10,000 BC

Genre: Action/ Adventure | Year: 2008 | Duration: 109 mins | Director: Roland Emmerich | Medium: VCD (BIG Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | Language: English | My rating: 2.5*/5*

Favorite Dialogue: ” D’Leh (Steven Strait) [in the pit, to Saber-tooth]: Do not eat me when I save your life!”

Roland Emmerich takes the sciences of evolutionary biology and anthropology and turns them into fiction. This film was actually so historically inaccurate that not even the giant ostrich attack & sabre-tooth scene made up for it. As the film progressed with the voice-over of the narrator (the legendary Omar Sharif) telling that this is a “story of blue eyes” and all the trappings that come along with magical realism, it became clearly obvious that 10,000 BC is a bad ripoff of Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. It seemed as if Emmerich had lost all sense of time in 10,000 BC, as the film showed Egyptian pyramids being built using woolly mammoths, ships, horseback riding, and Steel. It’s ice age in 10,000 BC, and then the hero D’Leh (Steven Strait) walks over a hill and suddenly he’s in the Nile Valley of 2,000 BC! Was Emmerich trying to put in a further taste of science fiction through time travel?

After an attack on their village Yagahl, by ‘four-legged demons’ (horse-riding slave raiders), D’Leh and his mentor, Tic’Tic (Cliff Curtis), brave the snow-capped mountains, forests with dinosaur-like ostriches, wide savannah and parched desert in search of those who were abducted along with D’Leh’s beloved Evolet (Camilla Belle). In between this journey, D’Leh has to learn to fulfill his destiny as a leader to save his people. 

This awfully directed and archaeologically inaccurate drama can be avoided.

Frequency

Genre: Sci Fi | Year: 2000 | Duration: 118 mins | Director: Gregory Hoblit | Medium: DVD | Trailer: HERE | Language: English | My rating: 3.5*/5*

Favorite Dialogue: “John Sullivan [Jim Caviezel]: Ya’know the past is a funny thing, we all got skeletons in closet and ya never when one is gonna pop up and bite ya in the ass”

Frequency is about time travel and alternate paradoxes, baseball, father (Dennis Quaid as Frank Sullivan) and son (Jim Caviezel as John Sullivan), aurora borealis, and New York city. John, who’s a homicide detective in NYPD uses a Ham radio to connect and communicate with his deceased father 30 years in the past through the miracle of extraordinary solar activity, and alters the course of events and saves his father from death as a fire fighter for FDNY. 

Even though the film has competent acting and direction, the script seems poor. Moreover there are several factual errors in the movie. One of my favorite errors is that, when Shepard and his partner are looking for Frank on the docks, the camera pans to the left and we see a flash of the World Trade Center just before the cameraman catches his error. It was built between 1970 and 1977, not 1969! As past events change, so do John’s old clippings and framed photos, updating themselves every time somebody who died doesn’t.

This science fiction about alternate realities and the cosmic relationship between cause and effect is an interesting watch. 

No Country for Old Men

countryGenre: Thriller/Crime | Year: 2007 | Duration: 122 mins | Director: Ethan & Joen Coen| Medium: VCD (BIG Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating:5*/5*

Fav Dialogue: “Nervous Accountant: Are you going to shoot me?
Anton: That depends. Do you see me?”

This movie is a pitch-perfect thriller that delivers the intended fear and suspense, and at the same time the directorial brilliance thrashes the conventions of the genre. No doubt it won four Oscars, including best film & best director! The film starts with Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) hunting in West Texas when he comes across a drug deal gone bad, a wounded mexican, dead dogs and men, and 2 million dollars in a black satchel bag. He’s throughout chased by Anton (Javier Bardem), a psychopath hitman hired to recover the money, who uses a captive bolt pistol as his choicest weaponry for killing. Sherrif Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is investigating the case of a string of murders by Anton, who plans to retire from active service as he feels over & outmatched. Anton kills Llewelyn, and visits Llewelyn’s wife for a pledge that he had.

This film, which is a faithful adaptation of McCarthy’s novel, and is full of pessimism, nihilism and nervous dark humor, is my “Movie of the Day.”

The Town

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’.

Red

RedGenre: Action/Thriller | Year: 2010 | Duration: 112 mins | Director: Robert Schwentke| Medium: VCD (SONY Music) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 4*/5*

Fav dialogue: “Marvin: Can I kill her now?”

A powerhouse thriller with Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman, Red has good action sequences, comedy and is fast paced. I liked its postcard scene transitions with its humorous landscape portrayal. The story is gripping with twists and turns.

Red (Retired and Extremely Danngerous) is a story of former black-ops agent, Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) and Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) a call centre operator dreaming of thrills. Their on-screen chemistry is sparkling. Morgan Freeman as Joe is total kick-ass in the movie, and so is John Malkovich as Marvin. Helen Mirren as Victoria is interesting. Together they wage a war against CIA and its operatives.

Red, my ‘Movie of the Day’ is worth watching if you enjoy good action flicks.