Grave Challenges

Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity is one to be remembered for excruciating attention to detail. Two astronauts - Ryan (Sandra Bullock) and Matt (George Clooney) - out to repair the Hubble space telescope - are hit by flying debris, and it is a war for survival from there on - played out in absolute silence. Unmissable, for the level.of detailed rendition. Highly recommended

15.5/20

Blinds Off

Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is The Blind Side of society. The reject is a giant, a colored, an orphan, a man with no place to go. And finds, however unlikely, a home and a future in the homestead of Sean and Leigh Anne (Tim McGraw, Sandra Bullock) and their sprightly kids SJ and Collins (Jae Head and Lily Collins) – a future that starts with getting into a regular schooling system, and ends with a successful NFL career. The fact that the movies is remarkably watchable owes a lot to the natural emotional appeal of sports movies. While Michael and SJ put in two remarkable roles, especially the latter, the best actress Oscar for Sandra Bullock is somewhat debatable. All in all, this is yet another heartwarming sports movie that does not explore in depth themes of racial conflict and does not mean to. So what does it explore? Exploring as to why people are philanthropic? Is this a heal-thyself story asking rich America to be more generous? Worth a watch and replete with old-school Christian values

12/20

A Time for Friends

With strong overtones of To Kill a Mockingbird, A Time to Kill shows how little has changed In America in fifty years (or has it?) White supremacists still walk free, the racial debate is still the subject of angry politics, and the relationship between the black man and the white man strained at best. The relationship between Matthew McConnaughey and Samuel L Jackson is the highlight of the movie – terse, quiet, the latter never believing in the former’s empathy, the former always on the back foot in establishing himself as a legitimate “white” lawyer for a black man. The summation scene lacks the intensity of most Grisham adaptations