Sunset Boulevard

When I started watching this movie I didn't know what I was getting into. The IMDB poster showed a woman looking weird. 

So when I finally watched one of the thoughts that hit me was the problems that existed in 1950, when the film was made, are still the same problems we struggle with.

For example we have a writer and he is afraid he is not able to write anything original. If he felt that way in 1950 think about the state of writers now.

We always thought, at least I thought, fame is something which exists in present. We do not imagine that every time had their own famous people or celebrities of that period. And all those celebrities felt the same way. Or we as human beings feel the same whether it is 1950 or 2025.

Human emotions has not changed, we long for love, we long to be celebrated and above all in our mind we are always young. The mind does not age at the same speed of body. I do not know if it catches up over a period.

It is a depressing movie and such a movie being celebrated even during that time shows the audiences were also mature.

Switch (1991) Movie

 I accidentally watched this movie and totally loved it. Though the movie has a simple concept of body swap they did a great job of executing it. 

A womanizer is murdered and meets God. God gives him the option of heaven if he can find at least one woman in earth who would love him. Satan interferes and asks God to transform him into a woman and then send to earth to find the woman who loved the original man.

Amanda Brooks has played that part of woman who returns to earth and they had done a great job how a man would behave when he has transformed into a woman. There were no cliches.

There were couple of moments where it looked like it would resort to some unnecessary skin show and it didn't. 

When she runs out of all options and couldn't find even one woman who loved the guy she was I was wondering how the makers would finish the movie. The ending just blew me away and it had such a beautiful message.

One of the most beautiful movies I have seen in a long time.

New World (2013) - Korean

 Korean movies rarely disappoints. New World was in my watchlist for a long time. To watch Korean movies or for that matter any foreign language movies or serious movies I should give my full attention to understand what is happening. For this reason I would choose light weight movies than serious movies. Finally I did find some time and watched it and was blown away.

I could see that many movies in Tamil had already tried to lift few knots from this movie unsuccessfully. 

New world was a bit confusing as there were so many characters and it did take some time to understand what was happening. Once we get into the groove it does not stop at all. 

This movie also reminded me of some moments in Coolie. Maybe Lokesh was inspired by this movie.

Even without the last scene twist the movie was great but I think the writers wanted to give a final twist and included that part.

If only this can be made in India without spoiling its original spirit, but our guys will add masala and spoilt it. 

The Nun - Movie

Yes the demon in Nun costume looks scary. Even in one of the earlier movies when they show this painting it had good impact. But beyond that there is nothing much.

I think its time Hollywood move's away from a scene where the demon either gets sucked into an abyss or taken away in a twister or burns to ashes in the final scene. This has been shown in so many movies to show the devil has been defeated. Now it has become so predictable its boring to go through it.

I fast forwarded most of the movie.

Lack of an engaging plot is a major problem with this movie. Not a single interesting character.

It is a snoozefest.

Coolie - My View

I go to every Rajini movie expecting something which we became a fan of in 80's and 90's. But I only end up saying may be in the next movie.

The truth is I do not see that magic anymore. It is seen here and there. We can see that old magic but it is lost in the noise.

Jailer was an exception, in Jailer we were presented with a different Rajini, a new magic which was refreshing to see.

I am a fan of Managaram by Lokesh. I didn't like Kaithi and I have not seen his other movies. Based on how everyone is raving about Vikram I was expecting a neatly done movie but Coolie did not satisfy movie.

The movie was too noisy for me which was the case with Annaththe. There was nothing to root for. The flashback was not meaty and it comes almost at the end of the movie. We travel with Rajini not even knowing his background. When we do not know why we need to root for someone it is difficult to engage with the movie.

Nagarjuna was typical villain. Soubin was different but didn't understand why he was doing what he was doing.

The plot of that machine sounded amateurish. 

While the music tries to elevate the scenes without background it can only do so much.

It was difficult for me to follow the story as well as it was going all over the place.

My one wish is Rajini would do a simple movie with a great story. I wish he gives it a try before he retires.

Cycling in Chennai

 Rode a cycle after almost 13 years. The one before 13 years was also a just few 100 meters. There was a cycle which was collecting dust and I gave it to service and he charged me a bumper. It was almost like servicing a two wheeler. He had changed two tires and tubes. The service charge alone was 700 Rs.

I was actually worried about cycling back home as there is a subway and some years back I was not able cycle the uphill part of the subway. The other scary part was people constantly honking behind us. I was looking for a rear view mirror habitually and there was none.

Whenever I had to turn I was looking for the indicator switch and few times I tried to accelerate by throttling the right handle.

So it took me sometime to adjust to basic cycle.

The good part is I was able to do the slope easily than I had feared. So its a little comfort that there is some fitness left in me.

But riding cycle in Chennai roads would not be a pleasant experience.

Perfect Days - Japanese Movie