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.

Perfect Days - Japanese Movie

 

Knock at the Cabin

 After a long time a Shyamalan movie. I have a liking for Shymalan on a personal level as one of his movies is linked to my personal milestone. Apart from that I liked The Sixth Sense. I also liked The Village. Devil, Signs, Old and Visit were all ok.

I had been postponing watching this movie and chose it as there was no other better choice.

I was put off by the same sex parents concept as that stands out like a forced thing. Nowadays it has become a custom to have at least one same sex couple character for DEI.

The movie becomes interesting as it moves forward and when it ends it does end well. 

But a lot more could have been done with this concept but here they have dealt it in a straightforward way which is also not a bad choice.

The question that obviously comes in our mind "what will we do in such a situation" is what makes this movie interesting.

What will we do if we are asked to sacrifice something that we love the most to save the world?

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

 I like the old Godzilla and King Kong movies for the VFX and SFX they used to have. When I collected DVDs I bought them to enjoy those effects on my Home Theater. However after some point of time we now have so many Godzilla, Kong movies it is not easy to distinguish one from the other. Same is the case with Marvel and DC movies as well.

My son is a fan of the Gen Z Kong, Godzilla movies and he can differentiate which scene is from which movie. To treat him with the experience of watching his heroes on big screen watched the latest movie on big screen in 3D.

The movie has a pretty straight forward story which we have seen in Tamil cinema since the days of MGR.

There is a bad monkey like Nambiar who tortures other monkeys and Kong comes to their rescue. There are even characters like Nagesh or Suruli both in animal and human characters. Top this story with some hollow earth scientific jargons and you have the movie ready.

I used to own a 3D TV with 3D blurays and used to analyse how good the 3D effect was in those movies. I didn't find the 3D to be very good in this movie except for some long shot scenes. Otherwise movie almost looks like a 2D movie.

Visually though the movie looks great. I realised it only after the movie was over. Not even once we think that these are not real monkeys or animals. We start to think they are real like human actors. That is the success of the VFX team.

All creatures keep growling at the drop of the hat. So be prepared for that.

The Mission vs Silence

I watched The Mission over the weekend and since I had watched Silence few weeks back I couldn't avoid the comparison between the two. While both of them deal with preaching Christianity to people who haven't heard about it, I felt Silence moved me more than The Mission. 

Neither of the movies have a positive ending. While The Mission has lot of political plot but Silence was more direct about Christianity as a religion. Both movies were about how people stood by their faith in extreme situations.

The Mission had something more as it had a character who chooses what he chooses as a penance.

One reason why I found it difficult to connect with The Mission was because it felt more like a staged drama. 

We have Robert De Niro, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons but there is very less dialogue. When there is less dialogue the scenes should speak but for some reason I couldn't connect.  

The ending of The Mission which is more or equally brutal as Silence does not evoke that feeling inside us. 

The visuals though were extraordinary. They have done a great job and it must have been very difficult without  CGI.

The movie had some great quotes and to quote some "If might is right, then love has no place in the world", "the dead live on in the memories of the living".

The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone was also not that impressive compared to his other outings but the music conveyed the ominous feeling. 

Trust - 2010 Movie

 

Paddleton

 

Bird Box

This was one movie which I was avoiding as I somehow could fee that it will not be good. But over a weekend when I couldn't find anything else I made the mistake of watching this. It is reimagining A Quiet Place with vision instead of sound. A monster which can find and attack you through sound or vibration makes more sense than compare to a monster which is fine with everything except you shouldn't look at it.

A invisible monster which only has the power to make you commit suicide when you look in its direction (since it's invisible you cannot look at it). Oh yes it also has the power to perform mimicry You can dance around the monster screaming loud and with your eyes closed it cannot do anything. You can run around it and mock it with a blanket over your head it cannot to do anything. Absolutely awful movie. I cannot walk around my house with my eyes closed and they go through a forest and a rapid. Sandra Bullock and those two kids can be part of Marvel or DC universe fir their superpowers. 

The best part is they keep few birds in a shoe box and survive a fall in a rapid and all with blindfolded. 

There is a Sophie's Choice moment as well.

Waste of time.

Speak No Evil

 

Old The Movie

 

Don't Look Up

 

Calibre 2018

 

The Dark Knight Rises

 

Pan's Labyrinth

For some reason I did not like The Devil's Backbone or this movie Pan's Labyrinth. I expected a horror movie in Devil's backbone and got a drama and expected a fantasy movie in Pan's and got a violent war movie.

Terminator Salvation

 I do not think anyone can salvage this movie. It is the weakest in the series and I am yet to watch Terminator Genisys and Dark Fate.

Another Round - Druk

 

My views on the Danish movie Another Round by Thomas Vinterberg

Killing Ground

 

Haunt - 2019

 

When I finished watching this movie it felt like I just came out of that haunted house. It is a great premise and as one of the other reviewers mentioned a lot more could have been done. So many missed opportunities but still it delivers.

I found the editing confusing during more than one occasion. It just moves from one scene to another without continuity. 

Though there is lot of killing mostly it happens offscreen so there is less gore.

Also I didn't understand the ending and I assume they just kept it as something that happens inside the characters mind.

If you like Eli Roth movies you will like this.