21

April 24, 2013 Leave a comment

21Genre: Thriller| Year: 2008 | Duration: 123 mins | Director: Robert Luketic | Medium: VCD (BIG Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 4*/5*

Fav Dialogue: Ben: “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!”

21 is inspired by the true story of MIT Blackjack Team. The story is of Ben (Jim Sturgess) who’s a senior math major at MIT and is accepted at Harvard Med School and trying to ‘dazzle’ the director in order to win the coveted Robinson scholarship. After dazzling MIT prof Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) with his out of the box solution of Monty Hall problem and non-linear math paper, Ben is invited by Rosa to join the balckjack team consisting four other students, where he learns card counting and start making it big at the las vegas casino circuit. He and his team is monitored by security chief Cole Williams (Lawrence Fishburne) for malpractice, and eventually get apprehended and turn in Rosa in lieu of his freedom. The movie ends with Ben recounting the entire tale to a “dazzled” Harvard director.

I liked Ben’s birthday cake in the movie, which read: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13,… These are the first terms in fibonacci series. This is obtained by first writing the numbers ’0,1′, then defining each subsequent number as the sum of the previous two numbers in the series. Thus, the third number in the series is 1 = 1 + 0, the fifth number is 3 = 2 + 1, etc. The next number on the cake would be 21 = 13 + 8, for Ben’s 21st birthday, which goes cleverly with the name of the film or Blackjack!

This mathy gambling  thriller is my ‘Movie of the day’.

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Australia

April 23, 2013 2 Comments

ausGenre: Period/Drama | Year: 2008 | Duration: 165 mins | Director: Baz Luhrmann| Medium: DVD (Sony Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating:4*/5

Fav Dialogue: Magarri: “If you’ve got no love in your heart, you’ve got nothing… No dreaming, no story, nothing”

This historical romance is set in pre – WWII picturesque Australian outback is a story of Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole kidman) an English aristrocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch in Faraway Downs (Northern Australia) whose husband is killed shortly before her arrival. Sarah is helped by this rugged ’Drover’ (Hugh Jackman) with whom an unbashed romance grows over time. Sarah is also captivated by a young boy Nullah (Brandon Walters) who’s called ‘creamy’ by local white population as he had an aboriginal mother and a white father. The movie shows the undercurrent of racial tensions between the aboriginees and the white population. Towards the end of the film, grief, loss and disaster is beautifully portrayed through Japanese attack of Darwin (1942)

This overstretched yet ambitious film filled with sheer adventure and slapstick humor is my “Movie of the day”.

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Silverado

April 23, 2013 Leave a comment

silverGenre: Western| Year: 1985 | Duration: 133 mins | Director: Lawrence Kasdan| Medium: VCD (BIG Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 3.5*/5

Fav Dialogue: “Cobb: We’re gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging.”

Silverado is a western to its core with with wilderness, cool gun fights, lonely good guys and bad guys on a killing spree. Kasdan has approached a 50′s & 60′s story from a present-day standpoint, which is quite refreshing. The film is about four cowboys, Emmett (Scott Glenn) an ex-con, who while travelling to Silverado meets Paden (Kevin Cline) lying in the desert after being robbed and left to die. They travel to Turley and rescue Emmett’s brother Jake (Kevin Costner) who is waiting death by hanging in the jail for killing a man in self-defense, with some help of Mal (Danny Glover) a black cowboy suffering racism from the sheriff Langston (John Cleese). The story bends and take new turns on freeing Silverado from the hands of corrupt officials and local businessman, and re-building its future by these four lonesome cowboys.

This humorous yet somber cowboy film is my ‘Movie of the Day’.

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CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN

April 17, 2013 Leave a comment

220px-Mandolinfilm1Genre: Romance/Drama | Year: 2001 | Duration: 131 mins | Director: John Madden| Medium: VCD (BIG Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 3.5*/5

Fav Dialogue: “Dr. Iannis: When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots are to become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the desire to mate every second of the day. It is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every part of your body. No… don’t blush. I am telling you some truths. For that is just being in love; which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over, when being in love has burned away. Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? But it is!”

Even though am a fan of Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruz, I enjoyed this movie mostly because of its beautiful cinematography. The film’s story, based on Louis de Bernieres novel, is of a beautiful greek girl falling in love with an infantry officer from the occupying Italian forces during the second world war. Captain Antonio Corelli (Nicholas cage) has a love for music and keeps his mandolin in his knapsack insead of an officers’ baton, and strumming on his mandolin charms the gorgeous Pelagia (Penelope Cruz) off her feet (and her pants too!). However John madden fails to capture the essence of music transcending the brutality of war and nationalistic boundaries. Cage didn’t sound Italian enough and nor did Cruz did justice with the Greek accent. The movie does show brilliance in parts in bringing out the pathos and grit of war time romance.

This flawed, yet sweet war-time romance is my ‘Movie of the Day’.

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Ball & Chain

April 17, 2013 Leave a comment

BallGenre: Romantic Comedy| Year: 2004 | Duration: 90 mins | Director: Shiraz Jafri| Medium: VCD (BIG Home Video) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 2.5*/5*

A romcom set among ABCDs in Texas, could have been funnier with a better storyline or direction. The story is of Ameet (Sunil Malhotra) whose marriage is ‘arranged’ by his parents to Saima (Lisa Ray) against their wishes. They try everything in the book to break-off this engagement with the help of Ameet’s best friend, Bobby (Kal Penn), only to fall in love with each other during the mayhem.

This delightful & hilarious in-parts film is my ‘Movie of the Day’.

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