Idiocracy

There have been sci-fi movies and there have been sci-fi movies; But none like this one. In any sci-fi movie, you expect the human civilization to be so ultra advanced and modern, that it is set to baffle the viewer of today. It’s always shone as a rosy picture that technology being at a zenith with everyone striving to do more. Well maybe I went overboard with the striving bit, but I am sure you get the picture, right?

Idiocracy is different in this regards, it paints the real picture and drives home a point, that if the world continues as it is currently, then this scenario might just come out to be true. Especially in the developed countries (I wonder why they call them developed countries?) – See the major nations for a change, all of them have skilled labor problems. People do not have an incentive to do more … to become what they could have aspired for. What countries like India now need to do is learn from this and ensure that our people do not make the same follies.

Don’t worry, if you do not wish to think over this so much, then just watch the movie and laugh it out. Worth a watch, better still if you can think.

Fast & Furious

They are back!! Paul Walker and Vin Diesel team up to bring down a drug lord. Oops!! Sorry folks, but thats all! After the first two movies of the series and after playing a host of Need for Speed variants, I was more than piqued to watch the rest of these series. I have to tell you – both Tokyo Drift and this have left me disappointed.

What does one expect to see in a Fast and Furious movie … ok .. hmmm … Cars, Babes, High Octane Speed, Fast racing, some more action … ummm, they did manage to squeeze a little bit of everything in there; andd you know what, it still falls short!! I will not be bothering to follow this series again.

Luck By Chance

Yes on a roll here. And extremely free :-).

Farhan Akhtar impressed everyone through Dil Chahta Hain. Many called it over-rated, but I loved the freshness of the movie. Then came a string of decent hits … then came Rock On, when people could actually put a face to the director. Imagine a 32 year old father of two, becoming a heart throb of Bollywood. People were calling him an overnight success and a lucky boy.

I guess that’s why he decided to make this movie. Luck By Chance shows us the life of a typical struggling actor and what are the sacrifices they have to make in order to make it big. Not to mention the paparazzi and affairs and the wheeling and dealing that one has to do in order to shape one’s career. Its startlingly true, and its being accepted by mainstream cinema. Akhtar is not a fluke kid, but a genuine all-rounder when it comes to films.

Give the movie a go, I do not want to put forth all the details in the movie, but suffice to say that its recommended watch. Movies like this make me think that Bollywood still has a chance.

Outlander

The Vikings have a legend amongst them. A story about how an outsider came from another world, and saved their tribes from a terrible monster. This is the basic outlay, multiple movies have been made on this theme, yes. Beowulf (the animated version), The 13^th Warrior (Antonio Banderas) and finally Outlander to name a few. Michael Crichton has also penned a book on the same theme. The different thing about Outlander is that it actually managed to plug a few holes in the story and come across as a more coherent legend. Not to mention FX.

Outlander takes us to the past, time of the Vikings when our hero who has come from another world (who surprisingly has the same physiology as us humans, beating the theory of evolution to the ground) and with his ship comes a terrible creature … the Moorwen. The creature in its bloodlust wreaks havoc amongst the hapless Vikings. Its upto Kainan (the hero) to reunite the tribes and forge his modern technology with the Viking weapons to bring the creature down and kill it before it can spawn more of its kind.

I would suggest download the torrent and watch it on your machine rather than spending those hard earned rupees in a theatre. Good movie if you have friends, chips and some ale to give you company.

Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans

This week went to the movies with the missus. Fortunately she likes action movies especially ones with magic and the ilk. Rise of Lycans was it. Underworld fans, spoiler alert!!

The movie is actually a prequel to the previous duology of movies. It starts off as the base for the next two movies. The story is about the love between the princess and daughter of the Vampire King Victor and the first of the Lycans (werewolves who can control their abilities). Needless to say Victor does not approve between this unholy alliance and his fury ensues. Battered and loveless, Lucient (the first second generation werewolf) arises from slavedom and starts a rebellion to overthrow the vampires.

Overall, its a good movie with all the familiar faces of the duology back in action. It also tells us small information about some of the characters. Why are they what they are in the next two movies. Pity you dont get to see Kate Beckinsale much in this movie!!

Star Wars

I think I have an overdose of George Lucas here. Watched the complete series. Then installed SW-Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords. Saw lightsabers in my dreams last night.

May the farce be with you!! (Chennai style!!)

Wall·E

This weekend we decided to catch Wall-E, thanks to my best friend Ashish's suggestion. I am not such a great fan of Pixar, I love their culture, but not much of their art ... well, that things changed now! I mean, I like animated movies ... the effects and all that jazz, but why would you resort to toons ... only because you cannot render the same effects in real life? C'mon ... give me a break here. Then came a genre of movies which used toons to good effect, and how!! KungFu Panda, Finding Nemo ... and now this. This is the coup de grâce of why you should look at animated movies as a serious competitor to other motion pictures.

The movie takes us around 800 years into the future, when the Earth is a lonely desolate planet. It's a touching love story of two robots, and how they rescue us human from permanent space colonization. A whopping 8.7 guys, do check this movie out.

Some radicals will always rant about AI and the terminator crap, but honestly, each machine has a fail-safe mechanism, and that can have another fail-safe. So why worry? The machine can only be as devious as its creator :-)

PS - Watch the end titles of the movie, the background changes from the initial cave drawings to hieroglyphics to sketches to classic art to renaissance art, so on. History kind of repeats itself, now with machines and humans. Awesome conceptualization.

Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Movie night at my place in Hyderabad, always sees us roomies get together in my room, and watch one of the movies. Yesterday was one such day, we were determined to watch a movie, but could not decide on which. Diptesh wanted to see Hancock, I wanted to see AVP2, Jay was pretty much okay with anything that had a lot of action and sex thrown in. Finally we decided on Harold and Kumar ... and what an awesome choice it was.

The movie is about two american friends who are of Indian (Kumar) and Korean (Harold) origin, and their zany adventures. I cannot stress more on the word zany, trust me. You also have the antics of Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Howser MD and of recent, How I met your Mother fame) playing himself. Go watch it if you want to laugh and not think for 2 hours on the trot.

There is also a beautiful piece of poetry in the movie ... its the coup de grace

 

The Square Root of Three - by David Feinberg

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

American Pie Productions

 

I am not that big an American Pie fan, although I have seen more than my fair share of american teen comedy movies. Quite a lot of them, watching those movies I sometimes realize that the average IQ of an american must be really low. I do not mean to be condescending or even orthodox for that matter. They are rated 5.0 and 5.4 respectively. Watch only if you have time and/or grey cells to kill.

Dark Knight: IMDB #1

Saw this one over the weekend, and yes ... the news is out. We have a winner here ... pro'lly the best batman flick ever!!

It's a whopping 9.7 on IMDB, ousting Godfather from the top spot is a feat ... a huge feat!! The reason?? I believe the movie is not like your run of the mill batman flick, with chics, action and baddies all over the movie. It goes deeper into explaining why the characters are as they are ... why Batman has to be a vigilante, how is police officer Gordon promoted to the Commissioner post. Why is the Joker who he is ... why does two-face hate Batman's guts.

The casting of the movie is superb, with acting greats like Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine (playing the role of the wise Alfred). The action scenes are realistic, the characterisation is superb, if you are a Batman fan, this is your Meccah!!

Wanted

It was quite a while since I had seen a movie, and I was kind of desperate to watch one (it's almost an addiction now!!).

Had heard from Harshu, that Wanted seemed a good movie, very well, lets give it a whirl I thought. The movie is action packed!!! Let me tell you ... some of the stunts have you saying Woowwww!! and Yowzer!!!

The essential story revolves around a secret clan of assassins who can bend bullets and accelerate their heart rates for higher adrenalin secretions.

Just one word for some of the stunts ... unbelievable!! Go watch them for yourself.

On a sidenote - This is a medical fact, at higher heart rates, your perceptiveness and reflexes increase, but it takes a toll on your body. I had read it somewhere.

Awesome Ad

The Incredible Hulk

Ever felt super pissed? This is the movie to watch then, anger can really get you mad sometimes.

Edward Norton is an awesome actor, you could tell that in movies like Fight Club. Plus, he has the beautiful company of the angelic Liv Tyler and some brit baddie to do the bad guy part.

The movie stand alone is pretty good and intriguing, Marvel Comics do a good job at keeping you hooked to the movie. The only issue is that the last Hulk movie had a completely different story altogether, the cast has changed and the background story also has changed. The good points are, this one sticks together pretty well, the action scenes are awesome, and Hulk seems like H-U-L-K!!

All in all a good watch (7.7)!!

Sex and the City

HBO was the channel which aired Sex and the City for the first time in India. My sister and I were immediately hooked with Carrie Bradshaw's witticisms and her troupe of friends. Lily's innocence, Miranda's pragmatism and the exploits of Samantha were a fun to watch.

Keeping those episodes in mind, I decided to go to the movie with my roomies. Its like watching the old characters that you love, except now that they have gotten old and have moved on from their characters. Its the same with meeting old friends ... you are glad to see them again, but you notice small albeit significant changes to their characters ... not to mention wrinkles :-).

All in all its a good movie, but I still prefer Mr. Big and Carrie in 20 minute dosages. Go give it a whirl only if you are a die hard fan.

Sarkar Raj

Went yesterday to see the movie. Let me come out clean at the outset itself ... I have not watched Sarkar, but still I thought that I should give this one a look see. The film starts where the last one has left off ... now with Sarkar being one of the strongest forces in Mumbai and in the country as well.

The movie is a good Indianization of Godfather ... a lot of the scenes look like nice copy-pastes of Godfather II. Except the last bit, the movie shows off the acting capabilites of the Bachhan parivar, at the same time, RGV gets to show off his brilliance as well. A must watch for Godfather and Sarkar fans.

21

I learned to play Blackjack when I was in my teens. I used to get lucky and considered myself pretty good at the game. All those misconceptions were shattered when I saw this movie. I did not know you could apply probabilities and change theorems this effectively!! Combine that with card counting and voila ... you might just have a way to beat the system.

The movie is a true story of how 6 MIT grads made such a system and took a lot of casinos for a ride. The movie stars one of my favorite actors - Kevin Spacey, immaculate as usual. The story is racy enough and keeps you involved throughout the 2 hours.

Geeks can be heroes as well :-) ... worth a watch if you like numbers and cards.

Indiana Jones is back!!

I am a big fan of Harrison Ford characters ... Hans Solo, Deckard, Indiana Jones ... all of them! I first saw Indie and Amrish Puri fight it out in the Temple of Doom as a kid. Although the very idea of India was laughable, but the movie was definitely entertaining.

Give it to Indiana Jones, his hair brained heroines and his antics to keep you on the seat. Plus, the whip and the hat completes the ensemble. This movie doesnt fail to maintain that Indiana Jones edge ... right from the start it maintains a steady beat of action, thrill, adventure and comedy.

Loved the movie, absolutely loved it. Will not give out spoilers, suggest that you watch it for yourself!!

Prince Caspian: The Chronicles of Narnia

Those who have not read the book, please read the book first and then see the movie. Often we see some beautiful gem of a movie which are based on books, wherein the rendition and the picturisation done is so perfect, that you have imagined the entire scene as it is when reading the book. This movie does not make that cut.

I was expecting a lot after watching Chronicles of Narnia, so ... the movie turned out to be a slight disappointment. Maybe, the plot itself was too long to unfurl within 2 hours.

The IMAX screen helped, leaves your head reeling. A decent watch ... the story has our four Pevensies back in the world of Narnia and in the middle of a family feud where the evil uncle wants to kill the heir and usurp the throne. Prince Caspian is needless to say the aforementioned heir. Go watch the movie and roar with Aslan (voice over by Liam Neeson). It's a very decent 7.9.

The Caddy

Decided to watch one of the oldies today. Managed to find this on the torrents, and downloaded it. Classic Jerry Lewis stuff with a dash of Dean Martin thrown in. 

The story is about a fisherman and the prodigal son of a professional golfer who team up to be a golfer and caddy team. They end up ultimately as a winning combination but in a totally different field altogether. The entire story is just that. Simple and full of antics and funny scenes. The slapstick Jerry is so back in this ... Dean Martin has the girls swooning with Amore.

Connoisseurs should love this one. Seemed unfair when I saw that this movie got only a 6.0.

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Do you think life is real enough? Do you think What you see is real or are there forces acting behind the scenes that make shit happen on those entirely bothersome days?

Spiderwick Chronicles opens a world of ogres, fairies, goblins and talking hogs. I think its a story based upon a book of a similar name. Cute little story of three kids and their mom stuck in a small house once inhabited by an eccentric scientist in possession of a book of such strong knowledge; that a strong ogre Mulgarath is after that book.

Studious ogre!!

Worth a watch ... suggest you download it through a torrent and not on an IMAX screen!!