“The Man from Earth” is created by a man from Heaven, no less

Aloha,

One of my friends with whom my movie-watching taste always matches, was oo-ing an aah-ing about some picture that he saw recently. When I asked him,”Which theater?”, he said, “DVD” and I thought to myself, I am not affected by movies that I watch in the theater, imagine a DVD.

I just thought I will probe him more. He might make me a little interested by some other aspect of the movie. A gorgeous heroine or a special-powered hero or something of the sort. But to my dismay, there was no notable cast and in less than a minute I forgot the director’s name.

I borrowed the DVD for his sake and went home and played it. The first ten minutes made me get out of the cozy chair and call him to ask him if he thought I was an idiot to waste my PRECIOUS time on this. I would have lavishly spent this couple of hours usefully chatting in facebook or reading a novel. He simply replied for me to continue and in the end of movie, curse him if I still want to.

So, I continued on, with a little regret.

The movie’s set was simple. Four cars, ten people at the most, a living room set and that was it.

But after the first ten minutes after the first ten minutes, I moved a little towards the edge of the seat and as the movie progressed, I was moving more and more toward the edge.

The conversation in the movie was so brilliant that made me forget my surroundings. It was convincing and thought-provoking at the same time. One man convincing all the others in the room with an undecipherable story was fun. The fellow actors were probing the lead with questions that would pop up in the viewer’s mind and the viewer – I – was thrilled to find that without much fact or data the lead actor was convincing all of us – the fellow actors in the screen and the viewers – with his story.

The pace of dialogue is brilliant and can be best described as Occupying.

The credit would definitely go to the screenplay writer (assuming that this includes the dialogues too). One who watches the movie understands the thought process that was involved in creating a great thing out of nothing. And I thought to myself, I am saved, as I was not going to commit murder (OF guess who? :P).

I also acknowledged the gruesome truth that we are more centered towards movies with fancy actors and characters and not towards movies like these. This movie has shaped me into accepting and respecting good thoughtful movies, fancy actors or not, scenic locations or not. If I can describe my feelings towards this movie in one word, it would be “Respect”. So, go respect this movie.

Arrivederci!

“Let Me In” completely lets you in

Aloha!

Its quite a night and its quite a movie.

I am not a fan of horror movies but the movie that we are gonna review today is a perfect blend between Horror and Drama, a Hor-ama.

An Anonymous director, Matt Reeves, at least from my perspective, no big cast except perhaps the always ideal Richard Jenkins, the growing bright (and old) Elias Koteas (You may remember him as Mr.Gateau in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but if you don’t never mind. If you haven’t seen TCCBB then never bother at all) and the two kids, Kodi and Chloe has turned a good novel into a beautiful no-word-to-suitably-describe-it movie

“Let Me In”

Kodi is a school boy with his own troubles at school. They are quite violent and sick for a school boy to face but that’s the way it is.

Chloe is the all-new-neighborhood girl, a weird one, who walks without her shoes on Ice.
If we do not guess, she is later revealed to be a blood-drinking menacing Vampire who has lived as a 12-year-old and still as one for a very long time.

She moves into Kodi’s neighbourhood with her so-called dad.
The movie moves to show that her dad is not exactly who he is said to be and since she feeds blood for a living, he goes hunting every night to obtain the same. Human-hunting of course. (Told you that this movie has some horror to it)

The dad, Richard Jenkins, is shown as a old person, clumsy and tired to do his job. Why is he doing this to her if she is not his daughter, lets reveal the secret later.

Kodi secretly develops a friendship with her and she becomes a kind of girl friend to him.
When his school problem gets well above him, she gives him strength and asks him to fight it. This results in Kodi hitting his fellow classmate with a fishing stick to tear his ear. This results in his expulsion but he luckily escapes.

The friendship goes steady even when Chloe’s guardian advises her against it and tells her to leave the boy alone. She is forced to reveal herself to him one day when he is trying to make a pact with her with his own blood. (Kids stuff)

He gets afraid initially but later admits reality and becomes her friend again.

Things start to go wrong in the second half when the old man tries to kill a person and gets into an automobile accident. In order to hide his identity he pours acid all over his face and hands and is admitted into the hospital.

When Chloe (Abby) goes to meet him at the hospital, she realizes that he could no longer help her and he is dying. Richard, the guardian, apologizes and sacrifices himself by giving her his last blood.

Disheartened by this sudden loss, Chloe decides to leave town, away from Kodi.

Now that She is gone, Kodi starts to feel lonely again. Back in his school, the kid whose ear he pierced comes back with his gang to threaten Kodi and drown him in the school’s swimming pool.

Kodi is under water fighting for breath when special effects are shown above water implying that Abby/Chloe has come for his rescue and she kills all the other three kids. (Pool water turns red, no battered bodies are shown)

Now, Kodi has become her friend, guardian and lover and we come to understand that History is going to repeat itself and the old man, Richard was not her dad but her past lover and secret guardian and his undying love is the reason he had killed for her.

The movie ends with Kodi taking Chloe with him in a train and the sun sets.

The way in which the above plain story is told is what we should be looking at here.
When all this is said, if you go to the theater expecting a twilight-ish sort of a movie you will definitely be disappointed but if you like dramas, then this is your butter.
Go see this and admiration guaranteed.

Way to go All…

Arrivederci!

Journey towards the centre of the Labyrinth

Aloha,

I always consider myself singled out. I like some movies that none of my friends like. But I found out today that the inverse is not entirely true. My friends have always offered me opinions about some great movies that I should be seeing. But I have never had enough time to see them(This is a lame excuse by the way but thats the way it is)

Today, I thought I would try defying the nature and mix my real world with the surreal one.(I am talking about me taking a friends suggestion in case you are wondering what I am attempting to say). And guess what, the most happiest thing was the movie that I saw portrays the same exact thing, reality + fantasy in a realistic+fantastic way.

Here we are to review an epic of a movie, in my opinion, Pan’s Labyrinth.

This movie gives us the perfect blend between the fantasy and the real worlds and the amazing thing is, there are no great special effects involved. There are no pleasing animated characters, no big secret at the end, no miracle and especially, no hi-fi cast to take the movie forward.
Yet, this would be the best movie that I have seen in quite some time now. A movie that makes you realize how great it would be when a simple story can be carved out of a usual fairy tale like a marvelous statue from plain stone.

The story pans through the life of a young girl, who idolizes her fairy tales, the brief time that she spends in her step-father’s house in the post-war Spain. Her mother is pregnant and her father is a brutal captain who kills rebels on sight.

The story moves with the girl finding an old pile of stones, a labyrinth near her house. She is led to believe that she is the princess of a fantasy kingdom and the centre of the labyrinth is the gateway to the kingdom. This information is shown to be provided by the pan/fawn who lives in the labyrinth, the gate-keeper.

The girl has to complete three grue-some tasks to prove herself worthy to enter the gate.

As she struggles through her tasks, she also finds out some gruesome truths of her existence. She is surrounded by a suffering pregnant mother, a rebel-supporting house-maid and a brutal stop-at-nothing step-father.

Things go bad in the second half of the movie. The pan denies her entry to the portal as the girl disobeys a direct order. The rebels move closer, the maid’s identity is revealed, and worse, her mother dies in childbirth.
Pan taking pity on the girl promises her that if she could bring her brother to the portal, she might be able to enter.

The girl tries to enter to steal her brother from her father’s chambers. At the same time, the house is breached by the rebels and there is chaos everywhere. She carries the baby and while her step-father pursues with the gun, she hurtles through the house into the labyrinth, only to find out that she has to kill her brother to enter the labyrinth. Because the portal opens only when an innocent’s blood is shed.

In the centre of the labyrinth, her father is behind the girl with the gun, the pan is waiting for the girl to fulfill her deed, the rebel aka maid enters into the labyrinth with her men in pursuit of the captain and guns and bombs fire everywhere around. In this full-charge atmosphere, the best thing for me would be to leave you to speculate about the ending. If you do not want to, go see the movie and you won’t be disappointed although you might be with me, now. But all for good.
Go, enjoy this movie if you haven’t yet seen this and thank me. If you have seen this movie then its my turn to thank you for reading.

Arrivederci!

Am I gonna sing? Why do I think of this question?

Aloha,

Weeks and weeks it has been and I can assure you I am not gonna sing. So welcome to read-on (Possibly not but now that you are here, go-ahead anyway).

We are here to re-view the all-time the same, casual comedy, another New York life story of this year following movies like The Devil wears Prada, 27 Dresses and The Proposal, the all too new but nothing new – “Morning Glory”.

The movie has nothing new except perhaps the beautiful gorgeous, no suitable word to describe, Rachel McAdams.

You have got to give it to the Paramount. As the name suggests, its a paramount stellar starcast.
You would simply not get enough of them.

Harrison Ford, cynical grandpa, once again, comes back with a boom.
He is what one would call gritty and groovy. Simply makes you like him in any role he plays.
The one thing that he has not achieved as yet would be the nod from the Academy but when his fame and pay is in the superlative I am not sure if he would worry. But if he does, its his problem and not ours.
So lets try not to donate tissues and move on.

Diane Keaton, another grumbling old in the movie, who moves through the movie with Sarcasm and moves the movie with her charm. Kudos!

Jeff Goldblum, good comeback! He looks decent and plays neat.

I couldn’t help but wonder but quite recently all the directors seem to be adding a male glamor element in their movies, in this movie, the handsome, Patrick Wilson. His role in the heroine-centric movie is not as a hero but to add this and that to the movie. He is cast as the person whom the heroine needs to sleep with every now and then. As I say earlier, glamor quotient.

Best thing about the movie, the setup in New York, like many-o-many movies before but never failing to attract.

But the real question is, What have they tried to achieve with all this perfection?

I hate to this this but the best answer to the above question would be, “Not Enough” to make you think about the movie, after the movie. Shame.

This movie talks about a self-confident (but not good enough in expressing it) person, Rachel Mcadams of course, who when thrown out of her job gets to even a better one and tries to perfect it, in fact barely trying to retain it.

She is an executive producer in a television channel and the movie begins with she being thrown out of her job from her New Jersey’s TV Channel. How else would you drive a woman with a drive to New York?

So life is kinda worse for her, so worse that she gets a better job in New York, only to find out that she has to manage with the miserable female host of the show, Diane Keaton.

And if she wasn’t enough, Rachel is thrown into a situation to hire a newsman, Harrison Ford, to not to do news but to be a co-host to the grumbly Diane. Well, Ford proves to be more tough and Rachel is clueless to make the show a success. As if there wasn’t enough misery in Rachel’s life already, Jeff Goldblum is on her tail and he is relentless.

When finally the show itself is gonna be cancelled in a month’s time, Rachel gets her wind back to make the show a hit in USA and how she does it makes rest of the screen time.

If its any consolation the movie doesn’t over do things and also talks about personal ethics that is “One Family’s must mean more than work”. But when all is said and done, the viewer might feel something for his/her family but definitely nothing for the movie, for all that they have tried.

I would love to write more but thats all there is to it.

If you are looking for a casual getaway on a boring saturday afternoon, this might be your catch. Its not boring even if its usual at times and the actors kinda makeup for the otherwise bad ending for the director and the screenplay. Better play better next time folks! People are not going to be numb/dumb forever you know.

So, Show’s over people. Go read something useful. But if you are looking for some junk to wile your useful time away, then you always know where to look. HERE.

Arrivederci…

Tron Legacy – Indeed it is…

Aloha,

Greeting Programs!!

Welcome to another episode of virtual transportation into another world called the Grid, only this time you will see more of blue and red lights than anything else. If its any consolation, you will be accompanied by the Fatherly, Jeff Bridges, the Handsome, Garett Hedlund and the absolutely gorgeous, Olivia Wilde.

Yes, we are talking about, Tron Legacy, if you haven’t figured.

The movie is appropriately named, Tron Legacy. The original movie, Tron, is legacy now comparing to this three dimensional version. But I, for one, would agree with any decent movie watcher and say, Tron was a much better movie than its sequel.

It had what would you called originality which is simply lacking here. Anyway, we are not here to review Tron but to review its sequel. So forgetting my feelings for Tron, I continue to our present subject.

On a good-start note, I am going to begin this review by saying that, I felt relieved that even in the Cyber World where man feeds current for a living, you still find …. (if you had expected me to say Love, go shoot yourself) … Hot Girls. :P. Later later…

Garett, a heir of the major corporation, Encom, is a whiz-kid brought-en up without his father. What became of him, you will find later. If you do not, then the movie has no point. Anyway, after this young boy (not so young now) has gone on for about twenty years without his father, or simply put, after he has become a hero, he is ready to take upon the evil ones.
He happens to find himself his father’s secret lab, (oh! every super-hero should have one), tries to experiment and gets himself into the world of computer programs, namely the Grid. He is initially engaged to play games and he being the User doesn’t know to change the game, Pity! And when he is about to lose, you would find yourself mouthing, “Of Course”, the hot heroine is out to save him.

He is taken to his father, Jeff Bridges and bla bla bla..
Afterward he wants to pursue evil and destroy it to take his father out of the system. So he sets out without the Heroine this time and gets caught within the loops of the master program, Clu, who is an younger animated CG version of cool looking Jeff Bridges again.

Fights ensue and the father Jeff comes to rescue and they escape out of Clu’s hands. The movie drones on to show some father son chats but none worthy. Later the action begins as they learn that Clu has built a program army to meet the external world and destroy it. They fight Clu and in an attempt to save Garett, Jeff integrates himself with Clu destroying them both. Hero and Heroine safely sent back to real life.
End of story.

Section: Later:
Continuing on where we left off…. Hot girls…
Olivia Wilde is super cool in her role as Quorra, talking you through the movie with her charms.
Her costume and her hair-do is more fitting and is supposed to be tough but she looks idyllic.

Garett Hedlund is great and does not look like a new face (even though a nice one) to the industry. You have got more time to grow up, man.

Jeff Bridges as always is self contained and convincing both as the good and also as the bad, only bad looks awesome and good looks old and weary, as always.

Bruce Boxleitner is brought in, in a sort of a guest role when he is the co-hero in the first one, bad for you, Grandpa. You are in your Oscars age but still not much luck.

I, for one, felt that the movie should have been directed a little more better. Later, I heard that this was Joseph Kosinski’s debut film. I agree that he is decent. Good ground-kicking start. But he needs to grow to shed more light into the emotions in addition to his current great charisma in showing action.

What should have been emotional scenes between the son and father, even if surrounded by digital imagery, fade into lifelessness. I guess I expected more from the Director and from Jeff Bridges. (You deceived me, Jeff). Maybe Jeff didn’t want to play some sort of softy here but some simple but powerful expressions would have done the trick but please don’t hope to see anything.

Except if you can forget and forgive these misles, the movie is cool. A teenager would definitely enjoy this movie, but I have to agree, I have overgrown out of it.

The visual effects are fantastic and the sound-mixing is a no-word-can-describe-you-better kind of a thing.
Its good that it got nominated to the Oscars. Even if it didn’t win, its greatly commendable.

If you are an action-flick-fan which has a good background to it and if you are happy with the lights that blue and red colors create then go see this. You will have fun to the core, except for maybe some boring moments which are supposed to be great emotional breaks in the movie, but that’s okay, you will have a heart forgive these for the special effects. Your money will be well-spent, I guarantee you.

If you are happy with the movie’s outcome, then you can consider yourself sane, as the reviewer (that’s me)
seems to be a little distant from sane. So, before becoming not sane, (kinda looks a loop, or probably i am going loopy) I am going to log myself off of the system for the time being. Stop reading this now and go enjoy the movie.

Arrivederci!

Fair Game – or Should I be calling it a Great Game?

Aloha,

One more movie review today! God, I must be a movie maniac. Most of my blogs seem to revolve around movies. My head is like the Inception’s never toppling Top in a dream now, constant, in thinking and writing about movies, no offense Nolan.

A late disclaimer if I may, if you are reading this review, which is about the movie, Fair Game, without watching Inception(which is a wonderful movie by the way) and not knowing Nolan (who conceived Inception), well, you can go hang yourself.
But do read this through before you do so as you might be the occasional, accidental reader who has stumbled across this piece of so-called writing, unfortunately. If you still seem to go on, I would assume you really are crazy or I would want to admire your courage or patience whichever takes precedence.

Continuing on to some useful content, to fulfill the purpose of this blog to say the least, Fair Game.

Naomi Watts is the chic lady (who by her look proves that she is some sort of a covert operative, even before you had guessed she was CIA) is shown to travel across the world, intimidate the intimidating and get her covert work done (which by the way is so non-covert to the movie watcher but you get the general idea).

Sean Penn is the husband who plays a retired but very eloquent ambassador who seem to have 5 year old kids. (Oh Sean! Is your character trying to prove you wasted your young life achieving something that it took you so long to have kids. I haven’t the faintest idea).

Forgetting all this surrounding aspects nagging as they may, as the movie progresses, Naomi no doubt gets promoted and when the time came, Naomi has to choose someone to goto Niger to gather intelligence about Iraq buying nuclear weapons. This is where the eloquent husband Sean comes into play, as he is the formal ambassador with Connections in Niger, the man for the job.
But to Sean’s surprise Niger doesn’t offer him anything near to interesting and he comes home with nothing. Naomi goes back with this analysis to her office and is politely ignored while the president – Bush is shown telling the media that Iraq is preparing for a some sort of a nuclear war.

Mollified and unable to sit tight, Sean writes a sensitive (on the government side of course) newspaper article about the non-existence of a nuclear deal between Niger and Iraq. Heatened, Naomi is chucked out of the CIA and whats worse, her identity, which she had safe-guarded for so long, that she is an Agent, is revealed.

Naomi is dis-heartened while Sean conducts a kind of an anti-government rally against the white house.
The movie has some pretty sensational scenes of Sean doing interviews and making speeches and emotionally getting involved with his role with a great charisma.

The whole second half of the movie talks about how Naomi transforms from a skeptical person, worrying about her family, to a bring-it-on person. Naomi has done well, the transformation is real and doesn’t seem abrupt or overmade. At one point, you would find your mind thinking, Naomi, Come on, go for it. Then and only then does Naomi move.

And when she comes back with full force and joins Sean, the heat is ON.
My and many others favorite dialogue in the movie would and should be, the one that Naomi says to Sean,
“I don’t care what they say about me, about us, but, they do not get to take my marriage”.
Naomi’s delivery is simple and adequate and the movie becomes memorable just because of the way in which the movie ends, the way in which Naomi fades and the real person, Valerie Plame, comes into the shot.
Oh! Sorry if you are not aware, this is a real time story made into an awesome movie.

IMDB gave the movie a 7, I would give it more. Not ten, no but definitely deserving much more than a 7.
Fair Game is a Fair movie. Add it to your list of good movies. Enjoy!

Arrivederci!

I was indeed, Tangled!

Aloha,
It’s movie time.

Another Rapunzel movie, Whew! I thought to myself, “Would these guys give her a break for once, seriously?” With the beginning of the Shrek series there have been many, so many, Rapunzel (or Fiona or whatever she is called) type movies almost every year.
Whooff!, I considered myself mad for loving animation and going to see this movie and I thought to myself, as long as mad people like me are around, these old-story-remake losers are always gonna make money.
When the movie ended however…. (Not now! The blog’s just begun, lets not break the heat! Lets Zoooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh)

So, as if you do not know this already, we are here to review one of Walt Disney’s yet another animated feature marking a romantic start for the year 2011, “Tangled”.

The movie starts with a witty narration (Oh! Saved gracefully from the Once upon a time thing beginning) by the character, Flynn Ryder, given life by the exotic voice of Zachary Levi.

Now, as usual, a grandeur (animated, of course) high palace is shown right in the centre of the city, but near the banks of a beautiful river. I don’t know how they can bring these two things, the city centre and the river, together always or how I fall for this every time but I can tell you one thing, I have never lost taste for this (even if you have).

The King and the Queen (dummies, intended to cry until the end of the movie, mostly with sorrow but for once in the end with happiness, but still crying), have a beautiful, golden-haired, baby-girl daughter (if she isn’t pretty she is not the princess). The daughter is born with a gift from the God’s own magic flower and hence the magic golden hair. (I wish I had a bunch but not worthy would be my guess)

Now, sorry for voicing my skepticism here but if God does magic, he is hailed as a great soul, but if a mortal woman does it, she is a wicked witch (Except for maybe Hermione Granger, of course, if you know who she is). But seriously, Why the partiality people? Think!

So, now that it’s out in the open, let’s move on…..

As expected, the evil old woman who knows the flower’s secret climbs atop the high palace (do not ask me how, you have got to show some belief here), steals the baby, becomes young and takes her across to the high tower, near a beautiful waterfall, conveniently surrounded by mountains so that this tower is never visible to others.

Now the King, deprived of her daughter, lights candles (Wow! What a great way of finding her) and lets it out in the sky every year on her birthday. The people of the kingdom, the loyal ones of course, consider the King’s word as the God’s word and light candles and float them away on their behalf.

Of course, these candles make the scene look wonderful; bring a longing feeling to the girl, Rapunzel, (voiced by Mandy Moore who does justice to her role for real this time) atop the high tower, every time she sees them from her high view point. Why can’t she be raised in a cellar underground? You never know.
Rapunzel wants to see the origin of these candles. That might of course ruin the old or not-so-old-now lady’s plans. So Rapunzel is grounded.

The story takes a sudden, not-so-sudden twist when the thieving hero, Flynn en-route his escape from the palatial HORSE (an interesting supporting character by the way, so interesting that they might nominate this role to the Oscars this year for the Best Performance in a Supporting Role category), seeks asylum in the tower in which the heroine lives, mother not there when this happens of course.

The heroine, believe me when I say this, has miles and miles of flowing golden hair, pertaining to the fact that the hair will lose its power when cut. The hero initially seeks to help her out in an aim to retrieve his stolen satchel which is now stolen and hidden by Rapunzel. The great thief who hasn’t fallen for all the weapons of the palatial guards’ falls for the heroine’s greatest weapon of all times, not the “charm” if you are expecting that word here, but a frying pan. Teeechchchchckaaa.

Rapunzel, with her ugly but cute, chameleon friend, sweeps all the way to palace with her hair, sweeps us off merrily with her songs and of course sweeps Flynn by his feet with love during her adventures or mis-adventures, aptly put, on her way to the palace.
Now wait a second! Why is she going with Flynn to the palace? To see the floating lights of course if you haven’t caught up to the wind already!

The scene in which Rapunzel and Flynn sit in a boat in the river by the palace and watch thousands of candles rise into the sky, love is in the air, its so romantic that you would want to kiss the gorgeous girl sitting next to you in the theater, without considering the after-effects (which will possibly include getting beaten by the whole theatre crowd making the romantic movie into an action flick, but, never mind, its all imagination, turns out my neighbor was a nerdy looking guy, my friend, saving me the trouble of getting beaten). But in spite of all this bull**** I am talking about above, the scene is well shot and it’s perfect. Bravo to the art direction and the animators for this one.

The happy ending ends with a hearty positive climax, the death of the cruel old lady (oh! Now she looks old) and several other anti-elements, except perhaps the hero, who as usual is lucky, he went for the satchel, now he has the whole kingdom, if he can excuse the walking bio-hazard, Rapunzel.

The only sad thing, or not-so-sad for some like me, is, in an attempt to defeat the old lady, Rapunzel’s hair is cut. And she looks cool, for once, with her boy-cut.

And Flynn and Rapunzel with a much shorter hair, lived ________ ever after….
(You can fill the blank up above with whatever you like).

After all that sarcastic talk, the movie was absolutely endearing and if you are a child at heart (like me :P), this movie is right for you. It’s great for kids provided that they are still kids at heart.
Enjoy another good movie and come home happy.

Arrivederci!

Our Little Master

Aloha,

My mind kept thinking. Something was running over and over, like a stuck tape in my mind.
A lot of questions rose, like a never ending tide. Here is my attempt to ask and answer.

Am we Indians sentimental?
Can we like a person without even meeting him or seeing him for real, once?
Can one person give meaning to our hopes?
Can one person’s victory be celebrated across a whole country?
Can one person inspire us to dream of impossibilities?

What if that person is simple, humble, with no big-hot-head but a little appearance and his one smile could make you laugh, his one victory can make you clap, his one look at the heavens can make you cry, his one raise of a hand make you feel better than yourself?

And finally what if I can answer all the above questions with one name.
That one name would be no other than, our own son of a gun, “SACHIN TENDULKAR”, our little master.

He is the person who raises in the fall and humbles in the raise.
A person who can just be around and make all others around him confident.

If any team has had one person like this for so long and still reaps fruit, it would be India.

Tenacity is his character, patience is his strength and we are his BOOST.
The secret of his everlasting energy.

One thin curve of a smile from his mouth, the whole crowd thunders.
He is a person who has amassed such a power to influence people’s hearts and minds and bind them together.

As someone rightly said, when we talk about Sachin, we talk in the Superlatives!
Crumbling record after record and moving forward towards greatness, he is no normal human being, he is a super-hero. I say this not just because I am inspired or awed by him but because any village boy with just a candle-light at home, with just a simple radio, listens to the cricket commentary at night and raise up and shout with Joy as this unknown person hits a century. If this one man can instill genuine inspiration from all of us and bring us together in this one thought, make us feel like one, he is a super-hero indeed.

If this poor boy can identify himself with Sachin’s victory and be proud of it as his own, then we can call ourselves sentimental. We just don’t simply like him, we love him.

Sachin, we salute you, not just because you are a great player but because you give identity, identity to each of us, your fans. All I can say are two too small words, that I hope reaches you and makes you happy, “Thank you”. From all of our hearts, “Thank you”.

Arrivederci!

The Oscar Decision 2011

Aloha,
Welcome to my episode on the Oscar Decision this year, 2011.

My mind is just overwhelmed with thoughts that I am having trouble speaking.
I just feel like Colin Firth now when he is giving The King’s Speech.

Colin Firth becomes confident by the end of the movie and so have I now, even though this isn’t the end of this blog but only an Inception.

But before we go any further I think I may have to make sure of one thing.
Am I really typing this blog or am I asleep? Am I in a dream? Or dream within a dream for that matter.
I don’t see some extractor like Leonardo, also not see his beautiful wife or the kids.
I just hope that The Kids are All Right.

I am not sure if they are but suddenly it seems to me now that I am all right.
But I may be delusional. Its the middle of the night and I am a little unsteady that I feel like I am dancing in a ballet, more gravitating towards becoming a Black Swan than being a white one.

But my mind has always been a Fighter and I know I can get out of my delusions and illusions and display my True Grit.

Because when I am considering my mind going wrong, it doesn’t pretty much seem like a Toy Story. It seems like I am toying with my life.

But I am feeling sane now mainly because I feel connected to the The Social Network and when I think how close we are, to the big night, the OSCAR’s nite, so close, that we may be even seem to have only 127 hours to it.
This Winter seems to be chilled me to the bone.

And I thought aloud… “WOOOW!”
I could form a stupid story out of some ten random phrases. I feel that I could give myself a little pat on my back even if you wouldn’t but never you mind that.
Lets get to some serious business.

I know you are as excited as I am when you are reading this blog as to which movie is going to be winning the Oscars this year. The clock is ticking and my heart rate is increasing.

Below is the formal list of nominees to the best picture this year.
Black Swan,
The Fighter,
Inception,
The Kids Are All Right,
The King’s Speech,
127 Hours,
The Social Network,
Toy Story 3,
True Grit,
Winter’s Bone

Below are my votes for different Categories even though I may have to wait until Feb27th to validate these.

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Christopher Nolan for Inception

Added Feb27:
Oh Nolan! Another year without Oscars. You will have to suck it up once again!

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network
Added Feb27:
Attaboy, we got this right, Didn’t we?

VISUAL EFFECTS
Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb for Inception
Added Feb27:
Right again, Cool!

SOUND MIXING
Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley for The King’s Speech
Added Feb27:
Sadly Inception bet you to it! My highness.

SOUND EDITING
Richard King for Inception
Added Feb27:
Oh we know Richard King is the real King 😛

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
My mind seems to be in a tie here. I shall list out both of them. Lets see who wins. (An Evil Grin)
Hans Zimmer for Inception (or) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network.
Added Feb27:
Our Tie seems to have worked. Trent, Atticus, Bravo!

FILM EDITING
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter for The Social Network
Added Feb27:
A Definite Nod from the Oscars

DIRECTING
David Fincher for The Social Network
Added Feb27:
Oh David, BAFTA sees you better. If I had wanted anybody else to win in this category, then it would have been Tom, Excellent Choice!

COSTUME DESIGN
Jenny Beavan for The King’s Speech
Added Feb27:
We are wrong once again, Alice in Wonderland here. People seem to like Helena with a big head rather than a small one.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Matthew Libatique for Black Swan
Added Feb27:
Oh, Inception again. Seems the Cameraman needn’t learn ballet to win Oscar here!

ART DIRECTION
Eve Stewart (Production Design); Judy Farr (Set Decoration) for The King’s Speech
Added Feb27:
Alice in Wonderland again, or should i say Eve and Judy in wonderland.

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
How to Train Your Dragon
Added Feb27:
Toy Story 3, a movie which was nominated to the best picture, heaven knows why, won here.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Melissa Leo for The Fighter
Added Feb27: I knew it Melissa, you are one tough *****.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Natalie Portman for Black Swan
Added Feb27:
We saw this coming didn’t we? A child in real life and a child in Cinema life, Double congratulations, Natalie!

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Geoffrey Rush for The King’s Speech
Added Feb27:
Oh Christian Bale just beat you to it man.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Colin Firth for The King’s Speech
Added Feb27:
OK, The king is a king is a king.

BEST PICTURE
I am in a tie here again.
The King’s Speech or The Social Network.
Added Feb27:
Long live the King!

The above list only states my opinion not necessarily yours or the Academy’s.
(Added Feb27:
Now it also validates with the academy’s)
The above statement is a disclaimer and is bound to make me look silly but I had to add it nevertheless.

Anyway this year, all the nominees seem great to me and I would be absolutely pleased with anyone winning and anyone winning from the above list would be my price for watching all of these. 😛

Now, all after this is said, the one thing you can do is vote. So, Vote away.

Even after this exercise of voting for our favorites we have got no choice but to wait.
So lets do just that.

Arrivederci!

My Favorite Quotes – 1 – Jack Nicholson – The Departed

Aloha,
It gives me immense pleasure to start this never-ending series 😛 of my personal favorite quotes in the movies.

This blog, the first of its kind, is solely dedicated to my own personal favorite quote of all times and I am elated to begin this blog with a block-buster.

This quote, a simple single statement shows audacity, courage, confidence and self-esteem.

And to top it all, this statement is voiced by none other than the great “Jack Nicholson” and this statement marks the beginning of a great movie “The Departed”.

Quote:
“I don’t wanna be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.”

Hearing Jack utter this statement is just enough to boost back my confidence and drive me back to being certain and self-assured. Bravo!

I sincerely hope that you engross and appreciate the full meaning of the statement.
Watch the movie and hear this statement put forth to you in a humble but powerful way and you will have a similar feeling inside of you!

Arrivederci!