Who's the Man?

It seems that Pixar will be the most defining force in the history of animated movies. Every movie seems to set a new threshhold of the kind of content and emotive appeal that can be delivered through the animated medium. Wall-e is more thought provoking than say Ratatouille but far from being a grim morality tale. This is the first movie that I can think of that truly brings life to robots - does not "humanize" them in an I, Robot kind of way but gives them unique attributes. If acted out by humans this would be a truly dystopian tale, curiously enough, it is the mechanical Wall-e and Eva, along with the maverick robots on board the Axiom that deliver a telling message without making it too depressing for comfort. A truly un-missable movie.

Decisions, Decisions

Indian-born director Bharat Nalluri brings easy familiarity to his portrayal of a love quadrangle, and disentanglement by a governess short on luck thus far, in Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day. What is unexpected is the near-perfect casting and depiction of London society in the 1930's. A simple movie about choices - wealth, fame, or love? - and a resolution of the same in Bollywood-like morality tale style. Nor is Miss Pettigrew left behind in the derservedness sweepstakes as she finds a man who too would like to break free from the dilletante posturing world - and the fact that he is rich, successful and handsome does not hurt one little bit. This is a movie for a day when you are short of faith in the goodness of the world, but cannot quite tolerate the saccharine overdose of Bollywood. You will find it difficult to pin down a specific reason for overly liking or disliking a movie like this one, though.

Ahead of Its Time

In a world where sting journalism and "We Got It First" stories stand poised to wipe out any semblance of sanity and the human touch in journalism, it was interesting to watch a movie that was way ahead of its time in profiling the Rise of the Paparazzi. In Billy Wilder's Ace In The Hole, a bounty hunter gets trapped in a cave, and dies an agonizing death thanks to some truly amoral opportunistic reportage (Kirk Douglas), helped along in no small measure by vixenish wives, ambitious sheriffs, and the competition with whom Kirk Douglas has more than a score to settle. And this casts the sanity of a grieving mother or a few voices of reason that question the sense of a convoluted procedure that ultimately takes too long, far into the background. Charlie Tatum watches the rise of a Great Farce where the object of an exclusive scoop gradually becomes the focal point of a great (and somewhat exaggerated) circus. The end is sombre as the reality of news served as entertainment sinks into our protagonist, and he makes some amends to that effect. A movie to make one pause and think, but given that this was made back in 1951, and journalism, well, is what it is today, it is quite clear that the world did not pause and think all that much.

Leave us Alone

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanomo Bay can be watched at two levels. At one level is the obvious frivolity and cock-a-snook at a dozen different themes ranging from homeland security and racial profiling, to the untamed South (overtones of O Brother Where art Thou) and the dark side of politics. At a more subliminial level is an America, or at least some of its minorities, gasping for breath and clamoring for its constitutional right to be just left alone, the right to smoke weed and have one-on-one consensual relationships, without judgementality creeping in. This movie is worth a watch at this time - none of the fervour of say a Lions for Lambs or the Michael Moore kind, but no less effective in delivering a clear undertonal message of individual freedom. Quite a change for Kal Penn from The Namesake, is it not?

Cop or Criminal?

One of the best gangster movies ever, The Departed is a Martin Scorcese triumph of 2006 that finally got the great director his just desserts at the awards sweepstakes. DiCaprio and Matt Damon square off superbly in a cat-and-mouse game in the ganglands of Boston. The former is an insider spying on the redoutable Nicholson, while the latter uses every trick in the book to keep the police off his foster father. The thrill of the movie lies in the continual deception, the characters in shades of gray, the fact that virtually every second sentence in the movie - especially the colourful utterances of Mark Wahlberg and Nicholson - are eminently quotable, and the amorality of it all - especially towards the last fifteen minutes and the breakneck pace of events in the same. The Departed refines the gangland genre, and the study of characters, especially that of DiCaprio and Matt Damon, is unforgettable.

What a Good Movie!

Spartacus like Ben-Hur exudes grandeur. All I can say in summary is that they dont make movies like that anymore, because they dont make men like that anymore. I am a great fan of Gladiator, but Russell Crowe would come across as Crocodile Dundee in the Colloseum compared to the toughness of Kirk Douglas and the guile of (Sir) Lawrence Olivier. A long movie but engrossing in the fullest - I especially liked the little vignettes, like two Romans casually discussing politics while two men fight to the death, a few feet away. I would think Maximus' throw of his sword at the stands in Gladiator and the memorable lines "Are You Not Entertained?" are a tribute to Graba's throw of the trident in this movie. Yes, we are entertained and much moved. Thank you.

Mummy Mia!

I would not be surprised if The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was the result of a vast conspiracy to clinically destroy the perfectly good franchise. Maria Bello is ashen and would have come across with better chemistry with Brendan Fraser were she cast as his mother. In other casting gaffes, Luke Ford looks pretty much as old as his father. The script is hideous with the China fixation now becoming de rigeur for Hollywood. Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh find themselves utterly out of place smack in the middle of some really poor casting. Even the special effects dont cut it - the only redemption being the endearing troll-like yetis. A movie that will be forgotten in a hurry. Lets hope John Hannah does survive the box office and the critics and make it to Peru for the next installment.

No Accident

Jackie Chan's rise to global superstardom is s carefully orchestrated as his action sequences. Choreographed action, some intrigue, a damsel or two in distress - it is especially the first where he stands head and shoulders above the Hollywood physicality with his sheer ingenuity and improvisation. The Accidental Spy builds on the genre with action and intrigue scattered globally. There is also some emotional content to boot. Worth a watch on a Friday night over Coke, popcorn and surely not too much intellectualizing

Dont Ababndon This Till The End





An underrated movie. Or perhaps, most viewers did not have the patience to make it through till the end. Abandon stars Katie Holmes in an unbelievably drab milieu, chasing McKinsey dreams and trying to grow over the shadows of her missing boyfriend, in a super-slow buildup where you practically give up any hope of redemption of the movie. And then, suddenly, over the last two minutes or so, it changes dramatically. It would be fair to watch this movie at 2X forward till the last ten minutes or so - the latter being the only reason that I am writing about this strange movie at all. You will be hard pressed to guess the genre of this movie till the end.

A Thought-Provoking Planet

Though Planet of the Apes is a relatively old franchise, it is quite entertaining in terms of lightly exploring arguments about man coming to confrontation with a comparable intelligence that has travelled along a different evolutionary trajectory, only just. Mark Wahlberg exudes a Matt Damon style thinking physicality but cannot match the latter's intensity. This is not the best of Tim Burton. The "What If" questions that emanate from coming to confrontation with a comparable intelligence are quite amusing at the very least.

The Lesser of 2 Great Movies

Compared to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight has had spellbinding initial commercial and critical acclaim - not least because of the outstanding performances of Christian Bale and Heath Ledger. The script is taut, the action delectable - great to see Hong Kong resplendent!, and the moral agruments for and against a vigilante compelling. The rise of the Joker this time around is not through cheap stunts and barely believable capers, but quite akin to the rise of mafia mob bosses - ruthless, violent and gritty. The soundtrack retains the tension-inducing elements of the previous edition. An unmissable movie, only a fraction short of the previous edition

Raising Eyebrows




Raising Arizona seals it for me - I now count myself among the bonafide fans of the Coen Brothers. Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter are on opposite sides of the law - come together in an unlikely marriage and an equally unlikely heist to snatch a kid from a set of quintuplets. Over sevaral escapades with escaped convicts, bounty hunters, psychotic storekeepers and bosses with questionable morals, the couple are struck by a fit of remonstrance and get round to "doing the right thing". The movie has an undercurrent of morality running through it quite unlike the unmitigated eccentricity of O Brother Where Art Thou. This would be the best starting point into the Coen Brothers for its balance of quirkiness and convention, the latter in exploring conventional themes of family life

Curiouser and Curiouser

O Brother Where Art Thou is an exceedingly peculiar movie even by the Coen Borthers' standards. Three escaped convicts make their way to "treasure that is not the one they seek" through a medley of characters that typify the Depression-era South just preceding the advent of technology and the end of an isolated way of life. Interspersed with much music, including the Johnny Cash "You Are My Sunshine", this is a strange romp through an era in America. You never know quite what to expect next and the ending is just as abrupt.

Han-Cock-And-Bull

It seems that Will Smith's superhero/last-man-standing fixation is not unlike some adolescent complex that started with Independence Day, continued with I Robot, MIB and I Am Legend and has sadly survived stellar roles in movies like The Pursuit of Happiness and Ali. Hancock is a tawdry attempt to invent a hip-hop superhero who forms an unlikely on-off screen pair with - you'll never guess - Charlize Theron - remember her Academy Award for Monster - who too takes a fairly unidirectional nosedive in the quality sweepstakes. This is a truly poor movie that has absoultely no redeeming quality except the now hackneyed special effects - if someone is attempting to create a superhero genre and a great and spellbinding series, they would be lucky to survive their first edition with their fingers intact - much like what happens to the guys who call Hancock a#$hole in the movie

Wild Rollercoaster Ride




Wild Things with its erotic overlay and a plot that has twists so numerous you would have to recapitulate for your benefit once the movie is done, reminds me of the recent Bollywood Abbas-Mustan flick Race which is another slick thriller with an implausible number of twists. It is impossible to guess at the number and the surprising points at which the twists occur - but that is hardly the point. The movie is a swish set Beverly Hills 90210 style sneak peek into glamour and intrigue not unlike a tabloid relay. Its fun, its pretty much pointless, and above all its sizzling in an obvious kind of way. Treat this post as a refreshing break from the heavy fare that precedes (and is likely to follow!)

Fish for Life

Not everything your dad said was a lie. Tim Burton (Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks!) has a heartwarning tale of a father who is given to, well, minor exaggerations about his considerably exaggerated life, in Big Fish. This movie reminded me of the fraility of the male ego in Beowolf and its constant need for compliment, as well as a sense of passing through history with insouciance in Forrest Gump. The skepticism of his son, and his finally being convinced, touches the heart. No wonder that feelgood movies are getting increasingly popular in the choppy waters that happen to be our lives and times

Child's Play

While the eponymous Pan's Labyrinth keeps a child's fantasy in its own realm, Guillermo del Toro's latest offering - The Orphanage - is a Shyamalanesque take on the supernatural. Interwoven with many traditional elements of the horror flick (isolated house, seances, dark corridors, unfamiliar attics) is a very human tale of a mother-son relationship gone horribly wrong. The former movie does not cross the line into the supernatural - the latter does. The tragedy of the mother, wrought with a burden that she will never be free of, unless she dies and joins her son, is agony that quickly washes away the horror flick motifs and leaves the viewer with sadness in no little measure. Guillermo del Toro has through two movies carved out a genre for himself - this is not the fairytale of Hogwarts or Narnia, nor the brooding urbanity of The Sixth Sense or The Happening - this is of our childhood morals transcending our adult skepticism

Inside an addiction

We are in the nicotine delivery business. The raison-de-etre of the Brown and Williamson tobacco company, and indeed of any tobacco manufacturer, becomes clear. And it takes a man beyond despair (Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand), to eke out a victory over his former employer, with no little help from Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) - alienated from family, work, the legal system and the general public - in The Insider. The irony of the WSJ, the bastion of capitalism, triggering off a chain of events that led to a $246 billion settlement with Big Tobacco, the largest public action litigation in history, is not lost upon the audience. The movie however stands out not as a morality tale by any means, but on account of Russell Crowe's superlative performance that foreshadows the grim reality of Jim Braddock in Cinderella Man and the shuffling erudition of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. Watch this movie back to back with Thank You For Smoking and you may well kick the habit.

Not Quite Beverly Hills

There is sheer force about Oldboy that one would be hard-pressed to find in any Hollywood movie. From consumption of a live octopus, to cutting off one's tongue, to the final terrible secret and the astonishing ending in the context of that secret - it is a psychedelic experience with enormous shock value. I began expecting a fairly simple storyline whose intensity was largely confined to the protagonist's reactions during the long confinement. I was shocked to see that the movie had barely begun at his freedom. There have been cheap imitations - having seen the original now, I believe that such passion would have been impossible to render in a medium like a Hindi movie.

Dark, Dark Continent

One point of commonality of Hotel Rwanda with Blood Diamond is the profiteer, utterly circumspect about business malpractice, and then somehow suitably converted by the sheer force of events. However, while the second is fairly narrow in its focus on characters, the former draws up a wider canvas on the genocide and its antecedents. Don Cheadle intersperses an otherwise good performance with great moments - witness the scene where his frustration with his tie breaks into the larger anomie with what he has seen that morning on the road. Africa at least in pockets has not changed much from Joseph Conrad's the Horror, The Horror... we should be thankful for India and its polity, I suppose, where the incessant chaos does not (by and large) cascade into large-scale insanity! On the movie - the performance to watch for is that of Sophie Okonedo who from a comfortable existence is metamorphosed by the turn of events into the very epitome of distraughtness. An important movie on an important topic. Worthy of noting that the genocide in Rwanda possibly claimed a million lives, while the one at Srebenicza that received as much if not more press, claimed about eight thousand. Yes they are Africans after all, dude