Two Line Reviews - #365

Movie: J Edgar(2011)

Plot: The film traces the rise of John Edgar Hoover from being a member in the Department of Justice to becoming the mastermind behind the scientific inclinations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Highlights:

• All films on a personality should, in the end, make the viewer feel good/bad about the man depicted and that is something Clint Eastwood successfully does with his account on Edgar. At 82, how this man directs such marvelous films is beyond me!
• Leonardo diCaprio is fiery and meticulate as Edgar and in the young and old forms of the man, he shows consistency in body language and voice modulation which is terrific to see; The guy deserved an Oscar nomination for the role but sadly the Academy jury seems to have thought otherwise.
• Once again, Clint master takes us back to the 1920s and pulls off a convincing show with nice art and camera works.
• The scenes where he stresses the need for 'science' shows how good a visionary Edgar has been!

An intense and moving biography - Serves the intended purpose!

Two Line Reviews - #332

Movie: The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Plot: A photographer for NGC goes country-side in search of bridges to document. He gets the aid of a home-making housewife whose family is on an exhibition for 4 days. The 4 days and the photographer kindle the urge to live the life she had dreamt of in her childhood and perturb her mind completely!

Highlights:

• Clint Eastwood makes and shows a poignant tale out of a film that migrated people can best appreciate. A normal movie lover like us too can, for such is the manner in which the scenes are conceived.
• Meryl Streep comes up with a bowl-out performance and explains her dilemma perfectly.
• Clint, as ever, is subtle and underplays his role to near perfection as well.
• The gradual shift in mindset of the children of Meryl in the present is nicely shown too.

Poignance, a wonderful pair - what more would one want!

Two Line Reviews - #234

Movie:  Mystic River (2003)

Plot: When three kids play in a lane, fate shows its ugly face on one of the kids when he gets abducted by 2 paedophiles. The kid escapes from them but not from his trauma. After years, their lives confluence under bizarre circumstances - the daughter of one of the kids in the story is murdered, another kid is a suspect and the third kid is the cop investigating the case!

Highlights:

• This again is an admirable piece of work by Clint Eastwood. He is one gem of a film maker! The story & screenplay writers deserve their share of applause too.
• Sean Penn is the show-stealer with his brilliant performance; Tim Robbins isn't far behind in his role of a timid, traumatised character & the cop men Kevin Bacon & Fishburne act adequately.
• The suspense cover & the twists take this film at quite an intensity aided by a subtle background score - again by master Clint E!

A Savourable, artistic tale of Crime Investigation & Fate!

Two Line Reviews - #222

Movie: The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Plot: A farmman joins force with a bunch of men who are against unlawful soldiers who were responsible for the death of his wife and kid. When the men get captured, he alone escapes and tackles the soldier chase with the aid of a veteran red indian and they even save a Kansas girl-grandma duo. The good deeds of his make these good people help him in his final vengeance act.

Highlights:

• Clint Eastwood's work, behind the lens is admirable, for, the film looks like one made by a veteran director. He was a budding director when he made this one.
• Clint Eastwood, in front of the lens, as Josey is stylish with his derogatory spitting antics; He continues from where he left at The Man with No Name trilogy, though a tad more subtly.
• The side-kick characters are all memorable & the sarcastic dialogues and the intense conversation with Ten Bears Red-Indian are awesome.
• The sets, costumes & locations are noteworthy.

Lowlights:

• "When you've got to shoot,shoot; Don't talk" says Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; That gem of an advice isn't followed in this film too & that makes the villains look dummy
• Music could have been more inspiring

A decent Howdy Western from the Clint Eastwood stable.

Two Line Reviews - #212

Movie: Hereafter (2010)

Plot: A french TV editor miraculously escapes from the jaws of death by surviving a Tsunami; In UK, a kid loses his twin brother in an accident; A man in San Francisco has the unimaginable gift (or curse) of connecting with dead ones. The first two seek the truth behind the existence of a life after death and their problems get solved when the third comes their way.

Highlights:

• An endearingly made film on a gloomy & hitherto untouched subject. Clint Eastwood takes all that is necessary to give the right amount of emotions, suspense and content to it.
• Matt Damon, the kid and the french woman - the pivotal characters are perfectly sketched and they play their roles with aplomb. Matt Damon especially; The pride he shows as a Dickens fan is natural action at its best.
• The graphics showing the Tsunami is of lofty standards!
• The way the incidents are connected, though seen before, is apt for a subject like this.

Melancholic & Memorable; Ignored for no reasons for the Oscars last year..

Two Line Reviews - #211

Movie: Changeling (2008)

Plot: One evening in the year 1928, a Californian woman finds her child missing and makes a complaint with the LAPD. After months, when the LAPD re-unite the mother and the child, the mother finds that the kid brought back is someone else! When she presses this case with the LAPD, she is thrown into a mental facility. With sheer grit and support from an activist, she ensures that the miscreants are punished.

Highlights:

• Clint Eastwood's touch is unmissable! His direction plays a huge role in bringing this story this emotional.
• I haven't seen much of Angelina Jolie; So her spellbinding performance surprised me. As the deprived mother and the resilient truth seeker, she's brilliant.
• The suspense portion and the characters and scenes that are part of it is shockingly terrific.
• The artwork & music that are apt to the times described in the film are appreciable.

Clint's magic works bigtime; Brilliant gem!

Two Line Reviews - #166

Movie: Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese,2006)

Plot: A commander and a set of soldiers guarding the all important gateway island of Japan 'Iwo Jima' from the impending attacks of the USA live with their parted families through letters. The sheer purposelessness of war and the similarity in soldiers across parties is reflected in the end.

Highlights:

• Clint Eastwood's films have one thing in common. The emotions, the message - they all get injected slowly but powerfully like cortisone injected into the vein. This film is no exception.
• The fine performances of the persons who play the commander, the soldier Saito & the Olympics gold medallist.
• Excellent art work, graphics and cinematography are evident in the shatteringly realistic air & water attack based war sequences.

Yet another cherishable Clint Eastwood classic, in Japanese this time.

Two Line Reviews - #151

Movie: Unforgiven (1992)

Plot: A retired gunman living by retiring off his infamous past thanks to his now-dead wife reforming him, reluctantly makes a comeback to kill two scums who'd cut off the face of a woman in a county. He reinvents his own self,losing his good old friend & setting right a young guy's ambition in the process.

Highlights:

• Thalaivar is special.Clint Eastwood's slow and lethargic,yet, intense style of making is in full flow in this film.
• The sync that Clint and Morgan Freeman share. The duo command respect in this film too.
• Scenes involving Gene Hackman and the English Bob, the killing of the second cowboy were special.

My Rating: 9.3/10

Two line Reviews - #35

Movie: Dirty Harry(1971)



Claps:
Clint Eastwood plays the role of Inspector Callahan with elegance and style.
The Scorpio killer is a real scream. A truly menacing act.
Some intelligent scenes - The scene where the killer makes Harry run from one end of the city to another with checks employed via phone booth calls.
Funny and massive one-liners.

Blips:
The killer escapes from the police every time so easily.
In the climax,if Harry could locate him so easily,why does the Mayor act so soft towards the killer!

Overall Score: 8.9/10