Monday, August 25, 2008

Oscar weekend ... !!

Well, it started off as a plan to view 6 acclaimed movies but due to some wavering of activities, we managed to experience just 3 of those. My friend, Vikash had lent me his DVD containing these 6 movies and he had written the names of all 6 on the DVD, albeit in a very user friendly (a UI person acknowledges presentation :)) manner. He had written down the genres and the movies belonging to each genre. The genres were Serial Killer, Heist and Crime/Murder. Under Serial Killer, there were 3 movies ... Se7en, Mr Brooks and Silence of the Lambs. Inside Man and The Bank Job belonged to Heist while Crime/Murder contained Memento. I was quite impressed by this categorization and we decided to start of with genre of Serial Killer.

So we started off with Se7en. The movie basically deals with a 2 cops investigating the case of a serial killer who is murdering people in line with the 7 deadly sins. It is amazing how knowledge about a particular topic/belief stands you in good stead while watching such movies. It was guesswork that we predicted what the story might be when we saw the scene of the first murder, thanks to the knowledge about the 7 deadly sins. The portrayal of the 2 cops, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt is very nicely depicted although I felt that Brad Pitt hammed in some of the scenes. In essence, as a viewer, you know that the murders will keep happening. But there is a subtle twist during the climax which makes you acknowledge the thought of the writer. I personally thought the highlight of the movie was the horrific way in which each of the victims is killed along with the climax. The protagonist during the climax (Kevin Spacey) reminded me of a similar climax in The Usual Suspects.

We shifted our attention to Heist and picked Inside Man as the movie (I remember Vikash recommending this movie as a must watch). How true he was. Kudos to the writer/creator. The movie is about a bank robbery planned by a person called Russell along with around 4-6 fellow conspirators. I don't think I will be able to post the plot of the movie since it will spoil the fun if you have not seen the movie. I freaked out on the performance of Denzel Washington as the cop assigned to save the bank robbery. I was also pleasantly surprised by the younger-than-normal look of Jodie Foster. The movie is all about the master plan of the bank robbery and the climax. The expressions of Washington during the climax makes you take your hat off to him. The most liked attribute of this movie for me is that way it starts and ends (the credits). You will hear Chhaiyya Chhaiyya (entire song) during the start and the end. Way to go Indian music :)

Finally, we moved to Crime/Murder and there was only one movie there ... Memento. I remember quite a lot of people recommending this movie to me (namely Vikash, Sabhtarsha, Prameela, Vivek and Mohsin). To be honest, I didn't think the story was all that great but the presentation was nice. I thought I will never understand the movie at first glance but I surprised myself. The narrative is the key in this movie and you get the hang of it after around 20 minutes have past. Again, I think I will stay away from writing about the plot. It is a nice movie which makes you acknowledge the technical creativity of Hollywood.

Out of the 3 that we saw, I would say Inside Man was the best followed by Memento and the least preferred was Se7en (this does not mean Se7en is not good, watch it for Morgan Freeman and the climax). The performances that I enjoyed were that of Denzel Washington in Inside Man, Guy Pierce in Memento and Morgan Freeman in Se7en. But you need to experience Kevin Spacey's cameo in Se7en. This guy is amazing. There were not a lot of ladies in all 3 of the movies. Jodie Foster was OKish. Gwyneth Paltrow as Brad Pitt's wife in Se7en was petite.

We look forward to the 3 remaining movies. I have also made a wish list of movies that I need to get my hands (or eyes?) on. They are:

Scarface
Forrest Gump
Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Schindler's List
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
Vertigo
Cinderella Man
Brokeback Mountain

One last little note. I am assuming that Johnny Gaddar was not picked from some non-Indian movie and even if it was, I have not seen the original of Johnny Gaddar. If I take into account Johnny Gaddar and the 3 movies I saw, I would say that Inside Man and Johnny Gaddar would be my top 2 followed by Memento and Se7en. This is just a personal opinion and not intended to ruffle more than a few feathers ... Cheers ... !!

3 comments:

talkback said...

Jodie Foster - Nim's Island Movie Review

Mohsin said...

I totally agree..
'Inside man' rocks..
plus chaiyya chaiyya is a pleasant surprise..
I havn't watched se7en yet..
will try to give it a try..
btw I saw 'forrest gump' on ur list..
does that mean u havn't seen it yet??
dude wo movie to dekhana hi chahiye...

Pappul said...

arey problem yeh hai ki im slowly getting rid of my English movie phobia ... isiliye abhi tak zyaada english movies nahi dekhe ... Forrest Gump zaroor dekhunga ... in fact I am going to see all the ones in the list ... Cheers ... !!