The Color of Paradise

Wow! What a movie! Truly touching...

The Last King of Scotland

Pretty nice movie. Not sure if its a true story or not. But story is seen from the eyes of his personal physician. Its about Ugandan dictator Ibu Amin who apparently has murdered thousands of people. Forrest Whitaker's acting is amazing. He instills fear even without saying a word.

Thank you for smoking

Wow. If ever you want to learn how to speak, this is the movie to see. The film portrays Nick Naylor as a lobbyist who fights successfully for smoking amidst great campaigns against tobacco companies although he does feel cigarettes are injurious to health. He shows how you can survive in this world as long as you know how to talk. A must see.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Wow. What a movie. Extremely poignant. Beautiful direction. The narration of Daisy's accident in particular is simply magnificent although it is a very popular style employed by many known authors. The movie reminded me of similar movies like Forrest Gump, The English Patient, The End of the Affair, The Truman Show, etc where the whole life span is shown. Brad Pitt has acted very well.

Mere Baap Pehle Aap

A movie by Priyadarshan is generally nice and enjoyable. This one is not so great but watchable. Quite a different theme handled well and rather humorously although there are times when one gets bored...

Ugly Aur Pagli

Disgusting. Avoid it.

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

Inspired by a blog. So, really had high expectations. But felt the movie was just mediocre. I checked with others about this movie too. Some have liked it and some not. So, its 50-50...

Bommarillu

A Telugu movie which was recommended to me although I do not understand the language. A wholesome entertainment and awesome direction. There is not a moment of 'bore' or 'sadness' even if you do not understand the language. The heroine's character is extremely well accomplished, ditto the hero's. The dance sequences are superb, as are the songs. Some dubious twists in the tale, like the dad asking the fiance's girl friend (not the fiancess) to stay in the house of the fiance for 7 days. But otherwise, an excellent movie which does exactly what movies are meant to do - entertain!

Soul Man

A nice story with a comical touch. Its about a white boy who poses as a black to receive scholarship to study in Harvard. Rated at 4.7 on imdb. I would rate it as 'Good'.

License to Wed

A nice movie. Its about how a couple have to live their entire life together once, with all that comes with marital life - well, not all - in just 3 weeks, before they actually wed. Very humorous and very true.

Slumdog Millionaire

Wow. What a movie! There are some who dont like this movie and some who do, and i definitely belong to the latter. Amazing direction, amazing picturization and good story line. There are some things in this world which makes a good movie on its own. A 3 hr Cricket match is one. A 1 hr show of 'Who Wants to be a millionaire?' is another. Lagaan used the former as its main theme and SM uses latter as its main theme. Add a parallel story, touch of tragedy and dose of romance and it shall become as good a movie as any...

Mayura

Saw it for the nth time. An amazing movie of the yesteryears, showcasing the history of Pallavas and Kadambas, of war and peace, of heroes and villains, of literary excellence, of romance, of bravery and extreme bravery. Its the Kannada version of Gladiator. Except that it is semi-true. A film not to be missed.

Soorappa

Vishnuvardhan starrer Kannada movie. Too many goods and too many bads happen in this movie. All goods by Vishnuvardhan but all bads by those who admire him and are against him. Nice movie but not a great one.

Race

Twists and turns. Whole movie goes on with so much of twists and turns that you rather start expecting the unexpected - like characters coming back from the dead and heroes becoming villains and villains becoming heroes. Rather too much, but then, yeah - doesnt bore the audience. Nice songs. Watchable once. Cinematography capturing the beauty of South Africa is commendable.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Part 3 - At World's End

Same ugly characters continued in this sequel too. Story became even more complicated with dead men living and living men dying. Completely lost track of the storyline. Fantasy, fantasy and more fantasy. Like the scene in which ship overturns but goes down the sea to surface again! Did not like this film one bit.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Part 2 - Dead Man's Chest

Captain Jack Sparrow's character is mesmerising but I aint the kind to like the ugly characters portrayed. Part 1 wasnt all that bad with ugly characters. Also, the story wasnt very clear. Liked only the scene in the island when the chase happens. Didnt understand the ending either. Scene of Sparrow entering the dragon was absolutely disgusting.

Ghajini

Why would anyone want a movie named after a villain? With the villain being really bad? And the villain dying in the end? And whats with the short term memory loss? It was not even needed. The movie is simply a 'boy loses girl and takes revenge on villain' theme. Overacting by the heroine. True short term memory loss is depicted in the movie Memento. And by the way, there is far too much violence than what is necessary. Well, anyways, watchable once...

Welcome

:) There are times when one ought to watch movies like this. Again, 'keep the brain out and watch' types...
Rating: Average

American History X

Wow! What a movie! Beautiful direction, excellent story, mind blowing dialogues...

Death of a President

Huh?!

Extract:

Range and his co-writer/producer Simon Finch have shown how the news can be refashioned into science fiction. In the process, they conclusively demonstrate how easily fiction can be re-edited, on a daily basis, to television viewers and web surfers as fact. The real evidence is the footage, mostly just edited and only occasionally doctored, of protests, speeches, receptions and even a funeral. This strategy of capturing realness knocks the breath out of the spectator, as the audience plays its own frantic guessing game, trying to figure out the source of what is being shown. Its other, equally important, agenda is to demonstrate how efficiently technology can be used to misinform. It's a demonstration of how people can be deceived. How do we judge images? How do we interpret them? When do they show us the truth and when are we deceived by lies?

Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/sep/14/festivals1