Atonement by Joe Wright

Category: English

Atonement has Keira Knightley and James McAvoy portraying the tragic characters of Cecilia Tallis & Robbie Turner. Torn apart by a simple misunderstanding, their separation eventually pans out as the the 2nd World War reaches it's peak.

Due to a mis-read letter and a certain set of events, Saoirse Ronan mistakes the kind and gentle housekeepers' son to be a sexual offender and as a result even though he has the potential and determination to follow his dream of becoming a doctor he is sent to prison where he's given the chance to be drafted into the army or stay in prison. His love for Cecilia denied by destiny he looks to find her.

The film - for a popular one doesn't follow a linear narrative, at many times exploring with the past and present and even what is reality and what's not. Ronan's character grows up and decides to Atone for her misgivings against McAvoy's character. Eventually the film explores what exactly is Atonement and if it can be rectified or if anything is possible to even do something about it. Does speaking out the truth make it all better? Simple questions raised, nothing extraordinary about this feature film, but they are raised in a delicate fashion which makes this film a little sensitive.

The acting is pretty top notch, some of the camera work is interesting and the editing is well done, doesn't get on the nerves and for a popular film this leaves a lasting impression on the viewers. A little knowledge about the World War might help in understanding what happens at Dunkirk and why exactly certain characters meet their fate the way they do, that's something not touched up on in depth in this film, the War is a brilliant way of juxtaposing a forlorn love story but perhaps the war isn't the main character here. This is a adaptation of a novel of the same name.

Recommendation level: 2/5 - Got this from a friend, but do catch it, it's a little emotional in parts but not overtly done. Perhaps the end wasn't needed and should have closed on Vanessa Redgrave's face in a close up.

Ninja Assassin by James McTeigue

Category: English

This film released pretty early in India, but am really not sure if that was the right decision considering the cold response the film got in the cinema hall I was at.

The movie has Rain (pretty South Korean singer among other things) performing some breath taking stunts and fighting through almost everything for what he believes in. Turning on his own Ninja clan he soon faces the wrath of them for his betrayal. Along the way he goes to save a lady who is investigating a recent assassination. The assassination is rumored to be done by Ninjas and as such she unearths a massive underground conspiracy.

That's about it for the plot, there's every possible cliche to be used in an action film like this. There's the "brother fight" with Rick Yune, surprisingly looking out of place. Well with out of place, everyone else also is. Rain can't act or even deliver dialogues properly and comes across as constipated most of the time. There's no real star in this film barring the fight sequences.

There's a thorough demonisation of the Ninjas and most of the film has some really misleading facts in it. I read that the director wrote the entire script in 53 hours and truth be told it does seem like it. I can't believe he's the same director who gave us V for Vendetta. Do kindly note the presence of South Korean actors portraying Japanese characters.

Recommendation level: 2/5 - For the action sequences and of course any film that depicts the Ninja (sadly this one has them as really bad but it's one of the rare occasions they aren't overshadowed by their illustrious rivals - the Samurai). Action fans would give it a 5/5 for the slick kills.

Saw by James Wan

Category: English

At it's core Saw is about a killer who doesn't really kill his victims, he gets his victims to kill themselves. Much like how people aren't born killers but societal norms probably help them become a killer. The primary antagonist in Saw is Jigsaw who believes that people take their lives for granted and thus need a rude and shocking awakening, this can only be possible by extreme torture (physical and mental) to oneself. So he sets up games...

The most famous franchise in survival horror these days - Saw started off as a short film (just youtube it). Eventually finding it's way to movie executives and eventually the big screen. The first film has Leigh Whannell and Cary Elwes stuck in a room together and trying to work their way out. As time passes by we're introduced to the characters and more importantly to Jigsaw who's not revealed completely until the end of the film.

The acting is quite decent for a film that obviously doesn't require anything more than a squirm or a grimace from the actors on screen. I kinda liked the film because it was something unique and although the second film is heavily borrowed from the Cube series and the others since have been bad, this one always remains as one of the movies to watch.

Recommendation level: 2.5/5 - Got it from a friend and just about at 2.5 : )

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Miloš Forman

Category: English

One Flew... has Jack Nicholson portraying a criminal who gets sent to the "institution", at the institution we're introduced to a host of inmates. They follow a particular routine everyday and everything is controlled by Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched. Eventually with his introduction the monotony is destroyed and soon there are minor revolts, people want to watch the World Series, they want to go out and have fun, meet women. Soon after this the situation gets serious when one of the evenings "out" the in-mates led by Jack Nicholson ultimately head towards the climax of the film.

Finally at the heart of it, One Flew... talks about the institution and how we view in-mates. While they deserve to get treated it's advised through the film that perhaps a more "human" approach is what is needed. Particularly the end of the movie raises some serious concern about how Nurse Ratched and the hospital administration are portrayed. At some point in America there was a debate about the kind of values this stood for and how it was against the then psychiatric norms of treating patients.

Do have a look at the film though, it's engaging and the characters (particularly Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd & of course the leads) make this film above average.

Recommendation level: 3/5 - Got this from a friend!

Zack and Miri Make a Porno by Kevin Smith

Category: English

Kevin Smith has written and directed this film and to be honest it's been a big let down. As soon as the movie was done I was left with a crappy feeling. After some introspection I do feel this movie was bad.

Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks' characters are down out of luck and money and after their 10 year high school re-union they find out they have to pay bills or the electricity, gas, water will shut down. So after a MMS clip scandal featuring "Granny panties" the duo who have been friends forever and never had sex decide to make a porno. They do end up having sex for the first time on camera and that changes everything.

I have to tell you the first 30 minutes held immense promise, I thought it would be one of the rare buddy/stoner films (Harold & Kumar, Clerks etc) with female and male protagonists that could actually work. Then it all went downhill.

The humour goes beyond crass and lacks any real class. Kevin Smith even brings out two of his biggest assets - Jeff Anderson (Randal from Clerks) & Jason Mewes (Jay of Jay and Silent Bob) but alas even they can't save it from Seth Rogen's ineptitude and crappy timing. What we have left is some reasonable acting from Elizabeth Banks and from Justin Long & Brandon Routh, sadly the latter two just last all of the first 30 minutes.

Recommendation level: 1.5/5 - Disappointing film, can give it a skip unless you want some crass jokes overall with one genuine funny moments thrown in.

Event Horizon by Paul Anderson

Category: English

Paul Anderson has made some mistakes in his career most notably Aliens vs Predators or Soldier. But then the promise he showed with his first film Shopping seems to have all disappeared, for the remainder of his career he seems to grasp at bigger budgets instead of focusing on the elements that make Cinema... Cinema.

Event Horizon has Sam Neill as the mentally unstable Dr. Weir who created a ship that could travel through Space and Time, bending laws of physics (literally) to access any point in the known galaxy. When it goes missing for 7 years and suddenly resurfaces it's up to Laurence Fishburnes' motley crew aboard the Louise and Clark to find out how things got messed up. As they slowly find themselves losing their minds they also lose their original ship and are forced to deal with the now enigmatic Dr. Weir and his lovely ship.

The ship as it turns out as been out of the boundaries of "normal" space and time and as a result could have been in a hellish dimension.

Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne do a really good job in what would be one of my favorite space suvival horror films in a long time. Sure the dialogues get a little patchy at times but there's nothing scarier than Sam Neill delivering his dialogues in such menace that you do get reminded of his Damian (read: Omen III) days. The rest of the supporting cast does its job although some of them aren't as memorable as the others.

Recommendation level: 2.5/5 - "You can't leave... She won't let you". Watched this from a friends DVD.

2012 by Roland Emmerich

Category: English

This was one disaster film I was waiting to destroy since the time I heard about it. Roland Emmerich has been making stupid films for years, I don't even know why he's credited as a director considering it takes close to zero skill of his own to complete any of those superlative tsunami's, tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanoes etc. To his credit he made 3 good films in his life, if you're a fan of his work then this is the time you go and pick the 3 best, because I am really sure every other film of his has been a turkey at some point.

I really can't be bothered to explain a film like this, it has the proverbial estranged couple. He does throw in the Indian scientist but let's face it everyone is down right terrible, even Woody Harrelson sucks . The Tsunami and Volcanoes have more acting capacity than the botox enriched cast. Oliver Platt is about average in his role and it's pretty obvious every known face just wanted the extra cash and every unknown face on screen wanted some fame.

I have no doubt that this film will do well and it should, the primary audience that Roland Emmerich has made this film for (read: 10-14 year olds) will definitely find this a "WOW!" film. I had to see this film because I wanted to. But the amount of kids going for this is ridiculous! Also there's the invulnerable hero (Cusack), his crappy ex-wife (Peet), pesky kids and some annoying Russian billionaire named Yuri. I think people must be really stupid to watch Emmerich's films, but worst of all I think he goes laughing all the way to the bank considering the crap he puts on display every single time he has a release.

Recommendation level: 0/5 - Haha - here I thought I couldn't find a film as bad as Stealth. Thanks Hollywood. Saw this in the cinema hall, a little bit of the cinematic magic dies with films like these.

Dr. Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick

Category: English

I am sure there's a lot been already said and written about Kubrick's war movie, in fact every great film maker or someone who has had some kind of connection with greatness and cinema needs to have attempted a war movie at some point.

The film is based on a U.S. General, during the height of the cold war decides to launch an all out nuclear aerial assault against mother Russia. Soon enough the President and all the important heads in the government begin sweating it out to possibly try and save the world from the Russian fail safe - The Doomsday Device.

While the plot is of almost no consequence since the film is a heavy and vicious attack against the Cold War and all the people associated with it. There's no point in trying to poke jokes at the names since Kubrick is very much in control of this film. There's several takes on the British, the Americans, Russians, Nazis and even the fool hardy war loving people. Most of all there's the funny rant about Coca Cola. What's crazier the Cold War or the people behind it?

Am sure there's been plenty of people who have already dissected this movie bit by bit, so all I can say is you need to watch this film when you get a chance. Peter Sellers is excellent in this film, might I add.

Recommendation level: 4/5 - Very purposefully executed. Must watch!

Gladiator by Ridley Scott

Category: English

Here's a rather fascinating film that at some point has been watched by most of humanity that has access to any form of cinema halls, TV, internet.

The premise is simple, Russell Crowe starts off a top General in the Roman armies to the point where he's almost set to take on the title of Caesar but plotting from Joaquin Phoenix ends up in him being branded a traitor and family executed. Crowe barely survives and ends up taken in and sold as a slave to compete as a Gladiator. He eventually finds himself in Rome to face the Emperor face to face.

Ridley Scott excels as a director in this movie to get such powerful performances from his lead and support cast. The actors to watch out for in this film are of course the leads - Connie Nielsen, Joaquin Phoenix, Russel Crowe but also Oliver Reed Djimon Hounsou take this film to a completely different level.

There's a lot of CGI used in the movie, but a lot of people are drawn to the movie by the rather strong characterizations and emphasis on finishing moves in the Coliseum. Do watch it though, it's one of the modern films one must see.

Recommendation level: 3.5/5 - Sadly no Hollywood movie can go beyond a 3/5 here, or maybe a 3.5! Got it from a friend, so props to him.

Dawn of the Dead by Zack Snyder

Category: English

Dawn of the Dead sees the survivors banding together in a mall. Their thereafter struggle with each other and while some of them think of living there the general consensus becomes that it's important to get the hell outta there!

This re-make doesn't hold a candle to the original and so I wouldn't recommend it if someone is genuinely interested in Romeroesque films. Try and catch it as a stand alone film and it has its moments. The Turbo zombies (really fast and strong) make for some minor exciting moments but over all don't have the same feel as Romero's zombies.

The problem is, there's just too many characters and there's immense relying on the stupid moments rather than real character development. This leaves you feeling almost nothing for the people except of course the main characters.

Recommendation level: 1/5 - Good try! Got this from a friend, so cheers!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall by Nicholas Stoller

Category: English

Funny movie with a simple premise, Jason Segel gets his heart broken and is trying hard to forget the girl of his dreams aka Sarah Marshall. She picks the British lover over him and as he first fights to come to terms with the break up he eventually realizes several things about their relationship which probably could never have been worked out.

He's also aided by Mila Kunis' character.

The movie is sadly funny in patches and not completely a stellar film to check out. The 4 characters we find on screen regularly do a good job but there's nothing solid in the script or the execution of it. As a result there are some funny scenes but sadly Kristen Bell's plastic face makes this film really boring in many parts. Am sure it's fun to watch with friends or when drunk but normally this is an average movie.

Recommendation level: 1.5/5. Got this from a friend!

Shaun of the Dead by Edgar Wright

Category: English

I had my reservations about this movie since I am a big fan of the Zombie movie genre and to see it getting ridiculed would be painful. I did watch this film and thankfully there's a decent amount of gore and British humour to take this film to a 3 star rating!

Obviously ZombieLand will be another good film to watch but this one completely hams away at the Zombie genre. The movie has Shaun looking to take charge of his life by doing a completely 180 degree with his girlfriend and of course sort his relationship with his step dad and try and find a great job! All this takes a de-tour as Z-day strikes and wreaks havoc. Ironic in nature the survivors head to the nearest pub to survive the catastrophe.

This is definitely one of the must sees of the Zombie films one will come across, Simon Pegg is remarkable and this film has his brand of humour completely stamped up on it. Do take a look at the supporting cast as well.

Recommendation level: 3/5 - Hell yeah!

Day of the Dead by George A. Romero

Category: English

Crap, I've forgot to watch films this week, but fear not I managed to lay my hands on a chunk of them so expect a river of reviews in November.

Romero's third film in his now 6 part franchise of sorts called, "...The Dead" series. While his previous films in this tackle race (Night of the Living Dead) & consumerism (Land of the Dead) this one is a vicious take on the military and what happens in the context of a zombie holocaust. The actors aren't any famous folk, but have claimed cult status thanks to their work in Romero's films. This one is no different.

What sets Romero's films from the rest? Even in this day and age his Diary of the Dead is probably miles ahead of most Zombie movies we see day in and day out. On a very simple level he brings out the best in his characters and their slow degradation as human beings, there's not much room for melodrama but there's room for emotions. That's where he is King and no one can come even close.

The plot has the Army and a group of scientists working closely together to find a cure for the flesh eating zombies. There's a break down and the soldiers assume the right of might, while the scientists continue to get ruled over, not everyone can keep their sanity till the end.

Recommendation level: 3.5/5 - This is one of Romero's finest.

Stealth by Rob Cohen

Category: English

A spanking new AI controlled aircraft goes out of control due to a bolt of lightning and costs one of the pilots his life. There's also the sub plot of love between the other two pilots and then there's the ethics of war.

Crappy movie :( They should have at least used Biel in the right ways.

Recommendation level: 0/5 - Don't even dare... watch it.

Get Smart by Peter Segal

Category: English

Okay so this movie is really funny only because of Steve Carell and partly Alan Arkin.

It's inspired by an old tv series by Mel Brooks and hence there are some odes used towards the end of the movie.

Steve Carell plays an unlikely agent who has spent his entire life at the desk of a super secret agency called "Control". After getting thrust into the thick of things he dazzles in areas and also fails with a straight face in some. This is partly due to the magic of Carell as well as the beauty of the character itself.

I don't know just watch this film, it's really funny in several parts.

Recommendation level: 2.5/5 - There's only so much Carell can do for this movie all by himself!

District 9 by Neill Blomkamp

Category: English/Prawn language

The film has obviously been watched by a lot of folks so the plotline isn't really worth talking about it in here. But just in case I'll still do it. The world has been exposed to its first real extra-terrestrial visit, not much is known about them except that they are stranded here and while they take residence some of them turn out to be violent. They are then moved into District 9 a slum in South Africa.

Shortly after that a few decades later they are to be moved into a completely different area which will be heavily guarded. The Earth leaders want to make sure they can operate Alien technology while one of the "Prawns" (derogatory term to them due to their features) has figured a way back to get home and possibly move on from Earth. Wikus is in charge of this operation and gets infected with a spray that starts converting him to the very people he was supposed to evacuate.

The movie deals with a lot of themes pertaining to futuristic theories such as xenophobia towards aliens and explores social structures on a basic level. There's of course the presence of the local mafia who are dominating the prawns. There's heavy exploitation ironic enough done by the one race that's been exploited for centuries. I liked the film because it was the first time some theories like this got addressed. Although in anime there have been tons of examples of such themes getting covered.

Recommendation level: 3/5 - Oh the alien guns ZAP well : )!

I Am Legend by Francis Lawrence

Category: English

The first time I saw this a few years back I didn't exactly appreciate it and I think one can appreciate it only if you see it the second time after a gap. The film is definitely one of my favorite zombie driven movies.

A Doctor finds a vaccine to cure Cancer using a mutated strain of the Measles virus. The only problem is it turns out to be lethal and mutates, the virus kills 90% of humanity, the remaining 10% are left either being zombies who feast on blood or immune people about to become food for said zombies.

The film follows Will Smith's character as he tries to live a "normal life" by himself, as well as find a cure for the virus. Eventually things shape up for a big showdown as one of the zombies referred to as the Alpha Male, becomes smarter.

Recommendation level: 2/5 - It's not superb cinema, but it will do. Watch out for Will Smith, he's really stellar, even though he is such a big name.

Sleuth by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Category: English

Having seen the remake before the original I have to say the original is far better. Michael Caine is better off as Tindle the young bloke out to steal Wyke's wife. Wyke portrayed by Laurence Olivier is for sure a choice as Wyke. The remake featured Jude Law as Tindle and Michael Caine as Wyke. End result of equation? Jude Law sucks.

The plot has Wyke tricking Tindle into committing a robbery on his own estate, he's then shot by Wyke in the process of doing so. What follows after that is a cat and mouse game that goes on with endless twists and turns. The house becomes an important character after that, being the 3rd real character in the movie. Mankiewicz gets the house into character as well, with all the oddities present around the place.

Finally it's the acting between the 2 leads which can keep this movie entertaining, even though at 2 hours the film can be a little annoying at times. A much better finish in comparison to the modern day remake which takes up a very odd turn later on. There's also a few characters missing and barring a few plot twists which have been taken from the original the remake is light years behind. This film as well is based on a play, so perhaps the play has to be the best of the 3?

Recommendation level: 2/5 - How many twists and turns can one plot take? Watch this 1972 film to find out!