Which non-indian film u saw recently has made u post here???

[mappi]

Frozen Grounds (2013 : English : Drama [Suspense, Mystry, Thriller])
Written & Directed by Scott Walker
Starring: Nicolas Cage & John Cusack

Based on true events.

Investigating a series of missing cases, the investigator corners down an individual when a single victim escapes from the horrible clutches of the killer. But the officier cannot get the materialistic evidences to convict the culprit as the victim he works with is a prostitute and the law does not want to take her testimony legit. Then, its all about how the officier not only confronts the culprit but also how he fights against the law to establish justice and stop the massacres.

Frozen Ground may not work for many, as today's cinema is more about "twist and turns". Gone are the days where the naration has suspense, as the audience seek more "jaw-opening" moments and go around like a headless chickens shouting " I did not see it comming". So today's film makers first create the twists and then pull something called "a story" around it, ironically it works well with the current audiences. But Frozen Ground is old-school. It has a solid story, gripping drama and moreover it allows us to take a walk around, while the investigations are going on. The movie has nothing to hide, or does pieing in the name of twists. But yet its quite engaing with some awesome soundtracks and background scores. The lead actors, esp. during the interogations, have given one of their best performences. Kind of liked Vanessa Hudgens too.

I would rate the movie +16 for nudity, language & drug use, but there are not much of shocking things happening that could hurt any viewer.

Frozen Ground - Twisted Crack

[mappi]

Captain Phillips - very well made. Not surprising given the credentials of the director. Tom Hanks was solid as ever, but the surprise element was the lead Somali pirate. He was fantastic.

Got a chance to watch Captain Phillips yesterday. Still wondering how Tom Hanks pulled out the post climax performence. Amazing. Happy to see hollywood movies are slowly getting back their needed intelligence, notably, the character does not readout loud his emails while composing them. Apart from the movie being repetitive with the scenes involving the take over of the ship and a "chewing gummish" rescue operation, the movie is quite engaging, thanks to Tom Hanks & the 4 pirates. The drama unfolds without any leaks, well accompanied by an excellent background score. I like the tension that it mounts during the 2nd attack on the ship. And, yes, the movie is very well made too.

Captain Phillips : Everything Gonna be Okay, Irish !

[mappi]

Haunter [2013 : Canadian : Horror (Suspense)]
Directed by Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice)
Starring : Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) & Stephen McHattie

A teenage girl who is just bored of her routine day-to-day life, discovers something interesting to meddle with, those which not only turns disastrous to her family, but her own existance.

A wonderful story about ghosts and has a different take over the Haunted House sagas keeping intact the creepy atmosphere. The film keeps you hooked, and you should be if you want to follow the film. Its not complicated, but it passes quite rapidly with so many things to gasp from each moment. Miss a second, you need to hit the rewind button. Thats how the story is constructed and narrated. What stands tall is the screenplay, its complexity is a beauty. And has a wonderful climax too. The movie has its flaws, but the entertainment it provides thins them down. The only problem we had with the film is, it was a bit too much 'teenish-kind', but well 'sometimes' those types work well too.

Haunter - Alice in a ghost land

[littlemaster1982]

The Lone Ranger - not as bad as I expected. Johnny Depp kinda played Jack Sparrow in a different make up. All aside, this movie is worth watching for those two spectacular action sequences.

[pavalamani pragasam]

Watched Rio-2 in the theatre with our kids and their kids just as we did Rio-1. Very enjoyable movie! Good messages about the disciplined life of forest creatures and the selfish, thoughtless ways of the humans.

[chevy]

SilverLinings Playbook

Wonder why I never watched it earlier. The first few minutes, that showed the hero's despair when in lurch was so disturbing. The movie released in Nov 2012 , that timing especially is uncanny, for me personally. But unlike the movie folds open, people don't get over that despair that easily. It takes many months. Probably why, I am watching it now in 2014 April.

I really wanted quit watching the movie after few minutes (till the part he attacks his parents, and Jennifer Lawerence says she trusted him and he used it back against her), but being a famous movie, I figured it might unfold and have a happy ending, which it does.

They've tried to show the reality of these emotions we see in everyday life and then quickly changed to show a happy ending. Which in reality never happens. A mind that is just fixated on its loss, will never see any other "door" open up for them that easily and most often there may probably not be another door opening. How Tiffany (J Lawence) grieves her husband is given very little time, grief is a big emotion but they've underplayed her grief and Pat Sr (de niro)'s psychological problems. So at least, I would have liked them to show Pat. Jr. trying to overcome it or how his emotions undergo change and how he starts to have feelings for Tiffany.

Its a nice movie, showing hope after despair. A feel good movie, at most. But nothing really to show the seriousness of emotional disturbances.

[chevy]

The working woman (1986?)

An old movie but really worth watching. Inspiring, especially for working women, who make it up the ladder on their own!

[mappi]

Big Bad Wolves [2013 : 1h50m : Thriller (Suspense, Crime, Drama)]
Country : Israel
Language : Hebrew

Written & Directed by Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado

+16 for violence, gore, language

Unsolved kidnaping and murders of female childs, leads the investigating officier to violently interrogate an ex-convict suspect which turns bad for him as he looses his job when the last victim is found dead. Now he is on a personel run to make the suspect talk. Meanwhile the father of the last victim too needs justice. From here its all about how their paths cross, who teams up with whom and finally who is behind all these gruesome killings.

A much awaited film is available on DVD/Bluray. I found the film awesome - dark, gore and at many places witty. Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado have nailed it again after Rabies. [Rabies (2011) is the 1st Isareli Horror Film, if you have not watched it, please do.] All the lead actors did a fantastic job, well supported by an intriguing BGM and suspenseful camera work. The opening shot itself will tell you that you are going to witness an amazing film. Think the director duo have watched our Mysskin films or have watched the films viewed by Mysskin. They have a lot of similarities in filming. The subtitles were great too, that you can catch the humour.

Big Bad Wolves - A tale that makes the Fairy shiver.

There are several posters of this film, and the ones I liked are :

[kubrick]

They Live 1988

Watched May 04, 2014

Conceptually this is absolute class and that seems to be enough for sometime during the film for us to be glued to it but there are some clumsy instances which pushes us to laugh out loud. Watching 'The Thing' was laborious but this film is nothing like that, thanks to the principle moral which the film is based on. The subject which is being dealt with in 'They Live' is more relevant now than it was when the film originally came on the screens. And looking at the way in which we all are living today the relevance is going to get closer and closer. Drawing parallels to consumerism and slavery, and other such thoughts of the writers are very well converted into the film and such ideas seldom seem preachy which is one of the aspects which makes the film an unmissable. But hazardous directional goofs and stale logical events pull the film down like someone is sitting on the other side of the see-saw. It is understandable that the film after the success of 'Halloween' has attained a cult status, but if you aren't part of that cult, though you wont be bored, you wont consider much of this in a day or two however relevant the theme may be.

[mappi]

Noah [2014 : English : 2h30m : Epic Fantasy (Action, Drama, Suspense)]
Written & Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Banner : Paramount Pictures

Principle Characters :
Noah (Russel Crowe)
Noah's wife, Naameh (Jennifer Connelly)
Noah's 3 sons - Japheth (Leo McHugh Carroll), Shem (Douglas Booth), Ham (Dakota Goyo)
Noah's adopted child Ila (Emma Watson)
Noah's Grandfather Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins)
Noah's nemesis Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone)

Firstly, let me break from all those religious connections.
The accounts in this paragraph is just what I looked upon and understood. Actually this topic changes according to the person who is talking about it, that’s the reality, so no offence in anyway is meant. I just wish to tell people who like to look deep into the realms of the movie in a religious angle that they should first construct the time line and understand it. Noah happens even before God was addressed as God. Name ‘God’ appears only after he meets up with Moses in the Mountain. [That's why you hear 'Creator' during the whole length of the movie]. Yet another clue is that Noah dates during Mesopotamians time, even before Judaism was practiced. You should also look into The Epic of Gilgamesh. So connecting Noah to a particular religious book is not a wise call, as the myth dates when demi-god fiction of today was believed to be a reality of a period or even to a whole civilisation. In any which way you look at it, Noah is a story of Mass Murder of Humanity operated by the Creator of Earth when the humans have largely crossed the line. The creator instructs one of his chosen ones to take care of other side of business - building an ark [a bit like Manu] and boarding a pair of each species excluding Humans - when the creator himself will be busy flooding the Earth. From here there are different branches to the story as to who lives and who dies, but all is well in the end where a new earth is found and everything starts to flourish again. Its basically to make us realise that if we do not behave ourselves, we will be perished. That’s a gist of Noah.

The film projects more on what the character, Noah, undergoes in different situations and circumstances and very less on the Ark he builds. Its broken into two fine parts where the whole Ark sequence is spectacular, while the other occupies the dense emotional drama which forays the decisions of Noah. There is this 3rd docudrama part where the creation/evolution is explained in an amazing manner. All these three are well conceived and creatively narrated without leaving anything aloof but beautiful spinning them together. As we all know the Ark was built & it reached a safe place, but what happens inside the Ark during this tiresome journey to an unknown destinations, takes us deep inside a dark sub-plot, where many of the human natures are explored thru the family members of Noah - the prime drama surrounding and coupling Noah himself.

Act 1 - Spectacular Special Effects

Noah & his family are dwelling in the scattered lands, surviving in the after-earth, the earth which was destroyed by mankind. The decedents of Noah Family are the chosen ones, in the sense they are in command of the Creator himself. The remaining earth is conquered and ruled by Cain, an Evil Man, who questions the creator and dismisses the miracles as magic tricks. Except for the Noah family, every other surviving humans are following Cain. Noah gets instructed in his dreams, but he is not able to connect the lines. He has visuals but the meaning he doesn't now. He goes in search of his grand father, a wise mind, to help him decipher it. On his journey, he saves a young girl and his family adopts this child from the horror of her family's massacre. His grandfather is in a land guarded by the fallen angels, who are cursed to be rocks. After convincing the Angel-Rocks, and talking to his grandfather, Noah realises that his task is to build an Ark. Some miracles make it possible and the Angel-Rocks help him to construct it. First guests are the birds, then the reptiles and finally all the land animals take shelter inside the Ark. After seeing the animals moving in the same direction, Cain follows them to the Ark. He speaks for the people and orders Noah to help his race to survive than the animals. Noah refuses stating that the whole project is to bring in the doom to humanity. Cain challenges the creator thru Noah and pledges to take over the Ark for himself and his followers. They attack the Ark, which is guarded by the Angel-Rocks. When the fight gets intense, the Angel-Rocks duty seems to be over and they are liberated from the curse, that one by one they rise up again to their creator. Its then the flooding happens and every land on the phase of Earth becomes water, drowning down every single human.

[Here you have to take note of the visuals if you are willing to look beyond the film ; also each vision of Noah, be it destruction or past or future could serve as good "look-upon" materials].

Act 2 - Dark Drama

So, what we saw in Act One is elaborated here. In between focusing on fast paced action sequences, Act One not only introduces us to Noah's family but also gives us a glimpse of their desires, expectations and their whole hearted acceptance to their father's quest. The adopted daughter Ila, and Noah's eldest son Japheth are in love now, but Ila cannot become a mother, thanks to the massacre that happened when she was a child. Noah's second son Shem could not accept the fact that he is going to die alone without feeling a women if what his dad says is going to happen. The third son, Ham, is a kid who sees his family as the only world and is growing up looking out for them, learning things from their actions and decesions. Noah's wife, Naameh, supports every action of her husband, but worries too much for the future of their children.

With all these differed thoughts which are loosely knotted with Noah's realisation of his creators command, gets slowly unfolded inside the ship, when they all come to know that they will be the last family alive on earth and the third son of Noah will be the last human. To make things worse there are 2 things happening around, the first one, I let you to discover it. Its the last part of Act 1, which is poisoning Shem and turning him against his own father. The second thing is that Ila becomes pregnant, a miracle. Now, Noah does not accept it as his duty is to make sure no humans are alive, (or that’s what he believes). So he cannot allow the child to be born, but he compromises saying that if its a Boy-Child he will let him live, the one who will take the place of his third son and become the Last Human on Earth. If its a Girl-Child, he will not hesitate to murder it. This provokes Japheth to turn against his father, when already Shem is waiting for an opportunity to avenge his father for one of his father’s decision that crushed down his hope. In between this Naameh confronts Noah's decision.

All these are piercing the noble man Noah - the one who does not even harm a flower is now prepared to kill his own kin - not to mention he had been a puppet in the mass murder. When Ila gives birth, all escaped ‘Evils’ are now focusing on Noah.

Act 3 - New Found Earth

On the new found Earth, Noah is depressed and alcoholic, for various reasons. Finally Ila convinces him to join them stating that if the creator had choose him to do such a task, the decisions Noah made was also the creator's wish. Fair logic here, and Noah goes to live with his family, but Shem quits them driven by more than just guilt [Actually there is more to it, I suppose, but the films stops by just showing him walking away].

The animals and plants start to live in harmony and from what I guess, this earth is Herbivorous now too, even though they did not show a lion feeding on a grass.

Its from here where our world started to exist and maybe we are still living to tell the tale what we are doing with it !

Summary

Russel Crowe and Anthony Hopkins still prove to be the ace cards for the film. Crowe endures some subtle emotions, anger, helplessness etc. through his various transformation as Noah with a task. Jennifer Connelly over plays in many parts, and think she did not mentally travel to the era of Noah, but stayed in 2014 quarrelling with a husband whom she just found to have been cheating on her. Actually Emma Watson can retire ! Ray Winstone was menacing but he did what Anthony Hopkins already did in Waterworld.

The special effects gets a BIG mentions and the camera works too. Think Aronofsky has watched several Mani Rathnam movie, all the shots are close, reminded me a lot about Iruvar. But what takes away the entire limelight is the fantastic narration of Evolution / Origins of Earth and its species. The whole creation science in Aronofsky vision’s is absolutely fantastic. BGM score quite high as in any Hollywood Fantasy movie, but nothing remarkable. Found the end credit song well sinking the ‘after-film’ ambience.

All major credits goes to Aronofsky for picturising some mesmerising moments of a complex structured story in a fluid creative visual narration which can meet the eyes beautifully.

I thoruoughly enjoyed the film Noah for its artistic presentation, extraordinary idea & its implications.

Noah - Is it right to believe your belief ?