Cinema Cinema

Movie: Dark City Language: English Genre: Fantasy / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller Director: Alex Proyas Year: 1998 Watched on: 23 April 2006 Rating: ***1/2 (3.5/5) Review: Dark City is an interesting as well as engrossing Sci-fi movie. A guy wakes up in a hotel room with out memories and finds his name is John Murdoch who is accused of murdering six prostitutes. While trying to figure out his past, he figures out the things in the city are not the way they seem; a strange race is controlling the lives of people in the city, sun never raises and he possesses a strange ability to change his physical surroundings. Great camerawork, brilliant sets and style of narration make this film quite engrossing. Overall it is a good science fiction.

Movie: Paradise Now Language: Arabic Genre: Crime / Drama Director: Hany Abu-Assad Year: 2005 Watched on: 22 April 2006 Rating: **** (4/5) Review: “Paradise Now” is a brilliant, thought provoking and dispassionate film by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad. Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) are two childhood friends and garage mechanics living with their families in the West bank area which is under Israeli occupation. They get chosen to be the martyrs who would blow themselves up after infiltrating to Israel. As the two nominated Palestinian terrorists with bomb packs strapped around their belly try to go about their tasks, doubts, internal conflicts and personal trauma surfaces. This Oscar nominated and Golden Globe award winning film is a superb thriller which depicts human side of the terrorists and gives viewers an unbiased view of the situation. This gripping movie is well shot and has some great performances.

Movie: Infernal Affairs (Mou gaan dou) Language: Cantonese Genre: Crime / Drama / Thriller Director: Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak Year: 2003 Watched on: 20 April 2006 Rating: **** (4/5) Review: This one is an intense and gripping thriller from Hong Kong with a very interesting storyline. Surprisingly this is a great movie from Hong Kong, that neither has martial arts nor too much of fireworks. Drug lord and Crime Boss Sam (Eric Tsang) plants a mole in the Police force and at the same time Police places an undercover cop among gangsters. Both the moles climb up the ladders in their respective fields and become key members as they secretly go accomplishing their respective missions. After an intense and disastrous encounter with each other, both the parties i.e. Police and Gangsters come to know of existence of a mole in their respective forces. Inspector Lau (Andy Lau), the mole in police and the Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), the undercover cop are on hot pursuit of each other. Both are ...

Movie: Taxi 2 Language: French Genre: Comedy / Action Director: Gérard Krawczyk Year: 2000 Watched on: 19 April 2006 Rating: ** (2/5) Review: This is a sequel of the French movie Taxi. The Japanese ambassador visits the city of Marseilles to inspect the anti-mafia skills of the local police. While the display is on, a team owing allegiance to a Japanese Yakuza kidnaps the ambassador along with a French lady cop Petra. Fellow cop Emilien who has fallen for Petra takes assistance of dare-devil and wizard Taxi driver Daniel’s help to secure the release. One can afford to skip this flick which has too much of nonsensical stunts and chases, dumb cops and silly characters. Though a cult of movie goers might find it entreating, it barely managed to bring couple of chuckles for me.

Movie: Rang De Basanti Language: Hindi Genre: Comedy / Drama / History / Romance Director: Rakesh Omprakash Mehra Year: 2006 Watched on: 16 April 2006 Rating: *** (3/5) Review: Rang De Basanti by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra is a film made with sincere and noble intention of injecting the current generation of India with a dose of patriotism and respect towards people who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their country. Sue (Alice Patten) inspired by the entries in her grandfather's (a police officer during colonial rule) aspires to make a film on revolutionaries like Chandrashekar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and their associates. Due to lack of funds, she lands up in Delhi University looking for volunteer actors for her docudrama. There she happens to acquaint with a group of friends lost in their own careless and carefree world. With DJ (Aamir Khan), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi), Karan (Siddharth), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) and their enemy Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarn...

Movie: Son of the Bride(Hijo de la novia, El) Language: Spanish (Argentina) Genre: Comedy / Drama Director: Juan José Campanella Year: 2001 Watched on: 09 April 2006 Rating: *** (3/5) Review: Son of a Bride by Argentine director Juan José Campanella is a family drama with a bit of humor. Rafael Belvedere (Ricardo Darín) is a 40 something restaurateur in Buenos Aires and his life is in a terrible mess. He is running a restaurant with great difficulty that he inherited from his father, he is in financial trouble, he is divorced and not able to carry out his duties towards his daughter, he doesn’t visit his aging mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and he can not commit himself to his girlfriend. Rafael suffers a mild heart attack and gets hospitalized and there he takes a hard look at his life. With help of childhood friend Juan Carlos (Eduardo Blanco) he resurrects himself out of the mess. Performances are good and some scenes are moving otherwise there is nothing exceptional a...

Movie: Amélie(Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le) Language: French Genre: Comedy / Drama / Romance Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Year: 2001 Watched on: 09 April 2006 Rating: **** (4/5) Review: Amélie is a gem of a movie directed brilliantly by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. I first watched it in a film festival and fell in love with it immediately. Despite watching it in parts on TV recently, I decided to watch it again and I swear I was not bored even for a minute. Amélie (Audrey Tautou) is a lonely, shy and innocent girl in Paris. She works in a cafe and loves to indulge in small pleasures like skipping pebbles on water, burying her hands in grain, day dreaming etc. One fine day in her apartment she accidentally finds a small box full of toys and photographs probably hidden by some old occupant. Amélie decides to find the owner and return the box back She also decides if the owner is moved by her gesture, she will continue to be a good Samaritan else its too bad. Seeing the owner of the b...

Movie: Oldboy Language: Korean Genre: Action / Drama / Mystery / Thriller Director: Chan-wook Park Year: 2003 Watched on: 08 April 2006 Rating: **** (4/5) Review: Oldboy is the second movie of the famed "revenge" trilogy by Chan-wook Park. This is a visually stylish ultra violent movie is in the same genre of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. After a round of heavy drinking and a trip to police station on the day of his daughter's birthday Oh De-Su (Choi Min-shik) on his way back home disappears mysteriously. He finds himself kidnapped and held prisoner in a cell by some strangers for reasons not known to him. One fine day after being held captive for 15 years, Oh De-Su is released with clothes money and a mobile phone along with the charge of murdering his wife. As he sets out to find his captor and take revenge Oh De-Su meets a Japanese chef Mi-do (Hye-jeong Kang). He soon finds his captor has released him only to subject him to more torture. The story takes lots of twists...