Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Review on Books & Movies - II

I thought I had to review two movies but I am going to end up writing comments on more than 2. 

Yuddham Sei
A tamil movie directed by talented Mysskin. Cheran is the protagonist and its a thriller. The movie has its moments, made me sit-up at times and at times the movie was just going along. Mysskin has that magic in him to weave a neat screenplay but he needs to get out of psycho characters. Its kind of scary that these psycho people maybe living in real world, our world and Mysskin scared us all in Anjathey, he does the same in Yuddham Sei. He has to get out of this genre else people will be sick of his films. 

Rabbit Hole
Nicole Kidman was nominated at Oscars this year in Best Actress category for her performance in this movie. She deserved the nomination as she brings out the pain and agony of losing her 4 year old son in an accident. I thought Aaron Eckhart was also fantastic bringing out the emotions that a father would. He was sublime because he is the 'man' and the 'man' is suppose to bring about change. He too grieves, cannot forget their loss but has to bring about the change required to move on. The truth is, this movie made me cry. Pain Stays, Life goes on!

True Grit
A typical western cowboy movie set in 1960s from Coen brothers. I learn from IMDb that this is a remake of original movie released in the same name in 1969. Hailee Steinfeld, Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon set out to catch the bad guy Josh Brolin in the wild west. Jeff Bridges accent is too difficult for us to understand and without no subtitle he was just blabbering. The rest of the characters speak clear and a good tone. I am not sure why this was nominated for this year's Oscar in Best film and Best Actor category among others. I guess Americans love remake of old Western movies!!!

The Fighter
This movie surprised me a lot. It is an amazing movie! Christian Bale better known as Batman in the Batman series is superb as Dicky Ward. Its difficult to transform and act in such a finesse, truly outstanding. He deserves the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Mark Wahlberg is good as Micky Ward who is caught between his family and boxing career. His girlfriend Amy Adams, his mother Melissa Leo and the rest of support cast have done a brilliant job. The climax fight where Micky wins the title is really good. I recommend you to watch it and you will be pleasantly surprised. 

Blue Valentine
Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this drama or practical life. I term it as life because this is what the couples go through certainly not in India but in the western countries. Ryan Gosling gives a brilliant performance as do Michelle Williams. The movies goes back and forth between past and present. The past being vivid and present miserable. How did they let this happen? Both are to blame. A well made movie and hope that if this was made in French by a French Director this would have won Best Foreign Film award at Oscars. I say this because Oscar jury wants winners or expects miracles in movies. They look for natural movies like Blue Valentine to come from foreign land!

Black Swan
Its a story of young Ballerina, Nina portrayed by Natalie Portman. She is extremely fragile, protective by her tough mother and wild in her dreams. She dreams to act as Black Swan a part in the new play but in the real world she is rejected by playwright since she cannot let herself go. The transformation that Nina goes under is somewhat predictable but the manner in which it happens is astounding. Here again Natalie Portman deserved the Best Actress Oscar this year. 

 

Friday, February 25, 2011

Reviews on Books & Movies - 25 Feb 2011

One more year has gone and new one has come. Here are some of my review rather comments on books and movies.

The books which I read was by an author called Lee Child. I read two of his books, cannot remember the title of first book, 2nd book was 61 hours. Both are fiction novels. It was like watching a Hollywood movie and I assume one of his books will be adapted to big screen similar to "Bourne" films in the near future. I guess he is the new sensation in thriller/spy novels. The novels were good, its good for a train journey - will keep you hooked and when you are finished you can return it. I did the same, returned the 2 novels to the vendor.

The next fiction novel is written by Amish Tripathi, an IIM graduate is the new entrant in India. The name of the novel is "The Immortals of Meluha". The novel caught my attention same as to many people was the cover of book. The title cover is etched to show a man who resembles Lord Shiva and facing back with long hair and Trishul. The imaginative idea is really appreciated that Lord Shiva might actually be an individual who might have lived thousands of years ago in ancient India. Everything is neatly presented, the plot, the flow, characters but all keeping the western audience in mind. It is happening in ancient India but when you read the book you will feel that nativity is missing. I certainly felt it and it was compelling to put the book down more than anything. The standard operating procedures, dammit are few words which keep repeating throughout the book. The imagination of Lord Shiva is sure starter for this book. I am not sure I will read the next two installments because of its emphasis on western audience.

On to movies now, Aadukalam - A tamil movie with a combination of Director Vetrimaaran and Actor Dhanush for the 2nd time after Polladhavan. The backdrop is Madurai, my native place and plot is rooster fights with a love track for Dhanush. Why can't we drop the love angle and focus mainly on plot? The movie is running successfully and has won praises for Dhanush. He is good but not his best, strains on the dialogue delivery of local Madurai slang. I cannot help to compare with Karthi of Paruthi Veeran. You can't simply show a better performance than Karthi when he speaks Madurai slang. That's hardwork! Apart from dialogue delivery he is good at showing emotions whether it is happiness, sad or shock when he knows betrayed/cheated. The movies is a bit long and I felt that I saw 2 movies for one ticket. In my opinion it could have been shorter by 15-30 min which will make it slick movie and just the right kind of mix of love, loyalty & betrayal. 

I wanted to watch Biutiful but missed it due to my travel to Madurai and Chennai in 2nd week of February. The next movie I watched was 127 Hours from Danny Boyle.It takes lot of courage to do a movie like 127 hours where there is only one character for almost 80-90% of the total movie time. The movie is based on true story of Aron Ralston, a mountain climber. James Franco holds the movie by his eccentric, open character. His courage to get out of an impossible situation, his right hand stuck between a boulder of rock and wall, I think most of us wouldn't be clueless where to start. But James/Aron has ideas and finally loses his forearm after 127 hours to be freed. The courage of a human being triumphs here and well enacted by James Franco. 

There are 2 more movies which I will post in next blog! Till then. Happy Reading!

To be continued...