The Green Mile

Cast : Tom Hanks, Micheal Clarke Duncan

Director: Frank Daranbort

The Green Mile is actually directed by same person who directed perhaps greatest movie of generation,”The Shawsank Redemption” and obviously the expectations were sky high. I must say it wasn't as good or as classy as the shawshank but it was still very good movie. It was very good because it began as your average prison start that didn't exactly blow me off my seat but it the gradually became more and more interesting and eventually when the movie finished, it had power to move you and bring tears in your eyes.

The story is about an execution place where everything is normal until tall, mean looking, black man enters and the saying, don't judge a book by its cover, definitely occurs with this film when he touches everyone's heart and the workers there start to query the execution of the tall colored man.

The film is set in the great depression of 1930's Its set around death row and the strange events that happened there. A man convicted of murdering 2 young girls is sentenced to death and is awaiting on death row. The very Death row is named "the green mile" by the guards that run the place. The man who is convicted is named John Coffey, brilliantly played by Micheal Clarke Duncan that he should have won an Oscar for. The guards include Tom Hanks obviously, David Morse and Barry Pepper showing all that they can act amazingly. John Coffey is basically an innocent man who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was in fact trying to save them by healing them because he has supernatural powers. The film is very heartfelt and upsetting. It’ll hit you in ways you've never felt.

Besides the cast, the story is superb. It balances the real and supernatural so well, the supernatural seems to fit perfectly into this world. The movie also wisely does not explain the phenomena- sometimes there are things we just can't explain. I won't ruin exactly what happens, but I will say this: the movie was telling its story well before anything supernatural happened, but when it does happen it feels right, and you know you're dealing with a movie that has all the trappings of achieving greatness.

Everyone who sees this movie will never forget it. All the characters are memorable. Even down to the mouse! But John Coffey character is so good that it will be remembered as one of Hollywood’s greatest ever characters.

Absolutely recommended.

Rating :

* * * *

Trainspotting

Cast : Evan McGregor, Johny Lee Miller, Robert Cartlyle, Ewen Bremmer, Kevin McKidd

Director : Danny Boyle

What do u have to say abt a movie which starts with dialogue like ..

“ Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin? “

And let me start you by saying one thing "Trainspotting" is one of those movies that you don't watch when you're really depressed, because it won't help your mood at all. And thats what i did, already been feeling low and this movie has made the matter worse.

The movie follows the trail of Rent-Boy, Spud, Sick-Boy, Begbie, and Tommy, five Scottish friends into heroin and illegal dealings. The film is funny, sad, depressing, and even a tad hopeful at the end. The truth is that this movie makes the already rather tainted world of drugs look even more unappealing and dismal. Despite its necessary gloominess, the movie is smart and moves well.

Being more honest the movie is more entertainment than anything else really. The pace is high, the characters are silly and some of the situations and dialoge are often hilarious. "Trainspotting" might seem like heavy stuff on first sight and even though it does have its serious and heavier moments, it remains mostly an entertaining movie to watch throughout its entire running time but yet at the same time, the serious anti-drug message comes through and works fine.

There is a lot of 'disgusting' imagery here, but all that adds up to a movie that is realistic in portraying what these addicts must be seeing and going through during their 'up' and 'down' times. It is refreshing to see a movie that is quite frank about these topics of drug abuse, yet is not preachy about it.

Really humourous stuff, especially the thick Scottish accent, which makes it hard to follow at times (there are subtitles), but somehow enhances the enjoyment of the film. Fast-paced at times, slow-moving when it needs to be. Surely one to keep in the home video library.

And i must add This movie is not for immature or younger viewers simply because it's rather disturbing in parts and they probably wouldn't understand it. This movie is brutally realistic, yet funny and probably one the most realistic movies I'll see for a while.

You Should watch it if my review gives a clear picture abt wat m talking here.

Rating :

* * * *

Blow

Cast : Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz

Director: Ted Demme

The movie Blow (which has a very good rating on IMDB) hooked me , first that it starred Johny Depp and Penelope cruz, both my favourite actors. Also the trailer looked outstanding but it aint that impressive.

May be here in India we don’t know much about America’s history with Drugs and its peddlers but they do have a very notorious history. (Watch American Gangster to know more, a classic) but there was another Drug Dealer George Jung who created havoc in his times. This movie delves into Jung's life and uproots the reasoning behind his actions. There are books concerning Jung's life, but how many people read them? - a movie, starring Johnny Depp, is just the thing that could give Jung's story the attention it deserves. "Blow" doesn't contain the regular "drugs are bad" preaching that is usually brought up in movies... it shows us the rise and fall of one of the greatest drug lords in the U.S.

Most of the time i had feeling that i am watching American gangster once again, just few characters replaced here and there.

The first 45 minutes of Blow started out great. It was stylish, humorous, and enticing. Then it started to fade, and fade, and fade even moe. What i dint like in particular was attempt to develop sympathy for the main character. The man was one of the largest distributors of cocaine in the country. I think Johnny Depp is one of the most talented, dynamic, and versatile actors in this country and not even he could pull this one off.

True crime stories have been a subject of a few good movies, and much more failures. 'Blow' belongs to the second category. Nothing interesting happens in this movie, the story is conventional and permissible, the characters never develop beyond cheap melodrama. Nothing of the devastation of drug culture shows up on the screen. Gangsters love their daughters? So what? Just boring.

And yeah what a waste of Penelope Cruz talent to appear in such a movie.. she hardly had any screen space and just yelled and screeched whenever she was there.

Not really recommended.

Rating :

* *

Wedding Crashers

Cast : Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn

Director: David Dobkin

I had a crazy week so far.. juggling between two important places (not gonna name em, keep guessing) made me exhausted. Hardly got any sleep and the sad part is, its gonna continue this week too. Wanted to watch some comedy and some good comedy. Guess wat, got the perfect movie for mood. Wedding crashers rocked, felt like crashing a wedding right now.(felt bit nostalgic, been there done that kinda feeling).

The premise is simple. Our dynamic duo here play two womanizing Kaminey (this seems to IN word) who are experts in crashing weddings, creating interesting backgrounds for themselves and generally getting laid as the sole objective of every successful crash. They get girls thrown at them left, right and everywhere in between… until they decide to crash the wedding of one of the most influential and powerful man's daughter. Following Hollywood comedy's tried-and-tested formula for disaster, they soon draw too much attention to themselves while courting two other sisters of the bride and as a result, get invited to spend time with the powerful family from Hell

This is the funnies movie iv seen since The Hangover few months back.. Great acting, hilarious lines. Hot & sexy babes. This film had a great beginning, especially one line "You shut your mouth when you're talking to me!". This movie had so many tricks and lines to get girls, and they probably work. The "friendly" "touch" football game was a riot. The dinner table scene with the grandma was great to, "Elenor Roosevelt was dike, a carpet muncher". The funniest part was when Vince Vaughn awoke tied to the bed with Gloria (Isla Fisher) on top of him nude.

The highlight of the film is its script. It's so funny, so sharp, that you're left thinking the screenwriters who wrote it are geniuses. One laugh right after the other, and you're not done laughing before another one comes along.

A perfect gift for weekend. Highly recommended.

Rating :

* * * & 1/2

Out OF Sight

Cast : George Clooeney

Director : Steven Soderbergh

Perhaps I'm one of the few people who thinks so, but if you ask me this movie is a little bit overrated. Don't get me wrong, I did like most of the movie, but it isn't as good as I expected it to be. The movie started very promising but than it lost most of my attention until the last 20 minutes or so.

An FBI-cop (Jennifer Lopez) who falls in love with a professional bankrobber (George Clooney) while he is making his way out of prison sounds pretty charming but once you see the movie you know it's just a lame excuse for director Soderbergh (Ocean's 11, 12,13, (such great profile)) to film a romantic crime comedy that must bring back memories of other similar movies of genre.

. It's not a movie that bores but from the moment starts you know in whose arms Lopez will end and before the arrival, the director thinks it's necessary to tell the viewer some complicated tales (the movie has so many flashbacks i certainly dint like the idea. ) and as said you can easily skip some minutes of the movie, you wouldn't have a miss a thing... Clooney plays in his Richard Gere-(it all looked so familiar specially after he’s been there and done all in Oceans series) while Jennifer Lopez is a better actress than most people think, but all by all just an useless romantic vehicle that you forget the moment you turn the telly out.

It's probably not easy to make an original movie with this concept, but I expected more from Soderbergh.

Only if you insist.

Rating :

* *

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Cast : Jack Nicholson

Director : Milos Forman

I downloaded this movie because I've heard people say it is very good, it's high on the top 250 on IMDB and stuff. But I just don't get what is so great about it. I know I belong to a minority when I say this but I didn’t this movie

Sure, the acting is fabulous, especially Jack Nicholson, but you need more than that to make a great movie. Nothing really happens, there are flaws in the story, and are you supposed to think that head nurse (Louise Fletcher) is evil? (Louise Fletcher won an Oscar for her performance and that has to be a joke. Am I the only who realizes her screen time was like 15 minutes?)

The main problem I had with the movie was that I didn't care for the characters at all. Sure, there were some scenes that were interesting and provided a nice glimpse into one character or the other, but, for the most part, I couldn't find a way to sympathize with any of them. Jack Nicholson did alright in this film, but, at times, I actually disliked his character and what he was doing. As for the other people in the ward, they did a good job, but, again, I just didn't sympathize with them
I didn't find the plot, flow, or atmosphere to be strong enough to make up for the apathy I felt towards the characters (and one would guess that, in a movie such as this, it's critical to one's enjoyment that they care about the characters). While there were some great scenes in the movie, those scenes just weren't enough for me to really like the movie. I thought the movie was overall, bland and uninteresting, and certainly not deserving of all the praise it received.

PS: i was shocked to see how similar few scenes were from our very own Munnabhai MBBS movie. Never ever read in reports but there was strikingly similarity between few scenes from both the movies.

Also the climax is copied in a very forgettable but a big movie Kyu Ki (starring salman nd kareena) where the hero is killed by suffocating cause being lobotomy.

Rating :

* *

Kaminey

Cast : Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Hmmm , where do I start ?? …Some films are not easy to review because an experience has to be experienced , it is actually hard to put it on paper . This is exactly what Kaminey is , an experience . Lets start from the beginning . The film doesn’t take time out for introducing the characters one by one , they get introduced by themselves , by default . By the time titles would begin you would get engrossed in the film and the people who generally make noise during the beginning of the film in the cinema hall would get silent by the end of it .

Kaminey is an audacious, original roller-coaster ride. Written and directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, Kaminey requires patience and attention but the pay off is more than worth it.

Kaminey is about Charlie and Guddu, twin brothers played by Shahid Kapoor, both of whom suffer from speech impediments and who can’t stand the sight of each other. Charlie, who pronounces S as F,( main fa ko fa bolta hu) is a small time gangster. Guddu, who stammers, is a mousy NGO worker. Guddu’s life plans, chalked out until 2014 on a chart stuck in his cupboard, are wrecked when he impregnates Sweety, his fiery girlfriend who until now has neglected to tell him that she is the sister of a powerful gangster-politician, Bhope, played by Amol Gupte. Meanwhile Charlie has come to possess a guitar containing cocaine worth 10 crore. The quintessential gambler thinks he’s finally hit the big score. What follows is a frantic, convoluted journey through Mumbai’s mean streets which are of course populated by many Kamineys: corrupt cops, nasty drug dealers, gun wielding henchmen. Eventually, the brothers’ determinedly separate narratives collide and they are forced to come together.

Be warned: there are stretches of Kaminey that will thoroughly confuse you, starting with the first fifteen minutes. The film has eleven-odd characters that you need to keep track of. Snatches of dialogue are in Bengali and Marathi. If you look away from the screen to send a text message, you might miss another twist in this very, very tangled tale. The first half moves slowly. You might be bewildered and perhaps even bored. But stay with the film. Because the pacing picks up in the second half and Vishal ties up the threads in an exhilarating climax, which, incredibly enough, manages to combine stunning violence with humor.

Kaminey is that rarest of things: an unpredictable Hindi movie. Vishal, referencing the crackling gangster dramas of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, keeps it gritty and dark. Violence looms large over Kaminey but the tension is layered with black humor. The film reworks Hindi cinema’s favorite formula - twins - into a bloody theater of the absurd. Charlie and Guddu are unlike any twins you’ve seen before. Each one is willing to sacrifice the other to get what he wants. This is the role or roles of a lifetime and Shahid Kapoor, best known for innocuous chocolate-boy romances, sinks his teeth in. Kaminey does for him what Omkara did for Saif Ali Khan. A star has evolved into an actor.
A special Mention about the music (again by Vishal Bhardwaj) and cinematography which both are top notch, almost matching with standards of best Hollywood movies.

One personal opinion that I want to put forward in this review is that Omkara was more of Vishal’s film than Kaminey is . It had so much more on the psychological level that had to be handled by him only and he did that in a way that actually bowls me over every time I watch that film . But I don’t want to take anything away from him andKaminey beacause the two are completely different kind of films.

Watch it to see meaner side of you and all kamineys.

Rating :

* * * *

Music & Lyrics

Cast : Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore

Director: Mark Lawrence

It was a big day and very engaging one in terms of my office affairs. Wanted to distress myself with some light hearted romantic comedy and thats what exactly Music & Lyrics helped me do. (moreover m goin to see another heavy duty film “Kaminey” tomorrow so needed a change of genre tonight.)

The film is about a old age PoP singer Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) who’s living reclusive life, and one fine day he gets an opportunity to write and compose a song for current singing sensation Cora (Helly Bennet). This well may be Alex last chance for the limelight he’s longing for. There enters our lady Sophie Fisher (drew Barrymore) who’s a gifted writer but actually hasn’t somehow realized her potential as yet. She helps Alex get the right lyrics and also love in his life.

Fans of Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore will not be disappointed - She plays to perfection the manic, almost dipsy character that has been her trademark. Though Hugh's character is a bit more subdued than we often see from him,, with no hint of the lovable jerk he has done so well in other films, understatement suits both the character and the older, more seasoned actor. And at times you can’t help but to remember another my favourite Hugh Grant movie, Notting Hill, but yeah, I am not drawing any comparison here.

The story is kind of predictable but this truly is both charming and funny, which is not always an easily-achievable combination. It never gets contrived, heavy-handed or mean-spirited, and just as importantly, it has heart.

Recommended if you see romance in Air. Like i can see right now.. such lovely breeze blowing outside. You rarely get this weather in Gurgoan.

Anyway.. Happy Independence to you all.

Rating :

* * *

Cloverfield

Cast : Michael Stahl-David, T.J. Miller, Jessica Lucas, Mike Vogel

Director : Drew Goddard

Do you like films with realistic story lines where everything is sorted at the end? If you do, then DON'T see Cloverfield. If you like films that take your breath away and have you talking about it for weeks after, then DO see Cloverfield. I, for one, thought that this was one of the best movies I had seen in a long time. It's so easy to get bored with a film and lose interest in it these days. This doesn't happen in Cloverfield (well, after the first twenty minutes anyway).

The movie is still alive in my memory as its surely one of the most, enthralling, fast-paced, action-packed, deadly and sadistic film. I call it sadistic because the director lets no one live. I loved the film thoroughly, though the staring was a bit dull and gloomy. But then, all of it happened so suddenly that I was left glued to my couch. How I wish I could have seen it in the theater! Still, even on my laptop, its really intense.


The shaky camera made me a bit woozy for a while but then, I found it okay. Just one question: Who records something when his life is in grave peril? If an attack really happened, the first thing I'd do is to drop the video camera. But here, the shaky camera made it even more intense.

The actors do a fine job. They are scared when they are supposed to be, the shock and the fear can be clearly seen on their faces. Therefore, I was glad not to find any big names as this cast was perfect.

There were a lot many things that I didn't notice as first, like how the monster landed on earth. Then I realized why they were showing the clips of the main characters to the island.

I also was surprised by the abrupt end. It was a good end but not satisfying. I so wished that the monster was killed. The action scenes were brutal, especially the way people were killed. I loved the gory deaths, especially of Marlena's . It was wicked and disturbing, yet excellent. The director showed no mercy for any of the characters.

The tag line reads- 'Some Thing has Found Us'- yes it certainly has. A fresh new type of movie that I loved.

If you like some action packed movie that is brutal, wicked, unforgiving, sadistic, merciless and ruthless, then Cloverfield is just for you.

Rating : * * * & 1/2

Train to Pakistan

One is always told not to compare books to films.

The reality of this film is that how on earth would you ever see it without knowing the book. There is nothing in the trailer or introduction to make you think that you would want to watch it.

One would only watch this film on the back of reading the book, or because one is too lazy to read the book.

But if you must know, Pamela Rook’s celluloid rendition of Khushwant Singh’s classic on Partition is a good movie. The village Mano Majra on the border between India and Pakistan suddenly comes to life when the communal ogre raises its ugly head. A trailload of corpses streams in from across the border in the dead of night and scars not only the landscape but also the communal amity of the village where muslicms and Sikhs have been living for centuries. In midst of simmering death and discord, there rises an unlikely hero, Juggut Singh (played by nirmal pandey), a petty dacoit, who chooses to lay his life for love and peace. The foul mouthed, fiery Jagga saves the life of his beloved nooran ( played by smriti mishra) and her brethren while the country burns.

The film is disjointed, and loses the ambiguity implicit in many characters within the book. Particularly Iqbal (played by rajat Kapur), the "social worker" and also the dilemma the magistrate, Chand (played by mohan agashe) , experiences when trying to wrestle with the problems.

The film is sometimes look disjointed, and although the setting is a village, it somehow seems to be unnatural. It might be a function of the acting, but there seems to be a hangover of 'dramatic' bollywood acting seeping through, rather than the acting showing the depth of each of the characters so well drawn in the book.

The film is also in Punjabi, whereas the book I read was a pleasure to read in English.

Trust me on this, read the book.

Rating :

* * *

Closer

"Even love isn't pretty from this up-close.". You may think it sounds weird, I thought same. Watch Closer to get answers. Watch closer to know love actually aint pretty from close-up.

You may argue the circumstances and characters depicted are rarity in India and it only exits in West but this is not true. These characters are normal, a lil lesser known but they exist.

Anna (Julia Roberts) is a self-destructive woman, who simply can't accept love or happiness. Yes, people like her are real.

Alice (Natalie Portman) is a tough, cold but romantic girl. But the problem is that... to her, the love ALWAYS ends, and than... she run away, starting all over again, and again.

Dan (Jude Law) is a loveless man. He can't decide which one he will love, because he suffers from a terrible absence of love.

Larry (Clive Owen) represents the most common love form. He Really loved Anna, and did all for her. He even made the classic mistake of a cheated man.

A failed writer, a young stripper, a doctor with a certain prestige, and a very successful photographer. Four characters, four crossed relationships. Sex, love, infidelity, the animal attraction...

The characters are brilliant, and so is the casting. . You will love this movie, believe me. And bytheway The other thing that I quite liked about this movie is the intense conversations the jilted lovers had with each other! Men do ask those insane questions about sex. Why???? So crazy and yet so true.

Watch it, but do be wary of explicit language of the film. Not everybody's cup of tea to handle it.

Rating :

* * * & 1/2

Letters From Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" is a sober, haunting film, filled with striking images that I thought as I was watching the movie would stick with me longer than they did. I found myself admiring the movie very much, but not feeling greatly passionate about it one way or the other. It didn't resonate with me the way other films like saving Private Ryan or even black hawk dawn.

But Yes,

I enjoyed this movie. The action scenes made some of my adrenaline run, made me even connect emotionally to the Japanese despair over the overwhelming American invasion. However, the movie is a bit too long. You know how it is about war movies that try/are emotional, too many scenes of soldiers dying like ducks and landscape shots that at first strike you as brutal but then just become repetitive. I don't mean they're unnecessary, but they were still prolonged a little too much.

Then, the Japanese point of view is nice to see, but in my opinion seems a little too forced anyway. About a possible historical lesson, I was hoping to learn a little more.. not a bad point, just not a great point.

About the movie which is Entirely in Japanese (with English subtitles), *Letters* finds the heart of its three main characters through the written medium: Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) – a young baker, conscripted during his wife's pregnancy, writes to her of his trench tribulations, while trying to make good on his promise to stay alive and return home to his new daughter; General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) – assigned to pull Iwo Jima from the jaws of defeat, writes to his wife of his American travels before the war, his fears in facing that superior enemy, and laments that he found no time to fix the kitchen floor; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) - Kuribayashi's fellow officer and friend, a 1932 Los Angeles Olympian equestrian reads a letter from the soldier's mother ("do what is right because you know it is right").

Not bad if you are fan of war movies and emotional dramas. And ofcourse yes, if you are also fan of Clint Eastwood.

Rating :

* * * & 1/2