Cinema seen-it-all..

Over the past 5 weekends, we have seen exactly 5 english movies in the multiplexes no less, one for each weekend and not to mention the various hindi and telugu movies we end up watching at home :-p. Though enjoyable, its practically tiring ;-). The 5 english movies is what I'll talk about in this post of mine. Nope I won't be reviewing the movies as such, for that you can refer to the links I'll be providing with each movie. This will just be my opinion of the movie in a few lines. I have included a rating by my standards though. And, no, I'm not going to make this reviewing movies a habit ;-).

{Disclaimer - Start}

I may unwittingly say something about the movie in my post that may/may not be a spoiler to the movie. I advise extreme caution to the reader who's reading and who still hasn't watched the movie. Also if you haven't watched the movie and do want to watch the movie, then clicking on the IMDB links I'll be giving may not be the right thing to do ;-) :-D. I don't want to be the one blamed for spoiling the movie for you ;-).

{Disclaimer - End}

Ok so here goes :).


1) The Departed

They say its a copy of some Hong Kong movie. Well, I can't compare it to anything as I haven't seen the Hong Kong movie anyways. Its just a story about moles, moles and more moles! And the moles trying to find the other side moles :-D. Sounds confusing? Nah, in reality its not!

I loved it. The story, the direction, the acting. And what acting!! I have been a fan of Jack Nicholson since I saw "A few good men" and I see it again and again just to watch him in the end :)). He is so good in this one too. Matt Damon and Leonardo Dicaprio are not far behind. I hadn't seen any Martin Scorsese movies before this one, but this one impressed me so much that I have to take a look at the older ones now :).


2) The Prestige

A movie about two rival magicians? You may ask whats so interesting about that. But when its Christopher Nolan doing the directing, you have to think twice :).

I was blown away when I watched his "Memento" some time ago. I did see "Batman Begins" too and though it was not comparable to "Memento", I thought it was quite good. I mean Batman movies were pretty cheesy before "Batman Begins" and this was quite dark and brooding and impressive somehow :). Anyways, returning to "The Prestige", the movie was shocking to say the least. It showed perfectly the extents men go to achieve something. It was horrifying, yet was extremely fascinating.

I guess both Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman can add me in their fan list :). Also, Christopher Nolan has a fan for life :). And yes, this movie is rated the best of them all :).


3) Casino Royale

I really didn't want to see this one. Somehow it felt like betrayal. Like I was cheating on Pierce Brosnan, hehehe :-D. Though I didn't even watch the earlier 2 Bond movies in theatre, somehow I felt he was James Bond. There was no one to replace him. This thought was obviously shared by lots of people. And boy!! Were they all wrong! Was I wrong!!

Daniel Craig's James Bond is rugged, not afraid to soil his hands and neither does he need the protection of expensive gadgets. The movie tries to do for James Bond, what "Batman Begins" did for batman. "Tries" is the keyword here. The usually untouchable James Bond is vulnerable here. A softer side of Bond anyone? Don't get me wrong, I loved Daniel Craig. I loved the storyline too. But somehow it just didn't seem like a James Bond movie to me. I didn't really miss the Bond babes as there were 2 here ;-) :-D, but I did miss the gadgets, I did miss the style, I did miss the "traditional" Bond movie. But well, these are changing times, I guess I'll just have to "kindly adjust" ;-). Doesn't mean I have forgotten Brosnan though ;-) :-D.


4) Deja Vu

This one receives the least rating from me, but I still believe it is worth one watch. I was actually so impressed with the trailers of this one that I pestered Sri into taking me ;-). I had imagined all sorts of things from the trailers, but it turned out to be a story about time travel. And it was kind of disappointing. Especially after "12 Monkeys"!

I had looked forward to seeing Denzel Washington after "Inside man" last year (man, now that was an unexpectedly great movie!) and he was good as always. The effects were good and the story was innovative to a point. But somehow the ending was disappointing. And my main complaint is that it was a happy ending ;-) :-D. If you have already seen the movie, I recommend reading the IMDB boards. The theories some people come up with are amazing! I also recommend watching "12 Monkeys", if you haven't done so already :).


5) The Fountain

Living each day to its fullest is wayyyy better than trying to fight death. That was the message I personally got from the movie. A man is so involved in trying to discover a cure for his wife's tumour that he doesn't have any time to spend with her. Thats it! Thats it?

I have seen 2 other movies of director Darren Aronofsky. While "Pi" was strange and disturbing to say the least, "Requiem for a Dream" was tragedy at its best. I remember think "it cannot get any sadder" and it did, did and did! God!! Anyways, I think of his movies as abstract paintings. They are full of vivid repeating images, colours, emotions and as somebody said, they make you feel. Its what you take out of the move that matters. You may not totally understand his movies, as they are certainly the opposite of conventional. But they'll strike a chord somewhere, somehow. Something like a poem. The poet writes a poem with one meaning, but the people who read it might interpret it however they want to.

I felt personally that this movie was not as powerful as the previous two and hence the rating. But it had its own merits and is certainly worth one watch. The splash of colours was enjoyable and you could see the typical Aronofsky style everywhere. Though I thought Rachel Weisz was kind of wasted, this movie turned out to be another reason for me to like Hugh Jackman :-D. He is absolutely wonderful and he runs the show from beginning to end :).

OK I'm done :). I basically enjoyed all of the movies, can't say the same for Sri though, 'cause he hates unconventional movies :-D. Right now there are no more movies in the pipeline. No trailers were interesting enough to actually look forward to the movie. Maybe next year, we'll have some stuff to see :-D.

"The End" people :).