Two Line Reviews - #114

Movie: Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)

Plot: "Revenge is a dish best served cold". This film is all about that. A victim of betrayal makes a checklist to kill the members of the 'Deadly Viper Assassination Squad' she was once part of & she starts doing that in (awe)some style!

Highlights:

• Quentin Tarantino is THE style master. The most stylish film I ve seen. By style I don't mean costumes & sets. The way even gore is shown stylishly is astonishing. Also the blending of the styles of Hollywood & Japanese Films was superb.
• Uma Thurman ROCKS! She carries off a violent role, which nobody would associate with a woman, with total ease.
• The soundtracks used for the film are all brilliant & used in apt places. I felt goosebumps raise on my skin when the Ennio Morricone track from Death Rides a Horse was played.

Lowlights:
Logical fallacies. There a quite a few of them including the sword fight with 50 odd men before the climax.

My Rating: 9.8/10

Two Line Reviews - #113

Movie: The Big Sleep (1946)

Plot: A private detective is hired by a General- a father of two daughters whose younger daughter is blackmailed by a stranger. The detective goes on to find the stranger & before he gets him,the stranger is murdered. So are a few others. A chain of events follow and he finds that the elder daughter is part of the imbroglio. Finally, the detective makes the bits fall into place.

Highlights:

• Humphrey Bogart shines in his classy avatar as the detective agent.
• The lady who plays Rutledge performs pretty well.
• The screenplay keeps one guessing & catches us on the wrong-foot time and again.

Lowlights:
Too many characters & that spoils the party to an extent.

My Rating: 9.0/10

Book Look - #2

NO COMEBACKS by Frederick Forsyth

Plot: This is a compilation of ten short stories,each centered around one character and involving just a handful of characters.

Highlights:

• Crisp narration style employed - True with a majority of the stories on offer.
• Terrific attention to detail provided in most of the stories - Boat-fishing & a game of cards are exhaustively explained in two of the stories.
• Astonishing twists brought forth in the final page of some of the stories.

Two Line Reviews - #112

Movie: Wallstreet - Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Plot: Bretton forces a honest Lou to commit suicide with his fraudulous ways at the advent of the 2008 Global Economic depression. Lue's protege Moore seeks Bretton's mentorship to find a way to give him back what he deserves. In parallel, Moore's dream venture capital investment on Ocean energy gets hope & gets crushed by a single person - Gordon Gekko, the man from the prequel film Wallstreet who makes his return from Jail!

Highlights:

• Here again, Michael Douglas scores - With his Sly, smart & persuasive ways as Gekko.
• The men who play Bretton, Moore& Eli Wallach - the eternal Mr.Ugly offer good supporting roles.
• The camera work is noticeably good.

Lowlights:
This one is not much about Wallstreet as it is about personal relations.That makes it a bit less racy in comparison with the prequel.

My Rating: 8.9/10

Two Line Reviews - #111

Movie: Wallstreet (1987)

Plot: A stockbroker at the New York stock exchange, with aims of making quick big bucks, impresses and joins with giant businessman Gordon Gekko and just when he keeps going great,he understands how he's being played with in a game of greed.He ends up trying to impart on the business eagle,some of his own wicked lessons

Highlights:

• The movie runs as fast as the ups and downs of stocks shown in it - Goes at a terrific speed.
• Michael Douglas displays charisma and towers above others as the enigmatic wily biz giant.
• Charlie Sheen plays his role perfectly,losing out to greed,realising it in the end & the other Sheen rocks in the few scenes he appears in.
• The one liners on money are practical & crisp.

Lowlights:

Some of the financial jargons are difficult to follow.

My Rating: 9.1/10

Two Line Reviews - #110

Movie: Before Sunset (2004)

Plot: The couple who part ways in Before Sunrise,with their plan of meeting 6 months later notwithstanding, lead separate ways in life. When Jesse is in Paris on a tour to promote his book written on his one day stint, he meets Celine again & then they walk,walk,talk & talk - Enjoyably!

 Highlights:

• Hawke & Delpy, despite looking a lot older than in Before Sunrise, continue their tremendous on-screen match in this sequel.
• The dialogs run riot in this film too. There is a lot lot more verity than just romance in the conversations they make.
• The simplicity in the making of this splendid ride. If the first part covered one day in terms of duration, this one covers 2 hours. Definitely not an easy one to make. Full credits to the director & the lead pair for their combined screenplay writing effort.

Lowlights:
Not any.

My Rating: 9.1/10

Two Line Reviews - #109

Movie: The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Plot: A private detective duo is hired by a woman who pretends to seek information on her missing sister & her lover. One of the detectives gets murdered;the lover gets murdered. The heat is on the detective as vested interests on a Falcon statuette with historical significance is found to be causing all the jeopardy.

 Highlights:

• The intriguing plot itself is a huge plus.
• Humphrey Bogart is such a class act! He displays rock-solid acting stuff throughout the course of the film.
• Dialogs have always been excellent in the very old films I've seen. There are a lot of dialogs in this film too but every single line is insightful & appreciable.

Lowlights:
The reason for the killing of Bogart's associate is not satisfactory.

My Rating: 9.5/10

Two Line Reviews - #108

Movie: P.S. I Love You (2007)

Plot: An estranged widow shocked by the unfortunate and untimely loss of her husband is brought back to her senses and normalcy by a chain of pre-planned letters conceived by none other than the dead husband!

Highlights:

• The idea shown is sweet,strange & positive - Helps in making the viewer eager to know what's going to be up next.
• Hilary Swank is best when it comes to expressing emotions. She does that in this film too. She's at her innocent best when she says "What vital parts?All my parts are vital" in the Wild-Irish dog scene & her final emotional outburst at the hands of her mom is classy.
• The characterisations of Gerry (Gerard Butler) & Holly's Mom are good too.
• The final letter and the little twist it brings!

Lowlights:

• The friends of Holly (especially Denise) & the Irish band guitarist seem like interruptions & they irritate.
• The film moves a tad too slow.

My Rating: 8.5/10

Two Line Reviews - #107

First things first. Last week,I saw Paiyaa (a film that ran for about 150 days).Except for some 20 odd minutes,the film was such a miserable dud. And today, I saw this film Drohi (this one ran for about 10 days before being washed out by the Enthiran Tsunami) and except for some 20 odd minutes comprising unnecessary songs, this film was engrossing.What an irony!

Movie: Drohi (2010,Tamil)

Plot: Two ten year old 'thick as thieves' friends separate after betraying each other. They keep playing the cat-n-mouse games for years together & finally shake hands after realising that they were being used as pawns by the area chieftains all that while.

Highlights:

• The director Sudha,a lady who is an associate of ManiRatnam has made a good debut;Credits to her Kathryn Bigelow-like attempt to make a male-centric thug film.
• Both Srikanth & Vishnu have done well. Srikanth,especially, has broken his stereotypical shackles finally. Yet, he remains unlucky wrt getting a break as the film has become a flop.
• Background music of Selvaganesh is good. Cannot say the same for songs-they are pathetic.

Lowlights:

• Heroines. They have no role to play. Without them, the film would have been a 90 minute ride and would have looked a lot less amateurish.
• It was saddening to see a good actress like Pooja in such a small role. Too big a penalty for playing a beggar in Naan Kadavul.

My Rating: 8.6/10

Two Line Reviews - #106

Movie: Philadelphia (1993)

Plot: A successful attorney is being betrayed and complained of being careless & ineffective at work and is fired. The attorney files a suit with discrimination claims that such a reason was tailored-out and the real reason was that he was a Homosexual and had contracted AIDS.

Highlights:

• Somewhere through the episode, the point that 'discrimination based on AIDS acquisition & sexual preferences is wrong' is made subtly.
• Tom Hanks is that one actor who makes me shed a tear or two with his terrific show of emotions and he does that here too - The Opera explanation scene - He revels. And his looks keep changing,as if he'd really got AIDS!!He deserved the Oscar he got for it.
• Denzel Washington is casual and complements Hanks perfectly.

Lowlights:
I expected a final outburst from Hanks in the courtroom & the lack of such a scene made me feel that something was missing towards the end of the film.

My Rating: 9.5/10