Almost Famous

April 15, 2013 Leave a comment

famousGenre: Drama| Year: 2000 | Duration: 122 mins | Director: Cameron Crowe| Medium: DVD (BIG Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 4*/5*

Fav Dialogue: “William Miller: I love you. And I’m about to boldly go where… many men have gone before”

This movie views the rock scene in in 70s through a nostalgic lens, yet not a hitting expose` or a tell-all story of the music era. The story is inspred by Cameron’s own experiences as a teeage music journalist, is about a 15 years old boy, willim Miller (Michael Angarano, and later Patrick Fugit) in 1973 going on a road trip with an upcoming rock & roll band, Stillwater.  For William, the trip with the band is about exploring his sexuality and learning how to live outside of his mother’s protective umbrella. In the process, he loses his virginity, rejects the drug scene, forms a few lasting friendships, and saves a life. He falls for a band groupie, Penny Lane (Kate Husdon) who already has a ‘thing’ going with one of the lead singers of Stillwater, Russell. The film’s ecstatic atmosphere is only briefly interrupted by the sense of longing that is associated with first love and the pain that accompanies the inevitable separation between a child and a parent.

Almost famous with its sheer exuberance is my ‘Movie of the Day’.

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The King Maker

April 15, 2013 Leave a comment

kingGenre: Drama| Year: 2005 | Duration: 100 mins | Director: Lek Kitaparaporn| Medium: DVD (Magna Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 1.5*/5*

Among the awful movies, The Kingmaker set another standard of low in quality and story telling or direction. Period drama does require brilliance in direction, which this movie clearly lacks and is excruciating throughout its 100 minutes. One has to be a diehard lover of films to sit throughout the movie without dozing off or instead change to watching news!

The film is set in 1547 Thailand (Auytthaya Kingdom), when a Portuguese soldier Fernando de Gama (Gary Stretch) washes up the shores of Siam due to some ship-wreck, and is captured by slave traders. The beautiful Maria (Cindy Burbridge) takes fancy and buys him and introduces to her father, Phillippe (john Rhys-davies) whom Fernando recognises as the killer of his father.

Fernando joins the armies and eventually promoted as the personal bodygurad of King Chairacha. Queen Sudachan along with her lover and Phillippe plots to assasinate the king, and eventually succeeds and frames fernando. Fernando is rescued by the King’s brother. The movie ends with the Burmese invasion.

This movie, worth avoiding, unfortunately is my ‘Movie of the day’.

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The Ninth Gate

April 13, 2013 Leave a comment

ninthGenre: Thriller/Occult| Year: 1999 | Duration: 133 mins | Director: Roman Polanski| Medium: VCD (Eagle Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating:4*/5*

 Fav Dialogue: “Liana : Don’t fuck with me!
Corso: I thought I already did.”

Perennial provocateur Roman Polanski directed this occult movie based on a part of the book El Club Dumas, and in the process made a very clever story. I loved the part of all the books and book fanatics in this film. The film is about this demonical book, The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows, chased by Dean Corso(Johnny Depp), an unscruplous & infamous dealer of rare books, to find the authenticity of the book owned by his client Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) and compare it with two other copies that exists with two other book fanatcis & collectors. The book seems to have been written in collaboration of the Devil himself with instructions on how to invoke satan and enter his realm.

Most of the characters in the film seems to be seduced by the evil, are on an unending search for the devil (which never appears throughout the movie, which is good direction and story telling). Balkan’s quest ended in death for him and Corso crossing the ninth gate, having witnessed the entire process during his detective work for the book, and helped by the succubus girl (Emmanuel Seigner) against all perils (and remains a mystery till the end in the movie). The movie is full of riddles being unfolded, and the last riddle is for the viewers to solve concerning the ninth ritual, which was forged in the book. The succubus girl have sex with Corso amidst the backdrop of flames, thus completing the ninth ritual, and corso returning to the castle to cross over.

Being a bibliophile, I truly enjoyed The Ninth Gate as my ‘Movie of the Day’.

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The Town

April 13, 2013 Leave a comment

townGenre: Thriller| Year: 2010 | Duration: 125 mins | Director: Ben Affleck| Medium: VCD (BIG Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 4*/5*

Fav Dialogue: “Doug: We’re fucked if we see a helicopter. We’re fucked if we see SWAT. We see a cruiser, stop, take out the engine blocks, keep moving. No one needs to get hurt.
James: Now these guards like to test you though. They wanna get hurt for ten dollars an hour, don’t get in the way.”

Ben Affleck as both director & lead star of The Town has done a good job with making a crime thriller. The movie is based at Charlestown, MA, which is (in)famous for producing largest numbers of bank robbers per capita! The movie is around the lead robber Doug (Ben Affleck) and his hot headed best friend James (Jeremy Renner) who takes Claire (Rebecca Hall) as a hostage after a bank robbery. After she’s released, Doug pursues her to see that she doesn’t give them up and begins on a romantic journey with her. They are consistently pursued by FBI agent James (Jon Hamm) which eventually breaks up their relationship and kills James. Doug escapes with the loot which he distributes among Claire and Krista (Blake Lively) who’s a past love interest of Doug.

The fast-paced movie filled with excitement, drama and comedy is my ‘Movie of the Day’.

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Pathfinder

April 12, 2013 Leave a comment

pathGenre: Action/Adventure| Year: 2007 | Duration: 100 mins | Director: Marcus Nispel| Medium: VCD (Excel Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 2.5*/5*

The story is of a viking boy (Karl Urban) rescued from a marooned boat by a native american woman, who grows among the natives, and is haunted by his origins. Later when norsemen (whoses costumes were so bulky and overdone!) returns to plunder these villages, he fights them off to save a handful of natives. The only high in this movie is its graphic violence. Like many movies of its genre, it too had a bried love interest and the rival suitor, but thankfully Nispel decided to dedicate less than 10 mins of the movie to the whole thing. The idea that Norsemen came to America before Columbus seemed fascinating. There was literally no defined story, and only glossy cinematography.

Even though I didn’t enjoy it much, Pathfinder is my ‘Movie of the Day’.

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