Kill The Messenger

Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) died a very unhappy man in 2004.  He spent the last 7-8 years of his life chasing a story that was “too true to be told” as one of his sources put it.  A story that the government (read CIA) was aware (not complicit in as many words) about of the explosion of Crack Cocaine in  Los Angeles and how it was used to fund the Contra rebels of Nicaragua.

A Time To Kill

One way to get a near perfect rendition of a book into a movie is to get the casting correct.  And most directors have a favourite casting director.  With Joel Schumacher it would be one Mali Finn.  Finn has most JS movies to his credit and other big names such as The Untouchables and Hot Shots to his credit.  He had also done The Client (John Grisham) with JS before this one.

Chinese Zodiac (CZ12)

Jackie Chan is back!!! But what you would see is a marginally slow version of a person who has, over the years given us some of the best martial arts displays on screen ever. But I would challenge any of you to find me a 58 year old gentleman (in the truest sense of the word) who can come remotely close.

Somewhere in the 19th century, a French ship captained by the great great grandfather of a famous French socialite – Katherine (Laura Weissbecker) – makes its trip to the orient. The ship is called The Indestructible. When they reach their destination, they ensure that the Old Summer Palace of the then monarch is pillaged to the hilt.

They obviously make away with all the gold that they can muster and artifacts that are rated worth millions of euros today. One such artifact are the twelve Bronze statues of the Chinese Zodiac. The French went off with just the heads of the statues which have now started surfacing in bits and pieces. Katherine herself is in possession of one statue but is unaware of its worth.

The MP corporation led by Lawrence (Oliver Platt) has through the years built its might in this business. They, however, do not deal with the originals as much as they do in fakes. The fakes itself are worth millions but much lesser millions as compared to the originals. But to make a fake you need the authentic piece and helping him source that is JC (Jackie Chan) aka The Asian Hawk.

Most Chan movies do not have a semblance of production values other than the aspect of the action sequences. The action is usually top notch and the primary contributor is Chan himself. Although, as compared to previous movies, you may not find the end titling gaffes as elaborate. But you will definitely enjoy most of the stunts that this absolute artist has come up with this time.

The opening sequence starts with some high speed luging down a hill somewhere in Europe. There is a treasure hunt on a desolate island and a fight with some pirates and sliding down the island on a humongous log. That pretty much peppers the space upto the final climax that has Chan free falling towards an active volcano. Totally brilliant stuff if you are a Chan fan. As a movie just about 6 on 10 I would guess.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_hXhposGag

Hope Springs

I have always passed up an opportunity to pick up the DVD of Hope Springs at almost every discount sale over the past 2 years or so. Somehow it never got me excited although it had Colin Firth and Minnie Driver on the cover along with that hottie called Heather Graham. Don’t know whether it was because of bad writing on the DVD cover either. Having said all of that, I am not terribly disappointed that I did not pick it up. But it wouldn’t mean that I would have been disappointed if I had picked it up. Hope Springs is exactly that kind of a movie which leaves you with a feeling of not being terribly happy or terribly sad about watching it. Its just about average I guess. Lets put it this way – there are better movies that could have been aired on Valentines Day – not to mention that Zee Studio had a black out (or should I say white out) in between to kind of ruin the experience as well.


Now how many movies can you think of where the lead character’s name is the same as her / his off screen name. This was a first for me in the form of an Englishman by the name of Colin Ware (Colin Firth) who is an aspiring artist – the painting / sketching variety. He has recently been dumped by his half Welsh half bitch fiancée, Vera Edwards (Minnie Driver). The unsuspecting Colin receives an invitation in the mail which is for the wedding of Vera with some random guy who Colin has never heard of. Now our hero doesn’t have the better sense to check with his girl friend first but instead he is distraught and takes off across the Atlantic to some remote town with a population of a little over 18000 people. Its called Hope. Yep. There are several towns called Hope – you can look it up on google maps as well. Anyways, he lands up into Hope, jet lagged and checks into the only hotel available there run by Joanie Fisher (Mary Steenburgen) and her husband (Frank Collison). Joanie recommends that Colin meet the local healer of sorts, a girl by the name Mandy (Heather Graham). One thing leads to another and very soon Mandy and Colin become good friends and eventually lovers. So they should live happily ever after right? Wrong. Vera has other plans of her own. Turns out the wedding invitation was a joke that she was playing on Colin (I told you Colin, you should have checked with your girl friend before taking off). A subtle hint for Colin to ask her to marry him – which our daft hero could not get. Now she wants him back. But Colin is in love with Mandy. Sorry Vera you seem to have missed the bus .

Hope Springs comes from the table of unknown director (unknown to me at least) Mark Herman whose 7 full length features to date haven’t ruffled any feathers at the BO I guess. Never heard of any of his movies. And it isn’t too difficult to understand why. There is an element of direction that is required in most movies and Herman falls woefully short at the basics itself. There are inconsistencies galore. And the attempt to make it funny also falls flat more often than not. Colin Firth’s sincerity is a saving grace but he plays what he used to be stereotyped as for a long time – a gilted lover. Minnie Driver is effective and Heather Graham is furniture as always. The support cast other than Oliver Platt do not inspire any confidence as the movie trundles along its 92 minutes (thankfully!!!!). As called out earlier – average movie. You will be quite indifferent at the end of it all. 5 on 10 is my verdict.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4128113433/

Love and Other Drugs

Every once in a while, you come across a love story that is not really a love story but kind of gets the message across much better than most mushy ones do. Its an art mastered by very few or just plain luck that you arrive at your moment of truth in an unplanned manner. Now with Edward Zwick, its not the latter but just sheer class. Now the list of movies that Mr. Zwick has give us will prove that point – Glory (got Denzel his first Oscar), Legends of the Fall (if you haven’t seen this one you must must), Courage under Fire, The Siege, The Last Samurai and last but not the least – Blood Diamond. With all of these under his belt, I guess Eddie boy had only one more genre of movies to play with – Romance. Now, Edward would probably argue with me when he says that there is a fair amount of comedy involved in Love and Other Drugs and I would have to agree with him on that count. However, it is not your average run of the mill comedy. There is a lot of class in the humour and at the end of the day, the story is one which would appeal to your heart more than your sense of humour.


Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhall) can be described in only two words – Smooth Operator. One could probably make it three words by adding the prefix – Extra. He is a man who can sell ice to an Eskimo and the concept of himself to a woman better than the best can. A total ladies man, he is a sale guy at a local electronic store who gets thrown out – thanks to screwing with the owners girlfriend. As his younger brother Josh (Josh Gad) says, “If you were given money for fucking, you would be a billionaire by now” – now wouldn’t most of us like to be like Jamie???? I meant the billionaire aspect – obviously ;)

Now Jamie, is without a job and Josh decides to help out by introducing him to a friend in the pharmaceutical business. Much against his wishes to be a medical rep, Jamie agrees – may as well do something he says. So he goes ahead and joins Pfizer. Gets inducted in Chicago and sent back to where he came from – into upcountry United States. He gets tagged to Bruce Winston (Oliver Platt) – med rep par excellence. Bruce is married with 2 kids who live in Chicago along with his wife. Bruce knows that he is onto a gold mine with Jamie and does his best to paint a picture about how the ultimate goal for the med rep should be to get to Chicago coz that’s where the big bucks are. And to get to Chicago, he needs to break Dr. Stan Knight (Hank Azaria) who doesn’t believe in Pfizer thanks to the exceptionally “good work” put in by Terry Hannigan (Gabriel Macht). So off goes our hero, using his charming ways with every single receptionist in his way and makes it within striking distance of Dr. Knight. And as things are going from horrid to great, in waltzes Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway), a twenty something free spirited woman suffering from 1st stage of Parkinson’s disease.

The entire concept of the movie is probably encapsulated by the last line – Every once in a while, you meet someone who changes your life for ever. Sounds corny but I must admit, that it is true and that I am not sure that these were the lines verbatim ;P. Love and Other Drugs is worth spending nearly 2 hours on, not just due to the fabulous direction of Edward Zwick but also because of a truly superb performance by Anne Hathaway as a young woman who is degenerating with Parkinsons. And I don’t say this only because she is naked most of the time but because The Princess Diary star has added to the list of chick flick actors / actresses who really can act. The movie gets up close and personal with the disease and the travails that one goes through thanks to the disease which somehow doesn’t have a cure. So much for all the progress that we have made. Superb effort by the entire cast and loads of naked bodies (don’t think any of it will be shown back home but that’s the advantage of watching movie down under :D) make Love and Other Drugs a must watch. Anne Hathaway for a nomination at the Oscars is my call. 7 on 10 for the movie.