review: PHAS GAYE RE OBAMA

DIRECTED BY: Subhash Kapoor

This week we have a ‘hatke’ movie and seriously if u ask me this is hatke in many ways, the screenplay, the execution and performances all makes it worth watching.

PHAS GAYE RE OBAMA is a story of an NRI (Rajat Kapoor) who is heavily indebted in USA and comes to India to sell his ancestral property to resolve his financial problems but got kidnapped by local small-time kidnappers. Now the smell of the kidnapping reaches to another kidnapper so he forces first one to handover NRI to him and take a lump some amount. As the guy is NRI every one was expecting him to be rich and will get them big ransom but here things are different. Now this NRI who needs money helps these kidnappers and plans a ‘strange con’ where every one gets benefited at the end.

It’s not a regular con which we have seen many a times in movies. Its unique in many ways like the whole script is interwoven around ‘economic turbulence and financial recession’ where from small kidnappers of village to the whole world is facing ‘MANDI’(recession). Kidnappers are not getting full ransom because of ‘mandi’. People are bargaining for ransom because of ‘mandi’ and all this creates strange situations for all characters ,which ultimately creates laughter for us.

Performance wise Rajat kapoor is superb from start to finish. Sanjay Mishra as Bhai-saab and Manu Rishi as Anni were excellent, they boosts movie with their performances. Amol gupte and neha dhupia had small but effective roles which they justified superbly. Director has done great job with story and narration.

All in all a ‘paisa vasool’ light hearted movie. watch it.

RATING: 7.5 OUT OF 10

REVIEW: HARRY POTTER and THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – Part 1

Directed by: David Yates

STARRING: Daniel Radcliffe
                     Rupert Grint
                     Emma Watson

Last week the much awaited 1st part of the 7th book in Harry Potter series released claiming ‘the beginning of the END’. It certainly has got matured, not only the lead cast has grown up from 12year old kids to youngsters but the whole franchise in all senses.

Movie starts with tense build around Harry, his friends and the order of phoenix. As Dumbledore told harry to kill Voldemot, he has to find 7 Horcruxes and destroy them; out of which harry destroyed 2. So the order of phoenix takes responsibility to safely move harry to Weasley’s home. During the fight with death eaters Mad-eye and harry’ owl gets killed.

After this Harry, Ron and Hermione starts searching for remaining Horcruxes which leads them to one of the Horcrux which was in the possession of Umbridge and then they successfully gets that from her but could not destroy it as the only way to destroy it was by the sword of Gryffindor which was missing. Harry and Ron find the sword and destroy that Horcrux. On their way they gets to know about the Deathly Hallows ( an Elder wand, a resurrecting stone and an invinsible cloak). Together all these makes some one master of the death. On the other hand Voldemot is gets to know that Dumbledore is the master of that Elder wand and is with him in his tomb. So Voldemot gets that wand from Dumbledore’s tomb and the first part ends here.

During the whole quest you find a lot of ups and downs happening in the movie. Bonding of Harry, Ron and Hermoine gets disturbed at one point of time, death of Harry’s owl and other friends and so much. Movie creates base line for the Finale with ease and we will see the final outcome in later part.

Visuals were spectacular and the whole setup is getting darker. Story moves with ease and been told effectively specially the tale of deathly hallows which told in animated form.

On the whole good performances and worth watch. (And if have not watched earlier movies of the series please watch those first before watching this one other wise you will not get the idea of happenings.)

RATINGS: 7 OUT OF 10

REVIEW: THE SOCIAL NETWORK 2010 (all u want to know about the‘FACEBOOK’)

DIRECTED BY: DAVID FINCHER

STARRING: Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg (founder of FACEBOOK)

The Social Network is Directed by David Fincher who has made some of the very well known and successful movies in past (like the curious case of Benjamin button, the zodiac and my favorite Fight Club). It’s about social networking website FACEBOOK and its founder mark Zuckerberg .A high voltage drama consisting great narration and performances from young cast.

Story starts with Mark creating a website called FACEMASH in one night about attractiveness of female students of Harvard after breaking up with his girlfriend. He was given six month’s academic probation for violation of rules and bringing down Harvard’s network. This attracts the eyes of winklevoss brothers and narendra and offers him to work with him on the website harwardconnect. But mark had some other plans in his mind so he works on another website with his friend Eduardo called thefacebook exclusively for harward students and soon site gains popularity among the students. When Winkelvoss brothers and narendra learns about this, they thinks that he stole their idea and wanted to sue him.

Meanwhile Sean Parker (founder of ‘Napster’) comes to know about this website and in a meeting with mark and Eduardo he tells how to move forward with their website and gets in to the team of facebook when mark bring company to Palo Alto as suggested by parker. From here game of money and betrayal gets deeper which creates so many problems for them.

The beauty of the movie is the way it’s been narrated, the whole story is told in between discussions of the 2 law suits faced by Mark, one from his friend Eduardo and another from Winklevoss brothers and narendra. David Fincher did great job and made it superbly entertaining from start to the end. Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg’s character with utmost sincerity.

All in all full of entertainment and superb drama. Watch it for sure.

RATING: 7.5 FROM 10.   

REVIEW: ACTION REPLAYY 2010

Starring: AKSHAY KUMAR, AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN,

    ADITYA ROY KAPOOR

This week’s release ACTION REPLAYY directed by Vipul Shah was promoted as fun film in retro style and director got succeeded in looks of the movie. Ass it was Akshay Kumar movie I went with ‘least’ amount of expectation and even though it was diwali releasse I didn’t expected any fire-crackers from it and I was right.

Movie is story of a boy(Aditya Roy Kapoor ) and his parents(akshay & aishwarya). Boy is terrified by his parent’s marriage life and wants to change their past so he goes to 70’s era with a time machine made by his girlfriend’s grandfather. Here starts retro style drama of converting looser akshay in to smart one and converting tomboy aishwarya in to sweet & lovable girl. So many hurdles the boy and these two face but at the end everything turns positive and boy comes back in the present time where things are changed due to his efforts in past. A happy ending.

First thing first movie is made for mindless entertainment and nothing else, don’t expect any intelligence from it. It is little bit stretched so one can find it boring in some places. No great performance but aditya roy kapoor made a mark with his performance. Aishwarya looks beautiful on screen. Akshay is better than BLUE and CC2C. Two songs were good ‘zor ka zatka’ and ‘bekhabar’.

If you don’t have any option left for time pass then one can choose to watch this one. Overall an average movie.

RATING: 5.5 OUT OF 10.

(Review) WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS -2010

DIRECTED BY: OLIVER STONE

STARRING: MICHAEL DOUGLAS, SHIA LaBeouf

Wall Street-money never sleeps is a sequel to 1987 movie Wall Street directed by Oliver Stone. It brings back the famous character of Gordon Gekko(Michael Douglas) back on the screen where he comes out of jail after 8 years. Gekko’s daughter lives with his boyfriend Jacob (Shia LaBeouf) who is working for Keller Zabel-an investment bank.

It’s the story of an old Dog (Mr.Gekko) who wants to be back on the street but there is no direct way for him to enter and fortunately his daughter’s boyfriend (Jacob) comes to him as he needed to find who destroyed Keller Zabel and in return he promises Gekko that he will reunite him with his daughter, but Mr.gekko has some other plans. He had $100million in his daughter’s name in Switzerland’s bank which he gets by stealing from his daughter’s bank a/c and starts a financial company in London. Jacob feels betrayed and approaches Gekko but nothing turns positive for him. Jacob writes full story of how Churchill Schwartz destroyed Keller Zebel and at the end everything turns positive ,gekko returns to his daughter and asks for apology and Jacob also gets reunited will her.

This movie frankly has nothing special. A sequel which came after 22 years has nothing to offer-a total disappointment. Seems like Oliver Stone wanted to cash out the brand name of original movie but he failed. Story has more of family drama than hard core Wall Street drama which we experienced in original one. Nothing great about direction of oliver ,just average. Mr.Gekko (Douglas) didn’t shine like the original one which won him Oscar for that role. Shia was also average. All in all an average movie, instead I would like to recommend watching the 1987 wall street but not this.

RATING: 5 OUT OF 10

INSOMNIA (2002) Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Directed By: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

Insomnia is a Thriller starring two superb actors AL PACINO and ROBIN WILLIAMS in lead and also stars Hillary Swank. 

Movie starts with two LAPD detectives are sent to Nightmute, Alaska to assist local police in a murder case of 17 year old girl. At the same time in LA an investigation is about to put Dormar(Al Pacino) under scanner for placing false evidence in a case and his partner is offered by Internal Affairs to give testimony. Now when they were investigating the NIghtmute case Dormer comes up to trap the murderer(Robin Williams) and partially gets succeeds but due to fog and improper light he accidentally shoots his partner instead of the criminal. Here starts the real game of mind for Dormer as he hides the truth of how his partner died and tries to refocus to case but to his surprise the murderer of girl knows the truth and he tries to disturb Dormer’s mind and makes him feel guilty and which turned him to the position where he is unable to sleep and becomes insomniac. Now both plays mind games with each other up to climax.

Nolan got his command on the story which we see throughout the movie and he has got his own style of narration which we saw his later movies up to last INCEPTION. As usual Al Pacino is superb. Williams had different character than we see him usually and he played it excellently. Hillary swank was also good in her supportive role. I recommend to watch this for its narration.   

Review: RAIN MAN (1988)

DIRECTED BY: Barry Levinson

RAIN MAN is 1988 movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Its story of Charlie (Cruise) who finds after his estranged father’s death that his father has left all his 3 million dollar property to his other son Raymond (Hoffman) whose existence he was not aware of. Raymond is an autistic person and living in a mental institute. Charlie initially for his selfish motive tries to get the possession of his brother but by the end they find a beautiful bonding between each other.

Hoffman was simply superb and deserved the Oscar which he was awarded for this movie. He portrayed Raymond with utmost sincerity. Cruise as his younger was also good and looks fit for the character of Charlie. The movie has its own moments to enjoy and to feel good. Beautiful narration of story by director Barry Levinson. Watch it especially for Hoffman.

REVIEW: Zodiac (2007) starring: Robert Downey Jr. & jack Gyllenhaal

Based on true events, this is the story of a serial killer who calls himself zodiac. After committing the crimes, he sends letters to press informing them about the killings and throwing in some puzzles to solve. The events take place in late sixties and seventies.

Here enter our main protagonists, a cartoonist (Jake Gyllenhaal), a crime scribe (Robert Downey Jr) & a Fed (Mark Ruffalo) who try to get this serial killer. The movie revolves around various situations that the killer throws open and how no one is really able to gauge the complete picture.

Performance wise, all the actors have been optimum. The obsession of Jake Gyllenhaal to catch this killer, the humorous as well as adamant attitude of Robert Downey Jr. and the detective skills of Mark Ruffalo entertain you.

Directorial skills of David Fincher can also be seen as in his earlier thrillers such as Fight Club, Seven, Panic Room, etc. The dark feel of the movie scare you but i guess this is what David Fincher does best.

The murder case is still open in United States with no conclusion even after 5 decades. Thus, the movie tries to show the complications and limitations of people and it does succeed in that. A nicely made movie providing valued entertainment.

Review: 3:10 To Yuma (2007) RUSSELL CROW & CHRISTIAN BALE

A power packed cast in Russell Crowe, Christian Bale & Ben Foster to pull off the movie. Director, James Mangold does a pretty decent job. Since the film is based back in time, you see actors donning cowboy costumes, peppy background score, horse rides and a vast desert.

The movie is about a criminal, Ben Wade played by Russell Crowe, who is wanted by Govt Marshals. Ben gets caught and is to be put up on a train to Yuma at 3:10. However, the task is not easy as notorious gang member Charlie played by Ben Foster is trying to rescue Wade. Joining hands with the marshals is Dan, played by Christian Bale. Dan has a grudge against Wade as his barn was destroyed by him. He also wishes to be a hero in his son's eyes thus joins this dangerous mission. In the middle of their trip, Dan's son, William also joins the troupe.

During the trip you come to know that Wade has a human side too. He and Dan get closer as they spend time together. In the end, Wade tries to help Dan and reach the train station while they are targeted by Charlie and his gang. Dan dies at the hands of Charlie and Wade kills Charlie and gets into the train. A nice end to a nice drama.

The movie gives you something different apart from regular stuff ad it is this quality that makes it enjoyable.

Review: Dog Day Afternoon (1975) AL PACHINO

You see the genius of Sidney Lumet here again. Like many other of his films, this too is very real and original. The film is based on a true story of Chase Manhattan bank robbery in New York city. Al Pacino and John Cazale play the part of bank robbers, Sonny and Sal. Supporting roles of FBI agent and Sonny's gay partner, Leon have been played beautifully too.

Sidney Lumet is a master of one location filming. Most of the movie is shot in the bank premises and you wonder how the Director is able to hold your attention. The movie starts with Sonny, Sal and one more friend enter a bank to rob. However, the third friend develops cold feet and leaves immediately. Sonny and Sal go ahead with the plan only to find out that there is very little cash in the bank. Soon after, police surround them and the only way out for the robbers is to take the bank employees hostage. Sonny tries to deal with FBI agent and asks for a jet so that they can fly out of the country.

Many a drama unfolds during this period when you see bank employees getting along with the robbers, Sonny (a bisexual) talking to his wife and gay partner, Sal getting nervous, Sonny & Sal becoming media stars and Sonny dealing with the FBI agent. The movie moves at a brisk pace keeping you engaged throughout. Al Pacino and John Cazale put up stellar performances.

The film looks so real that you can actually imagine the whole incident that happened. It also helps that the film was released in 1975, just three years after the incident in 1972.

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) ..... A VISUAL TREAT

Directed by: David Lean

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is 1962 British EPIC movie based on the life of T.A.LAWRENCE and his experiences in Arabia during 1^st world war. Movie is directed by David Lean and it stars Peter O’Toole in title role of T.A.LAWRENCE. The film has other leading stars like Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Alec Jiuness and Anthony Quayle.

 Lawrence who is a British army lieutenant is posted in Cairo during 1^st world war, he is only known for his unorthodox behavior and his knowledge. He is sent to find the prince faisal and analyze the situation of revolt against Turks. It moves on with how he gets the people of different communities in Arabia to get together and fight for their land. He does some of the unbelievable tasks which were looked impossible. His struggle with his own identity is also important aspect in the movie.   

One word to describe this movie “HUGE”, yes to make this scale of movie is no child’s play. This is made on bigger scale real locations (almost 60% movie is shot in desert) so many long shots covering many people and camels. It has running time of almost 215 minutes (generally movies don’t have running time like this) and it was shot with advanced technology of coming age. If this would have been made today it surely would have been biggest budget movie by far.

Movie is visually superb. Excellent camera work. And background music is excellent and has been used effectively. All the actors did very well especially Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif.

A good option to watch at home on weekend this classic.

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MAR ADENTRO (The Sea Inside)

Language: Spanish

Directed by: Alejandro Amenábar

The movie is based on true life story of Ramon Sampedro who got paralyzed by his both arms and both legs after a diving accident. He fights for 28 years for his right to end his life but could not get the court judgment in his favor.

Story is told from the point of view of Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem) who is paralyzed by his both arms and legs. He decides to end his life because he believes that living life without dignity is worthless. In the due course of movie he tells how he was before accident a person with full of energy who went to explore the world in the age of only 19. Even after he got paralyzed he writes beautiful poems with the help of his mouth. His family members are against of his decision of ending life but he has kind of personality which moves the thinking of others like lawyer who herself is also suffering from a strange disease, his family members and his friends who wants him to live, but he conveniences them why he wants to die.

The movie is very touching and some of the scenes are performed so well and helps in building story strongly. Like one where his lawyer asks him that why he wants to die?, he explains that different between your hand an my hand is merely 2 feet but that 2feet is like dream for me to cover on my own. (He put this way his point of living life without dignity). His character is not the usual characters we see who are paralyzed and feeling sad and laying on bad, he is ever smiling and confident about his state of mind. He is having great sense of humor.

Performances are excellent. Javier Bardem portrayed Ramon Sampedro with utmost perfection. Belen Rueda as Julia (lawyer) and Lola Duenas as Rosa were superb as leading ladies. Alejandro Amenabar’s direction is outstanding and narrated the story very well. He has woven Ramon’s character perfectly.

A heart touching tale of person with superb performances. A worth watching Academy award winning movie. ( A 2004 Oscar winner for best foreign language film)

RASHOMON (1950)

Language: Japanese

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Movie has taken 12^th century of Japan as backdrop. It starts with two people sitting on gate of RASHOMON under heavy rain and later joining them another guy. These two people, a monk and a woodcutter tell the story of a bandit, a samurai and his wife. Where samurai and his wife were attacked by bandit in forest and samurai gets killed.

The story of samurai, his wife and bandit are told in four different ways by different witnesses in front of authority. One by the bandit, second by samurai’s wife third by samurai’s soul by the medium of his wife and last by the woodcutter who claims that he had seen all the happenings in the forest. but at the end it was believed and concluded that story told by woodcutter was true.

The movie tells the story of how people become selfish and liar. Why and how human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They have a tendency to mould the truth and they can not talk about themselves without embellishing.

I think movie was way before its time. Kurosawa has narrated the story with brilliance. He has smartly used all the different characters in narration for different point of views of story. Camera work is also superb to that time ( it is to be noted that the movie was made just few year later the second world war ). All performances are superb.

For me movie has to have a story and that also well crafted and narrated and this movie has all. It’s a classic from Kurosawa will all the merits.  

The Boondock Saints (1999)

A wanna be Tarantino. People who like violence and blood shed will like this flick too. Nicely shot action sequences with uber cool background score entertains you.

The story is about two Irish brothers who have a fight with Russian mafia and kill them all. Its after this incident that they find their true calling, to wipe out people who deal in evil. They consider themselves sent by God to clean up this earth. They are joined in this mission by a thug and their friend, David Della Rocco. Rocco is a fun character, you like to see him on screen with his unique style and comical dialogues. Chasing these three men is a FBI agent played by Willem Defoe. And boy, Defoe puts up a great performance. As the movie approaches its end, you find Defoe joining the protagonists in their good deed along with few other govt officials.

This movie is full of style and attitude. Just sit back with a huge snack combo in your lap and you are sure to have a good time.

DABANGG…..a test of viewer’s patience

Directed by: Abhinav Kashyap

Starring: Salman Khan

              REST OF THE CAST IN SPECIAL APPEARANCE

One day arbaaz would have thought to make movie and he would have told salmanbhai that “bhaiya I want to be a producer” salman “lets make a movie”. Arbaaz  “what about story? Screenplay? Salman “don’t worry start the movie with few characters story will evolve in the movie anyhow.” This way the idea of this movie would have come.

DABANGG is the story of chulbul pandey(salman khan) and he takes the story wherever he wants in the movie. So movie starts with a fight sequence (ENTRY OF ‘HERO’ MUST BE WITH BANG) where he robs money from bank robbers. Chulbul has a lovely mother (dimple kapadia- in her worst role), a step-father (vinod khanna) a step-brother (arbaaz khan). He hates his step-father and brother. In a fight sequence he gets to see THE HEROIN Rajjo (sonakshi sinha- her role is smaller than those HAVALDARS roaming around salman in the movie- and very few dialogues). There is a bad guy in the movie called CHHEDI SINGH (sonu sood- whom director forgets after few appearances in first half and appears in second half only).

So salman khan moves the story with these characters. Salman and sonu sood doesn’t like each other and as salman doesn’t like his step father and brother, sonu sood takes benefit of this situation. At the end our hero salman gets to know that her mother was killed by sonu sood so he gets more angry and the best part of movie comes where salman flexes his muscles so much like THE HULK that his shirt tears off and he breaks the bones of the bad guy and kills him. THE END

Only merit of the movie is MUSIC which is quit enjoyable. The movie works on the brand name of SALMAN KHAN only and the marketing of movie. SALMAN has proved what AAMIR can do I also can (making public fool).

Watch it on your own risk. ( BEWARE: HE HINTED ‘A SEQUEL’ OF THIS IN THE END)

RATING: 4 out of 10 (3 FOR MUSIC AND 1 FOR REST)

    

Find Me Guilty

Another classic from the stable of Sidney Lumet. I just love this guy. Movie is based on a true story of Italian crime family "Lucchese". 20 members of this family were tried for Organized Crime, one of the longest trials in the history of America, 22 months. The main protagonist in this movie is "Jackie Dinorscio", played by Vin Diesel. The movie is a court room drama showing arguments between the prosecution and defendants. And Sidney Lumet manages to capture your full attention as always.

Jackie is serving a 30 year sentence for narcotics trafficking and during this time, the US Govt tries to bring down the whole Lucchese family. Govt approach Jackie to turn him into a witness but as he rightly puts it, "Jackie never rats, Jackie will not rat". Jackie fires his lawyer and defends for himself in the court in a rather comical way infuriating the Judge and the Prosecutors. He however manages to capture the attention of the Jury. He is also apt at cross examining the witnesses put up by the Prosecution. Slowly and steadily he is able to win the trust and attention of his mob, lawyers as well as the Judge. The Jury declares all the defendants not guilty on all counts.

A great performance by Vin Diesel. I never liked him as an actor, but this movie made me look up and notice him. Other actors are equally good in supporting roles. Main cheers for Sidney Lumet who once again gets the best from his actors and holds the plot tight. I just love the way he manages to capture audience's attention by keeping everything very simple and realistic. A very good thing about him is he conveys only as much as is needed, nothing more. A great weave of comedy, emotions and storyline and hit your heart directly.

GROWN UPS (2010)

STARRING: Adam Sandler

                      Kevin James

                      Chris Rock

                      David Spade

                      Rob Schneider

GROWN UPS is comedy starring Adam Sandler and his friends who are regularly seen in his movies. Whatever ‘critics’ say about Sandler and his movies, how so ever badly criticize his movies but this man knows what he is doing. He knows that people like his movies. Critics say he is not funny and looks silly but people find him funny otherwise why his movies would make millions of dollars like this grossed more than $200 million. Anyway leave this.

This movie is typical buddy movie where friends meet after so many years on their basket-ball coach’s funeral. After that they plans a week leave on a lake-house with their family and how they enjoy this time together is the storyline of the movie.

First thing first don’t us your brain while you watch sandler’s movies. Just go and have a great laughing time. He and his friends entertain for about 90 to 100min non-stop. Movie is full of many moments where I laugh a lot.

Movie is kind of slapstick comedy. It isn’t great but it entertains if you want to have some fun otherwise if you bring bias opinion like those critics you will not going to enjoy.Just have fun.

TOY STORY 3 (2010)

DIRECTED BY: Lee Unkrich

VOICE CAST: Tom Hanks as Woody

                        Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear

     Joan Cusack as Jessie

                        Ned Beatty as Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear

                        Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head

                        Michael Keaton as Ken

                        Wallace Shawn as Rex

                        John Ratzenberger as Hamm

                        Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head

                        John Morris as Andy

TOY STORY 3 is last of the toy story series. After two roller costar movies in the series here comes a time in the movie where owner of the toys Andy has grown to 17years old and ready to go for college so the toys gets worried that they will be thrown to garbage as they are old now, but Woody (hanks) tells them that Andy still love them and will not throw them.

Despite of all the efforts they don’t believe woody and sets them selves in the box which was get donated to Sunnyside-a place for kids. There they receive warm welcome from the toys that stays there and shows them a rosy picture. Woody alone returns after every toy decides to stay there. Things change when all the toys gets to know that the rosy picture they were shown was fake and they started treated like prisoners.

When woody was about to escape from Sunnyside he was found by a little girl called Bonnie, she takes woody to her home where other toys tells him the facts of Sunnyside and how new toys are treated. Woody now decides to go back and rescue his friends.

Like earlier this one also is full of toys of course but has great energy and entertainment. It’s a roller costar ride which one should not be missed. It shows the imaginary world which every one wants to be part of and showed if toys gets in to live what would they expect from their owners.

The movie is lovable and specially the climax where Woody writes a note for Andy which leads him to give his valuable toys to Bonnie and he tells her how he loved his toys and take care of them.

It’s worth watching.

MEAN STREETS (1973)

DIRECTED BY: Martin Scorsese

STARRING: Harvey Keitel

Robert De Niro

David Proval

This film comes in to early credits of Martin Scorsese as he showed his kind of expertise in Italian Mafia movies which we saw in his later movies. This also contains some excellent performances from Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro.

Charlie (KIETEL) is an Italian-American catholic, who is has great desire to move up in to mafia and he is working for his uncle who is next best step to move in to Mafia. But he is stuck in to a situation where one side he has his uncle and the his business and other side his childish crazy friend Johney Boy (De Niro) who has become headache for so many people because of his behavior. Charlie couldn’t find the way to save Johney boy from the local money lenders whom Johney owes a big amount and as Johney has insulted one of the guy whom he owes money invites big trouble.

This movie is stand out with two excellent performances from Kietel as Charlie, he played the role with his full conviction, a guy is stuck between religion, girlfriend, his mob uncle and a crazy friend and how he manages with all. DeNiro as Johney Boy is outstanding, his crazy acts in the movie shows the clear picture why he has become pain for all.

Definitely a worth watching movie specially for performances from the lead and for Scorsese’s direction.

THE WILD BUNCH (1969)

Directed By: Sam Peckinpah

The Wild Bunch is 1969 American-Western movie. The movie is about a bunch of crooks on Texas-Mexico border. The group was lead by Pike-an old outlaw who wants to make a final shoot with the last robbery. They plan to rob a railroad office containing silver but they didn’t know that they were trapped. Thorton-a former partner of Pike helps authority to trap them. This results in to a failed robbery by Pike and his group as they find what they rob was steel dishwashers not silver. So he decided to move ahead on Mexico border where a train with ammunitions was to come, so they make a deal with a Mexican General to rob the rain for them. On the other hand Thorton was sent to get Pike and all his associates for American authorities.

This movie contains lots of chasing on horse and gun fight, especially in climax. A worth watching western movie.

UDAAN (2010)

DIRECTED BY: Vikramaditya Motawane

STARRING: Rajat Barmecha AS Rohan

                      Ronit Roy AS Bhairav (Rohan’s father)

                      Ram Kapoor AS Jimmy (Rohan’s uncle)

                      Aayan Boradia AS Arjun (Rohan’s Half-brother)

When I saw this movie I decided to not to write a review on it because if I would not write correctly about the movie it will be injustice to movie and to readers, but I realized that many of the readers might not even have the knowledge of this movie because it was not released on the big scale,I thought that this should not be missed so i am here. I saw it because of Anurag Kashyap. Anyway this movie should not be missed for many reasons.

The story is backbone of this film and performances are soul and music energizes the whole product. It is about a boy’s journey when he got abandoned by his father for 8 years and he has to return to his father after getting expelled from his school. He came to know that he has a half-brother whom he didn’t know. His disciplinarian father has his rules for the life and he controls the life of his two sons, he has his own strange ideology which according to him is perfect for the life. He wants his sons to pronounce him SIR not ‘papa’ or ‘dad’. Where as on the other had Rohan has his dreams and desires, his own ideology. His dream of learning literature and becoming writer gets garbage like response from his father. The story moves with Rohan’s fight against the odds and his mental state.

The debutant director has done tremendous job. He has narrated the story so effectively that despite of its slow pace one remains connected with film very well. Rohit Barmecha as Rohan is outstanding. Ronit Roy as a authoritative father is excellent and doesn’t go over. Ram Kapoor as understanding uncle is also very good. Real surprise comes from the kid who plays Arjun-Rohan’s half brother- he had very limited dialogues but he impressed with his facial expressions, superb. Music as I told energizes the whole movie is soulful and one would love to enjoy it even after.

( special mention to UTV and Anurag Kashyap who regularly brings something different and innovative to the audience. Great work)

On the whole a refreshing experience. Good story with excellent performances. Don’t miss it.

12 ANGRY MEN (1957)

Directed By: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall

     Martin Balsam, Jack Warden, John Fiedler

     Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Joseph Sweeney

     Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber

12 angry men released in 1957 is directed by Sydney Lumet. The story is surrounded by a court jury of 12 men who are to consider a case of 1^st degree murder and the defendant’s (an 18 year old boy) fate of if they found him GUILTY or NOT GUILTY.

The jury consists of 12 different people from the society with distinctive mindsets. Movie starts with a judge instructing jury after the hearing of case about the verdict to be decided by them and as it was 1^st degree murder case the decision of jury must be unanimous and all the members must be of the same conclusion at the end.  After that the whole movie is shot in one room except 2 scenes (one in washroom and one in the climax which is of outside court).

Now as the jury started with their 1^st vote count JURY#8 votes NOT GUILTY and so they have to discuss the whole case and things went through the court-room. The whole movie shows 12 men with different personality from different fields, who think differently, who have nothing in common and even don’t know each other are to decide the fate of the defendant. Two of the jury are rude old men who have their personal bias opinions for slum people and children of young age (the defendant was from slum). Two-three were not much interested in the case they just wanted to finish the things and get out the room to enjoy some baseball match. Others would believe that what ever witness told was true. But as the discussion of case goes on they required to re-think on all the possibilities and why the witnesses would be wrong in testifying.

Sydney Lumet has narrated the script so well that it left the viewer spellbound during 96min of drama. Whole story focuses mainly on behavioral aspects of humans. It has brilliant performances from all the actors and Henry Fonda( who played JURY#8) deserves special mention.

From my point of view the movie was engaging as well as a learning experience (especially for those who are studying Human Behavior or who are interested Human Behavior’s different aspects).

A must watch for classic movie lovers.

       

APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Starring: Martin Sheen

Marlon Brando

Robert Duvall

Laurence Fishburne

Dennis Hopper

Harrison Ford

Movie is set during the Vietnam War. Story is about two US army officers Capt. Willard (Martin sheen) and Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Capt. Willard is given a special mission to assassin Col. Kurtz. Martin Sheen is given mission by intelligence officers to journey through the Nung River into the Cambodia and find col. Kurtz who according to them has gone out of control and commanding his own troops in the jungle. They also tells him that he was once top ranking officer and considered future General.

The movie starts with a scene of Jungle and a song in the background called “this is the end” with series of explosions in the jungle and then shows face close up of Martin sheen who is not feeling good with civilian life and drinks extensively. This is the kind of start which impressed me and which I found quit unique than the other war movies. Movie I felt engaging despite of its slow pace because of Coppola’s way of narration of story, like how Sheen’s character keep on understanding the character of Brando from documents given to him,One after one posts which he visits and how he lost his crew members one by one on his way to hunt Kurtz, And finally the view around the Kurtz’s outpost,The scene in which Sheen meets Brando.

Movie is a unique experience for war movie lovers because this is not usual war movie where bombing and firing happens on two fronts and scenes where soldiers loose their life and others show extreme emotions on the loss of fellow soldiers. NO, but this one has something different to offer. After watching one will find why this movie is considered a CLASSIC.

Definitely WORTH experiencing.

The Brothers Bloom(2008)

I know Hollywood has churned out many con movies. Still this movie has something in it for you to like. For starters, you have a cast like Adrian Brody, Mark Ruffalo & Rachel Weisz. The director, Rian Johnson, tries to set up the plot nicely. Opening of the movie shows how the two brothers entered the world of con wherein Mark Ruffalo is the one who strategizes everything and Adrian Brody just playing the part as decided by his brother. Though Mark Ruffalo enjoys his every encounter, Adrian Brody is full of guilt. Everytime he tries to leave, Mark somehow pulls him back to the trade and they pull off a great con. Eventually they try to fool a wealthy girl Rachel and somehow things get murkier. A great climax to the story stating "there is nothing like an unwritten life, just a badly written one." I've been mesmerized by the performances of Mark in Shutter Island and this one. He is so subtle that you just love it. Adrian Brody proved his mettle in The Pianist (won an oscar) so as to firm the claim that he is a performer of the greatest quality. Nathan Johnson's score compliments the movie well.

For me, a movie's score holds a lot of importance so readers please excuse me if you find me mentioning the same in each of my posts.

I find this movie to be an outright entertainer which vindicates, "a perfect con is one where at the end, everyone involved gets the thing he wanted."

The Usual Suspects(1995)

Boy, this is good. Its real good. Will make you scratch your heads but if you are with the movie throughout, you'll know its of great quality. 5 criminals woven together for crimes that few can pull off. Greed of money keeps them together. Till one incident happens where a boat is burned with with huge amount of dope and cash on it. Kevin Spacey is caught for the crime and he weaves a great tale of deception to escape the clutches of policemen. Throughout the movie, the director Bryan Singer manages to capture your full attention. John Ottman's score couldn't have been better. Equal credit needs to be given to the writer, the editor and other technical crew members who managed to carve out a perfect thriller full of ambiguity where the suspense opens up beautifully in the end.

A must watch for classic cinema lovers as this is the movie that made Kevin Spacey a star.

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM (1987) starring:Robin Williams

Directed By: Berry Levinson

Starring: Robin Williams

               Forest Whitaker

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM is a comedy-drama film Starring ROBIN WILLIAMS as Adrian Cronauer. Film starts with the arrival of Robin Williams in Vietnam as he was appointed the new DISK JOCKEY at AFRS-armed forces radio services in South Vietnam during 1965.

Cronauer is like live-wire, full of energy. Very soon he becomes hugely popular among the American troops. He has great sense of humor and his style makes him instant star in radio space, which his immediate bosses don’t like. They don’t even find him funny but Cronauer is unstoppable, he speaks whatever he thinks fit. Soon in Vietnam he makes friends and also see the dark and dirty side of war and how people of Vietnam gets to suffer because of the war.

As the story goes ahead we get to see different shades in the character of Robin Williams. Especially after the scene when a bomb blast happens at a restaurant where he used to have fun with friends. And when he gets to know a very dear friend of him is actually a terrorist. Williams makes excellent mark in the movie not only with his humor but with his emotions.

I had decided to watch this movie because I am big fan of Williams and I am glad that I watched this not only because Williams was brilliant but also the story is good and the way story is woven makes it a joyful ride.

BLADE RUNNER (1982) HARRISON FORD

Directed by: Ridley Scott

STARRING: HARRISON FORD

                      SEAN YOUNG

Blade runner directed by Ridley Scott is a science fiction action flick. It has 2019 in the backdrop of the story surrounded in LA. It starts with written narration regarding the REPLICANTS- genetically engineered robots which were very much same as humans (quite indistinguishable from humans)- the use of replicants is banned on earth but few of the replicants called NEXUS-6 created by Tyrell corp. have returned to earth. The replicants who denies the ban are haunted down to death by a special squad called Blade Runner.

Things start getting worse when this replicants attack humans and acts fugitive. Later it came to know that these replicants have a life span of 4 yours which they want to increase and for these they need to meet their creator. Harrison ford an old Blade Runner is given task to haunt them down.

Movie has a dark tone. Even the sun can not be seen completely in that time on the earth. The atmosphere is rainy most of the time. It has setup bit differently that those Star Wars movies where things looks cool and high tech, here it looks like humanity has lost the touch and darkness prevails everywhere.

This movie is worth watching because it is the pioneer movie for the all sci-fi mocies of coming age like terminator and lot more. It is a cult classic because of its different looks and narration. The movie is bit slow in the pace but that doesn’t matter. It was before the time movie, were concepts like Artificial intelligence are used. 

I recommend to watch this who likes sci-fi movies.

(HERE IS A PROMO OF THE MOVIE)

INCEPTION : REVIEW ( TWO THUMBS UP FOR NOLAN)

DIRECTED AND WRITTEN BY: Christopher Nolan

STARRING: Leonardo DeCaprio
                     Ken Watanabe
                     Marion Cotillard
                     Ellen Page
                     Joseph Gordan-Levitt
                     Tom Hardy
                     Cillian Murphy
                     Tom Berenger
                     Michael Caine

INCEPTION directed by Christopher Nolan is a movie that needs continuous attention of the viewer and not only attention it also gives a viewer challenge to catch the pace of the movie. He has delivered a product which has both attentive storyline and excellent narration with utmost cleverness. He has entertained the viewer and let the viewer web the idea of the happenings in the mind.

Dom Cobb (DeCaprio) is skilled to extract information from a person’s subconscious mind in the state of dream. He creates the imaginary world in the person’s dream with resemblance to reality so that the target caught not get to know that if he is in a dream or reality. This skill has put Cobb in great danger and made him fugitive of his country. But he gets a chance where after completing the last mission he can get back to his country with free from all the charges. But the task is not so simple and has great amount of risks and complications with it. He is accompanied by others in this act as his team members and where there is danger there must be enemies.

Initial part of the movie tries to explain how Cobb and his team do the whole extraction from mind, how the process happens. Mid of the first half to the end, more attention is given to the last task to be done. They explain what and how the dream within the dream stuff works and what may occur if things go wrong and this makes the whole thing tricky.

The imaginary world of dream is a visual treat and the way Nolan has created the world according to the different character’s thinking deserves special mention and applause.

The viewer takes time to catch up the whole stuff as the narration goes on and things gets interesting.

Storyline as said earlier-mind blowing. Characterization and narration is top notch. Performance wise DeCaprio leads the cast and all have done excellent job.

All in all a movie which can become classic. And shows that still good stories are written and executed also very well. Surely recommended but not to all the viewers.

(Bring your brain with you when you watch the movie)

RATING: 8.75 OUT OF 10.