Frankenweenie(2012)

3/5

The first half of the movie is terrific fun. We have Victor Frankenstein who is precocious and loves Science. He has a dog called Sparky. His Science teacher tells him that there is a Science Fair to be held in town. One day while playing Baseball on the insistence of his father, Victor hits the ball out of bounds. Old Sparky rushes for it and has a fatal accident with a car. While listening to the talk of his Science teacher, Victor realizes that he can use electricity to reanimate his dog. He starts preparing for it.

The second half of the movie is a sort of a letdown because of the shift in focus from Victor to others in the town who also start thinking about bringing dead animals alive. There is an interlude about ostracizing those who are different. The movie shifts the goal post in the middle of the game and for me that is going to hurt its chance at the Golden Globe and the Oscars where it should be nominated

The story is a clever take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. There are settings and scenes which are homage to it.  If only the pacing and the story of the latter part would have been better, this would have turned into a mini classic.

This is a more than decent watch and Burton's fans would end up liking it.

the possession(2012)

1/5

This is the perfect example of a clichéd horror movie. There is the man who is estranged from his wife. He has two children, both girls. One day one of the girls picks up a box from a yard sale. The box looks sinister but still the ‘silly’ girl makes her father buy it. And lo and behold, strange things start happening. There is the mandatory exorcism thrown in. however, it has a Jewish twist to it. You see, the box has a malevolent spirit.

The movie is mediocre in all the respects. The direction is pathetic, the editing is particularly shoddy and the less written about the acting, and the better it is.

The actor is a Javier Bardem look alike and that is the best thing you can write about him. The girls are shrill and irritating and you actually are never able to empathize with them.

This is a PG 13 horror movie and hence the nasty things happen off camera. There is not a single moment which will shock you or grip you. It is a complete waste of time that has to be avoided at all costs. That this managed to earn nearly seventy million at the US box office is nothing short of a miracle.

skip this

Lincoln(2012)

4/5

It is 1865. Abraham Lincoln has been reelected as the President of the United States. Civil War has been raging for over four years. The thirteenth amendment to the constitution proclaiming equality for the blacks was passed in the Senate two years back as the Republicans, Lincoln’s party, were in majority. Now he wants the amendment to be passed by the House of Representatives so that it becomes a law. The problem is he doesn't have a majority and the chances of the Democrats siding with him are slim.

It was very difficult for me as a person who is not very familiar with the Civil war to really understand the first forty five minutes of the movie because it had innumerable references to that period of time and the main characters who helped shaping history. However, once the action starts in the House of Representatives then this transforms into a superb piece of art.

The shenanigans to which the Republicans resorted to are shown in detail. There is a personal stake for Lincoln to get the amendment ratified into a law and that part is also delved upon.

The best part about the movie is the acting. Tommy Lee Jones has the best lines as a staunch Republican who wants nothing short of complete rights for the Blacks. Sally Fields as Molly Lincoln, the wife of Abe, is truly terrific in the emotional scenes. Joseph Gordon Lewitt brings star power and not much else as he is on screen for less than ten minutes.

But the movie belongs to Daniel Day Lewis. He IS Abraham Lincoln reincarnate. The way he speaks, the care and the occasional flash of anger in his eyes and the playful smile on his face will truly wow the viewer.

This is Spielberg’s best movie since Munich and might just be his best effort of the twenty first century.

 The seven Golden Globe nominations and the yet to be announced Oscar nominations are richly deserved.

a short film about killing(1988)

3.5/5

There is a young man who is wandering on the streets with dangerous intent. There is a taxi driver who is just doing his job. There is a young and idealistic lawyer who has just joined a law firm after internship. This is a story of how the paths of these people cross each other and the ways in which the three are radically affected.

The movie makes a strong statement about the very act of killing. It opens up with a scene which shows a cat which has been strung from its neck by a group of miscreant children. This is followed by two stunning scenes of murder and killing which will raise goose bumps.

The script is superb. The characters are well drawn and vivid. However, the supposedly strong statement against capital punishment does not come out that well. The defense arguments given by the lawyer in the court are described as being among the best made against execution by state but the viewer never gets to hear them and it stays as one of the weak points about the film.

The direction is top notch. However, this does not manage to touch your heart and pluck its strings like the directors’ short film about love.

Antonia's Line(1995)

3.5/5

Antonia comes back to her native place in Holland after the end of the Second World War along with her daughter. After burying her mother, she slowly establishes a colony outside town which initially caters to women who have been wronged by the society and also includes the farmer who falls in love with her, his children and other people who are attracted to her.

Stretching over four generations, this 100 minute gem is a master class about a matriarchal society and feminism. The acting is pretty good and the characters have enough quirks to stay with you for a while after the movie has ended.

The direction is the best part and the ease with which different characters are juggled is mind boggling. The background score is excellent.

It is no wonder that this won the best foreign movie of the year 1995. A must watch for drama fans.

A short film about love(1988)

4.5/5

This is a movie which will blow you away. Period.  It doesn't matter whether you are a romantic or a skeptic. This will tear you asunder with its powerful characters and raw emotions.

Tomek is a boy in his late teens who spies on his neighbor, Magda, with the help of his binoculars. He watches her through love making sessions and heartbreaks. One day he tells her about his voyeurism. What happens next is what the movie is all about.

I chose this movie because I wanted to watch something short in length and this, at just 80 minutes of run time, qualified easily. However, despite fantastic reviews on the net I was not prepared for the sheer emotional power it unleashed.

The way the feelings of Tomek and the object of his desire, Magda, are portrayed is masterly to use a clichéd term. The direction by Kieslowski is absolutely God level. The dialogues are kept to a minimum. Kieslowski allows the camera to do the talking. The acting is as natural as they come.

I have seen only one other movie by the director which was White, one of the troika in the tri-color trilogy. I plan to check them all out ASAP now.

This is what movie watchers talk off when they say that cinema can be pure magic.

P.S. some of the scenes were copied by that horrific Hindi movie “Ek Choti si Love Story”. Another reason for me never to forgive Mr. Mahesh Bhatt and his acolytes. 

The barbarian invasions (2003)

3.5/5

Two movies were released in 2003 based on the same subject. Both had the fathers dying and the estranged sons coming home and the re-formation of the bond which had broken between the two of them. One of them won the best foreign movie Oscar and the other bombed at the box office. The two movies were The Barbarian Invasions and Big Fish.

A son gets to know that his father is critical. He is a big shot in financial options markets. He hasn’t been too close to his once womanizing father and doesn’t want to go. However, his sister is away on a sailing trip and hence he has to go to the hospital. Once there, he gets down to the job of taking care of his father. Between discussing call and put options, he manages to find comfortable lodgings, heroine so that the edge of pain is dulled and manages to bring the friends of his father to see him as the end comes close.

Big Fish concentrated on the ties between father and son. There were the absolutely spellbinding fantasies woven by Albert Finney. Here, the element of nostalgia is introduced by the father’s friends.

The script is funny and poignant. However, I saw the extended version which is 15 minutes longer than the theatrical version and I thought that the movie dragged needlessly in the second half.  So if possible watch the 99 minute version.

Overall, the movie is a delight and should be savored by fans of good dramedy.

3.5 out of 5

Cosmopolis(2012)

1/5

 A billionaire asset manager wants to have a haircut in a barber shop which is located across the town. The president of the US is visiting the city so there are traffic jams everywhere. There is a person who wants to kill the asset manager. His wife, a poet, doesn’t want to sleep with him. The movie charts the course of this one day when he meets a motley band of characters en route to the barber and how his world changes.

This is among the most pretentious movies I remember seeing. While watching the movie I was wondering only one thing: Does anybody in the world talk like this? The dialogues are supposed to be full of mystique about the vagaries of life and to concede points a couple of them are memorable and quotable. But the majority is such tripe that hearing them would make your head spin.

This earned less than a million dollars on the box office and while that is no real measure of how good or bad a movie is, my heart really goes out to those unfortunate souls who saw this in theater  This must be sheer torture for them.

Everybody is jealous of billionaires. But if this is their life then I for one am really glad that I am a common Joe.

The acting is so pedestrian that I was checking the faces of other people whenever they were in the background.

Yesterday I saw Spider directed by the same man. How can Cronenberg end up giving us this is beyond my comprehension?

It was an achievement of sorts for me to finish this.

. Trust me; this is a ride you want to miss at every cost.

Spider(2002)

3.5/5

The titular Spider is Ralph Fiennes who has just been discharged from the mental institute. He takes residence in a home which houses other people from the hospital who have been let out. While he is there, he recreates his childhood and observes how his father behaved with his mom.

This must have been a very difficult movie to make. The lead actor practically does not speak for any substantial length and has few dialogues. Hence it would have been a very tough challenge for the director to keep the viewers interested. I am very glad that the David Cronenberg bested the challenge and made this into a very gripping piece of cinema.

Fiennes is off the charts brilliant. His brooding intensity and the way he mumbles really has to be seen to be believed. This is his best performance after Schindler’s List in my opinion and my respect for him as an actor has increased tremendously.

The direction is superb. The way the past and the present blend together gives new meaning to the word smooth. Loved it totally.

Must watch for fans of gripping drama and great acting

Dabangg 2 (2012)

2.5/5

The bad ass kick-ass inspector from Lalganj, Chulbul Pandey, has been transferred to Kanpur. He foils kidnappers’ attempts, saves kids, romances his wife, prank calls his father, teases and occasionally kicks his brother, takes a part of the loot, dances with a goofy grin on his face, shoots the shit with his glutton of a senior and all in all becomes the darling of the city.

The city is under the grips of a local don called Bachcha Bhaiya and his two brothers. Inevitably Chulbul and Bachcha have a confrontation which sets the tempo for the rest of the movie. Which of them would walk away and what would be the damage to the one who will be the last man standing?

 This is a wet dream for all fans of Salman Khan. He is in the form of his life as he plays the larger than life cop with ease. He obviously enjoys the character and that is evident in the way he tries to act. Generally he just mouths the dialogues and sleepwalks through the movies but here you can feel the anger in his eyes when he admonishes a traffic cop for ill-treating an elderly fellow and the love when he sees his wife, Rajjo. He is excellent when he teases his father on phone by acting like a woman.

Prashant Raj is becoming repetitive and here he has a much less meaty role than he had in Singham or Wanted. Sonakshi Sinha does what is asked of her. Vinod Khanna was quite likeable as Chulbul’s father. Arbaaz Khan as the brother and Mahie Gill as his sweetheart has minimal screen time.

The punch lines are reserved for Salman. The lyrics are bawdy and catchy. The music is less hummable than the first part.

My major grouse with the movie was the climax. Salman dispatches off the entire team of goons so freaking easily that it makes you wonder why he took so long to do it.

Strictly for Salman’s fans or for those who love their movies without substance.

Dead Alive aka Brain Dead(1992)

2/5

I first saw Dead Alive aka Brain Dead nearly nine years ago. I did not know Peter Jackson then, had no clue about the Lord of The Rings movies he had made. I brought this to show to my friends in engineering college on the recommendation of the CD shop owner who said that this was a terrific movie, very scary and full of thrills. Back then I had cursed him and his family members a lot after viewing the film. I had to stop the screening after 45 minutes as almost all the people had left. That was the only screening I was allowed to do during under graduation.

I decided to see this again as I wanted to be through with Jackson’s filmography as a director before watching The Hobbit. So I got a blue ray print and was very excited because of the great reviews and rating that this enjoys on various sites.

This is the story of a rat monkey from Sumatra who bites people and infects them, turning them into zombies with flesh eating urges.

I could watch this till the hour mark and then had to shut it down again.

The bad special effects, the amateurish acting, the weird camera angles and the ‘different’ direction might be cup of tea for his legions of fan boys but they made for a very jarring movie watching experience. I understood that the movie is deliberately over the top like Evil Dead but it could not grip me at all. A few scenes were pretty hilarious but the overall sense remains the same that I could have done without watching this.

If being grossed out is what you like you will enjoy this tremendously.  For others, this is a mandatory skip.

The Cooler(2003)

4/5

For the uninformed, Coolers are those who supposedly bring bad luck to the gambling table and are an old fashioned ploy by the casino bosses to make sure that the money of the house stays in the house. They are used to cool the hot winning spree of the players.

The Cooler is a story which revolves around three characters, the casino boss Shelly (Alec Baldwin in his only Oscar nominated role), his cooler Bernie (William H Macy) and the woman he falls in love with, Natalie (Maria Bello).

Shelly is being pestered by his other partners to have the casino renovated because they feel it is too old fashioned.  In particular there is a Harvard graduate (Ron Livingston) who is giving him advice about how to run the casino. To compound matters for him, the cooler begins to lose his touch when he falls in love with a waitress who works at the casino.

Shot stylishly this is a delightful movie. The jazz throughout the film gives it a nostalgic flavor. The songs playing in the background are excellent.

The real strength of the film is the acting. Baldwin is intense, mean, foul mouthed and scary which is a new act for him but he pulls it off pretty well. Bello is very good as the woman who inadvertently falls in love with Macy. But this is Macy’s movie out and out. He is excellent as the crippled, tense and afraid of his own luck cooler and you will find yourself rooting for him.

Watch this for Macy. He will end up mesmerizing you.

Blindness(2008)

3.5/5

Blindness is based on an eponymous novel written by the Nobel laureate Jose Saramego. It is a kind of post-apocalyptic tale where in the catastrophe which has fallen upon the human beings is a plague of ‘white blindness’ as opposed to the darkness which is supposed to engulf you if you are ‘conventionally’ blind.

One fine morning people start going blind. It is an infection which spreads fast. The government is clinical in response. It quarantines the blind in hospitals. The wards start filling up rather quickly which leads to inter-ward conflicts.  

The movie is through the eyes of the wife of an ophthalmologist who surprisingly is immune from the blindness. She lies to the authorities so she can stay with her husband in the hospital. She assumes the role of the natural leader.

The movie does a better job than the book of showing the travails which the lady has to endure. Others on account of going blind stop caring. She sees and is alarmed, repelled, disturbed but keeps on enduring.

Juliane Moore is excellent in her role as the wife. You can feel the pain she is feeling just by looking at her eyes. Mark Ruffalo, who is her husband, doesn't get a meaty role and is limited to talking peacefully with miscreants and showing concern for his enterprising wife.

The direction is top notch and the scenes which show the depravity to which humans can sink are shot aesthetically but still end up shocking you.

This had me enthralled for most of its length.

Taken 2 (2012)

3/5

For a movie which got really bad reviews on release and a rotten tomatoes score of 21%, this is pretty enjoyable even though a bit clichéd in parts.

Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the undercover operative, who is enjoying life with his ex-wife and daughter in Istanbul. He is being targeted by the grandfather and relatives of the men he killed in the first part while he was saving his daughter. This time the plan is to kidnap the whole family and kill or sell them. Will Mills be able to save himself and his loved ones?

The story is wafer thin. However, for me where the movie scored was in the pacing of events. It quickly gets down to the action part and with its constant thrills and fights, it never lets the viewer’s attention sag. 

The scenes set in Istanbul don’t look all that great after that first act of SkyFall. The acting is on expected lines. Neeson is reliable and looks and acts the part. Anna Price as his wife whimpers throughout. His daughter irritates and hams and is especially terrible in the romantic scenes with her new found boyfriend.

The background music is good. The direction could have been better. In the initial parts of the movie I could not really understand why a simple scene of drama was being shown from multiple angles?

This has been panned as a sequel which has been made with the sole aim of making money. Even if that is really the case, then also it is undeniable that Taken 2 has its moments. Not a great movie but still a pretty decent action flick. 

Into the Abyss(2012)

3/5

Directed by one of my favorite masters of all time, Werner Herzog, Into the Abyss is a documentary which uses a crime and the impending execution of one of its perpetrators to try and answer the question why do people and the government kill?

The movie begins with a long dialogue between the director and a priest whose duty is to administer last rites to the prisoners. It becomes clear during the very first sequence that the director is intensely anti-capital punishment. Then this moves towards the crime which was the killing of three people for a particular car and how the case was made against the killers.

Herzog, with his sympathetic and German accented tone, expertly interviews the killers, one of whom was executed eight days after talking to him. There are echoes of In Cold Blood in this but they don’t really resonate with you.

The movie is made with a sincere intention  and manages to stir you a few times. However, it lacks any real punch. There are no great revelations and I thought that the structure of the story telling was a bit convoluted at times as if the editor had fucked up a bit.

There are better documentaries and movies on this subject and two notable mentions have to be the life of David Gale and the Thin Blue Line. This is good cinema but doesn't hold a candle to those great and life changing works of art.

For me personally, this is Herzog’s weakest effort. But as a documentary it is above average.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days(2007)

4.5/5

I use the words mind bending, ultimate far too frequently. They should be reserved for truly special films like this. Seldom have I seen such a perfect drama with female characters with whom I could empathize with completely.

 It is 1987. Abortion is illegal in Romania. A girl has to have her fetus aborted. This is the story of how her friend assists her. 

It is a harrowing tale. The scenes are on an average 5 minutes long and the direction is absolutely top notch. the acting is so natural it feels as if a hidden camera has recorded the emotions and actions. I want to write a lot more but can't because my mind is still reeling from the sheer brilliance I have just witnessed. Suffice it to say that this will haunt your dreams and your living moments. 4.5 out of 5 for this Romanian masterpiece. It won the Cannes best movie Palm D'eor. How it failed to get the best foreign movie Oscar nod is beyond me.

Conquest 1453(2012)

1.5/5

when you find out that a movie has an IMDb rating of 8 with over 30000 votes, you become curious about the movie. you approach it with a certain set of expectations. and when the concerned flick is a historic opus about the conquest of Constantinople then you believe you are in for the time of your life. Sadly you are gravely mistaken. The movie felt like a superposition of one movie over another. there are few scenes in which the Turkish king is preparing his troops and making all the right moves to capture the enemy territory. however, this is not the central theme which surprisingly is the romance between the king's best friend and the daughter of the chief cannon designer. the romantic track is completely unnecessary and bogs down the already sluggish pace of the movie. what further kills the movie is the amateurish editing. some people are just walking to nowhere throughout the movie which is plain funny. the initial special effects are cartoonish. the battle scenes are good. the Turks are shown to be noble which is to be expected considering that this is a Turkish movie. but still the clichéd portrayal of the enemy doesn't sit well with a movie which has such grand intentions. the acting is laughable. the Sultan keeps on glaring at the camera to convey his "intensity", i believe. his friend who at least gets to kiss the girl is one step ahead in woodenness. rest of the characters are so easily erasable that it is only 5 minutes since i stopped watching the movie (30 minutes were still left but i had had enough) i have forgotten all of them. this is as pathetic as they come. 1.5 out of 5 for this. these 125 minutes of my life i can never get back and for that i will never forgive Faruk Aksoy, the director of this disaster.

Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)

4.5/5

Well, to begin with a confession. I have been crying for nearly the last half hour. These have not been tears of frustration on watching yet another jaded entertainer or difficult to fathom artsy flick. These are tears of gratitude towards the director of the movie for what is easily the most sensitive and touching portrayal of the bond between a man and a dog.

Richard Gere is the music professor at a college who finds an abandoned dog at the train station. He takes it to his home. His wife (Joan Allen) is initially against keeping the dog with them because of a reason. But slowly she understands that her husband had become totally crazy for it and he ends up becoming a part of their family which also includes a daughter. Gere finds out that its name is Hachiko.

The film tracks the relation between Gere and Hachiko over their life time. The incidents are funny and poignant and you would be laughing as well as suppressing sniffles.

Gere is in the acting form of his life and you can clearly see that he loves Hachiko. Their chemistry burns up the screen and lifts this from a very good movie to a truly extraordinary one. Allen is better than average as his wife. There are a bunch of characters that fall in love with Hachiko and they are sketched very vividly.

But the film belongs to the titular Hachiko. The director uses black and white to show his point of view. Watching many scenes I thought I could understand that the director was trying to show that we may be thinking that our pet is really fine and cozy in its place but what it actually wants at that time is to be with us, in our arms. Hachiko wins your heart and bowls you over and devastates you by the end of the run time.

I have never owned an animal in my life time. I guess it is time to set this right. As one of my friend wrote and it has stayed with me ever since, when you go and select a dog perhaps that may be the only occasion you get to select your relative.

Unbelievable achievement.

alex cross(2012)

1.5 out of 5

Alex Cross is a “doctor detective”. He is a psychologist who helps the police draw up the profiles of serial killers. He, along with his motley crew, is on the trail of a psychopath who “loves inflicting pain on people”(is there any other variety of psychos). However, the battle is about to turn very personal.

Cross is a fictional detective who is the hero of eponymous series written by James Patterson. The books are generally very fast reads with little or no substance. However, these books are thrillers whereas the movie attempts to be an action movie. It combines elements from different books to make this a personal fight for Alex. Needless to say, it fails.

The acting is as bad as I have seen this millennium.  Tyler Perry steps in the big shoes of Morgan Freeman, who played Cross in the previous two installments of the series, Kiss the girls and Along Came a Spider and does a terrible job. He cannot emote and is clumsy in the action scenes. When he should be all fire and brimstone, he is pretty lame ass. Edward Burns used to star in top notch movies like Saving Private Ryan a decade back. He is less than a shadow of his old self. He sucks big time as this “beautiful cop”. Jean Reno must be in a cash crunch or the director of this stinking pile of shit must be having his objectionable video with him. I can think of no other reason for him starring in this.

The script is terrible. The background music and the characters are also so clichéd that they don’t stay with you for even 2 minutes after the movie has ended.

The only saving grace is Matthew Fox who plays the villain. He is menacing and terrifying and looks to be the only one who doesn’t sleepwalk through his role.

Recommended for people who love torturing themselves.

The Castle(1997)

4/5

A man’s home is his castle. That is what Daryl believes in. He lives with his wife, two sons, four grey hounds in his house which is right next to the airport in Melbourne. He has a daughter who has married a kick boxer (Eric Bana in one of his early cameos) and a son who is in prison on charge of robbing a gas station. Daryl’s is a blissful existence. He loves his wife, compliments her cooking, and has fun with dogs and sons. The sons love their parents. However, their life is turned upside down when one day an eviction notice is served by the neighboring airport which needs the land for expansion. The movie is about Daryl’s fight against the airport company. The acting by the largely unknown (to me) Australian cast is superb. Daryl is a total knockout and he will have you laughing with him throughout the runtime. The script is very witty and filled with great lines and quotable quotes. The characters are truly memorable. At a length of 80 minutes, this is breeze of a movie. It starts slowly and then grows on you. You will be sad when it ends.  Superb entertainer.

Kung Fu Panda(2008)

3.5/5

I have been avoiding the Kung Fu Panda juggernaut for the past four years. The Shrek sequels actually killed my enthusiasm for any animation made by DreamWorks (How to Train Your Dragon being the exception which proves the rule). A sequel has meanwhile come and become a blockbuster, there are various episodes released periodically by DreamWorks and most of my friends have become tired of recommending this. I finally succumbed because I wanted to watch something light and short in length.
Po is a Panda in China who dreams of learning Kung Fu. His father wants him to run their family’s noodle business which is the farthest thing from his mind. 
There is a mountain atop which there is a monastery. Here, Master Oogway, a turtle who is a Kung Fu master lives along with his disciple Shifu and five other animals Tigress, Mantis, Viper, Crane and Monkey. 
Oogway foresees an old student of Shifu, Leng, escaping from prison and coming back to claim the dragon scroll which is supposed to hold the secrets of being the ultimate fighter. He decides to find the next Dragon Warrior to take on Leng. The animals at the monastery are training hard as they are vying among themselves to be the next Dragon Warrior. By a strange quirk of fate, Po ends up selected as the Dragon warrior.
The movie follows the adventures of Po as he is trained in the various martial arts and becomes ready for the ultimate showdown with Leng.
The character of Po is very cute and his antics are endearing. I could relate to him totally as I am a big foodie myself. He is voiced brilliantly by Jack Black. Shifu, voiced by Dustin Hoffman, is a complex character burdened by his past and he stays with you after the movie has ended.
There are great Zen sayings uttered by both Oogway and Shifu and I loved the way an animation movie was used to portray serious thought.
My only grouse was that the climax fight between Leng and Po was a bit short.
However, overall this was a very satisfying watch.

Undisputed(2000)

2.5/5

it is very difficult to sustain interest in a movie wherein you have a fair inkling about the denouement beforehand. Undisputed is one such movie. 5 minutes into the movie, one can actually accurately guess what the end would be like. However, credit goes to the director of the movie that he does not allow the interest of the viewer to sag throughout its run time of nearly 85 minutes. There is Ving Rhames, a character obviously based on Mike Tyson, who is the world heavyweight champion but has been sentenced to the prison under accusation of rape. His contender is played by Wesley Snipes in one of his more restrained roles here. Snipes is the undefeated champion of the prison boxing matches. Rhames is arrogant and a total bully. Snipes has the concentration of a Zen master and is cooler than cucumber. Who will win? The movie is interspersed with many action sequences. The problem lies with Rhames who does not look like a boxing champ and obviously a cliched story. there are the mandatory side characters but they have two bit role and they fail to impress. The final match is done pretty well but falls short of the iconic scenes of the Rocky franchise. The sequels are rated higher. Will definitely watch them soon.

After the Wedding(2006)

3/5

A Danish manager of an orphanage in India goes back home to find the funds for his project. There he discovers a truth which changes his live and that of others around him. This was nominated in the best foreign movie category in 2007 wherein it lost to the Counterfeiters, a much superior film. The film is well made and brilliantly acted. But the script does not offer anything shattering which is what its synopsis on IMDb promises. The viewers of Hindi movies have seen countless films like this although the story hasn't been lifted so far to make an "inspired" copy. There is only one scene wherein one of the lead characters reacts about their impending death which has not been used by Hindi cinema. Here, everybody becomes stoic and heroic after learning about their impending death. There, people shout and question about the logic of it all. 3 out of 5 for this. the pacing of the movie is appropriate and it never drags along. It is the very content itself which does not offer anything new to chew on.

Earthlings(2005)

4/5

It took me 3 days to finish watching this. Haven't seen a more harrowing documentary. This actually goes on to prove that humans are the most cruel of all animals on this planet. The documentary talks about animals in five different parts. They are shown as pets, as a source of food, entertainment, clothes and experimental subjects. The tortures which the animals are subjected to and the different manners of killing them are shown in their full brutality. Many of the scenes are more disturbing than any of the movies which contain so called graphic scenes. The viewer will be appalled and horrified as to what these animals are subjected to. Just closing our eyes and thinking that the animals are treated humanely before they are dispatched to the other world is naive. watch this and prepare to be blown literally.

Dead Calm(1988)

2/5

this commits the cardinal sin for a thriller. it is borrowing in parts and allows the viewer's mind to drift in the open seas. A husband and wife have lost their only child. to rekindle the warmth in their relation and to get over the loss, they decide to go on cruise. they are far out in the water with no one for miles when they encounter a young man on a dinghy who tells them a story about his escape from a sinking boat. but nothing is what it seems. Nicole Kidman is breathtakingly beautiful in one of her earlier appearances. Sam Neill as her husband spends most of the movie trying to make the boats work. the biggest letdown is Billy Zane as the troubled young man who is supposed to be disturbing but ends up looking pathetic. another over rated movie on IMDb. Skip it if you are unfortunate enough to come across this.

Borderland(2007)

1.5/5

This movie is meant only for the mentally disturbed. I went for the movie knowing its story line and expecting no Academy stuff. I knew this was a movie where the omnipresent American hitchhikers encounter a "human-sacrificing cult". I knew there was going to be gore and cheap thrills. What i didn't knew was how boring it would all be. Three friends go to Mexico to do the "usual" things: get high, get laid. but one of them is kidnapped by the aforementioned cult because the head honcho of the cult believes that Satan would be pleased if they sacrifice some one after torturing the poor soul. the pleased Satan would enable their drugs to pass into the United States by making the drugs invisible to the custom officers. I mean, what the f**k where the script writers thinking? this must be the lamest excuse for the gore. As for the gore and blood, the best sequence which is truly hair raising is one in which one of the friends is chased through the length of the hotel in which he is staying by a machete wielding mob. The rest of the scenes are just pathetic. The director tries to give some back story so that we can "connect and identify" with the lame ass characters. but they still come across as clichéd. So kindly watch something else. Anything as long as it is not Borderland. For the lovers of violence, there still is no movie better than Martyrs. This pretentious sh*t is just that. a pretender. nothing more.

3-iron(2004)

4/5

rarely does a romantic movie leave you with a hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach. this other worldly experience directed by Ki-duk Kim is "shockingly brilliant". the story is original and frugal with no words exchanged between the leads. the intensity of love,longing is conveyed merely by slight movements.the actors are stunning in their parts. the soundtrack is haunting and the ending memorable. Would be comparing movies i watch for some time with this. made my day. 4 out of 5 for this mesmerizer from the director of the epic spring,summer...spring. a very special movie which should be watched with your special one.

Big Trouble in Little China(1986)

1.5/5

i have been John Carpenter's fan right from the time i saw the original "the thing". then came "halloween", "in the mouth of madness" and "assault on precinct 13" which are all mini (some may see B grade) classics. but then today i saw this and i couldn't believe my eyes. Carpenter must have been stoned beyond belief when he decided to direct this pile of crap. bad music, non existent screenplay, tardy action and tacky special effects. soured my morning, turned it into a mourning. couldn't even finish it. had to stop when 20 minutes "action" was still left. Totally disappointing. Skip it if you have something even remotely better.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1(2012)

3.5/5

Bruce Wayne is 55 years old and Batman hasn't fought crime for over ten years. Commissioner Gordon is 70 and is in his last month of service before retiring. Harvey Dent has been "repaired" by the plastic surgeons and now the two sides of his face match. A new breed of criminals called the Mutants are holding the city to ransom. Will Bruce wear the cape again? Will the Dark Knight return? This is an above average animation movie built on these intriguing premises. The animation is definitely not in the league of Pixar or even Dreamworks for that matter but still the characters are so close to my heart that i felt in the grip of the narrative. The scenes which mark the return of Batman will raise goosebumps because of the background score. This is something which fans of Batman should definitely check out. 3.5 out of 5. Now bring on the second part ASAP.

Bananas(1971)

3.5/5

Woody Allen is at the top of his wackiness here as a product tester who after being dumped by his activist girl friend goes over to a South American country, joins the rebels and ends up becoming the president. the starting scene which is a live assassination and the end scene which shows the live broadcast of Allen's honeymoon night is side splitting. there is a one minute un-credited cameo by Sylvester Stallone as a tough guy who roughs up Allen in a train. the farcical situations are numerous and the satire in Allen comes to the fore in the marvelous court scene where he is gagged and bound and then goes on to tear the witness apart. this is vintage Allen and his fans would rejoice seeing this early work as the hand of the master satirist is clearly visible.

Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai?(1980)

4/5

Directed by the creator of the rags to riches story "raju ban gaya gentleman" and the excellent tongue-in-cheek comedy "Yes Boss" this is a superlative movie about the life of the Indian lower middle class of the late 70s. The angst, the issues are portrayed in a poignant manner. The acting is memorable with Naseerudin Shah as the titular character overshadowing everybody else. There are also other great actors like Om Puri in a two bit role, Satish Shah in a small but effective role as a local ruffian, Smita Patil as the handicapped sister of Albert(absolutely intense performance) and above them, Shabana Azmi as the girlfriend of Albert who has to bear his tantrums and face his insecurities regarding her. The movie plays on the backdrop of the Mumbai Cloth Mill strike. It perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the 70s like Dev D. did for the the first decade of the millennium. A must watch for every lover of good cinema. This is one movie which Indians should be proud of. The technical details could have been better but it has its heart in the right place. A shame that no channel carries such socially relevant movies any more.

Act of Valor(2012)

2.5/5

it has been some time since i saw this genre of cinema, the ones where the good guys are so perfect that they may shame God and the bad guys are devil incarnate. But then that is to be expected if one is seeing a movie about the protectors of the freedom and guardians against terror. so here we have some real life navy SEALs acting in the movie which is supposedly based on "real" incidents which predictably involve some Al Qaeda and old school Russian rogues. the story and characters are as clichéd as they get. where the movie scores is in its intense action scenes which are shot beautifully and are as real as they come. the death count is phenomenally high for the bad guys while the SEALs are predictably bullet proof. could have been much better but then in hindsight could have been much worse also. catch it on cable TV.