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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Clerks - I


Most of us would have come across a day in our life when everything goes wrong right from the time we wake up. Atleast I have come across such situations very frequently. Clerks I is all about such situations happening to a convenience store clerk. The irony is that he was not supposed to be there at the store when all this starts.

I was putting off watching this movie for a long time as I noticed the entire movie was shot in black and white. But yesterday I just thought of seeing a light movie and picked this one.

The movie showcases some very interesting characters and whichever field we are in we would have come across such characters in some form or other. There are couple of guys in this movie whose only job for entire day is to stand in one street corner smoke, chit chat, smoke, dance, smoke and smoke.

I hear the original ending they had planned was a sad one but I am glad that they didnt go for it and instead went for a lighter one.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Banana Republic

Its really getting nasty in Banana republic that you might be arrested if they come to know you sneezed when you were not supposed to. As Rajni defends himself for sneezing during a play in Muthu, you may not be able to do. Before you even open your mouth to defend you will be counting the bars.

Sometimes it looks like hitlerish governance is happening but who will tie the bell to the cat? Some people here and there were rising voices and some gutless people were atleast expressing their views in Internet media now it will also come to an end.

I have heard of such measures happening in some strong communist countries but despite than when we look at the progress they make I feel it will be better than Banana Republic.

Hope my post is not controversial in anyway.

PS: Except for Rajini and his movie Muthu everything else in above post is fictional including the country Banana Republic.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Poughkeepsie Tapes


This movie follows the style of a mokumentary. This is more like the movie The Onion but this is more gruesome than The Onion. This movie is about a serial killer and is shown mostly in the form of commentaries by the investigators, pathologists and the video footage taken by the killer himself. The movie has a very authentic feel and it is very close to a real documentary.

The killer kills these people in most gruesome manner and also he recorded his killings. The way he makes victim of the innocent people he meets on the road makes us panic along with them. Especially the first murder of a little girl though not shown on screen makes us gape at the screen with fear.

The story of another girl who gets kidnapped by the killer and is kept alive for a long time makes really a sad picture especially in the end when we see what happens to her, it just hits us in our face.
Though this might be an work of fiction I feel the place we live is only as real as this. This fact makes it very hard to watch it and in the end the movie leaves a strong foot print in our mind.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Tesis

There are movies which show things and scare you and there are movies which just works on your imagination without showing anything onscreen. Jaws, Blair Witch falls into the later category and there are plenty of movies on the first category. Tesis falls into the later category. My introduction to snuff happened through 8mm. I was shocked but was strangely curious and followed Nicolas Cage in his steps to see what was actually happening. Vacancy which on on the same topic was actually more scarier compared to 8mm whose aim was not to be scary. A serbian film actually pushed the boundaries.

Now coming to Tesis its from the director of The Others. I found The Others interesting when some of my friends thought otherwise. Tesis too somewhat follows the footsteps of 8 mm in finding out the perpetuator of the crime. In that process it reminded me of the movie Scream in certain aspects where the suspect keeps changing every minute.

The heroine of the movie looks beautiful and vulnerable which ups the tension and a but of eroticism. Finally right before the movie ends the movie tries to show what it has been denying from the begining and thats when .. see the movie for more :)

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Jurassic Park - Bluray


It was one of the toughest decision I had to make whether to go for Jurassic Park Bluray as I already owned the series in DVD. After days and days of dilemma my heart won over my mind and I ordered Jurassic Park - The Ultimate Trilogy.

There is no doubt that this is one of the most best series in the world of movies. If I have to rank them The Lost world would come at the bottom. The first part and the third one ends in tie for the first place.

Regarding the blu rays I found the third part having extremely rich visuals and audio and then comes the first part. I was not that impressed with the second parts transfer to bluray.

The blurays are definitely a step above the DVDs on the audio front but on the video front it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the DVD and bluray but for most of the part visuals are more stunning than the DVDs.

So if you are in dilemma on whether to live with DVDs or go for the bluray do not think again go for the bluray especially when it is available at such a good price in www.amazon.co.uk.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Thuppaki

I was never a big fan of AR Murugadoss. I found Ghajini to be a cheap imitation of Memento and I did not get a chance to see Ramana. I never had the urge to watch 7 am arivu.

After Villu and Sura I try to stay away from Vijay's movie as much as possible.

Now Thuppaki is combination of the above two and so obviously I never had any intention of seeing this movie.  Finally after reading some positive reviews I thought of taking the risk of watching this movie and the result was I was pleasently surprised. The movie was not bad at all. It was indeed neatly packaged.

Though the story is the same Vijayakanth type story it has been executed differently. We do find many of the cinematic cliches such as villain never finishing of the hero even when he has him at gun point. Vijay looks stylish and we can see he has started underplaying for the past couple of movies and it works for him. There are no over the top punch dialogues. The major let down are the songs. I felt they could have been a lot better.

Another major problem I had was watching this movie in Mayajaal. I got tickets for the second row from the screen and it was very uncomfortable to sit at that position and watch the movie. I had to come out with a pain in the neck.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Mr.Brooks


Ever since Dancing with Wolves I have been a big fan of Kevin Costner but my knowledge on his films is limited with just that one movie. I have heard of Waterworld that it was a disaster. After Mr.Brooks my admiration for him has only increased.

I like Mr.Brooks for the fact that it doesn't try to confuse you and let you do lot of analysis on what happened in that movie. Many movies which are based on the subject that this movie is based on always try to act intelligent and leave you with a feeling of "What the hell just happened?" during ending. This movie avoids all that and you can engage right from the first scene.

It has some excellent and composed acting by Kevin Costner who just mesmerises you as the serial killer. This movie has some very complex moments and people react in a composed manner in those moments. There are no over the top display of emotions. There is a subplot involving Demi Moore but its sad we dont see the same Demi whom we saw in A few good men or Indecent Proposal. This movie does remind us some movies in the past but still it stands on its own. They could have avoided the cliched ending of dream but still the current ending also is great.

Sunday, November 04, 2012

The Squid and the Whale


I knew what I was getting into, courtesy imdb, but still this movie surprised me and left me wondering about the ending. This movie reminded me of Aboorva Ragangal, Blue Valentine and The Story of Us. Since the movie is based on true events we cant complain on the story. But I am really curious to know what happened in reality as the movie just ends suddenly.

Its about two kids who had to witness their parents seperation. The movie does not dwell much on the parents rather it shows the point of view of the kids and it is presented without any cinematic touches. Be ready to witness some weird stuffs but I think it does happen in real life.

A Simple Plan and Just Mercy