The Good, The Bad and The Weird (2008) - Korean Comedy / Action

Korea’s reply to western “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and what a movie it was – I must say. Although no ways – it can be compared with Sergio Leone’s original but it stands out on its own in being a damn good entertainer. Like all the other Korean movies are – over the top and fully loaded with mind blowing action, comedy, drama and lots of blood / gore too. This movie’s USP big time is its cinematography – I mean – I must have seen close to 250 movies this year and none comes close to this one’s camera work – totally OUTSTANDING. You’ve got to see it to believe it and if you have already seen it – I am sure you will agree with me. Right from the very first shot till the very end – it’s an amazing visual treat, almost 2 hours and a little longer – it’s a total treat. If you know what Korean movies stand for – you can’t miss this one at any cost. I am going with a good 3 thumbs up for this one. It’s certainly a great one time watch at least.

The Good

The Movie: As I mentioned earlier and if you have seen the original – you exactly know where this movie is going and how it all is going to end. But the question is again how? And that’s the best part about this movie – the way they have shot the whole story with so many characters thrown in between all fighting first for the same map and then to locate the treasure and dig it out. Visually it’s a stunning movie right from the very start – we were hooked to its cinematography right from the first aerial shot of a flying eagle picking up a dead bird from a train track as the train passes by – totally awesome shot. Then the camera shifts first to the left then to the right of the track before entering inside with a train robbery by two different groups being attempted. Here we are introduced to the good (Jung Woo-sung) and the weird (Song Kang-ho) followed by the final and the best character of the movie the bad (Lee Byung-hun). The fighting sequences and the robbery is shot in such a fiery pace that its just amazing to see so much going in such a short span of time. Before even you realize where it’s going and how its going to end the bad guy takes over.

The Bad

The fighting sequences are done so well and are so stunning that I have not seen something like that this year. So many laugh out loud moments with the weird guy doing all kinds of weird stuff as he is famous for. Even the guy that they picked up I guess is a master of comedy in Korean movies – I remember I saw another movie with him in lead couple of weeks back and there too – he did a commendable job of making us laugh big time with his histrionics. Although the good guy never comes close to our own Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s movie but still he holds it pretty good. As per me – the full credit goes to the guy who plays “The Bad” – he is damn good, in his facial expressions, fighting sequences, his hair style, the way he does all his stunts etc. His best movie to date will be “I Saw the Devil” and he was excellent in that one. Initial one hour the fight is for the Map between the good, bad and the weird. Once the map is set with good and weird joining hands for a joint operation followed by bad, we are up for a thrilling chase between all the gangs.

And The Weird

The Finale: Between The Good, The Weird, followed by further more Manchurian Bandits, Japanese army and The Bad man’s gang – is an awesome watch, totally hooking stuff with so much of going on that too in such a style that its hard to keep a track yet its simply outstanding job on screen. The ending as we already know is classic too with the treasure and final fights between all of them. That’s one movie which deserves a proper Blue Ray viewing with a good home theater to say the least. I am up for a damn good print and couple of more future viewings for sure.

Premium Rush (2012) - Thriller

After a long time we get to see a damn good intelligent thriller on bicycles, the last it reminded me of was made in 1986 (Rad) that too on BMX bikes and it was a grand success – at least for us on VHS at that time. We loved it so much and saw it so many times back to back, even this one – undoubtedly turns out to be an edge of the seat thriller right from the very start and mind it – it does deserves your attention and intelligence. The movies fiery pace never lets you take rest and there are so many and I actually mean so many moments that you just go “WOW”, “Holy Shit”, “Oh My God”, one amazing watch – not to be missed at any cost by thriller lovers especially those who love movies with fantastic bike chases – this should be called one of the best of the recent times. Joseph Gordon Levitt proves yet again that he is one hell of an actor and Michael Shannon as the bad ass cop makes you hate him some more. A delivery boy with an important packet being chased by a cop, what’s in the packet and why he is being chased that badly is the movie all about? I seriously couldn’t watch sitting straight on my chair as it had so many shocking moments – do not miss it guys, I am actually waiting for its big screen release in our part of the world – I am sure it will be a fantastic watch.  

Joseph Gordon Levitt

About the Director: He is the same guy who earlier made a fantastic movie called “The Trigger Effect” and even “Secret Window”. Both of them were damn good thrillers which I saw so many times on Star Movies. He wrote so many other damn good movies like Mission Impossible, Spider Man, Panic Room etc. This is his 5^th movie as a Director and I am sure this one is good enough to establish him as a good Director now.

Dania Ramirez

The Movie: The super fast paced thriller is based on a couple of hours in the life of a Bicycle messenger Wilee (Joseph Gordon Levitt) as he delivers a package from one place to another in busy New York City traffic on his bike with no gears and no brake. His fundaa is pretty clear that brakes will kill someone someday hence he uses an age old bike with none of them and is super fast in the whole gang of biker messengers. They claim New York has 1500 of guys like him doing this job everyday. Its simply superb to watch him do his job day in day out, one hell of a biker he is that you understand right after he delivers the first package of the day in super fast speed with his mind working in all the permutation and combinations to use the safest and yet the fastest path to do his job. One fine afternoon he picks up an urgent envelop from an office which has to be delivered by 7 PM at a specified address. The problem starts when he is being chased by a cop who wants that envelop back as he has a doubt that it holds a ticket to some illegal money transfer. The movie is running backwards with the final scene shown to us in advance and it keeps going back by half an hour to 45 minutes. Audience need to be attentive to keep in mind what they saw and what happened earlier, that was so damn good to see in reality. The background of the cop too is shown that he loses some money in gambling and needs this ticket to pay off his debts.

Michael Shannon the Cop

Wilee has no idea of the content of the envelop and his job is to just get it delivered at any cost. How he does that after being chased by this cop is the rest of the story. How he delivers the package with the help of his girl friend and friends is just amazing. They are being chased by a cop (Michael Shannon) who wants that packet at any cost and by another cop on bicycle himself chasing Wilee big time right from the very start of the movie. The USP of the movie is the fantastic sequences shot in bicycles in the busy streets of New York. I have never seen something like that earlier – we all have seen car and bike chases but none on bicycles so far. The sub plots too are developed in a great pace and quite convincing but the cake is taken by Joseph Gordon and Michael Shannon – how it all ends is a damn good watch. It isn’t that easy as it looks like as Wilee has a competitor in house too who takes the package later in confusion and goes to deliver it right to the bad ass cop. He gets out of one situation only to enter into another troublesome one shortly. Its hilarious to see one problem popping up right after another and that too all hell breaks lose just in 91 minutes of running time. We had to follow the timeline closely as what happened when to keep a track of time and activity going on a fiery pace. I and my wife argued on couple of scenes and we had to rewind the whole movie to see it right from the very start – this time we kept taking in stock all the scenes and activities going on. It was actually fun to watch. Go ahead – check it out – do not miss it at any cost. If you have already seen it – let me know how you like it.

Heroine (2012) - Drama

After watching “Heroine”, I can definitely say that Madhur Bhandarkar has lost it big time and is right now walking on the footsteps of Ram Gopal Varma. After winning four national awards for some of his great movies – this is what he ends up making on a subject which he should know like back of his hands. Right from the moment “Go” this one is full of clichés, so many and so much that it looks pointless to even point out now. What we were expecting and how it turns out to be is way too different – in the final product the only reason why one should watch this is “Kareena” only. No ways, he has shown us anything that we do not know already. It does makes you smile and laugh at times on the references. My full sympathies to one of my favorite actor Randeep Hooda again as even this one doesn’t works for him and makes him shine, the last one was a laughable “Jism 2”. None of the characters other than Mahi (Kareena) had any scope of development – they just keep coming, playing their part and get lost in the movie somewhere. I guess Madhur tried too hard with this one hence the outcome – he should stick to the reality formula that worked in the past for him and get away with that “Commercial” stuff. It looks too fake, forced and been there done that stuff. Give it a miss if you haven’t seen it – rather download its songs and watch them – they are way too better than the whole movie and that’s where you see the hottie Kareena rest of the movie is just a passé. 

Hottie Kareena Kapoor

The Movie: As it was supposed to be – it is based on the life of an Indian Actress (Fictional) Mahi Arora played by one of the best Actresses of her own times Kareena Kapoor – she is one hottie that we have. Suffering from a bipolar disorder and changing times, how she copes with sudden success followed by someone else replacing her in the industry gradually and by being thrown out of movies. Getting in and out of the lives of her co-stars and cricketers who she cannot marry cause of her flourishing career and what not she does to achieve stardom is the movie all about. Unfortunately the handling and what is being show to us is so mediocre and been there done that feel that it hardly shocks you. As Madhur Bhandarkar is famous for shocking the audience with on your face truth – that typical Madhur touch is seriously missing in this one and it looks out and out a movie made to make money and nothing else. Which indeed it has made in the first week itself and the producer’s investments have fetched good returns already. I felt cheated specially cause it has no entertainment value whatsoever – the only good thing about it is gorgeous Kareena Kapoor and some scenes which does bring smile to your face. That’s about it.

Different Avatars Kareena Kapoor

A Guy, who has given us wonderful movies like “Chandni Bar”, “Satta”, “Page 3” and “Traffic Signal” – for whom he got National Award as Best Director followed by couple of damn good ones like “Fashion” and even his last outing a good comedy “Dil to bachcha hai ji” was a great time pass. I felt there is something wrong with him, he seriously ran out of thoughts and idea to put this one up. The less I should talk about the glaring mistakes is better like throughout the movie’s timeline you see Kareena using a iPhone, I wonder she never changes her phone throughout the years she is shown on screen. There are so many mistakes and goof ups – the ones that you least expect in a Madhur movie at least. So many celebrity references and incidents picked up and beaten to death in the movie. Medial and PR agencies doing whatever it takes to bring them to news and make them famous.  The typical party goof ups with girl friend meeting celeb wives and misbehaving. Going down to their knees to land a perfect role which can make or break their career. Actress hooking up with upcoming cricketer. Doing art movies to call themselves Actors and what not. So many things feel so tacky, like the award ceremony and the trophy that they made – feels so sad – I mean that’s the best they could do for their movie? C’mon – it says they made this movie with 30 Crore – where did all that money go? Unfortunately it never works for the audience as there is nothing new in all that and we have already seen it so many times earlier. This would go down in the history of bollywood as the worst movie of Madhur Bhandarkar – it may work out well on the box office commercially but will never be called as one which did justice to the subject it picked up.

The Towering Inferno (1974) - Action / Disaster

After seeing so many disaster movies in the recent times including a 3D review of “Titanic” – I will still rate this one as one of the best I ever saw. Made in the year 1974 when there was no computer graphics stuff involved – this still is a bloody edge of the seat thriller as watching it last night – I realized there were moments that I was forced to hold my breath in reality to see what goes on screen. Simply outstanding work by all and amazingly shot movie – never for a moment I felt as if I was watching a movie which was made almost 40 years ago. Two of my all time favorite stars in lead – Paul Newman as Doug the architect who designed the building and fantastic Steve Mcqueen playing the San Francisco fire department 5^th battalion chief. Unbelievable shots and amazing almost true to life action sequences – I wonder how they did it as still it feels so damn good even today after we have seen so many of those movies. The problem I face in today’s movies is that they do look damn good onscreen but do not give you that real time feeling and once you see “The making” of any of them – you actually laugh on how they made it look so good. This is a must watch for all action / thriller lovers – I bet – you wouldn’t have seen a better disaster movie than this one ever.

The Glass Tower

Tower on Fire

The Movie: Right from the moment “Go” this one is truly a visual delight – from the starting shot of a chopper flying over San Francisco with credits rolling and outstanding background music playing. I almost sat thinking how many musicians must be playing their instruments to make that kind of awesome music. It almost gives you a feel that you are watching an Opera live sitting in a hall full of people. Another good thing that I totally love about these 70’s movies is their cars – they don’t make those cars anymore – those long sporty muscle cars – totally a delight in these movies – this too had some of the best ones on display, if you know what I mean. Once you are introduced to the world’s tallest tower with 138 floors – you already know that the disaster is about to strike with every moment passing – I had this doubt that anytime it may go off and then you come across the compromises done by the builders son in law to save and make some money by putting cheap electrical items than the required ones. Paul Newman as Doug Roberts the no nonsense, non compromising super successful architect is simply superb and the way he carries his character is simply outstanding – I guess the only other guy in Hollywood who could have done this role any better or equally good would be Clint Eastwood.

Steve McQueen

First time when I saw this movie – I had no idea that this was based on a building – I somehow always imagined that this would be a movie based on a volcano – I can still not forget the shock when I realized after first half hour that the bloody tower is going to be on fire in no time but by that time it was too late and to my horror I saw the disaster. It was a perfect edge of the seat thriller as what happens next is amazing stuff – never seen before thing. I haven’t seen a better movie in my movie watching career of last 20 odd years – I would say. The fire department and these brave men put their life forth to save the others is heartwarming stuff. Some scenes which will be engraved in my memory for ever – is the one where this black security guard saves a cat from the burning room. An executive having an affair with his secretary as the party goes on – no one has an idea that they are in the building – how he tries to call for the firemen and dies while his girl friend jumps from the building to save herself from the fire reminded me of those horrific 9/11 videos where we saw people jumping from burning WTC. Who would have imagined it would come this close to reality. There is this scene where Paul saves a female with two kids and as they go down the stairs – the whole stair case falls and he is hanging with the railing – terrific camerawork and the way he saves them with that hanging railing is truly amazing stuff. One scene to watch out – I was almost sitting on the edge of my sofa with a hand on my mouth – no believing what I was seeing on screen.

Paul Newman and Faye Dunaway

The way rescue work goes on and even the elite guests like the Senator and the mayor of town helps everyone is commendable. First the elevators, followed by the outside scenic elevator, when that blows off too and is picked up by a chopper by Steve McQueen is one stunt which will bring your heart into your mouth. Finally one person at a time hanging on a chair from one building to another shorter one – was one stunt I could never imagine in my wildest of the dreams that too in a movie made way before I was born. It never makes you relax while you go through almost two hours and 45 minutes of terrific action. Every scene right from the moment fire goes off to the last person saved is fantastic. How one person’s stupidity kills so many people self included. It delivers a solid punch – even the last line when Steve McQueen the fire department chief says to Paul Newman “You know we were lucky tonight, body count under 200, you know one of these days they are going to kill 10000 trapped in one of those firetraps, I am gonna keep eartin smoke and bringing out bodies – till someone asks us how to build them” to which Paul says “OK, I am asking”, again Steve says “You know where to reach me, so long architect”. Simply WOW. Missing this movie as per me will be a crime – if you haven’t seen it – go ahead – do not miss it anymore and if you have seen it already – let me know how you like it. 

Mr. Brooks (2007) - Thriller

I guess it never released in our part of the world otherwise I am sure, I wouldn’t have missed it with a cast like that with Kevin Costner playing the “Man of the year” serial killer pursued by evergreen Demi Moore. William Hurt plays a ghost who is always with him – it’s fantastic to see them discuss everything, Hurt advising Kevin every now and then is totally fantastic – movies high point is their discussions with fantastic thrilling cat and mouse game between killer and cops. Every one has their own background and story too to tell. Demi Moore (Daughter of a millionaire) working as a detective and has a personal score to settle with her husband fighting a divorce case while Mr Kevin is on a killing spree with a new intern. His own daughter he suspects has murdered someone too. It has so much going on all the time that you are totally hooked to it. Fortunately I got a Blue Ray print and I wish I could freeze some stunning shots and show them to you – its one of those movies that should not be missed by thriller lovers. Why is Mr. Man of the year on a killing spree? The way he does all the murders is simply outstanding. Would he ever get caught? What happens to the daughter and his intern? Who’s William Hurt? You’ve got to watch it to know all the answers. Trust me guys – its one hell of a watch – do not miss it.

Demi Moore

Isn't She Stunning?

What I liked about the movie is its fantastic handling and building suspense, where you actually want to know – why are those crimes being committed and by the time you know the reason it’s too late. You actually try to predict how it all is going to end but guess what – I can guarantee you that your prediction is never going to come true. Mine did not; rather I was shocked with the ending. What’s commendable about its cast is the way they carry it on their shoulders. Kevin Costner is simply superb and he looked even better in a blue ray print. Demi Moore I guess is getting better with age – the last movie I saw of her too was an action movie and this one beats that one hands down. She is simply stunning and even better in a detective’s character – suits her well. You will love her action shots for sure. I have always been a fan of William Hurt’s style of subtle acting – here too he is exceptional and the kind of chemistry he shares with Kevin is awesome. I kept imagining he should be Kevin’s dad in the movie – coming back as a ghost to help him carry out those murders. It’s almost two hours long but has the quality that makes you keep wanting for more. Even when it ended I waited through the end credits thinking something may come up by time the last name rolls out.