Recently in Movies Category
Bourne Ultimatum was released in the US today. Just came back after watching the movie. Loved it. I had been waiting for this movie for about 2 or 3 months now. If you have seen Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy and enjoyed those movies, and you love action movies, this movie will not disappoint you. Action - oh yeah, you will get a lot of it :). However, be prepared for some shaky camera movement. Overall, a must-see movie. Absolutely recommended.
Reviews and Links:
- Entertainment Weekly
- Official Website
- Yahoo Movies
- NY Times
- IMDB
- Rotten Tomatoes
Watched "Mission Impossible III" yesterday. It was great. The action scenes were awesome. I do have to admit that I liked the first one the best. I don't remember much about part two :). If you are in for a nice action movie, then this movie is definitely recommended.
Related Links:
- CNN Review
- Yahoo Movies
- Official Site
Another movie I am looking forward to is "The DaVinci Code" which will be released on May 19th.
Tonight is Oscar Night - the 78th Academy Awards.
Here are my votes :)
1. Best Picture: Munich
2. Best Director: Steven Spielberg, "Munich"
3. Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, "Walk the Line"
4. Best Actress: Keira Knightley, "Pride & Prejudice"
5. Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney, "Syriana"
6. Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Keener, "Capote"
I have not seen any of the films except "Munich" and my choices are based on my own views and so they will most probably not match the ones from the Oscar committee. But anyway here they are :).
Update (8:34 PM 3/5/2006): Here is the Winners list which is updated continously.
Update (11:32 PM 3/5/2006): Here is the final list:
1. Best Picture: Crash
2. Best Director: Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"
3. Best Actor: Philip Hoffman, "Capote"
4. Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, "Walk The Line"
5. Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney, "Syriana"
6. Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener"
Watched "Firewall" today. Had been wanting to watch it for some time. It stars Harrison Ford. He plays a bank expert who is forced to rob his own bank after his family is taken hostage.
Good Movie. Definitely worth watching. Keeps the suspense till the very end.
On a side note, it amazed me how the storyline is strikingly similar to the recent $44 million Securitas bank robbery in England. Coincidence, anyone?
Watched Munich about 2 weeks back. Wanted to but never got a chance to write about it in my blog. Well, better late than never :)
It's a great movie by Spielberg. Definitely worth watching. The story is about a covert Israeli squad assigned to track down and kill the 11 Palestinians suspected to have planned the attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The nice thing I like about the movie is that Spielberg has treated it with justice. He has not taken any sides.
The following excerpt sums from Rober Ebert's review sums it up well:
Steven Spielberg's "Munich" is an act of courage and conscience. The director of "Schindler's List," the founder of the Shoah Foundation, the most successful and visible Jew in the world of film, has placed himself between Israel and the Palestinians, looked at decades of terrorism and reprisal, and had one of his characters conclude, "There is no peace at the end of this." Spielberg's film has been called an attack on the Palestinians and he has been rebuked as "no friend of Israel." By not taking sides, he has taken both sides.
One of the main stars in the movie is Eric Bana who starred in "The Hulk" and "Troy".
Related Links:
- Official Site
- CNN Review
- Rober Ebert's Review
- Wikipedia
- Yahoo! Movies
Poster Credit: Wikipedia
Watched "Batman Begins" today. It was awesome!!! The movie is about how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman and how he saves Gotham city. Liam Neeson is also in the movie. And Katie Holmes plays Batman's childhood friend and love interest later on.
The main Batman movies are:
[1] Batman (1989) starring Michael Keaton
[2] Batman Returns (1992) starring Michael Keaton
[3] Batman Forever (1995) starring Val Kilmer
[4] Batman and Robin (1997) starring George Clooney
[5] Batman Begins (2005) starring Christian Bale
I have watched all of them except [1].
Unlike the Star Wars movies, "Batman Begins" is not a prequel of the other movies (which I had originally assumed). It is whole new series starting afresh. So, we can expect more Batman movies in the future. And heard that another Batman movie with the Joker (Jack Nicholson played the Joker in the 1989 Batman) is coming up soon.
If you have read a couple of Batman comics and you love action movies, go see this movie. You will definitely love it!
The movie was released in the US on June 15, 2 days earlier than the worldwide release.
Another movie I am eagerly looking forward to is "War of the Worlds" which is releasing on June 29.
Related Links:
- Yahoo Movies
- CNN Review
- IMDB
- Official Site
- Wikipedia
Watched "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" today. It was awesome!
The movie is about how Anakin Skywalker turned to the Dark Side of the Force to become Darth Vader. It was released yesterday at 12 am! CNN reports that the movie grossed a record $50 million in the first 24 hours, the highest box office tally for a single day.
I always thought that the Star Wars movies were in the reverse order. But today, I looked at Wikipedia and found that the order of the movies is 4,5,6,1,2,3. Well, if you consider 4-6 as one block and 1-3 as the other, then it can be said that the movies were released in reverse order: 4-6,1-3.
The films in the Star Wars series are:
1. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (19 May 1999)
2. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (16 May 2002)
3. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (19 May 2005)
4. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (25 May 1977) (originally titled Star Wars)
5. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (21 May 1980)
6. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (25 May 1983)
I have watched all 6 except the original Star Wars (1997).
I am also looking forward to watching "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (releasing June 10, 2005) and "Batman Begins" (releasing June 15, 2005).
Related Links:
- Star Wars (Wikipedia)
- Closing the circle of 'Star Wars' (CNN)
- Official website
- Yahoo Movies
- IMDB
I first read about the movie in TIME magazine (Aug 2004) (view article: online | cached). The movie was released on Sep 24, 2004 and the DVD was released on Feb 15, 2005. But there were only four copies in the local Blockbuster store here and they always seemed to be out. Finally, I was able to get hold on one of them.
The movie is entirely in Spanish with English subtitles. The Spanish (and original) title of the movie is "Diarios de motocicleta". The movie talks about the journey of 23-year old medical student Ernesto "Che" Guevera and Alberto Granada on a 1959 Norton 500cc motorcycle across South America in the early 1950s. They start from Argentina and travel to Chile, Peru, Columbia and Venuezela, a distance of over 12,000 miles. Their destination: a leper colony in San Pablo (Peru) where they had volunteered to work. It is a true story and based upon an actual journal written by Che Guevera.
Che Guevera was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader. He was the right hand man of Fidel Castro. He was regarded as a leading authority on guerilla warfare. His book "Guerrilla Warfare", was seen for a time as the definitive philosophy for fighting irregular wars. However, his "Cuban Style" revolution failed in Bolivia, mostly due to the lack of grassroots support.
In the movie, Che is played by Gael García Bernal and Granada is played by Rodrigo De la Serna. Interestingly, in real life, De la Serna also happens to be the second cousin of Che Guevera. Gorgeous Mía Maestro plays Bernal's love interest in movie.
Incidentally, Che Guevera is also well known for the famous "Che" T-shirts. A photograph of him taken by photographer Alberto Korda in 1961 soon became the "most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century". The image that became famous is not the actual photograph but the high contrast bust drawing that is based on it. The bust drawing was made by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick. It was reproduced on a vast array of merchandise, such as T-shirts, posters, and baseball caps.
The TIME article sums it up:
In his evolution from Castro's right-hand man to the face that launched a thousand T shirts, Guevara has been frozen in time, always and forever the revolutionary...
Bottom Line: Great movie. Breathtaking scenery. Definitely worth watching - even with subtitles.
Trivia:
[1] After returning from his motorcycle trip, he did complete his medical studies. He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires medical school in 1953.
[2] The movie was also nominated for two Oscar Awards in 2005 – Best Original Song and Best Adapted Script. It won the Best Original Song Oscar for "Al otro lado del río".
[3] Guevera's famous nickname "Che" is the Argentinian equivalent for "what's up?" or "hey". In other parts of Latin America, it is slang for someone from Argentina (this part is mentioned in the movie).
[4] The real Granado is still alive (he is 83) and appears at the end of the movie.
[5] Antonio Banderas played Che Guevera alongside Madonna's Eva Perón in Evita (discussion).
[6] Another movie on Che (aptly titled "Che") starring Benicio Del Toro is being released in 2006.
Related Links:
- On the Road to Greatness (TIME article)
- A journey with 'Che' (Joseph Thomas)
- The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) (Yahoo Movies)
- Diarios de motocicleta (IMDB)
- Che Guevera (Wikipedia)
- The famous Che Guevera photo (Wikipedia)
Just came back after watching Ocean's Twelve. I have been waiting for this movie for about 3 months. I really enjoyed the movie. It was great! Compared to Ocean's Eleven, this is a less action but more fun movie. I don't know which one is better - Ocean's Eleven or Ocean's Twelve? But if I have to choose one, I guess it would be Ocean's Eleven.
Bottomline: A fun movie and definitely worth watching.
Note (1:30 AM 12/11/2004): Just remembered noticing in the movie that Catherine Jeta-Zones' name is Isabel Lahiri. Struck me as a bit odd. Because Lahiri is a Bengali lastname.
Update (1:35 AM 12/11/2004): Found a related article.
Related Links:
- Review at Yahoo Movies
- Official website
- Ocean's Twelve page at IMDB
Just came back after watching "Alexander". And I was really disappointed. I had expected a lot from the movie.
The movie is long (3 hours) and most of the dialogues are boring. I think the movie is just plain stretched out. Many times in the middle, I felt really bored. One of the battle sequences is good but the others are just not worth seeing.
I had watched "Troy" and I was really impressed with it. And I was hoping that "Alexander" would be on the same lines. But after watching the movie, I realize it does not even come close to "Troy".
And when I went to buy the ticket, I was told that they do not accept credit cards. So, I had to go the ATM machine and spend $2 extra. So, I spent $10 in total for an extremely boring movie!
Final Verdict: Do NOT see the movie! It's not worth it.
The next movie I am waiting for is "Ocean's Twelve" which is releasing on Dec 10th. I hope it will be good.
Watched "The Day After Tomorrow" on DVD today. The theatre release was on May 28, 2004 and the DVD release was on Oct 12, 2004. Liked the movie though I guess it would have been much better in the theatre.
Also, read somewhere that the theory proposed in the movie (i.e. the North Atlantic Current failing due to the melting polar ice caps) is actually feasible but it would take a lot of time for it to come into effect (not 7 to 10 days as in the movie).
Have been watching a lot of DVD movies over fall break. Here is a partial list:
- Along Came Polly
- Man On Fire
- Mean Girls
- Paycheck
- The Alamo
- Walking Tall
Links:
- Review at Yahoo Movies
- Review at IMDB
- Official Site
Update (11:13 PM 10/17/2004): Found the article. Here is a quote:
"There is evidence that the North Atlantic branch of the current has failed in the distant past—8,200 and 12,700 years ago—causing a great cooling of the climate."
Great movie! The beginning 15 mins or so is shot in Goa. It seems that portion was shot sometime in March 2004.
Links:
- Bourne Supremacy website
- Yahoo Movie Review
Watched Spiderman 2 today. It was a nice movie. Had also watched Farenheit 9/11 a couple of days back.
Watched "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". Am not exactly a fan of romantic movies but I must admit that I liked the movie. The plot was nice. Also, this is the first Kate Hudson movie that I watched. She is gorgeous and has a really beautiful smile.
Watched "Lakshya" today. Great Movie!!! And Preity Zinta looks great!
Hum Tum
Watched "Hum Tum" today. The movie was pretty good except that I felt that it got a bit boring in the middle. The music was really good. But overall, a great movie. Nice acting by Saif and Rani. I used to hate Saif before but now he seems to be maturing into a really good actor.
Mangoes!!!
Also, had mangoes today!!! I think it must have been more than 2 years since I last ate a real nice and juicy Indian mango! Also had chicken. The chicken was just great! Thanks to Anuj for all three (Hum Tum, mangoes and the chicken!) ;)
Watched "Troy" today at Regal West Town Mall at 3:20 pm. The movie was really great!
Reviews: Yahoo Movies.
Came back home at about 4 PM. Took a really needed nap. I was really tired today. Woke up at 11 PM. Manish, Nikhil and Anshul had been to Apna Bazar. They brought some hindi movies. Watched "Qayamat". The movie was pretty good despite the fact that it is "inspired" by "The Rock". However there were too many songs in the movie and someone were totally unnecessary. The action scenes were pretty good.
Watched 2 movies - "The Whole Nine Yards" and "Absolute Power". Had some pasta. And coke. I have to stop drinking so much coke.
Earlier today; Manish, I and Nikhil had gone to check out the car Nikhil plans to buy. It looked really cool. Seemed like a nice deal. Nikhil is really excited and a bit tensed. He should be ;).
Uploaded final design of foodscience website. Uploaded a couple of pages also. This page took a lot of time. Emailed status report to Dr. Golden.
