Paths of Glory (1957) (7/10)

When ambition makes you blind, it can be bad for other people. If you happen to be in a position of command, that becomes an understatement. A complete disdain for anything in your path can result. Even paths considered to be those of glory can turn gory. Why wars are started and where they can take you. Irrespective of which side was right, here we see what happens just on one side. A different kind of war movie.

Paths of Glory (1957) (7/10)

Iron Man (2008) (6/10)

A fantastic fairytale with lots of loopholes and patently illogical stuff mainly owing to assumed jumps in technological prowess. But with a hint of social awareness, and a flair for being somewhat different. A few twists here and there but none too heart-stopping.

Iron Man (2008) (6/10)

Goodfellas (1990) (5/10)

Perhpas a good movie if you like gangster movies where some guys cuss and curse all the time and others coolly execute multi-million dollar heists without telling you how they did it. The making of a gangster has been shown well, but it drags a bit, even though it is jumpy in places.

Goodfellas (1990) (5/10)

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) (5/10)

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) (5/10)

While the movie pokes genuine fun at many social and cultural issues, it was neither subtle nor humorous in the political sense of the word. Or, in other words, it was generally needlessly gross. Its the kind of movie which is wasted upon the offenders in any case.

Finding Neverland (2004) (7/10)

It keeps you rivetted to the screen as the drama unfolds. It moves you up and down with its dreaming, and beliefs and beliefs in dreams. When you reflect on it, you realize that there is not all that much to reflect. Either you are a child, or you are not (though you may long to be one). They tried to do a glass bead game by not revealing what the play "actually" contains. The fragments are of course suggestive, but most of the rest then has to be filled in by you, your imagination, something central to the point being made. The quagmire of relationships is interesting to say the least. The movie operates at many levels and it is difficult to get them all. I wonder what the characters in tumbolina will say about the movie. That it is just a movie?

Finding Neverland (2004) (7/10)

Bronenosets Potyomkin aka Battleship Potemkin (1925) (6/10)

An epic movie about the Russian revolution. The revolution is almost shown as black and white. It is an important thing to understand. The need to revolt is an important one. And it can come through persistent oppression. When the pent up forces are let out, almost anything is possible. What are the lessons to be learnt? Are there lessons to be learnt? I don't know.

Bronenosets Potyomkin aka Battleship Potemkin (1925) (6/10)

Babel (2006) (5/10)

A bunch of stories connected in a seemingly impossible way. Not exactly cascading, but one setting another off by a longshot. No closure is offered. It would have been artificial anyway. Most stories are almost commonstance barring perhaps two that are connected with a rifle. But those too show signs of the times. You may like it if you like life as it is.

Babel (2006) (5/10)

Office Space (1999) (6/10)

A light hearted movie poking fun at office culture, management etc. and the frustration that can come from it, ways people seek around it and what it can lead to. Nothing profound.

Office Space (1999) (6/10)

Diarios de motocicleta AKA The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) (7/10)

The well made movie about Che Guevera's formative days does not reveal what is to follow except for a sentence to the effect that you can not do much without guns. What is depicted instead is a compassionate, socialist, frank young person. True the stirrings increase in frequency and intensity after he and his motorcycle buddy see discrimination everywhere and signs of things getting worse. There is a genuineness which is often lacking in many revolutionaries. Many, even with the genuineness can get affected by power just like Che's later partner Fidel Castro did. Che himself jumped elsewhere to free other countries. The one sentence that stood out was when they were in Peru and he says: How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?

His desire to unite the people stand out. While they are not depicted as atheists, their almost revolt against everyone having to go to mass in the leper colony testifies to their being people-centric. There seemed to be many parallels with Bhagatsingh although fairly vague. Sources of the unrest, displeasure are not shown starkly or blatently which makes the movie appeal more to the mind. It is left for the viewers to find out more about the central person, and may be others like him.

Diarios de motocicleta AKA The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) (7/10)

50 First Dates (2004) (6/10)

A serious topic handled in an entertaining way. So much so that most people will likely leave without realizing the seriousness of it. The good thing is that there is no moralizing, or judging that is depicted. Some core human qualities come out as do some frivolous.

50 First Dates (2004) (6/10)

The Man from Earth (2007) (7/10)

John invites a few of his professor friends to say goodbye as he is moving on. No one knows where. A probe into that moves towards a possible science fiction story. The upheavel the storyline causes is hard to resolve or bring to a closure until John is threatened to do so or face consequences. His choice seems to satisfy everyone (because obviously that is the only conclusion anyone was going to believe). And then something else happens. The question is, what will the viewer believe? Unfortunately for such good storylines, viewers are already biased and have decided what they are going to believe, so much so that they will not even consider the opposite, not even in a what-if scenario.

The downside of the movie is that it is a bit low-budget and the acting is not uniform. But of course it is the loss of cinema that you need to make everything palatable.

The Man from Earth (2007) (7/10)

El Laberinto del fauno AKA Pan's Labyrinth (2006) (6/10)

A fairy tale intertwined with a revolution in 1941 Spain highlighting different facets of human nature. The way real life and the fairy tale is seamlessly mixed is amazing and so is the acting. That said, I am not a great fan of mixing genres where it is not natural i.e. just for a great effect. If there was a deeper analogy e.g escapism, it was lost on me. The good thing was that neither part seemed jarring (if you excuse the violence in the war which you really shouldn't).

El Laberinto del fauno AKA Pan's Labyrinth (2006) (6/10)

V for Vendetta (2005) (7/10)

A philosophical action movie trying to make it hard to draw a line between terrorism and revolutionism. Asking questions if destroying symbols of democracy wielded by a few is okay if that is going to make a peoples democracy available. If the revenge is not going to do any good for you personally, do you have the right to do good to others whether or not they want it?

Good dialogues, excellent acting, and good theme. It is all exaggerated a bit (a lot) but it is fair enough to drive across the point. Or may be not. If one person could do so many things, may be such a persion should do it. The issue is mainly due to fractured mandates, fractured identities etc. The human variety is what is sometimes the problem. But hopefully it is a solution too.

V for Vendetta (2005) (7/10)

Equilibrium (2002) (6/10)

A post WWIII movie where man has learnt to keep his emotions clouded away with daily doses. But of course there are people who do not do this. The movie is a mixture of Fahrenheit 451, matrix, 1984 and other such. The strength of the story is that they have kept it straight forward without complicating it with too many factors. Also, their are enough twists to keep you guessing about the future. The absence of big brother (or father) from certain walks of life (for instance no cameras in the interrogation rooms) was puzzling (shall we say miraculous?). Some good scientific (if you consider statistics to be a science) fighting action.

Equilibrium (2002) (6/10)

Labyrinth (1986) (5/10)

Fairy tale with predictable hurdles to be overcome. Will friends be friends, will the evil be vanquished (or conquered) and so on. Good premise, thin on novelty. Not enough twists. Not much acting needed.

Labyrinth (1986) (5/10)

Grindhouse: Death Proof (2007) (3/10)

Rather vacuous horror/action. The theme is thin, and the horror not horrifying.

Grindhouse: Death Proof (2007) (3/10)

Khosla Ka Ghosla! (2006) (7/10)

A wellpaced and well made money showing several aspects of a problem
but not lingering on it and thus sticking to the main theme, the one
about the family itself. Interpersonal relationships, generation gap
and the like and how a single but large issue and bring out different
aspects in them. Enough ups and downs to keep one's interest live.
Another one of those with no song and dance and quality acting.

Khosla Ka Ghosla! (2006) (7/10)

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005) (7/10)

A good premise fairly well handled. Though they need not have converted it into a documentary, it will have been good if some statistics of such cases were provided through dialogues in general to ensure that people do not laugh at real cases thinking its really rare and won't ever touch any of their near ones.

One doctor is shown too stereotypical, and the other too extraordinary. Same is true with the two younger children to an extent.
They missed the subtitles to the theme poem on the only occasion when its recited fully. Good that unnecessary song and dance is kept out.

Oh, the mysteries of the conciousness.

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005) (7/10)

Flightplan (2005) (5/10)

Described as a Hitchcockesque movie (or something like that) Flightplan hardly comes close. Sure, they try to build up the tension and you are left wondering as to who to believe. But that is mainly because you are not provided ANY background. No characters are built and even at the end many questions are left unanswered.

Flightplan (2005) (5/10)

Happy Gilmore (1996) (6/10)

A silly funny movie with nothing profound in it, except perhaps some clean much needed ridicule of the flogging game. Go without expecting moralizing, life changing stuff and you will enjoy it. It does not drag, maintains a good pace of well spaced fun. You may not want to watch it on a big screen unless you also carry some friends and popcorn with you.

Happy Gilmore (1996) (6/10)