Chess with death in 'The Hurt Locker'

Chess with death in 'The Hurt Locker'

It's a different kind of war movie, for a change are defusing bombs. I liked the sense of movie making and brilliant camera work. It has some real punching lines to remember. You got to watch this movie for very tense moments of bomb defusing, if not for good story or plot.

When it won so many Oscar awards, people wondered is it that good to qualify for an Oscar? Whatever the debate, it's got some real tense and edgy bomb explosion scenes.

All sums upto this dialogue which appears at the end of the movie. An innocent man is tied-up with powerful time bomb. Our hero, a bomb defusing expert try to help but has got only few seconds to unlock time bomb vested with so many locks . He is able to unlock one but not others. Hero runs for life uttering these words :

I can't. There's too many locks. There's too many, I can't do it,
I can't get it off. I'm sorry, Okay!
You understand? I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. You hear me? I'm sorry...

That's the damn painful scene. It's also the reality of war torn lands of terrorism; locked up and entangled with foolish ideologies. They are burning their own future, eradicating their own kids life. West might unlock easy knots in the short run, but not in the long. Their help is undermined with land mines !

Abnormal Activity

Abnormal Activity

A windy night outside, no light in the spacious hall, a movie playing in large screen with attached power volume speakers humming minutest move in the movie. I am couching in a cosy sofa. All that- finally proved I could not watch this movie all-alone in the dark large hall :)

I am talking about new wave in horror movie surface: Paranormal Activity.

It's well shot sublime horror movie which creates a fear in an amusing way. It was truly bone chilling. This is definitely a film that will stick with you. This is one of those movies that will probably scare you more hours after watching it. I'm sure people who live alone will have little bit of it's impact lingering inside for a while. Every creak and sound in your house will make you jump.

Two scenes in which you see Katie awaking from her sleep and standing by for hours watching Micah sleep are genuinely eerie.

Even Steven Spielberg famously revealed he was too scared to watch the film alone at night and had to turn it off after a few minutes, only to resume watching it the next morning with his curtains wide open to allow the sunlight in.

Raashi, what is not ?

Raashi, what is not ?

Other day I was watching 'What's Your Raashee?' trailers in television. I liked 2 scenes of this movie. One, Priyanka; she looked like a young, orthdox girl and two, nice hip-hop dance number -was more than enough to pull me into theater. And more over Priyanka is the reason. She comes in my dreams, if I get to sleep between software work :)

It was utmost enjoyment and eye treat for Priyanka fan like me to watch her in every possible scene :) She portrayed 12 characters in the movie. I liked Chandrika & Sanjana portrayals are damn sexy !

Movie is enjoyable if you have people like me and Vinay besides you :) But over all, the movie is a ultra drag, story could have been told in different pitch as well and I don't think this kind of story-line fits the Ashutosh Gowrikar kind of director. Or may be he didn't know how to present it in lively manner. This is purely Priyadarshan material(Hera-Pheri fame).

Harman is a waste of a character for the NRI role in the movie. I felt Shahid may've been the perfect fit instead of Harman. Or may be Harman was booked before 'Kameene' got released :). Am I blunt? Then you got to see that dry, sloppy Harman NRI character he lacks the grace and involvement in the character big time.

Sky Fighters, the french hot sausage !

Sky Fighters, the french hot sausage !

{My movie of the week - Sky Fighters(2005) }
Never miss this one ! an authentic aviation aeronautics movie to make u gasp for more and more of sky bird's aerobatics. For fans of modern military aircraft, this movie is not to be missed. Some Trivia's of this movie :

1. Working in cooperation with the French Air Force, director Gérard Pirès was able to get some of France's top gun pilots to do the aeronautic dogfights that were used in the film.
   
2. Initially at the start of the shoot, the Air Force had some particular rules regarding the minimum distances the aircraft could be together or be above the ground, but by the end of principle photography, the daring pilots got permission to bend the normal safety rules, thus allowing them to do maneuvers normally never seen (or possible) outside of actual combat.
   
3. By the final days of filming, the initial minimum distance the pilots could fly above the ground (500 feet) had dropped to a tiny 10 feet, and the distance between the planes in the air (a varying range, usually of several hundred feet) had been reduced to a minuscule 3 feet, thus allowing some amazing shots that could otherwise never have been pulled off

>> More force and more throttle

Motorcycle Diaries - a spanish delight

Motorcycle Diaries - a spanish delight

{ My movie of the week: Motorcycle Diaries a.k.a Diarios de motocicleta (2004) }

I am a big fanatic of the purity in movies & this is the finest exemplary of movie making. It's the dramatization of a motorcycle road trip Che Guevara went on in his youth, that showed him his life's calling. A sublime direction by a non-hollywood director Walter Salles.Interesting trivia is he knew nothing about the historical character 'Che Guevara' before shooting the movie :)

Ernesto's(Che Guevara) journey with his close pal Alberto to reach an leprosy healing center in some nook and corner thousands of miles distance from his town. He wrote diary on his experience all along their journey and this movie is based on the same.

Movie is completely shot in Spanish language. It's worth to note realization of Ernesto about Inca's intelligence in Machu Picchu. Even I felt the same about Khmer Kings who built largest Hindu temple complexes, clever architectures in the early 12th century in Angkor Wat, Cambodia. I feel I am lucky to been there.

Che's been portrayed as a sweet character both by persona, virtue and modesty. This is the fantastically designed character in rain clad backdrop of Brazil, Chile,Peru, Venezuela, and Spain with the setting of 1950's. It also touches deteriorated health, injustice and social issues in poorer counties such as Peru.

I love the way friendship is captured between Ernesto & Alberto. It reminded my journey to Cambodia last year with friends Raj and Nikhil. We spent having fun all along the local trains, tuk-tuks from Thailand to Cambodia. There's nothing like foot loose journey with friends like they did in Motorcycle Diaries.

Australia, Rabbit and fence

Australia, Rabbit and fence

{my movie of the week - Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)}

Imagine you're a small kid. Eating what you want, learning what you like, humming what you feel. Some one suddenly captures and takes you away to other part of the country and makes you pray their rhythm and teach you the way they live. In such a tender age away from mother, family, away from your known locality that strange feeling is just unbearable. And Australia successfully did that for 'original living beings' of Australian continent for years !

'Rabbit-Proof Fence' is the true story of Molly Craig, a young black Australian girl who leads her younger sister and cousin in an escape from an internment camp, set up as a part of a government policy to train Aboriginal children as domestic workers and integrate them into white society.

I love Rabbit-Proof Fence movie as drama, as protest, as movie making and as poetry. It's a breathtaking story of defiance and triumph that has to be considered one of the most sublime films. At an economical 94 minutes, Rabbit-Proof Fence trims all the fat and tells its heartfelt and stirring story. It's an wonderfully shot movie with the beautiful usage of the celluloid.

>> Know more about - Rabbit-Proof_Fence

An Australian thriller !

An Australian thriller !

{ Restraint (2008) - My movie of the week }

Fabulous-looking movie. Cinematographer Simon Duggan obviously has a soft spot for the slow, back-lit dance of smoke, dust, dirt, and fog. What he does with airy nothing and a little light would grace any big-budget movie and does wonders to set the mood for this elegant character drama: the way the helicopter's searchlight filters through the trees at night, the trail of gravel left by a speeding vintage Mercedes, the morning fog lifting in slow motion, and endless curls of cigarette smoke gracefully set the pace for most scenes.

>> Via IMDB commentators - movieman_kev, richard_sleboe, ALeightDS

Jude Law: Breaking and Entering

Jude Law: Breaking and Entering

Though I've not watched much of his movies, I managed to watch 'Crocodile Tears' wayback, I could think of Jude as one of the decent actors. If you call method acting, natural acting, whatever acting- he's the guru of it.

It was pleasure to watch his latest flick in British airways flight on the way back to Bangalore. Good part was 9 odd hrs of direct flight from London with new movies in menu. I had ample time to watch The History Boys, Rocky Balboa, Breaking and Entering sipping my favo Heineken beer. I preferred -Breaking and Entering probably because it was Jude's movie. He looks bit elderly, still have that young charm of expressing placid emotions. I like his kind of elegance, though he relies much on metaphors.

It's story about theft, both criminal and emotional, “Breaking & Entering” follows three people whose lives intersect in the inner-city area of King’s Cross. When a landscape architect’s (Jude Law) state of the art offices in a seedy part of town are repeatedly burgled, his investigations launch him out of the safety of his familiar world.

The movie drives into various effusion levels with a nice plot. It's difficult to get off from the screen once glued to it while watching this movie. The moment Amira (Juliette Binoche) enters into center stage, the movie takes emotions to different tunes. Aaah ! she's simply stupendous in her role of; protecting her son Miro from theft charge. Her English with a Serbian accent is just too natural. The movie is so intense that your heart cries for the lovely mommy Amira & her inexplicable situation.

It's a touchy movie & though it's revolves around King's cross, it's also shot on the stylish bridge just behind Lehman brother's office in Canary wharf, London. The way was my usual route to home. It paints earthier and more enjoyable picture about London immigrants.

One question lingers in my mind after watching it. Who's breaking & entering in this movie ? Is it Miro who broke into Francis office or Franics breaking into Amira 's life ? I say, its a must watch.