Pictured Moving

Watched Johnny Gaddaar finally. It is a slick flick modeled on the 70s bollywood thriller genre made famous by the likes of Vijay Anand. Neil Nitin Mukesh has done both is grandfather the legendary singer Mukesh and father ‘the would have been legendary’ Nitin Mukesh proud. He has the looks to make his presence felt on screen. Enough said about Neil - the plot in the film is the regular deal/heist plot, but what is good is that Sriram Raghavan the director manages to hold your interest till the very end with slick editing and the customary twist at the end. The supporting cast of Dharam Paaji, Vinay Pathak, Rimi Sen, Zakir Hussain and Rasika Joshi also do justice to their roles.

It is a must watch if you want to relive the thriller days of the 70s.

My Take: Yeah! ■■■■■ 

If you want to see an editing masterpiece this is one of them. The true display of non linear narration is in movies like these. Amores Perros or Love’s a Bitch is a Spanish flick with English subtitles. Directed by the acclaimed Alejandro González Iñárritu of Babel fame this movie keeps you to your seat till the end. Excellent performances from the entire cast. A must watch and if you are a movie connosiuer you should have this in your DVD collection.

My Take - Wow! ■■■■■

Raising Cain is another of Brian De Palma masterfully crafted suspense thrillers dealing with multiple personality disorders. It has John Lithgow who plays the character with the multiple personality disorder. Well directed and well performed by the entire crew. Take time off to watch this interesting psychological thriller.
 

My Take: Hmmm! ■■■■■

A man in his car hits a dead man at 11:14 in the night that falls from a flyover above, he tries running away from the cops - lands up at a family whose girl has gone missing. Girl’s boyfriend is trying to get money for her abortion, robs the store he works in. Girl’s dad finds girl’s ex boyfriend dead in the graveyard and decides to fix the crime scene…..girl dies in car crash….it so happens that girl is connected to nearly everyone in the movie. Confused! Even I was when I saw the movie on DVD. Forced connectivity to create a suspense thriller all comes to naught. Watch this at your own risk.

My Take: Huh! ■■■■■

Kung Fu! Quentin Tarantino style. The second part of the movie, actually it’s just that he went about making Kill Bill and realized late that it had become too long for western audiences – so he clipped it into two. But true to the Tarantino style of story telling this one lives up to his reputation. This part however doesn’t have as much action if you have already seen the first part, but nevertheless there is more story telling and scene setting done here. That’s Quentin Tarantino for you jigsaw style filmmaking, the moviegoers have to put the pieces together.Uma Thurman, David Carridine & Michael Madsen show loads of style in their histrionics. Need to watch both the volumes back to back to enjoy the complete experience.

My Take - Hmmm! ■■■■■

What happen’s when an influential private equity megacorp Machurian Global using bad science tries to get their zombie candidate as the President of the United States? You get the The Manchurian Candidate. A more contemporary version of the 1962 film of the same name which had the Chinese as the bad guys and Frank Sinatra instead of Denzel Washington playing the protagonist, this is more a fictitious version of the controversial Fahrenheit 9/11.

Interesting plot though it gets a little intertwined in itself, it is a nice to watch movie, especially if you are the types who like a bit of political espionage that is inspired from reality.

My Take - Hmmm! ■■■■■

The 1990 movie on the Irish mob in New York, State of Grace is a well crafted thriller judded with stars of the likes of Sean Penn, Ed Harris, and Gary Oldman. Good performances by each of these artistes, knowing the kind of actors they are they never disappoint you. My favourite bit is this dialog that Sean Penn says “You believe in the Angels, or the saints. And you believe it, but it hasn’t anything to do with reality.”.

It’s also the movie Sean Penn met his wife Robin Wright (Kelly of Santa Barbara fame) who co-stars with him.

Ofcourse this is not one of the best mob movies you would have seen, expecially not in a category which has Godfather in it.

My Take - Hmmm! ■■■■■

Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank are exceptional in the 2002 murder thriller Insomnia. Slickly shot in Alaska where the sun never sets, this crime thriller is
well executed with great perfomances. It’s unimaginable that you’ll find that Al Pacino and Robin Williams set a wrong foot when it comes to performances, and this one is no exception. Christopher Nolan well known for his crime flicks is one filmmaker to watch when it comes to gripping crime thrillers replete with tight characterizations.

This one needs a rerun because each moment has some tale being told. Needs a keen eye to pick the relationships each of them share and the worlds they live in, and ofcourse how protective they are of their worlds.

My Take - Yeah! ■■■■■

Alone in UK thought I would spend some time watching a movie at the Ozone Multiplex, in Oxford. Went through the list of movies and picked The Descent. Why did I pick it up, well because for one that was a movie I could watch alone, not one that my wife would like watching, and two, maybe I wouldn’t get to see that back in India.

At the end of it after paying 6.50 pounds (Rs. 520) to watch this movie didn’t seem worth it at all. It had an all women cast alongside slimy, under developed, foetus like, cannibalistic, blind men playing the fear factors. There is a lot of blood and gore all through the movie. Seemed too incomplete in the end when there was just one woman alive out of seven.

I’m not particularly a horror movie connoisseur, but I can tell you one thing, having grizzly creatures doesn’t make a horror movie. On an end note I think my taste of watching good movies is going down, more like the title of the movie.

My Take - Eeeks! ■■■■■

What do you get when you put together Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible, True Lies, and The War of the Roses together? Mr. and Mrs. Smith!

Throw in Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for some saleability, and you have a winning combination. Well hold on, not so fast, my mistake for taking the movie at face value (Brad’s and Angelina’s). Either the producers thought that people are stupid and are gullible or whatever. I frankly thought this is an unnecessarily over rated movie with no meat at all. Best action sequence when the two are converting the Smith house into smithereens and also my hopes. There was nothing more to add after that.

The only claim to fame (or disrepute) for this movie is it brought Brad close to Angelina and far away from Jennifer. So in case you are going to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith…see someone else!

My Take - Eeeks! ■■■■■