Spiando Marina / The Smile of The Fox

If Marina Valdez (Debora Caprioglio) had any idea of the impact she was to make on a bunch of teenagers with raging hormones somewhere in South Maharashtra, she would have put in more heart and soul into the role.  The Smile of the Fox (Spiando Marina) is a B grade movie from over 20 years back that a lot of my batchmates saw with great relish when we were half as old or young as what we are today.

Honeymoon in Vegas

Most of you are aware of my sentiments as regards a certain relative of Francis Ford Coppola.  This is one of his earlier movies. A Romantic Comedy where he plays a role that he is actually cut out for.  Or should I say comes naturally to him.  That of a loser detective who doesn’t know to choose between poker and his wife to be.

Aladdin

It is so wonderful to watch a movie that was released nearly 20 years back and still feel that it was a timeless work of art. I had watched Aladdin around the time of release itself way back in 1992-93 thanks to my movie addiction (which has still not been cured coincidentally) which started a really long time back. I still remember humming “A whole new world” by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga for the movie and then the single by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle all through college and how much of a sought after track it used to be. A truly ever green number that deserved every bit of the Oscar that it received that year for Best Song. A pity that Animation movies did not have a separate category at the Oscars till 2001. Aladdin would have been an auto qualifier for the award and would be if it were released even today. Not too many movies in the history of animation have the timeless quality that Aladdin gets to the table. No wonder that Wikipedia calls it out as part of the Disney film era known as the Disney Renaissance.
There are obviously very few of you out there who would not know the story of Aladdin (Scott Weinger) so I really would not waste my time or yours in explaining the gory details. It would suffice to say that Disney has stuck true to the classic Arab tale of the street urchin who stumbles onto a huge treasure, gets conned by an evil wizard, Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) who is also the minister of the Sultan of Agrabah, falls in love with the Sultan’s daughter Jasmine (Linda Larkin) and also gets the services of a wonderful Genie (Robin Williams) along the way.

The casting of Aladdin is simply superb to say the least with the stand out voice casting being that of Robin Williams. If you click on the video link at the end of this review for the trailer you will notice the absolutely fabulous performance from Williams as the Genie. It is outstanding to say the least. I would consider it as probably the best performance in the field of animation to date. The ones that would come close to Robin Williams as the Genie would be Ellen DeGeneres as Dory in Finding Nemo and Jeremy Irons as Scar in Lion King who have voice overs which are fabulous. Even then Robin Williams would be miles ahead. Incomparable to say the least.

Ron Clements & John Musker are something of a made for each other pair in animation movies. They have made only 6 movies between the 2 of them and all of them have been together. How is that for a sense of commitment? I guess we could all learn a thing or two about collaboration from them. However, I would guess Aladdin was their moment of truth and they have not been able to recreate the magic at the same level ever again. Having said that, their future creations have still been miles ahead of the crap that we have seen over the past few years. Needless to say, Aladdin is a fabulous watch and definitely a 8 on 10. Don’t miss out on it. Playing these days on one of the movie channels.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2421621785/

Traces of Red

Someone was mentioning not 2 days before I saw Traces of Red that he or was it she who keeps confusing James Belushi with someone else (I cannot remember for the life of me who it was). And whaddya know. A couple of days later, I am sitting at home flipping channels and this movie pops up and it was the only one playing, that I had not seen before. And it seemed to have a decent story line. But then most movies seem to have a decent story line when u press the “i” button on your Tata Sky remote (makes mental note - must evaluate that as a possible side career option. I am quite certain I can do it extremely well :D). Movies made in the late 80s / early 90s have this really weird feeling about it right? And I have kind of come to the conclusion that it is totally due to the entire fashion disaster that this period actually was. I mean who really invented baggy pants must be rolling in his grave as of now and if not then I condemn him to roll in his grave :D – show of hands for how many people agree with me.

Anyways, moving on to the crappy movie that Andy Wolk – no prizes for guessing how many movies he has made and the reason for the number after he delivered Traces of Red. In parts, Traces of Red just seems like a soft porn movie. In fact it is just that – a soft porn detective flick where the lead role is of a police officer – Detective John Dobson (James Belushi) and his partner Detective Steve Frayn (Tony Goldwyn) are like 2 sides of a coin. Different but yet the best of friends. The latter is married and settled down with sort of hot wife who is willing to have sex with him in the patio of his house (now how many wives would you know who do that?). Which would kind of explain why he has been loyal to his wife – or has he? On the other hand, Dobson is this casanova of sorts who changes his women by the night if not the minute. Adding the element of mystery is Ellen Schofield (Lorraine Bracco) who is an extremely rich and influential woman and also promiscuous – a very lethal combination and Donson and Frayn are about to realize when they start investigating a series of murders that start plaguing the town. Is Schofield the killer or is it someone else?

Now I would not want to spoil the movie despite the fact that it is not the best made movies of all time. The element of mystery is definitely existent and kind of manages to keep you held to the screen. What is really bad is almost everything else. The acting is obnoxious and totally gets to you within a few minutes of starting. There is absolutely no semblance of direction or screenplay or dialogues or editing or anything else that one can associate with movie making. Thank goodness for the element of mystery else this 1992 flick would not have seen the light of the day for certain. That and of course the sleazy soft porn scenes are what would have got this movie a release. 3 on 10 is what I say.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUidYmbrl44

Sister Act

There are superstars and then there are superstars. And Whoopi Goldberg would probably fall into a category called Super Duper Whooper Stars. So when I had the opportunity of watching Sister Act last Sunday (on Star Movies) I wasn’t going to give up the opportunity at all. Now Sister Act is not one of the best movies ever made by mankind I can assure you. It is directed by Emile Ardolino whose claim to fame is the evergreen Dirty Dancing and some RomComs such as Chances Are. I mean there is really nothing much to write home about in the movies that he has given us (except Dirty Dancing). But all of them, if you notice closely have this classic charm about them which make them watchable any given time of the day. As a movie, Sister Act is barely there in a manner of speaking. Which would explain the imdb rating of 5.9 on 10 and the rating that I would give it would be around the same (only that I would round it off to a 6 because I don’t complicate my ratings with the decimal points other than 0.5). But it is not debatable that Sister Act is entertaining, fun, evergreen and a definite watch for anyone – must see it if you haven’t done so yet.

Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) is a bar singer who doesn’t have much of a fan following. Now she is in love with the local gangster Vince LaRocca (Harvey Kietel) who is married and is basically using Deloris as his mistress more than anything else. Deloris knows this but doesn’t do much because she needs the income. But when her repeated pleas go unheeded she decides to storm into Vince’s office and demand her pound of flesh. Unfortunately, she also walks into a situation where Vince has killed someone – just part of his job as a gangster. Now Deloris is aware of Vince’s legal status but seeing someone killed in front of her is something that she doesn’t quite know how to handle. She does manage to however run away from the scene and goes straight to the cops where a Detective Lt. Eddie Souther (Bill Nunn) offers her police protection and in return expects Deloris to take to the witness stand against LeRocca, an offer that Deloris reluctantly accepts. The way Lt. Souther expects to keep her protected is to put her in a place where no one expects someone like her to be. Inside a church. And that too as a nun. Deloris Van Cartier is now Sister Mary Clarence for the rest of the movie.

Sister Act is almost a laugh every 5 minutes kind of a riot with Goldberg leading from the front with an absolutely fabulous performance – something that u expect her to deliver at the bare minimum. The direction as explained earlier is just about average but good enough to carry out a concept like this. The support cast has a couple of good efforts from Kathy Najimy and Wendy Makkena who will also feature in the sequel to this one and rightfully so. Playing this whole month on Star Movies, watch Sister Act to kind of re-live an old classic that quite a few of us would have seen while growing up. As mentioned earlier my rating is a 6 on 10. But it is also a Must watch in its own right.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3162702105/