Rachel Getting Married

It is not troubling that movies are getting so awful. What is truly a sign of cultural decay is how awful film crtics are getting. Rachel Getting Married has gotten rave reviews and folks have been betting on Anne Hathaway being the front runner for best actress Oscar. Wow! This movie has got to be one of the most boring, awful movies I've ever seen. Almost 2 hours of wedding video is all there is interspersed with a weak, black sheep of the family plot thrown in just to lure the critics and the idiots like me who actually read and believe them.

We were just sitting through the bad wedding home video, I mean the movie, just painfully waiting for something to happen. A full 5 minute shot of people loading dishwashers. A wedding toast that lasted for over 10 minutes. A wedding dance that seemed to last forever and the actual wedding where the guy (and where the heck did they get those specs from? Do they even make them like these anymore?) murders (ok, not quite) Neil Young's 'Unknown Legend', one of my alltime favorite songs, the full song as his wedding vow! wow!

I want my 3 hours spent getting to and watching the movie back. Mr. Demme, I did not realize that your title was literal -- Rachel Getting Married -- and that's all there was to it. I know you used smalls plays from the Oscar book to lure the critics -- the casually interracial couple, the black-sheep who has a dark past, a disengaged mother, white folks dressing in Indian Saris (for no clear reason) and oh, the God awful live music that does not seem to stop ever -- even after the films finally does end. Sorry, but I cannot stand for this kind of manipulative video-making. You suck, Mr. Demme. 

Burn After Reading

Near the end of the film, John Malkovich says to a character something like "You are in the league, the league of morons, the kinds I've been fighting all my life..." and he goes ahead and shoots that character. This to me is the essence of the film and in many ways of all Coen brothers films, specially their original films, the ones that are neither remakes [The Ladykillers] nor adapted [No Country...].

Burn After Reading is thematically similar to other mid-career Coen brothers films specially the likes of Raising Arizona, Intolerable Cruelty and even a bit of Fargo. It is about idiots (or morons, if you prefer) ending up in situations that are beyond their control ultimately leading to violence and destruction.

It is another appropriate film for our times. A film with no redeemable characters. No one that you could identify with, trust, or root for. Everyone being pulled into this quagmire of crass, just plain crass. While this is common in Coen brothers films but they generally have at least one or two characters that you can root for. Their characters are generally likeable even when they are terrible criminals up to no good. This time the brothers seem to have gone out of their way to create characters so absurdly unlikeable. Even the cold-blooed killer Antoine Chigurrh is a man to be feared but not disliked.

John Malkovich as the CIA agent Osbourse Cox is so foul-mouthed, so pathetic, incompetent and lost that is a miracle he is fired (sort of) and not promoted in the agency.  He delivers some of the films best lines including the 'league of morons' bit that I just loved too much.

His uptight, ill-tempered cheating wife, Tilda Swinton, is annoying and repulsive as usual. And then she is supposed to be a pediatrician of all people. I would not believe for a second that it was just a co-incidence. Frances McDermond is utterly foolish middle-aged woman who is so obsessed with finding things outside, even on the internet, that she cannot even see what's around her. She has a perfect (as in exactly like and not as in a superlative sense) teenager brain in her aging, sagging body.

George Clooney is of course the ideal (as in typical, not as in perfect) man of our times. He is a skirt-chaser with a teenage lust, a man so self-consumed, so deceitful that he cannot even imagine others deceiving him. A tiny-hearted boy who never grew up and is afraid to even acknowledge reality. A man who simply 'blows-up' when reality finally hits him somewhat. You see, a complete man of our times. I am surprised he wasn't cast as an investment banker.

Brad Pitt is a new addition to the Coen brothers camp and does a fine job of an uber-hydrated, shallow, stupid, gym-rat. He is another perfect man-child who would've been more interesting if he wasn't so real. I challenge you to go to a gym and not find a copy of this character. While most outwardly funny, Pitt is probably the weakest caricature that has been drawn in the film. It was like shooting ducks to build his character and it works but is unimpressive.

There are some awkward and non-sensical plot elements (even for Coens) that weaken an otherwise excellent film. This is again a film in relentless pursuit of entertainment. This isn't screwball, unless you want to only look at it that way. This is a comedy for our times, dark, whimsical and of men and women so foolish that they'd not just burn down their own homes by their idiocy but the entire world.

Glengarry Glen Ross

It was only fitting that we watched 'Glengarry Glen Ross' the night capitalism was tested on Wall St. The festering 'man-eat-man' world dominated by men who weild ultimate control over the lives of others by virtue of mostly inherited meritocracy. 'Gelngarry Glen Ross' is based on a play written by David Mamet. A man who's themes generally border on the misanthropic. That, however, shouldn't take much away from this amazing theme of working men put under such stress that to crumble is really the only option.

The all-star film is low-key, raw even. It portrays middle-aged and older who suddenly find themselves outrun. In a weird sense -- they are Tommy Lee Jones's character in 'No Country for Old Men.' Their lives are fractured beyond repair and there isn't much hope. Except, of course, the proverbial 'next sale', which just does not seem to happen in difficult economic times.

'Glengarry Glen Ross' is about an economic system that puts premium on 'sale' at any cost. It could be that it was inspired by the fall of 1987 but it probably rings true for any time in human history, probably none more so than now.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Sidney Lumet is over 80 years old. He has been making films for over 50 years and has made some of my favorite films such as 'Network (1976)' '12 Angry Men(1957)', 'Dog Day Afternoon (1975)', and to a lesser extent 'The Verdict(1982).' His last few movies though have generally been very disappointing.  And as a lot of filmmakers have done lately (Woody Allen & Coen Brothers jump to mind immediately), when the chips are down, you go off the deep mind and make something that is out of your recent character but essentially pulls you back to basics.

'Before the devil knows...' is one of those harrowing films that are designed ground-up to be shocking. Right from the beginning, through the middle and all the way to the very end. Everything seems calculated to titillate  you. A fundamentally overboard theme, a misguided, creaky plot and characters so hopelessly flawed that you never ever develop any sympathy for them. Unfortunately, what keeps the film gripping and keeps you focused also helps erode its appeal. The downward spiral that the characters willingly step in, in a moment of poor judgement, seems so tailormade for disaster that it isn't clear why people would be so stupid to go ahead. And yet, in real life we see it all the time.

Humans are driven to thrill-seeking by evolutionary mandates and we all make mistakes that are so stupid in hindsight that we wonder what sane person would ever commit it. And yet we do it all the time.  However, in the story with a fundamentally flawed plot (the money the brothers would've made by robbing their parents' store and selling at 20% was just inconsequential for its intended use) and characters even more flawed, there is something terribly unreal and disconcerting.

Marisa Tomei, incredibly fit at 43 and naked in most of the film might be the most unreal thing of all. After one of Hollywood's finest performance ever as the car wank waif in My Cousin Vinny, she just seemed to disappear. Here she is after 15 years and a bunch of petty roles, finally trying her hardest to get back and alas this is the only way she is offered. That might actually be 'Before the Devil...''s biggest showcasing of misanthropy.

Persepolis

Persepolis (Persian City) is a very entertaining film based on an autobiographical graphic novel written by the co-director of this film, Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian who grew up in the late 70s in Iran. The film traces about 20 years of Marjane's life from the beginning in Iran with the ruling Shahs, their downfall, the Iran-Iraq war, her stay in Vienna and then life back in Iran under the religious mullahs and then finally her departure to Paris.

Shot in slick, dark, powerful animation, the film starts of bright and brilliant with a young Marjane living with her parents under the rule of the Shahs. She is a fiesty young girl, curious and determined. She is a joy to watch and you root for her cause. Her narrative is smooth and appropriate as she leads you through the various different incidences that start to change her wonderful life into something quite different as the revolutionaries take over.

As the heroine grows up and out the film starts to lose some of its grip. With Marjane, the film seems to sink into some depression as well. The politics that rends Marjane's life also blunts the appeal of the film a bit and at times, in Marjane's dislocation, it looks pretty much like your routine immigration experience film. However, the film's politics is very clear in its belief that politics basically sucks.

Marjane is ultimately the classical modern immigrant: one who is as lost in their own culture as they are in the new one they try to flee in to.

Eastern Promises

Here is another one from the David Cronenberg horror factory. No, there are no supernatural flies (The Fly) or telepathic Scanners or even an underground car Crash culture and yet among all the scary films Cornenberg has ever made, Eastern Promises is up there. It is clearly more in line with his more recent film A History of Violence than with his older, supernatural, and generally crass films.

Eastern Promises is also easily his best film. Well researched, well, cast, well acted, and well directed. It is the story of a Russian crime family operating in London. Naomi Watts, a nurse, somehow gets involved in a world filled with bizarre, almost macabre violence. Viggo Mortensen, in easily his best role to date, is a chauffeur at the crime family. What ensues next is violence begetting more violence. The film clearly uses violence as an embellishment, something to keep your attention while the story, suspenseful yet ultimately predictable, unfolds.

Amidst the brutality and violence, Eastern Promises really does attempt to have a heart of gold and generally succeeds .

Juno

Jason Reitman has just verified that he is one of the smartest directors out there. It is hard to believe how good 'Thank You For Smoking' is. It is easily one of the best written (he wrote it) and best directed films of recent times. And he chose Aaron Eckhart to play the smoking lobbyist. I cannot think of anyone else playing that role better. The film is so good it is almost too hard to watch as you are constantly admiring the sheer brashness and gaul of the director. At the age of 31, Reitman hopefully has a long career in front of him.

But this post is about Juno, the 'little miss sunshine' of 2008: A quirky comedy that is mildly offensive, very smart, brilliantly cast and made by the indi arm of a big studio (Fox Searchlight).

Juno subscribes to the recently popular 'pregnancy' sub-genre. It is either too easy (Knocked up) or too hard (Then I found Him) and anyone who has tried it in real life knows that it is neither -- it is just that it only happens when you don't want it to. Pregnancy sub-genre follows well-defined stages of grief ranging from disbelief, denial, anger, melting to eventually, deliverance via delivery. Juno is, if not novel, certainly the smartest of such films. It succeeds because it is one of the few where you don't end up hating the characters (specially the mother) by the end of it. Ellen Page (who doesn't need any more press) clearly acts as if she knows what she is doing which is more than one can say about what Heigl (Knocked-up) and others.

What also uplifts Juno is an amazingly quirky yet effective soundtrack. It is fresh, campy, very high-school in spirit that seems to fit the film wonderfully well. It does get annoying very quickly though, as most things 'teenage' do but it has a warmth that is otherwise hard to find.

However, the single-most winning facet of Juno is that Page's character understands, right from the beginning, that raising a child is not for her. While she goes through the usual emotional upheaval she never really identifies with motherhood and stands by her somewhat unusual decision. What let me down though is that she (Juno) does seem to find love or something like that in the sorry loser played by the sorry loser Michael Cera.

Juno redeems itself by no indulging in the redemption of its heroin.

Juno makes little attempt at understanding why children are somehow out-of-fashion now. It does make an attempt to show why they are out-of-fashion by showing that we are a society of such fierce hedonists that in order to chase are baser biological wants we've somehow managed to lose sight of our real biological needs.

The Brave One

Recovering from a horrific, life-altering tragedy and one, the brave one, getting stuck at a specific stage of grief is the topic of this Jodie Foster film that completes in some sense her Charles-Bronson-of-the-suburbia trilogy that started with a tight Panic Room followed by a loose flight-plan and ends (hopefully) with The Brave One, a film that is the most disappointing of them all because it is the only that seemed to have a soul -- even it only for the first 30 minutes or so.

Jodie Foster's character reacts to a tragedy like a vigilante in The Brave One. She wants to make peace but all she does is make more violence which never quite works out. She is a radio host who discovers the soul of the city (New York City, of course) and has powerful statements about its implicit toughness. She is confused and shows it. Pained and shows it. Lost and shows it. She is scared but is brave. The director though is lost and a in such cases one usually takes the easiest way out. Like the coward one.

The Naked City

Life is full of baffling surprises and one came this morning when I opened the New York Times (no, not that one) but a small obituary to Malvin Wald, the screenwriter of the gritty 1948 police drama "The Naked City." Well, I just completed the film (in four sittings) last night and this morning I should read about the death of its pioneering writer. Malvin Wald won an Oscar for screen-writing this film and is credited for creating the "police procedural" genre that has led to many successful shows and films including Law and Order and even the super-famous CSI series.

The Naked City is a New York film about a hard-working aging police detective and it was the first of its kind in those days. It lays out an elaborate and painstaking process of police investigation in the murder of a young woman desperately trying to seek a place in the upper crust of New York society even if that meant parting ways with morality and the law.

The film starts with -- "There are 8 million people in The Naked City..." and ends with the famous rejoinder -- "There are 8 million stories in The Naked City..."

When would that statement ring truer than today when we suddenly have realized how naive we are in and around The Real, Really Naked City.

The Darjeeling Limited

Wes Anderson's films are like those of Coen brothers but without fangs. He is up there in quirkiness and creating unforgettable characters but while the Coens drive home their point with a thump (or an air gun, if you will), Anderson's films are a gentle nudge. They goad but do say with a feather while the Coens leave you bloody and reeling. Coens seem to obsess over the insertion of crime into everyday life and everyday characters and Anderson seems to be all about the insertion of quirkiness into everyday life and everyday characters.

"The Darjeeling Limited" is the story of 3 brothers from an average broken American family that must seek resolution via an exotic train trip in the old spiritual guard: India. Anderson generally plays by the rules of the sub-genre (yes, going to another country to seek resolve is at least a sub-genre) and shows us little tidbits of India, its people and its quirkiness that all fit his plot well. However, Anderson also breaks the rules a bit by making this mostly a film between the brothers and their inability to communicate or connect. The story mostly works as a device to get their characters out in the open and lets him (Anderson) play with them in their full effect. There are some astonishing gems like Adrien Brody's character says -- 'I couldn't save mine' -- after the brothers try to save, and the two others succeed, the lives of 3 drowning village boys; or the Owen Wilson character's strange presumed leadership of the outfit or Angelica Houston's role as the estranged mother who left her charmed life in mid-west (presumably) to become a nun in a sleepy Indian town.

The film features an extraordinary soundtrack including an unbelievably brilliant collection of title songs from various Satyajit Ray films (Charu's theme from Joi Baba Felunath being my favorite) and old Merchant-Ivory films that play throughout the film as background music. This among other brilliant songs (This Time Tomorrow and Powerman by the Kinks, an amazing French Song and so much more) helps complete a well-rounded package of neatly tied brilliance.

No Reservation

Once again our collective disdain for a serious woman, serious character even, is exposed in this Valentine film starring two of the more pretty specimen of our kind. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a celebrated chef who takes her job, her life seriously, a bit too much, her shrink tells her and the fact that she has no man in her life is mostly because of that. Today's Hollywood hero, embodied by Owen Wilson at best and Will Ferrel at worst isn't going to tolerate seriousness of any kind. However, Aaron Eckhart is able to 'fix' her by inserting joy and laughter among other things in her life. It wouldn't quite be a Valentine movie of the 21st century without a cute little kid somehow adding the 'aaaawwww' factor. Abigail Breslin is here to add that icing on a rather limp cake.

There Will Be Blood

In "...Blood", Upton Sinclair's socialist agenda has been all but obliterated by Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis. While his 'Oil' was more about the plight of oilfield workers and him using that as a vehicle for pushing his views against capitalism much like the horror faced by the workers in meatpacking industry in Chicago was used in his more famous work 'The Jungle' greatly diluting the impact and seriousness of the work.

Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" is more a character sketch than a social commentary of any sort. There really isn't much in terms of a plot or even a theme. It is mostly about Daniel Dey Lewis's Daniel Plainview and a bit about his troubled relationship with his son H.W. Plainview. There is also Paul Dano (the troubled teen from Little Miss Sunshine) who is another powerful and strange character that tries to achieve some counter-balance to Daniel Plainview and often succeeds. There are some brilliant scenes between these two actors and Dano is certainly up to the task. (Do we have another Johnny Depp in the making?)

Plainview is a self-made oil-man who rises from the filth of the land slowly but surely to build a fortune for himself mostly built on hard work and a harder soul.

Daniel Day Lewis's over the top performance just won him his 2nd best actor nod. Many have called his performance 'brutal' and his character scary and weird. I somehow found the character quite realistic. This is is early 20th century American you are talking about. The civil war has just gotten over and more than half the population can still not vote. It is the birth of American capitalism and like any such natural birth it is messy, difficult and there is, for sure, blood.

No Country For Old Men

We've loved Coen brothers' films since the day we saw our first one (Fargo.) Since then we've seen every one of them and extracted and unusual amount of joy from them. It is hard to imagine a filmmaker that has made some of the most endearing, quirky, funny, macabre and above all brilliant, memorable films of recent times. Only Billy Wilder or Howard Hawks come to mind. I think where the Coen brothers outshine any other filmmaker is their creation of character mythologies. They are masters at creating characters that outlive the movies and really just start living in your head almost forever. H.I. McDunnough from Raising Arizona, Leo and Bernie from Miller's Crossing, Charlie Meadows from Barton Fink, Muncy girl Amy Archer (to name one) from Hudsucker Proxy, almost anyone from Fargo, the unforgettable Jesus, The Dude, Maude and Walter from The Big Lebowski and of course the entire cast of O' Brother Where Art Thou. The more you think about these characters the more you see the spectrum of awesome storytelling skills. You see a deep understanding of human ambition, folly and failure. You just don't see how the Coen brothers can top anything they've done in the past specially when they seem to be losing their grip.

And then comes along Anton Chigurh...
*

So, there was a tremendous anticipation for this film for us. Specially with their last two films (the populist Intolerable Cruelty and the dud The Ladykillers) being such disappointments. Also, this was turning out to be one of those movies that you can never get to. We were finding it hard to find the time, a babysitter and even tickets to watch this film. However, it did happen last weekend finally and man what a ride!

Moss (Josh Brolin), when confronted with a grisly crime scene, finds a lot of money and in what turns out to be rather poor moral and practical choice, decides to keep it for himself. Moss isn't dumb. "They will be coming like I would go after someone who took my 2 million dollars" he says to his wife Carla (Kelly Macdonald) although he is naive. He soon realizes that he may have bit more than he could chew when a gang of Mexicans following the money trail come hunting for him with dogs and guns. However, there is another danger. A complex, psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is also looking for the money and he has some very definite ideas about what needs to be done. He basically propels the film into an edge-of-your-seat thriller until about three-fourths of the film. The rest of the film is heavy on moral commentary that sort of works around the title and is clearly a personal statement by the author (Cormic McCarthy whose novel the film is based on) and the Coens stick very close to the basic narrative of the plot eliminating a few chapters for drama and suspense. Cormic's thoughts are voiced by an aging sheriff Ed (an especially crusty Tommy Lee Jones) who feels 'over-matched' by the younger criminals around him and more importantly what seems like a young crime around him.
*

The film really belongs to Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh. He is easily one of the most scary villains in the history of recent cinema. The Coen brothers are clearly committed to his mythology more than anything else in the film. Many characters (Woody Harrelson for one) seem merely to exist as a means to propagate the legend of Chigurh. Even the somewhat open and confusing ending is cleverly constructed to solidify the myth of Chigurh.

*

"No Country..." is an amazing film because it is singularly entertaining. It is a drama taut, wound tight that unwinds with the slow, frightening uncertainty of the Absurdist thought that the Coen brothers have maintain throughout their long, fantastic career.

3:10 to Yuma

Once in a while we still get to see a grown-up film, a man's movie. A tale that is well-crafted and steady. The plot is kept tense by brilliant performances, dialog and soundtrack. "3:10 to Yuma" starring Russel Crowe, Christian Bale and Ben Foster is a remake of a 1957 film of the same name with some changes and is based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. This is essentially a battle of wits played behind a gun battle; a battle of responsibility and post-war disillusionment with ethics.

Russel Crowe plays Ben Wade, a criminal, who is being escorted to the the train in the title eventually to the prison by Dan Evans played by Christian Bale. Getting Wade to the train is going to difficult because Wade is almost a mythical draw and his posse, led by an extraordinary performance by Ben Foster, wants to free him at any cost. However, Ben is an unusual criminal and he begins to like Dan which makes things even more difficult.

Seems like Russel Crowe often does his best when partnered with another formidable character/actor (Kevin Spacey & Guy Pearce in L.A. Confidential, Al Pacino in The Insider, Denzel Washington in The American Gangster) and this film is essentially a a vehicle that feeds the hostility, the conversation and eventual trust and understanding that develops between Dan and Ben. It is the kind of tale that Michael Mann would present. Criminals and cops are essentially the same people and on any given day it may be hard to tell them apart.

Both Crowe and Bale and brilliant as one would expect them to be.

It borrows the essential motor of the plot from the great High Noon (the race toward the clock) but is actually very different from that earlier film. High Noon is essentially a social film about social responsibility whereas this film is personal and about personal responsibility.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is another delicious offering from the animation collaboration of Disney and Pixar (Cars, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters. Inc, A Bug's Life, et al.) The story of a chef rat is presented with flair, care and an amazing attention to detail. Ratatouille has all the elements that have made the films before it enduring. However, it suffers some, but not all, of its flaws. The self-assured, smug rat chef Remy is very true to his pedigree. He is certainly more sophisticated than his ancestors (Nemo, Mambo, Lightening McQueen (cars), Mike(Monsters inc)) but shares a very carefully constructed behavioral pattern that can be described as clinical at best and utterly affected at best. Unfortunately, Hollywood and specially Pixar, seems to have set on a winning formula for these animated films and keeps repeating it with the next set of improbable characters (incredible, cars, monsters, penguins and now a rat chef.) All the characters in the film from the bumbling hero, capricious love interest to the villainous head-chef are so well formed that they really are nothing more than cardboard cutouts.

Everything they say has been refined over and over again until it is exactly as it should be and that predictability dwarfs these films in front of the more original, if quixotic, Japanese exercises such as 'Spirited Away', 'Howl's moving castle' or even European films such as 'Triplets of Bellville.' The last one is actually a stark contrast, brilliant one at that, to the Hollywood mainstream, as it barely has dialog and thrives on an amazing soundtrack and visual splendor that no amount of CGI can really bring to life. They are stories that a grandma would tell a young one to calm them down and put them to bed whereas the Hollywood films are not unlike a crass joke a teenager would tell his new girlfriend trying to make an amorous move.

But Ratatouille has Anton Ego, probably the first true mythical character that the Hollywood machine as ever created. Anton Ego, the food critic, is larger than life but true to it; he is scary but real and he is what really 'saves' Ratatouille from being lost amongst the many before it and surely the many to come after it.

However, given that the animation film making (as against cartoon film making) is really in its infancy as an art form, these films and particularly Ratatouille are a good first step toward maturity but alas it is only a first step. If Hollywood would try to tell a good story not just a beautiful one and not just a contemporary one we might one day actually love these films as much as we enjoy them.

Once

We generally love small-budget independent films (while not disliking the big-budget Hollywood films) and 'Once' is about as good as it gets. No, it breaks no great ground or brings no new principles to life nor does it present any great new idea that would never appear in a regular film but 'Once' is like one of those light, refreshing drinks (like fresh Coconut water that I recently had) that merely exists as a sliver of time , a shooting star that ends before you've fully begun to enjoy it. Mild and memorable, 'Once' is a modern musical, a look into the lives of two individuals in a made-up small-town Dublin that explores the possibility of romance between two essentially lost souls connected, loosely, via music and gentle sensibilities. The two try to find meaning to their otherwise mundane and gently decaying lives via their natural interest in another human.

Watch 'Once' but you will probably want to watch it twice.

Heartburn

Bad movies come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it is the acting, sometimes it is the direction and then editing and music even that ruins films. However, nothing ruins a film like a bad script and most bad movies are actually bad because they are just bad stories or bad scripts.

Heartburn (1986) stars two of the most promising Hollywood actors: Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. It is written by a celebrated Hollywood writer: Nora Ephron, and directed by a celebrated Hollywood director, Mark Nichols (Graduate, Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf, Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Working Girl and so on) and yet Heartburn is one of the most boring, lifeless, trite films you will ever see. There is really just nothing in the story. Loosely based on a real-life affair and marriage between Nora Ephron and Carl Bernstein, this film just has nothing going for it. The story is just not interesting or appealing in any sense.

Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson and both good as they generally are but there is nothing for them to do that would be of interest to anyone proving that even beautiful people are a chore
when they are not interesting.

The Valet (La Doublure)

We generally like French films a lot. They seem to be very intimate and warm. Francis Veber's films (The Closet, Dinner Game, even the American film - Three Fugitives) are specially enjoyable. They are generally over-the-top, comic versions of very selfish people desperately trying to get by.

The Valet, unlike most French films, had a decent opening in the US and was generally well received. It is an amazing little nugget. The film is full of unforgettable characters and is so light-hearted retelling of the age-old 'beauty and the loser' tale but with a genuine affection. Daniel Auteuil (who has lately been in every French film we've seen) is a billionaire two-timing his even richer wife with a supermodel (and what a supermodel) and somewhat a valet must save his marriage, his fortune and his affair.

The highlight of the film is of course this amazing French beauty Alice Taglioni. I've never seen someone who is such a supermodel. She is more supermodel than any real supermodel. She is certainly the heart and the very long legs on which the film stands, and well.

Conversations with Other Women

Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter star in this conversational piece the stuff that film festivals are made of. This poignant film seems basically like an unofficial sequel to the Before Sunrise/Before Sunset films. Maybe an 'After Sunset', the Sunset of youth that is. However, the actors are fantastic playing pathetic characters. The dialog is smart and the gimmick of splitting the screen to show two different viewpoints generally works OK -- though the differences are not very pronounced oftentimes making the argument that maybe the split screen is nothing but a gimmick after all.

At World's End

I am quit a fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Or maybe what I really a fan of the concept of these films with Johnny Depp as the swashbuckling Captain Jack Sparrow. This is one of those fairly rare trilogies (Star Wars comes to mind) that are actually not based on a book and were created solely for the purpose of film entertainment. While this has something admirable about it, it does make the films suffer from some sort of a plot really being the sub-plot theme to it.

The third and final, 'At World's End' is not a good film. However, it must be watched to complete the trilogy. It has little plot and a little flair and it actually leaves the 2nd film way behind in craziness and boredom. At over three hours the film is actually very hard to watch. However, it is also hard to get away from. You do want to watch the whole damn thing. Also, I guess the only saving grace -- Captain Jack Sparrow -- remains strong -- whenever he does show up. One only wishes that Keira Knightly and Arlando Blood took their roles a little less seriously.

Knocked Up

This is essentially a very depressing film. Hailed by critics as the greatest gift to modern comedy and modern manners, Knocked Up is the story of a slacker that gets a smart, catty woman pregnant and who in return decides to go through with the pregnancy and more strangely with the moron. While Judd Apatow is hailed as being the man who knows the moment and how to milk it, to me he is just another hustler who has realized that you can be juvenile and crass but as long as you show eventual redemption you have a winner.

Watching this film makes me wonder about the James Deans and the Gary Coopers. It makes me wonder about days when men stood for something and women weren't always portrayed as these cunning, opinionated opportunists that are basically trying to push their way through woolly men who are pathetic at best and pitiable at worst. What the world needs is not easy-going, goofy losers but those that make a difference and stand for something.

There is of course no harm in making any movie even one that extols the virtue of aimless sloth, my issue is with critics that praise these movies as ones that define the moment for us. I for one would want to opt our from such a moment.

Waitress

Waitress is a delicately made chick-flick that is able to rise above the cliches of its genre. It is an amazingly good film that can make your evening after a hectic day. It is light, fluffy and sweet as one of those delectable pies that Keri Russel's character, the Waitress, makes with such love. The story about a small-town girl who marries bad and doesn't really no how to get out of it and then finds herself pregnant without a plan. Then of course there is a charming doctor who restores her faith in humanity and makes her complete again.

The film is actually much more entertaining than it sounds mostly because of an excellent treatment by director Adrienne Shelly who wrote and directed the film with an unusual flare. She also plays a little role in the film.

Unfortunately, she was murdered in her apartment in New York City in a freak robbery- gone-wrong, just before the film was released.

Fracture

'Fracture' is an interesting film . It is one of those 'single-idea' films that weave a lot of style and characterization around what is basically a single, rather simple idea. Fracture works even though it has more of a CSI Miami feel to it rather than a full length feature film. I find Ryan Gosling a bit irritating and Anthony Hopkins a bit too predictable but the movie was still fun to watch. A lot of actors totally wasted in minor roles that really have no impact. David Strathairn, Rosemund Pike, who looks charming, BTW, Embeth Davidtz and so on.

The Madness of King George

Delicate, funny, poignant and ultimately satisfying film stars Nigel Hawthorne as the occasionally demented but otherwise brilliant monarch who is credited for losing the "colonies" (The United States.) The film is a bit hard to watch. King George's treatment was not subtle and his condition not easy to watch. However, the film is certainly worth watching even if only for the tender and almost teenage love story between the King and his doting wife (Helen Mirren) who address each other lovingly as Mr. King and Mrs. King.

Live Free or Die Hard

Finally a true successor to the original Die Hard film. This is the kind of film that makes Hollywood so endearing. John McClane has been back harder and with a vengeance but never with such complete control and never before the comeback has felt so much like the beginning.

McClane is out to save the country from cyber terrorists who've taken over the country's networks. McClane is again the wrong guy at the wrong place but we are lucky that he is. We know he will come out alive even if he has to fist-fight a fighter jet.

Here is a non-fantasy (well, so to speak) film that puts all fantasy films to shame.

The Good German

Steven Soderbergh got his fill with Hollywood many years ago and has been making experimental films for a while now. His films are not about the films anymore but only about him and his desire to experiment. Whether it be the super-kitsch of the Ocean's Eleven franchise or the coldness of the all-digital Bubble or this 'too-literal' homage to the 40s noir Hollywood. Since he gave up on his films for himself, his films have given up. Take the Good German for example. A stylistic success but a horrible failure in every other department. Soderbergh is so engulfed in technique that he has no energy left for the plot or what is possibly the films biggest flaw -- the awful characterizations and performances. Yes, George Cloony who I generally like very much plays one of his worst roles ever. Toby Mcguire is probably the worst with Cate Blanchett a close second. The characters seem to be buckling under tremendous pressure and are truly having a miserably time adjusting to the forced period mood.

The Good German is two films playing at the same time. The visuals are straight 1940s with over-exposed, high-contrast images and leisurely editing but the dialogue and the characters are 2000s. This anachronism makes this film that would have otherwise been evocative rather difficult to watch.

Last King Of Scotland

There is a scene at the end of the film where Idi Amin Dada, the feral dictator of Uganda, tells the fancy white boy Nicholas that "we (Africa) are not a game. We are real. Your death is the first real thing that is going to happen to you."

These are powerful words that sort of self-mock this new "white-man's burden" that has lately gnawed at a good bit of Hollywood directors. 'Last King Of Scotland' is a better offering from the barrage of 'Africa Awareness' movies (Interpreter, Hotel Rwanda, Constant Gardener, etc) that have been doing the rounds of the award ceremonies.

Based on a novel by Giles Foden, the motive of "The Last King of Scotland" isn't quite clear. This is more a plot that works in a novel than in a movie. The novel and the film focus tightly on a young Scottish doctor who befriends Amin and becomes an unwitting adviser and an admirer. Eventually he sees the truth but by then he finds himself submerged in quite a lot of problems -- mostly of his own making.

This is also one of those correctionist stories that tries to interweave fiction to make history more palatable to the general populace. The problem with this approach is of course the smudging of the line that needs to exist to keep the two worlds apart. This story basically gets rid of that line and expects the viewer to use their judgment in scouring fiction from fact.

Forest Whitaker plays Idi Amin and does a pretty good job of building the kind of emotional tension that surrounds these type of wild, deranged psychopaths. He is scary and generally quite real. The rest of the cast is quite the usual fare of white folks trying to play fairly well scripted roles in an African country. Can someone tell me what Gillian Anderson is doing for ten minutes in this film?

Ace In The Hole

A brilliant, early 50s film by Billy Wilder, Ace In the Hole, is the kind of film that you know is not made anymore. A satire that is not glib and not too polished. Kirk Douglas is Charles Tatum, a big city reporter wasting in a small town in New Mexico. When he sees a potential story in the fate of a cave-in victim, Leo Minosa, he decides to milk it to his way back to the big press in New York. A modern, sharp-witted classic Billy Wilder film that failed originally is a darling among critics now and for good reason. It has so much to offer. Kirk Douglas is fantastic as a big-city reporter lusting for his 15 minutes, Jan Starling as the cold-blooded wife of Leo is a classic Hollywood sharp-talking-babe. Mr. Wilder's story leaves no man standing except the poor father and the hapless mother of the victim. The rest of the characters end up in the kind of circus that would put today's over-the-top all-pervasive media to shame.

Tatum seems to have amazing journalistic insights -- yellow or not. One of his classics that will live in my memory is:

"Good News is No News"

Volver

Pedro Almodóvar has made some very passionate and moving films (Talk to her, in particular) that display Spanish rural life at its full visual splendor with sexually charged themes that are generally not easy to identify with specially if you've been on a strict Hollywood diet. Volver sort of teeters on the same path but is thoroughly unnecessary film that fails to gather any conspicuous energy. In reverse, it generally trivializes serious issues such as incest by making a lighthearted weak comedy around it. Penelope Cruz is OK but nothing to write home about. None of the characters demand any emotional energy from the film.

Volver is one of those failures that make a director very famous.

Notes On a Scandal

This acrid, dark tragi-comedy is one of the reasons why Judy Dench will be sorely missed. I cannot imagine anyone else who could've done this character of a lonely-to-the-point-of-evil school teacher who would stop at nothing to find somebody to love even if it took ruining the only person who cared for you. The script holds no punches and in its brutality makes one long for more.

A must.

Deja Vu

Another terrible movie. They just keep rolling them out! Denzel Washington's got to stop and take a serious look at his career and ask himself if this is really the best he can do. Hasn't he made enough money already? (or is there no such thing?)

Deja Vu is about this ATF agent who goes back in time to save the world! Wow! How's that for novelty? The thriller attempts very hard to have an emotional appeal and that's where it fails miserably. It should have just aimed to me the mindless action flick that it so badly wanted to avoid being and we would've been fine.

Shrek III

Most Hollywood animation films are based on the same premise, often a false one, that great humor can be produced merely by injecting modern pop-culture cliches into unlikely stories and mouths: Monsters, Fishes, Animals, Cars even. The characters are often overplayed to the point where they are obnoxious.

Shrek III is an absolute disappointment not just because it substantiates tall the stereotypes but because the original Shrek had its moments. This one is just a drag. It does not even bother with humor. The makers take a mild idea (Shrek's gonna be a dad!) and use it to milk money on the box-office. Unfortunately this is probably also going to be the end of the franchise.

Avoid this if you can.

The Black Dahlia

You know you cannot trust Brian De Palma, specially lately, as he does not seem to quite know what to do. He wants to make noir pictures and he wants to make these complex terrifying thrillers that make sense only to some and generally to none. In "The Black Dahlia", based on the novel by James Ellory (who's novel also led to the amazing "L.A. Confidential"), De Palma tries very hard to rebuild the magic of L.A. Confidential. Same gritty, action-packed, corruption soaked L.A where nothing is what it seems and the only thing you could be sure of is utter moral failure all around. While the film starts to work, it slowly generates into a confusing, occasionally tedious tale of police corruption and general Hollywood malaise. Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett as buddy cops are generally very good while Scarlet Johansson just continues to bewilder with her utter lack of skill. The most impressive performance in the film comes from Hillary Swank who plays uncharacteristically negative but strong and mysterious role. This is her true calling. I cannot imagine her doing anything better than this.

Full of characters and plot twists, the Black Dahlia (based somewhat on a true story) is one of those films you wish was better than it is. You almost see it being fumbled away.

Hollywoodland

Hollywoodland is a biopic of 50s star George Reeves (Ben Affleck) who played Superman on TV but was much lesser man in real life. The film is about the investigation into his murder by a scrappy, loser detective Louis Simo played with unusual vigor by an even leaner Adrian Brody than you thought possible. Filmed in parched sepia, Hollywoodland is just interesting enough to keep you entertained until you get to the cop-out ending.

Little Miss Sunshine

After a long time you get to see this beautiful, funny, eccentric and ultimately fulfilling little film almost too appropriately called 'Little Miss Sunshine'. As stories go, this one isn't really new. Tales of dis functional families are a dime a dozen. What makes this film so special are the unbelievably rich, if crazy, characters. Characters that are strange and detached and yet somehow not weird in any way. The casting is about as good as it gets with Greg Kinnear as a failed motivational speaker to his wife's brother a suicidal gay Steve Carrel to his disturbed Son soaking in teenage angst to his nutty father played brilliantly by Alan Arkin. However, the gem is Abigail Breslin -- the little miss sunshine of the title. She is not only adorable but one of the most real kids to be filmed on screen in a long time.

The road trip to California to get their little miss sunshine elected a beauty queen, the family's journey goes through the usual and the unusual and ends in a hilarious commentry on child beauty pageants and the business of pageants in general.

Don't miss this sunshine.

Apocalypto

Fast-action, visual splendor of Apocalypto makes it a very entertaining, if unoriginal, film. Set in Mesoamerica just before the arrival of the Spanish, the film tells the tale of one Jaguar paw whose village gets plundered in search of slaves and human sacrifices. A bit of Gladiator, a bit of Rambo and Braveheart, Mel's film could've been based on any culture at any time. The hints of Mayan social decay before the arrival of the Spanish is just a minor element in this expansive tale that basically follows genre. The most moving parts of the film of course have nothing to do with violence but with an amazingly poignant glances and human drama that makes you root for the protagonist.

Casino Royale

This low flying Bond is your average beer guzzling guy rather than a savvy martini sipping secret agent. Daniel Craig with his scraggy construction worker looks and oddly blond hair and recently buffed-up body is a different 007. In fact he is so heavy that between the James Bond and Ethan Hunt scale he is almost fully tilted to the right. The film is big with large actions scenes intercepted by awful card playing scenes that aim to attract the brainless sloth out there that spends sunny Sunday afternoons watching poker on TV.

Eva Green is certainly a different Bond girl as well. This Bond while flaunting lack of emotions is actually more a slave to them than probably anyone before him. His whole deal with Green is actually quite cloying and again shows how different this film is and specially how different this Bond is. While Green is quite good the whole affair just pulls the film down and out.

In general the film is fun to watch. It clearly marks the end of the Bond franchise as you know it.

Borat

Borat may end up being one of the most overrated, overhyped, overeverything film of recent times. The film is a mediocre comedy at best and not because it is offensive, which it is only very mildly, but because its jokes are old and merely amplified versions of what would generally get covered in the first hour of any half-decent stand-up show in New York . Critics are finding deep social commentary which of course isn't there. Critics ar calling it a 'bold' film. What is bold is, not Cohen because he is merely irritating, but Fox for agreeing to launch a film given its (Fox's) overt conservative agenda in the country.

It is when you see stuff like this that you realize how much better Sienfield is in almost all respects.

Water

Deepa Metha's "Water" is a conceited, contrived piece of film-making that marks most of the parallel Indian cinema in recent times. "Water" tells the story of the plight of widows in one of the most poor and orthodox societies in rural India. While the film tries hard to energize and juxtaposes questions of right and wrong in context of religion in an overly religious society, it fails because the viewer takes from the film individual episodes rather than a congruous lyric.

This is essentially an affected piece of film-making that uses society's ills to warm the tea parties of the rich and foreign rather than a genuine feeling of despair for the down-trodden. The film is more about the capacity of Deepa Mehta to raise her stake than that of her characters.

Casting Lisa Ray as a poor widow is just one of Mehta's conceits. Showing a rather weak and affected Gandhi is another. Anachronistic dialogue, characterization and just lopsided editing are other faults which put into question Mehta's commitment to this film consider how well crafted her last film in the "elements" series, "Earth: 1942" was. Jerky but gorgeously filmed Water is still much above the usual trite melodrama served by Indian cinema and must be respected for that more than anything else.

However, Meta who claims to bring about originality and wants to serve a film mostly to foreign audiences should at least take enough care to get her swastikas right. She draws the left and right swastikas as mirror images of each other making the left (on the screen) appear like the Nazi swastika.

A Prairie Home Companion

Not sure why exactly Robert Altman made this film. Only mildly entertaining, grudging documentary that laments the loss of a culture that it actually pokes in the rib. Not sure so many characters ever got wasted in a film. The songs are fun and the music is alright. Meryl Streep is fantastic and Garrison Keillor is himself. I've listened to this show on NPR many times but cannot even sit through one on the radio while doing other stuff. Altman continues on his downward spiral.

Rush Hour 2

This movie is about two cops investigating the bombing of US embassy in Hong Kong. Their attempts bring them to LA and then to Las Vegas where the finally find the forces of evil printing fake currency.

Rush Hour 2 deals with you in fake currency too. It is one of the weakest sequels to a weak movie you will ever find. Low on funny, low on effects, this movie wants to make you laugh just because it has Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in it. It wants to make you laugh because the first one was funny. In the name of funny, all it has is some stale, repetitive racial jokes.

The only actor who does not sleep walk through this one is Ziyi Zhang, the young brat from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. She fights with a lot of energy and is fun to watch. However, I think she will have to do something different if she wants to continue to be likable.

Moonstruck

Cher is Loretta, an Italian widow in her mid thirties trying to get married again. She finds a man she feels comfortable with but soon she meets his brother...

Normal Jewison, who has produced several great movies like Fiddler on the roof, Other people's money and the old comedy Russians are coming, directs this interference of a glowing November moon in the lives of a New York Italian family, full of stereotypical and predictabke folk. This movie won three Oscars. Cher took best actress which I don't think she deserves. Olympia Dukakis as Cher's mother plays an excellent role that got her a best supporting actress award.

Nicolas Cage is at his shouting best or worst whatever you prefer. John Mahoney ( Frasier's Dad ) plays the only likable character in the movie. An excellent little cameo for him.

This picture, though neither very romantic nor very funny does work because of some nice moments and a great soundtrack.

Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

This movie is about the hijacking of a New York City subway train by a group of armed men demanding a million dollars.

This is a brilliant example of the 70s thriller. Clear, crisp and exciting. The movie takes no time to start and soon catches speed much like a subway train. A lot of dry politically incorrect political humor and fast pace make this movie a treat. This is one of those rare completely unpretentious movies that gives you complete excitement -- but mind you -- nothing else.

The premise in itself is exciting. It is easy enough to hijack a subway train as there is little or no security but the catch is the escape route. There just isn't any.

Walter Matthau plays Lt. Garber, chief of subway security. He is cool and confident but not too cool -- a bit aging. He is indeed very good. Robert Shaw ( Jaws ) plays the chief hijacker brilliantly. He is systematic and cruel and very efficient.

It is interesting to note that the hijackers use name of colors for each other -- Mr. Blue, Mr. Grey, Mr. Brows, etc; a technique used to a brilliant effect by Mr. Tarantino, eighteen years later in 1992 in his classic caper 'Reservoir Dogs'.

Proof of Life

This, much anticipated and critically despised movie, is about a man who gets kidnapped in South America by a vigilante group and his wife who works with a hostage negotiator to get him out.

There are a lot of things wrong with this movie. Despite everything, this movie is interesting and not bad at all.

The biggest disappointment is Meg Ryan. I am not sure what the deal with her is but I can't understand how one goes from doing 'Courage under fire' to You've got mail and now this disaster performance in Proof of Life. Complete lack of emotion, wrong body language and no chemistry or on screen presence. The movie loses too much because of her.

Russel Crowe is clinically precise but uninteresting as a professional risk and hostage negotiater. I think he did this role pretty much in off-hours after the big Gladiator from the same year.

Direction is another major problem. The movie with such an interesting premise was mostly uninteresting. This pretty much kills it. The whole idea about the negotiator finding out on his own where the kidnapped man is -- is lost because he finds it out by luck -- and that too someone else's.

Toy Story

This critically acclaimed cartoon movie is about a cowboy toy that is jealous and threatened when a fancy new spaceman toy replaces him as top toy in a boy's room.

This is probably as good a boy fantasy can be filmed. Excellent effects and good storyline keep the viewers glued to the screen.

Buzz Lightyear, the new space toy, is a brilliant creation as amiable as the cowboy toy is irritable.

Toys among cruel and indifferent kids, have a life of their own. A very believable and interesting premise.

John Lasseter who later also did A Bug's life and Toy Story 2 does a very good job indeed.

A must see.

Planet of the Apes

This picture, a remake of the 1968 cult classic, is about a space cadet who lands on a planet that is ruled by mean and powerful apes.

Seemingly ridiculous, this movie is actually very good. It is basically an exploration into the possibility of a role reversal in which humans are treated like 'animals' by animals who are like human -- in all the vices. Also a brief but meaningful commentary on power, religion, desire and fear of searching for ones origins and ultimately about the ever present human fear of creating a Frankenstein.

What Tim Burton ( Batman, Sleepy Hollow) has done to the original is like restoration of a gret old painting. It brings out and brightens some new colors however inevitably losing some sobriety. Mr. Burton has produced here mass entertainment at its best.

Mark Wahlberg is steely as Leo, a cadet, who finds himself into this strange land and desires to go back to earth. Mr. Burton again choses a low-profile hero (Michael Keaton in Batman, Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow) to play a traditionally macho and heroic role. This gives him kind of an upper hand. More flexibility to him and more story for the viewers.

Helena Bonham Carter has probably played the best role in the movie as a 'human rights activist', an ape that has sympathy for humans and hence is treated with hate by other apes.

Tim Roth as general Thade and Michael Clark Duncan (Green Mile) play the terrifying Ape leaders with utter loath for humans. They both do an excellent job. From the man-child, gentle giant and healer from Green Mile, this is a complete and much needed role reversal for Mr. Duncan.

Of course, this version, 33 years, after the original, is leaps and bounds ahead in terms of special effects, sound and make-up. Apes are not only frighteningly real but they are utterly believable and in control. There is a carefully filmed dinner scene that is very reminiscent of the original. An intelligent conversation among the apes about the human condition. But this scene and the altered ending are the only ones.

Mr. Burton polishes and shines this movie -- so much -- that it glows more of reflected light than of its own.

Virgin Suicides

Based on a novel, this movie is about the five teenage Gibson girls that committed suicide sometime 25 years ago in Michigan; and the fascination of teenage boys for the girls.

Don't get fooled by the promising premise as the movie does not quite deliver what it says. It is charming at times -- specially when it comes to the portrayel of the admiration and intrigue that a young male adolescent would have for not one not two but five young girls. It is witty and clever at times. Sad and horribly depressing at others.

However, there are too many shortcomings. Sofia Coppola ( daughter of the great Francis Ford Coppola ), does a decent job but is not quite at it. The movie repeatedly talks about the general curiosity as to why the girls committed suicide. However, no serious attempt is made to investigate that. Actually there is no surprise at all. We all know -- all the time -- why they did it. They really had no choice. The movie wants to explore the sexual coming of age of these girls but kind of stops. Never really trying to be intelligent or overly probling. It leaves you a bit intellectually insatiated at the end.

Kirsten Durnst as the charming Lux Gibson is the movie's showcase. However, I think she underplays her voyeur role in favor of a sweetness that looks good but does not fit well.

Katherine Turner and James Woods as the clueless parents are wasted. We never get to see why they are such complete failures as parents.

Despite all these faults, I think the movie has a ring to it. It is certainly enjoyable if a bit depressing.

The Apartment

This movie is about CC Baxter ( Jack Lemmon ) who loans his conveniently located Manhattan apartment to some of his managers for their extra marital shenanigans in hope of winning their favor and rising in the company. His hopes and his job are endangered when he gets into trouble.
This is a very well crafted movie by the brilliant Billy Wilder ( Sabrina, Some Like it Hot, Front Page, etc. ) It is funny, and though needing some serious editing at times, is quite engaging.

Jack Lemmon ( who recently expired ), is very apposite as C.C. Baxter -- a simple man who wants to do the right thing but can not resist the lure of a corporate rise. On a more generic level -- the movie poses a question as to what a man would be ready to do for his career. We are all making compromises and accommodations for our career all the time but it is never certain when to stop or how much is enough.

Shirley MacLaine is good in an overly simplistic and stereotypical role. However, it must be noted that the role is such on purpose. In fact, all female characters play a role too naive for today's sensibilities. However, I wouldn't be surprised to find parallels in today's culture.

Watching Ms. MacLaine will actually remind you where the likes of Melanie Griffith and more recently Renee Zelleweger come from.

This movie is a must.

Bombay Boys

I have had my share of bad movies concocted by ludicrous direction and pathetic acting. This one is definitely one of the prominent representatives of that variety.

Inspired by dark grotesque American Indie movie storyline, this picture is not only hard to watch, it is terribly taxing on the ears as well. Don't get fooled by its outside appearance as an incisive black comedy. It is a complete failure in almost all aspects of film making. Worst acting, no editing, contrived direction and utter lack of connection with reality.

I think the intention was to create a culturally conscious movie. A movie that tries to show the dark side of India to unsuspecting Indians coming to India for the first time from foreign countries. With a more sincere effort, better acting and attentian to details and yes -- editing -- this movie could have been a good addition to the immigration experience genre.

Avoid this movie or watch it if you want to take an education into how NOT to make a movie.

Snatch

Guy Ritchie writes and directs this post-Tarantino struggle for an 84 carat diamond doing rounds among London's low lives and some American imports.

This brilliantly entertaining movie is a valid successor for Mr. Ritchie's Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels. A more approachable and easier to follow, Snatch is hilarious at times and shockingly violent at others. A cast that has most of the gems from Lock Stock in addition to an excellent performance by Brad Pitt as a gypsy bare-knuckle boxer.

Some of the jokes are old and all in all the film is not quite as intriguing as Lock Stock and lacks that energy but that is probably not a fair comparison.

Do watch this movie -- it is indeed a treat.

Thirteen Days

This movie is about the handling of the Cuban missile crisis, that brought the then superpowers very close to starting WWIII, by JFK, his brother and their confidants.

This is a very interesting movie that keeps history intriguing. Which is to say a lot. It is partly fictionalized when it comes to emotions but fairly accurate when it comes to the facts. So it is a very good history lesson. One that is really more than a lesson -- an admonition if you may, about the ultimate threat -- the destruction of the human race because of the bigotry or even stupidity or madness of a few men or even a single man.

Of course it makes Kennedys and his assitant look like superheros when they were probably just lucky. It is over glorifying and pedantic at times. Even sappy. But in all honesty let that not take away from a good sincere effort by the director. Mr. Donaldson's last two pictures -- Dante's peak and Species both were ridiculous and this is a good come back for him.

Kevin Costner is I think miscast as Kenny O'Donnel, JFK's special assistant who plays a very important role in avoiding the crisis -- probably more import than JFK. An obvious exaggeration -- however an understandable one.

Rest of the cast is good and some dialogue is excellent. A movie definitely worth watching.

Damien : Omen II

Damien, the Antichrist, is entering puberty and anybody who gets to know who he is ends up brutally murdered.

This ridiculous picture is really an insult to the original Omen. Hollywood, with its fascination for money making sequels, does an unusually poor job with this one. Whereas the first one was all about intrigue, this one is contrived and painfully predictable. The young actor playing Damien is not up to the job at all.

It is difficult to sit through this movie.

Omen, The

This movie is about the conspiracy of the devils advocates to replace the child of an influential politician by the devil's child --the antichrist so that he can overtake the world.

This movie, heralded by many as the scariest terror picture of all time, is a brilliant work of technical excellence and editing. A slick movie that is very clear about where it is going. It is a very commercial movie in a sense, most horror shots are well presented and follow a fairly clear, occasionally contrived, build-up.

A well deserving heir to Rosemary's Baby(1967) and Exorcist(1972), Omen is a more polished, more commercial, more modern version of the 3 pioneer movies all dealing with the same subject of the birth of devil's son. It has the advantages of the then state of the art effects and camera work.

Richard Donner does one of his first horror/terror movies and does an excellent job. He keeps the movie very stylized and intriguing. Use of quotes from the Bible make it very thorough and interesting.

This movie is a must. For horror fans, for film students and film enthusiasts all alike.

X-Men

From the celebrated director of the amazing 'Usual Suspects', comes this comic book fantasy action special-effects movie. In near future thanks to evolution, some humans start turning into mutants with great and dangerous powers and obviously the human race treats them as outcasts. For the sake of a plot, the mutants are divided into the conventional good and evil and as expected the good save the world for us.

Beneath this comic book storyline ( the movie is based on a popular comic book series ) lies a very entertaining and absorbing movie that is definitely worth watching. Some good acting and very well organized stunts keep the viewer completely occupied. Special effects are first class and editing is slick.

It is a huge departure for Brian Singer from 'Usual Suspects' but he does a fine job. Actors are mostly fillers but they manage to hold together.

Touch of Evil

This movie is about a murder in a small US/Mexican border town and the involvement of an upright Mexican narcotics officer (Charlton Heston) and a corrupt American police captain (Orson Welles).

The story revolves around the corrupt captain Quinlan played with ruthless efficiency by Orson Welles and the protagonist Mike Vargas played with aplomb by Mr. Heston. The murder throws the two against each other and soon Vargas discovers the evil all around him that threatens to engulf his newly wed wife.

A much celebrated picutre that is included as part of syllabus in many film courses, this movie is indeed a work of art. You will see some great cinematography used effectively to magnify Welles's character. Close shots taken from waste up and shoulder down at strange angles make Mr. Welles look unusually large -- larger than life. This fits well with what the movie is trying to tell us.

Many movie students believe that this is one of the best American movies of all time -- technically.

Woman on top

This movie is about a Brazilian girl who has the gift of cooking exotic dishes that have mesmerizing effects. She comes to San Fransisco searching for something new after a problem with her husband. She ends up becoming the ravishing hostess of a food show on TV.

Highlight of the movie is the extraordinary music. Unbelievably good tunes from South America. Ms. Cruz is good but does not look too involved. I think she is overrated as an actress and proves it in this movie.

There is a lot of magic happening in the movie which keeps things interesting. There isn't enough story to go about. And one hopes against odds that one wouldn't see the cliche of her being disillusioned with the big media. But alas the movie is just not upto the task enough.

American Desi

This movie is about a young student's discovery of how good it is to be an Indian, how good Indian women are and how good old jokes can sound.

A predictable and enjoyable movie that gets lost where all the movies made so far about the immigration experience get lost -- old jokes and a love related revelation.

There are some funny Indian students with their funny families and funny accents and funny eating and partying habits. Stuck up American desi who falls in love with an unstuck Indian girl and learns to accept it.

What I was hoping for is some probing, some serious effort, some real issues being tackled.

I guess this is a good beginning and we can expect some movies of substance in the future.

City Slickers

Billy Crystal and this two middle-aged friends go for a cattle drive in New Mexico to find a meaning in life away from their pathetic New York lives.

So here is another one from the Billy Crystal school of mid-life crisis, snide remarks, witty comments and funny situations. This movie though very funny and enjoyable could have been even better had it not been so simplistic.

The attempt to show the contrast between the wild east (NY) and the wild west is good and gives us some funny moments. The movie tries to prig about basic honesty and other life lessons.

This movie is definitely worth watching.

Dead Again

This movie is about the Karmic fatality of victims in one life will get atonement in the next.

This is basically Kenneth Branagh's vehicle for himself more or less. He acts and directs this rather interesting movie. However, it becomes completely predictable after a while and the end is very disappointing. Mr. Branagh has given us interesting movies like 'Much ado about nothing' in the past. This time it is simply a desperate attempt to make the movie more dramatic than it is.

A.I.

This movie, set in the future, is about an 11 year old robot boy who has been programmed to love. The problem is that humans find it difficult to love him back.

A lot has been written about how this movie was planned in the 80s by Stanley Kubriek and then later passed on the Spielberg. So there has been a lot of anticipation about how Kubriek, with his mostly misanthrop view, and Spielberg, with his mostly warm outlook, are going to collaborate on a movie. Both believed by many to be one of the greatest directors of their time.

So the net result is bold, surprising, difficult to follow and detached work of art ( no doubt ) that does not quite hold up. The premise of the movie is excellent -- a boy in seach of love -- however, as audiences we feel no emotion at all. That is the movie's big failure.

The film has extraordinary cinematography ( Janusz Kaminski ) -- very subtle and yet telling. A lot of attention has been paid to details. There is also a clear attempt to not use special effects to take interest away from the theme.

There are no big actors -- however, the small Joel Haley -- though doing a fine job -- ultimately becomes an overdose and you wouldn't want to see him for another year -- once you see this movie. Other than him -- nobody really has much else to do.

A scene from the movie worth mentioning is -- 'The Flesh Fair' -- a kind of a combination of a rock concert and WWF wrestling match -- where humans get together to brutally kill/destroy robots. It is a horrifying portrayel of humanity -- a true Kubrik scene.

Where the movie completely fails -- as many others with a novel idea do -- is at the end. The last half hour where the director tries our patience and our intelligence is a disaster. Obviously -- either not enough time was spent to think about a logical conclusion or a wrong choice was made and what we end up with is a dull elongated funeral of a movie that could have been great.

As many critics have pointed -- Kubrik, from the grave, has been able to pull down Spielberg. Although, I feel Spielberg let him willingly -- as proven by how his choice of movies has gone from Jaws to Schiendler's List -- more Kubrik like as his career has progressed.

Charlie's Angels

This movie adaptation of the famous TV show by the same name is about three women who fight crime for a mysterious man.

Woven around an utterly stupid storyline, much inspired by the likes of the two Mission:Impossible movies and James Bond movies, this movie is fairly enjoyable for excellent, though overdone, special effects; some involved performance by the ladies who obviously had a great time making the movie. Wish we had the same watching it.

Pay it forward

Kevin Spacey is a social studies teacher who gives his students an assignment to improve the world. Joel Haley Osmont (6th Sense) is a kid who takes him seriously and comes up with an idea akin to multi-level marketing to promote goodness. Helen Hunt is his beleguard mother who is trying to make ends meet.

There are several reasons why this anticipated, well-cast, movie fails misreably. Too many storeylines going in too many different directions. No depth in any storyline. Half-baked characters dealing with half-baked issues. Complete waste of a good caste and a decent idea. Terribly contrived and unnecessary ending. Avoid this movie.

Memento

This mind blowing, thaught provoking picture is about Leonard Shelby -- a man suffering from short term memory loss -- in search of the killer of his wife.

This is one hell of a roller-coaster -- going backwards. Mr. Nolan has created this rocky 'whydoneit' that confuses you, bewilders you, involves you and completely takes over your imagination. This is definitely one of the most important movies to be made in a long long time. An Indy successor to 6th Sense.

Guy Pearce ( LA Confidential ) is Leonard Shelby -- a man trying desperately to deal with his condition as well make sense of life and people around him. Who could he trust, what does he know when he has no recollection of what happened more than a few minutes ago. However, he knows everything about himself upto the incident that kills his wife.

What makes, this most talked about movie, so great is the fact that you have an intense desire to see it again. Because you want to figure out for yourself what really happened. Nobody can really claim to understand what this movie really is at least in first viewing. Mainly because of an important remark made by the protagonist --

'Memory is not truth -- just interpretations.'

Get Carter

This brutal movie is about a ruthless mobster Jack Carter searching for the killers of his brother.

This cold cold movie was one of the first of a series of mobster movie imports from England. Followed by the likes of 'Long good firday' and more recently 'Lock Stock and two smoking barrels'. This kind of movie has also led the Americans to make a series of brutal Dirty Harry movies.

The highlight of the movie is of course the tragic heroic character of Carter portrayed brilliantly by Michael Caine. He is ruthless to the point of no return yet very clear as to what he wants.

Don't forget that this is a 30 year old movie. Drastically different from most American movies in terms of style and characterization. A very dour and unglamorized look with compromised characters with dual morality. Closer to life but not what most people want from their movies.

Mighty Aphrodite

This film is about a man who wants to know the true identity of his brilliant adopted son. What he finds out surprises him and helps him get rid of his prejudices.

This is a delightfully funny and warm movie. A very staple Woody Allen. He also stars as the man who is desperate to find out the mother of his adopted son. Mira Sorvino is excellent and won an Oscar for her performance as a big hearted prostitute.

Rosemary's Baby

This picture is about a young couple that move into a New York Apartment and the sequence of events that happens specially after the woman gets pregnant.

This is one of the best in the horror genre -- more of a terrifying movie than horror really. Very cleverly and meticulously directed by Roman Polanski ( Frantic, Chinatown ). The beauty of the movie lies in the details. Everything has a meaning and very little is by accident. The moral ambiguity of the characters keeps the movie very interesting and gripping. The key to the terror however is the subtle treatment. The hints, the suggestions of the ultimate terror.

Considered by many as the ultimate horror movie, this film is a must see -- for the direction and for the art of storytelling.

Pyar tune kya kiya

This Ram Gopal Verma vehicle for Urmila portrays her as a crazy woman madly in love with an unavailable man. The man who goes to great lengths to never tell her about his unavailability.

Very average predictable movie that would have been an utter disaster had it not been for Fardeen and the newcomer who plays his wife.

Urmila tries but does not really succeed in portraying her character. She over acts and under acts at the wrong times. She has managed to look good though.

Andromeda Strain

Based on Michael Crichton's book, this picture is about the attempt of a US scientist team to fight a deadly alien virus that has killed everybody in a village except a child and an old drunk.

Featuring elaborate sets for highly advanced science lab, this movie made in 1971 is truely ahead of its times.

This movie could be a major sleeping pill to begin with but soon catches pace and takes you along with it -- hoping that these scientist -- as so many do -- will save the world for us.

The cast is largely unknown -- I guess an attempt to deglamorize the ambience. The entire picture is actually gloomy and at times devoid of feeling. However, the tense situations are handled well and do communicate the task at hand.

Bamboozled

A frustrated black TV producer creates a blackface minstrel show as a satire in protest of racial stereotyping of blacks in American media. It of course makes things difficult for him when the show becomes a big hit and he is cast and becomes so -- as a man who stereotypes blacks.

Spike Lee who is known for rather outlandish plots actually outdoes himself with this one. This movie -- though very rough and caustic is very funny and intelligent. The basic drama of moral corruption is played very well. No body is immune from the treacherous games of fame.

Very reminiscent of the brilliant film: Network.

Moulin Rouge

Mr. Luhrman, ( Romea + Juliet ), takes us through this poly-chromatic roller coaster for two hours and gives us more hue than we can chew.

Nicole Kidman is adorable as well as inadequate as the courtesan of the famous Paris nightclub 'Moulin Rouge'.

Biggest disappointment in this musical is the music. Famous pop sings and even a Hindi song are partially redone to a rather tame though sometimes funny effect.

Many times I wanted to believe that this was really a satire about pop culture but was never quite convinced.

Do watch this movie though as it is an important milestone and I am sure many more movies from now will refer to it for color kinetics.

Blazing Saddles

It takes a special courage to make a film this audacious. Only Mel Brooks could've done it.

I couldn't even believe what I was seeing. This was unreal, unbelievable, great!

A must.

Mummy

This is one hell of a stupid childish entertaining movie. This movie almost revived the Universal studios in a dismal 1998-1999 season. A big hit at the theater, this is worth watching.

Keep your brains aside of course. This is a bollywood potboiler if there ever was one.

A poor man's Indiana Jones.

High Noon

Gary Cooper is Will Kane, an aging marshal forced by his sense of duty to fight a barbaric villain.

This is not your everyday good v/s evil drama. You will see a hero -- rare in the western genre or rather rare in any genre for that matter -- who is terribly reluctant and is almost sure of his defeat.

This is an excellent movie. It opens up several arenas of thought. Man's duty toward the society, his duty toward his loved ones and most importantly -- his duty toward himself.

The director plays with the limited resources at hand cleverly and uses a rather anti-western approach in this western in the age of westerns. The use of camera to show the approaching high noon, the train tracks and the ever moving clock and the use of a beautiful song to sort of portray Will Kane's dilemma is quite incredible.

Diary of Bridget Jones

Renee Zellweger shines in this brilliant comedy about 30 plus single woman with a weight problem, a drinking problem and lots of other problems.

Caught between two lovers and her utter lack of social grace, Ms. Zellweger is both smart and stupid. Her British accent fluctuates but she manages to remain interesting enough throughout the movie.

The main attraction of the movie is of course that it is very funny. It will entertain you.

Almost Famous

This autobiographical story of Cameron Crowe as a 15 year old rock journalist touring with an upstart rock band 'Stillwater' in the 70s is a classic. Crowe as a director is brilliant. Kate Hudson as a 'Band Aid' is charming to the point to of disbelief. Frances McDermond as the skeptical mother of the 15 year old is excellent. The soundtrack is wonderful too.

This is a much better film than Mr. Crowe's earlier Jerry Mcguire. Mr. Crowe works with a comparatively unknown cast and deals with the cultural phenomenon of rock and roll critically and amiably.

This is not only a must see, it actually belongs in the private collection of every movie lover.

Men of Honor

This movie is good because it was made for a good man. It is not easy to understand the hardships blacks have faced in this country. This movie does not exactly help us there but is nonetheless a good view.

Cuba Gooding portraying the real life hero Carl Brashear would have been better had he not been so Denzel Washington.

Robert DeNiro plays a cynical navy chief who hates and then begins to like Carl. We are not very sure why. He has Charlize Theron as his wife. What she is doing in this movie is a big secret.

The movie is worth watching if only as a source of information about deep sea diving. Apart from that it is melodramatic and over heroic.

It's a wonderful life

This 1946, post depression, classic is probably as good as movie making gets. It has all the essential elements to make it one of the great all time films.

James Stewart is a small town bumpkin in search of validation -- to bring some meaning to his seemingly disappointing life.

The movie is basically about how hope survives in the worst of situations and goodness is paid sometimes.

Can't think of anybody who would have played George Bailley other than James Steward. Excellent performance.

Frank Kapra's direction is minimal -- you hardly feel it because you are too busy with the movie.

Nurse Betty

Renee Zellweger is Betty from Kansas, the Dorothy, of this unusually warm and cohesive movie from the hetherto morbid Neil LeBute. Betty lives in her own sweet world which is shaken when a horrible accident (storm) takes her away like in a dream to LA (Oz). Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, hopelessly miscast, are the gunmen chasing her.

Betty is nice yet discomforting -- pretty much like the movie.

Renee Zellweger would have been much better had she not reminded you so avidly of Melanie Griffith.

High Fidelity

John Cusack vehicles himself into this gem of a little movie that revolves around his record store and loss of love. He is obsessed with making the top n lists of either his favorite records or his worst break-ups. This movie works well beccause of some genuinely funny and some surprisingly romantic moments.

Jack Black, as his eccentric record store partner is unbelievably funny.

This movie is a must see.

Your Friends and Neighbours

Neil LeBute ( Company of Men, Nurse Betty ) and Jason Patrick are together in this disturbing tale of two sexually dysfunctional couples and their friends. Wry humor and some honest dialog make this film worth watching. Word of caution though -- it gets disgusting at times. Ben stiller is hilarious as a typical man who wants to keep talking and trying to rationalize and reason everything with almost complete lack of success. LeBute and Patrick are again very cruel to the women. They are mean yet crushed by their overpowering or simply ridiculous male companions.

Kasoor

The original : 'Jagged Edge' was not much to begin with. Tight movie but highly improbable. This hindi version has a similar effect because it is the same movie really. In a way, this is good, because it is different from the other hindi movie out there. However, do watch this movie. Lisa Ray is stunning -- as long as she does not open her mouth and try to act. The hero needs a shave and a bath. Nothing much to say about anyone else.

Contender

A good film with excellent dialogue and very good acting. About the nomination of the first US woman Vice President and its aftermath. Political mudslinging and groping at whatever one can. Joan Allen as the nominee ( was nominated as best actress ) did an excellent job I thought. Very strong character. Good portrayel.

However, Jeff Bridges as the conniving President steals the show. Often playing a confused or lost man, this time he is anything but that.

Gary Oldman is also very good as the the opponent, a true politician, who will go to any lengths to bring someone down.

Bladerunner

Readly Scott -- the celebrated director of Gladiator and Hannibal, directed this movie way back in 1982. A good but complex and confusing movie -- that leaves much for the viewer to decide.

Sometime in the future 'Replicants' are man made human machines that rebel against slavery. 'Bladerunners' are the policemen that fight the replicants.

Readly Scott films the movie in a grand visual style that he is known for. Very brutal at times.

The movie succeeds in making the audience feel sympathetic toward the replicants.

Astitva

This movie about the uncovering of shocking past and its after effects on a happy family is definitely worth watching. Good story and good acting keeps the movie going, though a bit slowly. Good dialogue at times helps.

It would have been even more interesting had the hero not been so compromised himself. However, Saching Khedekar from the marathon weeper TV show ( I cant see to remember the name ), manages to play the worst character, not a bad guy, in movies in recent times. Tabu is good -- as a tired and utterly bored housewife bidding her time. There are some characters in the movie which nobody can explain the reason for.

Zubaida

I would probably have called it a good movie had it not been directed by Shyam Benegal.

This is the story about a woman who has very little idea about what she wants to do with her life however she is the protaganist of our story.

She wants to make noise and her father wants her to be quiet.

The movie tries to bring the 'problems' of the princely estates in India during independence. Problems like how to live with multiple wives, how to improve your polo skills and of course how to fly or private jet well enough not to crash it.

Biggest problem is of course the music and the setup. The movie is supposed to be set during the late 1940s. However Rehman ( in probably his worst score ever ) keeps strumming away on his electronic synthesizer. Hair styles, clothes, speech, you name it -- an absolute anachronism.

Karishma Kapoor is okay and so is Manoj Bajpai. I guess the problem is the story is so poor that characterization has badly suffered. The director tries his best to make you feel sympathetic toward the heroin but you feel nothing.

The pseudo narrator is so shallow that you wonder why this form was chosen at all.

Fearless

Jeff Bridges is a plane crash survivor who feels his life changed forever in the aftermath of the crash. He re-evaluates his priorities and helps a fellow survivor overcome her fears.

Viewers are left alienated in this impersonal yet effective movie. It has its moments but does not really hold.

Peter Weir directed the wonderful 'Dead Poets Society'

15 Minutes

Two crazy eastern european killers come to America to pursue the American dream of making movies of their murders.

One of them films all their gory crimes and tries to sell them to the Media.

The director tries to mix humour, gore and terror that does not always create taste. However some of the shots are pretty good and realistic, I would believe.

Robert DeNiro is good in a rather unusual role. Edward Burns shines as his portege with consciouns.

Chocolat

In this sweet movie, a woman opens a chocolaterie and the minds of small town folks.