COOL HAND LUKE (1967)

“Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down…”
The line was belonged to this film which perfectly fit not only for the character Paul Newman played in this movie but also for the memorable roles that he had lived during his awesome career.
As a part of tribute to him I saw the movie once again. This one portrays one of his most famous character of Man with loads of GUTS. Its story of single hand fight against forces of tyranny in the form of rules & regulations & bosses in 70s backdrop where angry young man born out of a common struggling man & rise above as a rebel against the system. Movie depicts the prisoners treated as slaves by mysterious aviator glass worn Sheriff who throughout the film remain chilling silent.
Its common man’s uncommon attempt to prove his GUTS & rise above the average- the focal point here. Whether it’s boxing till end or playing poker with everything at stake or eating 50 eggs to win a bet or escape 3 times from jail, his character showed fight till end attitude & spirit with his natural flair smile on his face mocking the system failed to conquer him. As in the last scene his fellow pal & jail inmate Dragline (nicely played by George Kennedy) tried to convince him for surrender but he preferred to die cool as he lived. Cinematographer Conrad Hall remained cool support to develop his character sketch here & was mandatory part of his most of the movies.
MUST WATCH 4 ALL PAUL NEWMAN LOVERS.

Ratings- 8/10

HENRY POOLE IS HERE (2008)

There is something in the world which we can’t explain. Human Logic can’t describe it. Coz it’s so abstract( just like love). It’s HOPE. It’s BELIEF. Because it’s only Hope which is your last solace when all sort of logic failed. And that’s what the theme of the movie.
It’s story of Henry who disillusioned by life started living in isolation in suburban area. Neighbors always intrupt and disturb his escapist attitude from life. Then some miracle occur on his wall & neighbors started believing that. Slowly whole town started gathering there to pray. And his backyard wall becomes the debate between fate and faith.
I must admit that the movie has moved me so much deep in my heart. As we all know there are certain movies with which we grow as a better human being, whose experience just stays with us lifetime and this movie is one of them for me. Hats off to Director Mark Pellington, Actor Luke Wilson for making it so heartfelt. Background score, songs & lyrics of the film are so soothing that I’m gonna buy Original Soundtrack of it.

ONE OF THE BEST FILM OF 2008. COMPULSORY WATCH.

Ratings-10/10

JOHN Q (2002)

It’s human drama of a common man’s desperate attempt to save his son’s life. The movie depicts certain poignant & upsetting facts about Doctor- Insurance Company nexus & How a common man of even country like U.S. becomes its victim in the time of serious crisis. Its sad fact that even in U.S. there are more than 50 million people surviving without insurance cover due to lower wages & economical crisis. So whats gonna happen to them when their lives require emergency medical help. Plot & situation resembles Pacino’s DOG DAY AFTRENOON. Denzel Washington gave up to the mark controlled performance as responsible father. He’s really matchless as far as intense & emotional acting is concerned. I want to recommend the scene where he gave touching act advising his son on hospital bed before donating his own heart. Nice supporting cast performance no matter how significant or trivial their roles.
SIMPLY HEARTWRENCHING FILM.

Ratings-8/10

THE PRESTIGE (2006)

Love to quote this from the film-
“Every magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called The Pledge. The magician shows you something ordinary. The second act is called The Turn. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it into something extraordinary. But you wouldn’t clap yet because making something disappear isn’t enough. You have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has third act. The hardest part. The part we called The Prestige. Now you’re looking for the secret but you wouldn’t find it because, off course, you’re not really looking. Because you want to be fooled.”

Two great magicians in rivalry try to outsmart each other by awesome tricks.
As these two characters progress their performances stuck into the world of rivalry, illusions, ambition & power with the flow and grip of the story we came to notice two impeccable actors that Director Christopher Nolan has produced in this movie - Christian Bale & Hugh Jackman. Truly its memorable & mesmerizing experience, off the hook with all the secrets behind the tricks. After watching this I have to admit that Nolan becomes one of my top ten favorite directors & he is the real master craftsman. Those who have only seen his Batman Returns & The Dark Knight, watch this movie as soon as possible. It’s totally mind blowing material untouched by any director. Are you watching closely? Because this is the movie demands your complete attention.
MUST WATCH.

Ratings- 9.5/10

DEATH RACE (2008)

Well we are living in the era of reality shows of every sort on our idiot box. Welcome to Hollywood homicide world of Death Race where contestants are killing machines & betting was on allover Internet & Reality TV for million viewers of this thrill. The rules of Death Race are simple: Win all three stages of Death race & you’re set free. Lose & you’re killed in a split second. Jason Statham has pretty macho appeal & film has certain adrenaline pumping stunts and action. But more or less it gives you feel of watching some thrilling 3D Racing video game. Supporting cast has nothing to offer in this kind of films except showing their presence. Pulsating Racing action is all guaranteed.

Ratings- 7/10

LAST DAYS (2005)

Well u like the movie only if-
A) U r die hard Kurt Cobain fan
B) U like Gus Van Sant direction
C) U like extreme isolated life
The movie was inspired by the last days of Kurt Cobain. Although here the names of characters were changed to maintain the fictional touch. The plot moved around the fugitive life of Black – the alienated rocker in his own way in forest house. Most of the time its mere observation of his bathing, cooking, cross-dressing and weird behavior with occasional playing guitar. At one point he went to city & returned at night and next morning lied dead. Director maintained ambiguity about his death. Few of his friends who were taking his favors & staying nearby his home run away as soon as they came to know about his death to save their ass.
Well this is my 1st Gus Van Sant movie & I must say its very dark, realistic in portrait & specially admired the long shot outside camera angles to feel meaninglessness of life. But it has zero entertainment value & tad boring one.

Ratings-5/10

SARAH LANDON & THE PARANORMAL HOUR (2007)

If things like reincarnation, afterlife, spirit world and paranormal things interest you just read the review or please skip this post. Well its teenage thrill movie stuffed with this sort of things. Story, screenplay & even acting are just deep shit. Character seems so formal and whole movie gave you the feel of watching some sort of B grade paranormal. Not for a single second it created any kind of fear psychosis. Climax was just two minutes short & its just pathetic wind up of the whole movie because the Suspense was nonsense. I completed the full movie because the heroine looks pretty young.
STRICTLY AVOIDABLE.

Ratings-4.5/10

THE STRANGERS (2008)

A young couple back home from friend’s wedding party. It was supposed to be the night of celebration. But when they returned home everything collapsed within next few hours. Its indeed horrible tale based on real incidents occurred as mentioned in the movie. Its neither horror nor suspense what we look forward once we started watching it but its tale of violence with chilling silence and dark & gloomy setting as happened in true event. Movie has certain spine chilling and tense moments and director succeeded in letting the audience feel the tension the way couple felt. Yet even in the end you remained unaware & unsatisfied about the purpose or reason behind the crime. But as it mentioned in the film that in true event even FBI failed to know the reason, we have to keep content with the end.
Now if this made any appeal to you just go & watch the movie.

Ratings- 6.5/10

ELEGY (2008)

The Movie opens with a beautiful line quoted by Ben Kingsley which was the theme of the movie- “I think it was Bette Davis who said that Old age is not for thesis. But it was Tolstoy who said that the biggest surprise in man’s life is the old age.” And mind it these beautiful words continued throughout the movie as Ben Kingsley narrates the story. I can’t resist myself to quote few more lines and here are few of them.
# “Get to stop about growing old. Worry about growing up.”
# “When you make love to a woman you take revenge for all the things she defeated you in life.”
# “We are so dazzled by the outside that we never make it inside.”

The movie is based on the novel ‘The Dying Animal’ by Philip Roth & meticulously directed by Isabel Coixet. Kingsley played charismatic Popular Professor David surrounded by female students never lets any woman get too close. But things change when gorgeous looking Consuela (Penelope Cruz) entered his classroom. Her beauty captivates & unsettles him & his protective veneer dissolves as he considered her body a perfect piece of art. Gradually she becomes more than an object of her desire. She has a strong sense of herself & emotional intensity that challenged his perceptions & she becomes her obsession. Ultimately old age grown up mentality struck him and he tries to get normal without her. Two years later she comes back to his life with something unimaginable.
There are very few heroines in Hollywood who looks so beautiful in on & off the clothes and Penelope Cruz is one of them. There are so many nude intimate moments in the film but she looks pure aesthetic than anything else. And it’s not all about beauty, she played really an intelligent girl character here and believe me she never act so intense as this one. For Ben Kingsley its Oscar worthy performance perfectly tailor made for him at this age. Dennis Hopper played the role of his pragmatic and mature close friend.
Well the film become over sentimental as it progressed but I must appreciate that it is the beauty of this kind of the film. We have to shed certain programmed bias approach when we are watching this kind of cinema- Real, Mature and grown up.
AN EXTRAORDINARY BRILLIANT FILM.

Ratings- 9/10

PURPLE VIOLETS (2007)

What happens when life gives you a second chance for a first love? Edward Burns as a director & co-actor nicely tried to deal with this theme in possible sweet romantic way. It so happen that one fine day in their late 30’s Burns & Patrick Wilson met with their first love- Selma Blair & Debra Messing and it ignited the spark. Selma & Patrick were famous novelists and suffering from writers blocks in hunt of their new story for the next novel. The crush between two made them understand their past mistakes and everything settled down in better way as they grow mature in their relationship & sharing. Burns deliberately highlighted Selma- Patrick angle to give a subtle & sweet romantic feel and probably he succeeded in it.
If you love decent & sentimental romantic stuff its movie for you.

Ratings- 7/10

DECEPTION (2008)

Intimacy without intricacy in Sex. The movie displays desirable situational fix for every male. A monotonous and busy young accountant (Ewan Mcgregor) made bonding with playboy attorney friend (Hugh Jackman) and somehow their cell phones got exchanged which opened up a new one night stand sexual N steamy sexclub life for the accountant. He was enjoying this new blessed life happened by fate. Anyway he messed up this with a common mistake just happened with most of the males- he fell in love with one of the anonymous beautiful girl who met him for casual sex and broke almost all rules of the sex club in her company. And soon he came to realize that it’s all smart set up. Suspense was packaged aptly with sex here. Little bit of editing was all required to make it more gripping.

One time watch is not bad at all.

Ratings-7/10

AMU (2005)

Years ago I watched hard hitting and realistic ‘Salaam Bombay’ at night and it disturbed me and compelled me to think in altogether different view of India. This is the second one. This movie was so controversial in its subject matter that Indian censor Board had deleted all important dialogues & scenes from the film due to its sensitive subject matter which depicts the dirty face of Government & Politics of 1984 riots aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. And yet it bagged 2 National Awards in 2005 and considered as eye opener and heart touching cinema in all film festivals around the globe.

21 year old adopted NRI daughter visited Delhi to meet her family for the first time and haunted by the past to know her true identity. She faced the bitterest truth of her life in political supported riots of ’84. Konkona Sen again proved that why she’s the best & darling actress of every thinking director. Similarly Brinda Karat, Ankur Khanna, Yashpal Sharma & Rajendra Gupta also gave touchy and realistic performances.

I specially like to thank Writer, Producer, Director- Sonali Bose for offering such a thinking cinema with poise and balanced view of our horror political history.

MUST WATCH FOR ALL THINKING INDIANS.

Ratings-9/10

PRIMAL FEAR (1996)

As soon as I watched the first 15 min of the movie I realized that I have seen its good bollywood rip off ‘Deewanagi’ which had some nice performances from Ajay Devgan & Akshay khanna. In this original version Edward Norton played multiple disorder victim & Richard Gere played his defence lawyer role & both of them gave nice performances.
Its compelling court room drama with twist in the end which you can relish. It was difficult method acting role for Norton and he tried his level best to make it memorable one.

Ratings- 7.5/ 10

SE7EN (1995)

If there is any director who know how to make best psychological thrillers better after master craftsman Hitchcock its – David Fincher. This movie is the best proof of it. Well its quite late that I became fan of Fincher and I think this one is the best of him.
Its all about a serial killer obsessed with seven deadly sins and two detectives immersed in the case. Treatment of the subject shows acute research of the subject by the writer and director.
This movie has so many things to offer- Classic act of all lead men: Morgan freeman, Brad Pitt & Kevin Spacey, candid and brilliant cinematography required to deal with such a subject, awesome psychological study of the characters, great lines. For example here are two of them i.e-
# Anyone who spent a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable.
# Ernest Hemingway once wrote …”The world is fine place and worth fighting for.” I agree with the second part.
One more thing I like about Fincher (after almost seeing all of his movies) is – He knows perfect casting of characters. You cant imagine that any other actor in place of his choice actors in almost al of his films. Now that required lot of instinctive talent. Isn’t it?

A BRILLIANT MASTERPIECE.

Ratings-10/10

REAR WINDOW (1954)

I love Hitchcock and this is second time i watched Rear Window. And its simply shows the brilliance of this master filmmaker. Hitchcock was always ahead of his time. To make audience peeping the private life of neighborhood through apartment window of protagonist James stewart and involved them in thrill and tense with the same setting and happening without being monotonous is so difficult task to play as a director and cameraman. Personally I think this is the most difficult film to direct in Hitchcock’s entire career.

The movie is a big message to all voyeuristic dudes who love to watch private life of the people around them. So here is our hero (James Stewart) ace photographer with fractured leg rested alone in his apartment and to pass the time enjoying peeping the private lives of others through his window.Under his constant observation he came to notice suspicious aged man who committed crime of killing his wife and get in fix. What happens next is a thing to watch.
Superb camera work and marvelous presentation of voyeurism made this film classic and touchstone. A TIMELESS MASTERPIECE.

Ratings- 9/10

MY BROTHER NIKHIL (2005)

The issue of AIDS was tackled in Phir Milenge- a bollywood rip off of Hollywood’s Philadelphia. But along with AIDS this movie also portrayed homosexual relationship with sentimental touch. Let me tell you that there are very few movies which made me cry in name of human sentiments and this is my second screening and I cant stop my tears. This happened due to touchy and sentimental journey. Sanjay Suri gave unique performance as AIDS victim and a happening state swimming champ. Even today among pool of talents in current bollywood there are no other actor who do the same justice to this role. Juhi Chawla simply gave her career best performance as caring and adorable –lovable sister and while watching her we also started wishing sister like her. Nice act by all other supporting cast- Purab Kohli, Victor Benerjee and Lilette Dubey.

The theme of the movie is emotionally appealing and socially relevant. The film also portrayed the gay bonding without a single moment of unnecessary vulgarity.Entire movie has certain feel of subtleness into it and moreover Director Onir narrated the whole story of Nikhil’s life from various perspectives of all other characters of the movie and it gives it realistic and natural feel. Infact this is the reason why film becomes so touchy at the end. Little bit of editing is what the film required in the later half and thats the only where film seems tagging but otherwise its brilliant human portrayal.
See Victor Benerjee crying for the first time while playing with Juhi’s little son and think is there a better actor in India who gave so natural performance the same way…

A Must watch for all serious and meaningful cinema lovers.

Ratings- 8.5/10

WALL-E (2008)

This is the best sci-fi animation movie of current decade I have ever seen.Wall E will definitely remembered as one of the most lovable animation character by Disney-Pixar combination. Imagine the earth full of trash and so polluted that whole human race left the planet earth and started living in the spaceship town where everything is auto-operated by computers and robots and men are free and became obese and real couch potato that they cant able to stand erect. Wall E – the only available robot on earth still doing duty to clean the garbage fell in love with Eva-a feminine robot.

Certain emotional visuals were just mind-blowing especially when Wall e clasps his hands with Eva in the climax after getting his memory back. Its beautiful, brilliant and small but smartly packaged must watch material for all ages. The movie is full of brilliant messages throughout its running time provided you have eyes for it.

Ratings-9/10