The art of titles

I'm a movie buff, no arguments there. One of the most intriguing things in movies for me are the title sequences. Some darn good films have plain boring titles at the beginning or the end, to save reel length or perhaps because the production went over budget, but some of them carry the mood of the film. I'm talking about the latter.

A movie is a product, and the more polished it is, you know that lot of thought and effort has gone into it. And the custom designed titles are a part of this attention to detail. Recently, surprisingly, I have seen good movies, and quite a few with good title sequences.

Sherlock Holmes, has a brilliant one where the video shots freeze and morph into water-colored pencil-textured drawings. Up in the Air, has one of better aerial picturizations I've seen. Catch me if you can, another beautifully animated piece, while Fight Club explores the neuron structures. Spiderman movies have webby webby titles, quite nicely done. Zombieland wins the best slo-mo, while Hellboy 2 has the coolest gears-in-gears sequence I've seen till date, simply amazing.

On the bollywood side, I like Rang De Basanti, which has a punchy background score and Don(the remake) which has monochrome greens. Bollywood tends to use scenes and songs often in the titles, I guess to save reel time and to add that one extra song.

The ones which take the cake hands down are the Bond movies though. Style, personified.

Dev-astatingly D-elirious!

The emosanal attyachaar continues. After a week's wait, I finally watched Dev.D. And I must say, it did live up to the hype, if not more.

I have been listening the songs for the last month[1] or so. The soundtrack of the movie is absolutely brilliant, as many as 18 tracks, and they have been craftedly used in the film. They serve as the background score, albeit loud, and take the story forward. Or its the other way round, the story makes a good gel for the 18 tracks to connect to each other. It is the one of the USPs of the film, and has sounds from almost every genre you can think of.

Initially I thought I could predict what-next in the movie, having heard the soundtrack so often. You know, the songs and lyrics give out the film, generally. But I was wrong, and how! Anurag Kashyap, the director, just blows the lids off. The way, the sweetly "yahi meri zindagi" culminates, with a disturbing reverb and the screaming rock version of "emotional attyachaar" climaxes, with 360 degree blurry still shots, is as classy as it gets.

The frames use colors, saturated colors of all shades, heavily. More colorful than what Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas was. There are direct hints to the SLB's version, and its a slap on his face. Dev.D just screams out, how Devdas the character is, leaving all previous renditions miles behind. Performances are good, not a single lame act.

Anurag Kashyap, before a director is a writer, and it shows. The hard hitting dialogues give the movie a in-your-face feel. He uses a lounge dancing troupe to tell the musical story, where he cannot directly use song and dance. He stops the storm of music at a beat, gives a scene, and starts the storm again, superb editing. Making a movie, remade 8 times is no joke. Thumbs up for the creativity!

All said, its five-shining-stars cinema, but may not be a five star entertainment for everyone though. I hope it rakes in enough money so that we can see such cinema grow.

imdb

PS: how ironical is it to see a d-movie on a v-day :)

Movie review: Slumdog Millionaire

Very few times does one get to experience such a thing. The exhilaration, the awe and the mesmerization brought forth by experiencing something you very soon realize is extra-ordinary. In these times when Mumbai and the country reels under troubled times, comes a story set in the same city, that talks of hope, love and the human spirit.

Slumdog Millionaire, based on the book Q & A by Vikas Swarup, is from the very beginning impressive. The strongest point of the film would have been the story, but the way it has been executed probably takes that crown away from it. Intelligently crafted by Danny Boyle, from an angle it almost seems like escapist bollywood masala with all the ingredients thrown in.

The director puts the real harsh life in the slums of Mumbai on reel. He is so truthful you wish you never knew it was that bad. The pace of the story is great and there is not a single idle second, making you feel the chill, twitch your eyebrows and put a smile with effortless ease. Camera work is award worthy, watch the starting sequence of kids running in slums, on roof tops, garbage and what not with the camera capturing all the zing through angles you wouldn't dream of.

Music by A R Rehman, period. He is a brilliant background music designer. Actors are competent, the protagonist, Jamal Mallik, played by Dev Patel, does an outstanding act. Anil Kapoor shows the colors with subtlety, Irfan Khan has very little screen time.

Touted to be the best picture award winner, I would be surprised if it doesn't.

Pan's Labyrinth

I had watched Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy and Hellboy 2, and was impressed, particularly by the sequel. It is strong in art design and visuals, its like watching a comic book fantasy unfold in real.

His Pan's Labyrinth, a spanish language film released in 2006, is a genre of cinema in itself, incomparably innovative and visually spellbinding. The setting of the film is something I have never heard or seen before. A blend of war drama and fantasy or in other words the harsh reality and the dreamy surreal. Its a true Alice in Wonderland.

The story is centered around a little girl called Ofelia, who lands in the middle of a fascist regime. Alongside she lives in this fantasy world which is equally ghastly, but which attracts her. The two threads in the movie keep running in parallel, and they cut just once, in the end. And a very interesting end it is. For the first time it doesn't sink in. The end is different for the two worlds, happy in one and sad in the other.

All the characters in movie are strong, Ofelia with her sheer innocence and the fascist captain with his brutal nature impress the most. The makeup and special effects are top notch. The faun and the pale man, who puts his eyes on his hands to see(!), are petrifying. The film won three academy awards including one for art direction. There are some graphic scenes in the movie, and though partly a fairy tale its definitely not for kids.

I'm amazed by the effort Guillermo Del Toro puts in his films. For this one in particular he did the story, screenplay and makeup. I look forward to watching more of his films alongwith watching this one at least one more time.

Extra-ordinar-E!

I have been a PIXAR fan right from the Toy Story days. And in every next release, they have been raising the bar. Their movies are not just technically and artistically marvelous but, they have interesting stories to tell too, that too executed in a manner, even good old movie makers should feel ashamed. Finding Nemo was one such movie where they performed not only good, but the best in every department of movie making, and I believe it was the cherry on the cake.


But, Wall-E takes it to a whole new level. Its the new cherry! A story of a small, inconsequential robot, which is probably the only survivor on a planet. He (yea, its a he, cause there's a she too :) ) keeps doing his routine work of picking garbage and making cubical bricks out of it, that is his directive, his goal in life. And he keeps doing that, for 700 years!

But then something happens...and I'll stop there, I won't spoil a bit of it. What follows is an amazing story of quest for longing, love and spirit.

Technically the film is top notch. Scenes of the desolated planet, the spaceship interiors are surreal. The amount of effort spent on the futuristic technology shown, in terms of robots, machines, their movements is tremendous. The USP of the film is however that, the creators pull off an engrossing tale, with very less dialogue. There is hardly any dialogue in the first half of the movie! It rivals the kind of movie making shown in 2001: A space odyssey with sound, image and actions conveying more than the dialogue.

The first few minutes showing how Wall-E stays on a deserted planet, felt very much like in the old movie "Soldier" starring Kurt Russell, and the later with lots of small cute robots felt heavily inspired by "Robots" from Blue Sky Studios, the guys who made Ice age. But the movie, as a whole is superbly innovative and it has many of its "moments".

Wall-E is truly extra-ordinar-E! Go watch!

Flux Capacitor is now for real!

Just like there are resistors, inductors and capacitors, presence of another element called as memristor was predicted in 1971 by professor Leon Chau. It took 37 years for someone to develop it. HP labs has done this feat. Memristor, in short remembers the current passing through it and accordingly changes it resistance. The greatest thing about it is that it performs better as you scale it down, meaning high density chips will be easier to make as against what happens when transistors are packed together.

By all that it looks like, it seems to be a revolution in electronics and is going to redefine nano-technology. Here is a intriguing statement by professor Chau,

"The situation is analogous to what is called Aristotle's Law of Motion, which was wrong, because he said that force must be proportional to velocity. That misled people for 2000 years until Newton came along and pointed out that Aristotle was using the wrong variables. Newton said that force is proportional to acceleration -- the change in velocity. This is exactly the situation with electronic circuit theory today. All electronic text books have been teaching using the wrong variables -- voltage and charge--explaining away inaccuracies as anomalies. What they should have been teaching is the relationship between changes in voltage, or flux, and charge."

And surprise. Memristor's technically correct name happens to be "Flux Capacitor". You'll know what I mean if you have seen the "Back to the Future" trilogy. And if the science in that was correct(ahem)..which used flux capacitor as the basis for time travel...Wait a minute, Doc...ah

Once

I'm not really fond of musicals. Tried watching Sweeney Todd, but couldn't sustain Johnny Depp singing about his barber blade and gave up. But this one, for Once is different. Read about it on Tushar's blog and looked appealing.


The movie has a interesting background. The lead actors are artists, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. "Falling slowly", made by them, which plays through the movie many times, won the academy this year. The movie is directed by John Carney, member of The Frames band, which Glen Hansard is part of.

Glen and Marketa are both amazing as actors, particularly Glen. Both of them are musicians, and how they bond through their love for music, is kind of the story of the film. In brief,

Genre: Musical, Hopelessly romantic.
Music: *****
Acts: Pretty good, I got to know that the lead actors are singers after watching the movie.
Abstractness Quotient^: **
Overall: Recommended

Every song in the soundtrack is worthy of the musical. I've been playing the songs, all day, they just grow on you. Lyrics, mostly by Glen himself are beautiful..here's from "Say it to me now"

I'm scratching at the surface now
And I'm trying hard to work it out
So much has gone misunderstood
This mystery only leads to doubt
And I didn't understand
When you reached out to take my hand
And if you have something to say
You'd better say it now, now

Imdb

^ I should be stating this, 'cause the last movie I saw, I liked it, but many didn't due to high AQ!

The Darjeeling Limited

Its been some time since I wrote a movie review. Here is one. The object, "The Darjeeling Limited", is a story of three brothers who find a way to togetherness through a journey, a journey through India.

If you are wondering what the weird name means, its the name of a train that the brothers take in their journey. You need to have a little bit of patience initially, to get on the same page as the director. There are witty one-liners through out and light banter every now then, which keeps the movie a light-weight. All the three actors, who play the main characters do it fine. Owen Wilson, is funny and his innocence in trying to get the three of them together is personified perfectly. Its good to see him do some better roles than the stereotype foolhardy cowboy. And why is he always hurt on the nose, that too with a twisted one!

Few of the scenes in the movie are brilliant. Particularly the turning point of the story, where all the three of them incidentally attend a funeral, where they had missed being at their father's. The movie for a change doesn't show the India generally shown in the western films, with sadhus and snakes and elephants and bazaars. Interestingly, it shows all these elements, but not as typically at the least. There is lot of Indian music in the background score which makes the tone of the movie, but its used a bit too much. The slo-mo shots of catching the train, which remind me of DDLJ, are wonderful.

The other two characters played by Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman are portrayed-to-order. The shift, where they start trusting each other is properly etched. Editing is different, which makes a unique style for the film. Screenplay is amazing with quotes like "We haven't located us yet" and the annoyingly repetitive "Lets take a look at the itinerary".

In all, a good one.

IMDB

Kaagaz ke Phool

Currently into super-movie-watching-mode. I'm literally gulping them. With time to spare and nothing better to do (well, actually there is, but leisure is just too engrossing than solving some worldly problems isn't it? :P ), I watch movies all the time. I wanted to write about many movies, but after some blogger's block, here is a post on the one most worthy.

I had seen Pyaasa few months back. Kaagaz ke Phool can be said as a loose sequel to it, in terms of content. Pyaasa ends with the the protagonist, a poet going into oblivion though his works are famous. Kaagaz ke Phool starts with the protagonist, a film-maker who is widely known and respected. The movie begins with the twilight period of the film-maker and it goes into a flash back. Some of the shots in the beginning sequence are too good. Like this one, where he is looking at the mascot of the studio, that he once gave shape, but now stubbornly stares at him.

There is a great use of light and shadows, in this beginning sequence and also throughout the film, as is in any Guru Dutt film. This man was undoubtedly a master of shadows.

The picturization of songs is extra-magnificient. Superb use of camera techniques and lighting, particularly in the song Waqt ne kiya...This song is an exercise in film making, with performances by Waheeda Rehman and Guru Dutt, the lyrics, the music, the light-shadows, the camera techniques including some novel styles like morphing. The combined effect is spell-binding. Waheeda Rehman is so good in this movie, I would not wink an eye to say that this is best performance by an actress I have ever seen, fetas off to her!

Guru Dutt, as in Pyaasa, plays the dejected, miserable man. But in Pyaasa, there is a happily ever after, in this there isn't. Its melancholic and almost autobiographical. In the film the protagonist, a film-maker, mentions that he would not direct any more films if the one he is making flops, and that happens. And that happened in real life too, Kaagaz ke Phool was the last film Guru Dutt directed, at least officially.

The film's music, by S. D. Burman is not as extra-ordinary as Pyaasa, this can be attributed to the fact that Pyaasa was a poet's story. Lyrics by Kaifi Azmi are deep, the two songs Dekhi zamane ki yaari, and Waqt ne kiya.. are part of history.

IMDB
Lyrics
Guru Dutt

Movie reviews

Saw some really good movies recently in the spring break, wanted to write about them since some time.

Started with the stunning 300. Its a new level of film making, as some critic said. A visual masterpiece. This movie establishes Frank Miller's work as a school of film making, starting with the equally astounding Sin City. Following that, I watched The Illusionist. A decently devised script which reveals itself in the end, and keeps the watcher guessing. But the magic tricks shown in the movie are simply unbelievable. The movie has a authentic victorian look, which works great for the story.

The next in line was The Prestige. A movie with a very Christopher Nolan touch to it. He is the same guy who made Memento and Batman Begins. He has this new way of editing movies, that which makes 3-4 timelines out of the movie to run in an interleaved fashion. And the effect is phenomenal, watch Memento to believe it which has this concept stretched to its extremes. ( It appears like a re-entrant, recursive asynchronous, multi-threaded application..if you know what I mean!) The Prestige has a great story, a very human one with a sci-fi topping. The sci-fi part, where the story brings in scientist Nicholas Tesla(the one who invented AC electricity) blends historical events, giving it a realistic appearance. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale give great performances as rival magicians. In a Nolan movie you have to meticulously listen to the dialogue, and this movie is no exception. There are hints and traces in the dialogue throughout the film. A must "must watch".

Then came Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, a 80s or 70s film. The story is that of the conversations in a board of jury who are appointed to decide whether the accused is guilty or not. Initially just one person believes that the accused is innocent, and how he convinces the rest is the matter of the film. The concept is nice, but hasn't been handled in the way it should have been. Many characters are very loud, and most of the time they make senseless conversations. But still a good, hatke oldie. Its said to be a remake of some 12 Angry Men.

More in the queue are Aeon Flux, Dark City, Equilibrium, Before Sunrise & Before Sunset. It is only a matter of when.

Guru Dutt's Pyaasa

I don't like to watch movies alone. I was coercing my roomies for the last 6 months to watch Pyaasa, which was lying on my drive since I left home. But finally I decided to watch it alone, "forgive them, for they don't know what they do..."

Pyaasa is a masterpiece, a benchmark in cinema. No wonder its in the Time's greatest 100 films of all time. Regarded as Guru Dutt's probably finest work alongwith equally laudable efforts by the lyricsist Sahir Ludhiyanvi and the music maestro S. D. Burman. The story is of poet's journey as he discovers the ways of the society. And the lyricsist makes sure that every verse is attributable to a celebrated poet.

The cinematography is very very novel for those times. The angles used are very unconventional. And there is heavy use of those shots where the camera goes from a distance to close-up. It eventually became famous as "the Guru Dutt shot".
The use of light and shadows is impactful. Guru Dutt tries to convey a lot just from the lighting of the scenes. The scene where he comes up from a river bank after knowing about the loss of his mother and the climax where he stands in the theatre door, portray deep thoughts. There is also a scene in the elevator where the camera goes to Mala Sinha's reflection on the metal interiors which then blends to a flash back, very innovative.

Guru Dutt weaves the story, verses and songs together and every song (except the Sar jo tera chakraye...) has a narrative. There are lot of silent moments in the film, and eyes are the only expression. Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rahman as actors are tremendous, and they make the film's technical expertise more than worth the effort. Though Guru Dutt's signature raised eyebrows are used a bit too much.

Music is the life of the film and S. D. Burman delivers few of his greatest pieces. The meaningful Aaj Sajan Mohe..;
the introspective Jinhe naaj hain Hind par...;
the saddest ever Jaane woh kaise log the jinke..;
the melodious Hum aapke ki aakhon main..;
the light hearted Sar jo tera chakraye and
the climactic and impinging Yeh duniyaa agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hain...
Its a true musical.

IMDB
Lyrics
Guru Dutt

Don-ning a new look

Finally ! I saw a movie at a theatre after being more than 3 months in the US. I had to miss "Lage Raho..." screened at the university theatre due to exams. This time I didn't want to miss, any hindi movie that would release at the theatre. This is how I got to go to "Don - The Chase Begins again" in spite of having read and heard bad reviews. I went with little expectations.

The movie began with a Bond like entry of Don. The titles are the best I have seen till date in Indian cinema. In fact I would rate the title sequence in the top few I have seen, others in the list being those of Catch me if you can, Spiderman and Matrix.

The all green, line-frame graphics of roads, tunnels, bridges...and the final part where the Kuala Lumpur towers in green frames blend to actual video, neat! You have got to see them, to appreciate the effort.

The casting of the movie is a very well thought of endeavour, with the exception of Kareena as Helen, she feels like a fish out of water. SRK, though I haven't really liked majority of his work, carries the burden of all-complex character pretty well. I don't know, from where Farhan Akhtar dug up Pawan Malhotra from, he was missing from big screen since ages. He does a very fine, calculated Narang. Other characters also fall in place with their characters.

The cinematography is world class, most sequences are grey and green filtered, like those in Matrix movies. The stunts are impressive, but putting them over the edge would have helped the movie a lot. The car chase where Don is supposed to die, is great, and you see the director's action shoes. He does those multi-angle shots, like those in The Hulk, and breath-taking car stunts like those you might have seen in Vin Diesel's TripleX.

Music-wise Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy trio make a mark. They put their own techno flavour in the old songs. The orchestrated theme music is grand, again for the first time I have heard such orchestration for theme music in Indian cinema. The title song, Main hoon Don has its own grandeur; the style, the velvet, the groove.

Its a tremendous effort and that shows. The movie is already a top grosser over Lage Raho, and some hollywood studio is remaking it. Farhan Akhtar does a hat trick.

Hat trick

A hat trick...3 days 3 movies and a great weekend.

Friday was X-Men: The Last Stand, then The DaVinci Code and on sunday Fanaa. And as a friend said it they were in decreasing order of quality. X-Men was far too good than its first 2 prequels. The action and effects both are great and the movie delivers more than what one can expect. Some of the new mutants introduced have some really cool powers and they have been used to create some mind boggling shots. Hugh Jackman performs his Wolverine with ease and is very impactful. Magneto and Professor Xavier played by Patrick Stewart are very charismatic as always. A must watch if you like super-heroes stuff, which jumps out right from Marvel comics' frames.

The DaVinci Code with so much of hype around it for so many reasons was...ok, yeah it was just ok. Though the casting is near perfect, the roles essayed are true to the characters in the book and director Ron Howard gives quite a gripping movie, at the end of the movie i felt wanting for something more. Perhaps being such an anticipated movie, i or rather everybody expected a lot more from the film. The grandeur is missing, and so is the excitement. Or may be its just the traditional "book-is-always-better-than-movie" funda.

Fanaa...this is one more movie in the news for all the unnecessary reasons. The songs are good, pretty good and their picturisation is great. Aamir and Kajol live their roles. But the pace of the film is a bit slow, and its long...3 hours long. In the second half where the story takes turns, Aamir's character seems to go in and out of character. The script is missing some dialogues on Aamir's part. The Kashmir shown is Poland, and its beautiful. A flawed script and slow pace takes the fizz out of what could have been a much better product, backed by one of the most dedicated studios, Yash Raj Films. Kunal Kohli somehow manages to make films that have a lot of potential but never hit the bulls eye, though Hum Tum almost hit it.

Its raining movies !

Doing what i am good at again... watching movies.

Saw Ice Age 2, last weekend. One hell of a movie, better than the original. Sid (the rabbit like creature) and Scrat(the one behind that nut or whatever) get lot of screen time and they make it definitely worth it. Sid just rocks this movie...the dialogues he gets are too good. And Manny the mammoth gets a love...voiced by Queen Latifah, shes good. Blue Sky studios goes over the edge to make this technology showcase as real as possible, at the same time maintaining the story and pace. Most animated movies i have seen lately have been too good, other real-world movie makers should learn something from these guys. The reason might be that even few seconds of animation, is too much an effort and cost to waste on a lame storyline.

Thanks to TNT, i got 4 movies on a DVD. Watched 2 of them to make a hot, electricity-less saturday afternoon some good. Now there are advantages of having a laptop :P. One was Steal, on some bank robberies, crappy. The other was The Ring 2. I wouldn't say it is as good as

part 1, but its not bad. The story is rather weak in this sequel, and the thrill factor is very less too. Part 1s thrill factor was way high. I still remember the scene where the girl comes out of the TV! There was even a mail in circulation where there are these japanese

teens watching the movie and at the end somebody actually comes out from below the TV leaving the crowd hysterical!

And tonite i am planning to go for The Pink Panther...lets see how it turns out. This content will be edited later...

Sunday Morning:

ok, so The Pink Panther is nice tp...don't expect much though. Some of the jokes are cliche...but Steve Martin is good at what he does. The cartoons shown during the titles at the beginning were somehow more funny than the movie :P

Category [ _Film_ ] [ _Review_ ]

Down down down...meter down

   friend: movie ?
   me: which ?
   friend: any..
   me: ok...meet you at 9.30

    !

We got the tickets of Taxi No. 9211 ( read nauv-do-gyaraah ). By luck i should say, cause getting a ticket at runtime has become awfully difficult in theatres around Pune. As i have said here earlier, the ratio of good ones to bad is very low, so i had was ready with "lowered expectations" ( anybody sees MadTV ?).

The film started with a narration given by Sanjay Dutt, his voice is surprisingly suitable for such purposes. Theres a scene where the two main characters of the film, Nana Patekar, the taxi driver and John Abraham, the rich spoilt kid meet. It becomes the starting point of 3 stories, the taxi driver's, the rich lafoon and the third story where they both feature in. The film kicks of with speed and panache.

What then follows is how the guys end up beating each others fate right within a span of 2 days. The story is different and so is the script. Dialogues given to Nana rock. The makers have cashed in Nana's full potential at playing a Marathi, habitually frustrated cab driver. And he essays the role with all his flavour. John Abraham doesn't fall apart and stands-in for every scene. Sonali Kulkarni is great as the wife of the driver, and compliments Nana's role very well.

The director, Milan Luthria who earlier made movies like Kacche Dhaage and Deewar, that though very differently made were duds, gets it all right in this one. The film's USP is the length of 2 hours. It stays away from using masala songs while in the midst of the story and that works for the film.

The sound tracks, "Bambai Nagariya" and "Meter Down" are good, and they have been used without interefering. Paisa vasool.

Category [ _Film_ ] [ _Review_ ]

They all have something to say...

The review of Rang De Basanti is pending...but so much has been written and read about it that i have lost the fizz to write it. But even then there has to be my opinion out there...isnt it :p

Rakesh Mehra is one of the more sensible directors...his earlier movie, Aks though a total dud on the box office was cutting edge cinema. Mehra had forayed into things hitherto unknown to Indian tastes and that took its toll on the film. But this time around with Rang De Basanti he hits the bulls eye...as advertised. He deals with patriotism with the right sensitivity. Its a wonderfully scripted movie...the screenplay filled with witty one liners and intense situations is very much on the track. The most important thing is the mood change latency, if i can use that term. The latency has to be optimum to make the right effect, not less not more...otherwise audience lose attention..and Mehra keeps that to the right value. The emotions swing from hearty laughter to emotional intensities and to patriotic zeals with the frames...thats extremely admirable.

Its a directors film...and he makes all the characters strong and the performances are make believe. Though i did feel the very British-Hindi accent the character Sue has, is unnecessary... particularly when her voice plays the narrator. The idea of blending the Indian freedom struggle and the current affairs has been beautifully picturised. The entire sound track is impressive, and the way the songs are used in the movie...very mature for a Hindi film. Most importantly it packs a punch...people come out dumbed. Watch it.

Narnia, the other movie i saw in the last week. It fails to make a mark as a story or as a CG karishma. May be the greatness of the LOTRs makes it fall short. There are some good CG effects like the lion, Aslan...but so are a lot many technical glitches. Not expected from the director of the Shrek movies. Hopefully the sequels of Narnia will be better considering its a 7 part series.

Category [ _Film_ ] [ _Review_ ]

Saturday fever

I am on a forced extended weekend.

We had company trip to the konkan side beaches of Naigaon and Alibaug. A overnight trip, arranged by my company...i think it was once in a lifetime oppurtunity :P. But i blew it, suffering from viral fever has kept me home :(. I have always been very enthusiastic when it comes to trips. I remember, i was in 3rd or 4th standard and the day before the picnic i fell and got stitches but i still made it the next day.

Hoping that i get ready for the Goa trip my college friends and i have been planning for long.

Sitting home, with body aches is frustrating. I hate it to waste time, particularly weekend time, on non-leisure stuff. I am trying to design a new header for the blog, its a nice tp when time is in excess. But the more i work on it, the more i think that its pathetic compared to the current one. Seems more and more that i may end up scrapping the new thing.

Saw, The Butterfly Effect, for once the Z-Studio people were showing some sane movie. Wanted to see this when it was released, had missed it then due to some reason. Its a good one. A very different story, though pretty much similar to the scores of time travel movies. But the central idea of the film isnt exactly time travel. The main character, Ashton Kutcher, has some blackouts during his childhood. He doesnt remember anything what happens in that blackout period. Later, when he becomes an adult, he manages to stop the blackouts. He then starts digging into what exactly happened during those blackouts. He uses his daily diaries, that he maintains to recreate those memories. While doing so he is able to actually go back to a particular blackout, and change the things that happened. By doing this he not only reprograms his brain, but in the process changes the lives of real people. Thus leading to different outcomes of their lives and his too.

The movie is gripping, you are glued till the end. The only fallout is that the events that happen with him and his friends are grim and disturbing, disturbing enough to even watch them. But mending them is the main purpose of the main character, at the end he manages to set all the things right.

The butterfly is compared to the two lobes of the brain, but still i fail to understand why the movie is titled The Butterfly Effect. May be, its because of the effect the butterfly, that is the brain, has on different people, when it changes, or rather is manipulated.

Category [ _Film_ ] [ _Review_ ]

Weekend with movies and music

Currently i am smitten by the music of Rang De Basanti...too good, Rahman on the rocks. Watch out for the Summer of 69 rechristened...

I find it more entertaining to watch 1hr of a movie than watching soaps. Over the weekend till now...i saw The Terminal (2nd time), Sin City and Paycheck. I am abiding by the new year resolution, to not watch crappy movies, atleast not in the theatres.

All the three movies are pretty interesting. I would put atleast the first two in the A-Class of movies. Though not A+ or A++ :P. From that kind of grading i recollect my school days, these were the typical kind of grading system we had, and there wasnt any A++, it was called "Excellent". A++ is more of a computer science side-effect.

Talking about The Terminal, its one of those tamed down Spielberg movies. Spielberg makes two kinds of movies, simple low-tech powerfull movies and mighty budgeted CG extragavagant powerfull movies. Terminal, Catch me if you can are earlier types of his movies.

Sin City, now now, this is a one of the biggest experimental movies in recent times. Has a huge starcast, and two renowned directors, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Based on a violent/adult comic book of the same name by some Frank Miller. The film is shot in Blacks and Whites with reds and yellows showing up in the some frames. Lightwork is truly amazing and so is the camerawork. The look is crafted to give it a comic book style appearance, and it works. But beware...it takes all the freedom in being a violent/adult movie, highly not recommended for the faint hearted, has a hard R-rating. I dont think it was ever released in India.

Paycheck is one of those films where after its over you say...they could have made it better. It lacks some character development, like the Ben Affleck's character. He is a reverse engineer, and develops technologies even Einstein wouldnt dream of. One can show such a character but that needs to be developed, here Ben Affleck is all this great engineer out of blue moon, and his looks dont suit the role.

Caetgory [ _Film_ ] [ _Review_ ]

Peter Jackson's K I N G K O N G

Before going to the movie i was thinking who in the right senses would make a remake of a old 30s movie, that too which appeared supposedly B grade. But when you get the first glimse of the movie canvas you are convinced what the director Peter Jackson(the man behind LOTRs) was thinking...he must have seen a enormous movie (not just the creature) idea out there.

The entire concept of the old film is churned out here with Peter Jackson's standards of movie making. He always manages to get those colossal views in the way they should be seen. And he more than succeeds with this movie, using his style. Kong will go down in history as one of the most amazing remakes ever made. It is way too better than the original.

The film's production design is rich, no expense spared. You get to see the west of the thirties, the entire New York city has been resurrected to give as much authencity as possible. The costumes, the vehicles, the theatres...everything. And you also get to see everything of that rampaged by Kong.

The CG is by far one of the best in movie history. The completely digital Kong, enacted by Andy Serkis who also played Gollum in LOTR looks very real, soulful creature. Other than him all possible creatures believable from jurassic era have their way in the film. Right from dinosaurs, spiders, scorpions, bats, you name it. Some CG sequences are few minutes long, and the complexity of the work shows. Few sequences like the dinosaur stampede and the Kong fight with T-Rex makes the crowd applaud. It is here that Jackson takes it all.

The characters dont have much to do except for running and shouting. Naomi Watts as the beauty who fells the beast is good. Jack Black makes a good suit for the "director" who risks anything to get his film done. Oscar winning Adrien Brody who plays the writer has no
role as such.

All said, this is a must must watch. Peter Jackson is redefining movies, get to know the levels he is taking them to. My 4.99 stars.

Category [ _Film_ ] [ _Review_ ]

H2G2 - the film

Finally after 10 years into making, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy was turned into a motion picture. The original book underwent alterations for its radio, tv adaptation, so has been true for its cinema adaptation. The story is altered to make into something more convincing for a movie, that people can relate to.

This is yet to be released in India, i rented a cd, just because there wasnt any good movie out in the theatres. The start of the movie is good, with the dolphins and all, singing So long, thanks for all the fish. But i should say i am not that touched by the movie. It doesnt manage to maintain the absurdity, wit & humour of the book, which the book does at all times. But its a decent attempt, turning novels into motion pictures is always a daunting task unless they are written keeping the cinematic context in mind, like the Harry Potter books.


The characters are one of the most important things as far H2G2 is concerned. So it is of utmost importance that the casting be proper. Well, i would say it fairly is, Arthur Dent, Tricia McMillan, Zaphod Beeblebrox are near perfect. But Ford Prefect fails to impress, he is bad at dialogue delivery. And Ford has some really cool things to state throughout the book. The depressed GPP ( Genuine Personality Prototype) robot, Marvin sounds and feels good in between shots. But is not as lovable as the one visualized from the book. His design is nice though.

The Vogons look convincing. So does Slartibartfast. The special effects are innovative, the Vogon Constructor Fleets, the Heart of Gold ship are suitably made. The Magrathea, factory floor is amazing, spellbinding, just as described in the book. The best part is the way H2G2 the book is portrayed in the movie, with flash-like animation seen in the titles of Catch me if you can.

In all a decent try, but no...it fails somewhere to impress...i dont know, how people who havent known about H2G2 would react to the movie...and theres a sequel hinted at the end...so lets see how it turns out.

But Douglas' soul must be surely glad.


Category [ _Film_ ] [ _Review_ ]