Lie Low

In Body of Lies, Ridley Scott juxtaposes two faces of America in the War on Terror. The one, cold and aloof, ensconced in comfortable American suburbia. The other, tough and gritty as he is vulnerable, the man on the ground who has fallen in love with the Middle East. While movies like The Kingdom show the war on terror as a series of military actions, Body of Lies manages to capture the human touch of being in the Middle East and having to deal with Middle Easterners. One liners like “Nobody Likes the Middle East” and the potent understated argument against Americans linger long after the movie. For those who would like to know what America is really working on in terms of counter-terrorism in the Middle East, this is possibly the best movie yet. Di Caprio continues where he left off from in Blood Diamond and The Departed and puts in another sterling performance.

The Final Cut

With cult-ish overtones reminiscent of the likes of Pulp Fiction and Fight Club, Pathology profiles a set of deviants in white who bring new meaning to the adage “It is human instinct to kill”. The movie makes no concessions to gruesomeness and gore, and eventually shows a breakdown of reason as killing for achieving one’s desired ends becomes all too easy. I would call this an un-missable movie, but hold back for want of external affirmation, i.e, the utter absence of either critical or popular acclaim for this movie. Maybe they all got put off by the gore. Ha ha.

Mind Less

If you have missed any of the Naked Gun series, like I did Naked Gun 2 1/2 , you have missed out on some Hot Shots meets Police Academy style zany fun that is your right to savour. Mindless fare and good for more than a few laughs. Have fun

Trolls in NY (yawn)

I cannot and will not bring myself to say anything negative about Guillermo Del Toro. Like Peter Jackson, the man has achieved a lifetime of acclaim with Pan’s Labyrinth and The Orphanage, and may well rest on his laurels for the rest of his living days. Hellboy II – The Golden Army liberally uses animal motifs, but in aggregate ends up missing out on both originality and believability. Perhaps it is the backdrop of New York that makes is so over-the-top. Troll gates below Brooklyn Bridge remind one of Harry Potter, while the Troll city itself appears like something out of Star Wars. More Star Wars – Attack of the Clones when the troll army rises. By the end of the movie, I am not sure what to believe. But again, a great movie!!!

Sinner or Saint?

Hoffa stars Jack Nicholson and Danny De Vito at their arsonist best. In times where the divide between labour and management was far wider and more un-bridged that it is now, it is hard to distinguish the business leader from the mafia, the union leader from the law-breaker and anarchist. In a day and age where rampant unionismis bringng down auto majors and sundry others in manufacturing America, the return to outright conflict with labour is a sobering thought

A Mind of Horror

A movie that starts as a horror flick and ends as a thriller, Identity has a motley crowd brought together by sheer chance to a remote motel. While you are speculation on who or which of them is bumping them off one by one in true Agatha Christie “And Then There Was None” style, the movie takes a sudden and unexpected turn. And while you are trying to make sense of the same, the movie again veers unexpectedly in the last one minute or so. A movie for a day when you wouldn’t mind the occasional jaw-dropping surprise or two.