Feb 12, 2005

The Truth

The Truth is one of the better films made by Shaji Kailas ,starring Mammootty as the police investigator from Delhi who takes over the murder case of the CM of Kerala. Shaji Kailas has directed all his films glorifying the lone fighter of a cop, I think it is time Kerala Police Dept. conferred an honorary IPS upon him. Whatever it be, had it not been his films the people of Kerala would be largely unaware of the dealings of their corrupt rulers and the names of the big players in the drama which goes by the name of Kerala politics.

Kunjikkoonan

Hulchul

Through Hulchul, Priyadarsan - the visiting director(much akin to a visitin prof. giving a guest lecture) has presented Bollywood with a revamped version of the Malayalam hit of the mid-90s, Godfather. The film stars Akshaye Khanna and Kareena Kapoor in the leading roles and they deliver commendable performances. The role of the Godfather is played by the veteran actor, Amrish Puri, in one of his last major roles, before he passed away last month.

For me, it is Arshad Warsi who stole the show. The man is a natural comedian. Amrish Puri stands the ground with his stern and majestic presence as the patriarch, another actor worth mentioning is comedian and character actor,Paresh Rawal. It was good to see actresses Lakshmi and Farah, after a long absence from the silver screen.

Priyadarshan's direction calls for a lot of primary colors in the frame, bold reds, greens and blues and the shot usually has a very shallow depth of field, maybe to hide the fact most of his films are shot in studio settings. Starting from his first ventures in Bollywood like Muskurahat and Gardish, this latest one too has the indelible Priyadarshan stamp. It does evoke genuine laughter at places and has used a different kind of masala than what is served on the usual Bollywood thali.

Million Dollar Baby

If I am asked to pick a director from Hollywood, just one, the one I like the most, I'd pick Clint Eastwood. His latest offering Million Dollar Baby starring Hilary Swank is a gritty tale of a female boxer. Eastwood himself plays the main male lead in the film as the experienced trainer, Frankie Dunn.

Photography is remniscent of Eastwood's last movie(the one he directed before this), Mystic River, dark, grainy, closeups with ample play of shadows. As a director this film shows yet another stage of maturing of Eastwood, from the westerns of his early days which culminated in the masterpiece,The Unforgiven, to the crime dramas of his later stage like Blood Work and Mystic River and the romances like The Bridges of Madison County and The Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil(which in a way is a crime drama too), in Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood, the director takes on the gritty realities of life in an intense character drama. I wish he was getting younger, so we would have an endless string of movies from this talented director-actor.

Hilary Swank has lived the life of the boxer, Maggie Fitzgerald. One of the most dedicated and true actresses to come out of Hollywood in the recent past, Swank put on 20 lbs of muscle and trained boxing to play the part. The film does not rely on an epic story but rather on the struggles, triumphs and tribulations of its characters, their fights in the ordinary world. Morgan Freeman plays an important supporting role. It is one of the few serious movies to come out of Hollywood in the recent years which has an indie-quality to it, but is a perfect piece of work nevertheless. Only someone like Clint Eastwood, experienced, talented and with a strong foothold and a voice in Hollywood can make such a gem of a movie.

raincoat

Raincoat is like a play, the set hardly changes more than thrice throughout the movie, the number of characters is five, no more no less and it relies heavily on character development and realization.

The characters themselves have fitted snuggly in to their parts. Ajay Devgan as the unemployed guy, who comes to Calcutta seeking the help of his friends to set up a business,has acted extremely well. He has a past and the leading lady of his past drama, now lives in Calcutta, married to a rich man, her role is played by Aishwarya Rai. This is one of the few films where you can see Aishwarya free of her onscreen mannerisms and appears almost believable. Inspired from the O.Henry story, the Gift of the Magi, director Rituparno Ghosh has a slow moving, a very not-so Bollywood movie for the people fed high on a diet of drama and emotions, wonder how it fared at the box-office. My final opinion, a good movie for a rainy day.

Mondo

Mondo is a little boy living off the streets in Nice, France. Like most of the movies which focus on li'l children (Valentin, Bachehe Aasman, Badnoake Safed, Kolya) this one too focus on the instant affection, we, adults feel for the unattainable innocence and poetry of childhood. Mondo touches the lives of some people and disappears, they wait for him knowing very well that the touch of innocence was transient and it'd never return.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This is a high end version of the usual memory-loss movies Hollywood excel in (the recent ones being Bourne Identity series, Memento etc etc). Except that being a Charlie Kaufman story and memory loss being deliberate, Eternal Sunshine.. is tailor made for the intellectual, it does away with the racy element of amnesiac thrillers and is a love story instead.

The film stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as the two lovers, who selectively erase out their memories of each other (because neither of them benefited much from the affair and things were not looking up for them) with the help of an organization which specializes in selective memory erasure. Jim Carrey doesn't indulge in X-treme gymnastic contortions of his face muscles unlike in his usual movies and for a change does well in a serious role. Kate Winslet, is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this role! I cannot remember where she acted, though I have nightmarish visions of her electric blue and agent orange hair colors.

The concept of memory erasure is picturized in an intriguing way, that is the only significant feature I can remember about the movie. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is mainstream Hollywood trying to go artsy, but I'd say, do what you do best guys - morphing and computer animation, nobody can beat you there.

Shrek 2

Shrek 2 carries forward the fairytale-with-a-twist idea which was first introduced in the original Shrek movie. Ok they are just trying to cash in on the success of the original, but if you liked the first movie for Shrek and his bride, you'll like this movie for the Puss in Boots - Antonio Banderas lends voice to the funny feline character in this sequel where Shrek and princess Fiona visit their royal inlaws.(Seems like it is inlaw season in Hollywood, with Fockers and Shrek2 and all that)

School of Rock

Jack Black is the soul of rock in this movie, he's such a natural at comedy. As a rocker chucked out of his band by his team mates and looking for work, Black lands the job(by deceit, ofcourse) as a substitute teacher at a prep school. The soundtrack of the movie could be a great preparatory lesson in rock. The movie is clean entertainment and Jack Black will give you your money's worth.

Kaazcha is supposedly one of the best Malayalam films that has come out in recent past. If this is the best, I am saddened by the state of the Malayalam movie industry. Kaazcha is directed by the newcomer, Blessy, who had served as assistant director to prominent Malayalam directors.

Maybe I have seen too many foreign movies, that I have become extremely sensitive to what is called serious cinema. But I could not find anything remarkable about Kaazcha except for its story and Mammootty's acting which is free flowing as always. The script, in a sense has lended mediocrity to the story which had all the potentials of being converted in to a decent film. Malayalam movie makers still don't know how to mold good child actors, with their cliched notions and unnatural dubbing they spoil the naturality of their roles. The story is revolutionary in the sense that it focus on a current issue and its impact on a small family. A little boy who had escaped Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 somehow reaches Kerala as a beggar and is rescued by a film operator, played by Mammotty. I have heard that Blessy is going to remake this movie in Tamil and instead of the earthquake he's going to film the story of a boy who escapes the tsunami.

Nowadays whatever comes out in Malayalam is stereotypical - either it is a comedy where things get really messed up and resolve in to an all-is-well-that-ends-well end or a love story aping Bollywood, but falling woefully short or a social commentary like this one with noble intentions but a script to spoil the soup.

Page3

What is Page 3? In a newspaper, thats where the celebrities, their parties, their gossips and their photos hang out and the first step towards celebrity-dom is to make sure your head shows up in some corner in some photo on Page 3.

Page 3 is an alternative Hindi movie about a page three journalist, played by Konkana Sen Sharma whose job is to cover the parties of Mumbai glamor gods. Although Page 3 does not restrict itself to one party(it even covers funerals), it reminds me of the 1984 Govind Nihalani film, Party. Both movies have the same intention, to strip the glitter of the face of the glitterati and reveal their true nature. In Nihalani's Party, this revelations takes places thru' the conversations and the characters of a single party, whereas in Page 3, you follow Konkana to various parties, you live her life and that of her flatmates and arrive at the same conclusion - life is a bitch. Not a bad movie at all, one which relies on the content more and less on the technical aspects like cinematography or editing.

Touching The Void

Touching The Void is more of a documentary than a feature film, it charters the climb of Siula Grande in Peru(unconquered at the time) by two young mountaineers from Britian, Simon Yates and Joe Simpson.

The film has re-enacted footage of the gruelling real life drama peppered with interview style narration by the two climbers and their friend(the person who waited for them at the base camp). Their ascent was uneventful compared to their descent when Joe breaks his leg and goes over a cliff and Simon thinking he is dead cuts off his rope. The rest of the story is an unbelieveavle triumph of human will, which we'd doubt had not the person who achieved this super human feat lived to tell the tale. An impossible adventure and a must watch film for the adventurers and common people alike.

Troy

Troy is a good film as far as period films go, the only defect that stands out is that Achilles, the hero of the movie, played by Brad Pitt is a stereotypical contemporary American hero - arrogant, devil may care attitude and Pitt's portrayal of the character with door faced expression only made the matters worse.

The one actor who stands out is Eric Bana, as Prince Hector, good acting and very expressive eyes. The script might seem a little weak although the direction by Wolfgang Petersen pulls the film together.

Modern Times

This is the first full length feature film of Charlie Chaplin's, I saw after a decade or so. Reminded me what a great performer Mr.Chaplin was. Performer is the right word, not an actor. He was a mime/circus performer/clown/entertainer all roled in to one.

Modern Times came out in 1936, when US had just come out of the depression and assembly line production was the hot topic of the day. Like many of Chaplin's films Modern Times is a social commentary disguised as a comedy.

Vaada

Seems like Bollywood's current fancy is murder mysteries. Vaada starring Arjun Rampal, Zayyed Khan and Amisha Patel is another formulaic thriller. Acting, especially Zayyed Khan's is below par. The usual song and dance routines and the masala, just another Bollywood flick.

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

This is one of those rare movies where the sequel is better than the original. Bridget Jones diary was trying to give Ms.Jones a foothold in movie history, once the job was accomplished it goes all out hilarious with The Edge of Reason.

Rene Zellweiger deserves an Oscar, why should Oscar always be given to serious roles? She lives the part and has risked putting on weight for playing the character of Ms Jones, which I suspect a lot of Hollywood actresses will not do, not for any amount of money. The movie is a laugh riot from start to finish - not the smart-alecky American humor but the self depreciating British kind. Good clean fun.

Rog

From Pooja Bhatt productions, a Bollywood murder mystery starring Irrfan Khan and a south african model, Ilene Hamann. I thought Rog had a sense of style, a kind of technical perfection unseen in Hindi movies - editing, camera and a less cliched script. The first half was sauve, although in the second half it falls in to trite situations. Suhel Seth and Shyamoli Verma are over the top whereas Ilene falls short in her acting. In the end it is Irrfan who saves the day and MM Kreem's soothing music.

Anchorman

A silly brainless movie which tries to capitalize on the fashion trends of the seventies. It tries to make fun of its main character, Ron Burgundy, the anchorman, but ends up being a torture in the process. I sometimes do not understand Hollywood comedy. The only scene I liked in the movie was when Jack Black appeared, drop kicked Burgundy's dog over a bridge and vanished. I was hoping he'd stay and save the film. Alas!

Kaante

It'd have been one of the perfect Hindi films to come out of Bollwood in the last few years, had it been an original. For now, it'd have to satisy with the honor of being one of the best alternative remakes of The Reservoir Dogs.

The camera, the script, the choice of actors and the action itself were pretty neat. It did not fall in to the formulaic rut of Hindi movies, except at one place where they chuck the Muslim arms dealer down from the roof, after delivering some piece of nationalistic rhetoric with the word Hindustan repeated over and over again. The music score by Anand Raj Anand keeps in pace with the film and it is good to know that there is audience for this kind of movies.

Bride and Prejudice

This is Gurinder Chadha doing the Monsoon Wedding thing - but Bride and Prejudice lacks the earthiness of Meera Nair's Monsoon Wedding. Adapted for Indian conditions, from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, this Gurinder Chadha movie follows the lives of four sisters(2 in particular) who are from the city of Amritsar in Punjab.

It seems like Chadha had this dream of making a Bollywood masala love story, with all the colors, the jhatka-matka, the songs and the whole bang-shabang in English, treating it like a Hollywood musical and Bride and Prejudice is the result. Aiswarya, the lead character(Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice) looks so out of place, whereas the other three sisters fit well in to their parts. There is something amiss, that I cannot really point out - I think it is the script, the lack of character development and the main character looking so unnatural, not exactly what you expect after Bend it Like Beckham, which had done an excellent job of keeping it real.

Hidalgo

The exotic adventure of an American in the East. This is one of those films which contribute an lions's share to the common man's(in the West) idea of how the East, its people and its culture is like. It does a very "good job" of it, diverting the viewer farthest from the ground realities.

Let me clear some assumptions here, East(or Middle East in particular) is not usually a good place for horse races(although this is based on a true story), they prefer camels there, even for races. All the hooded men and women are not your enemies with murder and deception in their minds and all the rulers, sheikhs or emirs are not as benevolent and knowledgeable as the film portrays them to be. And most importantly one liner American jokes don't really go well with the middle easteners, they'd prefer truth said in simple language for the most part.

Wonder Boys

I am not a big fan of Michael Douglas, but in Wonder Boys, as the professor/novelist he is delightful. So is Tobey MacGuire who plays his eccentric student and Robert Downey Jr who plays his agent. It is a tepid comedy akin to chicken soup you can have one of those afternoons when you curl up on the sofa with a bowl and have a go at.

Team America: The World Police

As expected of Matt Stone and Trey Parker(the South Parks dudes who did their schooling at Columbine High), Team America is a riot from start to finish. Although I felt that caustic South Park humor has been diluted a bit in the film, it is kind of accurate in its portrayal of Team America. The rest, if you ask me, has been skewed to suit the humor and the perspective of its creators.

I have heard people say that it makes fun of everyone, but I see some important absentees here, like George W (a team without a coach, even junior highs have a bunch of them, no i am not talking about team managers here), then S.Husein(with all that talk about WMDs they should have atleast had a framed photo of S.H!), Cheney, Powell - where are all these Oscar capable roles? Maybe they ran out of marionettes. Well, what the heck, Team America just saved your day :-)

Thirteen

This is one movie you shouldn't watch if you still believe in the concept of parenthood or simply put, if you believe in the goodness of your child(children). The age, is thirteen, the location is the extremely competitive world of junior high, the subjects are two girls - one is a wannabe and another one is the queen bee(of the school, ofcourse).

The movie has a real life effect, a hand held camera helps heighten it, the characters are true to life. Infact one of the co-writers of the film, Nikki Reed plays an important role. It hurts me to think that each year thousand of kids in US pass thru' this age, which is akin to a teenage hell hole. I am glad I grew up elsewhere. Watch thirteen if you a kid/teenager in your house or if you are a kid/teenager still, even otherwise watch it for an excellent human character study. Kudos to Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed.

The Notebook

There were glowing tributes proclaiming it to be "one good love-story atlast" and comments in the similar vein. Feels like I have become too old for love stories, it was ok without hearing the cliched love talk, but when all is said and done, it is just another love story(atleast to me). Baah.

Ladder 49

John Travolta and Jouquin Phoenix are two of my favorite actors, who portray firefighters in Baltimore Fire Dept, in this movie. I think this is a long overdue film that is in a way dedicated to the firefighters who perished trying to save lives during 9/11 disaster.

The movie is average, not as intense as the other firefighter movie I had seen a while back called Backdraft. Ladder 49 concentrates more or less on the personal life and triumphs of Jack Morrison, a young firefighter played by Phoenix. More than the heroics it tends to focus on the personal side of things and the ending is also life-like.

The Pianist

Roman Polanski's Oscar winning directorial presentation about the real life story of a Jewish pianist in Warsaw who escaped the holocaust. Every other Jewish holocaust movie I watch turns my opinion in favor of Israel despite their descipable human rights record in West Bank and Gaza - man, these people were tortured worse than hell, it is a wonder that some of them escaped alive, as the Polish Jewish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman played by Adrien Brody did.This film made Brody the youngest ever to receive the Best Actor Oscar.

The film feels real, which is kind of achievement when it comes out of Hollywood. Szpilman hides out in various houses during the German occupation of Warsaw(Poland), he does not perform any super human acts, it is his luck that saves him till the very end and to think that some one endured all this in real life is unimaginable. The real Wladyslaw Szpilman lived a long and successful life as a pianist till his death in 2000 at the age of 88. I'd say, the film deserves its Oscar.

Lovely and Amazing

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Had read this novel by Tracy Chevalier some time back. It is filled with paintable scenes, but found it a bit too dragging for my patience.

The movie has condensed the book in to 100 minutes or so, there is not much talk between the main characters. What I liked was how the director and cinematographer and the entire art direction crew have captured the scenes of the movie - each scene is like a Vermeer painting, the same kind of light, the same kind of colors and being a period film about an episode in Vermeer's life, the same kind of characters too. Other than that I was not much awed by the movie because the theme of the young girl's adoration of the artist(of any kind) is jaded and irks me whenever I come across such a book or movie. Scarlet Johannsen portrays, Tanneke the young maid who goes to work at Vermeer's(Colin Firth) house and is eventually painted by her master and the painting becomes known as the girl with the pearl earring.

Some Kind of Monster

This one is for all the metal fans and it is a good documentary even if you are not a big fan of heavy metal, as I found out. The documentary charters the course of one of the greatest metal bands in all history, Metallica, during a tumultous period from early 2001 to 2003. It is a behind the scenes look at the band, which at the time seemed to be coming apart at the seams because of interpersonal conflicts between the band members and also under the pressure to produce a new album.

Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett(three remaining members of Metallica at the time) hired a shrink and two documentary makers in their struggle to keep Metallica and the hopes a new album(St.Anger) afloat. It provides an indepth look at how rock bands function, their creative processes, their struggles and above all their lives when they are off stage leading lives, in which they when they say they are going to work - its more like going to practise with your high school band in the garage. The only difference is that they make millions and made a documentary to enlighten those trying to follow their footsteps.

Pieces of April

Another one of those movies banking on Dileep, but a refreshing story although it falls in to a cliched story line towards the end. Navya Nair plays Dileep's wife who gets a government job at Trivandrum and the jobless husband(Dileep) is forced to tag along with her. Most of the movie is concentrated around Dileep's tricks and antics to make Navya leave her job and return to their village. It is a timepass comedy which holds together somewhat till the end.

Hiroshima Mon Amor

I have decided to stop taking French films - they are artsy to the point of being slow and boring. It is supposedly a world classic from director Alain Resnais. It starts off like a documentary shot in slow motion, turns out it is two lovers talking to each other. I cannot concentrate on two people and their monotonous conversations long even if it revolves around something as catastrophic as Hiroshima.

Fog of War

The Fog of War : Eleven Lessons from the life of Robert McNamara, the former US Secretary of Defense during the early part of Vietnam war, under President Lyndon Johnson. It is insightful to know what super powers think when they start wars in foreign soils, what the head honchos had in their heads when they went on a murderous mistake as Vietnam. McNamara is good, a good politician and a better strategist. Although not contraversially attractive as F 9/11, because Vietnam war is a long forgotten botch-up, there have been many more interesting ones since, the Fog of War is a serious documentary, explains a lot about the reason for wars in our time, from the mouth of one of the main men himself.

Fanny and Alexander

An epic Swedish family story seen through the eyes two siblings - Fanny & Alexander, from Ingmar Bergman. The film starts off slow, set on a Christmas Eve, gets entertaining as it progresses. I'd not call this Bergman's best among what I have seen of his, though this film did win four Oscars including the Best Foreign Language Film(1983).

No Entry

If this was a Hindi movie, they could have quashed the Vols 1 & 2 in to a single movie 3 to 3.5 hours long, but Hollywood is more intelligent. It makes you pay twice for what you should not even have paid once and thus the two volumes. Kill Bills are definitely not Tarantino's best, as far as I am concerned, and the volume 2 is worse that vol 1. Well, the bride is happy, Tarantino is happy, lots of viewers are happy to have Killed Bill, I wish we had some more of that pulp fiction.

In America

In America, the film by Jim Sheridan did create a lot of Oscar flutter. It reminds me of the emotional, goody goody Malayalam movies, where the successful run of the movie depends on how much tears the director is able to jerk out of the audience and in the end everything ends with a happy family union.

It shows the plight of a young Irish family, parents and two li'l girls who had illegaly immigrated to US, living in Hell's Kitchen, New York, and their new life as seen through the eyes of the girls. It will(did) go well with the audience because the girls really cute, you can empathize with them more than you can empathize with a Mexican family of 7, their dirty sacks and five grimy brown kids of all sizes.

I found the ending extremely artificial, where the older girl tells her dad "say goodbye to Frankie, Dad". You'll have to watch the movie to know the context, but it is not at all a dialog a ten year old would say no matter how mature she is.

Dubai

An edgy grainy thriller with Jamie Foxx as the cabbie and Tom Cruise as his passenger with some dangerous plans. It has a different role for Cruise, but it is Foxx who outshines him with his acting. Its not the usual Hollywood thriller, good for a night"in" with friends.

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Ladder 49

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