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.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani - Movie Review

Thankfully I saw this movie during the weekend without having read a single movie review in detail [I just saw the ratings and skipped the rest]. The movie is extremely entertaining, from the promos itself you know it isn't supposed to make any sense. It's a movie that's supposed to entertain you.

The movie is a bunch of sequences strung together to make you laugh and feel good. Staying true to it's name, the movie does have many random twists to the story. Ranbir Kapoor gives another smashing performance, be it the comedy, drama, dance you name it - he does it well. Katrina, well, just watching this woman on screen is worth the time. She just pulls of every kind of look. Her accent too in the movie is acceptable considering her story background. Some really nice touches in the movie are the stammering thingy that the two protagonists do when they get emotional. Darshan Zariwalla and Ranbir play the hilarious father and son angle very well. Two scenes in particular are awesome - in which a fantasizing Ranbir's murmurs are heard by his dad and taken to be compliments, the other is the one in which Ranbir has to get Katrina out of the bathroom before his dad enters - hilarity!

The music of the movie is extremely popular and has been done justice to in the movie. The songs don't come in the way of the story telling. One complaint I had in the movie was the stretched out fight sequence which was nowhere near the similarly stretched out fight sequence in Andaaz Apna Apna, but that was God level comedy. Apart from that minor minor glitch I loved every other sequence.

The most entertaining movie of the year, you can watch this one with friends or family.


All in all, a very entertaining movie, go have fun people!

London Dreams Movie Review

So I saw London Dreams today with friends [yes, I am vela on weekends and do take risks with my life by going for such movies] and it sucked! But even in this disaster of a movie, there was a saving grace, Salman Khan. That guy was acting so well it seemed like he was in an altogether different movie, gone was his accented Hindi which he seemed to be stuck with for the past few years, gone was the campy acting. Here was a man acting beyond what one could imagine. He did comedy and drama with his trademark charm. His role was so refreshing, that one actually felt the movie may survive but that's where the entire cast and crew delivered the killer punch. Ajay Devgn [if he changed his surname based on an astrologer then he better realize it's not his name but his astrologer that needs a change] was completely out of place in this movie. Not that he didn't act well, it's just that you can't cast someone like him as a rock star, he just can't pull it off no matter how good an actor he is. It's like asking Sachin Tendulkar to run like Usain Bolt. It won't happen, even if the man gives it everything he's got.

The dialogues suck, e.g. Bhagvan kyu tum Mannu ke gale mein baith gaye? [asks a crestfallen Ajay after he watches Mannu i.e. Salman Khan steal the show during a performance] The music sucks big time, for a movie based on a musical backdrop not one song is a super hit.

Asin, what the heck is she doing in this movie? What was her dad doing in this movie [not her real dad, her movie dad]? Why the hell was this movie made?

Now for some non LD stuff, I saw Amadeus last night, and not to act like some pretentious Hollywood worshiper, but LD is clearly a rip off of Amadeus. That movie is a 3 hour acting extravaganza. The role of Salieri [the basis of Ajay Devgn's character] is brilliantly crafted and exceptionally performed. Mozart's musical genius is well exploited in the movie. In this movie you hardly see that apart from the rip off scene in which Mannu takes a tune composed by Arjun and improves it impromptu.

I just feel bad about one thing, Salman Khan's best performance in a long time was wasted in this dud of a film. On the other hand, at least something was worth watching in the movie.

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!

Jerry Maguire

I know I was supposed to write a review for The Bartimaeus Trilogy, but that'll take a while and I frankly am not in the mood to write a book review right now. In the past two days I've returned to what was once my habit, sleeping for just about 4 hours in a day! So as I approach my last subject exam in COEP; I suddenly have decided to write a review of one of my most favorite movies of all time - Jerry Maguire.
This movie is a must watch, brilliant performances by Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Rod Tidwell and Renée Zellweger as Dorothy Boyd [the only role I ever liked her in] and special mention for the amazing child actor Jonathan Lipnicki as Dorothy's son Ray [he's the same kid who was in Stuart Little]. Apart from this kid and Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, I have not seen a better performance from a child actor. Seriously! You just have to watch his scene in the car with Tom Cruise with his "Did you know..." dialogues. Amazing scene.

The movies story is pretty simple, Jerry is an agent for Sportsmen in a large firm, he has a moment of career-misjudgment and sends a memo to all employees of the company stating what ails the Sports Agencies in terms of policies and stuff. The result is he gets fired, loses all but 2 clients and has to leave. The only saving grace is Dorothy who comes along with him when he is kicked out, because she believes in his principle. The lift scene which has the famous line "You complete me." is brilliant.

The best part about the movie is Rod Tidwell, in a standout role, which got Cuba Gooding, Jr. an Oscar - he kicks ass in every scene. The movie has brilliant scenes and memorable, catchphrase style lines like

1. Show Me The Money
2. You are my ambassador of Kwan
3. Help me, help you [I love this line]
4. You had me at hello
5. You complete me [brilliantly delivered in the climax scene, more recently used by Heath Ledger as The Joker in the Interrogation scene with Batman in The Dark Knight]


Scenes -

You Complete Me [Jerry Maguire]


You Complete Me [The Joker]


It's no point just watching the scenes of this flick, watch the whole movie and I am quite positive you will like it! Great, clean, heart-touching movie with some memorable scenes peppered with intelligent dialogue.


A still from the famous "Show Me The Money" scene. Tom Cruise gave his best performance till date in this movie. The movie is shot in a very simplistic and natural style giving it a very realistic feel.


The kid is a scene-stealer. Period!

Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Rod Tidwell in the pre-climax scene where his antics on the field turn into a life-changing event for both Jerry and himself!


4/5 for this flick! Do watch it.

Dev D Movie Review

Just one word – Fabulous!
I finally saw this movie on Sunday and thank God I waited to watch it in a theatre. One of the best Hindi movies I have seen. Anurag Kashyap and Amit Trivedi – take a bow!

Yes, there are those who didn’t like it, but I liked it and that’s all that counts. I don’t care who gave it 5 stars and who gave it 1 star; a movie like this is beyond ratings.
I really wish people would decide what kind of a movie they expect before they step into the theatre, that’s where I believe most people end up not liking movies. What one gets in Dev D, is some great acting, great direction and above all great… great music and lots of it, there’s little else that you can ask for.
What I liked about the movie was that even though you know it’s a Devdas remake, you still are surprised with the total angle change and twists in the story. I for one loved the role of Chanda, seriously well etched out. Paro was also fine, but the best acting performance was by Abhay Deol, from whom one now can just start expecting great performances and nothing less. I had also seen “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye!” a few weeks back and he did brilliantly in that too. While the movie is a serious one it has some great humor in it, the “Sattu” scene at the start, Emosanal Attyachar [Brass Band version] with those two hilarious singers and a host of other moments in the movie. The entire movie is intelligent and is entertaining. Some people have complained about the songs and stuff, but I didn’t really have an issue since I loved the album [which has been on my playlist since the last month] and the handling of the scenes, especially between Chanda and Dev is superb.
Chanda, played by Kalki is a revelation; her entire story arc starting from the MMS scandal to the last scene is amazing. One was really pleased the see the way the whole MMS issue was handled in a completely non-sleazy way in the film. One can only imagine what the directors of the 90’s and 80’s would’ve done with that kind of subject matter! I don’t know what people were saying when they complained about Chanda’s accent, she’s not playing a Bharatiya nari types as it is.
The strength of the movie lies in the depth the female characters are given. While it is true that in most Bollywood movies, female characters are just eye candy; Anurag Kashyap gives us Chanda who is not only eye candy, but also has a huge role to play in the movie itself. Even Paro did a great job in the movie.
What I was also glad to see was that the theatre had quite a decent crowd, even though the movie is relatively old now.
Now the music, enough has already been said about how awesome it is, but I think it’s necessary to mention how well it has been used in the movie. By far one of the best soundtracks to come out of the Hindi movie industry!
To finish this review, which is mostly a recommendation for this movie – one hopes that the Anurag Kashyaps of Bollywood prevail over the mindless trash made by the Nikhil Advanis and Aneez Bazmees of this world.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

I had been waiting for this flick to "release on DVD" [read as - come out with a good torrent] for the past 6 months and finally I got the movie with me today morning and after watching it all I can say is - it was really good. Once again I propose my theory of liking a movie as much as one wants to like it, so if you read this and "get the DVD" and don't like it, it's not my fault.
It's a simplistic story - all about the events that transpire on one night, between the 2 protagonists, Nick and Norah. Nick is the sole hetero/straight member of a gay band called The Jerk-Offs; who hasn't recovered from a break up with his girlfriend Tris; so he calls her up and leaves all loserish messages on her answering machine along with sending her mix CD's in the hopes of winning her back. Tris is least interested in him and had been cheating on him during their relationship.
Norah is this rich kid who tries to lead as normal a life as possible and is always with her best friend Caroline [who gets drunk at parties and needs Norah to save her]. Norah, played by Kat Dennings is perfectly cast along with Michael Cera who plays Nick.

The rest of the story is a breezy set of events that transpire along the night when Nick and Norah start the night, separately hunting for the location where this band called "Where's Fluffy? " is going to perform.

The one liner's in the movie are really smart and funny. The situations are pretty fresh and worth watching. Michael Cera has been part of Superbad, my most favorite comedy of the 2000's and then he added Juno [which was a decent movie] to his list and he does himself no harm with Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Kat Dennings too has done a fabulous job. The whole movie is a light on the head but not stupid flick and I for one enjoyed it a lot and will urge [read as force] my friends to watch it.

If you have seen the above movies and liked any of them, I suggest you watch this flick which is supported well by a pretty decent soundtrack as well.

3.5/5 stars for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Hilarious Review of Taal - Robert Ebert

I just came across this awesome review of Taal. The man has written things he felt as an American while watching the Subhash Ghai movie. I found it really funny.

Here's an excerpt from his review -

Now comes a scene of such peculiar eroticism that you will have to take my word for it -- it was sexy. At a reception, the heroine scratches her chin. The hero, across the room, scratches his chin. The heroine touches her nose. The hero touches his nose. She brushes back her hair. He brushes back his hair. What fills him with maddening desire is that she does not reveal by even a flicker of an eyelid that she notices him doing this. She is a good girl, and will not make eye contact, even though they have held hands.

Trays of soft drinks are brought around. She takes a bottle of Coke and sips through a straw. He takes a Coke and sips through a straw. "Coca-Cola is sponsoring this movie," Uma explains. Product placement is up front in India.

The hero removes the straw and drinks from the bottle with his lips. The woman does not seem to notice. He puts the bottle back on the tray, and tells the waiter to take the tray to where the heroine is standing with her girlfriends. The waiter offers her the tray. Will her lips touch the same Coke bottle as his? Or will she choose Thums Up cola (without the "b"), the other leading Indian brand? The suspense is unbearable. She rejects the tray. But then -- this is cinema at its best! -- her girl friend reaches for the same bottle, and the heroine snatches it away. She DID notice! She was looking all the time!

Now the heroine is holding the Coke bottle herself. Does she drink from it? I would like to tell you, I really would, but this is a family newspaper.


Read the full review here.

Death Magnetic

I had been waiting for this since 2006, and now after 2 long years of anticipation I finally listened to every song of Metallica's latest album. It's seriously good. The best track is The Unforgiven III. Way better than
St. Anger [which was a horror to listen to] and certainly one of the better albums this year. Get your hands on this album quick and hear every track.


# Title Length
1. "That Was Just Your Life" 7:07
2. "The End of the Line" 7:51
3. "Broken, Beat & Scarred" 6:25
4. "The Day That Never Comes" 7:55
5. "All Nightmare Long" 7:57
6. "Cyanide" 6:39
7. "The Unforgiven III" 7:45
8. "The Judas Kiss" 8:00
9. "Suicide & Redemption" 9:56
10. "My Apocalypse" 5:00




Death Magnetic debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 490,000 copies in just three days of availability. It is the band's fifth album to
debut at number one, making Metallica the first group with the most albums to open at number one, surpassing The Beatles, U2, and The Dave Matthews Band.

Other Related Links:

Rolling Stones Review

A Fan Review

Another Review

Yet Another Review

Indian Express

Singh Is Kinng - WTF!

I spent more than 2 hours of my life watching a movie which should've been banned by the Censor Board for being by far the worst movie with A list actors!
How did Akshay Kumar do this one... come on dude, am sure you ain't that cash starved that you've got to do a movie which is worse than Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi and Aflatoon [which were thus far considered some of your crappiest work till date]!
Katrina Kaif, please learn Hindi... you're hot, that's fine; but please don't ruin that by talking in the worst accented Hindi that beats Salman's accented English!
Om Puri and Kirron Kher were the only funny people in this flick along with Javed Jafferey [his Mica song was one of the few watchable moments in this awful film along with the Snoop Dogg song at the credits]
But what is stupefying is the kind of success this movie is enjoying! Highest grossing opening weekend ever! WTF man! People have you all collectively lost it. Ratings of 3.5 by Rediff - dude are you sure you saw SIK? I give it -5 for all those who care about ratings.

This Independence Day I request all awesome movie Directors like Ashutosh Gowariker to make more than 1 movie in 2 years... please rescue Indian cinema. I saw the deleted scenes of Jodhaa Akbar and even they were more entertaining than the best parts of SIK. Sadly movie revenues are now decided completely by promotional campaigns and hype than quality!
When Tashan, Ta Ra Rum Pum etc flopped, I thought that maybe finally the era of pathetic movies becoming hits will come to an end, but SIK totally raises the bar [or lowers it] to a new level!

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!