Paranormal Activity Movie Review

Ok, so finally we have a movie that succeeds in scaring you enough that you know watching it was worth it.

This movie is more of a psychological horror movie than one of the usual horror movies that one gets to see. The best part about it was that even though you know from the start that when the night video screen comes on, something scary will happen; you think you're prepared for it, but when the scary stuff happens you're still getting scared and loving each minute of Micah and Katie getting spooked by the "evil entity".

I don't want to go into the story and spoil it for you even a bit, but this I got to say, the night video thingy becomes so great a scare tactic in the movie that towards the last 15 minutes, just the fact that the night video comes on, starts to frighten the audience. That is the beauty of a psychological thriller.

The base story is of this couple who are living together, the girl Katie starts having recurring experiences that frighten her. The boyfriend, who spends the first 30 minutes providing some laughs with his witty comments on the events going on, initially thinks of all the spookiness as some sort of a game... well the movie is basically shot in home video style and it adds to the value of the movie. The end is so freaking awesome that it takes it to the next level.

On the comparison with Blair Witch Project, I think this movie is slightly better, simply because that movie tried to, at times, fool the audience with a lot of spooky stuff happening off the camera and the end kind of messed it up. This movie isn't trying to prove some myth or any such thing, it has just one purpose to screw with your head and scare you. The movie starts of slowly and builds to a crescendo. A brilliant last 5 minutes make it the horror movie of the year. Go ahead and watch it, even though you will want to quit the movie at times because it just gets scarier and scarier you will feel compelled to finish it out of curiosity.

It has set the record as the most profitable independent film ever made having earned over $100 million with a production budget of $15,000.

4/5 for this movie.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Music and Movie Review

I was looking forward to this movie for quite some time and finally saw it a few months ago. I didn't have time to write a review back then. While watching the movie one can't ignore the perfect soundtrack that it has.

The story is about two people, Nick and Norah. Nick is the sole straight member of a gay-band called The Jerk Offs and is recovering from a bad breakup. Norah is the girl who calls herself the musical soul-mate of Nick and is in a crappy relationship with a guy whose sole purpose is to use Norah's dad's studio to release his band's album.

The story moves along during a night when Nick and Norah finally meet at a gig and spend the night looking out for their favorite band, 'Where's Fluffy', who are supposed to perform later that night. A sequence of events bring them closer to each other. The movie is based on a book and in it's treatment reminds one of Juno. Michael Cera acts well in a role he can patent - the likable loser. Kat Dennings plays the awkward Norah to perfection and does really well throughout the movie.

All in all a really nice, breezy movie which has a few laughs sprinkled on top.

The soundtrack has many songs from indie bands amongst others. My favorite songs being - Xavia by The Submarines and Lover by Devendra Banhart. A different soundtrack which goes really well with the movie. If you haven't seen it, then do so, but when you have the time to watch a movie like this one... probably a lazy Sunday afternoon. Hear the songs from the soundtrack. Nice stuff!

The Sixth Sense

I saw it in 1999, it's twist ending is so awesome that even today, 10 years after I first saw it, the effect is just the same. This was truly an incredible movie, with Bruce Willis giving an amazing, subdued performance as the child psychologist looking for redemption after a failed patient comes back one day to change his life forever.

The child actor, Haley Joel Osment gave an extraordinary performance which was parallel only to Macaulay Culkin's awesome performance as a child actor. But obviously the roles were completely different, for different genres. Here was a kid who made a line like, "I see dead people" into a famous quote.

Finally full credit to M "Night" Shyamalan. Whatever people say about his movies today, one cannot deny that he delivered one of the all time greatest thrillers in the form of The Sixth Sense. Look at movies since then, insane budgets, special effects galore and the audience is unmoved. This movie was made for $40 million and it made more than $670 million, for a then unheard of director like Shyamalan is testimony to the quality of this movie. The much talked about twist ending is, unbelievably awesome. The beauty of it is that, he hasn't tried to fool the audience, he just divulged the information at the very end of the movie, something which is totally justified in all the scenes before once you see it in retrospect. Brilliant!

Why am I writing this today, well, because I didn't have a blog in 1999 and I just saw this movie on TV a few hours back. If for some reason, you haven't watched this movie as yet, just stop whatever you are doing and watch the movie.

P.S. - Another movie you ought to see is The Omen [the 1970's version]

Inglourious Basterds Movie Review

So I finally saw the eagerly anticipated Inglourious Basterds this weekend, and well I liked it a lot. Primary reasons, it's like any Tarantino movie, fast paced, fun and contains awesome characters with killer dialogue.
The story of the movie is simple, it involves a plot to kill the top brass of the Nazi regime when they are in a theater for a propaganda movie premiere. But screw the plot, the acting is top notch, I loved the cameo by Mike Myers playing a British officer who gives a briefing about the mission. One thing I must say, Brad Pitt was a total waste in the movie, him talking in the hillbilly accent was actually irritating and a distraction. But... but, but the movie is taken to the next level by one, standout performance by an actor named Christopher Waltz playing the character of Col. Hans Landa.



Col. Landa is the definition of an evil, cunning Nazi called the Jew Hunter. The opening scene where he has this insane conversation with a French man who is a Jewish sympathizer is brilliant. The dialogue in which he compares Nazi's and Jew's to hawks and rats is brilliant [no I am not a Nazi, it's just that the dialogue was freaking awesome].

In my humble opinion he totally deserves and Oscar for the portrayal of Hans Landa and in all likelihood will get it.

The movie is totally enjoyable and must be seen. One thing I must mention, a movie like Inglourious Basterds, which has dialogues which can be considered offensive by the Jewish community is released without any incident all over the world and becomes a super hit. One wonders if India, once upon a time a tolerant country is losing it's sense of tolerance! Think about it, maybe it's time Indians should Wake Up!

Kaminey

I won't spare a single sentence on saying anything to those who criticize the quality of the movie, yes it is possible that you didn't LIKE this movie, it may not be your type. But if anyone thinks that this movie is over-hyped or not as good as people say it is, well... I can't give sight to the blind now, can I? So why even try?

Kaminey is the definition of an awesome movie, killer acting, killer music, killer story-telling and killer dialogues. By now you should know the story of the movie so I wont bother going there, but it's the way it has been shown that sets this apart and puts it right up to the rank of BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR. This movie will steal all the awards, trust me.

Cheesy love stories may still strike gold at the box office, but it's movies like Kaminey that raise the bar of Indian cinema and what's more it's set the box office on fire as well. This is a non-stop entertainer which requires a decent IQ to be understood or rather a will to be able to hang on and grasp what the director is trying to convey. There is no spoon-feeding in this flick, no wasted scene in which nothing of consequence happens, every scene has a purpose. What's more, we have Shahid Kapoor as Charlie in what will go down in history as one of the best written roles. The movie hasn't even released full pelt in Pune and people are talking in Charlie ftyle.

Bhope Bhau is brilliantly played by Amol Gupte, his scene with Mikhail played by Chadan Roy Sanyal is exceptionally awesome. The craziness of that scene is something I have seen on screen after a really long time.

The climax - I won't write a thing about the story since you absolutely must watch this movie, but believe me, if you watch the climax carefully and dont let yourself get distracted with all the action you will notice so many twists and turns it is mind-blowing.

Finally, praise for the man who practically owns this film, Vishal Bharadwaj, man, thank God you became a director and came up with this movie. I know there's practically no chance of you reading this blog post but seriously I am still trying to wonder how you can come up with such an incredible storyline, such brilliant dialogues and the perfect soundtrack to go with the brilliant movie. Be prepared for a showering of awards in the next awards season. This is one movie which people just cant pass over as one that gets a CRITICS award. This one gets them all.

I could go on forever in praise of this movie, it is that good. But I need to stop and go watch the movie again. So, please go ahead and watch this movie. Iff movie ko miff mat karna!

Taxi Driver

Well, I wasn't much of a Scorsese fan; but after watching this movie all I can say is 'genius'!
The whole movie is intriguing but the last ten minutes are the best ten minutes of any movie I have ever seen [the best 10 minutes of Shawshank Redemption come a little before the last 10 minutes of the movie]!

It starts of describing a lonely, insomniac man (Travis Bickle) who takes up a job as a Taxi Driver. The entire 1st thirty minutes are dedicated to describing the setting of the man's life, his growing frustration with the 'scum of the city'. Since he does most of his work as a night time cabbie; he sees pretty much the worst of the city.
All along the movie an interesting plot is developed, about a Presidential Election.

Travis (De Niro) then gets attracted to a woman named Betsy working for the Election Campaign for a man named Palantine. Travis' inexperience with women leads him to inviting her for a movie, which actually was a Swedish Sex Ed film; Betsy obviously gets disgusted and leaves him.

One night a stoned girl (Iris) gets into his cab only to be dragged out by a pimp. Travis then chances upon seeing the same girl a couple of times more. he finally decides he wants to save her from the lowly life she has been leading at the tender age of 12.

Meanwhile Travis repeatedly tries to contact Betsy, going as far as forcibly entering her office; only to be removed from there.
Travis' frustration then increases day by day until finally he buys a gun. He decides to kill the Presidential hopeful for whom Betsy works. The following scene with Travis and a Secret Agent are pretty well shown, at all times one expects Travis to take out his gun and go after Palantine; but he doesn't.

Travis also gets obsessed with saving Iris (Jodie Foster) and asks her repeatedly to go back to her home and lead a better life. The naive Iris doen't follow his advice.

The next day we suddenly see Travis in a Mohawk hair cut as he enters a rally of Palantine. After the speech Travis gets close to Palantine and is about to draw his gun to shoot, when Secret Agents see him and Travis starts running. He escapes and reaches his home.

The last 10 minutes -

Travis drives his taxi to Iris's brothel area, where he stops and walks over to the pimp. After talking with him for a brief period, he pulls out his gun and shoots him once. He then walks over to Iris' building and climbs the steps. Near Iris' room he is stopped by another goon, he shoots him, but misses his head. The goon gets injured and tries to stop Travis who starts making his way to Iris' room. Suddenly the injured pimp who Travis had short earlier is seen wielding a gun and his shot hits Travis in the neck. Travis then kills the pimp and the goon. As he reaches the door of Iris's room; a man walks out from Iris' room and shoots Travis in the shoulder. Travis kills that man and finally collapses on a sofa next to a scared and weeping Iris. Travis then puts the gun to his own neck and pulls the trigger, many times. But there are no bullets left.

Travis is seen breathing heavily, blood soaked and dying. The police then enter the room, after some time Travis closes his eyes.

We are then shown news paper clippings which say - Taxi Driver Hero Saves Girl From Prostitution!
A voice over reads out a letter by Iris' parents which thank him for saving their daughter; according to the letter Travis was in a coma when they came to visit him and thank him.

They show Travis a while later talking to his fellow cabbies when a woman enters his cab. She talks to him about his heroics and he says that the newspapers made a big deal out of it. The woman in the cab is Betsy. Her actions suggest that due to the events that happened, she wants to resume seeing him. Travis drops her to her house and doesn't charge her.

The movie ends.


The ending of the movie is filled with irony, but a fitting end to an awesome movie. Robert De Niro acts brilliantly in a very challenging role. I saw this movie from 3 am to 5 am in the morning; and even then it seemed awesome. Totally worth it's high rating. Watch it somehow!