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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 .

Well said Ash, it's been a long while since I seen this one, but I remembered it as being something special.

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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:love: The whole 3 movies :yup:

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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 .

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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 .

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 .

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 .

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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 .

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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 .

That's what I most look forward to:)

Actually there is also a rape scene . The lead actress gets raped.

Awesome!

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Death Wish

https://www.dailywire.com/sites/defa...?itok=_pvQEzjS

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 .

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We had a similar experience with Red Sparrow, and If I get my work done today I might go see Death Wish

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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 .

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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 .

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A Quiet Place



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 .

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Rampage

https://scontent-bom1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...ae&oe=5B621C20

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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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Solid review of Searching. The twist(s) definitely made this movie captivating.

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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 .

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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 .

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 :).

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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:)

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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.

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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 .

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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 .

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The mistress of spices ( 2005 )



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 .

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Doctor Sleep



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 .

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Midway



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.

Hotel Mumbai




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 .

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I loved Hotel Mumbai as well. Trying to find a way to catch Hotel Rwanda to compare since I've never seen it.

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Bombshell



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 .

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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.