Aeon Flux
The following review has been rated R for strong violence, nudity, blood and gore. Viewer discretion is advised
Monday, April 03 2006 - 1237 hours - present
“Excuse me … coming through …”
Three 20 something guys rushed up the stairs, bumping into people as they went along …
“Hey! Watch it!” someone yelled …
“Sorry …”
The three of them made their way up the stairs, into the strategically placed college library on the third floor of the building.
As they barged into the library, a few people looked up from the books they were reading - completely interupted … until what had been a lazy monday morning.
The three scanned for the newspaper stands and rushed in that direction.
“I’ll cover Express …” one of them yelled .. trying to keep his voice as low as possible.
“I’ll take times”, “and I’ll check out Herald” the other two pipped back .. as they made their way to the Newspaper stand.
Monday, April 03 2006 - 1235 hours - 2 minutes ago
“Ma’am … would you be seeing our project today?” said one of them to their project guide.
“Hmm … is it okay if I see it tomorrow? I am not feeling that well now” came the reply.
Monday, April 03 2006 - 1238 hours - present
“Oye … V for Vendetta was at 10:30 … next is at 6:30 … wanna go ?” asked one.
“Negative … we need to work in the evening … it has to be now …” came the reply
“How about Aeon Flux? Its at 12:45 at Adlabs …”
“Hmm … hows the movie?”
“Supposed to be good. Its got Charlize Theron man … supposed to be a sci fi super hero kind of movie”
“Hey .. I read a review today. She’s supposed to be an assasin. Though the newspaper review wasn’t that great”
“Hey … we need to take a decision in 1 minute. Either we go now or then tomorrow”
“Ok .. lets do it …”
“I think we’ll take 10 mins to reach Adlabs if we take it via KP … what say?”
“Done …”
“Okay cool … lets do this”
I’d like to bring to your attention here, that this is how bad decisions are made. I was unfortunate to be one of the “three”
The Review, Finally
So in the next 10 minutes (if you’re still here), we were at Adlabs … comfortably seated.
The movie had just started - and all we had missed was the National Anthem and the opening two minutes.
Aeon Flux the movie, is a pretty much waste of time and money.
The movie, as the posters will blatantly read out … is all Charlize Theron.
So, from the first shot to the end, its Charlize all the way …
One shot of her close up, then a wider angle, then her eyes, then her telepathic vision, then she kicking butt, then she flying then she …. etc etc …
You might be wondering, but it’s Charlize you idiot ! Whats wrong with that?
I had thought the same thing too, but by the end of the film, with 100 bucks down (out of which 50 bucks was for a freakin coke !!!), I realised that even that wasn’t worth it.
Okay, back to the movie
The movie tries to be very slick (it being set 400 years in the future … so it has to be)
The movie is a mixture of (all the bad things) of all the previous Sci fi movies …
In the end, there is no “sci” in the “sci - fi”
You’ll find traces of “The Island” (a lot of it), “I, Robot”, “Minority Report”, etc etc.
The Script … and the thing you call editing
Unfortunately, the movie does not have any of it.
Its like they hired Charlize Theron, got her an acrobatics trainer, gave her a tight suit and asked her to jump around while they shot her.
The editing is non existent, with shots following one another which have no connection between them …
Most of the plot is very masala hindi movie-ish … and with pretty ordinary acting, turns out to be very corny.
Till the end, every shot is very predictable … and you’re left wishing for something wacky to happen (like Charlize being the main mastermind villain or something) so that you could say .. “Woah .. never saw that coming” and probably losing 100 bucks wouldn’t sting that much …
But guess what? No such thing happens and by the end of the movie, when you step out of the theatre, you’re left wondering whether a law should be passed which jails good actors for acting in crappy movies.
The background score was not noticeable … it had more or less the qualities a sci fi movie should have.
The two best parts of the movie were no doubt the interval and the end credits.
Please don’t go and watch the movie if your life depended on it.
Maybe if someone kidnapped a loved one and threatened to kill them if I didn’t watch it, then maybe I would consider going for it …
3/11/2006
Million Dollar Baby
That’s how life is really - and thats what the movie aims to tell you and does a pretty good job at doing it too …
You fall down, you get up and then you get back at what you were doing
Thats what the Million Dollar Baby is all about.
I admit that I caught this movie pretty late, and am extremely glad that I did it.
My first impression after seeing the promos and stuff was that its going to be another boxing movie, well … I couldn’t be more wrong.
The movie tells us a story of a girl (Hillary Swank), a waitress from more than 20 years, who has nothing in the world except her dream to be the best female boxer there is … and of a man (Clint Eastwood) who gives her a shot at getting there.
This movie has many, many layers to it - and I bet everytime you see it, you’ll learn something new from it.
The film is directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and he also stars in it, along with Morgan Freeman. Hillary Swank plays the main role and she won an oscar for best actress for her role in the film.
The film is not just another boxing movie - though the fights are pretty intense and a lot of fun to watch (though they don’t compare to the adrenaline pumping rocky fights), they are still brilliantly choreographed.
The rest of the movie plays pretty slow, but is nevertheless very engaging and I never found the movie to lag anyplace.
At two hours, ten minutes, it is the perfect length to watch - and keeps you hooked throughout.
The movie is actually based on three short stories from Jerry Boyd’s book: ‘’The Monkey Look,'’ ‘’Million $$$ Baby'’ and ‘’Frozen Water.'’
As such, the screenplay is very well written and is one of the reasons that you should watch this film.
The Morgan Freeman narration throughout the film, gives it a ‘’Shawshank Redemption'’ kind of feel and helps take the story forward and connect the pieces together.
All the cast perform brilliantly, the direction is superb and the movie is inspirational and very multi dimensional.
Therefore, a must watch according to me …
End Note
The movie won 4 oscars in all including Best Motion Picture, Best Actress (Hillary Swank), Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman) and best direction (Clint Eastwood)
3/8/2006
The Constant Gardener
It’s like it’s a marriage of convenience and all it produces are dead offspring.
Beginnings …
This year, coincidently, or otherwise, I have seen many movies which are based on real life, heart wrenching stuff - the Constant Gardener being one of them.
I haven’t seen any promos of the film (it was recommended to me by a friend), but I’ve heard that the promos are misleading which would spoil the film for you if you take it as a murder mystery.
The movie is NOT really an edge of the seat murder mystery and it does not even have its “adrenaline moments”, but for what its worth, it is a very well made movie.
The people
The movie stars Ralph Fiennes (Schlinders List, Maid in Manhattan, The Prince of Egypt) as an English High commission Diplomat who is posted in Kenya and Rachel Weisz (Mummy, Runaway Jury, Constantine) as his wife.
Both of them being the very talented actors they are, do complete justice to their roles.
In fact, Rachel Weisz won best supporting actress for her role in this film at the Oscars this year.
The movie is actually based on a novel by the same name by John le Carre’ and is directed by Fernando Meirelles who is also the director of the very critically acclaimed film : City of God.
The movie …
The overall movie plays extremely slow but is nevertheless intriguing and keeps you glued to your seat.
The story from the synopsis (no, this will not at all spoil the movie for you) is that the wife of a British Diplomat gets murdered in Kenya and he decides to get to the bottom of this.
In doing so, he uncovers many hidden secrets, relating to industrial corruption and how big companies take advantage of third world countries.
Like I said, the movie plays a bit slow throughout and you have to pay attention to the dialogues to actually get engrossed into the movie.
The movie is shot and edited in such a way, that you get a third person perspective of the film. Like something is happening on screen - but you are not involved in it.
This goes on till just before the movie ends - and in those last five minutes, you are sucked into the movie and begin to empathize with all the characters.
In such, the cinematography and the editing are very nicely done.
Most of the movie is shot in Africa - and we are shown the bad, barren side of Africa throughout the movie - the dying refugees, bandits, barren rocky deserts, etc.
Musings …
The movie takes a shot at the pharmaceutical companies around the world and how they use third world countries to their advantage by treating their people as expendable guinea pigs.
The movie is quite depressing at parts and makes you realise that everything is not right with the world and greed, corruption and power result in utter inhuman practices.
If you’re one of those people who care about the world, the environment and liked movies which deal with such issues, you will love this film.
In conclusion …
The original score of the movie is hauntingly beautiful and helps you connect with the film.
The film was nominated for the Oscars in four categories including editing, derived screenplay, original score and supporting actress — which Rachel Weisz won.
For the two hours and 10 minutes that you will spend watching this movie, its well worth the time.
2/25/2006
Rang De Basanti
Prologue
Just came from watching Rang De Basanti …
There is a lot to general things to talk about this film - but I won’t be doing that …
Instead, I will take a different route and talk about the experiences that I went through while I sat in the theatres for 3 hours today.
Some General Musings
For starters, Rang De Basanti is a pretty experimental movie to me … it’s not your normal, everyday bollywood paisa vasool movie. Not that I see so many bollywood movies, but still …
Today was approximately the 6th week since the movie has been released (and so I was told) - and there I was, sitting in the 3rd row from the screen for a saturday morning 10 o’ clock show.
The movie was to go houseful in the next 5 minutes before the movie started.
The running time of the movie is about 180 minutes - and I went through a series of emotions while watching the movie. The movie is essentially divided into two parts - the one before the interval and the one after.
The production values of the movie is very very good for a bollywood movie - brilliant acting (then again, all Amir Khan movies have brilliant acting), great cinematography and non obstructive songs (for most parts of the movies anyways)
Everyone acted brilliantly, including Madhavan who plays a good cameo.
I was particularly very impressed by Alice Patten (who plays Sue) and her efforts with Hindi which at the beginning sound corny (Maa Ki Aankh??) but you get used to within the first 10 minutes of her arriving in India.
Not to undermine the soundtrack - which was experimental too - and I loved it.
It was well synchronized with the story running and helped in elevating the momentum of the entire movie.
The first part
The initial one and a half hours of the movie deals with the character building (which is so very very important for any movie) of all the characters and is very fun and enjoyable to watch.
We’re introduced to each of the characters and the camraderie that they share amongst them. All this is kept very real, and I as a student (at approximately their ages) was able to empathize with them at once.
Though not generally a comedy, I was in splits at most of the dialogues which were nothing but inline chatter amongst the characters.
The main cast is not introduced till the first 20 minutes, but it was nevertheless very enjoyable.
The Second Part
This is the place where the movie takes a ninety degree turn and the entire emotional balance of the movie swings the other way.
Things get serious all of a sudden and you’re taken through a torrent of emotions ranging from joy, sorrow, fear, hatred, patriotism, etc.
The parallels drawn between the documentary being made - and the lives of the friends (though a bit cliched) was brilliantly done and stands out in the movie.
After thoughts
This movie actually makes you ’’think’’ and whatever hype it has received, is not over the top. Even after a hundred people telling me that the movie was brilliant and my brother spilling the ending, I still loved the movie.
About 3 weeks ago, people I didn’t know would come up to me and say ’’Rang De Basanti dekhi kya?’’ followed by ’’Go watch it’’
The movie has everything in it and as an experience, its well worth the 3 hours of your life that you will spend at the halls.
At the end, it does evoke a sense of patriotism and makes you ponder on things that happen and the government cover ups and whether anything would change in India, if at all …
Maybe a generation is awakening … and its a good thing.
And as a footnote, welcome to the world of intelligent, realistic (well almost) Indian movies. First Dombivli Fast .. and now this …
Things are starting to look good.
1/17/2006
Dombivli Fast
I caught this movie, at the Pune International Film Festival (which was my second good movie of the day) - and very worth the effort of waiting an hour and a half in front of the doors for the movie to start.
In five minutes, the hall was jam packed - with no one being able to get in because of the number of people sitting on the floors and standing by the doors to catch the movie.
Dombivli Fast is a marathi movie which revolves around the life of a middle class man - Madhav Apte (played by Sandeep Kulkarni) who is a pretty stubborn man and has a very ’’No compromising on my principles’’ attitude.
The starting of the movie depicts the redundancy of his everyday life with him doing the same things day after day after day …
Madhav Apte has never bribed anyone in his life and has never accepted any bribes himself. He is a very straight forward guy who has lived his life so far on his principles and is hell bent on continuing to do the same.
He sees the rampant corruption around him, the apathy of people and how everyone has the ’’chalta hai’’ attitude.
Everytime he tries to intervene or do something, he is stopped by one of his friends or colleagues who tell him to ’’forget it and move on’’.
Throughout his life, he is taunted by his wife, friends and neighbours on his uncompromising attitude, and how the ’’real’’ world does not work that way.
Finally, one day, he flips - the constant taunts and the drudgery of his everyday routine playing a major part in it.
What happens next when he flips, is what the movie is all about.
The supporting cast did a pretty awesome job and their acting was pretty much flawless. Kudos to Sandesh Jadhav who plays the cop and Shilpa Tulaskar who plays his wife.
The director of the movie is Nishikant Kamat and he’s also done a fabulous job of shaping the movie in the way it was done.
For a Indian movie, this one had some surprisingly, good production which put it on par with the other movies being shown at the film festival.
I personally felt, that a little bit more time should have been spent in character building - due to which it takes sometime to empathize with the main protagonist.
Due to this, the movie seems to drag a bit towards the middle, but the ending of the film is awesome and justifies for any other little flaw that the movie might have had.
Once the movie got over in the over crowded hall, the exit doors were empty.
Everyone, including the people who were sitting on the walk-ways were just .. sitting.
No one spoke for quite sometime.
The movie depicts how every person should think, but also at the same time, sticks to the sad reality of how the outcome might turn up.
