Hachiko - A Dog's Story

I spent most of yesterday recovering from a severe body ache and watching movies. Was quite sure about watching one of my DVDs to round off the day but was intrigued with the trailer of “Hachiko – A Dog’s Story” that they showed around 8:20 pm as next on HBO. It seemed to be just about different for me to get interested in the movie. A couple of minutes of quick research on google and I was introduced to the true life story of Hachiko. I had to see the movie after it. That it had Richard Gere and Joan Allen in it definitely helped.


Parker Wilson (Richard Gere) is a professor of music. He stays a train ride away from his place of work with his wife Cate (Joan Allen) and daughter Andy (Sarah Roemer). On his way back home one day, he bumps into a puppy at the railway station which seems to be lost. He tries to get the station master, Carl (Jason Alexander) to keep it and find the true owner but Carl doesn’t. Left with no choice, he decides to risk taking the pup home. I say risk because Cate is not willing to keep a dog @ home since their previous dog, Luke, passed away. Obviously the reaction at home is not very pleasant but Parker manages to convince Kate to keep the dog for the night which eventually turns into the weekend and when all efforts to find a home seem to be futile, Cate kind of buckles and lets Parker keep the dog. The tag around the neck says Hachi – Japanese for the number 8. So Parker decides to name him Hachi.

Hachi is a breed of dog called Akita which are found in Japan and grows up to be an extremely lovable member of the family and the town. He walks to the train station with Parker every day and finds his way back home. Around 4:45 every evening he makes the walk / run back to the train station to receive Parker who is back usually by 5 in the evening. If Parker is late, he waits. Right outside the station at the circle till his master returns. In the bargain, he makes friends with most of the people around like Carl and Jasjeet (Erick Avari) the hot dog stall owner outside the station and the local butcher and Mary Anne (Davenia McFadden), the local librarian and anyone who choses to be friends with him.

One morning, Hachi tries his best to not allow Parker to leave. He tries everything in the book including fetching a ball which he normally doesn’t. He knows that Parker will not be back that evening. As luck would have it, Parker dies of a heart attack that evening. Hachi is sent to stay with Andy after that. But he runs away once again to the railway station to wait for his master. After a while, Andy lets Hachi go and he promptly makes his way to the station and makes his home under a railway carriage. He continues to come to the station every evening – waiting for his master.

What makes the movie even more heart rending is the fact that its based on a true life story. Hachi has been immortalized outside Shibuya Station in Japan where he spent the last 9 years of his life, waiting for his master to return. The happened between 1925-34. A wise man once said, “There is no one who can love you unconditionally in this world. No one except a dog”. Hachi’s story is yet another example of the unrequited love that is associated only between a dog and his / her master.

Hachiko is a tear jerker for dog lovers – keep a box full of tissues handy for sure. It is extremely difficult to work with animals and from that perspective, Lasse Hallström has done a good job. One basic flaw however and I am open to correction here. I think the dog that played Hachi was female and not male. Despite the other consistency errors, the movie is imminently watchable. 6 on 10 from my end along with a reiterated warning of keeping a box of tissues handy.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2296906777/

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amelie)

Always wanted to watch Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain a.k.a. Amelie (In English) and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity when I found out that it was playing on UTV Movies this afternoon. I had heard only good views about Amelie to date. Ranging from cute to beautiful to good fun. At around 1830 hrs this evening, I joined that fraternity because everything that I had heard about the movie turned out to be true. In fact I think even my mom had seen the movie and enjoyed it. I know I know. Its embarrassing when your mother sees a movie before you do. Who is the amateur movie critic by the way. But then most of you would be surprised even further to hear the movies that I haven’t seen to date. Quite a few well known names. So its not really surprising that I missed out on the #45 movie on imdb’s Top 250 of all time.


Raphaël (Rufus) and Amandine Poulain (Lorella Cravotta) are your average ordinary everyday couple. They are married because…. They are married. They go about their day to day lives focusing only what they like and avoiding what they don’t. Nothing too exciting. They have a daughter, Amelie who like any other child craves for the love of her parents which is anything but forthcoming. Now they don’t hate her or anything of that sort. They are just too pre-occupied with their work. So, Raphaël’s interactions with Amelie are limited to the monthly health check ups – he is a doc. And when he suspects that Amelie has a weak heart, both parents decide to school her at home. And that’s how Amelie grows up. Protected.

Amelie (Audrey Tatou) is now 20+ and works at the local deli. She is going about her life as always – an introvert. A twist of fate helps her discover a metal box in her apartment which probably belonged to the previous tenant. She starts the arduous task of finding out who they were, tracks him down and delivers the box to him in what would seem like a sheer coincidence. The happiness that she sees in him on getting his small toy cycles back after so long compels her to think about how she can get other people to get happy as well. And it so that Amelie starts her journey towards becoming the “Godmother of the outcasts, Madonna of the unloved”. On this journey she gets even with her dad for having ignored her, helps her neighbor who suffers from brittle bones, helps the helper at the local vegetable vendor, makes the Vegetable vendor suffer for being rude to the helper and is attracted to someone who she has only seen outside a polaroid photoshop @ the East Station in Paris.

Amelie is a beautiful representation of an otherwise regular story. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet it is a fabulous example of brilliant cinematography and screenplay which come together to make it much better than it actually is. The cast on display is also very good led by Audrey Tatou (Da Vinci Code) who plays the introverted and scared Amelie very well indeed. Nominated for the Best Foreign language film in 2002 and 4 other Oscars, it lost out to the likes of Lord of the Rings, Moulin Rouge & Gosford Park. I haven’t seen the Bosnian film, No Man’s Land which won the Oscar in the foreign language film category but I am quite sure it would have been superb for Amelie to have lost out (made mental note to watch it when possible). Amelie is also probably the first example of a Romantic Comedy that I have seen nominated for the Oscar. An indication of how well the movie has been made. Its been 10 years since its release but I enjoyed catching up with it. Watch it when u can. Playing on UTV World Movies these days. A clear 8 on 10.  Oh and its a French movie by the way. So ensure the DVD has subtitles.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2330460441/

Shoot 'Em Up

Are you in the mood for TNA (Total Nonstop Action for the not so educated with wrestling as a sport). But the TNA that I am talking about now has nothing to do with wrestling. Just a TLA (Three Letter Abbreviation) that I wanted to use for a long long time. But then the movie that I saw around 2 pm this afternoon was a heavy load of TNA in the style of Clive Owen. It had guns, guns and loads of guns. It had a chase or a fight sequence every 38.37 seconds. And for most part, you will be wondering as to why are these fights happening in the first place? Thankfully you will not need to wait for too long to find out. Thankfully. The pace of the movie is fast enough through its 86 minutes – 80 minutes thanks to the editing that has been done on Warner Brothers Movie Channel – and you will reach the levels of understanding that you want to reach sooner than later.


Smith (Clive Owen) is waiting at a bus stand in the middle of the night (or so I assume) when he sees a woman (Ramona Pringle) in a bright yellow coat walking past holding her stomach and crying out in pain. Yes – she is pregnant but doesn’t really seem like she is about to deliver immediately. A few seconds later, she is followed by a villainous looking man with a gun. She runs into a warehouse of sorts and the man follows, obviously with an intent to relieve her of her life and the life that she is carrying. Smith, obviously cannot look the other way and mind his own business. Only cowards do that right. So he follows the 2 into the warehouse and just as the man is going to kill the mother to be, Smith stops him and follows it up by killing 10-15 other men while simultaneously helping the woman in the yellow coat deliver her baby. Once the baby is delivered, he is confronted with another bunch of shooters, this time led by the lead villain, Hertz (Paul Giamatti) who is after the girl and her new born. This time around, hero not only manages to keep the bad guys away but does it with the woman and baby in tow – in his arms – after a point of time, you check the screen again to see if its Clive Owen or Rajani Saar. So when they show the woman with a bullet in her head – our hero is unable to save her – you are reassured that Rajani Saar is still in India.

A few more bullets and a few more car chases later, you are more clear on what the entire story is about. Expected a bit better from Clive Owen – in his choice of movies that is. This one is more like a mindless Vin Diesel movie and not one for Clive Owen. Clive Owen is a bit more classy than this. And what the hell is Paul Giamatti doing here? Taking his new found love to be a villain a bit too seriously? Hello – both of you – stick to roles that demand a bit more of you. And if you are running short of money then the find yourself an investment consultant soon. But don’t stoop down to these levels. The silver lining in the movie – and this has nothing to do with good movie making – is luscious eye candy in the form of Monica Bellucci – red hot furniture (a term I have used previously with Eva Mendes in The Other Guys). The direction is average at best. And I would not put too much of money on Michael Davis henceforth if I was a producer. But, if you like action movies of the mindless Vin Diesel, as mentioned yesterday, variety then this one is definitely for you. As a movie – 5 on 10 is what I can give this on my best days. Today isn’t. So it will be a 4 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2256994585/

21 Grams

This one is going to be extremely difficult to write. Anything that I write could be considered as a spoiler alert for the story. Advance apologies if at any given point of time I land up giving away something that I probably should not have. Have never found a more challenging movie to write about to date. Add to that the factor that it has been directed by someone who I consider to be one of the most talented directors of our times - Alejandro González Iñárritu. 21 grams is his second movie. After he stormed into the circuit with another masterpiece titled Amores Perros. Urban legend would say that Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel are a trilogy but that’s definitely not verified on date by the man himself. Would be glad if someone could. They all however deal with the same topic of life and death and how everything in the life seems to be interconnected in some way or the other.


The basic essence of the movie can probably be surmised with one dialogue. I quote, “They say we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of our death. Everyone. And how much fits into 21 grams? How much is lost? When do we lose 21 Grams? How much goes with them? How much is gained? How much….. is gained? 21 Grams – The weight of a stack of 5 nickels, a humming bird, a chocolate bar. How much do the 21 grams weigh”? Coming in a review it may seem like a whole bunch of philosophical words that you stare at. Watch the movie and these words suddenly take the form of poetry or fall into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

The vagaries of death and the complications that come with it are brilliantly portrayed in atypical Iñárritu style by blending the lives of three completely unrelated people (or for that matter their families as well) and building it up to a superb climax. Paul (Sean Penn) and Mary Rivers (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are a couple struggling to keep their relationship alive. Paul is counting his days thanks to a bad heart and a chronic smoking problem. Mary is desperate to conceive before Paul passes away but cannot thanks to a bad abortion earlier. Cut to Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro), an ex-convict and a born again Christian who is married to Marianne (Melissa Leo). They have 2 children and are struggling to earn an honest day’s living. Jack also tries to get more people into following The Saviour. Completing the trio is Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts) a reformed drug addict, now happily married to Michael Peck (Danny Huston). They have 2 daughters. Unfortunately, anything more I say would probably ruin the viewing experience.

21 Grams is a film maker’s delight to say the least. It has the powerful performances of 3 of the most talented actors ever to have hit the screen along with the direction of Iñárritu. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are exquisite to say the least. Naomi Watts, however, does show some gaps especially in the scenes that involve shedding a few tears. The editing is near perfect with the story shuttling back and forth and left and right all through the nearly 2 hours that it runs. The screenplay from Guillermo Arriaga is superb. The supporting cast is also very good. Melissa Leo is outstanding in her portrayal of the wife of an ex-convict and the desperate attempts that she makes to keep the family together. Funnily, all of this got it only nominations in the major awards for 2004. Maybe well worth the effort to find out which were the movies nominated for the Oscars in the same year. If there is anything that the movie falls short on, it is pace. The above average movie follower will be rooted to your seats and waiting to catch what happens next. Definitely not one for the masses though. I would be very harsh if I were to give this less than 8 on 10. Guess the academy thought otherwise. But then again, I am an amateur critic.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3383951641/

Burlesque

Spunky is the word that first comes to mind when you watch Burlesque. First time director Steve Antin (well almost first time since his other video movie didn’t really create waves) gives us an extremely heady mix of jazz put together in a style that can only be described as Coyote Ugly meets Moulin Rouge. One could choose add a taste of Chicago to it as well but just a dash mind you. Small town girl aiming to make it to the bright arc lights of Los Angeles. Spice it up with a couple of affairs. Add to that 2 of the best voices known to man. Garnish it with a reasonable story and a feel good ending and voila you have Burlesque.

Alice Rose (the oh so sizzling Christina Aguilera), Ali for short is all starry eyed about song and dance. She has the voice to make her feel that way. But she is from Iowa where she works at a local deli. Fed up with waiting tables – one would automatically be that way if you are not paid for a while – she takes off for LA to do what she really wants to do. As she is moving from place to place to place she passes by a neon sign that says – Burlesque Lounge. Intrigued, she walks in to see what it is all about and reluctantly pays the $20 entry fee (she is really short on money right). And its love at first sight. She asks the bartender Jack (Cam Gigandet) as to who is in charge and is directed to Tess (Cher). But Tess doesn’t have the patience to meet some new wannabe starlet and brushes her off. She sends her to Sean (Stanley Tucci) the arranger who asks her to leave her name and number with Jack again. Back to square one I guess.

Not willing to give up, Ali uses her charm to get herself a job at Burlesque itself. Jack is more than willing to accommodate. At this time, I would like to clarify that Jack is a genuinely nice guy and does not give Ali the job because of the size of her hooters. A couple of days into the job, Ali comes back to see her house looted. With nowhere else to go she lands up – no points for guessing – at Jack’s place for help and Jack being the good friend he is, offers her the place for the night. Till the next morning, Ali thinks Jack is gay but is not too comfortable when she finds out otherwise and that Jack is engaged to be married to Natalie, a struggling actress who spends more time in NY than in LA. She however stays back because as I said earlier, Jack is a really good guy.

Ali’s efforts to get herself into the main act keep falling flat but her break does come in when one of the dancers, Georgia (Julianne Hough) gets knocked up. Tess is mighty impressed to see that she has learnt all the dance moves by just being a waitress. An even big break comes up when the jealous Nikki (Kirsten Bell) decides to pull the DJ plug while Ali is performing. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Ali decides to sing and continue with the performance and before you can say Jack Daniels, the show is aligned with her as the star attraction. All this is however happening with Tess being on the verge of bankruptcy and an aggressive developer, Marcus (Eric Dane) on her back to force her to sell the bar.

If you like all the things that I mentioned earlier in this review then Burlesque is a must must watch. The soundtrack is a must have too I am definitely going to try and get my hands on it at the earliest. Cher and Aguilera are both fabulous with their voices although their acting talent can be questioned. Also, Aguilera can be questioned on her dancing capabilities with most of the supporting cast being much more talented in this aspect. If, however, you don’t like musicals, then this is definitely not the place to be. Overall, Burlesque is a well made movie. Not in the class of a Chicago or not remotely as larger than life like Moulin Rouge but an entertainer nevertheless. 6 on 10 is what I would give it. But watch it on the big screen to feel the experience.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1405094169/

Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji

Madhur Bhandarkar for the first time moves away from his standard formula of a topical movie – Page 3, Fashion, Jail etc. I have always thought that he is vastly over rated but for some wonderful reason – one of the mysteries of the world – he has always gotten away with it. Probably because he makes movies that just about make the cut. Movies which appeal to the audience just enough for them to overlook the ridiculous amounts of inconsistencies and gaffes. It was quite amazing to see that even last nite although at a much more muted level. There were enough and more people who actual found the stale humour which was grossly placed actually humourous. I was taken back to my experience with Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani where I was probably the only person in the hall who wasn’t laughing. This time, however, I wasn’t alone. Thankfully.


Naren Ahuja (Ajay Devgn) is an executive in a bank. He is 38 years old. He is married to Madhavi (Rituparna Sengupta) who is a news reader. They have a daughter. Their 8 year attempt to sustain their marriage has not succeeded. That too by a fair margin. When things come to an absolute head, they decide to part ways. Mutual Separation. She keeps the daughter though. Not that Naren seems to mind in any manner. Naren moves out to his parents place (all of this is in Mumbai) – and what a place it is!!!! If I were Naren, I would not have moved out of the place at all. Nevertheless, he now has the tough job of finding a couple of paying guests just to keep the house occupied. Not good to stay alone after a divorce you see.

In come two drastically different personalities. Milind Kelkar who works with jhatpatshaadi.com and considers himself to be a modern day poet. Needless to say he is atrocious at poetry and even more atrocious with women. His luck is about to go worse when he meets Gungun Sarkar (Shradha Das), an RJ with Big FM @ a poetry recital. He falls head over heels for her and so begins his love story. The other guy is Abhay aka Abby, lesser of a gym instructor (his day job) and more of a Casanova whose only aim in life seems to be to bed every single woman in the world. And they all seem to be suckered in; quite comfortably at that. A monetary constraint gets him thinking and he uses his charm to be the boy toy of ex Miss India Anuskha Narang (Tisca Chopra), the wife of a big time industrialist. He is the magnetic opposite of Milind. Where Milind spends all his savings on Gungun and company, Abby gets Anushka to spend money on him. Rounding off the female love interests is June Pinto (Shazahn Padamsee) who joins Naren’s team as an intern and gets him all smitten for her. Not going to reveal the entire point of Shruti Hassan who plays the role of Nikki Narang. That will retain the bare minimum element of suspense in an otherwise drab movie.

There are only 2 semblances of acting in the movie. Ajay Devgn in his role of the 38 year old divorcee desperately seeking to impress a girl half his age and the associated embarrassing situations are quite well done. And Tisca Chopra continues to show the talent and class that can be associated more often with stage actors than others. Shruti Hassan is confident and much better than her previous outing (Luck) but still doesn’t convince you that she comes from the gene pool of 2 of India’s finest actors. Shazahn Padamsee should stop acting – IMMEDIATELY  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE – go to acting school and come back with some semblance of acting capabilities. Ditto for Omi Vaidya who I believe is one of the most over rated actors in recent times. Don’t know what to say about Shradha Das. Lastly, Emraan Hashmi should stick to Mahesh Bhatt movies with a super sound track that do a fabulous job of hiding his acting skills or should I say the lack of them.

Extremely disappointing effort overall. This time around Madhur Bhandarkar does not meet his “just about par” formula for success. Sorry producers. You are going to lose some money here. Viewers – please don’t lose yours. 3 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvtFLd6sAMU

Udaan

I have no clue why I missed this one when it released. And I cant fathom how movies such as Lamhaa, Edge of Darkness, Knight and Day and I Hate Luv Storys would take precedence over screen time over such a powerful movie like Udaan. I can, however understand them giving precedence to Inception which released around the same time but which I am quite sure did not eat away into screen time so much that the movie houses could not have given Udaan more time. Surely there are more takers for quality cinema in India. Guess I am not right on that count.


Rohan Singh (Rajat Barmecha), Maninder Singh (Manjot Singh), Vikram (Raja Hudda) and Benoy (Varun Khettry) are four seventeen year olds who are in the last year in school. Obviously this comes with the excess baggage of a chip on their shoulders and raging hormones. They decide to play truant from the hostel @ Bishop Cotton Shimla and watch a soft porn movie – Kanti Shah Ke Angoor (ROTFL – reminds me of our days in college). As luck would have it, the school warden, Rathod (Sanjay Gandhi) is also in the same show. Our foursome cannot rush back to the hostel faster than Rathod on his moped thanks to one of them spraining his ankle. Since it is the 3rd time that they are in gross violation of school roles, all of them are expelled and now make their way back home.

Rohan’s dad, Bhairav Singh (Ronit Roy) is Hitler personified. In the words of his brother, Jimmy (Ram Kapoor), every dad wants his son to grow up to be like him and no one else. Add to that the frustration of having lost his first wife over 8 years back and a 2nd failed marriage that has left him with another son, a 6 year old - Arjun (Aayan Barodia). He hasn’t made an effort to visit Rohan in school over the past 8 years. And Rohan is blissfully unaware of Arjun’s existence. But after the initial friction, Rohan and Arjun both realize that they are both on the same side. Rohan wants to be a writer / poet but Bhairav will have nothing of it and forces him to work @ his factory in the day and study at the local engineering college in the afternoon. Despite Jimmy’s best efforts, Bhairav doesn’t budge.

Udaan traces the story of how Rohan tries to break free from the shackles of his ruthless father. But one cannot really help but feel sorry for Bhairav and is also compelled to think from his side – not that his actions are justified in any ways – purely with a perspective of intent. Ronit Roy truly deserves the Star Screen Award that he got for his performance in a “Villainous Role” although it would be very harsh to call the role of a Villain. They should be fair and actually give him the best performance for the year is what I say. I don’t think anyone who is nominated for the Best Actor this year in any of the awards has performed as well as Ronit Roy has. Full credit to him and the fact that Vikramaditya Motwane has extracted the performance from him. Motwane joins the list of first time directors this year. But what makes him different is the attention to detail, the ability to hold a story line and the courage to cut the riff raff. Udaan runs for a compact 134 mins with nothing which seems unnecessary and maybe a couple of instances of inconsistency – for instance, how did Rohan get into an Engineering College without passing class 12 (irrespective of the best efforts of his father).

I don’t mean to undermine Rajat Barmecha’s performance – which was quite solid – but it was clearly over shadowed by Ronit Roy. Purely my opinion. Ram Kapoor comes up with yet another super sincere performance – an attribute that one has started associating with him over the years. And a gem of a performance from the kid, Aayan Barodia which got him an award for the Best Child Artiste this year. Truly deserving. It is not for the heck of it that Udaan has received the best movie award @ this year’s Star Screen awards. Its truly a good movie. Was it the best in the year – probably not. Pipped @ the post in my books by Do Dooni Chaar and Tere Bin Laden both of which were super quality cinema. I would nevertheless give Udaan the same rating as these 2 – 7 on 10. Put it to your must watch list folks.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1334248985/

127 Hours

I think I have finally cracked the solution to make really really really big bucks. One has to do something that is super duper stupid under the pretext of having a “sense of adventure”. Maybe play with severely poisonous snakes or crocodiles like that guy from down under used to do. Or follow the footsteps of our protagonist and walk into the Grand Canyon. Alone. And make it a point that you don’t inform anyone – I repeat – don’t mention it to a soul as to where you are headed. They may just about prevent you from taking a step towards your first zillion. Just ensure that in the bargain you don’t kill yourself. Someone else will take all the money instead.

Aron Ralston (James Franco) in one adventure crazy dude. There is no other way I can describe him. His idea of a great time is to take off on the weekend and explore areas of the Canyon around Utah. Just random exploration. And he likes to take challenges that are otherwise not imaginable. If it has to do with the canyon then he would happily hop onto the band wagon and have a super duper time. And if he doesn’t have company – who the hell wants it anyways. He is perfectly capable of doing it on his own.

This particular weekend, he does exactly that and heads out to The Great Drop. A quick drive followed by about 20 kms on his bike and then a bit of a walk and he should be there. The bible for the Canyon has been written by Blue John (Fenton Quinn) who used to be the right hand man of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Blue John makes a brief appearance in the movie when Aron drops into one of his hallucinations). Now Blue John says it will take 4.5 hours to get to this spot but our hero would like to do it in under 3:45. And he seems to be on course. But en route some distraction of the female kind – Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn) – 2 damsels in distress who have lost their way. Keeping his aim for the record aside (I would if it were him and women looked like either Kristi or Megan), he decides to show the women a good time – which he manages successfully. Soon enough he finds himself on the way back towards the Great Drop. But a few minutes later, a large, extremely heavy loose rock also finds its way onto his right hand, rendering our man immobile. The count down to 127 hours has begun.

Now Aron Ralston is no fool. After he managed to get himself out (yes that’s the good news) of his mess, he decided to write a book about it. Its aptly titled, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”. And in 2010, one of the most over rated directors in the world, Danny Boyle, sees his opportunity to make a few million bucks by making a movie out of this example of rank stupidity. And what do you know – it gets nominated for a few Oscars as well. Danny Boyle has this knack of making his movies look and feel much larger than life like he did with Slumdog and The Beach (haven’t seen Trainspotting yet). Does he deserve an Oscar nomination over Christopher Nolan – definitely not. Is he going to give the heebeejeebies to his co-nomiated directors? Probably not. Superb editing has been the hallmark of all movies from Boyle’s table to date and that continiues. His use of brilliant sound and light is probably responsible for getting the nomination. Coming to the acting part, James Franco’s best performance to date, but it will not be able to push Colin Firth from being the favourite for the Best Actor Award. Rahman’s music is again not his best to date. Overall an enjoyable movie but not Oscar winner kinds. Above average on all counts but not the best on any. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi768149785/

Tangled

How many of us have heard about the story of Rapunzel? Not too many in this part of the world I am sure but its quite a staple diet for kids that are growing up across the world. But why is it that no one has thought of making it into an animation movie yet? (I maybe wrong and am free to be corrected and informed). It is such a beautiful fairy tale that has everything from “Once Upon a time….” All the way to “……. And they lived happily ever after”. And it also has all the excitement and the adventure that you can expect out of a classic fairy tale.


The baby Princess Rapunzel (Mandy Moore when she grows up) is a very lucky girl. She receives healing powers from a magical flower. The power resides in her golden blonde hair. But the magical powers are lost if someone would try to cut it and it would no longer remain golden blonde. Also, she has to sing a particular song to activate (sorry about the words) the magical powers. Knowing this, the evil Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) kidnaps the princess and takes her away into a hidden tower. Obviously Rapunzel is not allowed to get out of the tower and spends her entire life to date and her hair has now grown long… really really long. Thanks to that, Mother Gothel has continued to remain much younger than what she is.

Rapunzel spends her time in the tower doing a variety of things that include reading, painting, brushing her hair, reading, painting, brushing her hair, reading…. Oh I have already mentioned that haven’t I? Her favourite companion is her super cute chameleon, Pascal. Everyday Mother Gothel comes over to give her food and get her to sing so that she continues to remain young. Rapunzel is about to turn 18 and wants to get out of the tower, not because she is craving to escape but because she wants to see the lanterns that go up every year on her birthday – this time in person and not from her tower window. The Mother Gothel will have nothing of it. But she obviously hasn’t prepared herself for Eugene aka Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) and the Snuggly Duckling Gang and of course the horse that behaves like a dog, Maximus.

The Director due of Nathan Greno and Byron Howard come together for the first time after Bolt which was a decent animation movie. But they seem to have come a long way together. Along with Disney they give us one of the better animation movies of the year. Oscar stuff – No. Super Enjoyable – Yes. Great music which is a hall mark of Disney and has got Tangled its only Oscar nomination this year. The makers of Gulliver’s Travels should have a dekko @ Tangled to understand how the essence of a classic is maintained despite the fact that we are in the 21st century. Trust Disney to give a classic its due. Yes, there is the odd use of the colloquial modern day language such as “Don’t freak me out”. But the essence remains unchanged. Extremely entertaining and a must watch with the kids – adults with a liking for animation would enjoy it. 6.5 on 10 is what I say.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi385091865/

Magnolia

Let’s start with the Frank T J Mackey (Tom Cruise), a super aggressive man in his thirties who runs one of the several courses that are prevalent in the US which have enough and more suckers that pay money for them – I don’t say that, the movies say it. This one is for men who have been dumped by their past relationships and are desperately looking for getting back on track and more importantly desperately seeking confidence to get laid – sooner than later. Frank is the son of Media Magnate, Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) who deserted both son and mother, Lily when Lily was suffering from cancer and Frank had to take care of his mother. Earl is on his death bed thanks to Lung and Brain Cancer. Frank hates the thought of his father who is now married to a super eccentric Linda (Julianne Moore) and is being taken care of by a male nurse, Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Let us now move onto Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall) who has been hosting the oldest quiz show on television, What Kids Know for over 33 years now. The channel and show are owned by Partridge. On the show tonight is Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman) a kid facing the highest possible pressure of knowing too much. So he is called a nerd by most of his friends. And his father, Rick (Michael Bowen) cannot take his step of the pedal coz he wants his kid to make as much money as possible – obviously because he doesn’t want to work after that. He desperately needs a class on good parenting. Watching them is Donnie Smith (William H Macy) who was the winner of the same programme a few years back and works for a store that is owned by Solomon Solomon (Alfred Molina). Add to all of these, 3 pivotal characters – Rose Gator (Melinda Dillon), Jimmy’s wife who is blissfully unaware of his promiscuous ways. Claudia Wilson Gator (Melora Waters) – coke head, depressive, estranged daughter of Jimmy who doesn’t want to see his face ever. Officer Jim Kurring (John C Reilly) who bumps into Claudia on one of his usual rounds.

Having described the key characters in the movie, now I strongly suggest that you watch it because Magnolia my dear friends is the precursor to the likes of Crash and Babel. Multiple story lines that are inter linked to each other by some weird twist of fate or luck or whatever it is that one wants to call it. But it does make sense. With the exception of the severely over the top scene of raining frogs – yes frogs – at the end, it’s a great movie which is finely woven together with superbly haunting background music and a couple of songs, one of which got an Oscar nomination. I suspect it is the frog sequence and the fact that is 188 minutes long that deprived Magnolia of a nomination for best movie. Yes, Tom Cruise was good but that doesn’t qualify him to be a deserving Oscar nominee for Best Supporting actor – probably the jury was too stunned to find out that Cruise can actually act. Overall, the cast is fairly average. Paul Thomas Anderson’s direction is quite compact and although the movie is long, it moves quite quickly. Worth a dekko. Have some patience to see the movie through though. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi894043161/

The Season of the Witch

All actors have to keep themselves busy. Some more than the rest. And Nicholas Cage falls in the former (more) category. The Season of the Witch is Cage’s desperate attempt to tell the rest of the world that he is still around and still acting. So what if he is pushing 50 and has acted in over 50 movies in his 30 year career? He released only 2 movies last year as compared to the 4 in ‘09 and 4 in ‘07 (only 1 in ‘08). And so what if he has 6 other movies on the table that are going to be released over the next 24 months. Man’s got to act to make money right. Maybe the bank balance has dwindled too much eh Mr.Cage?


Continuing with the fantasy genre of movies that he left with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice last year, Cage now plays the role of Behmen, a 14th Century Knight who has enlisted himself in the service of God, to rid the world of all pagans far and wide. He is a crusader and along with Felson (Ron Perlman) has been responsible for killing hundreds of such outcasts who have sinned. All of this in the name of the Church. After a few years of mindless killing, he is severely upset for the first time when one such crusade results in the killing of innocent women and children. He questions the religious leader of the crusade and on not getting a satisfactory answer decides that he cannot serve the purpose anymore. He and Felson are now outlaws for defecting and therefore are charged with treason effective immediately.

They manage to survive for a while on their own and finally land up around a hut where they find the owners dead for a reason they will find out soon enough - Plague. Soon enough, they find themselves in front of a town that Felson wisely recommends that they avoid since they are outlaws. But they need horses and don’t have a choice but to go into the town to buy some. No points for guessing that they get caught and presented in front of the cardinal (Christopher Lee) who has himself been struck by the plague. News is that the church has captured a witch (Claire Foy), who has confessed to being one (Yeah Right!!!) and now needs to transport her to the Monastery @ Severac where Monks will read from the only copy of “The Book of Solomon” that is left and rid her of the witch craft that seemingly has possessed her.

The Season of the Witch is yet another random story about the Devil with special effects thrown in for impact. Nothing that we have not seen before. But what is surprising is that it is directed by Dominic Sena who is best known for his slick thrillers of the likes of Swordfish and Gone in 60 seconds. How he got conned into directing this below average flick is beyond me. Nicholas Cage is as constipated as ever and Ron Perlman provides him with the support that barely keeps acting alive in the movie. Claire Foy doesn’t have much to do since most of her expressions are controlled clearly by a computer. Acting – Lead of supporting – is not the hallmark of this movie. A bit of interesting SFX and some reasonable fight sequences get this movie to the 4 on 10 mark. Not going to miss much if you don’t see it though.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3830683929/

Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries)

Dhobi Ghat was by far the most awaited movie in this month. And it everything that people expected it to be from the trailers. If one was disappointed with the end result then I guess we were giving too much credit to the audience. In a very “Crash meets Bollywood” style of movie making, Kiran Rao gives us the story of 4 people in the city that doesn’t sleep, whose lives are intertwined thanks to various twists of fate if one may call it that. And she doesn’t do a bad job at all.

Arun (Aamir Khan) is an eccentric painter (that’s redundant right – aren’t all painters eccentric – no offence meant to the painter community). He shies away from public appearances and doesn’t make an appearance at any of his exhibitions. Any of them until now. He lands up at his latest exhibition which is based on Mumbai – his muse, his whore, his beloved – as he proclaims proudly. As he is getting away from the socializing, he bumps into Shai (Monica Dogra) who is an investment banker from New York on a sabbatical to Mumbai. Her passion is photography and she wants to use the time in Mumbai getting a look into the lives of the marginalized people including the exotic varieties such as the “Night Rat Killers” (didn’t know something like that existed out here – so much for being a Mumbaikar).

Needless to say, Arun and Shai hit it off and land up in bed that very night. Arun, however, is not really interested in anything long term. Especially coz he is divorced around 2 years back and completely unprepared to get into another relationship. Quite a bad morning after for sure.

When Arun moves to a new place, he finds 3 video cassettes left there by the previous tenant, Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra). He tries to return them but is unable to find out any details. Intrigued, he decides to watch the tapes to find out whats in them. They turn out to be video letters that Yasmin planned to send to her brother about her stay in Mumbai.

Arun’s Dhobi, Munna aka Zoheb (Pratiek Babbar) is the common link between Arun and Shai. He wants to be an actor. Shai is quite taken in by Munna in a manner of speaking and decides to take his help on her project. Munna also, coincidentally helps her get to Arun’s new place. The friendship between the two develops quite quickly and as time goes by, Munna develops feelings for Shai which are obviously one sided.

Dhobi Ghat tries to get to the fore the complexities of relationships that develop in this city between different kinds of people. The hope that is existant in most people about the next day being better than the previous one. The casting is quite good with Pratiek Babbar probably being the weakest of the lead 4. But he does come across as extremely sincere and puts in a genuine effort. Aamir Khan being Aamir Khan is quite effortless in his portrayal of the eccentric Arun. I suspect, it didn’t take quite an effort cause he was probably being himself. The pleasant surprises were definitely Monica Dogra and Kriti Malhotra both of whom, I thought, were quite superb. Both first time actors in main stream cinema. Both essay their respective roles with high levels of confidence, unperturbed by the fact that there are other well known names. Acting performances are what keeps Dhobi Ghat alive despite its slow pace. The music by Gustavo Santaolalla & Anibel Kerpel is again well placed with good use of Indian Classical for effect. However, the lead track had striking similarity to that of Krrish of all the movies (maybe a figment of my imagination or just the same raga). If you like the arty kind movies where the story is strong but the pace is really slow and it includes still shots which seem to last forever for no apparent reason, then Dhobi Ghat is just the way you would like to spend your evening. The ridiculous “95 minute without interval” gimmick kept aside, it gives Kiran Rao a very strong start. I liked it. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1451268889/

Julie & Julia

How many movies have you seen that can claim to be based on not one but two true stories? That’s probably the first thing that gets you intrigued about Julie & Julia (J&J). Julia Child’s book, My Life in France and Julie Child’s book of the same name as the movie are beautifully blended by director Norah Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle / You’ve Got Mail) to give a complete feeling of, what can be best described in three letters, Joy. The very essence of the movie is the Joy that one feels in doing something that s/he has an absolute passion for. Something that you are so much in love with that you take every single opportunity to do it or better still make opportunities. I keep telling people that the most difficult thing to find out is that one thing. Julia Child and Julie Powell both went through enough and more pangs of doubt and exasperation before they found at that one thing in their life – Cooking.

Julia Child (Merly Streep) is thrilled to bits about being in Paris, thanks to her husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci) who works in the Foreign Ministry. She likes everything French. Right from the way people speak and behave to French food to the houses, the streets etc. Most of all, she loves to eat. Not knowing what she would like to do with her free time, she starts doing odd courses here and there like making hats but doesn’t really find anything that pleases her. Till she of course lands up taking a small cooking course for French Housewives. Upset with her first class – boiling an egg – she asks for an advanced course instead. The instructor, Madame Brassart (Joan Juliet Buck), mocks the idea but allows her to take up the course for professionals, where she is the only woman. While she is doing the course, she meets Simone Beck (Linda Emond) and Louisette Bertholle (Helen Carey) who ask her to collaborate with them on a cook book for “The Servantless American Housewife”. The Legend of Julia Child is about to be written

Cut to over 50 years later – Julie Powell (Amy Adams) is almost 30 years old. She works in a government agency that helps victims of 9/11 cope up with the after effects and also with stuff like their insurance claims. Not the most pleasant job in the world especially when you have people screaming at you first thing in the morning – and they are justified in doing so. But she gets her release every day when she comes back home to the “surety” of cooking dinner for herself and husband Eric Powell (Chriss Messina). In a ritual meeting with her very well off friends, one of them Annabelle (Jillian Bach) mentions that she blogs about her life in general and her experiences. Intrigued, she asks Eric about what blogging is all about. After a quick debate on what she can blog about, she decides to take up the challenge of cooking each one of Julia’s recipes over 365 days i.e. over 500 recipes in exactly a year. That marks the beginning of the Julie / Julia Project.

J&J marks the coming together of Meryl Streep and Amy Adams once again (Doubt being the other instance) but they don’t share screen time unfortunately. That, however, doesn’t deprive the audience of the complete joy of watching 2 absolutely brilliant actresses. Amy Adams, in what has been her best performance to date along with Doubt – add to the list folks – actors who have come of age. News is she is going to play Janis Joplin in an eponymously titled movie about “The Girl” which will release next year. And although Meryl Streep won her 2 Oscars for movies over 3 decades back, I think her best performances have come in movies with Amy Adams. Why she lost out to Sandra Bullock (not that Sandra Bullock did a lousy job) will remain one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of our time. Coming to the easiest job in the movie – direction – Norah Ephron has this knack of getting her casting so right that she probably doesn’t have to do anything after that. The actors manage it themselves. But she keeps the movie going like nothing she has done before. So well that I was tempted to classify this movie as a comedy – the humour is seriously good . In summation, a must watch for young and old alike. 8 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi77595161/

Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps

Nearly 2 decades back, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) proudly proclaimed, “Greed is good”. After spending 8 years in prison for various crimes including insider trading, he comes out of jail to the coldest possible reception. Every other inmate who is released with him has someone or the other to receive him. He takes a step towards a black limousine which pulls up only to find out that it was meant for someone else. Left with no choice, he gets into a plain city cab to make his way back into New York and start rebuilding his life. 7 years further down, he is now a successful professor / lecturer and author of a best seller titled – no points for guessing – GREED IS GOOD. He makes his living by encouraging the audience to keep in mind just 3 words which are the secret to getting rich – READ MY BOOK .

Jacob "Jake" Moore (Shia Lebouf) is a successful trader at a well known financial services firm called Keller Zebel investments. He strongly believes in the power of alternate energy options such as fusion and has been pushing the board to invest their monies behind it but not so successfully yet. He is seeing Winnie (Carey Mulligan) who doesn’t really believe in marriage thanks to her parents who she doesn’t hold in high regard. Did I mention Winnie’s last name was Gekko? Jake is in complete awe and respect for his mentor, Lewis Zebel (Frank Langella) who heads up Keller Zebel and considers Jake to be his protégé. So much that he gives him a bonus of $1.5 million and pushes him to get married soon. Jake senses that there is something wrong but Zebel doesn’t reveal much. He hears some rumours about KZ going under but brushes them off. Even Lewis stalls him and doesn’t reveal much but says, “The question is not whether KZ is going under. The question should be who is not”?

The next day, Keller Zebel crashes despite Lewis’ best efforts with the chairmen of the US Treasury at the Federal Reserve, thanks to Bretton James (Josh Brolin) effectively blocking him out. James offers Lewis a best price of $3 per share agains the $75 peak that it was trading at a week before. Not able to handle to crash, Lewis kills himself by jumping in front of a train. A shattered by calm Jake decides to get to the bottom of the entire incident by joining hands with the master himself. He gets into a deal with Gekko wherein Gekko will help him get to the bottom of the Lewis Zebel suicide and why KZ failed. In return, Jake would help him get closer to his daughter who otherwise would have nothing to do with him.

Wall Street Money Never Sleeps once again stamps the authority of on Oliver Stone as a director. Is it his best to date. Not by a country mile. But even an out of form Stone has more class than tons of directors put together. Like most Oliver Stone movies this one too is extremely dialogue intensive and to make it worse for a financially dyslexic moron like me, it was a complete nightmare trying to keep up. But I managed somehow. Knowing Stone, and having watched the first edition, I was kind of prepared for it. Michael Douglas even Josh Brolin are both fascinatingly cruel and cold. Shia LeBouf seems to be making his transition like a Leo DiCaprio did nearly a decade ago from chocolate boy hero to more intense, meaningful roles and is doing a great job out of it as now. But the outstanding performance comes from an actor who I have begun to admire since Frost/Nixon. Frank Langella is simply brilliant in the less than 5 minutes of screen time that he has. His sheer presence makes the screen come alive.

To sign off with a line from Gekko, “I once said that Greed is Good… but now seems it has turned legal”. Definitely an 8 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi875627545/

Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters)

The talent in world cinema and the quality of movies that are available is not funny. No wonder we have 2 full fledged channels providing us with an international fare. Not that all of them are good movies but if you like movies and don’t mind going through sub titles, you will find yourself pleased more often than not. And if you have a choice of seeing some random chick flick on one of the other English channels and any international movie playing on UTV World or Lumiere, choose the latter is what I would say. I have to however thank the wonderful world of in flight entertainment for getting an opportunity to watch Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) and specifically Jet Airways. This was the last movie I saw before touch down into Mumbai. I have penciled in a reminder to catch up with as many as possible in the foreign language selection from the Oscars.


It is around the second half of the 1930s. Salomon Sali Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) is a forger par excellence. He is an Austrian by birth and no doubt Jewish too – a lethal combination to have around those times. Puts you in the much sought after list without debate. Even more so if you are a criminal like Sali is. Very few can perform the fine art of counterfeiting like Sali can. His understanding of the business is unparalleled. But when the Germans do take over Austria, Sali finds that his days are numbered. Sturmbannführer Friedrich Herzog (Devid Striesow), an SS officer with a sense of humour finally tracks down Sali in a compromising position and proudly arrests “The King of Forgers”. Sali is sent across to the Mauthausen concentration camp in the north of Austria and sentenced to hard labout.

Five years or so go by and as part of a usual movement, a bunch of prisoners including Sali are sent across to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. As they are being lined up, Sali finds himself face to face again with his nemesis, Herzog. Sali and another transferee Adolf Burger (August Diehl) are segregated from the rest of the prisoners and taken to a separate section of the camp. They are surprised to see several printing machines in this section and are introduced to Dr. Klinger (August Zirner) who is the Kapo or an inmate responsible for guarding the premises. Welcome to “Project Bernhard” – the German effort to print counterfeit currency, primarily pounds and dollars too and get them into circulation in the respective countries to destabilize the economy – Adolf Hitler’s last strategy to prevent anhillation in the War.

Stefan Ruzowitzky does a fabulous job with the true story of a criminal who fights not only with himself but his fellow inmates to stay alive at a concentration camp by doing what he does best – Forging. He portrays the aspects that each one of the inmates go through. The Kapo who has to ensure that his men are kept alive. Burger, who is a rebel at heart and refuses to support the entire activity because he believes they are helping the Nazis out – which is true – but is it more important to stay alive and make a difference or die trying to make a difference in a concentration camp? The story is weaves the conflicts that go through everyone’s minds including the aspect of guilt that the counterfeiters have for being treated much better than the other inmates. The acting on display is extremely good. Markovics plays the role of the perceivably selfish counterfeiter brilliantly. Very intense. Very compact. No riff raffs. Truly deserved the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2008. Could have made it to the main draw as well. 8 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwr9nCurEEQ

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

How many times have you watched a movie just because the name intrigued you to no end? You had to watch it to figure out what it was all about. Like say – Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels. Agreed that there was backing in the form of Guy Ritchie here but the name in itself is fascinating enough right? Enough at least to maybe read about it and then take a call or find out what it is about and maybe just watch it for a few minutes and play it by ear after that. So when I came across Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel (FAQATT) on the Emirates flight from Brisbane to Singapore, I checked the on flight magazine for details. It said 80 mins or something to that extent and I had a couple of hours more before landing into Singapore. And then I saw the 3 glorious letters that have come to mean Quality Comedy and most importantly Trust – B B C. The decision was made and I spent the next little over 80 minutes watching Garreth Carivick’s (may his soul rest in peace) last movie FAQATT. Coincidentally, about 10 years back, he also directed another movie called Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps – brilliant names right???

Ray (Chris O’Dowd), Toby (Mark Wootton) and Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly) are your atypical nerds. Geeks who go about life with an ‘L’ board on their foreheads. L for Loser not Learner. They are into everything that a geek would be into. Technology, Hot Chicks (which they will never get), Beer, Yoda, Beer… did I mention time travel? They have a hope in hell to find a woman. Their idea of the ultimate woman would be someone who understands the depth of Star Wars. On one of their evenings out at the local pub, they get into an intense discussion of time travel. Ray is obsessed with TT and Toby with movies. Now Pete is the resident cynic and when Ray and Toby decide to take off on their fantasy story about time travel he puts on his usual best.

Now Ray decides that it is time to answer nature but on his way back he stumbles into Cassie (Anna Faris) who claims to be a big fan of his. Cassie claims to be from the future and that she absolutely adores Ray for having been the pioneer in time travel – the reason why she is able to meet him. Ray obviously thinks that Toby and Pete are yanking his chain but decides to play along. After a bit when he gets back to the table, he tells Toby and Pete about his corridor conversation but they laugh it off thinking that it is his turn to yank theirs. They only realize that Ray is speaking the truth when Pete finds himself on the other side of a time warp which leads him back into the bar but into a scene of where everyone is dead!!!!

FAQATT is a typical British comedy. So if you are not the one for geeky humour, woven seamlessly around technology then this one is definitely not up your alley. The story moves around several technical aspects such as time warps and time editors whose sole job is to go back to the future and eliminate people immediately after they have hit their peak. Like Millie (Meredith MacNeill) who comes back in time to eliminate our trio cause after they created the basic equation for time travel, they have done nothing worth writing home about. Or to make it simpler, a editor would come back in time and kill Shah Rukh Khan after Swades OR Alan Parson’s Project after “Eye in the Sky” if you know what I mean. All in all a reasonable entertainer. But not the best movie from BBC to date. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi408552217/

The Japanese Wife

I have always found long distance relationships vastly over rated. And I am sure many others share the same opinion. And I am always in awe of those who manage to not only take the decision of getting into one but also effectively sustain it and see through the tough times. Na re baba. Not something that I am confident of doing. Been there, seen it, done that – unsuccessful @ it – not once but twice over and still didn’t learn from it and went ahead with it the third time only to get slapped square on the face once again. Seems surprising right in a day and age where telecommunications are the order of the day and you are only a Video Conference away from anyone right? Guess there is more to relationships than just the odd VC.


Snehomoy (Rahul Bose) is a Mathematics teacher in a village in the Sunderbans, West Bengal. He decides to write to Miyage (Chigusa Takaku) as a pen friend and she gladly accepts. They come from similar backgrounds in their respective countries – not too well off. They don’t need struggle through life to make ends meet but they are definitely not from the “well to do” part of the community. Snehomoy has lost his parents early in life and has been bought up by his Maashi (Moushumi Chatterjee). Miyage doesn’t have a father and her mother is not in great health. She comes from a small village in Japan just like Snehomoy does in India. The similarities are endless. Needless to say, the communication in broken improper English from both sides does not prove to be a hindrance in them building an understanding and concern for each other and therefore a strong friendship over a period of time.

A few letters down the road however, Miyage decides to take the friendship one step further. This is around the time that Snehomoy has started getting “suitable” alliances for his hand in marriage. He is surprised and confused when Miyage decides to pop the question instead. He is unable to understand what should be done but goes with instinct and accepts the proposal. They get married over mail by following the rituals that they would have otherwise and start living as husband and wife but in separate countries. Maashi is shocked to say the least with this development but over a period of time begins to accept the relationship because she sees Miyage putting in a lot of effort be it through continuous letters or gifts that keep finding their way to Snehomoy. All this despite Sandhya (Raima Sen), Maashi’s widowed god daughter who comes into the picture.

The Japanese Wife is a kind of movie one has come to associate with Aparna Sen. Very off beat and far from the run of the mill stuff that one would see and yet one that has a global audience for it. The movie is slow paced but at no time can one claim that the narration is loose. There is nothing in the movie that seems unnecessary. Rahul Bose is very good in his portrayal of the reserved Snehomoy. Raima Sen seems to have a knack of getting herself into quality roles unlike her sex kitten sister. She is able to successfully bring out the emotions of a young widowed single mother and the conflicts in her head about being somewhat attracted to Snehomoy and also feeling kind of unwanted in parts. As regards Moushumi Chatterjee, one does wonder if Bengali is her preferred language cause she seems to speak in an accent of sort which is more Bombayish. And lastly, the Japanese Wife, Chigusa Takaku seems to be extremely forced in her diction which is not quite like the way Japanese speak English. Overall, the movie is well made and deserves a 7 on 10. But as mentioned earlier, extremely slow and very Aparna Sen.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_b192VGkI&feature=related

The Green Hornet

I think this one started off as a radio show in the 1930s. And has since then transcended itself through almost every conceivable form of media – comic book, TV show, Film serials et al. It has finally reached its current destination – that of a full fledged feature film – only a matter of time I guess.


Britt Reid (Joshua Erenberg) is all of 8 years old when he is dragged into his father’s office from school. His father, James Reid (Tom Wilkinson) is the owner and Editor in Chief of The Daily Sentinel which is a leading newspaper in Los Angeles and obviously has absolutely no time for Britt’s tantrums @ school. All Britt was trying to do was help a girl in school who was being harassed by a few bullies. But James is least interested in listening to his side of the story. All he wants is that Britt stays out of trouble and doesn’t mince any words whatsoever when he tells him that – in the rudest possible manner that a father could tell a son. Now you would ask about Britts mother – no points for guessing that she is no more and Britt has to survive life with his cruel, insensitive father.

The upbringing has effects that are not very surprising at all. Britt Reid (now Seth Rogen) grows up to be a care a damn young man whose only aim 20 years later is to blow away as much of his father’s hard earned money as possible. He doesn’t pass an opportunity to hit on anything that moves – the fairer sex primarily – lest you start getting any ideas of a gay super hero (that’s a possibility though which I am sure someone has capitalized on already). Our irresponsible friend is however in for a rude shock when James suddenly kicks the bucket thanks to an extremely allergic reaction to a bee sting (eh?).

Obviously Britt has no clue whatsoever of the newspaper business and leaves it to his dad’s trusted aide, Axford (Edward James Olmos) to manage it as he deems fit. He has however, in the heat of the moment, also fired all the staff @ his dad’s estate including the person who makes his morning designer coffee with a leaf designed on it et al. Meet Kato (Jay Chou) who was primarily employed by James to take care of the dime a dozen classic cars in the garage but also has a unique skill – making superb coffee. But there is more than what meets the eye. Kato is also a superb mechanic, a martial arts expert and like Brett doesn’t think too highly of James. In the spur of the moment, the two of them decide to become anti super heroes and start off their escapades by decapitating James’ statue and taking off with the head. They then start off with their project of using the newspaper to blow these antics through the roof. They need a name for themselves and land up with The Green Hornet and his nameless side kick.

Surprising to see that The Green Hornet (TGH) is directed by Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind & Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) who would be associated with more esoteric cinema and not something as mainstream as TGH. His discomfort with the concept shows very clearly but the fact that he is a good director helps him hold his own and come up with a product that is pretty decent. The use of Special Effects is quite good. The story keeps continuously moving along and doesn’t meander along the way unnecessarily. The lead roles consist of the irritating Seth Rogen, the exciting Jay Chou and furniture in the form of Cameron Diaz. What are class acts like Tom Wilkinson and Christoph Waltz doing in a time pass movie like this is beyond my levels of understanding. They are way to classy for TGH. Tom Wilkinson is probably the only actor who has carved a niche for himself in Hollywood for playing roles that demand a crabby old man. No one else can do it better. Overall, a reasonably entertaining movie but not too great. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi21600537/

Turning 30

Sometimes I wonder if it I am losing my sense of humour. Or have I completely lost connect with what people find humourous these days. Because I catch myself not laughing at stuff which the entire theatre seems to be guffawing at. Maybe its old age. I don’t know. I hope to find out soon enough. And when I do, you would be the first to be told about it. Of course, if someone has the answer to it, I would be more than glad to listen. I have one more worry. Its been over 100 reviews now and I find myself being a little more stringent on my ratings than before. Is that the general feeling with everyone or just a figment of my imagination? Do let me know. Comments welcome.


Nevertheless, let’s shift our focus to the life of Naina (Gul Panag). She is 2 weeks from her 30th birthday. An event that has been made out to be supremely larger than life by a vast majority of the public in general. These days, it would seem as important as achieving puberty or getting a driver’s license. Naina is in an extremely fulfilling relationship with her boyfriend Rishabh (Siddharth Makkar). They have been seeing each other for nearly 3 years now. And the time has come to take the relationship to take the final plunge – that of marriage. Add to that the fact that Naina is a successful creative director @ ADZ. Things couldn’t be better for her. And she knows that her boy friend is going to propose to her anytime. Rishabh’s parents are happy. Her mother (Anita Kanwar) is happy. What more could a woman ask for just before she is about to turn the biggest corner in her life.

But, like most stories, things have to fall apart sometime. And that happens when Yamini (Ira Dubey) walks into their life. An innocent meeting between Rishabh and Yamini ends up activating Rishabh’s instincts to be responsible towards his parents and not just himself. Seeing the opportunity to marry rich, he decides to change his mind and now get married to Yamini instead. Very smart boy I say. Obviously Naina is shattered and spends the next few days crying over it. She is given reasonable support by her buddies Rukshana (Jeneva Talwar) and Malini (Tillotama Shome). Add to that the politics in her office where her colleague (Sameer Malhotra) takes all credit for the work that she puts in thanks to an affair he is having with her boss Rathod (Bikramjeet Kanwarpal). Before she knows it, she is also out of a job. But as easily as she goes through the pains, she gets her job back by threatening to escalate to the New York Office. And her boy friend from the past, Jai (Purab Kohli) comes back into her life. If only things were as easy an lucky in everyone’s life.

Alankrita Shrivastava gets added to the list of fast growing first time directors in Bollywood. I am sure her intent was very noble to say the least but she falls quite flat with Turning 30. Long way to go for her to get to any reasonable level of directing it would seem. And was it a figment of my imagination that Gul Panag was a solid actress on her way to being better with each movie? Her last 2 outings i.e. Hello Darling and Turning 30 would seem to indicate otherwise. She just cannot cry OR the quality of her tears is so superb that one cannot see them due to the transparency OR the print used @ PVR Mulund was that of an extremely poor quality. I somehow think it’s the former. Extremely disappointing to say the least. The stand out performance though is from Tillotama Shome  (Alice in Monsoon wedding – who Vijay Raaz is trying to court – yes she speaks too J) who plays the role of a lesbian friend extremely well. Especially the point where she comes out of the closet – well executed I say. The only other high point of the movie would be the portrayal of Naina’s desperation to get Rishabh back at all costs. The rest of the movie was imminently forgettable. 4 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/broadband/video/Movie-Promos/4VPAFj39/1/Theatrical-Trailer-Turning-30.html

The American

Jack a.k.a. Edward (George Clooney) is an accomplished assassin. But he is also a tired one. He, Jack not Clooney, is at the fag end of his career. Not that anyone of us can figure it out. The guy still manages to do a zillion push ups and a few more pull ups every single day. And did I mention the 6 pack? Some guys just have all the luck. Or maybe they just make theirs. Anyways, Jack is chilling out in the mountains of Sweden with his current girlfriend Ingrid (Irina Bjorklund). He is worried about something but puts that aside and goes for a walk with Ingrid. But soon realizes that he had reason to be worried. They are attacked by a bunch of Swedes – is it an obvious assumption that if u are attacked in Sweden then it is by Swedes – but his assassin instinct gets him out of trouble very easily. He asks Ingrid to call the cops and she reluctantly takes a few steps towards the cottage only to be shot in the back of her head by our hero. Assasins do it from behind as they say.

Realising that his life is in danger, Jack takes off and finds himself in Rome where he gets in touch with Pavel (Johan Leysen) his contact (if you have seen enough assassin movies you would know by now that each one has a “contact” – if you haven’t, now you know). Pavel advises Jack to move to a secret location in the mountains of Abruzzo. En route, Jack’s assassin instincts take over and he decides to change location to a nearby village. Once again he calls up Pavel and tells him that he is done for good, that he wants to retire. Pavel, however asks him to do one last job. Again, if you have seen enough assassin movies, you would know by now that assasins don’t retire – they are retired. Not left with much of a choice, Jack agrees to do the job because it doesn’t involve any killing. He has to only build a gun for Mathilde (Thelka Reuten) which would be picked up at the appropriate time. So he goes ahead with the assignment and in the meantime builds something of a friendship with Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) and also slowly starts falling for a local prostitute, Clara (Violanto Placido).

The American didn’t do quite well in India. And I missed watching it on the big screen about 3 months back. But I now understand the reasons. This is a genre of movies which could only be called Arty Espionage. It is a movie about an assassin directed by a highly acclaimed photographer, Anton Corbijn, better known for his music videos for Metallica and U2. What Corbijn may have realized by now is that directing music videos – different ball game from directing movie. Music video 5-10 mins. Movie – 90 to 120 mins. 30 minute movie will be a short film. So what does Corbijn do? He puts in long unedited shots without dialogues or any movement or any semblance of movement whatsoever. Enough to put a sane man to sleep. Leave alone a heavily jet lagged individual on a comfortable seat in the Emirates flight from Brisbane to Singapore. That would probably explain why I forgot the name or the story of the movie and had to resort to speaking to my close friend from Emirates to give me the movie list so that I could remember the name (read – I am getting older). George Clooney continues to give a performance that is ice cold as always, it has become somewhat of a style I would say. The rest of the cast is almost non existant. Overall, the movie is too darn slow to be called good. I would give it 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1131546393/

Easy A

High School is probably the toughest time in anyone’s life – I don’t say that. Its those blokes from Hollywood go to significant extents to re-emphasize on that point time and over again with the string of chick flicks / RomComs that they come up with based on someone’s life and the pressures of High School. Now the case may not be similar in India but from what I hear, whatever is shown on screen is pretty close to the real deal in the West and in some cases probably made to look better. I can’t begin to imagine the pains that parents would be going through day after day. I wonder what I would do if I had kids. Tip my hat to the parents of most teenagers – especially those with teenage daughters. Cannot claim to understand your pains and fears but honestly, I wouldn’t want to be in your position – not even as close as a country mile and a half.


Did you know that my name is an anagrame for “I Love”? That’s what Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) asks of the boyfriend of her best friend, Rhiannon (as Alyson Michalka). That too in her sultriest possible way http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3453552153/. She has waltzed into school wearing a black corset with the letter A sewed onto her left breast, black skin tight jeans (and she is really really skinny), black sunglasses, the reddest of lipsticks – in short, looking at her sluttiest best if it could be called that. Most of the guys in class have their jaws on the floor and drool all over. Needless to say Rhiannon is not very thrilled about the entire episode and she promptly declares her friendship “OVER”. Not that Olive cares – anymore that is.

It all starts off when Olive excuses herself from a weekend with Rhiannon’s parents. She lies about a date that she has over the weekend. But she spends the weekend only listening to “Pocket full of sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield. Olive is basically your average ordinary everyday girl. A nobody @ school. With only one friend i.e. Rhiannon. So when Rhiannon repeatedly asks her how her weekend was and whether “something happened”, she takes recourse to lying once again and says that she got laid. Bad news that the overly enthusiastic “Christian”, Marianne (Amanda Bynes) is in the loo during this conversation. And The Times of Marianne goes to work immediately after that. Before one can say, Jack Daniels, Olive becomes the high school slut. Someone who gives in very easily and is available. Olive takes this in her stride and actually decides its good for her image. So when the gay boy in school, Brandon (Dan Byrd) asks her to lie about having had sex with him, she decides to play along.

Easy A tracks the life of a kid whose attempt to gain popularity just goes that little bit out of control. But the fact that she has trusting parents helps. Probably a good class for parents struggling with teenage kids at home and needless to say, for teenage kids on what should be done and what not. Emma Stone seems to be someone with talent and probably waiting for her big break of sorts. I think she is capable of it. The rest of the cast are atypical chick flick cast with the exception of Patricia Clarkson & Stanley Tucci who play the role of Olive’s parents. Directed by the young looking Will Gluck (nothing much to write home about currently) it is a decent watch. Reasonably entertaining chick flick. 5.5 on 10 from my side.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/

The Losers

From August 2003 to March 2006, 32 issues of a comic book series were published by DC Comics. They were titled “The Losers”. Now 32 issues is quite long in the life of a comic book. Surely there are a few that have crossed a much higher number but the number 32 and a couple of awards won were considered good enough by director Sylvain White to attempt getting the comic book to the silver screen. Or maybe Sylvain was just following the tracks of several graphic novels / comics / TV series that have been remade onto the big screen over the past few years. Some of them successfully and others not as lucky. Well, I am sure he tried his best to not land up like the title and maybe also emulate what the comic book got in terms of awards. Unfortunately, Sylvain has still to mature as a director and has probably lost an opportunity to build a solid franchise. The comic book had 32 issues and the concept of The Losers had tremendous potential of getting at least 2, maybe even 3 more sequels but I guess it will take a lot of courage and a crazy investor to have the courage to put the money onto the table now.

Lt. Col. Franklin Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the leader of a small strike team into Bolivia to seek and destroy an operation run by a local gangster / rebel called Fadhil (Peter Francis James). Clay is supported in his efforts by Capt. Jake Jensen (Chris Evans), Capt. William Roque (Idris Elba), Sgt. Lingwood “Pooch” Porteus (Columbus Short) and Sgt. Carlos “Cougar” Alvarez (Oscar Jaenada) – each one with his own set of responsibilities. As they are about to make the strike, they notice a whole bunch of kids being taken into the hamlet and Clay wants to call the operation off. But the CIA operative behind the mission, Max (Jason Patric) doesn’t allow it. Clay, however, decides to go right ahead and save the children in the under 8 minutes that they have for the air strike to take place. In the process, they also manage to kill Fadhil.

But the sinister Max, who the team hasn’t seen as of now, has other ideas. He blows up the chopper that picks up the kids. Disgusted by this, the strike team decides that they are not going to have anything to do with the army any more and junks their dog tags in the debris. All this works out conveniently for Max since no one is there to refute his sinister role in the entire activity. The team then moves on to take odd jobs in Bolivia / South America but desperately want to track down Max. Enter Aisha (Zoe Saldanah) who joins The Losers under the commitment that she will lead them to Max. The entire team but for Roque is excited at the prospect – of tracking down Max not Aisha (corrupt minded people I say) and so the adventure begins.

In a year that saw the release of the likes of A Team and Expendables (which in itself was not upto the mark), I am appalled at the courage that the makers of The Losers had to release the movie in the first place. A really badly made movie, it was no surprise that it lasted in India for less than a week. And I was wondering why all this while. Jeffrey Dean Morgan should restrict himself to the rugged romantic movies like Gerard Butler deals in. Just coz Gerard Butler can act in action movies and just because Morgan starred with Butler in PS I Love you doesn’t mean that Morgan can act in action movies. It’s a different league Jeffrey dear. Way out of yours. At least Jeffrey Morgan tries to act. The rest of the cast, regrettably, doesn’t even make a meek attempt. Quite a sad result from what could have been a successful trilogy or even a quadrology. 3 on 10

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi894043161/

Yamla Pagla Deewana

This one was what I was really waiting for. After the disaster of their first movie together titled “Apne”, the Deol family probably sat down together to have a serious discussion and decided that the next time they would come together would be for a comedy. Either ways people were laughing at their first attempt. Might as well get them to laugh at what is meant to be laughed at right? The rushes were quite reasonable and I was quite keen to catch up with the movie. So after a 12 hour sleep to recover from the jet lag of spending 32 hours @ either an airport or inside an aircraft and that too without any sleep, I opened skull, left brains in freezer and proceeded towards PVR Mulund to catch an afternoon show of a completely slapstick brainless comedy. Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed at all – I got what I had expected!!!!


Param Veer Singh Dhillon (Sunny Deol) is a family man to the core. He is married to Mary (Emma Brown) and has 2 kids. His mother, Manto (Nafisa Ali) also stays with them. No points for guessing that they all live in Vancouver, Canedda (read Canada). And if u are a sardar in Canedda, u cannot dream of having a Canadian accent. After all, you are in your 2nd home right? The entire family including the Canadian wife is uncorrupted and not influenced by anything Canadian. Even the wife speaks in Punjabi – so what if it’s a little broken. 100% believable I say. Now, Param has always wanted to go to India to visit his Des (read country - wonder why they all go to Canada if all they want to do is come back?). But Mary will not have anything to do with these dreams. He doesn’t trust India one bit.

The story goes that while Param was very young, his father, Dharam Singh Dhillon (Dharmendra) who is the only person in the world that google cannot locate, is a petty criminal back home and leaves Manto and Param at a very young age. He doesn’t leave alone thought. He carries his 2 month old son, Gajodhar (Bobby Deol – when he gets older that is) and continues his life of petty crime, relieving unsuspecting people of whatever is valuable. One of the Dhillon families friends in Canedda comes home and blows a fuse when he sees Dharam Paaji’s photograph on the wall. He has recently been duped by the father and son duo, in Benras (how many times have people been told not to travel alone to India!!!!!). Now that he knows, Param has to go to Benares to get the two back to Canedda as promised to his mother isn’t it?

Yamla Pagla Deewana, lives upto to everything it promised in the trailers. Corny dialogues such as “Tussi Bade Impotent ho ji” (You are very important) and “Aap Kaise Karte Ho Ji” (How do you do?) and most of all Jat Risky after Whiskey as the icing on the cake. Not to mention the corny background music that plays from every Bobby Deol movie even though there is a fight sequence on. After all, Jab Sunny fight kar raha ho toh Bobby romance hi karega na??? And then there are three brilliant fight sequences featuring Sunny Paaji’s Dhai Kilo ka Haath (2.5 kg fists), the first of which causes little or no damage to any surrounding furniture. Just when u begin to think that things would be different, the next sequence shows a beer bar being single handedly crashed to pulp but guess who – Sunny Paaji. Even Dharam Paaji decides to show his might in the climax sequence. And I must also say that the three on screen together has some solid chemistry. So much that they dance better than the girls in both the so called item numbers in the movie (if they can qualify to be called that). And did I mention Bobby’s love interest in the movie played by Kulraj Randhawa, who is a photographer from the Punjab and is making a coffee table book on Benaras and expects to do that with her camera always on full zoom and wearing a pair of really short shorts roaming the streets of Benares. All believable hai ji. Not to worry. Samir Karnik’s direction continues on the lines of his previous debacles. Some guys never learn. Thanks to our trio, the movie will not flop. Entertaining definitely but follow instructions about brain as mentioned earlier. I give it 4 on 10.

And if you haven’t seen the trailer, here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY1wOMEDBc4&feature=fvsr

Office Space

This one is an ode to all of my programmer / IT friends. Surely you would have in your times in the country or outside it, experienced several of the points that have been shown in Office Space. Experiences that are gut wrenchingly frustrating and makes your want to really beat someone up – especially if that someone is your project manager or one of your several bosses. And that too for matters that are excruciatingly insignificant but would be portrayed as the most important thing that has ever happened in the history of the organization. We are talking about the pain, that people who are otherwise known as “cubicle dwellers” or are known to indulge in what is called as “prarier dogging”, go through on a daily basis.


Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is one such programmer for a small firm that goes by the name of Initech. His life is being converted into a living nightmare thanks to one of his 8 bosses Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). Bill is designated as the Vice President of Operations or something to that extent, the primary benefit for which is an exclusive parking lot with his name on it. And then there is the aspect of Peter’s anorexic and extremely irritating girlfriend Anne (Alexandra Wentworth) who Peter believes is cheating on him but is desperate to make it work – haven’t we seen that before. As a last ditch effort, Peter agrees to accompany Anne to a occupational hypnotherapist who can probably help him out. But as the shrink is performing his hypnosis, he suffers a massive heart attack and just dies right in front of Peter. Peter, although not hypnotized feels something snapping inside his head and decides to do exactly what he wants to do going forward starting with dumping Anne and then not reporting for work on the weekend.

Simultaneously, Initech has recruited a couple of “consultants” Bob Slydell (John C McGinley) and Bob Porter (Paul Wilson) whose job is to assess what each one of the people @ Initech are upto – in short, they are here to fire people. In the process they decide to move out Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu – no IT movie can be complete without an Indian right), Michael Bolton (David Herman – yes his name is Michael Bolton but he doesn’t like any of his songs) and Tom Smykowski (Richard Riehle – an employee of 30 years) amongst several other not so significant characters. Peter though, thanks to his care a damn attitude, gets portrayed as the next big senior manager by the Bobs much to the surprise of Peter’s bosses. Thanks to his movement, he gets to know of that Samit and Michael are being fired. Together they hatch a plan to load a virus into the organization payroll that takes away a fraction of a cent for every transaction and puts it into an account which would over a period of 2 years get them a reasonable sum of money. As good as stealing. But will they be able to get away with it?

Office Space is based on the animated short series titled “Milton” by the director Mike Judge who is primarily known for his Beavis and Butt-head series that created a minor rage in the second half of the 90s. Hot on its heels is where Mike Judge released Office Space – smart move which would probably indicate why it is rated @ nearly 8 stars on imdb which is way too high for a movie of this quality. There is not much acting on display. Surprisingly it is not a slapstick comedy like a Beavis & Butt-head and truly tries to portray what our programmer friends go through. Entertaining in parts but not really too great. But, considering that the only semblance of a know actor would be Jennifer Aniston who plays the part of furniture, quite a decent effort. I would go no where close to the 8 stars that imdb calls out. 5 on 10 from my end.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4159963929/

The Dish

Its not for the heck of it that they say it is important “To be at the right place at the right time”. The scientists / engineers and Parkes, New South Wales, Australia would not have in their wildest of dreams imagined that they would be remotely important. They had the largest radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere alright, build right in the middle of a sheep paddock for making things a little more exotic, but what use would that be to anyone. Least of all NASA. Right? Wrong. They not only find themselves useful to NASA but also at the right time – the 3rd week of July 1969 – The build up to the Apollo XI landing on the moon. Why is that? Because they were the largest in the southern Hemisphere and were to be one of the 3 stations to receive signal from Apollo XI for the world wide broadcast. Houston started the telecast of the moon landing through its receivers in Goldstone and Honeysuckle Creek (Canberra) but a few minutes into the transmission they switched over to the transmission from Parkes because the clarity was far superior to the other sources.


The Dish tracks the build up to the moon landing and the preparations that get underway in a small but insignificant town in South Eastern Australia which in 1969 may have had less than a thousand people residing there. The character sketches for each and every person is strong and begins with that of Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill) who is the head of the observatory or the “Dish Master” as he is fondly referred to by his 2 trusted aides – Glen Latham (Tom Long) and Mitch (Kevin Harrington). The 3 are totally satisfied with life in general between themselves and whatever semblance of family lives that they have and find this sudden attention a little difficult to manage with initially. The initial friction between Glen and the NASA representative Al Burnett (Patrick Warburton) is very obvious. With Al wanting to ensure that everything moves smoothly and therefore double checking, triple checking and if required checking once again. But Glen believes that it is stepping onto his toes. The calming influence of Cliff is what keeps the ball rolling. And then there is the aspect of Mitch being smitten by Janine (Eliza Szonert), a feeling that is mutual but since he is quite a nerd, is unable to pick up the right signals. Even Janine’s brother, Rudi (Tayler Kane) who is the over excited security guard (because he has been asked to keep a gun by NASA security rules) can make out the chemistry between the two.

Rob Stich has beautiful shown all the emotions that go through in a small town when there is a sudden burst of popularity that comes in and that too when they are least bit prepared for it. The characterization of the mayor Bob McIntyre (Roy Billing) and his entire family starting with his wife May (Genevieve Mooy) who is the village newspaper, his elder daughter Marie (Lenka Kripac) who is a severe cynic and doesn’t trust anyone in the government or associated with the government and finally his son Billy (Carl Snell) who is the proudly self proclaimed geek of the family is simply superb. Each character in the movie is well thought out and is there for a reason. This is Stich’s second movie that I have been privileged to watch in as many days and it is just surprising that he has made only 2 movies to date. The 3rd one, 25, is in post production and should be good as well. Superb acting from the entire cast makes it a solid combination and a must watch movie. I give this one 7 on 10.

The trailer can be viewed on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3817537817/

Heartbreaker (L'arnacoeur)

It has taken over 100 movies for me to get to this mark. But I am finally here. This is my first review for an international movie. And it is French. I always thought I would start with something like a Kurosawa or maybe a Truffaut or a Bergman. But that was not to be. I had been checking out the posters of 2 movies – Heartbreaker (L'arnacoeur) & Sarah’s Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah) for over 2 weeks now and my curiosity had to get the better of me when I decided to go for the former last afternoon. Had to start with a French RomCom – just like me I guess.


Alex Lipi (Romain Duris) has a peculiar profession. He works with his strike team of his sister Melanie (Julie Ferrier) and her husband Marc (Francois Damiens). Together their job is to break up relationships. You heard me right – you have a friend who you believe is in a relationship with totally the wrong guy (yes, the service extends only to women) for her. Not that the guy is the worst in the world (he could be also) and your friend / sister / daughter / relative is unable to see the worst coming up in her life then – who u gonna call? Alexi Lippi and Co. The method that they use – seduction. They go about their roles like artists starting with indepth research on the subject using a variety of methods including those as complex as bugging to as basic as acting as beggars and trying to figure out the signs that are important. However they do work with some basic principles. They will not get into situations that involve racial or religious aspects involved. Alex never sleeps with the women. And most importantly, they step in only if the woman is unhappy. They just focus on opening their eyes to the situation primarily by showing her what she is missing out.

Now the artists are having trouble with cash flow thanks to their principles and Alex’s ways of borrowing money from the local money lenders. They find themselves needing 20K + 30K = 50K Euros to bail themselves out of trouble. When the local highly successful florist (read Mafia gang leader) Van Der Becq (Jacques Frantz) calls on the team to break up his daughter’s upcoming wedding, the team refuse on principle. Juliette Van Der Becq (Vanessa Paradis) and Johnathan Alcott (Andrew Lincoln) are extremely happy together and are about to get married in about 10 days time. But their initial research shows that there is no way they would be able to break up the wedding on two counts – the fact that the 2 of them are extremely happy and the challenge of not being able to do so in the time provided. But desperate times call for desperate measures and the need for money (read death threats) ensures that principles are superceded and the team starts off on the challenging task of breaking up a happy relationship.

French or not, Heartbreaker (L'arnacoeur) is just your average RomCom with several mushy scenes and is peppered with overacting and lack of acting. Romain Duris, it would seem never wanted to be an actor and got into it out of sheer good luck. Not that he is pathetic but other than his rugged looks, there doesn’t seem to be too much to look forward to. He just about makes the cut. Vanessa Paradis is skinny as hell and should do something about making sure that the gap in her teeth is filled up – it doesn’t look cute Vanessa and it will not bring you tremendous good luck. From an acting perspective, the performances from Julie Ferrier and Francois Damiens is far better than our lead pair. No random story telling or inconsistencies but Pascal Chaumeil doesn’t give us something that you haven’t see before per se. In fact the climax seems to be heavily inspired from It Happened One Night and for our desi crowd – Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin. All in all, an average RomCom as mentioned earlier. Funny in parts. 5 on 10.