Film / Documentary - Recently watched & worthy of some discussion

[mappi]

Now you see me

Mélanie Laurent & Jose Garcia are reputed french actors.

Jose Garcia started as as a "comedian" on TV, and established himself quite well in movies. He is a perfect mix of comedy and character. When I watch certain tamil short films there are artists whose performence resembles a lot with him, notably Kali, eventhough they both do not know the others existence. Pick any movie of his, and I am sure you will enjoy them.

Mélanie Laurent is MY favorite actress. How Nargis is for many, Mélanie is for me. She is everything that a film maker (and others) can dream of. Actress may claim that they do not use glycerine, but its always moving to see Mélaine cry or weep on screen (eventhough its quite cruel to say so). She can turn at any given moment from joy to agony with laughter, pain and tears included. She suits well with or without makeup, especially without the "red paint" on the lips. She has natural colors too. Well I stop here ...
Highlight : the restaurant scene in Inglorious Bastards (well for that I should start from the begining when she is seen running). I let you watch her other movies.

As said, will be watching this movie on 31/07. Wondering how much screen space she has got, keeping in mind its a hollywood film !

[SoftSword]

SVSC

A film which shud've had Sivaji and Gemini as the two brothers. A pre 70 sentimental drama which tests patience. Not sure what made AP people celebrate this film. At one point of time, i started to wonder whether they are brothers or lovers. MJM's music was noteworthy. Nothing else got registered in my mind.

exactly... idhellaam 10 varusatthukku minnaadi vikraman innum rasikkiramaadhiri kaattittaar kinda feel...
venkatesh was a bit artificial in that role... and prakashraj was faking a bit...
time pass.. but adhukku mela solradhukku onnum illa...

[HonestRaj]

GOURAVAM - radha mohan / prakashraj

- oru vatti paarkkalam... will test your patience
- supposed to be humour dialogues in this film can compete with 3 paer 3 kaadhal dialogues.. adi matta rangekku mokkaiya ezhudhirukkanga..

[NOV]

Man of Steel
If your idea of the perfect Superman is Christopher Reeves who goes as Clark Kent in normal life wearing specs and looking "completely different" from Superman, and who goes into the phone booth to "change" then this movie is not for you!
Remember this is Nolan's take on Superman, so expect a lot of darkness. He turns the story turvy and presents a completely different take.

Man of Steel made $21 million from its late Thursday and midnight showings. This marks Warner Bros. third highest midnight opening, just behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and The Dark Knight Rises. It is also the biggest advance night/midnight debut for a non sequel.

[mappi]

Man of Steel
Remember this is Nolan's take on Superman, so expect a lot of darkness. He turns the story turvy and presents a completely different take.

Hope audiences dont take this "take" seriously and start considering the real Hanuman of Hollywood. I wish they do not give importance as they gave to Batman. I was crying load shouting that its all wrong when everyone was calling Nolan's Batman was a master-piece.

Will be watching the 3D version next Friday.

[mappi]

Star Trek : Introduction

Somewhere in the very far future, the government is named as United Federation of Planets or "The Federation". Its job is to govern (what US is doing now), but just that their perimeter has enlarged to planetary administration. Under them are Starfleet (something like FBI) to help them stabilise peace which includes exploration of new planets and reserach. The Federation has enemies and alies, mostly non-human (as we are talking about other planets whose inhabitants are mostly Aliens). Allies work and help The federation in R&D.

Star trek is about an exploration team consisting of about 10 plus important commandant and a handful of crew members, whose prime goal is patroling in the space on a space ship - USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (commanly known as Enterprise) - and at the same time look for more life, in other words look for adventure. The team consists of :

James T. Kirk : The captain, you know that cool guy who is often seen having fun and at a point of time realises his duties and saves the world.

Spock : Mister Spock is half human and Half Vulcan (oh! don't worry about Vulcan - its just another planet and the Vulcans are the first aliens to assit The Federation). He has certain abilities far from human understanding.

Leonard "Bones" McCoy : Its me, I mean, the Doc of the Ship. Just a curious fellow who does not leave anything for chance. "Eveything has a motive and reason for existence" kind of freek.

[So mainly the adventures are handled by these 3 and they have a very special bond and energy between them]

Montgomery "Scotty" Scott : Engineer. Just like anyother intelligent man, he is a bit at lose of usual human behaviour. Usually he comes in handy to debloc a suituation.

Hikaru Sulu : By the name you know his origins and he is the first in command, simply put, the pilot of the ship USS Enterprise - NCC-1701.

Nyota Uhura : She is the communication officier and a former student of Mister Spock. Side Role : love interest of Mister Spock and she got numerous problem with Mister Spock's reaction towards human Love. Her "mysterious" name is most of the time the centre of humour.

[And we got some friendly Aliens on the ship too. You will identify them when they are on screen - just dont get scared, as mentioned they are friendly. Highlight : Scotty has an alien assitant called Keenser. This alien is fun for any kid. And he also has some special place in the series.]

This special set of commandants use some advanced technology (as guessed) to explore the space, one of them being a transportation method using a machine called Transporter. It basically teleports them to almost anywhere in the time zone but "conditions apply".

And each person is seen on specific colored uniforms. Don't worry about it, its just a color for a rank. You can easily follow it while watching the series or movie.

Now the Villans : There are a bunch, but the mostly deadly is Khan Noonien Singh. He is an Indian (yes you read it right!) and genetically modifed into a super-human-alien. Now he wants to take the planetary world with a bunch of sidekicks. Ofcoarse The Federation wants to stop him (if not them, who else) notably our NCC-1701 captain and his crew. Then you got a handful of villans - Roomulans, Gray, Kira (there is a sweet episode with Spock), Dukat etc.

So if you know these details, Star trek is quite easy to follow. Its mainly an adventure + the emotions between main characters + an episode where one of the characters is given importance so that we know more about them. And ofcoarse there are so many alien planets out there, but the fearful one is Qunos (or Kronos). They are as powerful as The Federation, just that they do not share the same (political) vision (Does Russia ring a bell)

With this intro, you are all set to watch and enjoy Star Trek : Into the darkeness (2013). Watching Star Trek (2009) helps you to identify the Actors, but none of the these 2 movies have anything informative for 1st time viewers. Thats why I deceided to give you the intro for those who do not know what Star Trek is. Without the basic knowledge you cannot appreciate the film, and after knowing if you still dont like it, then Star Trek is not in your syllabus covered by "Konark fantasy guide".

[mappi]

Star Trek : Into the Darkness (English : 2013 : 2h22m)
Produced & Directed by Jeffrey Jacob Abrams

Music : Michael Giacchino
Visual Effects : Industrial Light & Magic

Banner : Bad Robot Productions

Starring :
Chris Pine as Captain Krik
Zachary Quinto as Mister Spock
Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura
Karl Urban as Mccoy
Simon Pegg as Scott
John Cho as Hikaru Sulu
Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan
Peter Weller as Marcus
Alice Sophia Eve as Dr. Carol Marcus [They should have kept her hair long - no worries - she is as gorgeous as she should be)

After an miraculous escape from a primitive planet, and on the run saving the planet from a deadly Volcanic disaster, Captain Krik is before his Admiral Pike not in a so good position. Mister Spock had given the true version of the intervention, which is everything else than the report of the Captain, resulting in Krik loosing his ship Enterprise and his crew, including Spock as his second in command. While bar episodes follow, there is a blast in one of the archives of The Federation in London. So all the "who-is-who" of The Federation are assembled in the Headquaters to analyse the suituation. Its when a suprise attack is launched, killing a few, which included the Admiral Pike whom Krik considers as a Father Figure. As guessed, Krik starts his vengenceful journey to track down the killer, Khan, admist the revolt from his team members recollecting him that they are not a war-ship but an exploring one. After quite hard decesions and firmity, Krik sets off in search of Khan to Kronos, the last possible location of the most wanted Khan. There is a problem, Kronos is the enemy planet, but Krik lands there, just to be suprised to see Khan helping him out and volunteerly surrendering. When they are on the Enterprise, Krik learns quite shocking things from Khan. After a while Enterprise comes into a suprise attack. With the Khan's help, which is unavoidable, Krik has to encounter this mysterious attacking ship inorder to save his ship and crew. Whats Khan's motive, who is he, who is attacking the Enterprise - takes Krik and his team into an adventure which ends him in the releams of darkness where truth is anything but plesant. Meantime Mister Spock takes the command of the ship and with one of his ability contacts his future self just to learn that Khan is not to be trusted and Spock will defeat Khan, but by paying a HUGE price.

J.J. Abrams, once again re-invented Star Trek, taking much care not to spoil the original and most importantly not attmpting to give the version of his. As usual, the dialogues and the relationship between the principle character are funny and real. Another highlight is that they have also kept the same sounds those which were used in the classic-cult series. Comparing with the 1st, Abrams has opted for more grandeur and destructions for this sequel. Killing Pike was the limit to show that the title says "Darkness". Eventhough, not sure if I could have seen it comming, it did not disappoint me as Pike is a less talked about character.

The visual effects is anything but real, at the same time magnificent to watch. There are quite a lot thrilling moments, notably entering into the "mysterious" ship, which looks promising. The music-trick used to wake you up, is used in this movie too, and the bgm score is just wonderful. I do not know how many of you stay while the credits roll, the music is too good there. Eventhough dark at many parts, the cinematography is top notch. 3D is not top, and I am yet to see it on 2D (will be watching it towmorrow). Not being a BIG fan of 3D, I would easily say to watch the 2D version.

Chirs Pine and Zachary Quinto continue their explosive performences in this movie too. When Chris remains that "what-am-I-going-to-do" guy, its Zachary who comes out of his Vulcan side and turns human making your eyes widen. And that followed by a chase puts your nails between your teeth. Simon Pegg does what he is best at - casually saying or doing the most funniest thing. As mentioned above, Alice was a bit disappointment to me. Her scenes were quite rushed and to add, you just got to see her full "potrait" for just a second. Just her torso is on screen, eventhough she was wearing those "blue-minis". Karl Urban projects well the "panicking-doc". Another worth noting performence was Benedict. But they could have fine tuned his action scenes to show how menancing he could be rather than just a brawl.

I agree that there are many plot holes and "he-could-have-just-done-this" kind of suituations. For those who would like to pin-point that, here is my reply - It would be like taking the Hardy Boys series that you had read while you were 15 and reviewing it when you have turned 40. You got a give a break to yourself when it comes to Fantasy Re-invention. Ofcoarse the sci-fi movies of the 70's look silly now, but still considered a cult. For that Avatar is the most dumbest movies ever made. The point is the motive behind the film makers - sticking to the original and presenting it in an agreeable way to the present audience. Here they have more than suceeded. And then there is this comparison with Star Wars - come on, try to understand each movie rather than making visual comparisons.

Star Trek-Into the Darkness : Comes out BRIGHT

[BM]

Man Of Steel - Except for the climax CG fights, loved the movie.

Theeya Velai Seyyanum Kumaru - Total laugh riot, especially 2nd half. Typical Sundar's comedy movie.

[HonestRaj]

Nagaraja chozhan MA MLA
- rehash of version 1
- struggling performance by Mani.. but chozhan SR still looks good enough..
- mani wants to make this film as a social awareness film...
- senthamizhan, as usual unintentional fun...
- nothing much to say.. but the end credit Amaidhipadai clippings with IR bgm
- better, live with the original.. forget this one.....

- RIP, Manivannan!!!!

- i'm the one who always praised his films & his directorial skills in this hub.. & when 80's films have become outdated, i always enjoyed his films in multiple visits.. the most enjoyable were the one's with SR & Annan Gounder... few to mention,

* Jallikattu.. hey raaja.. NT & SR top notch pair..
* Pudhu manidhan... classic kabali & ravusu rasappan.. one of my all time GM favourite..
* vazhkkai chakkaram
* vidinja kalyanam
* mudhal vasantham
* gopurangal saaivadhillai..... vinu chakravarthy, mohan
* captain's 100th day .. with IR's extra ordinary bgm
* with lesser hero, he makes some engaging films.. one that comes to my mind is Goverment mapillai (?) - anadaraj is the hero

& top of all AMAIDHIPADAI ....

& just as an actor.. so many memorable roles.. i like him in comic-villain roles (periya idathu mapillai, thaimaman) but not in serious character roles.. something he did in Red..

& here it is, a ROFL piece from Annan, Manivannan & Sathyaraj from Maman Magal..

kabhi kabhi mera dhillu mein.. kayaal hei



- RIP, Manivannan!!!!

- no one can be a match for him!!!

[mappi]

- i'm the one who always praised his films & his directorial skills in this hub.. & when 80's films have become outdated, i always enjoyed his films in multiple visits

Same here. But I have not watched all his directorials, think missed about 10 or so. Planning to dedicate a week for "Manivannan Films". Making a list / find the movie, then get set ... GO.

kabhi kabhi mera dhillu mein.. kayaal hei]

Aii Dadi, Yenna !
Kabhi.
Yenna Kabhi !
Mera Dilll ...