Fury

A very philosophical statement half way down David Ayer’s second movie of the year (The forgettable Sabotage starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was released earlier this year) is probably the high point of Fury.  Seargent Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) tells Private Norman Ellison, “Ideals are peaceful.  History is violent”.

Grudge Match

One look at Peter Segal’s filmography and you would never think that he could run a movie that is not a comedy – Anger Management, The Longest Yard, Get Smart, Naked Gun 33 1/3 – all of them more comic than serious.  Maybe that is the reason imdb lists Grudge Match as a Sports Comedy.  What I can tell you is that any element of comedy was ersatz, more often than not.

The Wolf of Wall Street

WARNING - WHILE THE MOVIE IS MAINSTREAM IT HAS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF SEXUAL CONTENT AND DRUG ABUSE AND FOUL LANGUAGE - THIS DESPITE THE CENSOR BOARD'S BEST EFFORTS TO CHOP AS MUCH AS THEY COULD.  DO NOT WATCH IF YOU HAVE RESERVATIONS ABOUT THESE ISSUES.

When you have 2 of the biggest names in Hollywood coming together for the fifth time in a decade, you usually wait with bated breath for the first sign from people who are more fortunate to have seen before you.  You wait to hear if this one is remotely as good as the previous ones – Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and now The Wolf of Wall Street – the 5^th Time Leo DiCaprio and Scorcese have come together.

Snitch

Ric Roman Waugh is a Stunt Director by profession.  And if one were to look at his filmography in the stunt department, it is enviable to say the least.  Lets call a few names out – Gone in 60 seconds, Last Action Hero, Total Recall (WOW!!!).  He has a couple of movies to his credit as a director but Snitch wasn’t bad at all.

The Ghost Writer

No amount of controversies can take away someone’s talent. And no one can personify it in recent times more than the much hated Roman Polanski. Eccentric, different, slow, unconventional are some of the words one would associate with the extremely talented director. Over the years, Polanski has given us many a movie that may not have been liked by people but 2 words that could not be associated with his style of movie making would be bad and boring. One cannot fault him too much with areas such as attention to detail – or maybe I am not that experienced with Polanski movies. I have seen Chinatown and The Ninth Gate to date both of which were very well made. It is therefore a surprise that there are some very obvious pieces of his work with The Ghost Writer that come across as jarring errors in otherwise very clean movie.

Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) is the ex Prime Minister of Britain and is a much maligned person. More so in recent times when his older adversaries are pinning the blame of war crimes in Iraq onto him and calling for his head. His old friend Richard Rycart (Robert Pugh) has now turned enemy thanks to Lang moving him out of office during his days in 10 Downing Street. Rycart is leading the band of protestors that are asking Lang to be tried by the International Court of Justice. But not that easy since Lang now stays in the US where he cannot be arrested for the allegation. Lang is clearly uncomfortable with the arrangement and wants to get back home but stays back reluctantly. His wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) is quite convinced that the US will support him in his fight against these allegations.

Lang is writing his memoirs and needs the services of a Ghost writer. Especially because his current one dies in quite mysterious circumstances and is found washes ashore one day (Lang lives on an island close to Boston – like his wife says its like being married to Napoleon on St. Helena). The new Ghost Writer (Ewan McGregor) takes up the job – who wouldn’t if you were paid quarter of a million pounds to do that? He quickly finds out that there is a lot of mystery around this entire ghost writing thing and wonders what the secrecy around the entire book is. Especially since he is mugged – rather unconvincingly – right after he decides to accept the contract for ghost writing. As he goes through the manuscript, which he finds atrocious to say the least, he finds out that there is more to the death of his predecessor or should we say murder.

Polanski builds up the tempo and the mystery in the entire movie slowly but surely like some eerie ghost story with fabulous use of the dark – which is typical Polanski. Add to that the haunting music that keeps you squirming in your seat. But as mentioned earlier, there were times when you could not help but cringe that there were enough and more errors. Like most of the photographs seem to be too obviously photoshopped. But these are definitely over riden but the great dialogues and quite good acting on display. Ewan McGregor with his usual confused expression carries out the role of the Ghost Writer with great ease. Pierce Brosnan is at his confident arrogant self that we have come to associate with. The support cast is also quite solid. This one is a movie worth watching whether you are a Polanski fan or not. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3376022553/