But the novel is so vast in scope and scale that it was not possible to pack all it's events in one movie , even though the movie was already long at 3 hours 15 minutes . A miniseries would have been more apt to film the novel , but it would not have had the grandeur of a film would it ?? Certainly not in the era of small TV sets which did not have HD ; the movie was made way back in 1960 when TV technology was in it's infancy . So a cinemascope movie that left out some of the events in the novel was made .
The movie starts with an American nurse ( played by Eva Marie Saint ) who is a volunteer at the internment camp of holocaust survivors in Cyprus wanting to adopt a young danish Jew girl and take her back to the US . But fate has other plans as a rebel Jew ( played by Paul Newman ) who had fought in the British Jew brigade smuggles many Jews including the danish girl onto a ship which is renamed the 'Exodus' , and the ship is destined to sail to Palestine . The Danish girl ( played by Jill Haworth ) is in love with a holocaust survivor ( played by Sal Mineo ) and wants to go to Palestine and not America . The American nurse also boards the ship , and the rebel Jew threatens to blast the ship by dynamite if the British authorities do not remove their blockade of the ship . So they relent and allow it to sail to the cheers of the Jews not only in the ship but also in the internment camp . Their joy is to be seen to be believed ; the call of the holy land promised for 2000 years and now at last in reach after innumerable sufferings is something that others like me will not even begin to understand....
All the Jews have stories of persecution and horror to tell ; the stories are beyond the imagination of those who have led secure lives . For example , the holocaust survivor loved by the danish girl had chosen to co operate with the nazis to bury murdered members of his own community by dynamite in order to save himself , and the nazis have done unspeakable things to him . The British officers guarding the internment camp also look at the Jews with condescension and think of them as troublemakers .
The movie has two love stories---one of the american nurse who first loves the character played by Newman , but feels different from his family and rejects him until a life and death situation makes her realise her love for him . The other is of the danish girl who has fallen in love with the holocaust survivor . The two lovers are opposites ; he has seen the worst form of persecution under the nazis , while she has seen compassion as all danish citizens marched out wearing the star of David ( jewish symbol ) when the nazis asked the Jews to identify themselves thereby hiding the Jews . Naturally she has a wide eyed innocence about her . But it is she out of all people who is selected by fate for death at the hands of the Arabs ; she who constantly worried about the holocaust survivor...such is the hand of destiny in the midst of war .
And war it is , as the Jews and Arabs have to fight it out for claiming Palestine . The film has bomb blasts and assassinations and full scale fighting . The Jews' moment of triumph is shown in the movie---when the United nations passes the resolution for partitioning Palestine to form a Jewish state . And more fighting has to be done . Some Jews like the character played by Paul Newman are friendly enough with some Arabs that an Arab friend lays down his life to save him ; he is buried along with the danish girl . Naturally , the character played by Newman dreams of a nation where Jews and Arabs with live like equals . But as history tells us with the benefit of hindsight , dreams are not always fulfilled !!
Inspite of it's shortcomings , the movie has the ingredients of an epic . And I went on to like it as I saw it more . Acting is not natural but theatrical , but the director has woven the events into a well told story . Music is of course the strong point of the film , and is tinged with emotion with the Israeli national anthem being it's theme . Photography is okay .
Verdict---Good .
Three stars out of five .
Duel ( 1971 )
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Review has spoilers
This movie was the first ever directed by Steven Spielberg in 1971 . It won him recognition as a director .
The film shows a man driving from his town to another town in his car after a minor tiff with his wife . On the way he overtakes a trailer carrying inflammable liquid . The driver of the trailer is some psycho who takes this overtaking personally and begins to follow the car and try to ram the car .
The frightened car driver stops at a cafe , but the trailer stops outside the cafe . The car driver does not know whom among the people assembled in the cafe is the trailer driver and gets into a fight with the wrong person who he thinks is the trailer driver . But the man soundly beats him up .
Soon the trailer leaves ( it's driver was not in the cafe at all ) and car driver breathes a sigh of relief and resumes his drive , only to find that the trailer is waiting for him ahead . The choice before the car driver is to turn back and head back home , which any normal person would have done . But he decides to challenge the trailer....otherwise how would the movie become interesting:D
As the car tries to overtake the trailer , the trailer driver inexplicably signals to let him overtake . But as he tries to overtake , the car driver sees another car coming from the opposite side at high speed ; the trailer driver has led him to a death trap , but the car driver's expert driving saves him and he overtakes . But soon he discovers that the trailer has a very powerful engine and he can't match the trailer's speed and the trailer is catching up .
The car driver has to stop at a train crossing with the train roaring in front of him , but to his horror the trailer arrives and tries to push his car onto the train to kill him . After the train crosses the car driver tries to stop at a phone booth to call the police , but the trailer arrives to smash the phone booth from which the car driver jumps out just saving his own life in time . The trailer then swerves back to try to kill him again , but again he just escapes .
The car driver then swerves his car off the road to a dirt track to avoid the trailer but the trailer follows . The dirt track however ends in a dead end . So is it certain death for the car driver ? No....Watch him trick the trailer driver into smashing into his trailer into the valley below .
In all this madness the face of the trailer driver is not shown even once ; he remains an unknown quantity , adding to the suspense . And his reason for trying to kill the car driver is unfathomable except for the conclusion that he is a psycho .
Spielberg keeps the tension alive and the drama on high gear throughout the duel between the two unequal vehicles ; one car against a huge trailer , and the trailer carrying some inflammable liquid which might explode in a ramming . Background music is appropriate for the situations and photography is decent too . Colours of the movie are not that impressive though . There is not enough time to build the characters of the two protagonists at all in the one and a half hour short movie . The thrill is in the situation created .
Verdict---Good .
Three stars out of five .
Godfather part one
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Review has spoilers
Godfather---I have read the novel several times many years ago , and the characters have been etched in my mind since then . The Godfather himself , his hot headed son Santino/Sonny and his mistress , his younger son Michael and his first wife Apollonia and his second and far more important wife Kay , the family advisor Tom Hagen who fails to advise properly , the heads of the family battalions Clemenza and Tessio , Rival dons Barzini and Tattaglia , and above all singer Johnny Fontane ( who was surely based on Frank Sinatra ) ; I have digested and consumed these characters in my mind during the period I read the novel again and again in my bid to analyse them , and then I forgot or rather tried to forget them when I moved on to other things in life . Compared to the times I read the novel I have seen the movie fewer times...only about three times I guess . Today was the third time . The last time I saw it , it was years ago and I wasn't reviewing films . Next time I see the movie might be years down the line , and I don't know if I would be reviewing films at that time at all....it's a now or never time to review the movie....no my review is not important , it's the movie that is important....
Out of the movies based on the three novels ( Exodus , Carpetbaggers and Godfather ) that have impacted my mind enough to read them again and again , Godfather does the best justice to the novel it was based on . Exodus movie makers had to leave many events in the novel out of the movie , but director Francis Ford Coppola has managed to pack many of the events in the Godfather novel into his movie . And he has packed them in such a way that the movie is as great as the novel itself . And inspite of the limited time that a movie gives , he has managed to build every character well . Of course , he has been backed by top class acting by his lead actors . Also backed by fabulous music as background score.
The colours of the movie have a brownish hue about them , and the theme is dark---the life and happenings of a mafia family over a period of time when they lose their might and how the eventual heir manages to recoup that might . But the recoupment comes at a terrible price at the end ; the heir loses the trust of his wife in the climax scene . This is important however only to people like me who consider women's opinion important ; in the world of gangsters the opinion of women is not so important really . It's a man's world of guns and knives .
Yeah , they are gangsters really . But seeing the movie ( and also while reading the novel ) one might feel that it is the history of the ups and downs of some empire that is being recorded . The mafia head honcho is not just head he is a combination of God and father . People come to pay homage to him and kiss his hand as if he is some emperor . The people who are under his protection are never denied any demand they make . Singer Johnny Fontane asks for role in a movie and the movie's producer ( who refuses to entertain the Godfather's proposal ) gets to see his favourite horse's beheaded head on his bed the next day....no one can refuse the Godfather .
But even an emperor has powerful enemies , and so does the Godfather . At first the enemies try to co opt him into their narcotics business , but he is a man of principles that are not seen outside the movies ; he refuses to enter such a dirty business . Result---his attempted murder . For the money in narcotics is too much and his son Santino/Sonny has shown an itch for it . But once his father is attacked the son has to fight back . And Sonny does fight back in typical hot headed fashion well acted by James Caan .
But the enemies strike back again to try to kill the Godfather ( Marlon Brando) and his younger son Michael ( Al Pacino ) has to save him at cost of being given a damaging blow on his face by a crooked police captain who is an ally of the drug dealers . The Godfather never wanted him to be part of the crime business , but circumstances have sucked him in it never to leave him ever . His girlfriend Kay ( Diane Keaton ) will have to adjust eventually , even though she is not Sicilian like the entire mafia fraternity .
Riven by the need for revenge , Michael decides to kill the main drug dealer Sollozzo and the police captain in a meeting for negotiations . The movie perfectly shows the tension on the face of a person out to do a gangland killing for the first time . Once he kills , he has to flee to his father's homeland Sicily . And in his absence , the mafia gang war hots up like nothing else . Sonny becomes the de facto head of the family ; actually family being just glorified term for gang . But writer of both the movie and novel builds up the characters of these mafia gangsters as if they are great statesmen .
Yeah all great statesmen , except Sonny . In true unstatesmanlike fashion , his great weakness is his temper . And when his sister gets beaten by her husband , he shakes all security considerations aside to go and give a savage beating to his brother in law . His enemies ( the five families in alliance with the dead Sollozzo ) quickly latch on to this weakness . The brother in law ( whose ego has obviously been massively bruised by the beating he got ) is induced to beat his wife again to induce a security ignoring trip by Sonny to beat his brother in law . And as he barges out of his well protected den without his bodyguards , he is gunned down . In Sicily too , Michael who has fallen madly in love with a Sicilian girl and has married her has to see his wife killed in a bomb meant actually to kill him . How the mighty family of the Corleones have fallen.....
It's time for the Godfather to negotiate a peace with the enemies . But first a word about his acting on hearing and seeing his son Sonny dead . I feel Marlon Brando is at his finest at expressing grief at his son's death . Every muscle of his face seems to quiver with sorrow , especially when he takes the body to be laid to rest to the undertaker who had come to ask his help to take revenge on his daughter's molesters in the beginning of the movie . The daughter's molesters were soundly beaten by the Godfather's men , but such mafia help comes at a price ; you have to repay your dues to the mafia any time they ask....
At the peace negotiations , Godfather Don Corleone has to compromise with his enemies to bring back his son Michael from Sicily . And he has to promise not to take revenge for Sonny . Michael comes back and marries Kay , but the enemies are taking advantage of the Corleones' weakness to take over their territory . The Don tells Michael how to deal with them after his death , because as long as he is alive he cannot break his promise to not renew the war . In real life such gangland promises are not worth the paper they are written on , but the makers of the movie build a larger than life image of the Don as a great man ; he seemingly never breaks his promises . It is important not to get carried away and remember that only in the movies do such people exist .
Once the Don is no more , the enemies ( Barzini and Tattaglia ) make the first move to eliminate his successor Michael by co opting one of his lieutenants . But the Don had already warned Michael of this move before he died ; not for nothing was he called the Godfather . Michael then unleashes his true potential . He shows how cold and calculating he is by becoming godfather of his sister's son . Thus he puts his brother in law the father of the godchild in the dark about his true intentions to kill him in revenge for his part in Sonny's murder . Then he kills him after forcing a confession of his part in Sonny's murder from him . And he also carries to fruition an already well crafted plan to destroy his enemies like Barzini and Tattaglia and their cohorts within his own gang by gunfire . Just how loudly do the guns boom in the movie ? Watch it for that....
Verdict---Great .
Four and a half stars out of five .
Murder On The Orient Express
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This was the first time I saw any version of this famous murder mystery on celluloid . Though of course , the solution to the mystery was known to me without having read the novel because the novel is so famous.
Detective Hercule Poirot is called to London from Istanbul for solving a case and he has to board the Orient express to get there quickly . Little does he know that the orient express itself would be the scene of a murder....
Of course , the forebodings of such a happening are already there . For a sinister criminal ( played by Johnny Depp ) asks Poirot to protect him from people who are after him , but realising his criminal propensities Hercule refuses .
Meanwhile the train has begun on it's journey , and it is as lavish as could be during that day and age . Luxurious cabins and a restaurant with the finest collection of liquor and sumptuous food are it's hallmark . The landscape it moves through is mountains full of snow , and the photography of that is at it's best . The train is not large and has an engine and four five bogies .
We are soon introduced to the assembled cast and their differing personalities . They include a princess ( played by Judi Dench ) , a black doctor ( played by Leslie Odom ) , a highly religious person ( Penelope Cruz ) , a character played by Michelle Pfeiffer among others . Hercule Poirot himself is played by Kenneth Branagh .
Here Hercule Poirot himself is shown to have a past love , a woman whose framed photo he carries and remembers ; he is not a detective with a mechanical brain but a person with emotion .
As the train ploughs into the balkans in the country of Yugoslavia , we are witness to thunder and lightening in the sky . And that starts a avalanche of snow that comes collapsing from the mountains and derails the train's engine . The train stops above a bridge in the spectacular snowbound countryside until rescue teams will arrive to put it back on track . Of course , the sumptuous food is still warm and ready to be served .
But we are served murder instead . And the murder is of none other than that of the character played by Johnny Depp . A man who knew himself to be marked because of the evil deeds he had done and carried a gun with him all times ; not that the gun could save him....
As Poirot investigates , he finds that the murdered man was having an assumed name and the real person was connected to some real bad deeds in the past . And he soon finds out that every person on the train had been somehow affected by the crimes that the murdered man had done . So who among them was the killer ? The answer to the mystery has made the novel a classic .
The background music is good and acting is appropriate for the situations . In the end is the dilemma for Poirot---whether the murderer should be punished or the murdered person deserved what he got ? I haven't seen the earlier versions of the movie and therefore cannot compare with them but was satisfied by what I saw on screen .
Verdict---Good .
3
Godfather part three
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Saw this movie on netflix . On seeing this movie my reaction was---why didn't the whole Corleone saga end with the end of the first Godfather movie ? At least that showed an uplifting ending with Michael becoming the next Godfather . The next two movies have a depressing hang about them with Michael's wife Kay leaving him in part two and he being forced to kill his own brother Fredo in the same part , leaving Michael increasingly lonely .
The third part completes the tragedy , with Michael dying alone on a wheelchair grieving for the lovely daughter who was the apple of his eye but was killed in another mafia war . Yeah I know these are mafiosi and therefore criminals and actually deserve to die dog's deaths , but after seeing three back to back movies I was getting kinda sentimentally attached to the family of the great Don:D
So the movie begins with Michael trying to legitimise his empire , something that he had promised to his wife in the first part . But his health is increasingly failing while his son refuses to join the family business , a smart decision because anyone joining the family business has a big chance of getting killed .
In order to legitimise , Michael offers to buy out the Vatican's stake in a real estate company called Immobiliare . The deal would make him a powerful man . In a meeting the other Dons ask Michael for their share in the deal , but he does not want them to get involved as he is in a bid to legitimise himself . So he gives them money from another legitimate deal .But he does not give anything to Joey Zasa , a Don who has already been at loggerheads with Michael's nephew Vincent ; Vincent is illegitimate son of Michael's older brother Sonny . Zasa walks out of the meeting in a huff and attacks the meeting in an armed helicopter , killing most of the assembled Dons .
But Michael escapes only to suffer a diabetic stroke . Vincent takes revenge by killing Zasa . On recovering Michael shows that he may be weak in body but not in mind ; he tells Vincent that it is not Zasa who was the real enemy because Zasa lacked the firepower for such an audacious attack . Michael goes to his ancestors' homeland Sicily to find out who was backing Zasa . He soon discovers an elaborate plan to swindle him on the Immobiliare deal by a group of Dons whose leader is Don Lucchesi and second in command Don Altobello .
His plans to legitimise himself thus roadblocked and himself losing all his friends , Micheal is brought to a crossroads of life . He meets the man who is going to be the next Pope in order to get a breakthrough on the Immobiliare deal , and is forced by the father to confess his sins including murdering his own brother .
In all this saga , only Vincent and his sister Connie are loyal to him , and Michael decides to retire and anoints Vincent as the new Don / Godfather . But the enemy Dons have an elaborate plan ready to kill Micheal---a deadly assassin who never misses his mark .
A further complication is that his own innocent daughter is in love with Vincent . Michael forbids this relationship not only because she is in love with her own cousin but also does not want his daughter to live a dangerous life as a Don's wife , for Vincent will be in constant danger as a mafiosi .
All this comes to head at the performance his son Antony is going to give in a theatre . The assassin is coming to kill Michael brushing aside all the elaborate security arrangements of Vincent , and at the same time his own daughter is going to confront him because she is too much in love with Vincent .
But the Michael/Vincent/Connie trio have both inherited the genes of the original Godfather , and they manage to kill many of their enemies before the enemies can strike . The new Pope has ratified the Immobiliare deal too , before he himself was killed . In fact it would have been a perfect ending except for a complication---a woman in love , Michael's daughter who else . She barges to confront Michael over his non acceptance of her love for Vincent at the same time the assassin hired by his enemies fires a bullet to kill Michael....the assassin is killed by Vincent , thus sealing Michael's triumph over his enemies . But the triumph has come at terrible price , for the assassin's bullet has killed Michael's precious daughter....
So we learn two lessons from the whole Corleone saga---
one -- that crime never pays . This was something we were supposed to learn in school , but the whole saga of the family and the associated deaths dins it more firmly into our heads like nothing else can .
second -- whatever any Don or Godfather thinks about women as immaterial is not true , and women are important . For in the end Michael dies in grief for a woman , his own daughter . Sophia Coppolla who is director Francis Ford Coppolla's own daughter , has brought an innocent charm to her role as Michael Corleone's daughter . After the climax scene I sat almost in tears of sadness because of her death and the death of the great Don and for the end of the Godfather series....no more enemies to encounter and no more stories to see . Of course , there would be other crime movies , but none would have the grandeur of the Godfather .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
:love: The whole 3 movies :yup:
Hare Krishna ( December 2017 )
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'Hare Krishna' is an English language movie on the story of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada , the guru who started ISKCON ( International society for Krishna consciousness ) and was responsible for introducing his unique brand of Hinduism in the west . His brand of Hinduism consisted of worship of Lord Krishna , an avtar of the Hindu God Vishnu .
The movie shows his early life in short , and he was born in Calcutta in British ruled India . His father wanted him to devote himself to spiritual pursuits rather than materialistic pursuits and he got his own idols of Krishna and Krishna's platonic friend Radha since childhood for prayer . Yet he spent much of his life as a successful pharmacist who had a wife and children . During the Indian independence struggle , he was a follower of Gandhi .
His own guru Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati however advised him to follow the spiritual path rather than political path and asked him to follow the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu , a guru who had lived and taught in the fifteenth century . These teachings asked followers to spread the message of Krishna by chanting the Lord's name and dancing on streets singing verses praising the Lord . Above all Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati asked him to spread Hinduism in the west rather than India .
It was in 1965 at the ripe old age of 70 that Prabhupada decided to renounce the world and become as ascetic spreading the name of Krishna in the west . He decided to forsake his ties with his wife and children who had grown up by now and could take care of themselves . Above all , he took the incredible decision to go to America and spread his brand of Hinduism there . This , even though he had no contacts there and no means of survival except his own stupendous faith in his own beliefs .
On arrival in USA , he distinguished himself by not being a hypocrite like other Indian gurus who had come to US to live in posh houses and travel by luxury cars . Instead he lived in nondescript housing in New York and his first targets were drug addicts . In fact it was these drug addicts who took pity on this old friendless lonely man and offered their help . But it was they who got helped instead .
Prabhupada asked them to spend their time in singing the name of Lord Krishna as a way of reaching out to God . As the drug addicts began to do so , their entire time was spent in this and their entire attention was focused on reaching out to God in this manner . And a miracle happened ; the hippies were soon off the drugs . They had found a way of channelizing their energy and time and stopped using drugs . Indeed soon they were off meat and alcohol and began living the life of orthodox hindus .
Soon the august guru Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada decided that his disciples should now dance on the streets chanting the name of Krishna and singing hymns in the Lord's name just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's followers did in the fifteenth century . And the western world awoke to the phenomenon of westerners dancing chanting the name of a hindu God from the east on the streets of American cities .
Some of the more enterprising American converts decided to rope in American music stars to spread the message of the swami , and various bands like the Grateful dead and others began to chant the mantra given by the swami to his followers in their concerts . The mantra was ''hare Krishna hare Krishna , Krishna Krishna hare hare , hare Rama hare Rama , Rama Rama hare hare''---Rama being another avtar of Vishnu .
To contact the Beatles and bring them in their fold , the members of the newly registered ISKCON went to London . To stand out among the Londoners , the devotees shaved their heads and went bald and began to wear yellow robes of hindu ascetics . George Harrison was so impressed that he cut an album in honour of the Hare Krishna movement .
The heart as well as leader of the movement was Prabhupada , who at the age of seventy plus still danced tirelessly and sang the name of God for hours on end . He worked till late night , writing commentaries on the holy book of Hinduism ( Bhagwat Gita ) . In the age where young people were disillusioned by America's defeat in the Vietnam war , he gave them a spiritual path to lead their time and not waste their lives as hippies doing drugs and free sex .
He also went to the Soviet union to spread his message in the time when it was controlled by communists and the godless marxists created numerous difficulties for him . But he gained followers who spread the message by underground means in Russia and translated the swami's works into Russian . Back in America however all this was creating a backlash . The swami was accused of propagating a cult and using mind control techniques to enchant America's youth . Young people who had joined his movement were kidnapped by people hired by their parents who did not want their children singing and dancing to the name of a strange eastern God wearing outlandish saffron coloured attire . A court case was launched against the movement .
But the courts declared that the movement was based on spiritual beliefs that had been practised in the ancient land of India for 5000 years and that there was nothing wrong with them---a triumph for the swami . And he decided to take his movement where it had all began , to India . When they landed in India , the Indians were simply astonished at the sight of westerners practising their religion of Hinduism more fervently than themselves . Indians could not bring themselves to believe this and tried to rub off the white colour of the skin of the devotees in the hope that rubbing it off would expose brown skin .
By the time the swami died , his movement had become firmly established in America and numerous beautiful temples had been built in the new world . After his death the movement had further expanded with new temples being built . This whole story is brought out by numerous interviews of the western disciples of the swami , who speak emotionally about the holy man in the movie which is more like a documentary . One disciple goes on to say that when Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada spoke , it was as if it was the Prime minister of an entire galaxy speaking . A touch hagiographic perhaps....
The movie has good music and good photography with clips of the swami speaking . A fine effort by ISKCON to advertise themselves . Critics would find flaws but the movie will energise the faith of believers . That's what it has been made for .
Verdict---good .
Three stars out of five .
Operation daybreak ( 1975 )
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1942---the heyday of nazi occupation of Europe . Hitler's right hand man Reinhard Heydrich is appointed as the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia ( modern day Czech republic ) and he quickly unleashes a reign of terror there , giving orders for murder of countless innocents . To stop him , the British parachute three Czechoslavs with orders to assassinate Heydrich . The Royal air force drops two of them in the wrong position 200 km away from their intended target .
The two are questioned by a german patrol and have to kill the germans . But they are helped by czechs who bribe a german driver to take the two to a doctor because one of them is wounded slightly . To the surprise of the two , the doctor first questions them and then unites them with the third member of the group . The mission is on and they prepare plans to kill Heydrich while hiding in a church along with the Czech underground resistance .
The members of the Czech resistance do not agree with the idea of killing Heydrich because the nazis would take terrible revenge by killing scores of innocent Czechs . But for the three sent from Britain , orders are orders . However the first chance to kill Heydrich is lost as another oncoming train blocks their sight just when they are going to shoot him from afar while he is travelling in a train to Berlin .
But they use the resistance members to track Heydrich's movements and find out that he regularly uses a route for reconnoitering the countryside and slows down at a particular turning point . Two members of the group plan to kill him there . They are Sergeant Jan Kubiš ( played by Timothy Bottoms ) and Sergeant Jozef Gabčík ( played by Anthony Andrews ) . The third ( Sergeant Karel Curda---played by Martin Shaw ) goes to meet his wife and child and stays there .
As Heydrich's car slows down one of the two tries to kill him upfront by sten gun but his gun jams . As he flees , Heydrich's bodyguard chases him and leaves his master unprotected . The other lobs a grenade from the other direction fatally wounding Heydrich . The two then meet in the church and members of the resistance then ask them to flee as the avenging germans are after their blood . The two decide to wait for the third member ( Curda ) to come back .
But Curda who is living with his wife gets terrified after he hears about the german massacre and destruction of the village of Lidice as revenge for Heydrich's murder . He fears for his wife and child and thinks that they would get killed too in the german orgy of revenge . He actually goes to the germans and rats out on his comrades in return for safety of his family !!
As the germans surround the church and begin to kill , the extended climax is full of pathos . Of the twosome realising to their chagrin that the comrade they waited for has actually betrayed them . Of the resistance group putting a fierce fight to the death killing many germans . At last gas is pumped into the hiding room of the two and still they hold out . Finally they are attempted to be drowned by pumping water until they are forced to shoot themselves .
The movie has decent photography , but it is the musical score that excels . The background music truly is scintillating and is rich with emotion . The nazi era is properly recreated complete with nazi salutes and uniforms and brutality . Acting and action is good but it is in emotion that the film really scores . The men find time to form dalliances with women and the grief of the women on their death is hard to watch , especially because it is a true story . Yes the movie is based on real events and what happened to each character during or after the war is told at the end . As expected , the war takes the lives of most . But the destroyed village of Lidice was rebuilt after the war , a testament to the triumph of justice .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
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Saw this movie on netflix . It is in the Czech language and has english subtitles .
Joseph Goebbels , who was Hitler's propaganda minister during the nazi regime had an unusual choice of woman as mistress . She was a Czech and therefore from the slav race , a race that was decried by nazi propaganda as subhuman . But she was beautiful enough for Goebbels to make an exception in her case for falling in love . The movie is based on her account of the affair , and at the end of the movie she frankly admits to having edited her version of the story to present herself in a favourable light as she tells about it to a journalist in her old age . The journalist herself is a daughter of a person who perished in the holocaust .
The name of the mistress was Lída Baarova , and she was an actress . Her mother was the one whose ambition was to make her daughter an actress . Before the nazis showed their true colours , Lida was attracted to the much bigger German film industry and went to act there . She is played by Slovak actress Tatiana Pauhofova . Here her beauty attracted the biggest star of the german film industry---Gustav Frohlich ( played by german actor Gedeon Burkhard ) , and soon they were in a live in relationship . His wife was a hungarian jew and she had already left him to go back to Hungary due to fear of the nazis . And nazi storm troopers could already be seen attacking jewish establishments in Germany . The second world war was yet to be started .
But as fate would have it , their neighbour was Goebbels ( played by Austrian actor Karl Markovics ) . And soon he was inviting her to parties and propositioning her . And fights broke out between Lida and Gustav over his ignoring her due to his acting commitments and his refusal to divorce his wife for Lida . After such a fight Lida went over to Goebbels .
In the movie as she recounts the story to the reporter , Lida claims that even Hitler was attracted to her and invited her to accept german citizenship and said that she reminded him of someone he was in love with once . And like true patriot , she refused his offer of citizenship .
But Goebbels had tremendous power over the german film industry , and Lida agreed to become his mistress to obviously boost her career . Her paycheck and the budget of her films miraculously went up after this . Soon she was in bed with Goebbels , the only love making scene in the movie .
The americans came to know of her fame , and invited her to Hollywood . The american producer clearly warned her that she was playing with fire by being in a relationship with a nazi , and she was forced to choose between the two film industries . But Goebbels warned her that if she chose hollywood then her fate would be like the german actress Marlene Dietrich and she would have to forever forget a place in the german film industry just like Marlene had after going to Hollywood . So she chose the more controversial and dangerous path of remaining his mistress .
At this point in recounting , the reporter has an argument with the old Lida as to how could she date such a monster . The obvious answer is that like countless women have been , she was attracted to the man's power . This inspite of he being a short man with a limp due his injured leg .
His wife is jealous but at first proposes that they have an adjustment where Goebbels would remain her husband while he could enjoy Lida in bed , but soon complains to Hitler . She is abandoned by Goebbels under Hitler's pressure and events have overtaken everything . The germans have invaded Czechoslovakia . She is helped in her escape back to Czech capital Prague by a german admirer who asks only to stroke her breasts as prize , and she is soon back to the beautiful house she has built for her parents .
But she and her sister ( who is a regional actress ) are hated by their countrymen for colluding with the enemy , and at the end of the war there is a terrible price to pay . Lida is put on trial by the newly installed communist government and is almost sent to the gallows . Her sister commits suicide due to humiliation , and her mother dies of heart attack induced by harassment by the authorities . Her father loses a leg in trying to save her but succeeds .
Afterwards she played a part in many movies , but the stigma of having been a nazi's mistress remained . But she lived a long life inspite of having a habit of smoking nonstop ; she is shown forever smoking in the movie .
It is only while escaping from Germany that she is shown confronting the full horrors of nazi rule and she lives in her own blissful world before that . Can this be true ? Obviously not . Probably she was too addicted to money and power and fame to care about right or wrong , and remained Goebbel's mistress even though she knew what was happening . Such hypocrites abound in the film industry and my country's film industry ( Bollywood ) has many such people . But she was not involved in the regime's horrors and we will have to give her benefit of doubt .
Acting is decent by everyone and photography colours and music is decent too . The film is watchable if you like films showcasing earlier eras .
Verdict---Okay .
Two and a half stars out of five .
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Vivien Leigh plays Scarlet O'Hara , the daughter of a cotton plantation owner in southern United states . They have black slaves on the plantation , but the movie shows them to be treated more like servants than slaves and they fuss over Scarlet . But at the time of the beginning of the movie itself , their whole world is on the verge of collapse . The northerners have declared war on the south to free the slaves and history tells us that the south was defeated .
But the southerners are full of martial spirit and scoff on anyone who tells them about the superiority of the northerners ( yankees they are called ) over the south in terms of resources . One such person is Rhett Butler ( played by Clark Gable ) , some kind of freelance warrior and philanderer who visits prostitutes .
In typically filmy fashion , Rhett falls in love with Scarlet at first sight . But Scarlet loves another man who rejects her and she marries a boy to spite the person she loves . Soon she is a widow as her husband is killed in action . Similar is the fate of the whole southern armies as the yankees invade Atlanta in Georgia and bring fire and destruction with them . Scarlet who is in Atlanta is helped to escape from Atlanta by Rhett , but arrives on her plantation to find her mother dead and her father gone crazy due to the destruction of everything near and dear to him ; yes the plantation has been destroyed .
But Scarlet is determined to survive and stands like a rock commanding everyone to help rebuild everything . She grows up from a young girl being fussed over by everyone to be a strong lady...and Rhett Butler does occasionally drop by because he still loves her . But he refuses to financially help her and Scarlet marries second time to an older person to get his money . But he is killed too and Scarlet finally accepts Rhett's proposal .
They have a daughter and but she dies too . And Scarlett continues to love the man she loved from the start . His wife is kind and understands , but later she is dead too , asking Scarlet to look after her husband . Rhett realises that it is time for a reunion of Scarlet with her man and decides to move out .
But the man says he loved only his wife and too late Scarlett realises that she was so mistaken in rejecting the love of Rhett , but he is gone . She decides to go back to her place of strength---her plantation , from where she will again make a move to regain her lost husband . Not a loser or sissy is our heroine....
And I found myself sympathising with Scarlet O'Hara , the woman who knew no fear and fought like tigress among all the vicissitudes of fortune . And among all these vicissitudes , these southerners yearn for their past . The past where there were huge plantations of which they were their owners and had black slaves and grew cotton . Of grand parties on those plantations . All of which has been swept away by the tidal wave of history....gone with the wind !!
The movie shows the black slaves loyally co operating with the southern ( confederate ) forces and talking of licking the yankees , a fact that I found incredible . The yankees were coming to liberate them weren't they ? And no scene of blacks being ill treated or being unhappy at their position . In the world of Margaret Mitchell ( the novelist who wrote the novel on which the movie is based ) the blacks are satisfied with their position in the existing order and indeed co operate with preserving it . No hint of revolt . A conversation says that the whites treated their black slaves well . Sounds unreal and full of blissful ignorance at best and neglect of the situation on the ground at worst .
I would have been more happy to see Scarlet and Rhett reunited at the end , and was disappointed to see him go . Yet I liked the movie . Colours photography and music is good and Vivien Leigh has put her heart and soul in her acting . Much appreciated by me and of course much loved by the public which made the movie such a huge hit .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Sunset Boulevard
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The movie is from the black and white era .
William Holden plays an out of luck movie script writer named Joe Gillis whose scripts are not accepted by most directors . While running away from men trying to take his car because he has not paid it's dues , he accidentally stumbles into the mansion of a forgotten movie star of the era of silent films named Norma Desmond ( Gloria Swanson ) . She lives in her own world where she is still supposed to be a great star with a huge fan following , though it is actually her own butler ( played by Erich von Stroheim ) who writes the fan letters . And he too was a former movie director who had discovered Norma but whom she married and later divorced , but became her butler because he could not live apart from her . Can things get quirkier than that ?
Yes , they can get quirkier . Because Norma takes a fancy to Joe and decides to make the much younger Joe her keep , and Joe accepts because he has run out of funds . Norma wants to make grand comeback to films even though she is 53 , and Joe becomes the scriptwriter of her bizarre comeback movie . But actually he is interested in another girl called Betty ( Nancy Olsen ) and soon Betty spurns her fiance for him .
But Joe has got too much entangled in the situation created by Norma to ever get out . She wants the great director Cecil B. DeMille to direct her film , and her faded but still remembered star power is on display as she enters his shoot to be warmly greeted by him and recognised by people . But he is not really interested in directing her .
The crisis occurs when Norma discovers that Joe and Betty are in love . And when Joe tries to walk out with some harsh words of truth , she fires a gun on him....his fate is like the male spider who mates with the female spider only to find that there is no release as she devours him . As the police come to arrest Norma with reporters for shooting the arrest , she has gone sufficiently mad to think that the scene is of the shooting of a film being enacted .
The film actually is in touch with the truth , for in the film industry there are several former stars who live in the memory of the former halcyon days . The Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna was one such person , who was constantly reliving his former superstardom long after it had perished . The dialogue by Norma in the movie saying 'I am big . It is the pictures that got small.' aptly sums up this attitude . Not surprisingly , the film is regarded as a classic . Acting is good , if you are willing to tolerate Gloria Swanson's overdramatic acting as Norma Desmond . Photography is good if you are willing to tolerate black and white colours and small screen format .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Fedora ( 1978 )
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William Holden plays Barry Detweiler , who wants to make a film starring an old reclusive actress called Fedora ( Marthe Keller ) because he has a crush on her since his boyhood days when he was spotboy for her film shoot and had the good fortune to see the full glory of her nude breasts from up close while tasked with placing flowers over them as she was shooting in a pool . And she had taken a liking for him and called him to her room and asked him if he found her nude body hot , and had said that he must be a pansy if he did not like her body----meaning she would feel insulted if he did not admire her flesh ; a true narcissist our Fedora , just like a true film star....
Having briefly dated this famous movie star a long time ago and been on long drives in her car with her , Barry just can't get her out of his mind . And here he now , trying to meet her decades later on an island where she has mysteriously disappeared after leaving films and joining them again . And he closes onto the villa where Fedora lives , only to find out that it is heavily guarded by tough looking humans and even tougher dogs .
But Barry is nothing if not persistent , and he soon makes contact with her . But she tells him that she is being held captive by a countess and her men . When Barry tries to renew the contact he is beaten and left unconscious by one of Fedora's overseers . When he wakes up , he finds out that she is dead having committed suicide .
As he comes to pay his last respects to her body , Barry accuses the countess and her husband of having conspired to kill Fedora . And the countess is then forced to blurt out the jaw dropping truth . That Fedora was actually she herself and she was even more narcissistic than Barry thought . That in order to satisfy her narcissism she used to take regular treatments from her doctor that one day had the opposite effect of disfiguring her . And she had gone into hiding . But when she got news that the academy award had been awarded to her , she had prepared her daughter to receive the award impersonating her . And the impersonation was so good that the daughter soon was working in films as Fedora , impersonating her of course .
But when the daughter fell in love like all young women do , she wanted to reveal the secret to the young man she loved . That she was not older than him as he thought and that they could be together without any age gap between them . But the idea of the revelation of this secret exploded the vanity of the older real Fedora like a poisonous snake being disturbed , and she did the most cruel and vile thing that a woman could do---held her own child drugged and captive .
Seeing the film I was disgusted with these filmy people and their horrible ego and their self absorption . More so because such people actually exist in the film industry and are not fiction . The film evokes Hollywood of the forties---extravagant sets and movies and even more extravagant egos .
And yet people are willing to pamper and pander to these extravagant egos . For Barry agrees to keep the secret of the countess , as Fedora is called in her new avtar . And why ? For old times sake of course....to remember with happiness the time he had briefly dated this great star .
The film is suspenseful in the beginning and the explanation of the suspense is even more shocking than we thought . In that sense the film exceeds our expectations . Acting and photography is okay but colours are not great . Background music is okay too .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
All The Money In The World
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Oil tycoon John Paul Getty---the richest man in the world . But a mean miser with money....or maybe I am being too harsh on him , because his mean ways were obviously what earned him all the money in the first place . However , does all the money in the world matter when your precious grandson is kidnapped and the possibility arises that you will not be able to see him ever ? It does , especially if you are John Paul Getty . The old man fears that a precedent of him paying ransom money may spark off further kidnappings of other family members for money and simply refuses to pay at first .
And the refusal to pay money sets in motion a long saga of the grandson's suffering in captivity , of his mother running from pillar to post to try to do something to get her son back , of his grandfather sending his ex CIA dealmaker to try get the grandson out by making a deal with the kidnappers , of the Italian police meddling in...for the grandson has been kidnapped in Italy .
What makes you really feel for the family of the kidnapped boy is the acting by Michelle Williams as Gail Harris---the boy's mother . Her struggle to eke out the required amount from the hard old man Getty , her expression when she gets false news that her son has been killed , her relief when she finds out that he is not dead , her repeated meetings with Getty's dealmaker Fletcher Chase ( played by Mark Wahlberg ) in her quest to get her son free , her tears and her efforts---all make you really empathise with situation she finds herself in .
Michelle's great acting is however outmatched by Christopher Plummer as Getty , who plays a person as tough minded as a billionaire who has earned his billions through sheer hard work ought to be . In private he does care for his kidnapped grandson , but seems almost loathe to admit it....as if it would be a insult to a man in his power and position to bow before a bunch of mere thugs who hold the grandson . And he does not care for the heartache he gives to the boy's mother with such a hardened attitude .
As the matter spirals out of control due to the boy being sold to another gang and his escape attempt nearly succeeding but failing , and Getty's miserly attitude resulting in the kidnappers cutting off one ear of his grandson , it is left to the deal maker to show some conscience and threaten the powerful old man into parting with his money by literally grabbing his arm .
The movie which is based on real events unfolds as a thriller that relies more on the acting of it's protagonists than it's action . And it relies on the tension on the faces of the protagonists and the sweat created by the tension on their brows to hold us in it's grip . The publicity generated by the kidnapping and the photographers and news reporters falling over themselves to report the news adds to the tension .
Background music is appropriate for the situations and photography is decent , but colours are grim just like the scenes . The movie does keep us on tenterhooks for a long time as to the fate of the kidnapped boy . But amazingly , the film makes you worry more about what the mother will go through if he does not return home than what will happen to the boy himself . And watching the relief on the mother's face when she finds her boy is just priceless . Watching 'All the money in the world' is certainly your money's worth .
Verdict---Good .
4
Darkest Hour
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'Darkest hour' centres around Winston Churchill from the time he was made prime minister of Britain till the evacuation of British troops from the french port of Dunkirk during world war 2 . The movie starts with the removal of former prime minister Neville Chamberlain from his post for failing to confront Hitler . Majority of the cabinet wants Lord Halifax to be PM , but he feels his time is not yet come . So the onus falls on Churchill to be PM .
Churchill's wife and children raise a toast for his elevation , but privately Churchill tells his wife that making him PM during Britain's darkest hour is like taking revenge . Obviously if anything goes wrong as it seems will happen , then Churchill can be made scapegoat . It is upto him to prove his detractors wrong and make history .
But the movie does not glorify Churchill and does not just show the fiery speeches that he gave , but also concentrates on his private moments . And many of them are filled with self doubt and even tears . Also many of his private moments are spent on his commode in the WC phoning allies like US president Roosevelt . And many moments are disappointing , like when the US president says he cannot give the fifty warships Churchill wants as he is bound by the neutrality act .
His female secretary/stenographer ( played by Lily James ) is witness to many of these happenings . When the British army is surrounded at Dunkirk and she does not understand the situation , he personally takes her to the war room to show the situation on map . And watches her tears flow as she comes to know....her brother is trapped there never to return you see....Churchill just keeps on looking at her face....
His plan to ask 4000 British soldiers to divert the Germans on themselves so that those trapped in Dunkirk can escape does not receive the support of anyone , but he pushes the plan and those soldiers are sacrificed . His wife ( played by Kristin Scott Thomas ) is his pillar of strength , egging him on to fight the nazis . King George VI ( played by Ben Mendelsohn ) would plainly have preferred to have Lord Halifax as PM , as he admits to Churchill . But later he warms up to Churchill , visiting him in his all too humble quarters asking him to reach out to the people . And Churchill is shown doing just that ; a fictitious journey is invented by the moviemakers in which Churchill travels through the London underground to assess British public opinion about the war . And the opinion of all is not to surrender .
But behind the scenes there are people willing to negotiate with Hitler , and they want Churchill out because of his adamant opinion that war is a must to preserve western civilisation . Leading them are Lord Halifax and Chamberlain , who is dying of cancer . They consider him a drunkard and a man who has only 4 good ideas among 100 , with the rest 96 being bad ideas . Indeed Churchill is shown forever drinking and smoking a cigar . But the speech he makes in parliament makes him unstoppable . ''We shall fight them on the beaches , we shall fight with growing confidence in the air'' he says . And promises to carry the fight across the seas if Britain shall fall .
The speech makes a rousing climax to the movie and Gary Oldman has wonderfully acted every bit of his part as Churchill , making us feel as if the PM himself was with us making the speeches . He is helped by the some great music as background score and good photography . What would disappoint an ordinary viewer is the fact that there are no action scenes . Ultimately Churchill's decision to send civilian boats to evacuate the British soldiers stranded at Dunkirk proves to be right as the boats manage a successful evacuation , but you will have to see the movie 'Dunkirk' for that . This movie is about what went on in the centres of power in Britain's darkest hour .
Verdict---decent .
3
12 Strong
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Review contains spoilers
In the aftermath of 9/11 , task force dagger consisting of 12 men is assembled by the US army to go to Afghanistan under the command of captain Mitch Nelson ( played by Chris Hemsworth ) . Their task is to join the forces of Afghan warlord Rashid Dostum , who is part of the northern alliance fighting against the Taliban . But the other members of the northern alliance are at loggerheads with Dostum's forces too . In Afghanistan no one trusts each other .
However task force dagger meets up with Dostum's forces in the middle of the night in a meeting where they almost come to blows with Dostum's troops because they can't identify each other at first . As dawn breaks out they move on horseback into the rugged mountains of Afghanistan which would have had a stark beauty of their own if they had not been so war torn .
The duty of task force dagger is to go as close as possible to the Taliban to give co ordinates to B 52 bombers of the US air force so that they can bomb the Taliban . But Dostum warns that going too close to the Taliban will bring them in range of their guns . However Mitch does move close because the bombs miss when he is afar and then gives proper co ordinates which rain death on the enemy in the form of bombs which give out black smoke that spirals after yellow explosions . But this brings him in range of the Taliban's fire . And the fire is deadly from their Kalashnikovs .
Wearing all black dresses , the Taliban are truly formidable fighters who are not afraid to die as they have been promised riches in paradise after death---as Dostum warns . Amazingly , he is in touch with the local Taliban commander on radio . But he tells Mitch that his family has been murdered by the Taliban commander and one day he wants revenge . He reminisces about the old days when women used to move about freely and they had movie theatres . But as the Taliban have moved in , they have unleashed horror where any girl above eight who is being taught by her mother has to see her mother killed as women's education is forbidden---as a brutal scene in the movie shows .
The tactics of the Taliban are gruesome . Many of them come in the guise of surrendering , and when they come close one of them cries out ''Allahu Akbar'' which is signal that he is going to explode a suicide bomb . As he explodes , the others begin to attack from their guns . They also have battle tanks which surprise Mitch and his men , and rocket launchers for which they have a seemingly endless supply of rockets to launch at Dostum's men .
Dostum has to use ruthless tactics too . Because all help from America will cease if the members of force dagger are hurt , he assigns small boys with guns to follow and protect the members on pain that the boys' families will be killed if they fail in their duty .
As the dagger force along with Dostum's forces finds it difficult to pass a choke point where they are bottled up by the Taliban , Mitch decides to lead a cavalry charge right into the heart of the Taliban forces so that the road to the town of Mazar e Sharif ( the preliminary objective of the US forces ) is cleared . His success in the charge which allows Dostum to kill the Taliban commander and fulfil his vow of revenge is stuff of legend , something that inspired making of this movie .
The action scenes in the movie are great and the photography of the rugged mountainous topography of Afghanistan is awe inspiring . Background music is good and so is the acting . Of course , with benefit of hindsight we know the sheer pointlessness of fighting endlessly in Afghanistan---the graveyard of empires . But the movie is a welcome addition to the genre of war and military movies .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Phantom Thread
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Review is full of spoilers
I went to see this movie because the critics were going ga ga over it . The setting is 1950s London . Reynolds Woodcock ( Daniel Day Lewis ) is a famous fashion designer who creates dresses for high society , though I don't remember a single scene where he makes clothes for men ; it seems he makes clothes only for women . The movie showcases the memoirs of his wife Alma Elson ( Vicky Krieps ) as she tells the story to his doctor ( Brian Gleeson ) besides a fireplace .
Woodcock is a confirmed bachelor until he meets Alma , but unlike fashion designers nowadays ( especially those who make clothes for women ) he is not gay ; maybe gay people had not captured the fashion industry in the 50s . He sees Alma who is a waitress at a restaurant where he orders his quirky order for food , and asks her out for date . Soon he is making a dress using her body as model ; his sister and partner Cyril ( Lesley Manville ) steps in to oversee the making of the dress . Alma soon discovers that Cyril is an indispensable part of Woodcock's life ; she is everywhere they are .
Woodcock is dominating and egoistic and quirky ; he does not like Alma making grating noises during buttering bread while he is concentrating and walks out . Of course , the noise was deliberately increased by the moviemakers in the soundtrack ; buttering bread does not make such loud sound normally . But the bickering does not stop at that ; Woodcock does not like the food Alma makes at a surprise romantic date and his sister has already warned that he does not like surprises anyway .
But Woodcock has met his match in Alma ; earlier also she has shown her mettle when a rich lady does not behave properly but gets drunk and unconscious wearing a Woodcock designed dress . She makes Woodcock go with herself to the lady's bedroom and forcibly removes the dress from her body in a scene which made me wonder why the drunk lady did not file a case of outraging modesty on the two later .
Now sensing that Woodcock is slipping from her hands , Alma poisons him and does not even let the family doctor treat him . Then she takes care of him and impresses him so much that he finally proposes marriage . Soon she is poisoning him whenever she wants to control the relationship and Woodcock who has realised what she is doing acquiesces in whatever she has been doing !! The lion has decided to get himself tamed....
Background music is most wonderful in the movie and acting by everyone is great . The dresses shown created by Woodcock are beautiful too . The only thing that was lacking in the situation was a viewer having real taste in movies . Sorry but I as a viewer / reviewer lack the taste to fully appreciate such a movie and I thought it was okay but not as great as the reviewers were saying .
Verdict---Okay .
2.5
Hostiles
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Review contains spoilers
Captain Joseph Blocker ( Christian Bale ) hates the Native Americans whom he calls savages . He has killed a lot of them in the past . And yet he is called upon to do the most detestable task for a man like him ; he has to escort a dying Native American chief named Yellow Hawk ( Wes Studi ) of the Cheyenne tribe back to his ancestral land after release of the chief from imprisonment . This journey will take them from fort Berringer in New Mexico all the way to Montana . The year is 1892 . The native American chief himself has killed a lot of people quite brutally in his days , and that makes the task doubly detestable for Blocker . But the orders are from the President himself and can't be disregarded on pain of court martial .
But by the end of the journey the captain is a changed man . He defends the native chief's right to stay and die on the land against other white men who believe that natives have no rights by fighting the white men with gunfire . And he helps bury the chief and his clanspeople who have died in the fight .
So how did the captain change ? The movie does not quite show any particular moment when his mind changes . But the dangerous journey in which both the Cheyennes and the party of troops escorting them have to fight numerous threats to their life and limb probably makes him a better man . Comradeship in intense circumstances has a way of melting people the way nothing else can....
On the way they encounter a devastated woman who has lost her entire family including her husband and children in a massacre by Native Americans of the Comanche tribe . Rosalie Quaid ( Rosamund Pike ) is at first scared on seeing the natives in the troop as they remind her of the natives who had killed her family , but she learns to accept them and they are on their way .
But violence continues to plague the group in the form of further gun battles with the Comanches and others . The fight scenes are brutal and the killings are realistic . There is no mercy shown in many of the situations . By the time the climax is finished many of the protagonists have died violent deaths . Only a few are left . And those few who are left are on the point of developing permanent relationships with each other . Yes , Blocker and Rosalie and the only surviving Native American little girl may become a family in the end . Thus the grim movie ends in a high point and on a note of optimism .
This is a progressive western different from the westerns of an earlier era which showed the natives are villains and whites as heroes . Here some natives are good while others are bad , similar to whites in the movie who may be good in some cases or bad in the other . Some characters in the movie spout dialogues about the injustice of the whites' treatment of the Native Americans . However this makes it a serious movie rather than an entertainer . Tilting towards the art form of movies though not completely . But even though it tries hard to be pro Native American , it does not fully succeed . The Native American characters are not well developed ; maybe the barrier is language as they cannot speak English well and we can understand only English . The characters of the whites are of course fully developed and both hero and heroine are white .
Photography is the hallmark of the film , with stunning scenes of black clouds in the sky in the monsoon and fog and mist as it rains later in the movie . In the earlier part of the movie we see glorious shots of the changing American landscape which is yellow in the beginning in the desert and turns greener with pine trees as we go north with shots on rivers being crossed in between . Acting is good by all actors and background music is appropriate for the situations . The characters in the film look hardy and increasingly weatherbeaten as the movie progresses . Yet both Rosamund Pike and Christian Bale look good . So does the movie .
3
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing , Missouri
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Review has spoilers
A woman approaches the businessman who has the rights to three Billboards outside Ebbing in the state of Missouri in US . She pays real money to have them painted with words provocative to Sheriff Willoughby ( Woody Harrelson ) . The words ask him to take action on the case of the rape and murder of her daughter , because nothing has been happening in the case after some investigation which reached a dead end . One of the billboards says 'raped while dying' .
The sheriff is outraged , his deputy is outraged , and indeed the whole town is outraged . That's because the sheriff is respected locally and also because he is dying due to cancer . But that is not going to deter Mildred Hayes ( Frances McDormand ) . When the local priest tries to coerce her into removing the billboards , he gets blasted off by a tirade by her about churchmen screwing altar boys . The leftists' opponent ( the church ) thus gets a lambasting , and God is brushed aside as nonexistent .
Earlier when deputy Dixon ( Sam Rockwell ) of the police station tries to get Mildred remove the billboards , he is shown his place by Mildred with taunts of being a black hating racist . From this point one has to assume that the rapists of her daughter must be white , even though they are not yet found ( and are not ever found in the movie ) . For it is obvious from the movie's tone that it is going to be politically correct and that demands a white rapist . Sure enough , a white suspect is found but he is not the daughter's rapist . Never mind , Mildred and deputy Dixon then set out to kill him instead because the deputy has overheard him boasting about a rape when drunk .
Participation in this killing is part of the redemption of Deputy Dixon ; redemption for being a black hating racist . We have to presume that he is racist due to verbal accusations flung on him mostly by Mildred . But scenes of him actually practising this racism are not really shown . That would have tarnished his image beyond redemption . But his violence is shown in a scene where he throws the guy who owns the billboards from the first floor after he has heard news that Sheriff Willoughby committed suicide by shooting himself by a gun .
At first we definitely sympathise with Mildred while seeing the movie . The lady is feisty and has tough words for anyone who tries to strike a verbal duel with her , or even anyone who doesn't . The dialogues in the movie are sharp and laced with dark humour that keeps in splits even in grim situations . But later her persona goes out of control by burning down the police station with petrol bombs after it has closed down in evening . She does not know that Dixon is there , but he escapes only to help her later even though he has got burns on his face due to the attack .
The director could have chosen to have a conventional ending by showing the man overheard boasting about rape as the real culprit . But the real culprit is never found , and the movie is thus about the effects of the rape on a very active mother and how she manages to shake up things in her town when she does not get justice .
There is some violence in the movie and foul language ; cuss words are regularly used . There is no denying that the proceedings are gripping . Background music and photography are decent , but it is in acting and dialogue delivery that the movie scores .
Verdict---Good .
3
Red Sparrow
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Review has spoilers
Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova , a Russian ballerina who has an accident due to which her career as ballerina is finished . Her uncle works for the Russian spy agency , and promises her that if she does a task for the agency then her ageing and sick mother will be cared for . But the task is not what Dominika thought it would be , and she is then forced to get herself recruited to be a sparrow whose task is to seduce people to get information . She however resists some part of the training for becoming a sparrow where she has to compromise her dignity for seducing others .
But her uncle ( played by Matthias Schoenaerts ) is there to seemingly further her career and she is assigned to Budapest the capital of Hungary to gain the trust of an American spy named Nate Nash ( Joel Edgerton ) so that he reveals the mole of the Americans within the Russian spy agency .
Nate Nash has come under Russian scanner because he risked his life to save the Russian agent working for the Americans by diverting attention to himself , thereby forcing him to flee Russia . He is a real gentleman as can be found in this deadly spy business , and do we even have to say that Dominika falls for him....he being the only nice guy she has met in years .
But she can't escape her fate of being a Russian spy and can't wiggle out of her job of finding out information from Nate , for otherwise the Russians will kill her mother in Russia . And so she is condemned to see unbelievable torture being met out to Nate....and worse , she is forced to participate in the torture . But she does try to help him as much as she can....God bless her loving soul...
But her Russian masters come to know of her contacts with the Americans due to an unlucky twist of fate , and Dominika is forced to undergo real torture herself . But inside her is still the will to survive , and the will to overcome the incredible odds stacked against her and not only go back to her normal life back with her mother , but also take revenge against her uncle who forced her down such a dangerous path . And will she be ever reunited with Nate , the man she loves ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The movie has many scenes of torture that are not easy to watch , and some of rough sex that make you cringe . The only loving scene is when Dominika makes love to Nate , but that is so short . The movie shows how dangerous and difficult is the life of secret agents , a far cry from the glamorous life shown in James Bond kind of movies . They may have to undergo gruesome physical torture , and women agents may have to compromise with their honour and sleep with strangers .
The movie rests on the acting of Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika , and she does prove equal to the task of carrying the weight of the film on her shoulders . She is beautiful and vulnerable and deadly as the situation requires . The action in the film is brutal and raw , and is not the routine slam bang kind of action found in action films .
Background music is decent , and photography and colours of the movie are good . Sometimes in the second half , the movie gets overcomplicated and difficult to follow . Barring this drawback , I found it an entertaining watch .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
cricket
03-05-18, 07:03 PM
Red Sparrow
http://www.fortitudemagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/red-sparrow-729.png
Review has spoilers
Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova , a Russian ballerina who has an accident due to which her career as ballerina is finished . Her uncle works for the Russian spy agency , and promises her that if she does a task for the agency then her ageing and sick mother will be cared for . But the task is not what Dominika thought it would be , and she is then forced to get herself recruited to be a sparrow whose task is to seduce people to get information . She however resists some part of the training for becoming a sparrow where she has to compromise her dignity for seducing others .
But her uncle ( played by Matthias Schoenaerts ) is there to seemingly further her career and she is assigned to Budapest the capital of Hungary to gain the trust of an American spy named Nate Nash ( Joel Edgerton ) so that he reveals the mole of the Americans within the Russian spy agency .
Nate Nash has come under Russian scanner because he risked his life to save the Russian agent working for the Americans by diverting attention to himself , thereby forcing him to flee Russia . He is a real gentleman as can be found in this deadly spy business , and do we even have to say that Dominika falls for him....he being the only nice guy she has met in years .
But she can't escape her fate of being a Russian spy and can't wiggle out of her job of finding out information from Nate , for otherwise the Russians will kill her mother in Russia . And so she is condemned to see unbelievable torture being met out to Nate....and worse , she is forced to participate in the torture . But she does try to help him as much as she can....God bless her loving soul...
But her Russian masters come to know of her contacts with the Americans due to an unlucky twist of fate , and Dominika is forced to undergo real torture herself . But inside her is still the will to survive , and the will to overcome the incredible odds stacked against her and not only go back to her normal life back with her mother , but also take revenge against her uncle who forced her down such a dangerous path . And will she be ever reunited with Nate , the man she loves ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The movie has many scenes of torture that are not easy to watch , and some of rough sex that make you cringe. The only loving scene is when Dominika makes love to Nate , but that is so short . The movie shows how dangerous and difficult is the life of secret agents , a far cry from the glamorous life shown in James Bond kind of movies . They may have to undergo gruesome physical torture , and women agents may have to compromise with their honour and sleep with strangers .
The movie rests on the acting of Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika , and she does prove equal to the task of carrying the weight of the film on her shoulders . She is beautiful and vulnerable and deadly as the situation requires . The action in the film is brutal and raw , and is not the routine slam bang kind of action found in action films .
Background music is decent , and photography and colours of the movie are good . Sometimes in the second half , the movie gets overcomplicated and difficult to follow . Barring this drawback , I found it an entertaining watch .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
That's what I most look forward to:)
That's what I most look forward to:)
Actually there is also a rape scene . The lead actress gets raped.
cricket
03-05-18, 11:52 PM
Actually there is also a rape scene . The lead actress gets raped.
Awesome!
Death Wish
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Review is full of spoilers
Paul Kersey ( Bruce Willis ) is a doctor who has a perfect family , including a daughter named Jordan ( Camila Morrone ) and a wife named Lucy ( Elizabeth Shue ) . Too perfect of course for the happiness to last long in an action movie . One day a group of burglars come to rob their house and one of them tries to molest the daughter , resulting in her defending herself and a shootout that kills the wife and leaves the daughter in coma .
Paul waits in vain for justice to be delivered by capture of the perpetrators of the crime . Meanwhile he needs sessions with his psychiatrist . One day he gets hold of a gun and becomes a hooded vigilante delivering his own brand of justice . He begins to stalk dangerous areas of his city Chicago and shoots anyone who he sees committing crime . This hooded persona soon becomes famous as the 'grim reaper' as videos of him shooting people ( but without a clear picture of his face ) begin to circulate on the internet. TV shows organise discussions on whether he is a hero or zero . Those wanting instant justice obviously root for him , making a sort of unknown folk hero .
But Paul has not been too careful with his methods and has exposed himself to danger of being caught by the police and being killed by the criminals whom he stalks . Especially those who have killed his wife and hurt his daughter are being shadowed by him and he is increasingly coming in their radar too . As if he cares....remember the title of the movie---death wish .
But one day his daughter wakes up from coma and Paul decides to stop his vigilantism to take care of her . Too late for that ; he has already killed some of those who attacked his family and the toughest and meanest among them is ready to strike back....the final reckoning takes place in a bloody shootout at Paul's house .
The movie's action scenes are good enough to be liked by fans of the bald action hero , and I have been his fan since the 'Die hard' days . Violent justice delivered instantly without any ado has the ability to warm the cockles of your heart like nothing else . Pistols and automatic weapons are fired with equal gusto by both hunter and hunted in the movie . Blood is spattered around in neat circles all around throughout the movie . The crunching sound of bones being broken and smashed is a regular in the film .
I wish it was the era of the eighties when such movies could be enjoyed without any guilt . However we live in an era where the sociopolitical ramifications of movies such as this are considered important . Can't we enjoy some action in the comfort of the theatre and then forget about it when we come out of it ? But no , the movie has come just after a recent shootout in USA and it shows the hero buying a gun from a gun shop and going bang bang without caring for the law . And the police cover up for him in the end and do not even bring him to justice !! He goes free....and the critics are not happy at the film for showing all this at the wrong time .
But if you take this movie as only for entertainment , then it delivers some good on the spot action packed entertainment . Bruce Willis is in his element here ; just like he was not intending to cause trouble in the 'Die hard' movies but was drawn into the trouble in those movies , here too he is drawn into creating trouble in this movie .
Photography is decent and colours are okay in the movie . Acting by everyone is good enough .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
We had a similar experience with Red Sparrow, and If I get my work done today I might go see Death Wish
7 Days In Entebbe
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June 1976 . An Air France airliner carrying many Israelis is hijacked by two Palestinian and two German terrorists and taken first to Benghazi in Libya for refuelling and then to Entebbe in Uganda . They demand the release of over 50 Palestinian terrorists , most of whom are prisoners of Israel . The terrorists are welcomed by the cannibal dictator of Uganda , Idi Amin .
Once the hijacking is complete and the passengers brought to the airport terminal , the two German terrorists are sidelined to mere guard duties over the hijacked passengers and the negotiations are taken over by the Palestinians who have been joined by more of their comrades . That brings us to the question as to what were the two Germans doing in the whole hijacking in the first place . In fact , the movie concentrates a lot on the motives and doings of the two German terrorists than on the Palestinian terrorists .
One of the Germans is a woman , Brigitte Kuhlmann played by Rosamund Pike . The other is Wilfried Böse played by Daniel Bruhl . They are leftist revolutionaries who believe that the Israeli government is acting in a fascist manner towards the Palestinians . But what will the world think of Germans kidnapping Israelis ?---brings memories of the holocaust back . Soon they two realise that there is no going back home , a fact borne out in a phone conversation that Brigitte makes to herself as the phone is actually not working .
In Israel , Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin ( Lior Ashkenazi ) is in favour of negotiations with the terrorists and spouts dialogues saying that whole of Israel will become a prison if it does not negotiate with the terrorists . These are given real prominence in the movie . Defence minister Shimon Peres ( Eddie Marsan ) wants to do a military operation , and a military operation does happen .
But instead of showing a successful military operation in all it's glory , the operation is juxtaposed with a dance that the girlfriend of one of the soldiers participating in the operation is doing . The military operation is shown only haphazardly , and is overshadowed by the increasing tempo of the music as the dance happens . The dance shows dancers in a semi circle and they begin to throw off their outer clothes as the tempo of the drum beats increases . It symbolises the increasing violence around Israel that the moviemaker claims Israel will never get itself rid off....unless as the Prime minster says yet again , Israel negotiates with it's enemies . And before the closing credits roll , we are once more shown the message that as of march 2018 no negotiations are occurring between Israel and it's opponents .
One definitely sees the hand of the leftist lobby behind this movie . That Israel should negotiate with it's opponents has been a long standing demand of the left isn't it ? And that was the reason the movie was made ; after all many movies have been made on this spectacular rescue operation and what was the need to make another movie on this anyway , except to push the leftist agenda ? Another scene where a comrade of the Israeli soldier tells him to call it quits with his girlfriend if he is going to be on his duties because the war against Israel's opponents is going to be never ending also shows the left's intention to dampen Israeli morale and bring it to the negotiating table .
Acting is good by everyone especially Rosamund Pike , whose character takes centre stage in the movie---which is strange , considering the fact that the real power was in the hands of the Palestinian terrorists after the plane landed . Idi Amin entertains by giving himself a host of grandiose titles when he introduces himself to the hijacked passengers . When the military operation takes place , the non Israeli passengers have been released by the hijackers . Earlier , the scenes of separating the Israelis from the non Israelis by making the Israelis go through a big hole broken in the wall to another room looked really sinister . Colours look old fashioned in the movie , maybe because it is set in an older era . Photography is good . Music especially of the dance performance is the hallmark of the movie . The movie has some grip for some time but loses it's grip as the climax disappoints with the rescue operation improperly shown .
Verdict---Okay .
2
The Strangers : Prey At Night
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A family goes to a trailer park for a short picnic , where they are supposed to meet their aunt and uncle who are already living there . The family consists of parents Mike ( Martin Henderson ) and Cindy ( Christina Hendricks ) , and children Luke ( Lewis Pullman ) and Kinsey ( Bailee Madison ) . But when they arrive they find that the whole area is dark and totally isolated , and that most of the trailers don't seem to have any life in them . They also do not find their relatives at least immediately , so they settle down in the trailer they have got keys for .
They receive a knock on their door and a girl whose face cannot be seen asks for somebody . Sometime later she again comes and asks for the same person . But the family tells her that they do not know the person and she goes away both times . As the teenaged son and daughter go out for a walk , we see that a person is stalking them at a distance . The son and daughter find a trailer with it's door invitingly open and go in , only to see that their relatives have been slashed with knives and are dead . The horror has begun .
Soon all the four are being stalked by masked psycho killers who have actually nothing to do with them except satisfy their own bloodlust . Just like the audience....we too have come to satisfy our lust to see knives slashing , axes clawing , blood dripping at least on celluloid haven't we.....and the film does satisfy our craving for such blood and gore entertainment upto a certain extent .
There are three masked killers , and they set to kill the family and the family has to run from trailer to trailer and from place to place in order to save themselves . Guns and shotguns are fired , sharp weapons stuck on live bodies , and axes welded to slaughter . A policeman who intervenes is killed too .
But the family does fight back , and soon the scores are evened by them striking death onto their killers . A deadly game of death goes on , and sometimes it is heavy for the heart . After several rounds of deathblows , some are left alive . But who are they , the victims or the perpetrators ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The movie does chill you with it's isolation and eerie dark atmosphere of the night , which is interrupted only by some popular old music being played by the murderers....which only adds to the eeriness . A vast area without much population is a splendid setting at night in darkness for a movie with mysterious killers hanging about with intent to murder . Some of the tricks seem old , but do give you some on the spot entertainment .
Photography and colours are decent , and background music is appropriate for the settings . Acting by everyone is appropriate too .
Verdict---Decent .
3
A Quiet Place
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This film can be viewed because it is a different film from other horror films .
Why the name 'A quiet place' ? Because humans are forced to remain quiet all the time in the scenario painted by the movie . The earth has been invaded by creatures which are armoured on the outside against firepower , which is useless against the armour . They are blind creatures which locate humans and other animals by tracking them by sound and attack them and kill them . So humans are forced to remain quiet all the time , because if they make a loud sound they can be located tracked and killed by the horrid creatures .
The movie shows the travails of a family consisting of parents played by Emily Blunt and John Krasinski , and children played by Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe . The parents lose their third child in the beginning of the movie to the creatures stalking them , because he has been naïve enough to emit sound from a toy . The rest of the movie shows the remaining family struggling for survival against the creatures constantly on their trail .
The creatures do look duly horrifying and emit horrifying sounds . There are some scary situations that the family has to go through , especially when the character played by Emily is going to give birth to their fourth child and the creature enters their house in response to sound stimulus . The only way to stop the creature is to find a way to overcome it's armour and expose it's inner structure to firepower , and where there is a will there is a way....
Background music is appropriate to the situations , and special effects and photography are decent . Because of lack of paranormal entities the movie is more thriller than horror . There are some nerve wracking moments in the movie .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Rampage
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Review has spoliers
Energyne , which is a genetic research company has sent a station into space . It's experiments of increasing the size of animals have so spectacularly succeeded that a rodent has grown enormously in size and destroys the station . It falls onto the earth scattering pathogens from it's research samples around , which infect a reptile living in water , a wolf and an albino gorilla named George . All three begin to grow enormously in size .
The caretaker of George is played by Dwayne Johnson , who is a primatologist with more love for animals than women , as a luscious babe who propositions to him discovers . But as George grows in size and becomes more ferocious , he is drawn into protecting the city of Chicago from catastrophe . For the owners of Energyne are emitting powerful radio signals from a tower in Chicago to call those animals infected with the pathogens to come . The owners have no plans to use their newfound technology for any good , but instead plan to use it as a biological weapon . That is what a rogue scientist ( played by Naomie Harris ) who once worked for Energyne says to the character played by Dwayne .
As the enormously grown ferocious creatures threaten Chicago , the military plans to use huge conventional bombs to destroy them . But that will flatten the entire city . It is up to the characters played by Dwayne and Naomie to stop the mayhem by unleashing some mayhem of their own . They are helped by George the friendly gorilla , who hopes that the couple will shack up in the end !!
The action is nonstop and so are the thrills . Armed helicopters , tank buster aircraft , automatic weapons fitted with latest scopes---all add to the action . But the hero of it all is Dwayne Johnson , who carries the film on his admittedly all too broad shoulders . He is helped by the character played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan , who struts about like a cowboy and has the drawl of from the western movies of yore .
Buildings and skyscrapers and boats are turned upside down in the mayhem created by the animals . And the huge animals have been recreated well by special effects . Their most frightening feature is their sharp teeth , which are shown to good effect in the movie .
Acting wise , the movie has some decent performances . Special effects are good and the movie looks good especially in the IMAX form that I saw it in . Photography is good and colours are okay . But the movie and it's action can't be taken too seriously and it is good only for some on the spot entertainment .
Verdict---Decent .
3
An officer and a gentleman ( 1982 )
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Richard Gere plays aviation officer candidate Zack Mayo . He has not had a great childhood . His mom overdosed with sleeping pills in his childhood thus committing suicide and leaving him in the responsibility of his whoring father , who was in the navy . Zack grew up among his father's whores in various US naval bases in different countries . So Zack is a rebel .
But a burning ambition to fly navy jets brings him to a training base inspite of his father's incredulousness , where he is under the training of Sergeant Emil Foley ( Louis Gossett Jr ) . Foley is a tough sergeant and training under him is exceptionally harsh . Foley is forever shouting at his trainees and taunting them and forces them to undergo gruelling exercises . He punishes very harshly for the slightest misdemeanour .
Zack being a rebel , comes to loggerheads with Foley on numerous occasions . Zack sells buckles as a side business and is rigorously punished by Foley for doing so . In fact Foley pushes him to the breaking point , until Zack is forced to admit to him that he has nowhere else to go except the navy . But that is not the last time the two come to loggerheads and things have to be settled between them in a karate bout in the end .
Zack has other team mates with him , and his best friend is Sid Worley ( David Keith ) . The two get into romantic relationships with Paula Pokrifki ( Debra Winger ) and Lynette Pomeroy ( Lisa Blount ) respectively . This inspite of Sergeant Foley having warned them about local girls who might trap them into marriage by becoming pregnant , as they have dreams of marrying naval aviators to escape the dreary life of the town . The girls come from working class families and work in a factory there . The local boys are jealous about the navy boys getting the best girls and then dumping them and Zack and Sid get into a fight with the locals in which Zack's karate skills come mighty handy to defend themselves .
Paula develops real feelings of love for Zack , who promises nothing to her at all . It is exactly this kind of attitude that irks Lynette , who is determined to trap Sid into marriage . But she goes one step ahead than other girls in this ; she fakes pregnancy which is not there . On the other hand Paula invites Zack to her house to meet her family , where Zack sees her father giving him strange looks . Outside the house Paula tells Zack that he is not her real father , who was exactly an aviation officer candidate like Zack . But he dumped her mother after fathering Paula , and she had to marry the man giving Zack strange looks because he was wondering if Zack would do the same to Paula that her real father had done to her mother....
Meanwhile we are shown the rough basic training that aviation officer candidates get before they can qualify for further training to fly jets . It consists of miles and miles of running singing songs in order to make one tough physically . It also consists of climbing obstacles that one female candidate finds really difficult until Zack eggs her on to climb . Also it consists of simulating an aircraft crashing in water after being hit and how to survive the dive . Karate training is given by Sergeant Foley ( who is a tall and extremely fit black man ) himself to the candidates to survive in physical combat with the enemy . Also it consists of surviving in low oxygen atmosphere .
It is in the last part that Sid cannot handle the pressure , as he is under mental tension due to Lynette's faked pregnancy . He decides to take a D. O. R.---that is drop on request ; basically decides to quit the training . This inspite of being the best candidate so far . But when he tells this to Lynette and asks her to marry him , she tells him that she is not pregnant and refuses to marry him because he is no longer going to be a naval aviator . With both his career and his woman gone , Sid is shattered and commits suicide . Zack and Paula search the town for him until they find Sid having hanged himself in a motel room .
Zack is angry with Sergeant Foley for not having stopped Sid from taking a D. O . R. and the two head for a fight in the karate training arena . But inspite of the bitterness Foley grudgingly acknowledges that Zack was a special candidate when the time for graduation comes .
When graduation happens other candidates meet and embrace their near and dear ones , who have come to cheer them . But Zack is left alone with no one to cheer him , as his unworthy father has not come to salute his son who has become an officer . There is one solution to this loneliness and that is to be with Paula , because she truly loves Zack . And committing himself to the lady who really loves him will make Zack a real gentleman . An officer and a gentleman....
The climax in which Zack arrives in the factory to lift Paula in his arms to the cheers of those working there including Paula's mother ( and to Lynette's chagrin ) is about the most uplifting and romantic climax you would ever see in a movie . And it lifts the movie to a class that is way above other movies of the same category .
Background music and photography is good and acting by everyone is good too . The movie show people from working class backgrounds and their dreams and ambitions . Some people are honest like Paula and others like Lynette are dishonest . Even the candidates for naval aviation are from working class backgrounds , including Zack whose father was just a petty officer in the navy . Not the elite of America are these people....but the movie was liked by even the elite critics , who ranked it the best movie of 1982 . And I liked it too .
Verdict---Good .
Four out of five stars .
Hereditary
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The critics are singing praises of this movie , and all major reviewers have given high praises to this horror movie . Which is why I went to see it . But on seeing it I found that the movie is for the high fundoo reviewers only . Only self proclaimed 'intellectuals' will like it . The common people won't.
Grandmother dies . She has had a troubled relationship with her daughter , mother of grand daughter Charlie and son . Charlie begins to see visions of her grandmother and follow them . She is a strange looking child . Her brother takes her to a party where she falls sick and he has to rush her to a doctor by his car . But she is so sick that she bobs her head out of the window and when her brother is forced to swerve the car to avoid something on the road her head hits an obstacle and is chopped off .
Mother son relationship which is already on the rocks goes off the rocker with this horrific death . Mother has sleepwalking problem and we don't know when she is really sleepwalking or having nightmares , or her son is having nightmares . Soon mother goes to a group for consoling people coping with grief and tells her problems . One day she is invited by Annie to do a seance to communicate with the dead . The seance is so effective that mother decides to do the seance in her house , forcing her reluctant husband and son to participate in it .
After the seance , Charlie makes her appearance felt in the house by turning pages of a book she used to draw on . The son bangs his head into his table in classroom in school in front of the girl he likes . At this juncture , mother discovers a dead body in the attic , which has it's head cut off just as Charlie had her head cut off in her accident . Mother discovers from old photos that Annie was actually grandmother's friend , so she had been probably sent by grandmother to communicate with dead Charlie .Mother tries to burn the drawing book of Charlie , only to discover that she is burning herself . So she has to remove the book from the fireplace . She then asks her husband to burn the book , which leads to him being burnt completely .
Son wakes from his sleep to see his mother being lifted to the tree house outside his house . His dead grandmother who was a witch is behind all this . He is soon forced to become king of hell , which is what his grandmother wanted him to be . The soul of king of hell had been mistakenly born in his sister Charlie , but now it has been successfully transplanted into him .
Colours and photography and background music is good . But movie is not scary at all . Horror jolts are not much effective .
Verdict---Bad movie with bizarre ending .
Sicario : Day Of The Soldado
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Review contains spoilers
Muslim terrorists strike the United states yet again , but this time it is Mexican drug cartels who are suspected to be smuggling the islamic terrorists across the border . To retaliate against this , the US government gives permission to CIA agent Matt Graver ( Josh Brolin ) to carry black operations across the border into Mexico . Graver recruits Alejandro Gillick ( Benicio Del Toro ) who specialises in such operations . Gillick kills a lawyer working for a cartel , and Graver kidnaps Isabela Reyes ( Isabela Moner ) who is the daughter of the head of the rival cartel .
The CIA team then fake the daughter's rescue and transports her back to Mexico , making her think that they rescued her from those who kidnapped her . But the Mexican police double crosses the CIA team and attacks them , forcing the CIA team to retaliate and kill the corrupt policemen . Scared for her life in the midst of the fighting , Isabela runs off . Gillick alone takes up the task of relocating her while the rest of the team go back .
While Isabela and Gillick are stranded in Mexico , Graver is stunned by the reversal of the Presidential order to carry out the black operation . Now the team is ordered to erase all proof of involvement of US forces in the operation as the President fears that he may be impeached if knowledge of the operation becomes public due to killing of the Mexican policemen , though Graver argues that the policemen were killed in self defence .
Further , Graver is ordered to kill Isabela and he is forced to ask Gillick who has found Isabela to kill her . But by this time Gillick has formed a bond with Isabela who reminds him of his dead daughter , and real emotions come to play as he refuses to kill her . This is the emotional angle of what is essentially a ruthless action movie . But what is action without emotion ? Good movies are those which combine action but have an emotional core and the movie does exactly that .
But as Gillick tries to transport Isabela back to America disguised as an illegal immigrant , he is recognised by Miguel ( Elijah Rodriguez ) who is a Mexican American boy working for the gang which transports the immigrants . And both Gillick and Isabela are captured . So will the two survive the ruthlessness of the gang's members and go to America safely , especially after Isabela is recognised as daughter of a cartel head ? The movie is worth watching to find out the answers .
The movie has pitiless action scenes and great cinematography of the dry mexican landscape , backed by good acting from Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin . Isabela Moner looks cute and tough at the same time , evoking fatherly feelings in the character played by Benicio---though this is never openly expressed . But low key emotion plays the key turning point in this high octane action triller . Music is good too , pulsating rythmically throughout the movie . I missed the presence of Emily Blunt , who was a key performer in Sicario part one . But still I would give the movie a thumbs up .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Hotel Artemis
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The movie is set in futuristic Los Angeles a decade from now . The hotel is not actually a hotel but a hospital only for criminals , and is funded by a criminal head honcho . It is run by a nurse ( played by Jodie Foster ) , who seems to be the only medical staff there .
Riots break out in the city and all sorts of wounded bad elements take refuge in hotel Artemis . And the character played by Jodie has to take care of them all . Also one injured female cop is taken by her in , which is against the rules because the hotel/hospital is only for criminals .
In the midst of all this , there is an emotional twist . Jodie still remembers her son who was killed a while back . And the killer of her son also has taken refuge in hotel Artemis .
As fighting breaks out among the criminals who have taken refuge in the hotel/hospital , Jodie is caught up in the midst of it all . Futuristic weapons come into play in this fighting . Outside the hotel riots are still raging in the city .
So how does Jodie handle all this ? Who is the killer of her son and will Jodie take revenge on him ? Watch the movie for this .
Acting wise the movie is good , especially by Jodie . Photography is okay , and action is decent . Background music is okay too . Colours wise the movie has a darkish hue .
Verdict---Okay .
Two and a half stars out of five .
Mile 22
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Mark Wahlberg plays James Silva , a CIA agent with high intelligence but having an unstable past ( which is breezily explained as the titles of the movie come on screen ) which has given him a prolictivity for violence . Of course , that is exactly what the doctor ordered as far as action in the movie is concerned . Violence is necessary....
At the start of the movie , James and his team attack a russian safe house in the United States that contains cesium , which is a radioactive substance that can be used for mass destruction if weaponised . James has to kill a young boy who has the cesium .
Cut to 16 months later . In a southeast asian nation called Indocarr , a police officer called Li Noor ( Indonesian actor Iko Uwais ) wants to surrender to the US embassy where James is now stationed . He has been in contact with CIA agent Alice Kerr ( Lauren Cohan ) and says that he has a disk that contains information as to where is the remaining cesium is . But he wants safe passage out of the country . Furthermore , the disk he gives will self destruct in 8 hours . So the CIA team have less than 8 hours to extract him out of the country , after which Li will give them the code for stopping the disk from self destructing and for extracting information from the disk .
But the government of Indocarr does not want LI to leave and tries to negotiate with the CIA to hand him to them . James refuses . But they have their agents in the US embassy and the agents try to assasinate Li . He surives this by showing supreme fighting skills that make you wonder where he learnt them . But they are still on Indocarr territory and the task to transport Li from the embassy to an airstrip where a plane is waiting to pick up Li is fraught with danger as the Indocarr government tries every trick in the book to stop the team . The airstrip is 22 miles away giving the name to the movie---Mile 22 .
Alice and James take up the assignment to escort Li to the plane along with other agents , but Alice is also having to deal with personal issues regarding her estranged husband and daughter in USA . And agents of the Indocarr government are waiting fully armed to stop and kill them on the way . As no holds barred fighting breaks out between the two antagonists , we are treated to some non stop action .
The weapons used for the action are high tech and the action happens at an electric pace . Bullets fly and bombs and grenades explode with abandon . There is place for hand to hand fighting too . The action happens in corridors of buildings and in restaurants . The command centre overviewing the operation has the ability to moniter the pulse and heart rate of their personnel ; one wonders who thought of that idea....
Mark looks dashing and Lauren looks beautiful with blue eyes and their faces remain remarkably clean even after all the fighting even as others in their team get their faces splattered with blood . But at the end of it all comes a twist . The twist is to obviously pave the way for a second movie of this franchise . But the twist also renders all the sacrifices the CIA team has made completely pointless .
The movie is watchable for the action sequences and mercifully the film is also short ; last for only 1 hour 36 minutes . Photography is good , especially shots taken fro the air , and colours are decent . Background music is appropriate for the situations . Acting by all is proper .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Alexander ( 2004 )
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Nothing could be a bigger topic for making a movie than Alexander the great , one of the greatest conquerors of all time . To be honest there were greater conquerors than him , like Genghis / Changez Khan and Tamarlane / Timur the lame . But they were barbarians !! On the other hand , the march of Alexander was the march of civilization . Even he killed many , but he created more than he destroyed . A string of cities named Alexandria were founded as he marched . And he married and had a son from an Asian queen as his heir in order to make his Asian subjects co partners in his empire .
The movie begins showing his mother ( played by Angelina Jolie ) having a horrendous relationship with his father , who royally ill treats her and leaves her forever plotting his demise among the myriad poisonous snakes she cohabits with . But both the father King Philip and the mother love Alexander . Philip anoints Alexander ( Colin Farrel ) as his successor , but mother fears that other queens that Philip has married and who have their own children will plot to usurp Alexander's birthright to kingship .
So when Philip is murdered by a man who he has had dishonoured in a party , Alexander suspects his mother behind this and confronts her . She claims that he is son of Zeus and descendant of Achilees . And like Achilees his destiny is that of being a great warrior .
Alexander plans to exceed all his mother's expectations . He first marches against Persia against the manifold greater army of the great king Darius ( Darayavaush ) . At the start of the battle he rides his horse in front of his assembled troops reminding his doubtful but valiant soldiers that even though the Persians have a larger army it is composed mostly of slaves , while the Greeks are all free men . And claims that the Greeks are a superior civilization , something that has been shown to have been taught to him by his tutor in childhood .
His stirring words enthuse his forces and they fight gallantly against the Persians . And Alexander is among them , right in the thick of battle . And he attacks the chariot of king Darius himself , forcing Darius to flee . The victorious Greeks march on to Babylon which the capital of the Persian empire . Here lie immense riches and many beautiful women including Darius' daughter . But Alexander is more interested in Darius' boy....and herein begins the long saga of homosexuality in the movie .
Yes , Alexander was partly gay , but there are simply too many scenes of homosexuality in the movie . Even though Alexander is known more as a conqueror , the director Oliver Stone also highlights his sexuality too much .
His men now want to return home to Macedonia , but Alexander uses Darius's escape as an excuse to push further into Asia to chase him . Truth is that his ambition is boundless . As his forces march into the steppes of central asia they are marching into remote uncharted territory . But the great conqueror is unstoppable and seemingly invincible .
Here he marries the princess Roxana , an Asian . She is eager to love him and her father promises that she will protect him with her life . But on their first wedding night Roxana discovers that Alexander has gay lovers and she resists his advances . So Alexander has to force himself upon her , and their love scene is more like a wrestling match with the completely nude Roxana's big boobs hanging like giant udders as they wrestle .
From central asia to bactria in Afghanistan and from there to India crossing the hindu kush mountains . But in India the army that has swelled to 150000 is confronted with new diseases and new animals . On the other hand riches are hard to find . His men are homesick and his best friend is sore that he will never see his homeland again as he has been made satrap ( governor ) of bactria . The friend insults him loudly when drunk and has to be killed . Alexander deeply regrets this later .
Alexander urges his veterans to advance one last time as India is thought to be the end of the world . His forces run headlong into the army of Indian king Porous ( Pavarava ) . It is a moment in the movie that I was proud of , for my countrymen gave Alexander his bloodiest battle as the movie frankly admits . Porous' smaller army has elephant battalions , and they are used fully to attack Alexander's hordes .
It is glorious sight to see the Indian elephants charging the enemy , and this charge of several war elephants has been filmed well . Porous bravely fights on his war elephant and Alexander's troops are shown being mauled by his elephants trumpeting and trampling the Greeks under their feet . Alexander personally charges Porous's war elephant and the elephant and Alexander's horse raise their front feet at the same time , the horse neighing and elephant trumpeting . Great photography or special effects of that scene . And Porous discharges a javelin that severely injures Alexander . Ironically the wounding inflames Alexander's soldiers and they recover from their mauling and defeat Porous' soldiers .
But the severe handling of his forces by the Indian troops and his personal wound have chastened the conqueror and as son as he recovers Alexander orders the march back to home . But he is destined to never see his homeland again . First his gay lover is struck down by typhus in Babylon bringing Alexander to grief . He blames his wife Roxana for this even though she pleads that she is carrying his child and heir to the empire . But soon he himself is on his deathbed .
It is left to his friend Ptolemy ( Anthony Hopkins ) to complete Alexander's history in old age . His wife Roxana and child are killed by his generals , who divide his empire after his death .
The film has many flashbacks of childhood as Alexander marches on into the unknown , and particularly well filmed is the shot of him taming and riding a horse his father had rejected as too wild . Overall the photography and colours of the film are good . Acting is decent , particularly by Val Kilmer as King Philip . He brings out his brutality well . Music is enthralling and worth a separate hearing . War scenes are decently filmed too . But the gay scenes put off many people are the film received bad ratings in reviews .
But I did feel it had an epic quality about it and watched the full three and a half hours long version of it . I felt it did do justice to the life of the great warrior---Alexander .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
The answer ( August 2018 )
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This movie is about the true story of an American young man's desire to attain spiritual enlightenment , which ends as he finds it in the form of an Indian guru---Paramhansa Yogananda , who resides in the United states .
James Donald Walters ( Leonidas Gulaptis ) is born in Romania and is a kind soul since childhood . But his kindness is taken advantage of sometimes by other kids who bully him . He is dearly loved by his parents , who have him baptized as a Christian . But as war clouds hover over Europe , they take him to America .
Walters grows up to be different from other young men around him as he wants to follow a path of self realisation . As he wanders around in pursuit of this , he begins to believe in God and is in search of a guru . He then stumbles upon the book 'Autobiography of a yogi' and is instantly drawn to the serene features and teachings of the writer of the book---Paramhansa Yogananda .
Walters travels from one end of America to another to reach this yogi eschewing temptations thrown by beautiful women on the way , but is told by his disciples that all appointments of this yogi are booked for months . Many people are in line to wait for meeting the great yogi , and Walters will have to wait .
But then a miracle happens . Walters is called for meeting him by Paramhansa Yogananda himself , and the yogi tells him that he had received a divine communication to meet him right there . With this auspicious beginning , Walters' relationship as disciple of the great yogi begins . He is asked to kneel in front the yogi and is enrolled permanently as his disciple .
Life as a disciple of a yogi is not one of comfort . Walters' quarters are Spartan and his bed is of hard wood with only a mattress on it . But Walters' is most happy as he feels he is on the path he wanted to be from the start . His parents are naturally not happy with his decision but they accept it .
Walters is most happy when Paramhansa Yogananda is teaching him and other disciples and waits for those moments , though they come only once in a while as Yogananda is out on his tours and lectures . But soon he has immersed himself so much in the teaches of his master that he is called to give lectures himself , which is a great honour for a young man as himself .
Many times he is witness to small miracles . When his ladder is going to tilt and fall while painting his quarters , he closes his eyes and remembers his master and it retilts back to it's original position . When another disciple is called to meet Yogananda in blinding rain , the rain automatically stops and the sky becomes clear .
Yogananda says that one should not hesitate to kill if a creature is bent on harm and differs from Gandhi in this . But he otherwise enforces strict vegetarianism in his fold . His beliefs are primarily hindu but include all religions and he teaches the teachings of Christ too and always wears a cross . He sometimes takes teachings of Islam too .
Yogananda entrusts the work of editing his teachings to Walters and soon realises that Walters is the only one who edits his works without changing his message . Soon Walters is with him on many occasions and Yogananda begins to rely on him . Walters for his part has nothing but devotion in his look as he gazes at his master . Only once while editing the works does he begin to doubt his master , but that is because he has stayed away from Yogananda doing his work of editing for too long . On meeting him again , his doubts are cleared . Yogananda asks Walters to grow a beard , and everyone says Walters looks so much like Jesus Christ on growing it . But when Walters' parents come visiting him , Yogananda fondly trims the beard himself .
Walters has not claimed to be the favourite disciple of the guru at all . Indeed as the movie freely admits , others were the guru's favourites . But it is Walters who was instrumental in spreading the guru's message across the world after his death . After the death of Yogananda , Walters became swami Kriyananda and established Ananda universities in many continents .
Watching the movie , one gets transported into a world of spiritual calm and forgets the troubles of life for a brief span . Music is most appropriate for all situations and photography of nature most satisfying . Acting by Victor Banerjee as Paramhansa Yogananda is good and he gives his speeches with a firm and clear voice . Even better is Leonidas Gulaptis as Walters as he brings out his devotion to the guru so effectively . For those seeking a spiritual journey on celluloid , the film is worth watching .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
Searching
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This film is truly set in the modern era where everything is recorded on computers and smartphones , and the full film is viewed through the medium of computers and smartphones . So we learn through status updates on the internet that the mother in a family got diagnosed with cancer and that she died later . The father ( John Cho ) and the daughter ( Michelle La ) then grow distant from one another, but the father does not realise that until the daughter goes missing .
The father then contacts the piano lessons teacher whose classes his daughter was supposed to be attending and learns that his daughter had cancelled the lessons months ago . But then what about the money he gave to her for paying for those lessons ? He uses her computer to find out that she paid the money to an account that has now been deleted . He finally contacts the police and a police detective ( Debra Messing ) contacts him saying that she will try to solve the case .
But the father decides to investigate further and finds out who his daughter has been contacting on the internet , whom she has been exchanging messages with on the net , which photos she has been uploading , and also he logs onto her facebook account and searches among her FB friends . Doing all this he gets clues as to what she had been doing all these months , where she had been going , and whom she had been hanging out with . In some cases his suspicions turn out to be false alarms , and none among her so called friends on FB even know her in real life .
But soon he is able to zero in on the spot where his daughter could be found , and a full scale police investigation is launched at that spot . But at the end of all the search when all hope has been lost , there is a major twist in the tale . So what is the twist ? Will the daughter be found ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The movie is interesting because of the novel approach it has taken , of showing the whole story happening on the screens of computers and laptops and smartphones . It seems the whole life of modern day teens unfolds on these gadgets . All the clues to the mystery are to be found on the daughter's footprints on the internet , and all the contacting the father and the police detective do with each other or with people who might provide solutions to the case is done mainly by messages or video chatting on computer or smartphone screens .
Acting by all actors is appropriate and background music is okay . The movie keeps you hooked on to it's suspense and the climax does not disappoint . Of course , the movie does show that in all this virtual world connect what we are really missing is real human company .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
chawhee
09-10-18, 06:37 PM
Solid review of Searching. The twist(s) definitely made this movie captivating.
Endless love ( 1981 )
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This film is for the aficionados of mushy romance and also for aficionados of hot bedroom scenes , though many hot scenes were cut by the director to our eternal chagrin in order to get the film an R rating instead of an X rating . Those cut scenes featured the stunningly beautiful Brooke Shields in the full glory of nudity , but we do get to see her lovely breasts in one lovemaking scene .
In Chicago , Jade ( Brooke Shields ) is in a relationship with David ( Martin Hewitt ) . She is only fifteen , but she has a liberal mother who allows her to have sex openly with David inside the house . In fact , mother ( played by Shirley Knight ) watches the two make love in full nudity from a secret corner on the staircase and is dazzled by the sight and by David's youthful body to the extent that she secretly develops an attraction for him .
But of course , Jade's father and brother are not so welcoming about the open bouts of sex played in their house at such a tender age and brother frankly admits that he regrets introducing David to Jade . But the nightly arousals have taken a toll on Jade and her grades in school drop and she steals sleeping pills to sleep . This finally angers her father and he orders David to stay away from their house for a month .
But David can't stay away from Jade....frankly any male allowed to make open love to the luscious Brooke Shields would develop an addiction for her....and David's addiction is incurable....as one of Brooke Shields' admirers , I can understand...
So David tries to do some attention drawing antics like setting fire to papers outside Jade's house , but the ploy misfires and the whole house is burnt down . David is tried in court and is sent to mental hospital . He tries to contact Jade but in vain . He throws a hysterical fit and convinces his parents to use their political connections to get him out . When Jade's father learns that David is out he explodes in fury .
David meets Jade's mother in order to contact Jade , but the mother tries to make love to him herself . But David is in endless love with Jade and does not respond even though the mother is quite attractive herself . He wants Jade and Jade only and goes to meet her inspite of a court order not to meet her on pain of jail . But her father sees him and rushes to attack him on a street , only to be crushed by a speeding car . His new girlfriend sees David .
Finally Jade comes to say goodbye to David , but he pins her down till she is forced to admit her love for him . But her father's girlfriend recognises David as the boy who refused to help when Jade's father was lying half dead , and a violent fight develops between Jade's brother and David leaving Jade in shock . David is sent to jail for five years for evading the court order and trying to meet Jade , but his efforts have achieved their goal if such a terrible price of going to jail is at all worth it all ; Jade regularly starts coming to the jail to meet David . Endless love indeed....
The movie was declared the worst of all movies in 1981 , but it is certainly better than such ignominy . It has beautiful and sentimental background music , and a beautiful song called 'Endless love' . Also there is something to savour in the saga of Jade and David's endless love . And it does have a real story .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
The Nun
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The movie begins with a nun hanging herself in a monastery in Romania , and a member of the church committing suicide is considered a big crime by the Vatican . Hence two persons are sent by the Vatican to investigate this happening . They are Father Burke ( Demián Bichir ) and Sister Irene ( Taissa Farmiga ) . They are taken to the monastery by Frenchie ( Jonas Bloquet ) , who had discovered the nun hanging by a rope .
But Father Burke is still suffering from the guilt of having seen a boy who he had exorcised killed during the exorcism , while Sister Irene is only a trainee and has not been made a nun . The village near the monastery has seen numerous deaths and people living in it believe that the deaths are due to some evil in the monastery .
As the three make way to the monastery , obviously as expected a number of strange things begin to happen . One has to admire the daring of the two religious persons to stay in the nearby convent for the night , but they have no choice as the nuns there observe silence at night and are ready to talk only during the day .
At night the demonic entity attacks the two . The film makers have some new tricks up their sleeve , like shadows of ghosts walking on walls and live persons getting buried in graves . Some old tricks also , like the spirit being seen only in mirrors . But having seen too many horror films in the past , this time I seemed to be immune to the scares and wasn't getting the jolts at all . Lack of belief in the existence of ghosts and God seems to be the reason . I must really start believing at least in God to enjoy all these horror movies:D
Anyway , the movie is not bad . The three main protagonists soon learn about the demonic influence from the nuns in the monastery and try to seal it off back to where it was lying all these years . But do they succeed ? Watch the movie for the answer , but I will give you a hint ; these horror movie makers never ever bring their demonic influences to complete destruction as the demonic influences come mighty handy in making the next movie of the same franchise .
Photography , background music and acting is decent enough . And even if I didn't feel the chills some of you will feel them enough to enjoy them .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Tora Tora Tora !! ( japanese signal meaning complete surprise has been achieved ) 1970
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The film shows the japanese attack on pearl harbour in hawaii that began america's entry into the second world war . The harbour was anchoring the US pacific fleet and many battleships were sunk , thus sending a wave of euphoria among the invading japanese pilots . But as the chief of the japanese combined fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto says at the end of the movie , american aircraft carriers escaped damage as they were not in the harbour and therefore all the japanese did was wake up a sleeping giant and infuriate him . For the era of aircraft carriers was beginning and that of battleships was coming to an end .
However the japanese did achieve complete surprise and did a great deal of damage and killed many sailors . The movie shows how the americans were totally unready for war . The newly installed radar station on a mountain top at hawaii at first had no means to communicate to the main base if they detected anything on radar . Later they did get a phone but their warnings of an air fleet coming were dismissed . It was a sunday morning and no one wanted to be disturbed . They japanese had clearly chosen their timing of attack well .
Actually the earlier part of the movie does show the americans having broken the japanese communication code and thus being able to read any message sent . And a colonel does feel that japan is hell bent on war on reading the messages . But the americans do not realise that japan will strike so deep in the middle of the pacific and feel the attack will come in asia in places like phillipines etc .
When the attack starts , the photography of the fighter jets silhouetted against the rising run is most beautiful , the rising sun also being the flag of japan . The planes attack with torpedoes and bombs . Complete destruction or sinking is achieved of several warships and the yellow flames of the explosions take up the later part of the movie . The american warplanes are parked bunched together on their airfield and therefore make easy targets for the japanese bombers . The japanese bombers attack in two waves and if a third had been launched then the vast oil tankers of hawaii could have been hit and set afire with loss of all stored fuel . But the japanese commander refuses to allow a third strike fearing that american submarines many be searching for them . Actually the japanese fleet of aircraft carriers carrying the striking aircraft was out of detection of the americans for some time .
There is of course the conspiracy theory that american president Roosevelt knew about the impending attack but allowed it to happen so that america could enter the war to protect democracy , but the movie does not show this as it sticks to the official version that america was caught by surprise .
Acting and music and photography is excellent ; the japanese voices sound strident and martial compared to the relaxed americans , but the glaring problem of the version I saw was the lack of subtitles in english for japanese dialogues . So I could only make out what the japanese were saying , and the could see arguments where the pacifists counselling peace were outmaneuvered by the warmongers . Music is all guns booming and trumpets blaring and roll of drums . That's the way I like it , for I like to see war on the silver screen .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
SeeingisBelieving
10-03-18, 03:17 PM
But having seen too many horror films in the past , this time I seemed to be immune to the scares and wasn't getting the jolts at all . Lack of belief in the existence of ghosts and God seems to be the reason . I must really start believing at least in God to enjoy all these horror movies:D
I felt like that about The Exorcist – that it would have been more disturbing had I been religious.
I liked The Conjuring a lot so I'll no doubt give The Nun a go. I need to catch up on all the other sequels and spin-offs as well :).
Somewhere in time ( 1980 )
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This film has become a cult classic , maybe because of the tragic fate of it's leading actor Christopher Reeve who suffers a tragic death in the movie too . When it was released it was a flop at the box office , but now there is even a club of fans of the movie .
Reeve plays Richard Collier , who is a struggling playwright . The movie begins in 1972 , when the boyishly goodlooking Richard is young and in college and is partying with friends . An old woman approaches him and gives him a pocket clock and pleads emotionally to him ''come back to me'' . She then goes home to die....
Years later Richard checks into Grand hotel and is strangely drawn to to photo of a beautiful woman hanging in the hotel museum . He talks to the hotel bellhop , who first asks him if he ever had come here before for he seems familiar . The bellhop tells Richard that the photo is of Elise Mckenna ( Jane Seymour ) , an actress who lived in the hotel in the early 20th century . And on further questioning , he realises that she was the same woman who came to him in old age asking him to come back to her....enough to make a man fall in love , especially considering her beauty....
So he goes with her pocket clock to an old companion of hers , and she recognises the clock as belonging to Elise . Richard finds things there that tell him that she constantly thought of him all these years . But how , considering the age difference between them ? Is it possible that they had met through the mists of time in another era ? He finds a book of time travel which the companion says Elise read again and again , and he decides to use the book to travel in time back to when Elise was young .
Before putting the plan in action , Richard meets the author of the book and he tells him that all things of this era must be out of sight when the time travel in done through simple self hypnosis . By repeated suggestions from a tape recorder put out of sight , he can go to the era he wants if he concentrates hard . After several failed attempts , the plan works and he travels back in time and manages to meet Elise....and she talks to him as if she knew he was going to come one day , and she had been waiting for him for a long time .
And meetings are followed by long walks together , until Elise invites Richard to watch her acting in a play . And she looks intently at him when promising love to her lover in the play , and their hearts are one . But her manager fears that her acting career will be affected by the romance , and has Richard bound and tied up till the time has come for Elise to leave . When Richard frees himself he finds Elise gone .
Relax...love will find a way , as it always does in the movies . And Elise can't let go of Richard and come searching for him and runs to him as soon as she sees him . And then she unwinds her lovely hair in her bedroom and we are enthralled by her beauty with her uncovered tresses adding lustre to it . Do I even have to say that then they make glorious love on the bed.....? And to make the relationship chaste ( it is 1912 , and people frowned upon physical intimacy before marriage in that time ) they decide to wed .
But the sighting of a coin from the present era goes against the rule told by the book's author that he must be out of sight of all things from the era he originally came from , and brings Richard back to the present from his sojourn across the barriers of time . And as he is coming back , he can still hear and see Elise screaming because he is being lost from her and dragged against his will to a time he did not want to go back to .
As Richard wakes up in his hotel room he is struck by grief and does not want to live . And he is soon discovered in his bed having died due to a broken heart . But relax....love has found a way , as it always does . As Richard dies , his soul moves through the mists of space and she is there....again looking young and beautiful , she has been waiting for him for a long time....this time the reunion is permanent .
What strikes you is the movie's endearing simplicity , of the pure and honest love between the lead pair beyond the barriers of time and the simple method of time travel done without the aid of high tech machines . The beauty of the lead actress Jane Seymour makes the movie worth a watch . But what adds to the movie watching experience is the superb musical score by John Barry . The background music lifts the romance to a different level altogether .
Colours of the movie are of lightish hue , making the photography appear magical . Acting by all actors is good too .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Downfall ( 2004 )
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This german movie recreates on screen the last days of Adolf Hitler and his nazi Germany and is partially based on the account of his personal secretary Traudi Junge , who was present in his underground bunker during those days . The Russians are already on the borders of the city and throughout the movie we hear constant shelling by russian artillery , the shells of which fall near the bunker making deafening noises and temporarily interfering with electricity and making the lights go out briefly .
Hitler at first refuses to give up and refuses pleas to be evacuated to south Germany . He makes plans to move armies to protect the city , but his generals are only too aware that such armies that exist are too hard pressed fighting on other fronts and cannot come to the relief of the city . When Hitler is informed of this , he goes into mad rages and raves and rants against his generals . The acting by Bruno Ganz as Hitler is most superb at this point and many of these scenes have become famous on youtube .
As the end is near , many of the nazis are openly dancing and drinking as they feel they might be dead within days . Women dance half naked with their breasts hanging out and even Hitler's girlfriend joins the fun , dancing with men and taking Junge out to smoke . Junge finds all this unreal . On the other hand Hitler decides that the german people don't deserve to survive and orders total destruction of his own country . But Albert Speer the minister in charge of this flatly refuses as he feels that the german people should survive .
The most heartless scene of the movie is that of the wife of minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels killing her own 6 children by cyanide . She is a rabid nazi and if nazi germany goes down then she does not wish to live . The couple shoots themselves later . Before that Hitler and Eva Braun get married and then kill themselves . Their bodies are set on fire by gasoline . His closest men have already begun to betray him preceding this . Hitler has given orders to shoot them all . The SS physician who had done deadly experiments on bodies of jewish people also has to shoot himself as he will be severely punished if caught . One last task given to Junge is to type Hitler's last will and testament in which he rants against international jewry .
The movie also tells the story of a boy roughly aged 13 , who has been forced to fight the russians as germany has already committed all it's adult men to the fight . He destroys two tanks and Hitler gives medal to him . As mayhem strikes with russians conquering Berlin he joins Junge to flee on bicycle . The war is over .
The movie authentically portrays the situation in Berlin during those days and the atmosphere is recreated . Hitler's mad ruthlessness is really brought out . Photography and acting and background music is good .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
First Man
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'First man' shows what Guinness book of world records then claimed was man's greatest achievement in the twentieth century---man's landing on the moon in 1969 . Such was the awe of the achievement even in the eighties when I was growing up that when I told about the claim to my friend at that time , he said that it was the greatest achievement in entire history of mankind not just the twentieth century .
Sadly , today's political climate when liberals have a finger in every pie means that the planting of the american flag on the moon could not be shown in the movie because that would reek of nationalism . Yet the race to the moon began as a challenge to american nationalism , as americans saw the then Soviet Union winning the contest in space missions . President JF Kennedy launched the programme to land man on the moon to restore american pride and glory .
The movie focuses on the man who first set foot on the moon , Neil Armstrong . Before his mission his wife makes him admit to his son the fact that there is a possibility that he may not make it back as many astronauts have been killed on missions . Indeed so many deaths have occurred that some people consider the money spent on the space programme a waste and feel that it could be better utilised eradicating poverty .
But when the mission is on everyone parks himself or herself in front of big screens erected to show the spectacle . And on coming back everyone has placards welcoming the astronauts home .
The moon mission is shown well . The roar and yellow plumes of the rocket engines , the spacecraft shaking as it lifts off , the beauty of the earth as seen from space---all is still awe inspiring . Neil Armstrong says his well rehearsed lines on setting foot on the moon---''A small step for a man , a giant leap for mankind.'' And then he has tears in his eyes at the edge of a crater as he throws his wife's trinket down the crater .
Photography and background music is satisfying . So is the acting by Ryan Gosling as Armstrong and Claire Foy as his wife and Corey Stoll as Edwin Aldrin the second man to set foot on the moon accompanying Neil . Even the arch rival soviets are shown acknowledging the achievement in their newspapers by publishing photographs of it . Maybe their left wing political heirs should learn something from them and acknowledge the achievement by allowing scenes like american flag planting to be filmed . Maybe then President Trump ( he has vowed not to see the film ) will watch the film too .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Citizen Rules
10-18-18, 07:59 PM
I'm going to watch First Man based on your review. I love history and space and that sounds like my kind of film. Good review:)
Crazy Rich Asians
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Rachel Chu ( Constance Wu ) is a professor of economics in America . She has a boyfriend named Nick Young ( Henry Golding ) . Both are of Chinese descent and Nick is actually from Singapore . He invites Rachel to Singapore for the wedding of his best friend and they decide to go .
But on the flight and in Singapore Rachel realises that Nick is from a very rich Singaporean family , a fact that Nick has hidden from her for so long . She herself is only a commoner compared to him . In Singapore the couple is invited to a lot of parties and we get to see the life of rich Singaporeans and all their wealth . Nick lives in a huge mansion guarded by turbaned Sikh bodyguards imported from India .
But Rachel also gets confronted by difficulties due to Nick's status . He has other women angling for him and they accuse Rachel of being a gold digger . Nick's mom disapproves of an American girlfriend like Rachel because she feels that Americans are too individualistic and do not think about the wishes of family like Asians do .
But Rachel has loved Nick even when she did not know about his money and decides to fight the odds to get the man she loves . However his mother has set private detectives to dig information about her and they bring up something unsavoury about her past that even she did not know . Rachel is stunned by the new info that turns her life upside down and is temporarily at a loss as to what she should do .
But when the situation gets tough the tough get going....Rachel then turns the tables on her adversaries by doing something that proves that she has way more class and integrity and strength of character than all the rich people she has met .
So what is the secret that even Rachel does not know ? What is her counter reaction to revelation of the secret and it's repercussions ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The movie shows that beyond the west there is money to be found and flaunted even in the orient . The life of rich people in Singapore is showcased perhaps too extravagantly in the film . Acting wise the movie scores . Photography is nice , especially of Singapore . Colours are good too . Background music is hummable .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Mutiny on the bounty ( 1962 )
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This movie is based on a real life mutiny on a British ship named Bounty in 1787 . As the ship sets sail from Britain soon it is clear that the captain is an excessively harsh person who inflicts savage punishments for the slightest misdemeanours . Sailors are lashed by whips till they are half dead . This does not go down well with either the crew or second in command lieutenant Fletcher Christian ( Marlon Brando ) . but they have no choice but to keep quiet .
The ship reaches Tahiti in the pacific , where the natives are friendly and above all Tahitian women believe in free love which is taken advantage of by the ship's crew to the fullest . They all get Tahitian girlfriends and one of them falls in love with one of the women and asks the captain his permission for marriage . But the harsh captain calls her a slut and refuses , though it is the only time he ever laughs in the movie . Fletcher himself is in a relationship with a lovely Tahitian woman---Princess Maimiti ( Tarita Teriipaia ) the daughter of the Tahitian chief , but he keeps his head and says goodbye to her as the ship readies to leave .
The ship's task is to transport breadfruit plants to Jamaica , and the captain loads the ship with too many of them . Worse , they require lot of water to nurse them and the captain cuts water rations of the sailors for watering the plants . As sailors begin to die pining for water to drink , Fletcher is under increasing pressure to take command of the ship . Finally as the captain refuses water to a sailor who has begun to drink seawater and is dying , Fletcher mutinies and takes command of the ship with the aid of those who are ready to revolt . But he is a humane man who refuses to kill the captain though the captain is after his blood and would have court martialled him and sent him to the gallows if the mutiny had not succeeded .
The captain and those refusing to join the revolt are put on a lifeboat and they sail to Britain where the inquiry commission exonerates him but censure his captaincy . The Royal navy is asked to search for the mutinous crew and bring them to trial .
Fletcher and the mutineers reach Tahiti again and take help of their girlfriends and some Tahitian men to search for an inhabitable island where they can settle down far from the prying eyes of the royal navy , finally settling down on Pitcairn island which has been wrongly mapped by the British . But the conscience of Fletcher is increasingly affected by his position . As he tells the crew , they may not be locked in a jail but they are locked out of society . He wants to return to face trial in Britain . But some mutineers who are scared that he might force them to return set fire to the ship and Fletcher dies a tragic death trying to save the ship .
The music of the film is loud and over dramatic though enthralling , blaring loudly even in moments of trivial drama . Photography however is good and there are good shots of the ship silhouetted against the setting sun and of storms and heavy weather on the rough seas with huge waves rocking the ship , and also of the ship's sail billowing in the wind . Acting is decent by everyone . I was hooked on to the major portion of the film and the tragic ending filled me with pathos .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Hunter Killer
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Hunter Killer is the kind of old fashioned action thriller that warms the cockles of my heart . It has clear cut action and clear cut righteousness about the nation's role to fight agents of global disorder without any trace of guilt .
The film begins with two submarines exploding , one Russian and one American . Clearly someone is out to create mayhem . Soon the agents of mayhem present themselves . A Russian general kidnaps the Russian president and the general tries to start war between America and Russia . Trigger happy American military officers want to retaliate to Russian actions , but some American military personnel have another plan . An American submarine is near artic waters close to the place where the Russian president is being held by the rebels . He is against war and if navy SEALs can be sent from the submarine to rescue him then he can retake control of Russia and stop war .
The person chosen to captain the American submarine is Joe Glass ( Gerard Butler ) , and he has the difficult challenge to navigate the submarine through narrow channels to the place where the Russian president is being held and send the rescue team . But coming back is an even bigger challenge because a Russian destroyer armed with anti submarine rockets is on the prowl .
As the going gets tough the tough get going , and what we get to see is an action extravaganza with splendid photography and nice colours and decent acting . The froth of the waters of the roaring oceans , the sea parting as the submarine comes up from it's under water home , the plumes of smoke as missiles are fired onto the enemy , the air bubbles coming out from behind torpedoes as they are fired onto enemy submarines , the yellow explosions as rockets torpedoes and missiles strike ; all are beautifully filmed .
The insides of destroyers and especially submarines and also of war situation rooms are shown in detail . I could almost smell the torpedoes and missiles , so closely they are shown and so realistically as if the whole situation was for real . There are those who doubt the viability of the mission and those who believe in it , and the tussle between them is ever present . Background music and acting is all good . It goes without saying that the movie is for nationalists and nationalists alone ; the bleeding hearts of the politically correct brigade wouldn't be able to survive an encounter with it .
Verdict---Good .
4
Zulu dawn ( 1979 )
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This movie showcases the battle of Isandhlwana where the Zulu nation gave a big defeat to the invading British in southern africa in late nineteenth century .
The war begins with a message from the british to the Zulu king that he kills people arbitrarily while on the other hand the british queen cannot kill her lowliest subject without trial ; thus the Zulu nation which is allegedly lawless must be brought under british control . The Zulu king replies that the Zulu have their own laws and even he kills people only according to their laws . But do the british imperialists care about such replies when the intention is naked imperialism ? no they don't .
The british and Zulu camps are shown preparing for war . Before that there is the marriage ritual of Zulu women with their men . Masses of free naked Zulu women run with their breasts openly hanging out to choose their husbands in a vast tribal mating programme crying war cries from their mouths . In contrast the genteel british women are fully covered from head to toe typical of Victorian times . British men dream of romancing them from afar but don't dare approach . I wondered which culture was free ?
As war is declared the aggressor british cross the river marking the boundary between the two nations . They are armed with rifles and artillery guns and some are mounted on horses . They camp for the night . Next day their advanced units cross the mountains to stumble upon an awesome sight---thirty to forty thousand Zulu warriors have assembled to give national resistance to the invaders . They are mostly armed with spears and shields but their number is overwhelming . And their intentions are ferocious .
The advanced units double back to warn the main army of the approaching horde , but it is too late and some of the british officers are frankly unbelieving . They sit for a formal meal with drinks and fruits .
Soon the advancing Zulus make mincemeat of a separated unit of the british troops by trapping them in a shallow gorge and then surrounding them and killing them . Then they attack the main army . The british are confident that their superior firepower will prevail , but the numbers of Zulus killed by firing of rifles by the disciplined british soldiers are too piddly to matter . Nor does firing of artillery guns or mortars do much impact . The Zulus simply don't care about their losses and keep on advancing .
Overwhelmed by the Zulu attack , the british cavalry retreat leaving the infantry to fend for themselves . The infantry are cut down where they stand . All that is left now is to save the union jack by running off with the british flag . But the Zulus manage to capture even that by overrunning the horsemen desperately trying to cross the river back into british territory . A gallant british soldier kills the Zulu warrior running off with the flag and the flag drowns in the river .
The movie really shows armies of considerable size maneuver on the battlefield . The british are in red uniforms and full of spit and polish . the Zulu warriors are half naked but fierce . Colours and photography and background music is good . Burt Lancaster plays the colonel leading the british troops .
Verdict---decent .
Three stars out of five .
Kingdom of heaven ( 2005 )
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Orlando Bloom plays Balian , a blacksmith living in France . His wife has committed suicide , and a priest beheads her before burial . Balian kills him in revenge . Meanwhile some crusaders have approached him for going to the holy land ( Jerusalem ) where a crusader kingdom has been established by defeating the muslims , and Balian agrees to accompany them in hope of getting forgiveness for his and his wife's sins . But the law has come to catch up with him and the crusaders have to fight those who have come to arrest Balian for the priest's murder . The crusaders' leader is fatally injured in the fight . On the journey to the holy land he dies , but before that he has knighted Balian .
The ship in which Balian is sailing runs aground in a storm and he is the sole survivor . Balian is attacked by a muslim cavaliar but manages to kill him in the ensuing fight . He spares the cavaliar's companion and asks him to take him to Jerusalem . In Jerusalem he has prestige due to his knighthood and he wins the heart of the king's sister Sibylla ( played by the beautiful Eva Green ) and they have passionate lovemaking scenes . The king has leprosy and he is going to die , leaving the kingdom in the hands of Sibylla's husband Guy and his ally Reynald . Both are warmongers and are recklessly baying for muslim blood even though the muslims have gathered a bigger army under their leader Salahuddin ( Saladin ) .
After the king dies , the two declare war on Saladin by killing his sister who has come as a peace emissary . They decide to march on his army inspite of warnings by Balian that if they march away from water sources they will be cut off from water in the desert by Saladin's huge army . But Reynald and Guy are eager for glory and attack . Here what has been predicted by Balian happens and they are cut off from water and their army dies of thirst . They are captured by Saladin and Reynald is beheaded by him as it he who has killed his sister . But I was disappointed as this battle of Hattin was not actually shown , maybe because the film's hero had no part in it . Of course , the full armies of the opposing forces are shown in all their glory with the muslims flying their green flags and christians brandishing a huge cross .
Now Jerusalem is vulnerable to the muslims and Balian is called upon to defend it . He rouses the common townsfolk to fight by knighting them . This siege of Jerusalem is shown in full and one gets to see the full fighting . And one must say it has been filmed well . The muslims erect siege towers after marching with their vast cavalry to the walls of the city with standards flying---a formidable sight . As one by one the siege towers are broken by the defenders , Balian is there in the thick of the fighting . Finally the muslims detect one part of the wall which is weak . They attack with firetipped arrows which again is a breathtaking sight with fire being rained all over the city . Finally they bombard with catapults and fiery shells land on the walls breaking them . Behind the defenders are waiting and a massive fight breaks out under Balian's command in which thousands of saracens ( as the muslims are called by the crusaders ) are killed .
Next day Saladin asks for a meeting as his forces are frustrated by the fight shown by the slender number of troops that Balian possesses . Even though the odds are stacked against the defenders due to the vast size of the invading saracens , Balian vows to destroy every monument sacred to every religion in the holy city if it comes to a fight to the finish . Afraid that muslim sacred places will also be destroyed , Saladin agrees to allow the christians unmolested out of the city if the city is handed over to him .
Balian is hailed as a hero by Jerusalem's population for saving it from massacre at the hands of the saracens , and queen Sibylla accompanies him to France on the return journey . They have barely settled down when king Richard the Lionheart of England comes to him asking Balian to march with him to reconquer Jerusalem . But Balian refuses . As he and Saladin both have agreed , a lot of bloodshed would be saved if nothing had been left in Jerusalem's spot to fight over . A thousand years later , peace in the holy land is still elusive....
The ending left me with emotion , as did the events in the second half of the movie . The movie is more than three hours long , and takes time to get you in it's grip . But when it does get a grip , it is well worth watching . Colours are darkish but photography is good , especially of grand armies and their fanatical soldiers---for it was the age of the religious fervour of the crusades . Background music is decent and so is the acting by everyone .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
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A Private War
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The film is on celebrated war correspondent Marie Colvin , who is played by Rosamund Pike . The film begins with her covering the civil war in Sri Lanka , where she goes deep into rebel territory held by Tamil tigers . But instead of the sympathetic portrayal that the limping spokesperson ( he has been hit three times by bullets in the civil war ) of the Tamil tigers is hoping for , she tells him point blank that she would like to tell the world that the tigers are letting their people suffer for want of food and medical attention .
The above incident is typical of Marie , who always cares more for the innocent victims caught in the crossfire of war instead of the actual fighters . And she is ready to put herself in danger for doing so ; as she frankly admits , she was never cut out to be an ordinary housewife living a comfortable life in a safe suburb . Maybe her trait for not caring for her own safety has been accentuated by her two miscarriages that left her without a child waiting at home .
She is fired upon by Sri Lankan government forces and loses an eye in the conflict . She is justly awarded on returning home , but beneath all the bravado she cries for her lost vision in her eye . But does she want to stop after this experience ? No .
She moves to Iraq which is being invaded by the USA and manages to get past Saddam's militia in a nerve wracking encounter to film mass graves being dug up of people killed earlier . Once more , her filming of this makes headlines and a star reporter is born . Her boss Sean Ryan is played by Tom Hollander , and she has differences with him as he sends other reporters to cover because he feels she is too unpredictable .
Yeah , unpredictable she is because of her addiction to drinking and smoking . What else can a person do to blank out horrifying images of mangled corpses and bleeding wounded bodies and death and destruction from the mind ? It's a miracle that she sticks to her job inspite of seeing all the bloodletting .
Next , she is in Afghanistan in the midst of the fighting covering it all . After that , in Libya . She gets to interview Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and he admits he has liked her more than all the women he has met . And later , she gets to see his dead body too after rebels have killed him . She interviews a rapist who raped women on orders of Gaddafi , and he describes how a girl he raped said that God was watching his act from above and he answered that Gaddafi is God . But my view of the conflict differed sharply from her reporting . She claimed that Gaddafi's regime was cruel and was committing atrocities on the people . What she did not tell was that what followed was worse . At least Gaddafi was giving a stable government to his people with a decent standard of living due to sale of petroleum . The west's needless interference left the nation torn apart due to civil war . She was just parroting what the west wanted to hear to justify it's interference .
The final assignment is in Syria , which is in midst of civil war between President Assad's forces and rebels . Here too , she blames the ruler for the war but is able to back up her claims by broadcasting images of innocent people being killed where Assad has claimed terrorists are hiding . Images of people as they die before her eyes leave many including her boss in tears . She takes interviews of women who have lost children and husbands as they try to escape , thus awakening the conscience of the free world .
But she gets too carried away and refuses to get evacuated as the fighting comes too close . In her will to report everything from the ground as it happens , it seems she also has a death wish . Her last interview from the city of Homs is reported even by CNN as she is the only western correspondent there . She doesn't make it back home from there ; is killed as bombs rain death from above . She also endangers the lives of those correspondents who choose to stick by her . One of them is killed along with her and the other wounded .
Rosamund Pike has done justice to her role as Marie Colvin . Photography of charred bodies and of the rubble of destroyed cities and of the sand dunes of the desert painted golden by the sun's rays makes for some wonderful and some distressing viewing . Colours are good and so is background music . Also good is the song in the end by Annie Lennox .
But the movie will be appreciated only by those with a yen for seeing real life horrors. For this no glamorised picturisation of war but is instead a viewing of it's realities . Of all the terrible suffering unleashed by war . Watching the movie makes you cringe on seeing the cruelties .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
chawhee
11-25-18, 10:12 AM
Thanks for the Private War review. This sounds good enough to warrant a watch at some point. I wasn't sure how political it would try to be after seeing a synopsis and trailer for it.
Mississippi Masala ( 1991 )
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During the time of the British empire , many Indians from India were brought to Uganda in Africa as indentured labourers . Gradually they were freed and stayed on in Uganda . After Uganda got it's freedom they began to believe that they were Ugandans more than Indians . However they retained their original ( mostly hindu ) religion and Indian culture .
But they were mostly originated from the mercantile community of the Indian state of Gujarat and were very industrious . Their prosperity grew more than common Ugandans and this caused resentment among native Ugandans towards them . Taking advantage of this resentment , Idi Amin who became dictator of Uganda ordered all of them out of the country in 1972 . They were divided and some of them went back to India , some to Britain , and some of them were taken by USA .
This movie shows the travails of a family that lived in Uganda until forced by Idi Amin to leave , and were later settled in Mississippi in USA . The head of the family is Jay ( Roshan Seth ) , who is deeply attached to his roots in Uganda . Even when in USA he pines for going back , and writes letters to the Ugandan government to get back his property and citizenship after Idi Amin has fallen from power . He also is affected by the fact that his best friend from Uganda said that Africa belongs to the Africans when it came to say goodbye to him ; this even though that African man gave his own money to release Jay from jail when Jay began to write against Idi Amin and was arrested for that .
Jay however feels that his African friend betrayed his friendship and has resentment towards the black community . He has now settled among Indians originated from Gujarat and they have become prosperous in Mississippi . Because of their relatively fairer skin and economic success this community takes on the airs and attitudes of white people in USA .
But Jay's daughter Mina has darker skin and this worries her mother Kinnu ( Sharmila Tagore ) , for she feels that Mina won't be able to get a good match among her community . But precisely due to her darker skin , Mina has no problems with black people and secretly begins to date a young black man called Demetrius ( Denzel Washington ) . She mingles with his family and charms them all .
And soon her love leads to bedroom sessions in motels . The love making is aesthetically pictured and I began to like Sarita Choudhury's ( the actress playing Mina ) lovely dark honey coloured exposed skin and her belly and and navel and her just barely exposed breasts---you are given a bare glimpse of those lovely orbs .
But some Gujarati Indian Americans have got wind of the affair and they rush into the room to beat Demetrius . As he fights back they call the police and he and Mina are both caught by police but later released . Demetrius gets his reputation besmirched and his business of cleaning carpets is in losses as no one wants to deal with a black man who was caught by the police beating rich people .
Demetrius tries to contact Mina but she has been effectively cut off from him by her parents . The parents have to confront the fact that their daughter is not an Indian but an American , and she tells them that she has her own mind like an American girl .
What brings the situation to boil is the letter that Jay receives from Uganda that his case will be heard in court , and he wants to take his family back to Uganda . But Mina revolts and chases the by now reluctant Demetrius and forces him to elope with her because she loves him and does not want to go to Uganda .
So Jay is forced to travel to Uganda alone and when lands he realises that the Uganda of old is gone ; he has no place in the new Uganda . His home is now America , and his family is like masala---a mixture of spices which have some Indian and some Ugandan and some American flavour but they all come to ultimately settle in Mississippi....Mississippi Masala .
Acting be everyone is decent and colours and photography are okay too . Music is good and turns emotional whenever Jay remembers his beloved Uganda .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
The Least Of These : The Graham Staines Story
( March 2019 )
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Review has spoilers
This is an English language movie made by Americans on a barbaric hate crime that took place in India in 1999---the burning alive of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons by Hindu chauvinists who believed that Staines was paying money to poor tribal people to convert to Christianity . The central event of the movie is real of course , but the movie is a fictionalised account of that .
Stephen Baldwin plays the missionary and Shari Rigby plays his wife Gladys Staines . Sharman Joshi plays Manav Banerjee , an Indian reporter who comes to the Indian state of Orissa where Graham is working . Manav meets a newspaper editor ( played by Prakash Belawadi ) and promises to unearth evidence of Graham paying money to poor people to convert to Christianity , something that is a crime in India if done by money inducements ( though preaching and conversion to any religion is acceptable if done without fraudulent means ) . But the editor asks him to join Graham as a trojan horse by accepting Christianity in order to win Graham's trust , and then report and take photographic evidence of Graham paying money to poor people to convert .
However Manav directly confronts Graham , who denies using money to convert Indians . Manav gets to closely observe the work that Graham is doing curing leprosy patients in India and soon realises that Graham is doing a commendable job serving these patients who are pariahs among their own people after having contracted leprosy . Graham is the only person willing to touch them and give them any shred of dignity and hope . Of course Graham admits that he hopes that they will convert , but without money inducements it is not illegal at all . Manav tries to find out evidence that people are being converted by fraudulent means but finds no such thing .
During his research Manav comes to realise that a man named Mahendra ( Manoj Mishra ) is ready to take Staines' life and goes to warn Staines of this , but too late....Mahendra and his goons have already committed the deadly crime of burning alive Graham and his two small sons Timothy and Philip . Manav is affected by the dignity with which Gladys forgives her husband's killers , and by the fact that Graham's son had begun to believe himself to be an Indian and dreamt of becoming a cricket player not of Australia but of India like Sachin Tendulkar the Indian cricket star .
Also Manav comes to realise the motive of his newspaper editor in having a hatred towards Graham ; he is son of a leprosy patient that Graham allegedly converted to Christianity . But the patient says that he never converted to Christianity and opens Manav's eyes . Manav then goes to press in another newspaper telling the truth about Staines and the false allegations his earlier editor was making , thus resulting in the editor's expulsion from his job . Gladys goes on to continue her husband's work and she and her husband are duly recognised by the Indian government and given civilian honours .
The movie furthers India's image in the west as not only being poverty afflicted but also leprosy afflicted , and this forms a most unwelcome image . Of course , the movie gives a one sided picture as it has been produced by American Christians . Was Graham Staines really using money to convert the downtrodden ? God knows , but certainly burning him and his two young sons alive was unforgivable .
Acting and emotions wise , the movie scores and has a sentimental effect on the audience . Photography and colours are decent . Music wise , the movie again does very well and the music does a good job of heightening the emotional aspect of the movie .
Verdict---Good .
4
The Curse Of La Llorona
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Review has spoilers
This movie is based on the Mexican folklore of a woman called La Llorona ( played by Marisol Ramirez ) . In the seventeenth century a Mexican woman was deeply in love with her husband , with whom she had two children . But upon learning about his affair with another woman she killed his and her own children in a fit of mad jealousy by drowning them in water in order to take away from her husband what was most precious to him . Now she stalks other people to take away their children from them in order to replace her own lost ones .
Cut to the Los Angeles of the 1970s . Linda Cardellini plays Anna who is a social worker . Anna goes to investigate the disappearance of two children who have been locked up by their mother as they are being stalked by La Llorona . The mother tries to attack Anna but Anna manages to free the children with the help of a police officer . The children are taken to a child services centre , but are attacked there by La Llorona at night and taken away . The mother of the children blames Anna for the disappearance of her children and in revenge prays to La Llorona to take away Anna's children and give her own back . So the spirit now begins to stalk Anna's children .
Anna is directed by a priest to take help of a priest turned shaman named Rafael Olvera ( Raymond Cruz ) who can do rituals to ward off the evil spirit trying to take away her children . As Rafael comes to her house , the woman who had prayed to La Llorona to take away Anna's children also unexpectedly arrives armed with a gun to create trouble . And the spirit of La Llorona is forever stalking the house to take away the children .
The movie does give some scares and jolts as La Llorona constantly makes attempts to take away the children by attacking at the most unexpected junctures . Silences are interspersed with screams of the victims and the spirit leaves red marks on the bodies of the young children even in unsuccessful attempts of taking them away . She tries to drown them in swimming pools and bathtubs just like she drowned her own children . So does Anna and the shaman manage to save the children , and what about the mother who prayed that the children be taken ? Watch the movie for the answers .
Colours , photography , acting . background music is okay but nothing special . But the movie will give some entertainment for aficionados of horror movies like me .
Verdict---Decent .
3
The black prince
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This English Hindi bingual movie is on the life of Maharaja Duleep Singh , the last Maharaja of the Punjab region of India and son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh---who was called Lion of the Punjab .
After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh , within ten years the Sikh empire is overrun by the British and Duleep who is just a child is forcefully taken from the arms of his wailing mother Maharani Jindan ( Shabana Azmi ) and sent to Britain to be raised as a Christian . He is under care of Dr Login and his wife Lady Login . But when he grows up Duleep ( Satinder Sartaj ) inevitably wants to meet his real mother . Maharani Jindan is old when he arrives to India to meet her , but has lost none of her fire . She impresses upon Duleep his royal heritage and reminds him that he was born into the Sikh religion not Christianity . Blue turbaned Sikhs crowd to meet him and he agrees , but the watchful eyes of the british are all around to prevent any anti british activity .
The Maharani accompanies Duleep back to Britain on his request and is acerbic towards his wards---the Login couple . Even though Duleep's hair have already been cut , she asks him to follow his Sikh heritage . Duleep is converted to her thoughts and begins to live more and more like a Sikh . He meets Queen Victoria on many occasions and argues with her that her conquest of his kingdom was nothing but fraud . She is fond of him and calls him her black prince . Maharani Jindan says that he is a King not a prince on hearing this .
Later on the Maharani passes away , but not before she has instilled the fire of nationalism in Duleep . He gets married to a white Christian woman and they have children with Christian names . It was unclear to me as to why he married a western woman ; was it because he was forbidden to marry a Sikh by his british wards or he had grown up in the habits of a british gentleman and could not adjust with a Sikh ? Anyway he soon begins to wear a turban and follow Sikh customs much to the chagrin of his wife .
Soon Duleep invites fellow Sikh revolutionaries to Britain and dreams of getting back his kingdom by colluding with other Indian revolutionaries . An old european general of his father gifts a sword given by Maharaja Ranjit Singh himself back to Duleep to start the revolution against the british . Duleep forms a plan to go to Russia from France and invade Punjab from Afghanistan . He is told that Sikhs in british Indian army will revolt on his bidding . He abandons his crying wife and goes to France , where he has a relationship with another woman and children from her too ; totally he has nine children . He and his female companion take train to Russia where they are promised a meeting with the czar , but the czar refuses to meet .
Duleep has sent his men to India to collude with bengali revolutionaries , but the british infiltrate their ranks and all are caught and thrown in prison . Duleep has to return bankrupt to Britain after his attempt to go to India is stopped by the british by making the ship's captain arrest him , though he shows respect to Duleep's royal status by refusing to put him in fetters .
Duleep's last days are in sadness and put me in pathos . His son begs him to ask Queen Victoria to resume his privy purse which has been terminated due to his anti british activities . The proud Duleep refuses . Duleep is denied a Sikh cremation after death even though he wished that . He is buried according to Christian rituals . We are informed that the struggle to bring back his bones to be cremated according to Sikh rituals is on even today .
The movie has decent acting and grand settings . Photography is decent and colours are okay . Background music and songs in punjabi language are nice . But the struggle of Duleep Singh against the british has an air of futility about it as it happened in the late nineteenth century when the british grip over India was strongest . He died in 1893 and remarkably none of his nine children had heirs . The line of Maharaja Ranjit Singh died out .
Verdict---Okay .
Two and a half stars out of five .
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
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This one is to be liked only by those immersed in cinema. The whole movie seems somewhat pointless and the violence that we associate with Tarantino comes only at the end . Were the hippies taking revenge for the character played by Brad Pitt's visit to the ranch where they stayed six months before when he questioned the owner of the ranch about them or it was just a coincidence that they came barging in to kill some Hollywood people six months later ? I was entertained since I am immersed in cinema. But not sure lay public will enjoy the film because basically nothing exciting happens in parts of the film . Just life of Hollywood folks in late sixties. The action comes at the end and is pretty violent with an entire hippie woman getting burnt to cinder by flamethrower . And the Male characters then act cool as if it was a normal day out for them .
The two huge stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt enjoy real chemistry with each other in the film with the character played by Pitt playing chauffeur to Leonardo DiCaprio's character. Leonardo is a reel life tough guy but brad is the real life toughie ; beats up a character playing Bruce Lee in a scene smashing him in a car denting it....I mean he just smashes Bruce Lee , THE Bruce lee !! Wait till lee wakes up from his grave hearing this !!
But the film falls short of action I felt . More a tribute to Hollywood of the sixties with shootings of westerns and all , and the character played by Leonardo crying out over his spent career....he's a has been and gets drunk a little too much. Also is shown drug intake with the warning about drug intake being dangerous flashing on screens in my country India.
Margot Robbie plays Sharon Tate , a murder victim in real life . However she just prances about in miniskirts in this film and goes to watch her own film in theater to watch audience reaction to her scenes . But I thought the hippie girl who enticed the character played by Brad Pitt to the ranch was sexier and wore even more exposing clothes and moved her body more provocatively .
3
Crawl
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Much of the movie takes place in the crawl space ( underground basement which has enough height only to crawl ) in a home in Florida , USA ; hence the name of the film . This takes place in a hurricane which has brought about massive rains that have flooded the crawl space . A father daughter duo are trapped in the crawl space with waters rising as it rains endlessly .
But the big horror element is that the hurricane and flooding has brought two powerful alligators into the crawl space , and the father daughter duo are in dire danger of becoming a meal for the hungry gators . Outside the house too the full area is teeming with alligators , as a group of looters who come to loot an abandoned ( due to the hurricane ) store discover as they become prey to the ravenous alligators . Similar is the fate of a couple of police officers who come to rescue the stranded duo ; they are eaten alive by the gators .
So it is left to the daughter Haley Keller ( Kaya Scodelario ) to rescue both herself and her father Dave Keller ( Barry Pepper ) from the water ever rising in the crawl space and the hurricane and the alligators hunting them . She is an expert swimmer trained by her father to never give up and has to mightily rely on those skills in order to survive . Finally when they have managed to extricate themselves out of the crawl space after losing a lot of blood , they find the area outside the house flooded with more gators . A little too many gators than what the audience can handle , don't you think ?
But the movie is genuinely terrifying , more scary than horror movies that contain ghosts . Because ghosts probably really don't exist but alligators do , and that's the difference . There were some moments when I wanted to walk out from the cinema hall out of sheer fright of an impending gator attack on an unsuspecting human . Had to hold my nerve to continue watching . It's dark and scary in the crawl space with the gators waiting for the humans to make one wrong move and be attacked in the rising waters .
The whole atmosphere outside the house is well created , rainy and stormy and clouded and totally flooded....floods that have brought the dreaded gators from their homes in the swamps . Also isolated because most of the nearby residents have left because of the impending hurricane . The gators looked more like dinosaurs from Jurassic Park to me , so large and frightening they were .
Photography is good but colours are darkish due to the clouds and rain and lack of light in the crawl space . Background music and acting is all decent . Movie cannot be called memorable but gives lot of on the spot scares and keeps you royally entertained if you like being scared .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
The bonfire of the vanities ( 1990 )
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This film was adapted from Tom Wolfe's novel of the same name , but unlike the novel it was a box office flop and was panned by the critics . Reason---the film showed Tom Hanks' character in a different mold from the novel . The novel showed him to be a mean guy according to those who read it ( I haven't read it ) , but the movie tried to build up sympathy for the character in the audiences' mind . Also the movie was probably panned as it was incorrigibly politically incorrect . Black characters were shown either as toughies or cynically raising the race card for their own benefit .
Tom Hanks plays Sherman McCoy , who is a Wall street bond trader who is rich and lives the american dream . Even better actually . For along with living in a plush apartment with his wife and daughter and travelling in luxurious cars , he also has a sexy mistress played by Melanie Griffith . His wife knows about this and throws jealous taunts at him even when visiting his parents . But Sherman doesn't care . He considers himself as a 'master of the universe' , a term coined by Tom Wolfe .
But one day while driving along with his mistress he takes a wrong turn and lands up in the black dominated area of Bronx . The area is full of fire and violence almost like a war zone and mistress openly asks as to ''where are the white people ?'' . Their way is blocked by a car wheel lying on the road and as Sherman climbs down the car to remove it , he is confronted by two threatening black young men . Mistress takes the wheel and Sherman quickly jumps in , but as she reverses she knocks one black boy down . The couple escape but Sherman wants to go to the police . But mistress refuses fearing expose of their affair for she too is married to a rich old man . To make her refusal sweet she just removes her clothes and shows her luscious bikini body and entices Sherman into bed , something that she does twice in the film with aplomb and you watch mesmerized as Tom Hanks fondles Melanie Griffith's delicious breasts .
But an alcoholic journalist played with comic timing by Bruce Willis comes upon this hit and run case and takes this to the jewish district attorney who is facing flak for too many arrests of blacks for crime , and they decide that the white driver of the car has to be arrested to change the district attorney's image . They are joined by a black demagogic religious leader who organizes crowds demanding justice for the injured black teen who eventually dies . As the car's ownership is traced to Sherman , the case has become a political football and Sherman is sent straight to jail . Huge threatening crowds follow him everywhere after he gets bail and he is asked to vacate his own house due to the fear his neighbours feel due to the crowds surrounding their building . His mistress predictably refuses to acknowledge her responsibility for the hit and run case and his wife leaves him . A white man who considered himself to be Master of his universe has been brought down from his high horse by the teeming non whites whose increasing population he had treated with disdain . It is the bonfire of his vanities....
It is left to the remorse of the journalist played by Bruce Willis to deliver proof of the truth to Sherman in the form of a tape where the mistress has been recorded to admit that it she who was actually driving the car when the hit and run happened . And it is left to an honest black judge played by Morgan Freeman to deliver justice by admitting the tape as evidence in court . And also the judge silences the crowd in the court angry over the judgement by delivering a speech asking not to raise the ethnic card but instead be decent people .
The climax differs from the novel by not showing Sherman ruined by the case . It does not show him punished for his arrogance , for his cheating on his wife , for his meanness as shown in the novel . And the critics have never for given the film for that . Nor did the audiences at that time . But nearly thirty years later , we who have not read the novel can surely be forgiven for not comparing the film to the novel and liking the film . For it has some dialogues delivered with knacky humour and some really complicated situations .
Acting is good by everyone and colours and background music are decent too . So is photography . Era is of the eighties , so no mobile phones are there and computers are only in offices . Life was simple then.... All the criticism the film received had a rebound effect on me as it was better than that and I liked the film more than I should have .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
The mistress of spices ( 2005 )
58011
I went to see this English movie for the dazzling beauty of Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai and was richly rewarded . And beauty lies in simplicity . Rather than wearing western clothes , Aishwarya wears unembroidered sarees and looks divine . The lightness of her eyes melts in the lightness of her hair and the fairness of her skin and I was mesmerized .
Ash ( that's what I call her when I meet her in my dreams in private ) plays Tilo , who is born in Kerala in India which is the heartland of India's spices . She has the ability to foresee things that are going to happen , and for this some bandits try to kidnap her after killing her parents . But she escapes and is washed off the shore of a spice plantation ruled by the first mother ( Zohra Sehgal ) . The first mother directs Tilo's unique abilities of foreseeing the future to use spices to help people gain their desires and ward off evil . Tilo becomes a 'mistress of spices' along with other such mistresses on the plantation .
After she turns into an adult , Tilo is sent to San Francisco bay area to run a store selling spices . She sells spices to people who come to get what they want through getting the right spices from her . But life for a mistress of spices is tough . The first mother has laid several rules for the mistresses . Tilo must not go out of the store , she must not touch her customers , and she must not use the power of the spices for gaining her personal ends . If she does this the spices will disobey her .
Tilo has got several loyal customers who come to her repeatedly to buy spices for their purposes , and solving their personal problems gives her enormous satisfaction as she can see through her special abilites as to what will happen to them when the spices are given to them . But what about her own personal life ? One day an American guy named Doug ( Dylan Mcdermott ) has a minor accident in front of her shop and she bandages his wound using her spices as medicine inside the bandage . As she does so , she feels an instant attraction for him .
Doug begins to come to the spice shop again and again and Tilo begins to lose control over herself as she feels drawn to him . She allows him to touch her , thus breaking the rule of the first mother . She loses her power over her spices and the spices she gives to her loyal customers have the opposite effect of bringing more trouble for them . But one day Doug's girlfriend vists the spice shop for improving her relationship with her boyfriend . Inspite of the jealousy she feels for the girlfriend , Tilo decides to give the right spice for improving the relationship thus indicating that she is giving up on Doug .
But Doug has grown attached to Tilo and he visits her again and confesses his deepest secret about the death of his native american mother to her , thus arousing her sympathy and love . And his girlfriend visits again , saying that Doug probably loves someone else anyway ( without knowing that it is Tilo herself ) and that she is breaking off with Doug . The way is cleared for Tilo to be with Doug , except for the big fact that she will have to lose all power over her beloved spices for breaking the rule of the first mother disallowing touch with customers . For Tilo wants to make deep passionate love with Doug .
Torn between her love for Doug and her responsibility as mistress of spices , Tilo decides to spend one night soaked in passion with Doug and then burn herself to death by setting her spices on fire . However her willingness for sacrifice changes the rules and the first mother comes to her in a vision allowing her power to continue over the spices . But only after Tilo has really tried to burn herself to death along with her spices.
Before this comes the scene of Tilo preparing to entice Doug for making love , and this is the only time in the movie Ash has tried to look attractive . Red saree with smooth open back and red lipstick with her hair opened in all their glory make Ash look simply mouthwatering . And then she opens her saree as Doug starts to kiss her and her bare navel with belly chain give you the hots .
The movie evokes the magic of the mystical orient ; the spices and the woman who can help people by giving them mixtures of spices to ingest as she has the power to look into the future---all this is pure fantasy involving the exotic image of my land India . And it works upto a certain extent . The movie got bad reviews by western press as they could not understand the Indian obsession with spices but Indians did like the film . My movie watching experience was heightened by the presence of the stunning Aishwarya Rai .
Colours wise the movie scores as the spices come in a variety of colours . Photography is good too , and acting is decent by all . Background music and songs are okay .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
Doctor Sleep
58178
This film is a sequel to 'The shining' movie , which was based on Stephen King's novel .
Dan ( Ewan Mc Gregor ) has had a traumatic childhood and arrives at New Hampshire to escape from it and the alcoholism stemming from it . He has a special psychic power called the 'shine' and a local doctor realises this and makes him an orderly in his hospital . He is able to ease the death of people who are going to die , their impending death being conveyed to him by a cat going and sitting on their bed . A patient calls him Dr sleep because of his ability to make dying people look upon their death as some kind of sleep .
He is however contacted by a young girl called Abra ( Kyliegh Curran ) who has a more luminous shine , and this attracts the attention of psychic vampires who feed off this kind of shine , and more importantly are starving for it . They are led by a beautiful vampire called Rose the Hat ( Rebecca Ferguson ) . They have already killed a young boy with this shine to feed off his shine and also intend to inhale the shine of Abra .
So Dan and Abra combine to kill the vampires one by one , and the final showdown with Rose occurs in the same place that holds many traumatic memories for Dan . Only one of the three people involved will survive the showdown .
The movie takes us in the world of people with semi magical powers and makes it believable for us . The movie is two and a half hours long and it does manage to hold our interest for a considerable time . Towards the end it begins to feel over stretched and too long , until a final twist manages to get our attention back .
There is considerable fighting in the movie plus some chills of horror and my opinion oscillated between calling it thriller or horror . Photography is first class and so are the colours and acting . Background music is good and it stops and you can hear only beats when something is going to happen . Only thing is that the movie drags too long .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Midway
58298
The movie takes us on a considerable sweep of history in the second world war . It begins before the Japanese air attack on Pearl harbour , when Japanese admiral Yamamoto ( Jun Kunimura ) warns the Americans that if they threaten their oil supplies then Japan will have to go to war . The war begins for America as Pearl harbour in Hawai gets bombarded by Japan's carrier based air fleet . The visuals of the attack are well picturised with bombs falling and warships going up in yellow flames and anti aircraft fire coming rapidly at the attacking aircraft like tracer bullets .
In revenge America bombs the Japanese capital Tokyo by bombers led by Lt colonel Doolittle flying from aircraft carriers and landing in Japanese controlled China as they don't have the range to come back . At the end of the movie we are informed that the Japanese killed 250000 Chinese in revenge for helping the bomber crew escape . There is a debate going in favour of the army in Japan but the Japanese are so stung by the raid that they plan a naval invasion of Midway islands in the pacific .
As the Japanese fleet of four aircraft carriers closes on to Midway , the Americans have used intercepts of Japanese signals to find out their target . They also correctly find out location of their fleet , while the Japanese are unaware of this fact . This is the only advantage lying with the Americans , whose carrier borne fighter planes are outclassed in technology and numbers by the Japanese fighter planes . Also the Americans have only two aircraft carriers fully fit and the third is pressganged into service even though she ( ships are referred to as 'she' many times by sailors ) has a huge hole in her flight deck , caused by a Japanese bomb in the battle of the Coral sea .
As the two sides press their advantages , it's the Americans who surprise the Japanese fleet by dive bombing them by dive bombers . The whole act of dive bombing has been repeatedly picturised beautifully in the film . The fighter plane begins it's steep dive on it's target from a great height . As it begins to close in , it is challenged by swathes of anti aircraft fire that must be terrifying for anyone in the cockpit . Running this gauntlet , the fighter plane dives to the height at which the bomb has to be released . After it releases the bomb , the plane has the unenviable task of turning up again from it's dive while the warship explodes in flames and acrid smoke which threatens even the plane flying just above it .
The Japanese have their own martial traditions , and their commanding officers go down with their ships refusing to get rescued because the responsibility of failure lies on them and honour is a valued thing in the orient . As four Japanese carriers are bombed to oblivion and sunk , finally the advantage shifts to the Americans in the Pacific war .
The movie is action packed and will be enjoyed by aficionados of war movies . It also takes us into the war rooms where war strategies are planned between the rival forces . Photography is great and the warships are shown sailing in full glory in the open sea silhouetted against the sun . Music is enthralling towards the end and acting by everyone is okay.
Verdict---Good.
3.5
Hotel Mumbai
58597
This Australian film shows the horrifying ordeal of guests and staff trapped within Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai , when terrorists from Pakistan attacked Mumbai in 2008 . It is a detailed picturization of the slaughter of innocent people in the hotel , showing the utter brutality of the terrorists and their handlers sitting in Pakistan with whom they are in contact by radio . The terrorists and their handlers speak the Punjabi language , so they have been recruited from the province of Punjab in Pakistan . Their language is full of profanities , as is expected from such scum.
Yes , scum they are . Expendable to their masters , they have been brainwashed with hatred for non muslims and turned into killing machines armed with Kalashnikovs which they fire without regard for human life from the beginning at CST railway station to the Taj. They have been ordered to blow the brains out of westerners after making them stand in front of windows so that the assembled public and press below can see with terror . Amazingly , one of them shows the decency to not touch a killed woman inappropriately even though his handler from Pakistan is screaming on radio that she is a non muslim and therefore can be touched .
They come from a small boat and catch taxis to reach CST and then the Taj. The movie shows some of the staff in the Taj sacrificing their own lives to protect innocent gusts because of the philosophy of the Taj hotel that 'guest is God' . The two main members of the staff trying to protect guests are chef Oberoi ( Anupam Kher ) and a sikh employee of the Taj called Arjun ( Dev Patel ) . Arjun explains to a guest who suspects him to be a terrorist due to his turban as to the importance of turban to a sikh but is later forced to remove it to tie a guest's wound , such are the travesties of fate . The two shift many guests to the exclusive club called chambers lounge , which is hidden . But eventually the terrorists reach there too , and mayhem ensues even as many guests do manage to flee the gunfire.
The movie shows one or two personal stories , like that of a interreligious western couple ( wife muslim and husband Christian ) who have arrived with their baby's nanny and are in the restaurant when terror strikes . It shows their desperate attempt to unite with their baby and nanny who are in their room . In the end the husband (played by Armie Hammer) is shot dead after being held as hostage in a room with a wounded terrorist . The woman ( played by Nazanin Boniadi ) is spared because she begins reciting the verse from the quran . A Russian former special operative named Vasili ( Jason Issacs ) who has fought in Afghanistan is shot dead too , and the movie shows his ordeal in the Taj before being shot dead .
A most brutal scene is that of receptionists at the Taj being forced at gunpoint to ask guests to open their doors by phoning them , and the guests being shot dead on door opening by terrorists. When the receptionists refuse to phone any more , their brains are blown out . At this point interval of the movie strikes .
Post interval , the carnage becomes more gruesome. The movie shows how ill prepared the Mumbai police were and only a handful of them show the courage to enter the Taj , led by a police officer (played by Nagesh Bhosale) . But their old rifles and revolvers are no match to the terrorists' firepower and most of them are shot. Help from Delhi is still hours away . The terrorists begin to destroy the Taj by lobbying grenades everywhere . They have never seen such luxury in their lives . Never seen a commode in a washroom .
Finally commandos arrive to flush them out . One of the terrorists phones his father in Pakistan one last time only to realise that the promised money has not reached his father . But that does not stop his killing spree and he and others continue to pour out bullets from their seemingly inexhaustible supply of ammunition . The movie filled me with rage at the then government's inability to retaliate and made me a convinced supporter of right wing parties who promise retaliation to such acts .
Acting wise colours wise photography wise the movie is most decent . Background music is decent too . The violence is appalling and I was shocked by it even though I had seen the entire TV coverage at that time . The role of TV in showing everything live and thus alerting the handlers and terrorists to everything is appalling too .
Verdict---It's a Must see .
5
chawhee
12-01-19, 08:25 AM
I loved Hotel Mumbai as well. Trying to find a way to catch Hotel Rwanda to compare since I've never seen it.
Bombshell
59719
The movie is about the downfall of Roger Ailes ( John Lithgow ) , the powerful head of Fox news . This occurs due to sexual harassment charges brought about by Gretchen Carlson ( Nicole Kidman ) , a former employee fired from Fox news . She has foreseen her removal from her job and has already met with lawyers who ask her to collect testimony from other women for indicting Ailes .
At first Gretchen is not able to find other women to give evidence against Ailes , but another employee of Fox named Megyn Kelly ( Charlize Theron ) who herself has been a victim of sexual harassment by Ailes does manage to get other women to admit that they were sexually harassed by Ailes . Chief among them is Kyla Pospisil ( Margot Robbie ) , who has been asked to pull up her skirt up to her undergarments by Ailes ( who breathes heavily upon seeing her exposed in such a manner ) who warns her that he will be unforgiving if she told this to anyone else .
As evidence mounts against Ailes , he at first predictably denies the accusations and is supported by his wife . But when confronted by Carlson's recorded conversations with him he is forced by Fox owner Rupert Murdoch to resign . His very entry into Fox news building is banned and clearly it is a very unceremonious exit for him .
The movie rests on authentic portrayals of the harassed women by the three lead actresses and the female star cast gives a very good performance . John Lithgow is stellar in his performance . He has both good and bad sides , taking advantage of vulnerable young women fearing for the security of their jobs and promotions in their career to sexually harass them . But also he helps those who are loyal to him by even paying their hospital bills and standing with them in difficult times .
There have been many sexual harassment allegations , but why does the movie focus only on Fox news ? Is it because Fox news is the vanguard of the conservatives and right wing supporters who are political rivals of the liberal establishment ? As a right wing person myself , the laudable goal of the film is tarnished by this suspicion .
Photography and colours of the film are good . The ladies all look elegant , and background music of the film is effective . Dialogues go a long way in making the film effective and have been written well bringing tension in several situations in the film .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
chawhee
01-19-20, 10:53 PM
Glad to hear Bombshell has more substance than just being a cheap shot at a network that receives a lot of criticism. And I'm a liberal myself.
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