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Watched a DVD of Bangkok Dangerous last night. The new Nicholas Cage action flick is possibly one of the most cliched “hitman” flicks I have seen of late. Still in spite of that the movie does have its moments. The plot follows Joe, a seemingly faceless assassin to Bangkok. Joe wants to do one last job and fade away into the crowds. The Bangkok job involves four hits and a lot of cash which is retirement money for Joe. Following his rules, Joe recruits a local pickpocket called Kong (yes, it doesn’t get funnier than this) to act as his go-between and contact the local mafia that hired him. Everything seems to be going as planned, when Joe executes his first hit flawlessly. However, Joe soon begins to violate his own unwritten code and develop a relationship with a local deaf-mute girl. To top that, the mafia wants a very sensitive target eliminated in the last hit and is curious to know the hitman’s identity, lest he botch the last hit and spill the beans.

The movie isn’t bad per se, just horribly cliched with almost every hitman cliche thrown at your face. The action set pieces and the hits are well shot and so the film does have its moments. Collateral (2004) and Matador (2005), movies on a similar theme were much better in my opinion. Still the film’s worth just about a watch.

PS: Me thinks this movie has excellent remake potential in Hindi. I can almost see a movie being made titled “Mumbai Dangerous”, directed by Sanjay Gupta. The movie cast would include Joe (Sanjay Dutt) and Kong(Ritesh Deshmukh). The club dancer being played by Katrina Kaif and the deaf mute girl played by Simone Singh. And for the bad guys, Sharat in the movie bears an uncanny resemblance to Sharad Saxena. And since quite a bit of movie is in a night club, excellent potential for an item number. What say Bollywood ?

The new PVR that opened at Oberoi Mall at Goregaon (E) has opened up an array of movie choices. And to add to that the morning shows are just Rs. 70, which is a steal considering that their morning shows start at around 11:00 am and their regular shows are well at double the amount. So decided to go and watch “Body of Lies” there at 11:00. I reached there a bit early, managed to get the tickets quite easily (I guess there must have been about 6 people for the movie). The mall bore a deserted look, with people streaming in, to open stores and change into their uniforms (Might make a nice topic for a Madhur Bhandarkar film…maybe he can call it “Mall’). Anyway, got an entire row to myself in the theater. The movie was quite good, all round stellar performances by DiCaprio and Crowe. The general plot (from IMDB) is as follows:

Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a covert CIA operative working in Jordan searching for terrorists who have been bombing civilian targets. Ferris uncovers information on the Islamist mastermind Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul). He devises a plan to infiltrate Al-Saleem’s terrorist network with the help of his boss back in Langley, Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe). Ferris enlists the help of the Chief of Jordanian Intelligence, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong) on this operation, but he doesn’t know how far he can trust him without putting his life in danger. The uneasy alliance leads to a cultural and moral clash between the men.

The narrative is quite intense, with several blink and you will miss the plot moments. The fight sequences were well done, especially the desert chase sequence. As I mentioned, the acting is quite good, but Mark Strong really raised the bar with his portrayal of Hani Salaam. His screen presence, measured cold-blooded menace of his character are amazingly well captured on celluloid.This is a great movie, do watch it if you get the time.

Its been a while since I have seen a good horror flick. The Ruins is all that and more. The description from IMDB reads:

A group of friends whose leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when they, along with a fellow tourist embark on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins.

The movie spends the first 20 odd minutes setting the backdrop for the characters. Once the lead characters get to the ruins though its one eerie ride.

The visuals are striking, especially the vine covered pyramid. The movie is essentially story driven with seemingly less use of overt CGI (something that is the rarity in Hollywood these days).And that’s why the movie succeeds so well, largely driven by some decent acting and a gem of a plot. Do watch this movie of some genuine thrills and chills.

PS: The movie is based on a book by the same name by Scott Smith, who previously wrote the superb “A simple plan”.

Watched the latest X-Files movie today. The movie comes after almost 6 years since the last episode aired. The plot follows mysterious abductions of women, one of whom is an FBI agent. The FBI is using the services of a psychic who claims to have a connection to the women. In order to assess whether the psychic is genuine, the FBI decides to bring in ex-agent Fox Mulder. Six years after the incidents of the series finale, Mulder is currently in hiding and lives with Scully, who is now a practicing physician. Mulder and Scully uncover clues that lead them closer to the abducted women, while mounting evidence seems to indicate that the women are running out of time.

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Watched three good movies over the last few days.

Started off with WALL-E, Pixar-Disney’s latest animated flick. In WALL-E we see the future earth that is overrun with tons of garbage. Enter WALL-E, the lonely robot, who is one of the last garbage compacting machines left. WALL-E spends his time roaming about with his pet cockroach, collecting trinkets. One fine day he finds a little plant that he carefully pots in an old shoe.

Enter EVE (or EVE-A as WALL-E calls her), the trigger happy probe sent to find signs of vegetable life on earth by the earthmen in exile. As soon as WALL-E sets eyes on her it’s love at first sight. Then when EVE shuts down after finding the plant and is recalled, WALL-E goes after her, on an epic journey.The movie is lovely in it’s animation, minimal use of dialogue and heart warming  storyline. Also liked the little homage paid to HAL (2001: A Space Odyssey for the uninitiated) in it.

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Just saw the Dark Knight yesterday after college. The movie more or less lives up to expectations (which is a bit rare these days). It opens with a slickly executed bank robbery orchestrated with the Joker. Later on we are introduced to a new Gotham in which the fortunes of the mob are waning with the renewed assault of the new DA Harvey Dent and the Batman on the underworld. The mob in a moment of desperation hires the Joker, a mysterious sociopath who hides behind a painted face. Batman in the meantime considers giving up the mask as Gotham’s new protector the DA Harvey Dent seems to be doing a good job. However the peace is not meant to last. Soon the Joker begins his campaign against the Batman and the people of Gotham and its up to the Dark Knight to stop him. (more…)

The Dark Knight releases on July 18th worldwide. Be there !!

I’ve been wanting to watch this movie ever since it got rave reviews from all the film critics. Finally after almost three weeks, I finally went and watched it yesterday.

Aamir is one of those rare Hindi movies that are about 90 minutes long, without any songs and completely plot and character driven. It was an absolute delight to watch this gem of a thriller. Aamir is loosely based on the Filipino movie Cavite, and follows the main character called Aamir through one hellish day. Aamir is a muslim doctor from London who decides to settle back in India. So he gets back to Mumbai where his family stays. At the airport, two people on a motorbike hand him a cellphone. The phone starts ringing and a voice on the other side tells him that unless he does as he is told, his family (which has been kidnapped) will be killed. Forced to follow the whims and fancies of the voice on the phone, Aamir begins his journey through the filth and grime of Mumbai’s side streets, old chawls, restaurants, lodges to finally a red briefcase. Asked to deliver the red briefcase as the last task, Aamir begins his journey to the briefcase’s last destination and the climax of the movie.

I loved the way the movie was shot, in real mumbai locations. The city looked fabulous, de-glamorized and very real. The subtle and not so subtle allusions to the end of the film, all throughout the movie added a nice layered touch. And the movie’s soundtrack was absolutely mindblowing. The moment the movie opened with Peggy Lee’s “It’s a good day”, synched to Mumbai life, you knew that this movie was going to be a great ride.

The only regret I had after watching this movie was that I spent Rs.180 on the ticket. Before you jump to conclusions about the movie not being paisa vasool, hear me out. After watching the movie I was browsing around in the DVD store in the mall. Guess what, I found a VCD of Aamir for Rs.199, which is when I realized that I could have owned this gem of a movie for life, instead of watching it once

Still Aamir is worth every penny spent. If you haven’t watched it, I suggest you either go and watch it in your nearest movie theater or at least rent the DVD and see it. If you want to wait though, Aamir plays on UTV movies in about two weeks on 18th July. Watch it then.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Reviews, Aamir

Watched Sarkar Raj yesterday after work. Sarkar Raj is the sequel to Sarkar and forms the second part of Ram Gopal Verma’s retelling of the Godfather Saga. The movie seems to be loosely based on the Dabhol Power Plant controversy in Maharashtra. It follows Shankar Nagre’s quest to set up a mega power plant in Maharashtra to solve it’s power woes, while at the same time a number of deal makers and other sundry elements plot to end the Nagre family’s political rule. It’s upto Sarkar in the end to unravel the conspiracy and put an end to things.

The movie takes off where Sarkar ended, and takes it forward from that point on. It has some great all round performances by the entire cast as well as an excellent story. However the soundtrack and some of the camera work didn’t do justice to movie. The camera seemed obsessed with lens flares and against the light shots which got a bit irritating after a point. But beyond these minor issues, Sarkar Raj is definitely a must watch movie.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Sarkar Raj