typical me!!!

After watching Last of The Mohicans, My Left Foot (eons ago), Gangs of New York I have to admit that I was very impressed by and therefore have become a fan of Daniel Day Lewis. A Method actor, takes his roles seriously….actually very seriously, I’ve read about it. This man is sincere and crazy.

So I was very happy that Daniel Day Lewis got the Oscar. I heard it was a easy task for the jury members, cos it was like Daniel Day Lewis should win. From many blogs I I hoped he’d win, cos I want all my best actors to win an Oscar or get their second oscar( don’t worry Johnny, you’ll also get it). So since it was an Oscar movie, PVR( only PVR) released the movie in Mumbai.

So I went for this movie which is about a man Daniel Plainview(Daniel Day Lewis) an oil prospector/businessman along with his adopted son H.W. Plainview(Dillon Freasier). When Daniel gets a tip from a Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) about existence of a lot of oil in a remote place, he goes in pursuit and meets Eli Sunday(Paul Dano), Paul’s twin brother, a Pastor who has his own ambitions.

Amazing Background score by Johnny Greenwood. Paul Dano after Little Miss Sunshine gave a mighty performance as a Pastor Eli Sunday which took me a back in time( just a few years ago), especially at the scene when he pounces on his father and the scenes where he gets back on Daniel at the Church. Dillon Freasier as H.W Plainview, now that someone I would want to talk about. Boy of few words in the film, but his silence, his way of noticing people and what they talk has amazed me of how young kids can really act. Now that’s where Silence is Golden. Good that Paul Thomas Anderson gave him a good screen space. Daniel Day Lewis, well he got the Oscar for his performance, therefore I don’t have to mention anything else.

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Tags: Movies, There will be Blood, Daniel Day Lewis, Paul Dano, Photos,

It was one of those (as usual) boring days, so I decided to go out and (as usual) buy some DVDs(pirated). The thing about pirated movies is that you just can’t predict anything. You hope its good, and when you go back home and play it…dang…not even worth 10 bucks. But there are some movies you see among other bad movies and wish that it’d be a good print. So I bought it…..and it was a good one. So, how is the movie?

What would you get when you have two great actors and a good Director working together in a movie? Goose bumps. Especially when both the names come together I think of the oscars they recieved. I always felt that Denzel Washington deserved the oscar for The Hurricane at the time when Russel Crowe got it for Gladiator and Russel Crowe deserved for Beautiful Mind when Denzel Washington got it for Training Day. I was kind of excited before starting the film especially after finding the print was good, but the only problem was that with all the Diwali celebrations hapenning around, it was difficult to follow the dialogues therefore making me wish that I should have rather waited for the movie to release on theaters over here. It would have hit the spot, but then I’d have to wait for a long time for this movie to release in India.

American Gangster reels the life of these two real life characters. Frank Lucas(Denzel Washington) and Richie Roberts( Russel Crowe).

Frank Lucas- Heroin Kingpin from Harlem. Former driver of Bumpy Johnson. After his boss’s death, Frank reforms himself and gets heroin smuggled into the country from Vietnam during the war, sells high quality heroin for a cheaper price to the people therefore becoming a very competition for the other drug dealers. He with the help of his brothers runs the business around in Harlem in a very non-suspicious manner.

Richie Roberts- New Jersey detective. Has and follows his personal ethics, inspite of the corruption around his fellow mates. Divorce e. Juggles between the life of a cop and night law school classes. Goes to the end of bringing down every drug lord and crooked to Justice.

Powerful performances by Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe. Unlike other movies which has multiple star casts, there are no over-the-top exchange of words between these two actors. Normally paced and finishes in a normal manner. Other performances worthy of mention are Chiwetel Ejiofor(Children of Men, Inside Man) and the special apperance by Cuba Gooding Jr. (” Show me the Money”- Jerry Maguire)

Amazing, the best sequel released this year.

I can still remember the time I went to see The Bourne Identity back in my college days, not having a clue what kind of a movie it was gonna be. At that time I couldn’t connect the dots between Matt Damon and action movie. I liked it. The Bourne Supremacy was even complicated and better.

The Bourne Ultimatum seemed more clever, neat close shot stunts, good editing IMO and had an amazing cast, some of the best actors from my list of good actors, David Strathairn(Good Night and Good Luck), Albert Finnney( Big Fish, Miller’s Crossing) and of course Matt Damon and Joan Allen( The Upside of Anger) too. Shaky camera shots I didn’t mind which by the end I thought it fitted well with the context of the movie making it more original unlike other action movies. Paul Greengrass delivered with very much of ruggedness and style, making this movie pretty much a good experience.

As I mentioned, out of all the sequels released this year this was the best.

****1/2

P.S Well prestidigitator pointed out that it needed more credit than being compared with sequels or movies this year. Maybe the review didn’t hit the spot.

Bourne Supremacy is already there in my top 20 Action/Adventure list along with Star wars series, Die Hard 1, The Matrix . The Bourne Ultimatum also deserves to be in the list.

Cast: Nikki Blonsky, Zac Effron, John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfiefer, Queen Latifah, Britanny Snow, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden

My Rating : **** 

Tonight’s show with Jay Leno had Cuba Gooding Jr. and Zac Efron as Guests, that’s when I realised that I didn’t write the review of Harispray. Ususally I don’t fancy anything that is over enthusiastic. Hairspray didn’t turn out to be that, it is a totally energetic musical with a cool cast. Hairspray is a about a young light hearted girl’s dream to make it to a popular dance show, Corny Collins Show and a fight against racial discrimination.

Good songs, good performance by the cast and a special mention about Christopher Walken’ s witty performance who always put a smile on one’s face even though we don’t get to see him dance like in the Fatboy Slim video, but he does dance. John Travolta, did not live up the expectations ( that’s the thing…even though of his previous movies, i still expect him to perfom well everytime). A typical movie to ease off one’s mind.

 Schwarzkopf wanted to raise money for charity, so last Sunday at Infinity Mall, Versova, Mumbai they assembled all their hair stylists for anybody who wanted for a sum of 500 ruees only. They started at 1000 hrs and went on till  2000 hrs. Now 500 bucks is a lot of money for a haircut and I was very surprised at the crowd’s response to this event. You could see from the photographs that there were a lot of people. In a way one could think that they are gaining some thing by the donation. All I can think of is “haircut” and “500 bucks”. Damn.

Now that would be a pretentious way to put it…bench. The good thing is that I have free net access since I’m still in the Project pool. Browse and then I’d draw

Finally…. After almost three months of waiting, the movie has released over here. I think the master print of the DVD must be out.

Unlike Fight Club and Se7en, this David Fincher movie is not about thrills. This movie is based on the book by Robert Graysmith, which he wrote based on the case files, who happens to be the main protagonist in this movie played by Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie reels around three characters Paul Avery, crime reporter(Robert Downey Jr.), Dave Toschi, a police detective (Mark Ruffalo) and Robert Graysmith, a political cartoonist(Jake Gyllenhaal) who in their own ways are obsessed about the then serial killer, Zodiac.

The investigation starts off when The San Francisco Chronicle receives letters and ciphers from the Zodiac killer, who wanted the news of his killings to be in the Front page. Paul Avery, a writes the articles regarding the Zodiac. Robert Graysmith, who also works in the Chronicle becomes interested in the ciphers send by the killer. Detective Dave Toschi, comes close to solving the case by catching the suspect, until the Department realizes that the handwriting from the letters and from the suspect does not match.

Robert through his obsession decides to write a book on the Zodiac case files, continues the investigation, getting help from the people who before investigated about the Zodiac.

The case went on for 25 years. The case still remains unsolved. The Zodiac committed 5 murders and took credit for the other killings which he did not commit.

Good movie. Stunning soundtrack. Commendable performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo. Made sit at the edge of the seat for two and a half hours, even though slow paced.

I’ll give it ****.

“You take down one Ocean, you face them all. What are the odds of getting even?”

They wanted money and one wanted to get his love back, so they went to heist a casino. Then they had no choice and they went on to heist in Amsterdam where another one’s love is. This time the love intersets are mising whereas everthing else is the same. Reuben after losing his land to Willy Banks leaving him almost bankrupt, inspite of knowing the kind of person he is , gets a heart attack(too bad he didn’t check with his palmist this time) and the Oceans want revenge.

This time Terry Benedict provides them finance for the heist and and Roman Nagel( the guy who got them the 3D egg in Oceans 12) joins the gang. The Film is hilarious, clever, and the characters were good(as usual).

The film looked good. Split screens, rusty picture( looks like Steven Soderbergh used that special HD Digital cam in this movie too), dialogues, no time wasted and fun it was.

Danny and Rusty: Suave

Terry Benedict: Not as cool he was shown in the trailer.

Linus: Gets to be a major player and watch out for the time he gets caught.

Basher: “It’s nice working with proper villans again”, heehee. What good is the Oceans gang without him.

Malloy twins: The funniest characters in this movie. This time you think they won’t fight and ……there they did it.

Saul: . Watch out for his accent.

The Amazing Yen: He sure is the grease man this time.

Livivngston Dell: nervous wreck.

Frank: “They might as well call it White Jack.” nuff said.

Reuben: The smile on his face when he comes back after his attack. Priceless.

Willy Bank: Cheat. Jackass. Even though Al Pacino not at his best, he sure was the only man fit to be against all the Oceans after Terry Benedict.

All in all a ***3/4.

I’ve always wondered ” How will this movie be ?”. I’ve only seen few musicals, I can even name them Seven Brides for seven brothers, Oh! Brother, Where art thou?. That’s it I guess and these two films remained in my top 15 or 20 for a very long time. So I decided to buy Grease. At first I thought it wouldn’t be that good, but except for John Travolta’s gay walk( well I know it was required in the film), I totally enjoyed it. Especially all the songs and the dances. Very good choreography. Makes you think how crazy the 70s were. All that Gel and small clicks.

Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End

Well, I totally enjoyed the film unlike the others who came along with me to see the film. It was 3 hrs long and I really didn’t mind. Maybe because I am a Pirates of the Caribbean fan. It was fun and I guess the predicton I did in the post remains the same ***3/4. Amazing cast. Witty Jack Sparrow…was good as usual, Keith Richards was amusing. Geoffry Rush back as Barbosa was fun too. Chow Yun Fat was k.

Crazy ol’ me will go for Oceans 13 coming week. damn it really is the 3-quels year. Four consecutive weekends Spidey, Shrek, Pirates and then the Oceans.

Spideman III

Ok…Spiderman III wasn’t as good as the second part, but that did not mean that this is a bad movie. It had awesome graphics, cool looking villans, Sandman and Venom. I liked the Green Goblin character unlike Spiderman I, the costume of the Green Goblin was more than satisfactory.

I’d give this film a *** 1/2

Shrek the Third

Shrek the third is fun, but not that much as the previous two movies. It has some of the good laugh, like the death of the Frog King and some of the sarcastic funny moments when Shrek encounters Arthur and Merlin. Shrek the third was just satisfactory, but shrek is supposed to satisfactory.

I’d give this one ***

Tomorrow I will see Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End. I don’t have my hopes high, but Cap’n Jack Sparrow will be good and Barbosa is back. I see no reason why it let me down.

Prediction: ***3/4

But most of all I think Oceans 13 is gonna rock. Atleast by the trailer I think so.

Predictions: ****