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A movie and book review blog

  • Reading films, watching books,....
  • Mind candy in the dark
  • All the books left to read...

Jul 30, 2004

I,Robot

It is easier to criticize than to praise. I have always been lavish in my criticiscm of Hollywood, for once I'd like to rectify that and give Hollywood its due. I,Robot is a movie only Hollywood can produce with the finesse it has. From Isaac Asimov's story of the same name, the film stars Will Smith as the protagonist in this futuristic saga set AD 2035.

In this scenario, thirty years from the present, robots serve as helpers to all human-beings creating almost a Walmart Superstore of robots called US Robotics which aims to put one robot in every home. But somewhere in the process, some of the robots go 'Darwinistic'(read evolve) and we have a major riot in our hands. Will Smith gives a good performance, the robots are cool too and the graphics are pretty neat. Born sci-fi readers might have a different opinion about the film, but for common man(woman) like me this is as good a sci-fi movie gets in Hollywood before it gets lost in the 'matrix' and gets reduced to incomprehensible jibber-jabber. All credit to Alex Proyas.

Jul 28, 2004

For those who where growing up during the late eighties when 'the wall' came down this is a movie you can empathize with, more so if you are an East German, like the hero of the movie, Alex.

Alex is brought up by his irrepairable 'party'(as in communist party) girl of a mother with true socialistic values. When the wall falls in Oct '89, we see him as youngman along with the protestors screaming to tear down the wall. Thats also how his mother sees him last, before she collapses on the sidewalk from a heart-attack on the way to a party party.

The movie is about Alex and his friends' efforts to recreate the former socialist state within the newly liberated and united Germany. Its funny, natural and a treat to watch.

Jul 23, 2004

Brazil

Its the name of a futuristic paradise, where everyone wants to go - music, free life and salsa dancers, that must be their marketting strong points. The movie is a sort of retro-futuristic prophecy or commentary whatever you may call it. More than science or gadgets(they are there) the emphasis of the film is on the political and social scene in a futuristic society.

Post 9/11 this Terry Gilliam masterpiece has become all the more relevant and the Oscar nominated screen play is eerily remniscent of what the real world is now, replete with 'terrorists', 'patriot acts' and 'dept of homeland security', just as in the film! Everybody is scared of terrorists and the government is actively hunting them down, 'deleting' many innocent citizens taken into custody without any need of warrants and this ironical situation receives the pie in the face when one of the character asks another, "but tell me, how many terrorists have you seen in real life?" and the other character racks his brains just to come up with the conclusion, "None". Does it remind you of something? Or have you got trapped in this film called 'Brazil'?

Jul 21, 2004

12 Monkeys


Send-back-in-time movies make me a little wary, but this one rose above the cliche, at least for me. It had an intriguing plot, that keeps you at the edge of your seat, not too much science to torture your mind whether technology could really make it possible or not and Brad Pitt was brilliant although it was Bruce Willis's film.

Its a good sci-fi flick to come out of Hollywood, I think, reminded me of the more recent British sci-fi film - 28 Days Later, but ofcourse it didn't have the Bruce Willis factor or should I say the Die-Hard factor. All in all I liked the movie, could be called a good sci-fi film if you don't try hard to question the science part of it.

Jul 20, 2004

Kitchen Stories


Swedish furniture designers - the fountainhead of all talent in the furniture design field. Now this film reveals to you the extent to which they will go to perfect ergonomics and work flow patterns associated with a single piece of furniture, say a bar stool.

The movie is funny, not in an American way, but in a slow laid back European style. A furniture company sends its representatives all over the Nordic wilderness to the homes single men to study the kitchen behavior of bachelors. This is 1950. Fun begins or rather its a study of interactions of me, extremely funny I'd say, in a closed space.

Jul 19, 2004

Solas


A gem of movie from the Spanish director, Benito Zambrano, Solas won 5 Goyas(Spanish Academy Awards) and I'd say everyone of them was justified. It is the story about Maria, a 35 year old pessimist, part-time alcoholic who is employed as a part-time cleaner and her mother, a simple peasant woman who comes to stay with her daughter when her husband falls ill and is admitted in a hospital in the city(where Maria lives).

A moving story about two women, whose lives are always in crisis. Their lives, their relationships, the simple friendships they form in this fragile world is the fodder of this film. Solas means Alone, alone in their own lives as the world moves mercilessly around and ahead of them, this film follows three people(or four if you count the barman) - Maria(Ana Fernandez), her mother(Maria Galina) and their old neighbor, played by Carlos Alvarez-Novia and the bonds they forge in unconsciously makes the film poignant and etches it in to your hearts.

Jul 18, 2004

L'Atalante

Jean Vigo's masterpiece-acclaimed-after-death, L'Atalante is so far ahead of its times(it was released in 1934). It tells the idyllic story of a sailor and his bride, sailing a barge down the waterways of France with a crazy old man as their first mate. It is interesting to note that all the three who played the main characters had long successful runs in the film industry, almost till their deaths in the late sixties and early seventies. All, except for the young and charismatic director of the film - Jean Vigo himself. Vigo died before he could see his film released and the film itself had to wait ten years till someone found out that it was one of those hidden diamonds of world film!

The camerawork and frames of L'Atalante are commendable for a film that old, a path breaker for the future art house movies. If people can give Citizen Kane a 10/10 which I guess is mostly because of it being such an outspoken film for its times, L'Atalante deserves a perfect score for being perfect in the art of film making.

Jul 17, 2004

Winged Migration


It is hard to categorize Winged Migration in to Documentary or Feature Film classes, because it is both in some way or the other. All in all it is a beautiful film about the parallel world of birds. Though I knew vaguely about the concept of 'imprinting' it was this movie that showed the effect and extent of 'imprinting' on wild birds. After you watch the movie you should take it upon yourself to watch the making of the film, because without it there will too many holes in the story.

The film charters the migrations of various bird species all across the globe in a fictious one year period, although the film was shot over a period of four years with four hundred people serving as crew at all the scattered places ranging from India, Peru, United States, New Zealand, Artic and the Antartic. The camera work will leave you with your mouth open for most part of the film, it is why its essential to watch the making of the movie, lets feast on some knowledge and leave those flies out of our mouths!

Jul 16, 2004

Talk To Her

Pedro Almodovar's fatalistic film about bull fighters, patients-in-coma, male nurses and travel writers - thats Talk to Her. A sensous film filled with colorful imagery. There are two women confined to their beds by being coma, there are two men who love them. One of the women dies, the man who has been loving her shifts his affection to the other woman in coma. Now there is a triangle, then one man is eliminated from the scene and the woman wakes up. One man, one woman, everything's perfect, the film ends.

Jul 15, 2004

Gaslight


Gaslight stars Ingmar Bergman in her Oscar winning role as best actress in 1944. Bergman is good, though the story is a bit dated, but then it is from sixty years ago,what did I expect? It has obvious shortfalls, like the villian -Charles Boyer who plays Bergman's manipulative and vicious husband, has villian written all over him that one wonders why was Bergman's character the only one not to notice that, then her saviour or the man who has a secret crush on her conveniently turns out to be a Scotland Yard detective. But all its faults and sepia tint, I'd say it was a gripping movie, enough to put off sleep till 3 am when we finished watching it.

Jul 13, 2004

Prizzi's Honor

Imagine Jack Nicholson as Micheal Corleone, the young heir-in-waiting for Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone in the Godfather. While imagining give Micheal Corleone a comic twist, tone down a li'l bit of his youthful intensity and up a notch of dry wry Nicholson humor - you have Charley Partanna, a potential mob boss waiting in the wings in this laughworthy yet serious movie - Prizzi's Honor.

Says it got 8 Oscar nominations, one for Nicholson himself. Kathleen Turner and Angelica Huston play the female leads in the movie directed by John Huston. It could be called the love story between a mob hot shot and a hit woman or it could be just a comic satire on how the mob world works, whatever it is, it was enjoyable two hours.

Jul 12, 2004

Prince of Tides

This is the first time I saw Barbara Streisand movie and she's not bad as I had expected. She acts well and I cannot say much about the direction, though nothing stands out. Nick Nolte is an ex-football coach with a scarred childhood and a suicidal sister. Streisand plays the therapist and the doctor for his sister. I think I should read the book now(written by Pat Conroy, the novel has the same name as the film). In a way it is a love story, which as it progresses brings out scary skeletons from the closet of past, it just a little stop short of being your prototypical chick flick.

Jul 8, 2004

Cinema Paradiso

World cinema at its mushy and sentimental best. Well, if you are really bent on taking a romantic movie, get some tips from Cinema Paradiso. From Guiseppe Tornatorre, this Oscar winner for the best foreign film in 1990 is an art house movie which will appeal all cinema-goers. I saw the newer version, the original version is supposed to be longer and darker.

Salvatore is the central character of the film, we follow Salvatore's life from his childhood in a small Italian town and his preoccupation with the little movie theater in the town - Cinema Paradiso. Salvatore grows up along with the changing fortunes of Cinema Paradiso and its keeper, Alfredo. There is also a love story woven between the folds, fortunes are which are drastically altered by one of the characters. Only one true love in your life, as the movie seems to say. It might seem to be a very gooey gooey movie, but its a real treat to watch, the music score is remarkable too. Definitely worth a watch.

Jul 6, 2004

The Firemen's Ball

Czheckoslovakia, before it was broken into bits was where this movie was filmed. The same country banned the movie from showing in its theatres when it was released. I don't know what is so bad about the movie, there is nothing contreversial in the film, it just revolves around a night when the firemen stage their annual ball in town. Maybe the communist government was just paranoid? It is from the director of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus", Milos Forman. Though I couldn't really understand what was so great about this movie. Maybe the ban in its country of origin and the Milos Forman tag I s'pose?

Jul 4, 2004

Alex and Emma

I have no tolerance for gooey gooey romantic comedies, this film re-asserted this fact.

Jul 1, 2004

Anne of the Thousand Days

A short course on British history for me. I have heard the name of Henry VIII many times though I didn't know anything about him as I was not enchanted by the numerous British Kings and Queens, their hunting parties, tea parties, coronations and related antics. Henry VIII movie was suggested by one of the fellow bloggers, so I thought I shall give it a try.

Anne of Thousand Days is about Anne Boleyn, one time wife of Henry the Eighth and the mother of Elizabeth I. It is an interesting movie, a crash course in the Britian of the middle ages and it is an entertaining story too. Personal and political games abound the story in which Richard Burton plays Henry. Not bad for a movie based on a historical plot.
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