When I nervously waited for the end credits of the movie "Iron Man 2" to finish, I don't even have a clue of what they are going to show on the screen(as a spoiler for the future MARVEL movies). Even after they showed a desert and a hammer and some plain-clothed policemen(!), I didn't understand what's all this about.
Then I googled "hammer" and "marvel" and found that the hammer is in fact the power source or something of that sort of Thor, the God of Thunder. To hell with it, was my instant reaction as I never heard of him.
But what unfolded on the big 3D screen in front of me last week, blew a few things out of my brain. This guy(character) Thor earned himself a place next to Spiderman, Ironman and Superman in my all-time favorite list of superheroes.
Thor is a simple movie, enough for a movie buff like me to be amused. Thor and Loki are the sons of the Odin, the king of Asgard(a far-away Galaxy, for me it felt like heaven after watching on screen). Odin defeats the Frost Giants long long back and brings with him the power source of the Frost Giants, the Casket of Ancient Winters. Now, both the sons grow up and Thor is supposed to be crowned the king of Asgard when the Frost Giants sneak into the palace for the power source. An enraged Thor wants to finish off the Frost Giant race and travels to Jotunheim(the world of Frost Giants) along with a few friends, against his father's instructions.
Odin gets to know about this and brings the bunch of Asgardian warriors back to their world and banishes Thor to earth after stripping off his Godly powers. Thor's hammer, Mjolnir(courtesy Wikipedia), is also sent to Earth, but protected with a spell that allows only a worthy person to wield it.
Thor is crash-lands in Mexico where he is hit by the vehicle of a scientist, Jane Foster, who is studying the mysterious lightning patterns in the sky. The story moves on how Thor gets mingled with the earthly humans, while back in Asgard, Odin falls ill and a tale of double-cross takes place.
The rest of the story is about how Thor finds love, responsibilities and brings back peace to the world.
The plot is well supported by all the actors. Chris Hemsworth(this is the first movie I saw of this hunk), was awesome. The way he showed various emotions was worth lot of applause - be it when he says "Can I come back home?" to Loki when the latter visits him in jail or how he flashes the mischievous grin while trying to retrieve his hammer from S.H.E.I.L.D. Tom Hiddleston as Loki was absolutely fantastic. Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins lived up-to the expectations.
To be frank, it is the way Asgard is shown that draws immediate attention of an casual movie-goer. After AVATAR, I loved this alternate world. The visual effects were awesome and will enough to make the audience believe in the existence of such world.
There might be minor drawbacks here and there, like it would have been much nicer if Thor gets to show off a few of his elite skills on Earth(before Jane), but the movie, as a whole is an enjoyable one and is a decent family flick. My rating for this latest flick from Marvel stable will be 3.75 out of 5.
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Saturday, October 31, 2009
A couple of feel-good movies
Folks, sorry for being away for quite a few days. I was a bit busy with work both in & out of office(TKS). My vacation is due in about 4 weeks for now and still I have some departmental objectives to be finished before year end. The only time pass that's keeping me in senses is a few movies here n there.
Recently, I saw a couple of movies which are worth mentioning. One is "Wake Up Sid"(WUS). I was not interested to watch this one until my adamant friend, Deepak, wanted to watch it. I went into the theater with half mind expecting the worst. The movie opened well with an interesting scene of how our protagonist, Sid, is preparing for his boards. From then on, there was no looking back. As soon as the movie finished, I was thinking of watching it again.
WUS is a perfect example of how to keep things simple and achieve the desired result. The director did a good job in that aspect. The sentimental scenes are handled well, the comic timing was perfect, the emotions are up to the mark. There are some scenes which I liked well:
1. The scene in which Ranbir makes fun of Konkana by pouring water on her and then he asks her in an innocent way, whether she felt bad.
2. The confused look on Konkana's face when Ranbir asks her out for a walk on their first meeting.
3. The scene where they both sit at the beach and Ranbir explains to Konkana about how the ocean looks at the times of monsoon(felt like I was standing in rain after this scene).
The above are only a few scenes out of a whole set. If I write all those that I liked and why I liked them, this post will be as big as a novel. As a whole WUS is a wonderful feel-good movie which reminds us of our college life(if you are not one of those nerdy types). Ranbir is now the new addition to my list of actors to watch out for.
The other movie I liked is the "The Proposal". I picked this one from the DVD store just because I can't find anything interesting there. In fact, I kept even this one pending for a few days before watching it. But when I saw it, I was really impressed. It's been quite a few days since I watched a decent romantic comedy and this one perfectly filled the bill.
The story is simple. An immigrant, yet sort-of-nuts boss, perfectly portrayed by Sandra Bullock, has been issued notice that she'll be deported after her work-visa is not renewed. She immediately puts up an act that she's going to marry her sub-ordinate, a wonderful Ryan Reynolds, and hence can stay in the US of A. Both of mutually agree to help each other provided that he'll marry her(and then divorce her), while she promotes him to a higher position in office. But before that she had to spend a week at his parents house. Everything seems to go well inline with the plan, until they both really start falling in love with each other.
Both these movies are worth a watch over the weekend and gives you a break from the usual pot-boiler masala movies. Happy weekend, folks.
Recently, I saw a couple of movies which are worth mentioning. One is "Wake Up Sid"(WUS). I was not interested to watch this one until my adamant friend, Deepak, wanted to watch it. I went into the theater with half mind expecting the worst. The movie opened well with an interesting scene of how our protagonist, Sid, is preparing for his boards. From then on, there was no looking back. As soon as the movie finished, I was thinking of watching it again.
WUS is a perfect example of how to keep things simple and achieve the desired result. The director did a good job in that aspect. The sentimental scenes are handled well, the comic timing was perfect, the emotions are up to the mark. There are some scenes which I liked well:
1. The scene in which Ranbir makes fun of Konkana by pouring water on her and then he asks her in an innocent way, whether she felt bad.
2. The confused look on Konkana's face when Ranbir asks her out for a walk on their first meeting.
3. The scene where they both sit at the beach and Ranbir explains to Konkana about how the ocean looks at the times of monsoon(felt like I was standing in rain after this scene).
The above are only a few scenes out of a whole set. If I write all those that I liked and why I liked them, this post will be as big as a novel. As a whole WUS is a wonderful feel-good movie which reminds us of our college life(if you are not one of those nerdy types). Ranbir is now the new addition to my list of actors to watch out for.
The other movie I liked is the "The Proposal". I picked this one from the DVD store just because I can't find anything interesting there. In fact, I kept even this one pending for a few days before watching it. But when I saw it, I was really impressed. It's been quite a few days since I watched a decent romantic comedy and this one perfectly filled the bill.
The story is simple. An immigrant, yet sort-of-nuts boss, perfectly portrayed by Sandra Bullock, has been issued notice that she'll be deported after her work-visa is not renewed. She immediately puts up an act that she's going to marry her sub-ordinate, a wonderful Ryan Reynolds, and hence can stay in the US of A. Both of mutually agree to help each other provided that he'll marry her(and then divorce her), while she promotes him to a higher position in office. But before that she had to spend a week at his parents house. Everything seems to go well inline with the plan, until they both really start falling in love with each other.
Both these movies are worth a watch over the weekend and gives you a break from the usual pot-boiler masala movies. Happy weekend, folks.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Love Aaj Kal - Loss of sleep kal night
First of all, I apologize for not being here for the past few weeks. Life seems to be f@#&ed up big time, like never before. But now, I wanted to enjoy life as much as I can and hence I assure you that you are going to read a lot of crap here from now on.
Last night, we had late dinner as one of friend is going to India on vacation and we had to do some shopping. On the way to the restaurent, we saw that there's a premier show of the much awaited "Love Aaj Kal" at midnight(here in Middle East, Bollywood movies release one day before, but this is much before the Indian release as I'm talking abt Wednesday night and the movie is going to release on Friday in India). Anyways, me and the friend who's going for vacation thought of giving it a try, even though I have to get up as early as 5 30AM to get to the office today.
And there it is, a premier show with only 25% of the theatre filled. We can sit wherever we want, put legs on whatever front seat you want - what else do we want? Coming to the movie, it's a matured love story, so matured that the hero first makes love to a girl and then loves her(at least, he thinks he's loving her... yawwwnnnn).
The story is simple: The movie starts when a boy(errr.... man) meets a girl at a party and wins her with a not-so-convincing manner. They end up living together for some days(n weeks and months) and then they decide that they are going to break up. The boy(errr again, the man) is a happy-go-lucky guy(who tries to be super cool) who suggests that they throw a party to celebrate their break-up. Everybody is surprised(except me n the other audience) and there goes a lavish party. The next morning, the owner of the hotel tries to question this man(I got it right this time) about his relationship with the girl(arey yaar, they celebrated their break-up in your restaurent and you are questioning their relationship now) and gives him some tips. He narrates his love story to the hero. The rest of the story is supposed to be a comparision between the Aaj ka love story and Kal ka love story(beleive me, I can't compare even a single instance of both those stories).
The plus points of the movie are:
* Both the lead actors played their roles very well(even though I felt occasionally that Deepika has only two emotions in the movie: Amusement and Sadness).
* The songs of the movie are superb. One of the best in recent times.
* The photography was excellent. The locations(supposed to be UK) were too good.
* The comedy was good in bits n pieces.
* The biggest plus point for me is the duration of the movie, a good 130 or 135 minutes, which is apt.
However, there are a lot of minus points too:
* The narration was too fast paced in the starting few minutes and after that, it lags drastically.
* The movie reminds you of a lot of other movies(which is not good for a movie).
* Felt that the Kal ka love story was more interesting than the Aaj ka love story.
* Also, I strongly felt that there's no need for the Kal ka love story at all. The movie would have been the same without it too.
* The climax gets too predictable.
I rate this movie 3 out of 5 and I would prefer to see this movie when I'm free and really don't have any other movie to watch.
Before coming to a conclusion about this movie, please note that the above expressed views are entirely my own and you may actually like the movie. Different persons have different mindsets and one more important thing is that I saw the movie at 12 midnight.
Last night, we had late dinner as one of friend is going to India on vacation and we had to do some shopping. On the way to the restaurent, we saw that there's a premier show of the much awaited "Love Aaj Kal" at midnight(here in Middle East, Bollywood movies release one day before, but this is much before the Indian release as I'm talking abt Wednesday night and the movie is going to release on Friday in India). Anyways, me and the friend who's going for vacation thought of giving it a try, even though I have to get up as early as 5 30AM to get to the office today.
And there it is, a premier show with only 25% of the theatre filled. We can sit wherever we want, put legs on whatever front seat you want - what else do we want? Coming to the movie, it's a matured love story, so matured that the hero first makes love to a girl and then loves her(at least, he thinks he's loving her... yawwwnnnn).
The story is simple: The movie starts when a boy(errr.... man) meets a girl at a party and wins her with a not-so-convincing manner. They end up living together for some days(n weeks and months) and then they decide that they are going to break up. The boy(errr again, the man) is a happy-go-lucky guy(who tries to be super cool) who suggests that they throw a party to celebrate their break-up. Everybody is surprised(except me n the other audience) and there goes a lavish party. The next morning, the owner of the hotel tries to question this man(I got it right this time) about his relationship with the girl(arey yaar, they celebrated their break-up in your restaurent and you are questioning their relationship now) and gives him some tips. He narrates his love story to the hero. The rest of the story is supposed to be a comparision between the Aaj ka love story and Kal ka love story(beleive me, I can't compare even a single instance of both those stories).
The plus points of the movie are:
* Both the lead actors played their roles very well(even though I felt occasionally that Deepika has only two emotions in the movie: Amusement and Sadness).
* The songs of the movie are superb. One of the best in recent times.
* The photography was excellent. The locations(supposed to be UK) were too good.
* The comedy was good in bits n pieces.
* The biggest plus point for me is the duration of the movie, a good 130 or 135 minutes, which is apt.
However, there are a lot of minus points too:
* The narration was too fast paced in the starting few minutes and after that, it lags drastically.
* The movie reminds you of a lot of other movies(which is not good for a movie).
* Felt that the Kal ka love story was more interesting than the Aaj ka love story.
* Also, I strongly felt that there's no need for the Kal ka love story at all. The movie would have been the same without it too.
* The climax gets too predictable.
I rate this movie 3 out of 5 and I would prefer to see this movie when I'm free and really don't have any other movie to watch.
Before coming to a conclusion about this movie, please note that the above expressed views are entirely my own and you may actually like the movie. Different persons have different mindsets and one more important thing is that I saw the movie at 12 midnight.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Ghajini Rocked
The wait is over. The most awaited movie of the year(at least for me), Ghajini, is released. Being a die-hard fan of Aamir Khan and also to the original flick(?) in Tamil, I was eager to see the movie ASAP and I was lucky enough to watch the premier show last night.
The verdict is out. The movie rocked. I already saw both the Tamil and Telugu versions on the big screen and was a bit doubtful about the Hindi flick. Surya was absolutely awesome in the South Indian version and even though, Aamir developed the required physique and all, there was a small doubt somewhere in me. But all my doubts are cleared.
I won't write anything about the plot, except that the makers struck to the original storyline, almost. Performance-wise, Aamir Khan outperformed himself and did complete justice to the role. Asin did a marvelous job, even though she did just what she did in the original flick. Jian Khan is OK in a small role. The villain, Pradeep Rawat, was good(but not as good as the Tamil flick).
Coming to the technical aspects, the narration of the movie was awesome and free-flowing. The way the flashback unfolds was very neatly done(something novel). The director, A R Murugadoss, did a splendid job. The camera work was very well done by Ravi K Chandran.
But you should give a bow to the maestro, A R Rahman, for his music. As you all know, the songs were a big hit with the people. The background score was awesome. Something which cannot be expressed in my words.
Overall, the movie has a big BLOCKBUSTER written all over it. My rating will be 4 out 5.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Random ramblings
There's nothing important to write in this post and also, I'm very busy in office these days, thanks to the rapidly shrinking free space on my server. So, this post will contain some random ramblings rather than some specific point.
1. Stopped eating ice creams. Frankly speaking(or writing), I can write a biggg post on this issue as ice creams are something dearer to me and they mean much more to me than an edible item.
2. Saw Dostana last week. I loved that movie(even though, I started feeling some weird sensation when my friends touch me). It was one of the best comedy movies of recent times. The chemistry between AB n JA was awesome. Btw, Priyanka Chopra was at her sexiest best.
3. Went to an ice cream shop next to my house, about a week back. Thought of eating one but later withdrew the idea because of sudden rush of calorie-consciousness. Looked around and found some hot samosas. Took half a dozen of them to my flat and as soon as I took a bite, I felt that there's something wrong. Instead of the normal curry inside the samosa, they kept cheese. This is what the people call "cheese samosa". And for this stupid thing, I gave up my fav ice cream...... :(
4. Daily, a couple of friends visit my flat(as they are paying guests at some family's house) and leave as soon as we finish dinner. The day before, they left normally and I got up at 5 AM feeling thirsty. To my horror, I saw that I didn't close the door the previous night after my frnds left. But thank God, nothing happened. My wallet, laptop, handycam, watches..... everything were in tact.
5. Is anyone following Indian Idol 4? Sonali Bendre's looking gorgeous in it.
6. There was this arabic guy in my gym, whom we consider as a decent arab. But last week, when one "big fat Indian gal"(I picked this from Kungfu Panda where our hero was called Big, Fat Panda) talked to him in the health club, he started showing his attitude. Too bad!!!!!
Well, I end my list here(so that no one blames me for the head-ache they got after reading this). Have a nice day.
1. Stopped eating ice creams. Frankly speaking(or writing), I can write a biggg post on this issue as ice creams are something dearer to me and they mean much more to me than an edible item.
2. Saw Dostana last week. I loved that movie(even though, I started feeling some weird sensation when my friends touch me). It was one of the best comedy movies of recent times. The chemistry between AB n JA was awesome. Btw, Priyanka Chopra was at her sexiest best.
3. Went to an ice cream shop next to my house, about a week back. Thought of eating one but later withdrew the idea because of sudden rush of calorie-consciousness. Looked around and found some hot samosas. Took half a dozen of them to my flat and as soon as I took a bite, I felt that there's something wrong. Instead of the normal curry inside the samosa, they kept cheese. This is what the people call "cheese samosa". And for this stupid thing, I gave up my fav ice cream...... :(
4. Daily, a couple of friends visit my flat(as they are paying guests at some family's house) and leave as soon as we finish dinner. The day before, they left normally and I got up at 5 AM feeling thirsty. To my horror, I saw that I didn't close the door the previous night after my frnds left. But thank God, nothing happened. My wallet, laptop, handycam, watches..... everything were in tact.
5. Is anyone following Indian Idol 4? Sonali Bendre's looking gorgeous in it.
6. There was this arabic guy in my gym, whom we consider as a decent arab. But last week, when one "big fat Indian gal"(I picked this from Kungfu Panda where our hero was called Big, Fat Panda) talked to him in the health club, he started showing his attitude. Too bad!!!!!
Well, I end my list here(so that no one blames me for the head-ache they got after reading this). Have a nice day.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
A feel-good movie and a sad good-bye
Yesterday evening, I was too lazy to do anything and started doing my favorite time pass - watching TV. As usual, I was flipping through channels(believe me, remote control tops my list of wonderful gadgets). After a couple of rounds through all that exhausting list, I stopped at Star Movies on seeing Russell Crowe's face. He was one of my list of good actors, thanks to Gladiator.
I saw 5 minutes of the movie and slowly started liking it. I didn't switch the channel till the movie finished(which's quite surprising for me) and for the first time in my life, I saw even the whole ending credits of the movie. It was just because, I don't know the name of the movie. And at last, there it was - A GOOD YEAR. You can find the plot and details about it in this site.
The movie is a feel-good one with simple storyline and awesome screenplay. I liked it maybe because it's been quite sometime since I saw something without violence.
A small update: There was this dialog in the movie which I liked but I can't agree with it and even the protagonist(who says it) disagrees with it at the end. It goes something like this - "Money isn't everything. It's the only thing".
Coming to the second part of this post's title, it's about the retirement news of Saurav Ganguly. I somehow felt very bad to hear the news of his abrupt retirement even though he was never in my good books. This issue of the Fab Four's retirement just shows the monopoly of BCCI. Whatever it might be, all the best for the days ahead, Saurav.
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Dark Knight
Most of you know that am an ardent lover of movies. I love the world of fantasy as I already know how tough the real world is. Well, enough of crap. I love superhero movies a lot, in particular, Spiderman movies. Next comes Superman. Batman was always my last hero as I saw his movies in my childhood and was unable to understand anything. Batman's movies always revolve around some story which was hard for me at that age to understand.
I saw the headline grabbing movie, The Dark Knight(TDK), last weekend. I think the last time I saw a Batman movie was way back when I'm in School or Junior College(in one of those movies, Alicia Silverstone plays the BatGirl and I saw that movie solely for her). One of my friends saw TDK the day before I saw it and told me that the movie was OK and he was not able to understand some part of the story. So I was in a dilemma whether to watch it or not. But staying away from the theater for a week was a bit tough task for me these days, so I decided to go ahead with the plans(I was ready to watch any crap after I saw The Happening).
Believe me, I felt that TDK was one of the wonderful superhero movie ever made. Batman became an overnight hero in my world of fantasy. It was more like a drama than a superhero movie(I think most of the Batman movies are like that). The viewer is always in the grip of the narration, right from the start to the end.
The storyline is simple. I'll not write much of it as some of you doesn't want it to be leaked before you watch it. The capped crusader, Batman, was fighting the organized crime in the Gotham City and he want to call it a day as soon as the city is free of any sort of crime. He feels that the new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, might be the hero the society needs than someone like him. Harvey Dent grabs the attention of the society, Batman and even Batman's love interest with his dynamic deeds. Meanwhile, a new evil starts rising in the city's underworld. This villain is none other than the classic Joker. Joker wants all the hell to break loose in the Gotham City but he wants to do it his way. He makes the citizens turn against Batman for the cost of their safety. The rest of the story is about the fight between the good and the evil.
Coming to the performances, Christian Bale is back to don the role of Batman once again and he carries it off with ease. But it was Heath Ledger who steals the show as The Joker. Playing Joker wasn't a simple business as Joker is termed as the toughest villain ever faced by Batman. Heath Ledger simply awesome and it was hard to believe that it was Heath Ledger in front of us, but not the Joker. It was sad to hear that such a talented actor committed suicide. Another surprise package is Aaron Eckhart. He also played the role of Harvey Dent/Two-Face with lots of promise. Morgan Freeman was OK with one of his "usual" roles. The girl who played Rachel Dawes also did a good job but it would've been good if that role is donned by someone more pretty.
The narration of the movie was simply superb, as stated earlier. The special effects were OK, if not super. The Batmobile is as robust as ever, however, it was the Batpod that steals the show from the Batmobile. I liked the scene where Batman runs into a wall on his Batpod after pulling by Joker's truck.
I rate this movie 4.5 out of 5. It was worth a watch if you are someone who goes by the plot rather than the special effects. Finally, I sign off with the dialog of the movie which Joker tells to a mob member: "If you are good at something, never do it for free".
Friday, June 13, 2008
P. S. I love you - a wonderful movie
I was dying to see this movie for quite a few weeks. and even after I bought the DVD, it's not possible for me to watch it for three weeks. I don't want to watch it in bits n pieces as that ruins the real feel-good feeling of any movie. So I could watch it somehow last week. Believe me, I just loved the movie. Maybe because I didn't watch a romantic movie for quite sometime. I don't want to spill any beans on the movie but all I want is to ask everyone of you to watch this flick.
Meanwhile, read this great piece of dialogs and let me know your valuable comments.
He: I don't mean to throw this at you, but what do women want?
He: I can't figure it out. They want us to ask. They don't want us to ask. They want us to make a move, not make a move. They want us to be on bottom, be on top. Use hair products, don't use hair products. What do you people want?
She: I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to say I told you.
He: I swear.
She: Because it's a sacred secret.
He: Sacred secret?
She: You ready? You sure?
He: Yeah, I think so.
She: Come here.
She(whispers): We have absolutely no idea what we want.
He: I knew it! I knew that! Son of a bitch!
I just copied this from the subtitles because I don't want to spoil the original flavor of the dialogs. Feel free to send in your comments.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Movies, movies n movies
Being a movie buff, I watch a lots of movies, both on screen and on DVD. Some movies touch us and some movies scare (not literally) us. I've seen enough of the movies of both those categories. But last week, I saw some wonderful movies and want to share those(only the reviews not the DVD) with you all. Those movies are Juno, Vantage Point and Gamyam(Telugu).
Juno: I bought this movie more than a month back but never had the enthusiasm or interest to watch it. One day in the last week, I was so f#$%ed up in office that I decided to watch something pleasant other than the usual dishum-dishum, bang-bang stuff. It was then that I was reminded of this movie and believe me, I have to search a lot to find this one from my DVD collection (I maintain my flat neat but coming to the DVD's, you can find them everywhere).
Coming to the movie, it's a simple movie with a minimal storyline. It deals with the story of sixteen year-old Juno Macguff who's quite "independent". She does what she wants, never really caring about what other may think of her. The movie starts with her finding that she's pregnant after a one-night fling with her best friend. She immediately decides to have an abortion but later, decides against it and plans to donate the baby to a well-to-do couple who are looking for children. The story is about the various situations and incidents that Juno experiences till the birth of her baby.
Everything about this movie is kept so simple. The narration is straight-forward without much twists and turns. But, it's the acting of the lead actors that makes this movie more interesting. Believe me, you'll fall in love with the character of Juno(reminds us of Hasini in Bommarillu, a hit telugu movie). The character was portrayed excellently by Ellen Page. In fact, you imagine anyone in her place. The other characters like that Juno's parents, the lady who adopts the baby(Jennifer Garner) were also well played. I can give the movie a 3.75 out of 5.
Vantage Point: This movie is what I've never expected. Of late, I was watching many action movies but had this feeling of why-don't-we-stick-to-the-good-old-action-movies. Many of the recent action flicks are such a bore that I've decided to stick to comedies for sometime. I saw the reviews of this movie and felt like watching it on big screen. But I was on vacation at the time of its release and somehow neglected it. My DVD guy told me that the DVD has come and I took it up but of late, I was not finding time to watch any movie at a stretch. On the weekend, after returning from a meet-my-friends, I started the movie at 11 15 PM and I didn't move from my sofa till the end (except when I went for a leak in the middle of the movie). In fact, it would be good if I wrote that I can't move instead of I didn't move.
This movie is full of twists and turns (but not like the boring ones in Race, Bollywood movie). It's the story of an attempted assassination on the POTUS (now, don't ask me what POTUS is. It's the President Of The United States). An assassination attempt is made and the culprits succeed in getting their victim. But, is that their real victim? If not, what happened to the original victim and did the terrorists realize this? And if it's the real victim, what are the after-effects of the assassination?
One thing that stands out in this movie is the narration of the story. The same story is told through the eyes of five diferent people. The scenes are placed so well that every scene will ignite a certain spark of interest. My rating for this movie is a 4 out of 5.
Gamyam: It’s been quite sometime since we saw some meaningful movie in Telugu. Almost all the movies are filled with masala and violence with a minimal storyline. But this particular movie, Gamyam, is a breather for guys like me. It’s something untouched, very novel and simple script.
The story is simple. One rich-and-spoilt guy falls in love with an orphan who’s a small time social activist too. She finds that this guy has doesn’t have any interest in society and hates the word “poor”. She leaves him for good and sets off to another place. The protagonist then realizes his mistake and then sets out in search of her on a bike. He meets a petty n witty motor-cycle thief who joins him in search for his love. The incidents that the protagonist faces on this journey makes him realize that the real world is beyond the late-night parties and rich, lavish life.
The highlights of the movie are the simplicity of the movie, low hype about the movie, the perfect portrayal of the Gaali Seenu(thief) by Allari Naresh, the screenplay and witty dialogs. There are many light-hearted moments in the movie but at the same time, we experience many emotional scenes too. The debate about naxalism in the climax educates us to some extent too. The rating for this flick is a cool 4 out 5.
So, here ends my much-requested post (by some friends) of reviews. I hope it is OK and I didn’t over-hype any of the above movies.
Juno: I bought this movie more than a month back but never had the enthusiasm or interest to watch it. One day in the last week, I was so f#$%ed up in office that I decided to watch something pleasant other than the usual dishum-dishum, bang-bang stuff. It was then that I was reminded of this movie and believe me, I have to search a lot to find this one from my DVD collection (I maintain my flat neat but coming to the DVD's, you can find them everywhere).
Coming to the movie, it's a simple movie with a minimal storyline. It deals with the story of sixteen year-old Juno Macguff who's quite "independent". She does what she wants, never really caring about what other may think of her. The movie starts with her finding that she's pregnant after a one-night fling with her best friend. She immediately decides to have an abortion but later, decides against it and plans to donate the baby to a well-to-do couple who are looking for children. The story is about the various situations and incidents that Juno experiences till the birth of her baby.
Everything about this movie is kept so simple. The narration is straight-forward without much twists and turns. But, it's the acting of the lead actors that makes this movie more interesting. Believe me, you'll fall in love with the character of Juno(reminds us of Hasini in Bommarillu, a hit telugu movie). The character was portrayed excellently by Ellen Page. In fact, you imagine anyone in her place. The other characters like that Juno's parents, the lady who adopts the baby(Jennifer Garner) were also well played. I can give the movie a 3.75 out of 5.
Vantage Point: This movie is what I've never expected. Of late, I was watching many action movies but had this feeling of why-don't-we-stick-to-the-good-old-action-movies. Many of the recent action flicks are such a bore that I've decided to stick to comedies for sometime. I saw the reviews of this movie and felt like watching it on big screen. But I was on vacation at the time of its release and somehow neglected it. My DVD guy told me that the DVD has come and I took it up but of late, I was not finding time to watch any movie at a stretch. On the weekend, after returning from a meet-my-friends, I started the movie at 11 15 PM and I didn't move from my sofa till the end (except when I went for a leak in the middle of the movie). In fact, it would be good if I wrote that I can't move instead of I didn't move.
This movie is full of twists and turns (but not like the boring ones in Race, Bollywood movie). It's the story of an attempted assassination on the POTUS (now, don't ask me what POTUS is. It's the President Of The United States). An assassination attempt is made and the culprits succeed in getting their victim. But, is that their real victim? If not, what happened to the original victim and did the terrorists realize this? And if it's the real victim, what are the after-effects of the assassination?
One thing that stands out in this movie is the narration of the story. The same story is told through the eyes of five diferent people. The scenes are placed so well that every scene will ignite a certain spark of interest. My rating for this movie is a 4 out of 5.
Gamyam: It’s been quite sometime since we saw some meaningful movie in Telugu. Almost all the movies are filled with masala and violence with a minimal storyline. But this particular movie, Gamyam, is a breather for guys like me. It’s something untouched, very novel and simple script.
The story is simple. One rich-and-spoilt guy falls in love with an orphan who’s a small time social activist too. She finds that this guy has doesn’t have any interest in society and hates the word “poor”. She leaves him for good and sets off to another place. The protagonist then realizes his mistake and then sets out in search of her on a bike. He meets a petty n witty motor-cycle thief who joins him in search for his love. The incidents that the protagonist faces on this journey makes him realize that the real world is beyond the late-night parties and rich, lavish life.
The highlights of the movie are the simplicity of the movie, low hype about the movie, the perfect portrayal of the Gaali Seenu(thief) by Allari Naresh, the screenplay and witty dialogs. There are many light-hearted moments in the movie but at the same time, we experience many emotional scenes too. The debate about naxalism in the climax educates us to some extent too. The rating for this flick is a cool 4 out 5.
So, here ends my much-requested post (by some friends) of reviews. I hope it is OK and I didn’t over-hype any of the above movies.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Had a great week
Friends, the last week has been awesome for me(apart from the 100th post). Loads n loads of shit has been taken off my brain(don't blow off ur brains by trying to guess how shit can be taken from brain) both in work n personal life. A few highlights from the last week:
1. A tough issue in office that has been nagging me for the past three weeks has been solved. I even gave it up for a couple of days thinking that I can never sort it out. But when a third party vendor quoted a high price to solve that issue, I got some inspiration and started to work on it with renewed energy n got it solved.... ;)
2. My leg has healed to a great extent. I was able to walk without limping for the first time in 2 weeks. There are li'l sparks of pain sometimes but I hope that everything will be back to normal in a couple of days.
3. Made friends with some nurses in the hospital. After all, how can I sit idle for around an hour waiting for the 5 minutes of doctors' examination? One nurse even dresses my wound for free without any others noticing it. But wait, I call all of them "sister"....
4. All the movies I've seen in the last week on DVD were awesome. In fact, I saw only three of them. They are Juno, Vantage Point, and Gamyam(Telugu).
Let's hope that this week is as good as the previous one. All you people out there, have a great week ahead.
(Btw, it was me in the picture. Thanks to Bini for taking such a perfect snap)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tashan - my take
Being a movie buff, I look forward every week for some movies to release. I even have a collection of movies (who cares if some of them are pirated) which reduced from a great collection to a good collection.
For the past few weeks, I was waiting for the release of this movie, Tashan. I was so mesmerized by the promos and some songs which added further to my interest in this movie. It released last Thursday but I couldn’t make it till Saturday. I read the reviews and was a li’l disappointed and thought of giving it a miss. But my Mumbai dost, Naseer, insisted that we go for it. So I had to watch it.
Believe me, it’s not that bad. Jus’ a different type of genre. Till date, we saw mindless comedies in Bollywood. Now, this is one is a mindless action flick with some rib-tickling(in bits n pieces) comedy. This movie boasts of a great cast: Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and the coochie-coochie couple of Bollywood, Saif and Kareena. The story is chooo chimple.
A call center employee, Jimmy(Saif), who also teaches English to beautiful girls, is approached by Pooja(Kareena) to teach English for her boss, Bhaiyyaji(Anil Kapoor). Bhaiyyaji turns out to be a dreaded Don who gets monthly hafta(lots of it) by train and Pooja is entrusted with the job of bringing it to the den(a filmish one, which you might have seen in some age old movies). Jimmy falls for Pooja and Pooja too reciprocates her love to him. One day Pooja reveals to Jimmy that she’s working for Bhaiyyaji only because her father owes him a lot of money and now Bhiayyaji is harrising her to marry him. Jimmy, as usual, plans to rob the monthly hafta and pay it to Bhaiyyaji as Pooja’s debt. But they end up robbing more than what they require and Pooja gives a slip to Jimmy and vanishes.
Jimmy returns to Bhaiyyaji and confesses his crime, as he’s scared of him. Bhaiyyaji recruits Bachchan Pande(Akshay Kumar), who has to search for Pooja with the help of Jimmy. The only major problem is Bachchan is a stray dog while Jimmy is a cultured puppy. Can Bachchan get hold of Priya? Is Jimmy willing to help Bachchan? Is there any secret behind Pooja who manages to fool everyone? A series of twists unravel before good prevails over the bad.
The highlights of the movie are its Hinglish dialogues, Akshay Kumar and Kareena’s bikini. Take them out of the movie and you are left with a complete bull-shit. Coming to the performances, Akshay Kumar is at his best in this movie as a rugged Bachchan. Anil Kapoor does justice to his role as Bachchan but as the movie goes on, we feel bored of his Hinglish dialogues. Saif is totally wasted in the second half and he looks old too. Kareena sizzles with her skimpy clothing and I heard some whistles during her bikini scene.
Songs are OK with some funny moments. Don’t blame me if the action sequences remind you of Rajnikanth….. The direction is pretty poor and I doubt whether the debutante Vijay Krishna Acharya gets a good future ahead of him.
Overall, Tashan is a time-pass, lock-your-brains-at-home movie. My rating for this will be 2.75 out of 5.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Beowulf
Saw this movie a couple of nights back. Thought that this is some of those "He-Man" kinda movie but was terribly mistaken. The graphics were awesome and this one is worth a watch. Anyways, there's a dialog which the king tells to one of his followers:
"The Gods cannot do anything to us which we cannot do to ourselves".
How true?
"The Gods cannot do anything to us which we cannot do to ourselves".
How true?
Monday, March 24, 2008
Race
It’s been quite a few days since I wrote the review of any movie. Not finding any topic good enough to be posted on my blog, for the time being, I’ve decided to write the review of the recent movie I’ve seen, Race. Race is directed by the famous director duo, Abbas and Mustan. Not many people know that this name indicates two people as the name appears in the titles as Abbas-Mustan. These guys are the best directors of thrillers in Bollywood and gave us the genres like Khiladi and Baazigar.
Enough of all the hype surrounding the directors, let’s get back to our review. It’s the story of two brothers, Ranvir (Saif Ali Khan) and Rajiv (Akshaye Khanna). Ranvir runs the family business and is fond of horse races. He even has a stud farm, aptly named “Stallions”. We were shown that this guy is a talented businessman. On the other hand, Rajiv is an alcoholic, who wakes up in the morning to take a beer instead of a bed coffee. Sophia (Katrina Kaif) is the secretary of Ranvir and secretly loves him. On the other hand, Ranvir is in love with an upcoming model, Sonia (Bipasha Basu) and they both are yet to express their love for each other. Just when things seem to be going on well, Rajiv sees Sonia for the first time and falls in love with her, not knowing about his brother’s love. He promises Ranvir that he’ll give up drinking if he gets to marry Sonia. Ranvir loves his brother more than anything else in the world and decides to give up Sonia for the sake of his brother's future. But Rajiv breaks his promise as soon as he gets married to Sonia and a steamy affair between the old flames, Ranvir and Sonia, starts. Suddenly, a fool proof plan is made and a fool proof murder is committed.
At this juncture, a new character, Inspector RD (Anil Kapoor) and his dumb secretary(Sameera Reddy) comes in to investigate the murder. From this point on, the race starts. Sometimes, the race is between your brains and the writers’ brains (my personal feeling).
Race, as the title suggests, is a racy thriller. You get to see a new twist every few minutes, although most of these twists and turns are predictable. Just as “too many cooks spoil the broth”, I felt that all these twists made the movie a li’l bit boring. The performances are great. Saif does justice to his role and is the show stealer, almost. There’s a popular notion that Abbas-Mustan always bring out the best of Akshaye Khanna, which they did even in this movie. Anil Kapoor does make you laugh quite often, as a fruit-eating police officer and provides the much needed laughs in the thrilling movie. The damsels are good enough and I can bet that the front-benchers might go only for the sake of Bipasha Basu. She’s oozing with sex appeal and portrayed well as a seductress. Katrina Kaif is fragile, as usual and puts up a novel performance in this movie. But I was surprised to see her dance so elegantly in one of the songs as I was under the impression that she’s one of the worst dancers of Bollywood. Sameera Reddy is passable, as her role doesn’t require much acting skills except looking dumb.
The music is great, with some foot tapping numbers. The photography is one of the best in recent times and the action scenes are sure to make you sit on the edge of your seat. I give my rating for this movie as 3.25 out of 5.
Enough of all the hype surrounding the directors, let’s get back to our review. It’s the story of two brothers, Ranvir (Saif Ali Khan) and Rajiv (Akshaye Khanna). Ranvir runs the family business and is fond of horse races. He even has a stud farm, aptly named “Stallions”. We were shown that this guy is a talented businessman. On the other hand, Rajiv is an alcoholic, who wakes up in the morning to take a beer instead of a bed coffee. Sophia (Katrina Kaif) is the secretary of Ranvir and secretly loves him. On the other hand, Ranvir is in love with an upcoming model, Sonia (Bipasha Basu) and they both are yet to express their love for each other. Just when things seem to be going on well, Rajiv sees Sonia for the first time and falls in love with her, not knowing about his brother’s love. He promises Ranvir that he’ll give up drinking if he gets to marry Sonia. Ranvir loves his brother more than anything else in the world and decides to give up Sonia for the sake of his brother's future. But Rajiv breaks his promise as soon as he gets married to Sonia and a steamy affair between the old flames, Ranvir and Sonia, starts. Suddenly, a fool proof plan is made and a fool proof murder is committed.
At this juncture, a new character, Inspector RD (Anil Kapoor) and his dumb secretary(Sameera Reddy) comes in to investigate the murder. From this point on, the race starts. Sometimes, the race is between your brains and the writers’ brains (my personal feeling).
Race, as the title suggests, is a racy thriller. You get to see a new twist every few minutes, although most of these twists and turns are predictable. Just as “too many cooks spoil the broth”, I felt that all these twists made the movie a li’l bit boring. The performances are great. Saif does justice to his role and is the show stealer, almost. There’s a popular notion that Abbas-Mustan always bring out the best of Akshaye Khanna, which they did even in this movie. Anil Kapoor does make you laugh quite often, as a fruit-eating police officer and provides the much needed laughs in the thrilling movie. The damsels are good enough and I can bet that the front-benchers might go only for the sake of Bipasha Basu. She’s oozing with sex appeal and portrayed well as a seductress. Katrina Kaif is fragile, as usual and puts up a novel performance in this movie. But I was surprised to see her dance so elegantly in one of the songs as I was under the impression that she’s one of the worst dancers of Bollywood. Sameera Reddy is passable, as her role doesn’t require much acting skills except looking dumb.
The music is great, with some foot tapping numbers. The photography is one of the best in recent times and the action scenes are sure to make you sit on the edge of your seat. I give my rating for this movie as 3.25 out of 5.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Hunting Party
Saw this movie last night. This dialogue reminded me of some interview, with a war journalist, which I read long back.
A cameraman of a journalist reporting war says this about his work: "Being this close to death and being this alive, is completely addictive".
After hearing this, I wanted to become a war journo
A cameraman of a journalist reporting war says this about his work: "Being this close to death and being this alive, is completely addictive".
After hearing this, I wanted to become a war journo
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Rambo
I heard this dialogue yesterday but forgot about the movie that contained this one as I saw some 4 or 5 movies in the last 2 days. As far as I can remember this is from Rambo 4. Enough of crap…. The dialogue goes like this:
Live for nothing, but die for something.
Live for nothing, but die for something.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Halla Bol
Saw this one last weekend. The movie is ok but there was a dialogue in this which I liked very much. It goes something like this: "Even an animal cries when it gets hurt but it is only humans who can feel for others pains too". Is this true? I was seeing many contradictions now for this these days. But the dialogue was good overall.
Eragon
Saw this movie a couple nights back. I didn't like the movie but I liked the following line from the movie
which Saffira says to Eragon: "It's good to be brave but sometimes, it pays to be wise".
which Saffira says to Eragon: "It's good to be brave but sometimes, it pays to be wise".
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Rocky
As you know, most of the movies are a bit boring these days. So I started watching some old movies which I missed. This weekend, I saw Rocky I and II starring Sylvester Stallone. The movies are ok even in today’s scenario. But there were some dialogues in the second part which I liked too much. In one scene, Rocky’s wife asks him just after their marriage: “I hope… I hope you’ll never get tired of me”. Then Rocky answers in a convincing tone: “Oh no, you’ll never get rid of me”. You have to see the scene to believe the romantic moments. That is why they say “Old is Gold”.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Dhoka
Last evening, I saw this movie on Sahara One. It was a slow movie but not so bad. But there was a dialogue in the movie which mesmerized me. Anupam Kher tells the following to the protagonist(some new guy): "Aadmi woh nahin hote jo dikta hain. Aadmi woh hote hain jo woh chupata hain. You are what you hide". How true!!!!
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Lazy moviestic weekend
As days are passing on in Bahrain, I’m becoming quite lazy and started passing time like never before. One such example was my last weekend. It was dedicated to movies, movies and only movies. It all started with a never-before event. Till last weekend, I never watched a movie other than English, Hindi and Telugu, in theaters. But last weekend, I saw a movie, Billa in theater. I was fooled by the ads and the hype to watch it. The rest of the movies I watched are Nag’s Don, National Treasure 2, The Kingdom and Shooter.
Among the above, “Billa” and “Don” are all style but no substance. It’s a wastage of time to watch those(except for the heroines in both). “National Treasure 2: The book of secrets” is a time-pass flick but sometimes you feel that the movie is fooling you a lot: like the break-in into the Buckingham palace and White House by the lead pair and the so-called kidnap of the U.S president. One starts to wonder whether people are so stupid????? And some settings in the second half seem to be lifted straight from the Tomb Raider game. Nicholas Cage seemed to be older than he is.
“Shooter” is one of those engrossing thrillers of Mark Wahlberg. I never understand why this guy is repeatedly ignored by Hollywood. Well, coming to the movie, it has some awesome dialogues and some good fights. But don’t blame me if you are reminded of Telugu “Athadu” and Hindi “Tum Ko Na Bhool Payengi”. All these films resemble each other a lot.
Coming the final one, it’s the best of the lot. It’s “The Kingdom” starring Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner. The movie is about a bomb blast in an American compound in Saudi Arabia by some terrorists and its consequences. The first fifteen minutes of the movie is hard-hitting, the next one hour is dramatic and the final twenty or twenty-five minutes makes your heart beat faster with adrenalin. It has some awesome blast sequences worth a watch.
This is how I spent two valuable days. Next weekend, let’s hope for the best.
Among the above, “Billa” and “Don” are all style but no substance. It’s a wastage of time to watch those(except for the heroines in both). “National Treasure 2: The book of secrets” is a time-pass flick but sometimes you feel that the movie is fooling you a lot: like the break-in into the Buckingham palace and White House by the lead pair and the so-called kidnap of the U.S president. One starts to wonder whether people are so stupid????? And some settings in the second half seem to be lifted straight from the Tomb Raider game. Nicholas Cage seemed to be older than he is.
“Shooter” is one of those engrossing thrillers of Mark Wahlberg. I never understand why this guy is repeatedly ignored by Hollywood. Well, coming to the movie, it has some awesome dialogues and some good fights. But don’t blame me if you are reminded of Telugu “Athadu” and Hindi “Tum Ko Na Bhool Payengi”. All these films resemble each other a lot.
Coming the final one, it’s the best of the lot. It’s “The Kingdom” starring Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner. The movie is about a bomb blast in an American compound in Saudi Arabia by some terrorists and its consequences. The first fifteen minutes of the movie is hard-hitting, the next one hour is dramatic and the final twenty or twenty-five minutes makes your heart beat faster with adrenalin. It has some awesome blast sequences worth a watch.
This is how I spent two valuable days. Next weekend, let’s hope for the best.
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