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Just wanted to let you know I'm sitting here alone and I felt compelled to read a few of your reviews out loud to myself. The punctuation... in particular the ellipses... make this the most dramatic review thread ever.
hope you both enjoyed them anyway



Two reviews of movies based on Frederick Forsythe's novels--

Day of the jackal---


I saw this 40 year old movie on VCD at home on a lazy sunday --- instead of going to the cinema hall....err , multiplex---since no really good movie seems to be in the cinemas....err multiplexes .

The movie is based on the classic novel of the same name by Frederick Forsythe ; and mind you , the novel is one of the great thriller novels of all time . The movie is of course an abridged version of the novel .

The plot is placed ten years earlier than the movie , and the year is 1962---exactly fifty years ago .

That year Algeria was liberated from French colonial rule . To give some of the history behind the plot , the French didnt leave Algeria without a fight . In fact it was a bloody fight . When the Algerians revolted against the French , the French used brutal torture to quell the rebellion in what was known as the battle of Algiers ( search google for that ). But this aroused international sympathy for the Algerian cause and when world war hero Charles De Gaulle was elected as president of France he announced that he was going to give independence to Algeria .

But their was one impediment to this---the French who had settled in Algeria who formed a hefty 10 percent of Algeria's population and who believed in the slogan Algeria Francaise , meaning Algeria is France....
And they resolved to kill De Gaulle , the president who dared to think of giving freedom to Algeria .

After numerous attempts to kill De Gaulle ( and here the movie begins ) , they decided to hire a contract killer---a man who for a hefty sum of money would kill Charles De Gaulle......

......And since its a Frederick Forsythe novel , but naturally its an englishman who is chosen......

......And what an englishman......
All blond and blue eyed and lean and fit ---one wonders why he chose to be a contract killer and not an actor or model.....oh I forgot that he IS an actor just playing the role of a contract killer for a movie

....And he is a true professional.....a man on a mission.....
And when he takes up a job he acts like a man possessed......

But the moolah he demands is so much that the organisation that has hired him has to robs banks and jewellery stores and other places to get the required money---thus alerting the French govt to the fact that they are planning something big....
.....And what could be more big in this political atmosphere that the assassination of De Gaulle......
So the govt begins its hunt for the potential killer.....

But thats hardly going to deter our man on a mission---who uses the code name JACKAL.....

He uses various tricks to get multiple passports including stealing the passport of one man in broad daylight , and then kills the man who made the passports for him for daring to blackmail him---no one blackmails the jackal without incurring his wrath ( mind it !! )

And the jackal gets a telescopic gun made for him that can fit in the pipe of a car or the walking stick of a handicapped person....and finetunes it himself by spending hours in practice in the jungle.....

And he is a master of changing his disguise and his appearance like a chameleon would do.....

And using these disguises he crosses borders of nations with ease fooling guards and border security.....

.....And when the police recognise his car he just changes its colour by spraypainting it himself in the woods on his way to Paris......

Both women and gay men swoon on his chiselled features....
But the jackal has not come for fun and games and he has to kill them all to cover his tracks---leaving a pile of dead bodies behind him along the way.....

One word about the killings though---the violence is only hinted at and aficionados of slambang action may pause to frown....there are no brutal fights or bloodcurdling screams in the movie.....the action is all cerebral and the movie is a cerebral thriller.....

But the jackal has not contended for one man---a French police officer who hides a razorsharp brain behind his affable nature ; and who is on his tracks , sometimes missing to catch the jackal by inches....

The jackal is saved in these situations because the organisation he works for has a mole among the very persons the police officer reports to---and who informs the jackal of the police's every move.....

So the game of cat and mouse continues....

But the big question is---will the jackal succeed in his mission , or will the police be able to stop him ?

That can be answered only on liberation day , when De Gaulle will come to witness a parade in the capital city .

And only if the jackal manages to kill the president on the day will that day be known as the day of the jackal.....

So will it be known as that ??

Watch the movie for that.....
I found it a worthy watch......

rating---


The dogs of war---

The tin-pot republic of Zangaro---typical specimen of the hellhole that is Africa.....

Its ruled by a typically brutal dictator called Simba....oh actually it is Zimba....

But Zimba Simba who cares......they are all the same in the banana republics of Africa arent they.....

He's come to power by killing all his enemies , and to make sure no one entertains any future thought of enemity to him , he kills them before they have such thoughts.....

And he lives lavishly with his harem in the midst of his garrisoning troops in their barracks while his country is awash in a sea of crime and injustice.....

Into this godforsaken place comes our hero---posing as a wildlife photographer.....

He's instantly suspected for what he is---for who would come to this hellish place taking photographs if he is not sent by Zimba's enemies for taking measure of Zimba's power and the potential of destroying it.....

......And so he is packed off to jail where amidst myriad tortures , he meets the leader of the democratic movement of Zangaro who is cooling his heels in jail for the past 4 years for preaching democracy.....

But our hero's a white man---a citizen of the United States , and that country wont take the death of its countryman so lightly.....

So he cant be killed and has to be sent home.....

A home where the people who have sent him are waiting for his report on the situation in Zangaro......

For them he is just a mercenary , a dog of war......

.....And such dogs are expendible.......

But before such dogs are expended they have their uses.....

And his use to his handlers is to assemble a pack of dogs like himself and start a revolution in that little corner of Africa called zangaro.....

.....And their plan is to prop up a suitably black president who allows them to loot the mineral resources of his country and make money.....

But our dog is a dog with a mind of his own.....

And above all he's a good dog.....

He's not got long to live due to a fatal disease, and so has no use for the money his handlers are offering him.....

And at the end of his life he wants to do something good for humanity.....

But firstly , does he succeed in bringing revolution to Zangaro ??

Happily he does , and the director torches alight Frederick Forsythe's dull novel by moving away from the script and showing some real action unlike the novel which concentrated only on the planning of the coup and disappointingly stopped before some fighting broke out.....

As President Zimba's palace is swept by a hailstorm of firepower and the invaders fire grenades , rockets and bullets into the garrison protecting Zimba , the question is not whether Zimba will go but in how short a time will Zimba's power collapse.....

But the bigger question is---what is our hero's plan to put idealism in action in Zangaro ??

And will the people who financed him take his betrayal lying down ??

For answers to it , watch THE DOGS OF WAR.....

I found it a decent watch.....

rating---



The wolf of wall street---

Thank god I don't play on the stock market.....
The kind of greedy selfish and gone case people who are shown to be part of the profession called stock brokers in this film would make a good person quit playing in shares after seeing this film anyway....

The moment Jordan Belfort ( played by Leonardo Di caprio ) enters the profession he receives the following advice from his boss---'' After you have earned your client some money , make him invest the same in buying some more shares on the stock market . So his increased money will remain only on paper . On the other hand you take real moolah in cash , so that your money is real..... ''
And among other advice he gives for fleecing innocent clients , he also recommends regular intake of drugs and sex with prostitutes in order to keep the mind sharp....

With this advice being taken to heart by the leading character , the movie is set on a course of showcasing of unscrupled fraud , insane drug fuelled debauchery , whoring and whatnot....

Of course , it is to the credit of the director that the whole thing is shown in a terribly funny manner , keeping the audience in splits all the time....
Even though it's a long movie , there's hardly a dull moment....
.....And as if to make the dull moments too come alive , Leonardo gives an energetic performance as the man who earns a lot of ill gotten money and fraudulent success but does not know where to stop . Evidently he has not heard of the saying---'' quit while you are ahead ''....

Of course , Jordan Belfort as portrayed in the movie is a totally '' gone case '' person , and it is to the credit of Leonardo Di Caprio that he has put up a convincing performance of such a wild character .

The director does a commendable job too , making us believe that Jordan was some kind of hero inspite of the things he did , and in the end you do feel sympathy for the lead character....
This inspite of the fact that he has no scruples about dumping his first wife for a more beautiful one , and cheating even on her by going to prostitutes and hitting on her old aunt....

The drug addiction of Jordan gives the director ample scope to raise some real laughs--- especially in the scene where he and his associate try a new drug called ' lemmons ' which kicks in late and gives rise to a situation which would have been called terrible if it had been not filmed so brilliantly funnily---full marks to the movie makers for showing a potentially life threatening situation in a comic manner....
Even more hilariously , Jordan wants to have his drugs even when the ship he is sailing on is sinking and in fact dreams of dying in a drug fuelled stupor....

Margot Robbie raises the hots in her role as the second wife by going fully nude and even rubbing her pussy in one scene , but the real triumph of the movie makers is in showing crooked minded people as lovable characters in the movie . In real life you wouldn't want to be near such people but there is an endearing quality about the way they have been shown in the film---even the drug dealers....

Eventually the law in the form of the FBI does try to catch up to these frauds , and Jordan shows the chutzpah of trying to bribe off FBI officers too....

Of course , he is a hero for some people whom he helped become rich . But it's an empire built on shady deals and law breaking scams....
And when the law does catch up with Jordan , it creates havoc even in his personal life leaving it in tatters....

So does he and the motley crowd he has assembled around him get the just desserts for their perfidies ?? And what is Jordan's role if any in getting his colleagues behind bars ??
And does the tiger change his stripes.....In other words does Jordan come out of all this as a changed man ??
Watch the film for that....
It was certainly one of the better outings I made to the movie theater this season....

Verdict---good .

rating---



The American---

This is an art film that has been unfortunately been marketed in India as an action movie ,so many will leave the theater disappointed.

Actually it is a cold hard look at the cold hard world of an professional assassin .

It starts with George Clooney ( the assassin ) taking a vacation with a girlfriend in Sweden , but he is hunted down by his enemies here too ,and has to shoot them .But his girlfriend too has seen this ,and he has to shoot her too ,so that no-one who saw this killing is left alive.........

...........And poof !! goes also any sympathy you may want to feel about Clooney's character ( right from the beginning of the movie itself ).......what sympathy are you going to feel about a man who shot dead his lover ??

............But thats exactly the way the director wants it..........to get the audience to know how it is to be an assassin in real life..........

This life has no thrills ,no excitement ,no fun ,no james bond like lifestyle......

Instead ,its a brutal ,long ,unforgiving fight for survival against enemies who want revenge .........death is constantly round the corner ,and the wait for death is as taut as it gets........

There is no practically no music to the movie .........yet the silence is enough to convey the grim tension that Clooney has to live under.

His handler sends him to Italy to escape from his enemies.......but the life of tension is too much for Clooney ......he wants a way out of this business......

But is there a way ever out of this business ??........His handler asks him to do one last job ........to make a very quiet weapon for a stunningly beautiful woman..........But what Clooney does not know is that he is crafting his own noose........as the weapon is meant to kill him.......

George Clooney emerges as a man who wants to remain aloof from everyone in this movie ........as those who come close to him also come close to death.......

......And yet , even though he speaks very few words ,he conveys the desire that everyone feels for companionship..........in the end he falls for a beautiful prostitute.........but its far too late..........

George has delivered a quiet but superb performance in the movie........watch the scene in which he catches the priest who wants him to confess off guard ,and makes him confess his own sins.

But this strictly is for art-movie parallel cinema lovers........dont expect any thrills........

rating---



Devil---

'' The devil takes care of his own ''.......evidently not......

At least not in this movie ,where the devil plays the role of god ,bringing to justice some evil doers ........

........But it is the devil's way of delivering justice , after all ........and the devil's way is a dirty death........

A group of people gets trapped in a elevator in a high-rise .

Mysteriously ,one by one they begin to get killed ,as police watch helplessly on their screens via a camera in the elevator .

As the identities of all who are trapped become clear ,it's clear all of them are evil , in one way or the other.......

But those watching on the screen are haunted by their own past........

The devil has evidently chosen his characters with care.......

Only confession of ones sins can give hope........

........For confession can bring out the god in those who have been wronged......

.....And only god can forgive.........

Manoj Night Shyamalan has delivered a uncomplicated thriller that is not too heavy on the senses ,or the intellect , but keeps you interested throughout.

Verdict--watchable.

rating---



You will meet a tall dark stranger---

This is the first film I saw which has been directed by Woody Allen , and its full of extra-marital relationships , of which Woody must know a lot considering his personal life.......

Because anyone in India doesn't know this , let me tell that he and actress Mia Farrow had a long standing relationship , and they raised a lot of adopted children , from many countries , including a little girl from Korea .This girl was raised as his adopted daughter , and he technically had a father-daughter relationship with her ( though he was not her actual father--the girl was an orphan he and Mia had picked up from a visit to Korea ), but as she grew up he began to take sexual interest in her , and when she was twenty , he broke up with Mia Farrow and openly began to have sex with this girl ,who was still technically his daughter , and not even half his age .Later he married this girl.

Mia was so hurt that she sent him a birthday cake with her and their other adopted children's names on it encased in hearts , which were being broken by arrows !! The situation raised a furore , and magazines like TIME and NEWSWEEK ran articles discussing whether a father could have sex with his adopted ( though not legally ) daughter , even though she was not his natural child .

Coming to the film ,its a funny ,though not comedy film on extra-marital relationships , people flitting from one relationship to another.......good for a light fun-filled evening........

The reason I wrote more about director Woody Allen's personal life than about the film is obvious.......his personal life is way much more interesting than the film !!

rating---



The hole 3D---

A mother and her two sons move in to a house in a small town from the big city.

In the basement the two sons discover a hole in the ground , and upon opening the doors that keep the hole locked ,they find that the hole is bottomless ;anything thrown into it keeps on going , it leads to infinity.....

But the real power of the hole is that , if you look at it , your worst fears are realised--the thing that you fear worst appears in front of you......

But what are these people from the city doing in some hick town ??

Well , they are running away from something they wanna forget......

And with the hole coming handy in making your worst fears come alive , they are about to be confronted with the very things they have come to the town to escape from......

Helping our friends along in the is the friendly neighborhood blonde , who looks lissome and curvaceous on 3D when she ( occasionally )wears bikinis.

The film gives some scares upto the middle third ,though they can be enjoyed only in digital sound and 3D.

Towards the end however ,the film meanders , and the build up does not end with a bang.....

Verdict--okay , if you are not expecting too much.....

rating---



Black swan---

Natalie Portman plays a beautiful , fragile , delicate ballerina who is obsessed with perfection . She reaches the top of the profession after she is chosen to play lead role in the ballet Swan lake .

But she feels that her mother , who is a failed ballerina herself , is jealous of her , and doesn't want her to succeed . And has a hunch that another ballerina , seductively played by Mila Kunis , is out to oust her from the position of lead performer by seducing the director of the ballet ( played by Vincent Cassell ) , who himself is a sleazy guy .

And what are those blood-stained scratches appearing on her back every morning ??

Things are not quite what they seem to be.......

All the makings of a thriller movie , eh......or is it really one ??

The photography is terrific , and makes feel that something ominous is going to happen in every frame of the film . Acting is class--by everyone .

Verdict-- good stuff .

rating---



No strings attached---

In this film Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman decide to have a relationship of casual sex with no strings attached.....of emotion ,that is--become sexfriends or fcukbuddies as they call it .

But of course , love has to come in to make the film interesting ,or rather to get it moving .

Actually , the first part ,where they are into casual sex is more funny , and raises quite a few laughs .

After the interval , they fall in love , but the movie becomes somewhat sentimental , and the director loses his grip a little.......a few laughs are still raised , but clearly the first half was better .

verdict--its still watchable , anyway.

rating---



The rum diary---

As the publicity says , nothing in the movie is in moderation--especially the drinking......

There's plenty of boozing boozing and more boozing....

.....And there's drunks raising hell everywhere and not paying their drinking bills.....

There's even a shot of drunks filling their mouths with alcohol and then spitting it out forcefully on a lighter to create a ball of fire coming from the mouth....

......And getting hauled up in courtroom for that.....

.....Only to vomit in front of the judge !!

And there plenty of fast cars and one even faster woman......

Yeah , the woman.....

A red hot blonde who smoulders fire from head to toe.....

.....And she lights up every scene she walks in.....

Dancing with free abandon in parties.....

Taking her clothes off for men.....

They call her Chenault in the film , but whenever they call her name it curiously sounded Chinaal to me..... ( I hope you know that it means '' loose charactered woman '' in hindi !!)

Hell ,there's even Adolf Hitler's voice bellowing as a old gramophone player suddenly cranks up....

Ooops !! I forgot to add the cockfights adding to the entertainment....

Everything for everyone....

For a person who does not drink much like me , watching chinaal( )...err...Chenault itself was worth it.....

But for those who get a high just watching others drink and raise hell.....well ,this is the movie for them.....

And what about the story ??

Well , Johnny Depp is a journo who lands in Puerto Rico in the 1950s and amidst all the boozing ,uncovers a scam there....

But the story leads nowhere and the ending is disappointing.....

Verdict--If you are not bothered about the disappointing ending , then its good for some laughs .

rating---



Lord Mountbatten , the last viceroy---

The last viceroy tells the story of the last but momentous chapter in the history of British rule over India---of the end of the empire in a bloodbath of epic proportions .

Lord Louis Mountbatten arrives in India with his wife Edwina to close the 175 year old rule of Great Britain over the Indian subcontinent---the jewel in the King's crown .

He arrives just as a sea of violence is about to erupt in India---for led by the ambitious and powerhungry Muhammad Ali Jinnah , the muslims in the subcontinent are not only demanding the carving out of the nation of Pakistan , but they are also baying for the hindus' blood.....
......For the nation of Pakistan has to live upto its name---pak means pure in urdu , and what better way to make it pure than to ethnically cleanse it of all the infidels who dared inhabit it......

The hindus on the other hand , are led by the apostle of nonviolence---the ' great soul ' mahatma Gandhi who has made himself great by teaching a pacifist ideology and taught the hindus to bow and acceed to the muslims' every demand , including the creation of Pakistan .
But Gandhi has such a hold over the mind of the hindus due to his saintly behaviour that it is said that the capital of India is not at Delhi , but at wherever Gandhi is camping !!

......And this Gandhi is not there to greet Mountbatten as he alights from his plane ,for he has gone to bihar in one of his hopeless attempts to create communal amity between hindus and muslims---a fact which erks Edwina Mountbatten .

On the other hand , she is mightily pleased with the reception given to her by the future prime minister of India Nehru , and this leads to not only mutual attraction between them but a fullscale affair.....
All this happens under the watchful eye of Louis Mountbatten , who not only takes it all in his stride , but also develops a liking for Nehru himself !!

On the other hand , Mountbatten is not impressed by the personality of Jinnah , whom he grows to detest....
While Nehru is all charm , Jinnah is cold and forbidding , and the viceroy finds him quite extravagant in his demands for his new nation .

But first things first , and Mountbatten has to make a tour of the north west frontier . Here on landing , he is confronted by savage pathans in the thousands , all well armed and screaming for being given the Pakistan they want.
Mountbatten is well prepared for this , as he disarmingly waves at the barbaric horde wearing a muslimtype green dress , making them think he has acceeded to their demands and they are appeased without violence !

As everywhere Mountbatten tours he sees scenes of muslims butchering hindus , he not only concludes that Pakistan must be given , but also feels that the British must pull out of India before mayhem is unleashed and thereby makes a fatal mistake---he brings forward the date of declaration of independence from june 1948 to august 1947 , leaving the state machinery no time to cope with the mammoth task of partition .
......For not only is the nation to be partitioned , but govt property has to be divided ; but above all no proper arrangements are made to garrison the state of punjab , where post partition violence is expected .

Mountbatten does make a last attempt to convince Jinnah of the cabinet mission plan of a united by loosely federated India , but Jinnah is unrelenting.....
The ' great soul ' Gandhi goes one step forward by offering Jinnah the prime ministership of undivided India , but Sardar Patel simply refuses to entertain this idea ( thank god !! imagine Jinnah as India's PM..... )

The friendship between the Mountbatten couple and Nehru increases in the cool climes of Shimla , the summer capital of the British raj , where Nehru and Edwina find time to romance......
But Nehru's temper explodes when Mountbatten shows him the future plan of India---it envisages total balkanisation of the subcontinent as the princely states are left to choose to remain independent . Mountbatten has to sooth Nehru by removing that option , leaving them to join either India or Pakistan .

Jinnah is another matter altogether---he is unwavering and says that the Pakistan given to him by Mountbatten is divided into two wings with no link to east Pakistan---he calls it motheaten.....
But Mountbatten proves a tough negotiater and forces Jinnah to accept his partition plan at the meeting of representatives of all religions by forcing him to nod slightly in acceptance of the plan .

The die is cast , and Sir Cyril Radcliffe is given 5 weeks to draw the map diving the nation , giving precious little time for minorities on both sides to shift to the nation where their community is in majority .

The day the Indians have been waiting for a thousand years arrives as the nation awakes to life and freedom at midnight when the world is asleep---in Nehru's words , at least .
Mountbatten invites the press to take photos as the Indians blow conches of triumph , and to his surprise Future president Rajendra Prasad toasts King George with a glass of wine on this august occasion.....

But independence unleashes a torrent of violence as trains carrying dead hindus and sikhs come to India---and hindus and sikhs unleash bloody revenge . Mountbatten's mistake of bringing the independence date forward has produced terrible results......
Gandhi's attempt to save muslims in India only makes them spit on him....

But Nehru sees no choice but to ask Mountbatten to continue as governor general . This is opposed by Edwina who feels she might get too deeply involved with Nehru if this sojourn in India continues .

But Mountbatten's continuance proves lucky for India as he answers Nehru's desperate plea to save his home state of Kashmir from pathan irregulars sent by Pakistan to invade it by sending the Indian army after the maharaja signs the instrument of accsession .

When Mountbatten confronts Jinnah over the rape of scottish nuns by his pathans in Kashmir , Jinnah candidly admits to his hold over them by offering to pull the pathans back if India pulls back its forces .

Back in India , Gandhi has paid for his appeasement of Pakistan by his death at the hands of an assassin---sending Nehru into grief . Mountbatten consoles Nehru and asks him to speak to the Indian people on radio that very night . Nehru responds by making one of the finest speeches in his life .

And its time now for Mountbatten to leave India---his work is over.....
This time Edwina asks him to stay on---as Mountbatten himself admits , she has found love here......

But time and tide wait for none , and the time of the British is over.....
As they leave , the Indian public crowds the last viceroy's motorcade in a moment of brief nostalgia for the raj......

Most nostalgic of them all is Nehru , who gifts a rose to Edwina to cherish the bygone days of love before she ascends into the aircaft that will take her away....

An era has passed......
The halycon days of empire are over.....

And so is the movie....

Verdict----good , if you are a history buff .

rating---



Today I have posted 8 reviews back to back in this thread itself . I hope you all find time to read them....

Just was digging out my old reviews written for Indian forums earlier .



The fast and furious ( fast five )---

Spoiler alert !!

A gang of nice crooked guys plan to pull off a heist .

And whom do they plan to rob ??--another ( much bigger ) crook.....
This helps to keep their consience clear , and keeps us ( the audience )sympathetic to them

But the bigger crook is smart too , and he keeps his 100 million dollars in a huge vault , which is located in a police station and is protected by police officers .

Yeah ,this is Brazil , and police protect crooks' money ( anything happens here )

So how to do the heist ?? Here's how--

Smash through the police station with an armoured car , lasso the huge vault with the help of strong ropes to a couple of cars , and drag it down the streets through surprised onlookers , and bring it dragging to their adda where it can be opened safely.....

Simple , isn't it......

Well ,there are complications in the form of police cars chasing the vault as it is dragged down the street , but they can be easily resolved by maneuvering the thick-iron-clad vault itself to smash the police cars .

But where do they get the armoured car and all ??
Simple--one of the law enforcers who commands an armoured car has a change of heart as he realises that he is protecting a crooks money , so he joins the bunch who wants to steal it......

But where do you get the tough cars to drag the huge vault down the street at breakneck speed ??

Thats simple too--break open a train transporting the cars , and drive the cars out of the running train , but not before you have piled up some dead bodies ( now thats a must ).....

But where do you get the capital to fund such awesome ventures , and more importantly , people to take such mad risks ??

Shh--dont ask uncomfortable questions......

But , on the other hand , if you want the answer--hollywood has a lot of money to waste on stupid movies , and lot of out-of-work actors are ready to act in them.....

All fast and furious......

Verdict--okay if you are an aficionado of slam bang action......

rating---



Defiance---

The jews of russia have always suffered pogroms for centuries immemorial ( jews of which country haven't ? ......yeah I remember one nation--India ..)

,but in 1941 comes another deadly danger..........the germans have invaded mother Russia........

..........and needless to say , the jews are on top of their hitlist.......

This is the story of Russian jews fighting a grim battle for survival in the misery of the second world war........

To say that the odds are stacked against them is to say the obvious........

...........and the courage they have to show would put a Rambo to shame......

Daniel Craig leads their battle for survival , as the battle moves on in the unforgivably cruel russian winter........

Not only the elements are against them , but the Russian army too is indifferent........viewing them as expendables.......

They have to fight the Germans ,and also the epidemic of typhus that war has brought............with the Russians , their own people ,refusing to give them medicines..........

Amidst all this they have time to fall in love , sometimes sing and dance for one of their own's wedding.........and try to keep religion alive.......in a situation where belief in god would be suspended without being noticed.......

To some ,Daniel Craig seems like a new Moses ,destined to lead them to their chosen land........

But does he succeed ??......Go watch the movie for that.......

Some of the moments in the movie are heart-rending ,as the woman who is shot dead deliberately falling in such a way that her finger remains pressing the machine-gun she is firing after she is dead ( did I see a similar scene in Haqeeqat ?)

The movie also shows how miserable a war is.......and is depressing to be honest......

But ,its a good movie ,really.......

rating---



A system of cells interlinked
Hey Doc!

We have just brought the new reviews section online, and we are in the process of tagging all user reviews for the system. If you want to have your reviews listed on the search index, I need you to edit your reviews to use the official MoFo rating system or they won't integrate properly. If you are interested, just add the popcorn rating to each review:

Use this code: [rating]3.5[/rating*]

Just remove the asterisk to make the code live (I broke it here so you can see the example). This particular code would rate the film 3 and one half boxes of popcorn out of five, for instance. just change the middle number to reflect your chosen rating.

Once rated, I can tag each review for the system. Thanks!
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



Hey Doc!

We have just brought the new reviews section online, and we are in the process of tagging all user reviews for the system. If you want to have your reviews listed on the search index, I need you to edit your reviews to use the official MoFo rating system or they won't integrate properly. If you are interested, just add the popcorn rating to each review:

Use this code: [rating]3.5[/rating*]

Just remove the asterisk to make the code live (I broke it here so you can see the example). This particular code would rate the film 3 and one half boxes of popcorn out of five, for instance. just change the middle number to reflect your chosen rating.

Once rated, I can tag each review for the system. Thanks!
Sorry , I did not read this post until 2 days ago .

I have given ratings for all movies in this thread at least .

Giving ratings for movies in Bollywood movies thread and searching for the movie reviews which i have written in threads dedicated to those movies is going to take a little while more....please bear with me .



The new world ( 2005 )



In 1607 ships carrying men , arms , ammunition arrive in what is going to be called as 'Virginia' by them . The men have one ambition---to achieve a higher standard of living in what they call 'the new world' ; a standard higher than that of the 'old world' with all it's injustices . And for all of them on the ships that have arrived in this corner of America, the old world is merry old England . Among them is a captain with a quintessential english name---John Smith .

Their flag is still a red cross indicating that the scottish flag has not yet been added to it to make it the union jack , but their ambition is to soar across the world's oceans to plant their flag everywhere....
But as they arrive , more pressing problems plague them---like their dwindling ammunition , their dwindling food supplies and their dwindling manpower...

So John Smith ( Colin Farrell ) is elected to lead an expedition upriver to make contact with the chief of the native americans , who are called 'naturals' by those favourably disposed towards them and 'savages' by those who are not so well disposed...
John Smith is nearly killed by the natives , but he is saved by a young girl who has taken a liking for him---Pocahontas ( Q'orianka Kilcher ) , who is the daughter of the native king and also his favourite child . And she not only saves Smith , she loves him and makes love to him and dreams of life with him . And she is too innocent to understand the catastrophe that the ships from the old world have brought for her people .

So Smith is allowed to go back to the fort his people have built on the condition that his people will leave in spring . And when the calamity of famine strikes his camp , it is Pocahontas who arrives with food and supplies to save his people . Smith is torn between his loyalty to the woman he loves and to his countrymen---for they never intend to leave as he has promised , but intend to conquer the land that has been inhabited by the native americans for millennia .

And also Smith has been selected to lead distant expeditions to find other lands for his king , so he has to leave a weeping wailing devastated Pocahontas behind . But she is too beautiful and young not to catch the attention of another englishman (John Rolfe played by Christian Bale ) , and he proposes that she convert to christianity and they get married and settle in England .

So will the native princess accept his proposal ?? Will she be able to adjust to her new home if england is to be that ?? How will she be received by english people if she goes there ?? And most importantly , will she be able to forget her first love ??
Watch the movie for the answers...

The movie has a totally poetic touch to it with the thoughts of each character shown flowing through their minds like sheer poetry . And true to ancient cinematic tradition , the true story of Pocahontas is presented as romance---romance amidst the conflict between the native american and the white man , romance amidst the great sweep of history in which the europeans are destined to rule over the americas , and a romance surprisingly approved by both peoples without any hint of racism .

The music complements the poetic touch of the film flowing seamlessly in between the dialogues and thoughts of each character . The romantic scenes are more like scenes of tenderness....
Both Colin Farrell and Christian Bale look dashingly handsome with their beards and long hair , and Q'orianka Kilcher has her own beauty.

The director shows an idealized depiction of native american people---they are shown to be innocent of greed jealousy and hatred . This is probably the most naive assumption by the director . Are we ( the audience ) supposed to be so naive as to believe this depiction just because the native americans are the conquered people ?? After all they can still kill with their bows and arrows and machetes , though the fight is an admittedly hopeless fight.

Of course , the same depiction of Pocahontas as innocent by nature makes her character so endearing like a flower and her love so look pure and unselfish . Acting is good by everyone , and the photography makes America doubly attractive---all green and verdant and rich with promise , just like the early settlers must have found it to be and just like todays settlers find it too !!....except for the concrete jungles that have been added....

I only wished that the tides of history could have been turned , and that every meeting that the natives had with the white man would have been like the experience of Pocahontas , and that sheer poetry like the film could have been weaved out of that meet....

Verdict---Good .




Step up revolution 3D ( 2012 )



Welcome to Miami---the freewheeling city in the land of the free...

A land where the best way to make sure of a girl's coming for a date is whisper in her ear that her father will disapprove of it...and bingo !! she's ready...

A land where a billionaire father has to ask '' May I come in '' to enter his daughter's room...

A land where the daughter coolly tells her father over breakfast that she got laid last night and his only mild objection is that she shouldn't have got laid with a slumboy in a slum.....

This is America...

And who is the girl ??
She's actress Kathryn MacCormik , a Natalie Portman lookalike who sets the screen on fire along with leading actor Ryan Guzman in the film called step up revolution...

And how does she set the screen on fire ?? By dirty dancing with a flair that drools our senses...
Yeah , go and watch as she arches her sensational body and curves her sizzling curves by crunching her toned muscles in her dancing moves...
......And she gives you a high that only a hard on can give---a hard on that is a tribute to her smashing body as well as her sexy dancing...
But above all when she dances you feel the white hot wave of liberation sweep through your body along with the sweet passion of unbridled desire....

So whats the story ??

There's leading actor Ryan Guzman who is the leader of a pack of flash mob dancers who surprise people by suddenly erupting in dance in Miami city.....a pack that consists of people of diverse races---whites , hispanics , blacks....
They wanna win a contest to get maximum hits on youtube which has a prize of a hundred grand.....

But their homes are about to be raised by the plans of a real estate developer who has bought the land they live on....

But the real estate developer has a sizzling daughter ( the leading lady ) with a mind of her own.....and a heart of her own too....
.....A heart which beats for leading actor Ryan.....
And when Ryan and Kathryn dance together the gods in the heavens stand still.....or maybe its only the poet in me speaking.....

But as I said the lady has a mind of her own.....
And she tells her friends to dance as a protest against the uprooting of their homes.....

And what dancing.....what moves.....what photography.....
......And all that with heartpounding music....

So does their unique form of protest succeed in stopping the project to tear down their homes ??

Go and watch the movie for that.....its well worth a watch.....

Verdict---electrifying.




The woman he loved



The movie deals with the romance and marriage of an American divorcee with King Edward the eighth , the king/Emperor of the British empire---the man who actually abdicated his kingship for the love of a woman....

She is Mrs Simpson , an American divorcee who has come to Britain with her second husband and gets into the inner circle of the prince's ( he is not yet king ) friends along with her husband . Soon his female partner begins to trust her so much that she leaves for a long foreign hiatus with him in the care of Mrs Simpson---with predictable consequences that she has to face after coming back....

But the movie does not start there ; it actually starts with the death of the duke ( the king is reduced to duke after abdication ) decades later , as his wife sentimentally remembers the time when she and the future king had met....and straightway I must say that the makeup of the duchess in old age is horrendous---she looks like a zombie really .

But she looks better when she is shown in her youth , and the movie has a sentimental quality about it that appeals to the heart....
Of course , Mrs Simpson has been accused to be a gold digger who wanted to marry the rich king and become queen , but the movie shows her to be better than that . It does so by not dwelling upon the part where she and he duke were accused to have pro nazi sympathies later .

As the romance develops between the two , morning walks in rain soon transform into direct meetings in her apartment where her husband himself backs out of the situation like a true gentleman . And alarm bells ring in the British establishment . But no bedroom sessions are shown---the movie does not cross that line .

The crisis of the situation occurs when it is time to become king Edward the eight , but the British people and establishment are not ready to accept an American woman who will be twice divorced ( she will have to divorce her second husband ) when she eventually marries the king . This raises the question as to whether kings should behave like commoners and give importance to romance....should people in positions of power who have fates of millions hanging on their decisions marry for love ?? Should not they give more importance to their political careers and build the nation rather than get embroiled in love like petty people ?? Love is a luxury of commoners that the high and mighty cannot simply afford....

Of course , there is the lobby that says that the king of Britain had very little power anyway because of that thing called democracy....and some say that the abdication was a good thing given the king's pro nazi sympathies and the impending world war with the nazi war machine....

So king Edward the eight chose to follow his heart , and Anthony Simpson and Jane Seymour have acted really well to show the emotions and the pain that they had to go through to take that decision.....and in the end you have to admit that the King was a lucky man indeed---for lucky are those who have found true love....

The music is most appropriate for the situations in the movie and helps accentuate the emotional tone of the movie . And the emotional tone helps in making it a decent watch....

Verdict---three stars .