Harry Brown

This morning I sat down and watched a British Flick Harry Brown directed by Daniel Barber. This movie is an well crafted thriller with some extraordinary performances. The director has taken a serious issue in his hand and he has done a great job in sending the message.

Michael Caine stars as Harry Brown, a  decorated ex-Serviceman who everyday watches the world unfold from his flat in a downtrodden London estate. He observes the increasingly senseless violence committed by the young gang members of the estate and the open-handed nature of the drug dealers without any action being taken towards those who are constantly flouting the law in his community. However when his wife passes away, and his best-friend Leonard played by David Bradley is killed after confronting the young men who spend each day terrorizing him to the point of retribution, Brown decides with nothing left to live for, to take the law into his own hands and delivers some excessively violent vigilante revenge.

The opening sequence of the moive where a mobile footage of two young gang members harassing a woman in the park and eventually shoot her without provocation and falling prey to an oncoming truck sets the tone to the film. From there on the cinematography by Martin Ruhe and the direction by Barber really sets the pace for a splendid thriller.

Sir Michael Caine gives a breath-taking emotional performance as the 'pensioner' who decides to take the law into his own hands. I think that his performance in this flick certainly deserves an OSCAR. Emily Mortimer starring as Detective Frampton also gives us an excellent performance. In the end this is an awesome movie and a must watch for everyone.

My Rating: 4/5 

Public Enemies

Today I saw the flick Public Enemies directed by Michael Mann. This movie is a biography of John Dillinger, a falmboyant criminal who robbed banks in the early 1930's and he had a huge fan base. This movie shows us the overview about the final years of John Dillinger.

Johnny Depp stars as John Dillinger, the famous bank robber.Christian Bale stars as Melvin Purvis, the Federal agent who is assigned to go after Dillinger. Director Michael Mann didn't concentrate enough on the Character Development of Dillinger. The movie didn't really portray 'Who Dillinger Was'. But rather focused on 'What Dillinger did in his final years'. There were many changes done to the real event. i.e for instance  Dillinger wasn't the last one to die in his group, I belive that it was 'Baby Face' Nelson.

The acting from the stars in the main cast were really good, especially the performance of Stephen Graham starring as 'Baby Face' Nelson was superb!!

In the end this is a mediocre film but the thing that is most fascinating about this film is the costumes and sets. The men and women behind these really outdid themselves and created a very authentic view of 1930s Chicago. This aspect of the film alone makes it worth seeing! Every costume and set seems to have been made with the utmost attention to detail, and the final result is very pleasing to the eye.

My Rating: 3/5 

The Maiden Heist

Yesterday after going out with my family, I came home and watched the flick The Maiden Heist at night. This movie is meant to be a comedy but I didn't find anything funny in this flick where one would laugh their ass out. Except for one or two funny scenes there isn't anything funny about this flick. However the movie is not bad it turns out to be an innocent crime movie.

Charles played by Morgan Freeman, Roger Barlow played by Christopher Walken and George McLendon played by William H. Macy are three security guards working in a Museum. They have been working there for a long time and they get attached to the artwork that they guard everyday. Roger gets attached to the painting "The Lonely Maiden", Charles gets attached to the painting "Young Girl with Cats" and George gets attached to the statue "The Bronze Warrior". But the museum decides to send all the artwork to Denmark and replace them with new ones. So the three of them get together to pull off an heist to steal these three artwork.

I liked the performance of Christopher Walken and Marcia Gay Harden starring as the wife of Roger Barlow. The director Peter Hewitt somehow managed to show the planning of the heist and the execution of the heist have some believable complications, and what's done about them are believable as well.

In the end the story of the movie seems to be that even an ordinary man can get attached to an artwork and begin to enjoy it.

My Rating: 2.5/5 .

The Hurricane

I saw the movie The Hurricane directed by Norman Jewison two days before. This movie is supposed to the biography of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter. I did not write about this flick earlier because I didn't know anything about what happened in the real life of Rubin. So I did some research for a while and according to me there were some fiction in this true story.

Well lets get into the movie, Denzel Washington stars as Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, a Champion Middleweight boxer who was sentenced to life in prison on a bogus murder rap. Lesra Martin played by Vicellous Reon Shannon is an young struggling negro who gets rescued by a group of three Canadians, Lisa Peters played by Deborah kara Unger, Sam Chaiton played by Liev Schreiber and Terry Switon played by John Hannah. Together these do-good Canadians and Lesra fight for the Justice for Rubin.

Denzel Washington's performance in this flick is simply amazing. His transformation from hard-souled fighting machine to soft-spoken, eloquent defender of justice is portrayed effectively. However for me Rod Steiger starring as Judge Sarokin stole the show with his performance in the end.

This is a flick which is about racism, corruption, hope, and above all, one man's torment. In the end this is one of the emotional films I have ever seen.

My Rating: 3.5/5 

Crossing Over

Just a few hours ago, I sat down and watched the movie Crossing Over directed by Wayne Kramer. When I started watching the flick, I didn't understand what was happening in the movie for the first half an hour. But then I realized that the movie consists of multiple story line that is bound together by a common theme, dealing with immigrant issues.

Each of the story lines were engaging enough, some employing deep emotions to argue with their cases.But what seemed to be a common theme here is how power can be either used to do what is probably morally right or abusing it for personal gain. The movie's cast is led by Harrison Ford who stars as Max Brogan, an ICE agent. This is the most unusual character that Ford must have done in his lifetime. However he did give an excellent performance.

There's an illegal Mexican woman, Mireya Sanchez, played by Alice Braga who begs Max to look after her young son in the care of unfriendly relatives. A Jewish musician, Gavin Kossef, played by Jim Sturgess who's waiting to qualify for residency, his Australian girlfriend Claire Shepard played by Alice Eve, an Hollywood actress wannabe who had granted 2 months worth of on-demand sexual favours to an Immigration official Cole Frankel played by Ray Liotta in exchange for a green card. Cole's wife Deniese played by Ashley Judd wants to adopt a child placed in a detention centre, who meets Taslima Jahangir played by Summer Bishil whose essay failed to condemn the terrorists of 9/11 and gotten her and her family into hot soup. Then there's a Korean family who is waiting to be naturalized whose eldest son got involved with thugs. And finally Hamid Baraheri played by Cliff Curtis, Max's partner whose family cannot stand his estranged sister whom they feel is a disgrace of their values, tradition and custom by adopting the lifestyle of Americans, yet strangely ironic as they too pursue to be American citizens.

With all these story lines involved the director somehow manges to put in a little murder mystery in the movie as well. In the end this certainly is one of the powerful immigrant stories that I have seen.

My Rating: 3/5 

Orphan

I saw this flick the night before yesterday and I was really surprised by this flick. The flick Orphan directed by Jaume Collet-Serra is very disturbing at times and is pretty gruesome. The movie in a whole is an excellent flick and this is one of the scariest flicks of all time according to me.

The flicks is about the story of Esther played by Isabelle Fuhrman, a 9-year old who is adopted by Kate and John Coleman played by Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard. The decision that they made because of the stillborn birth of their third child.

Esther quickly bonds with Max played by Aryana Engineer, the deaf daughter of the couple but is resented by their son Daniel played by Jimmy Bennett. She charms the Colemans with her artistic flair and her personality. But Kate realises that there is more going on with Esther than meets the eye. Whenever an accident occurs Esther seems to be around. So the rest of the plot remains in Kate finding Esther's secret.

Isabelle Fuhrman gave an excellent performance in this flick. Since the plot of the flick revolves around Esther, her performance will be the key for the movie's success. But damn did she come out with flying colors with her performance in this flick. I would definitely be surprised if she didn't grow up into one of the Hollywood's premiere stars.

In the end this flick will be a great one for those who enjoy horror/thriller flicks.

My Rating: 4/5

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Well the holidays have started for me here from today and I started the first day by watching this flick Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The movie was hilarious and I enjoyed every bit of it. I am a huge fan of Will Ferrell and this flick is one of his best movies.

Will Ferrell stars as Ron Burgundy who is San Diego's top rated anchorman in the male dominated broadcasting of the 1970's. His Channel 4 News team comprises of Champ Kind, the sports reporter played by David Koechner, Brian Fantana, the video reporter played by Paul Rudd and Brick Tamland, the dumb wheaterman played by Steve Carell. Together the four of them are the No.1 news team in San Diego and they go around bragging about it.

This is about to change when a new attractive female employee joins the Channel 4 News team, Veronica Corningstone played by Christina Applegate. Soon Burgundy and Veronica fall in love. One day a misadventure by Burgundy results in Veronica's pinch-hitting chance to anchor the evening news and she scores it big time. The remaining plot is about Ron's revenge and Veronica's counterattacks.

There are some really funny scenes like the scene where all the news teams of the competing stations led by Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Tim Robbins battle it out with each other. Guys when you watch this flick dont forget to watch the outtakes as the end credits role, especially Ferrell's last comment on what the movie really is.

In the end this is a flick which you can watch with your buddies and have a blast laughing.

My Rating: 3.5/5 

North by Northwest (A Classic Thriller)

Yesterday night I saw the film North By Northwest, one of the classic thrillers by Alfred Hitchcock. This is the first time I am seeing this movie. Even though I haven't seen many Hitchcock films, I think I can boldly say that this is one of his best flicks of all time. And now this film is added into my favorite flicks of all time.

Cary Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive who is mistaken for a government agent George Kaplan by a group of foreign spies and gets kidnapped. When he tries to find out whats going on, he is framed for a murder and he sets out on a cross country run to survive and to find the real George Kaplan. Along the way he meets adventure, danger and beauty in the name of Eve Kendall played by Eva Marie Saint. However when he finds the truth, he is drawn towards a final showdown with the dangerous Phillip Vandamm played by James Mason.

Cary Grant's performance in this flick is simply awesome. One definitely falls in love wtih him or deeply envies him. He carried out his debonair manner throughout the film. Jessie Royce Landis stars as Clara Thornhill, mother of Roger also done a great job.

The Screenplay by Ernest Lehman sets this film to be a classic thriller that it is. The Music by Bernard Herrmann adds an aditional falvour to the scenes. My favorite scenes in this film are The Crop duster chase Scene and The Auction Scene. Another plus for the film was the clever and witty dialouges. Let me quote one of my favorite dialouges in this flick. This happens in the dining car of the train.

Roger: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
Eve: What makes you think you have to conceal it?
Roger:  She might find the idea objectionable.
Eve: Then again, she might not.

All in all this film is a must watch flick. It has something for everyone within it: a little comedy, a little romance, great snappy dialogue and more action than any other action movie. I had a great time watching this flick. I am sure that you guys will also have an amazing time if you watch this flick.

My Rating: 4.5/5   

Worlds Greatest Dad

This is the movie that I saw this afternoon after finishing my final exam of this semester. Well I saw this film hoping that it will be some fun movie for the kids to have a good time (and by kids I mean me, even though I am a 20 year old fatty). But when I saw this flick, it didn't turnout to be the film I hoped rather this was a very dark and disturbing adult drama which had me laughing and crying at the same time.

Robin Williams stars as Lance Clayton the father of an young Kyle Clayton(Daryl Sabara), a pervy sex-obsessed insolent teenager. Lance dreams to get his written work published when he is not teaching poetry at his son's school. He doesn't get any respect from his colleagues and the students aren't interested in enrolling for his poetry class and to top this his young girlfriend also treats him unfairly.

One day an unexpected(rather embarassing) tragedy occurs at Lance's house, he tries to cover certain embarassing facts and by doing so he accedently gains respect among his colleagues and his students. His dream of getting his written work published also comes true. This flick makes you wonder what people will do for fame even if they need to be a muse.

Robin Williams and Daryl Sabara have done exceptionally well. Their performance was one of the factors for this movie's success. Another person that has done his part brilliantly was the young Evan Martin who plays Andrew, the one and only friend of Kyle. And not to forget the brilliant work of the Director Bobcat Goldthwait.

In the end this is one of the best films of 2009 and a must watch flick for those who enjoy dark comedy.

My Rating: 3.5/5 

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