Gotham Knight

Gotham city! The dreaded imaginary city where crime ruled till he walked in. His dark attire earned him the name 'Batman'. So when Christopher Nolan brought back to life Batman on silver screen starting all over from scratch, both critics and fans drooled all over the world. 'Batman begins' was a masterpiece (where Nolan even managed to put in signature time interleaving) and the sequel 'Dark Knight' is just around the corner. At this moment, the producers have come out with a direct-to-DVD anthology of six anime shorts on Batman titled 'Gotham Knight'.

This is in the lines of 'Animatrix' which was released between 'Matrix' and 'Matrix Reloaded'. While Animatrix told stories which were not directly relevant to see the other two movies, it came out more like an icing on the cake. 'Gotham Knight' is none the less. If you loved the animation that Quentin Tarantino gifted us in 'Kill Bill Volume 1', grab this DVD!! Gotham Knight is supposed to tell the story between 'Batman Begins' and 'Dark Knight'. All the six shorts have their own different mode of animation and the collection is impressive to say the least.

PS: Bruce Wayne (Batman) does figure in many of my posts. Hope it conveys the point that I am a fan :). Thanks to Mr.Nolan! Still waiting for the Knight to make an entry here...

Now, Hancock is fun!!

Yes, What do we really expect out of a Will Smith starrer? Fun; loads and loads of it!! Thats exactly what Hancock is. Directed by Peter Berg who previously did an impressive 'The Kingdom' with Jamie Foxx, Hancock is a take on superhero movies (even this rather annoying name :) ) with Will Smith playing the 'In & As' title role. The movie also stars the beautiful-but-now-looking-old-and-still-hot Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman (another member of the personal favorite character actors list, most noted for his role in last years super hit 'Juno').

Hancock is neither a spoof nor is it a usual superhero movie. It has quite an interesting plot which is surprisingly not given away by its trailer. My point is, if you see the trailer of the recent Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk, you get to make out the movie plot but the Hancock trailer is not at all a giveaway. If you are willing to rest your brain for a while, you might spend 90+ minutes of fun. This is a movie yet again not to be taken seriously. It has a rather filmy ending but then its just a film. The CGI is pretty decent and some of the superhero stunts are loudly laughable. Will Smith fits the role perfectly.

Heard that the script of this movie was floating around in Hollywood for quite a long time. Hmmm... Anyways the plot has a slight resemblance to another movie which i saw recently. The name would be a spoiler. Hence to be revealed later :)

Some Influential Movie Heroes (for me)!!

Again the disclaimer: That might not be my all time tops and this is not in any particular order. These are some of the characters that come to my mind when I think ~Hero~

1. John Preston - Equilibrium (Christian Bale)

The Hero of a movie about eradicating all 'sense offenders'(people who dare to feel emotions) in a future world where emotions are banned. Bale plays a cleric who is supposed to hunt down sense offenders but later changes sides and joins the resistance. This is one of the strongest acting performances I have ever seen. Controlled and putting up a face without any emotion but at the same time making the audience feel what he is feeling inside. Brilliance!!

2. Leon - Leon (Jean Reno)

The perfect savior next door. A professional hitman who drinks milk and carries around a potted plant as a pet. He is tough and almost invincible. Gives you goosebumps when he says "No Women, No Kid!!".

3. Juror #8 - 12 angry men (Henry Fonda)

Most cool headed Hero I would say. This classic from Sidney Lumet tells the story of 12 jurors locked in a room discussing on the fate of the boy who is accused of murdering his father. Juror #8 starts off as the only person in the room who doubts whether the boy is guilty. He ends up convincing everyone.

4. Jim - 28 days later (Cillian Murphy)

Yes, a hero from a Zombie movie. I can never forget that sequence when he decides that he is the one to save his lady love and a little girl from the baddies, with that all that theme music in background. He runs around, all over the place in a ground breaking sequence.

A recent surprise package - Bridge to Terabithia

When I heard for the first time about this movie, there was a 'Narnia' hangover all around. When I saw its promo in TV of two kids and some magical creatures looking like giant trolls and honey bees, I had made up my mind never to watch this. The movie was 'Bridge to Terabithia'.

Later I got my hands on it and the movie had me by the middle of the opening credits. Quite different from what the trailers suggest, 'Bridge to..' is not about kids getting lost in a magical world. This wrong message sent in the promos might have affected its collection too. In a nutshell, its the story of a boy, Jess, meeting at school this wonderful friend, a golden haired girl called Leslie and how they go about telling stories and building an imaginary world in the abandoned woods nearby. The movie also covers their school days, Jess' sweet crush on his pretty music teacher (the pretty Zooey Deschanel :) ) and their fights with the school bullies. What I am trying to say is that the movie here has a strong story line!! So please do watch it. Its imaginative and the characters are well written.

Look up Taare Zameen Par in imdb. Scroll down to the recommendations section. (**Music rolling in the background**)
Bingo! this movie is right there. That tells a lot about this movie to the Indian audience. Enjoy!!

PS: For those who are interested, this movie is based on a book of the same name by Katherine Patterson.

Hollywood and July 2008

If anyone did notice, last couple of Hollywood months had a good dose of superhero stuff. Marvel Comics came out with the movie versions of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. If you were thinking you had the best of it, then hold your breath and dont say it because like someone sang (yes, Tony Bennett did sing these lines), "The Best is yet to come"!!

Releasing in the couple of weeks are two of the most anticipated sequels from Hollywood this year. One being the visual maestro Guillermo Del Tero's "HellBoy and the Golden Army". The first part finds a place in my Top 10 superhero movies (which will be another post soon :) .

Then comes the Dad of all superhero movies - "The Dark Knight". Directed by Christopher Nolan, last seen carrying 'The Prestige" and scripted by Jonathan Nolan (The author of 'Memento Mori'), the movie stars Christian Bale, Late Heath Ledger, Aaron EckHart (remember "ThankYou For Smoking"?) etc..

My town is waiting the release of yet another Superhero movie "Hancock" starring Will Smith and I hear that its coming here this weekend.

Meanwhile check out WALL-E in imdb. Its rated at 8.9/10 with over 27000 votes and has a place in Top 20 movies in the IMDB Top 250!!! The biggest animation movie ever made? Only time will tell....

Jaane Tu..Ya Jaane Na - Sweet Mushy romance

Directed by Abbas Tyrewala (writer of Maqbool, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Main Hoon Na etc)
Starring: Imran Khan, Genelia

Just came back from the movie. I enjoyed every minute of it. Its sweet, mushy and acting is top notch. Imran Khan, Genelia and Prateik Babbar (Yes, the son of Raj Babbar and Smita Patil) are really impressive. The supporting cast is good with familiar television faces like Ratna Pathak Shah, Jayant Kripalani and Kitu Gidwani.

The narration of their friends' friendship-to-love story by a group of friends to their disinterested new joinee friend forms the crux of the film. All the mush, masala and deviation from reality might turn the switch off to well a lot of people. But if you like movies in the lines of Big Fish where reality and imagination often go hand in hand, you would enjoy this.

So be warned that Jaane Tu is a bit unconventional and it is not to be taken seriously. Watch this one with the mindset of a kid reading a fairy tale. You might just love this. :)

The music is really good but most of the songs in the album end up as background scores with just a couple of lines here and there.

I would like to see more of this stuff than seeing products with wasted talent, money and time like Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic. So a good debut Mr. Abbas Tyrewala in the directors seat. Way to go!!

Making a short movie

I doubt if anyone even noticed that I havent posted for the last few days. :)

Well, its not that I lost interest after the 'Arambhashoorathvam' (exact opposite of 'starting trouble'). Instead I was in the making of yet another short movie, infact a concept video for the place i work in.

So it was an entertaining weekend with a Saturday when we were running all around the town for innumerable chores and finally ending up having a 3 hour shooting session. My partner in direction (and the Director of Photography) 's brother turned out to the main protagonist (whose face never appears on the screen :) ) My college mate managed the logistics [That would be the camera and the iPhone that appears in the movie]. I did a bit of direction and the whole chunk of editing..It took the whole of Sunday and Monday.. Wuff!!! That was so tiring..but then we have a movie in hand made in three days redefining the concept of zero budget!!! We ran this movie across a few close friends and the reviews have been good. We are planning to release this in youtube and ofcourse this blog once its out officially. So keep checking this page once in a while :)

Starting tomorrow, I should be back to my new 'blogging about movies' habit.