Movie Mania

Here’s another gem from the 80s. It was released while I was in England and may not have interested me much back then. I happened to come across it recently in my quest to find good movies and thought it was a must-see.

The story is centered around the murder of three civil rights activists in the state of Mississippi, back when Martin Luther King was active in the civil rights movement and segregation was commonplace in the deep south. It presents a stereotypical image of the bible belt of the 60s, but that representation probably wasn’t far from the truth. In fact, I suspect that the whole movie may be based on factual events (have yet to confirm this).

An outstanding performance from Gene Hackman who plays a tough-as-nails FBI agent, originally from Mississippi itself. More great performances by Willem Dafoe and Brad Douref.

Link

Comments(0)

Lately, most of the stuff coming out of Hollywood has been a yawn. That’s why I’ve been watching a lot of stuff from the previous decades. Some movies even date back to the 60s and 70s, but age just ads grace to these masterpieces.

Full Metal Jacket, starring Mathew Modine, starts off with a bunch of new recruits to the marines corp. The main focus of the movie was on the first half which covered the basic training. This was spent on the “Island” with shouts of “Sir, yes sir” being bombarded along with the vulgar, but very creative comments of the instructor.

The next half is set in Vietnam and features a few battle scenes, though ends quite abruptly for a war movie (I was expecting more). The street scene with the Vietnamese prostitute made famous a couple of phrases and was also the basis of the “Ming Lee” character in an episode of South Park.

Worth a watch if you’re a fan of this genre.

Comments(1)

Just when I thought that the time of really good movies has come and gone and that we are stuck with the same heap of regurgitated rubbish, out comes another masterpiece. This is one of those movies that you won’t forget for a while.
Set sometime in the late 19th/early 20th Century, The Prestige starts off with a tradegy that leaves you wondering why one of the stars is removed so early in the movie. This “wondering” sums up the rest of the movie, though it is done so beautifully that you never fail to enjoy the scene in front of you.

Yes, the plot revolves around the rivalry between two magicians, bent on outdoing or sabotaging the act of the other. But the “magic” is just the medium to present the actual tale. It could just have been a movie about the rivalry between Edison and Tesla yet still have the same effect. I won’t go into a lot of detail as not to spoil this wondering, but I’ll give it a 9 out of 10.

Excellent performances from Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Michael Cain. Not forgetting the surprises of David Bowie and …gollum…gollum… Andy Serkis.

Comments(0)

I’ve been meaning to post about this for quite a while. This has to be the best movie I’ve seen during the past year and I’m just waiting to have the time to see it again. It is one of those movies that can keep you on edge without resorting to “gimmicks” such as excessive violence, alternative storylines or eye-popping special effects. I was literally on the edge of my seat the whole time.

What makes this such an excellent piece of work? Granted that the star-studded cast has a lot to do with it, but I’ve seen my share of time wasters that had excellent actors, yet were bad enough to almost ruin their careers. A good movie needs more than that and The Departed seems to have the best of everything. A simple, yet powerful storyline, excellent directing, musical score and just enough action sequences to make it palateable.

Any awards that this movie wins would be more than justified.

Comments(0)

This has to be the most controversial movie since Life of Brian. You might not like the “candid camera” brand of humor, or vulgarity being used to make people laugh, but it sometimes works and this is one of those times.

The first time I watched it, I didn’t realize that most of it was for “real”. I thought everyone was an actor and that they knew what was going on. But that isn’t the case. This movie leaves us cautious of anyone with a camera, no matter how harmless they may seem at first glance.

Whatever your point of view on it, you have to agree that Sacha Cohen has guts. This movie reminded me a lot of Michael Moore and his bold way of proving his point, regardless of whether he is right or wrong. And what point does Borat prove? I’ll leave that upto you.

Comments(0)

Just finished watching “The Fast and the Furious - Tokyo Drift“. Though the first two movies in this series were action movies with lots of car tricks thrown in, I think this is a true car movie with the other bits there just to fill in the gaps. The cars are cooler and just having it set in Tokyo adds a lot of spice to the experience.

Off course a lot of things concerning Japan are exaggerated, as is common in most Hollywood movies about Japan, but it really does make you want to be part of that world. The movie had a lot of value for me just because most of the scenes were centered around my old hangouts. The Shibuya crossing, Shinjuku etc. were my F-7 (my current hangout in Islamabad) at that time. It was fun to watch these places from inside a car rather than from the top of a mountain bike.

The lead was a little dry and I wouldn’t call him likeable. For most of the movie, he destroys whatever he’s driving and you don’t have much reason to cheer for him. Maybe that was just part of the effect. I was more engrossed in the “drifting” than worrying about where the story is going or what happens to “Shaun”.

Great acting (as well as English) from the Japanese cast, though only Brian Tee (Dee Kay) managed to pull off the Yakuza role. Though Sonny Chiba was great as usual, he looked more like a retired movie star than a feared gangster.

Tokyo Drift is highly recommended, even if you didn’t like or watch the first two. Despite the warning at the end, this movie has motivated me to try out new tricks with my car. Nothing very risky I promise, but just making full use of what I have and enjoying it.

Comments(2)

It seemed to start off ok which was a plus, considering that I hadn’t played the game and wasn’t expecting a very good movie, but unfortunately the only one. I soon realized that it a strictly for fans movie and everything that followed reminded me of the B-movies that were too ridiculous or uninteresting to complete.

It really seemed like you should have played the game if you wanted to know what was going on. Lots of running, creepy crawlies, weird phenomenon, but little sense. It also went on for so long that I ended up forwarding some parts and the ending was a sweet release.

The cast was mostly good, though the roles demanded very little in terms of acting skills.

Strictly for fans.

Comments(0)

It was a nice watch, even though this particular theme has been beaten to a pulp and there was little new material to add to the plot. It starts off pretty well, though more experienced movie-freaks (like me) will start to guess the eventual outcome pretty early. Actually it does reveal the twist early on for a movie of this kind and the rest of it just goes to show how the events play out. However, this is done pretty well and keeps the viewer’s interest. The ”Tales from the Crypt”-type ending is somewhat lame, a typical one for King’s novels (not to mean that they’re all lame, but true in this case).

The acting is probably the best thing about this movie and the credit for that goes mostly to Johnny Depp. His portrayal of an eccentric writer is quite awesome. The rest of the cast wasn’t bad either (Mario Bello, ummm), but it is Depp that really shines here.

Good for a rainy day, especially if you’ve ever done any serious writing.

Comments(0)