Cinema Paradiso: From Dusk Till Dawn!

Yup, I’m in paradise.

Check out what I’ve been through this weekend. Watched some of these throughout the night and slept by daybreak.

La Femme Nikita:
Super cool cinematography (love the blue tone), Anne Parillaud is drop dead gorgeous with her assasin looks. Tight film, makes Bridget Fonda (who played the same role in Point of No Return) look like a school girl in a play.
Just a word of caution. Don’t let the DVD cover that says “Wildly Seductive and Erotic” mislead you. It’s an action slick flick with candid sensuality strewn into the plot casually… This movie is far from a erotic thriller, be warned (Just in case you decide to watch this for the wrong reasons).

The Untouchables:
Just toooo cooooool. Brian De Palma is God. Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia make this film breathe cool into every single frame of this movie!
De Niro is Al Capone, the emotional bad ass Godfather. Does the four-man team of ‘The Untouchables’ manage to touch him at all?
Gautam Menon said he was inspired by this movie to make ‘Kaakha Kaakha.’ I’m glad that he kept his tribute very original. “How many films have we seen that baby-in-the-pram-going-down-the-stairs-during-the-shootout rip-offs,” Ramya and me concurred, speaking almost at the same time discussing the film.
No one can stop with one viewing.

Motorcycle Diaries:
Not that I dont like this movie, but I would’ve preferred a tighter edit. Again, not that I don’t like slow films, but this one did get a little tiring after a while. But, on the whole, it totally captivated me with its 9000 km long canvas of imagery, the introspective moods that struck a chord and the warmth of the bond between the “two parallel lives that ran together for a while.” Personally, I would have liked ‘Che’ to get laid in the course of the trip (apart from just scoring with his girlfriend in the beginning). Since, he doesn’t, all I can say is: “Che! Paavam”
But seriously, methinks Ashutosh certainly took home some inspiration for Swades from this film. The similarity between the moment of truth scenes (when the revolutionary-in-the-making for the first time realises the economic disparities and the plight of the poverty-stricken people living in the heartland of his land), introspecting during the boat journey that follows and the final montage sequence in the end when he recollects images of people he met during the trip… all groups of people looking into the camera, picture postcard style… I definitely saw that in Swades too! Interesting, since both these films released in 2004.

From Dusk Till Dawn:
Evidence why Tarantino has to be among the best screenwriters around… It’s actually his writing which makes for 80 per cent of his style. This film is evidence that, the way Tarantino writes, anyone can direct his film and it will still wear the stamp of the writer. Halfway into the film, Tarantino pushes the gangsters on the run (Clooney and himself) to the all night long strip bar called Titty Twister to give them a glimpse of the hawtest strip tease (Salma Hayek… drool drool) before unleashing some sphagetti violence and blood-curdling horror with loads of pop corn entertainment. If this does not entertain you, shoot me. Or let vampires feed on me! All I pray for is a Salma Hayek strip tease before my death.

Cinema Paradiso:
Man, is this a movie or a movie???
By far, THE best movie I’ve seen till date.
It had me smiling. It had me in tears. It got me goose bumps. It brought a lump in my throat. It made me feel good. It made me nostalgic. It made me feel totally home at a part of a world so distant from us, geographically and temporally (distant in terms of space and time that is).
It’s a coming of age film that makes us wish we never came of age.
It’s brings alive the magic of movies we grew up on. The joy of movie-watching, sitting among scores of other people in that dirty little movie hall, among the rich and the poor, among the movie buffs and the “matter”-buffs (the types for whom watching a movie is the best excuse to make out), the kinds who come to sleep and the kinds who come to watch and lose themselves in the world of make believe.
The story of a little boy Salvatore who’s so fascinated by the movies and his heart-warming bond with the projector-room in-charge Alfredo. I can go on raving about this film but I just prefer to let you guys watch it and lose yourself in one of the most immersive cinema experiences ever.
The directors cut is 170 minutes long. So prepare for it mentally, cuz it is a little slow and will seem to drag on towards the end if you had not paid adequate attention. This bitter-sweet Academy award winning saga is worth every moment you invest watching it. An experience of a lifetime!
P.S: Also be warned, that this is a movie-buff’s movie!

It just takes one rotten apple to ruin it all:

Because, just to make up for that dose of what people might call Peter (elitist) fare, I ventured out to the movie hall yesterday to find myself firmly back to earth and face to face with the ugly ground realities of our cinema.
Call it “drishti” or whatever, I’m talking abt the pumpkin-faced son of producer A.M.Ratnam in ‘Ponniyin Selvan,’ which will tempt the Academy to honor director Selvaraghavan with a lifetime achievement award for his work with Ravi Krishna in 7 G Rainbow Colony.
It’s a movie which might have been watchable but for the man who cannot act to save his face. Wait a minute, nothing can save his face. Come on, even Dhanush is way too ugly to be a film star but that kid can act. This walking-talking-bumbling Frankenstien’s monster (Frankenstien in this case being A.M.Ratnam’s clout) seems miscast even when he plays himself — aesthetically challenged youth desperate to look good.
Director Radha Mohan’s commendable effort ranges writing a script that lets ugly kid Ravi to play himself, to casting even more ugly faces as his friends, to giving him a Mickey Mouse mask to hide his face just so that a body double can do the job. Or maybe it was all on the insistence of his producer dad A.M.Ratnam who was smart enough to know that even he’s a better looker than his son.
Bad acting can ruin a film, I just hope it does not end Radha Mohan’s career cuz I hear ‘Azhagiye Theeye’ was a pretty neat, decent story told with refreshing freshness. You can see traces of that in this, but only limited to every frame that leaves Ravi out. There are some interesting bunch of secondary characters and a dignified Mom played by Revathy who has ensured that the film is low on the usual “amma-sentiment” melodrama.
Verdict: Avoidable. Cuz showing up in the movie hall to promote Radha Mohan might just encourage A.M.Ratnam to make another film with his son.
And who, really likes to see that wretched face on the posters around the city??

* * *

Maybe it’s a little late to mention but I did like Ullam Ketkume except for the annoying continuity jumps (maybe cuz the movie was in the making for a long while). It is quite a regular story of friends and campus but it’s told with a certain amount of conviction. I really dig the fact that two of the three love stories in the film did not end conventionally. Also, Shaam’s speech in the end totally took me down memory lane. Man, do I miss school or what??

My Wife’s Murder: Susan did a pretty neat review in the paper. I loved the film. One of the better products out of Ram Gopal Varma’s Factory.
I don’t like Anil Kapoor all that much these days, but he’s finally shown us he can act. This truly is his second coming. Cuz the last I liked him was in his Mr.India and Ram Lakhan days. He has underplayed the role so much that you actually wish he did quiver his lip a lil here and there just to make it more junta-savvy. Great narration of a rather weak premise. An absolutely absorbing, rollicking, riveting edge-of-the-seat psychological thriller.

Stealth: I did the review for the paper last week and please, the headline given for the review is not mine.

Update: Mangal Pandey as first of a trilogy: Heard that Ketan Mehta is indeed making the second and the third part of his trilogy on the first war of independence. The second one, will be on Jhansi Ki Rani, (he plans to get Aishwarya Rai) and the third on Bahadur Shah Zafar (with Amitabh Bachchan hopefully). Read his interview here.

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Cinema Paradiso: From Dusk Till Dawn!

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