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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...

Nov 16, 2004

A coming of age story from Spain. Nico and Dani are grade school pals who spend some glorious days of summer together at some beach resort in Spain.

It is a summer of sexual awakenings and boyish innocence. They go chasing after the girls at the same time are deeply devoted to one another. It is a movie about teenage experimentation with a backdrop of sunny Spain.


Nov 14, 2004

All The Real Girls

It is an all to real movie about a small town boy falling for a small town girl in small town USA. The script of the film is really cool, kinda like real life conversations without the cinematic pretense.

Directed by David Gordon Green it won a Special Jury Award at Sundance and is purported to the gems of indie cinema.



Nov 13, 2004

Fuente amarilla, La(or the Yellow Fountains is a spanish movie with a Chinese theme! Stars Eduaordo Noriega(he of Abres Los Ojos)and Silvia Abascal. Abascal plays the half Chinese-half Spanish girl in search of her parent's killers.

The search delivers her straight in to the hands of the powerful Chinese underground mafia operating in Spain, specialized in human trafficking. It is an interesting movie, fast paced and Noriega has given a commendable performance. The title of the film comes from Chinese mythology, when people die they are supposed to go and drink at a yellow fountain, where there will no sorrows and you will be united with your loved ones.

Nov 12, 2004

Stepford Wives

Had heard not so good reveiws about Stepford Wives, but I was not disappointed. Nicole Kidman has the lead role in this movie where she, a high profile media executive moves to Stepford, Connecticut taking a break from being a career woman.

Not a bad story idea. People are raving about the 1975 original movie of the same name though I am not very sure about it, technology was not as good as it is in 2003, will have to watch it soon. Kidman is a perfect choice of the role, so is Matthew Broderick as the not-so-glamorous husband.



Nov 7, 2004

Barbershop II

Barbershop I was real good stuff, can't say the same about Part II though. The sequel just cashes in on the success of the original.This time around the Ice Cube's Barbershop has a rival in business. Change, the only constant is the main theme of the movie. The only one thing that has not visibly changed is Cedric the Entertainer.

Nov 6, 2004

Last Orders

The last orders of a dead man to scatter his ashes at the seaside resort where he spent his honeymoon fifty years ago, is carried out by his friends. The movie progresses through conversations of the characters in a typical English pub - The Coach and through the flashbacks of memory of everyone involved which forms the well knit montage from which the film evolves.

Micheal Caine is the one who issues the last orders, he is not there at the point of time when the movie starts, but we see his life and times leading to his final exit through the flashbacks of others' memories, including his wife's. It is a movie that'll pluck at your heart strings without being over the top sentimental. As the British would say it, "Bloody Brilliant!"

Nov 5, 2004

The Householder

The first ever movie to come out of the Merchant-Ivory collaboration. The director-producer-writer trio of James Ivory, Ismail Merchant and Ruth Prawer Jhabhwala make their first film based on the story of a newly married couple in New Delhi in the early sixties.

Berkeley born James Ivory falls in love with Indian miniature paintings(Mughal) in some exibition somewhere in California, he has no idea what these paintings are about or where they came from, inquisitive for knowledge as he is, he digs out the source and makes a documentary about them! This leads him to his meeting with Ismail Merchant, which becomes the first move towards a long lasting partnership in world cinema - the Merchant Ivory Productions. The two then approach Ruth Prawer Jhabhwala in India, German born budding writer settled in India with her husband, for her novel, The Householder. Neither of the three has any experience in making a feature film, but they embark on the adventure nevertheless and thus we have The Householder, starring young(at the time 25) Shashi Kapoor and Leela Naidu as the newly weds grappling with life in an Indian city.

In a way the young couple is representative of the spirit of India at the time - the early sixties, when Nehru was unleashing his 'dreams unlimited' through his 5 year plans, the country was changing, the youth was the strongest currency in the market and this sudden transformation to individualism and freedom did bring about increased responsibilities and friction with the old. It is a tightly knit movie from the first timers, maybe one of the few where Merchant-Ivory didn't take refuge in the relics of the Raj and the young energy of the film is refreshing.

Nov 3, 2004

A heist movie - this time its French for a change. Although after watching heist after heist movies - the Italian job, Mamet's Heist, Reservoir Dogs and the like, I think I arrived a bit late at the Red Circle. But it has a quality that Hollywood films lack - it lacks coolness, it is more real, more gritty and more human like. The scheming thieves lack the super hero genes so common in the Hollywood kind. But all said and done I like the Hollywood ending better, when the thieves win!

Nov 1, 2004

Legally Blonde

There is hope, even for blondes. If Reese Witherspoon plays the blonde she cannot be that dumb anyway.
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