The Movies I Liked

[Pratters]

Science Fiction movies that follow the original story are difficult to understand unless you have read the book. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the author, Arthur C Clarke, acts more like a visionary, predicting how the first contact will be. Instead of using a biological figure that is easy to link with, he uses a stone based monolith as a marker that the aliens have left on the moon. He then creates a series of monoliths and links them all back to the very birth of earth and the evolution of the human race. The message? - that our evolution itself was guided by a very advanced civilisation.

Arthur C Clarke, though he died earning a bad reputation, had predicted a large number of things some of which have come true. Literally every idea of his has been used in some movie or the other. Some of his predictions include the following:

• Multi Stage rocketry
• Geostationary satellites as primary communication carriers. They are actually called Clarke Orbiters.
• Mission to the moon, and man's landing on the moon.
• Space probes going beyond the moon to Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn
• Power generation using nuclear reactors
• Replacement of IC engine with a new energy source
• Human clone
• Closure of coal mines
• Small quantum generators doing away with EBs and power carrying pylons.
• Monitoring of criminals and the wiping out of crime, literally predicting a crime before it happens (remember the movie?)
• Commercialisation of space travel
• Space based hotels (another movie?)
• The control and use of matter and anti matter
• The crashing on earth of a major meteor (another major movie?)
• The maturing of artificial intelligence (yet another movie?)
• Human landing on Mars
• The detection of communication signals from aliens (one more movie?)
• The cloning of dinosaurs from DNA samples (3 or four movies?)
• Advancement of neurological research allowing human brains to become more advanced and sensitive.
• The Universal Replicator
• The return of Halley's comet
• The development of a space drive allowing humans to go beyond the Solar System (Movies and TV serials?)
  
  Clarke has written so many superb books. Some of his best books are:
  
  Rendezvous With Rama
  2001: A Space Odyssey
  Childhood's End
  A Fall of Moondust
  The Fountains of Paradise
  Against the Fall of Night
  
  Cheers
  
  

Thanks for that. I will definitely try to read 2001: A Space Odyssey the book and look out for other of his stuff.

 

[Pratters]

500 days of Summer.

Perhaps the best edited and directed romance drama that I have seen in quite a while. Dare I say ever? I dont know. A very tight, cohesive (despite the back and forth timelines of the scenes), sensitive, yet hard hitting movie. Dont know that I agree with the last message part of it though. I thought the movie might have been better without that last statement, perhaps the take of the director on love.

Very strong movie. Ultimate movie to watch after you have gone through a break up. I was very impressed by it and the more I think about it, the more it grows on me.

 

[sud98]

The Sting

This is a nice crime thriller with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The movie has got a nice old worldly charm and style. Both the lead heroes are excellent and its a nice and easy watch.

 

[Pratters]

The Sting is awesome. One of my all time favorite movies. I highly recommend it to every one. 9.5/10 for The Sting from me.

 

[vinay]

The Lookout

An admired high school hockey player with a bright future foolishly takes a drive in the night with his girlfriend and two other friends with his headlights off with devastating results. The former athlete is left with a brain injury that prevents him from remembering many things for extended periods of time. To compensate, he keeps notes in a small notebook to aid him in remembering what he is to do. He also lives with a blind friend who aids him. Obviously, with the mental incapacitation, he is unable to have meaningful work. Thus he works as a night cleaning man in a bank. It is there he comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. The leader befriends him and gets him involved with a young woman who further reels him in. After they get close and after reeling him in with his own failures, the bank plan unfolds. Confused but wanting to escape his current existence, he initially goes along with the scheme. After realizing he is being used, he attempts to stop the robbery, which of course immediately goes awry.

The Lookout (2007)

V.

 

[svenkateshsmart]

The Lookout

An admired high school hockey player with a bright future foolishly takes a drive in the night with his girlfriend and two other friends with his headlights off with devastating results. The former athlete is left with a brain injury that prevents him from remembering many things for extended periods of time. To compensate, he keeps notes in a small notebook to aid him in remembering what he is to do. He also lives with a blind friend who aids him. Obviously, with the mental incapacitation, he is unable to have meaningful work. Thus he works as a night cleaning man in a bank. It is there he comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. The leader befriends him and gets him involved with a young woman who further reels him in. After they get close and after reeling him in with his own failures, the bank plan unfolds. Confused but wanting to escape his current existence, he initially goes along with the scheme. After realizing he is being used, he attempts to stop the robbery, which of course immediately goes awry.

The Lookout (2007)

V.

Hi,

That was tempting! At first sight, the tamil movie "Nanayam" resembles the above one, except for small changes in the first part of the story.

Cheers!

 

[vinay]

Welcome to the world of "Donor Member".

The movie has shades of Ghajini too. The low frequencies effects were also quite good.

V.

 

[aneelr]

Shrek Forever After [2010][3D Stereoscopic]

Shrek Forever After (2010)


A good Animation/Fantasy. This is the last part of The Shrek epic. Story was fair enough, very good cinematography and nice stereoscopic effects. Watching it on a BD will be more fun I guess.



cheers.

P.S:- This was a special screening for us.

 

[thevortex]

Hi,

That was tempting! At first sight, the tamil movie "Nanayam" resembles the above one, except for small changes in the first part of the story.

Cheers!

Naanayam is like any one of the heist movies that abound in Hollywood Venkatesh!

 

[vinay]

Hello Aneeir,

The private screening is a out of the world experience.

In the earlier years i had some contacts in the film industry, i had been invited to several such screenings which were held way before the film's release and they were held in the basement of trial room's/private theatre's of Sanjay Dut's & Rajendra Kumar's bunglows. The experience was a class apart in terms of ambiance, good quality of screening and seating which used to be very good compared to cinema hall's, with seating arrangement of not over 20 seats. It was from these days i had picked up the idea of making a private home theatre and i am as usual thrilled with the outcome which i achieved in the making of my mini theatre, the result is such that i have not been to a cinema hall since three years or so otherwise i used to go around 3 times a month to cinema hall.

V.

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Hi,

A Time to Kill (1996)

Another movie I watched today. Actually, it is not just another movie, it is one good movie!

The movie starts with a two-misbehaving men loitering around in the neighborhood populated by African-Americans. They in the course of their misbehaviors in the neighborhood pick up a girl who is 10 years old walking to her house carrying groceries and they sexually assault her to the point where she will be medically infertile for her entire life. Samuel Jackson plays the role of father of the victim, the girl, who subsequently kills the accuseds in the courtroom. Matthew McConaughey defends Samuel Jackson and Sandra Bullock volunteers to assit Mattew, who initially hesitates but then lets her work with him. The case catches much attention and creates ripple in the communities and thus causing vandalism and leaving the neighborhood in trouble. The brother of one of the accused conspires to create a Klan to cause disturbance amoung the neighborhood. Kevin Spacey defends the accuseds.

Matthew and his acquaintances had to go through lot of troubles during the trial because of the Klan. Matthew, his wife, his friends, assistants face several troubles, threats, etc. but he remains stern that he will continue the case.

Finally, the good side wins, you got to see the movie for the final climax!

I felt the title could have been different after finished watching this movie!

Cheers!

 

[aneelr]

Hello Aneeir,

The private screening is a out of the world experience.

In the earlier years i had some contacts in the film industry, i had been invited to several such screenings which were held way before the film's release and they were held in the basement of trial room's/private theatre's of Sanjay Dut's & Rajendra Kumar's bunglows. The experience was a class apart in terms of ambiance, good quality of screening and seating which used to be very good compared to cinema hall's, with seating arrangement of not over 20 seats. It was from these days i had picked up the idea of making a private home theatre and i am as usual thrilled with the outcome which i achieved in the making of my mini theatre, the result is such that i have not been to a cinema hall since three years or so otherwise i used to go around 3 times a month to cinema hall.

V.

Hi,

That's a nice way to get inspired, good luck!!! But our screenings are done in an actual theater itself. It is done by DreamWorks Animation Studio, LA.... for the entire 800 employees in our studio + 3 accompanies for each employee, so the theater is booked for the entire day. But the catch is for the Indian studio it's only movies released by Dreamworks Animation, but back at Glendale and Redwoodcity, the studio has got it's own private theater where they screen all most all movies......... hope the get the same facility in our studio soon.

enjoy!!!
cheers.

 

[esanthosh]

This week's movies:

Shutter (2004, Thai version): I finally had to agree with IMDB at some point and this is one of them. I first saw Shutter (2008), a hollywood re-make of this film with a Japanese director at the helm. I thought the re-make was, well "very average" - it was neither too bad to be called an utter crap nor good enough to recommend it to anybody, just a very, very flat and average horror flick. IMDB voters have given it 4.9 and I agreed. I was intrigued why the Thai version was given a rating of 7.3 and decided to see it too.

I know that logical storyline and horror movies do not mix. But, in the thai version, the flow was very even - once incident led to another and at no time an unnecessary insert was done like in the hollywood version. This also was much "scarier" than the US version. It's one of the better horror movies I've seen of late. As somebody wished on the IMDB boards, Obama should immediately ban hollywood from re-making foreign horror flicks and killing them. Some like "Ring" are exceptions (though I liked "Ringu" much better) and I liked the US version of "Grudge" better than the Japanese version, but in general importing asian films without the ingrained cultural elements does not seem to work.

Orphan (2009): Thanks to an earlier post in this thread, I caught up on this film. I thought it would be a horror film. In the end, I got a very nice thriller and my expectation of Esther "unleashing supernatural powers" at some point in the movie kept me off from guessing the end. Sometimes, when you are grounded after walking in the clouds for 'guessing every twist and turn in most films', it is a nice feeling indeed :lol: It made it that much more enjoyable.

Learnt that the child actress who played Max, Aryana Engineer, is hearing impaired in real life too. After having watched plenty of hollywood masala, I had lost the ability to root for characters, but I did in this film for Max - finally, a child actress who plays her age. In direct contrast, at the age of 10 (turning 11 while filming), Isabelle Fuhrman played the role of Esther really well.

Requiem for a Dream (2000, Director's Cut): Having watched "The Wrestler" much earlier, I wanted to catchup on this Aronofsky film for too long. It HAD to happen at some point. I read many views that this film is one of the hardest to watch. I can see why. But please do not keep off this film for that reason.

It's a movie about addiction (and not just drug addiction) and the lengths people will go to satisfy that urge. It's not meant to be light hearted and the intention is not to give you comfortable space and show a ray of hope. All said and done, it is a wonderful movie with some good performances. I am glad that I watched it though the things that happen on the screen can be shocking and depressive at times.

Dark City (1998, Director's Cut): I watched this film years earlier on AXN and sort of liked it. The Director's cut, which omits the opening monologue is a bit longer. I only remember that difference, but according to IMDB boards, the DC makes the film a bit better. Seeing it now, I was drawing parallels to "The Matrix" all the time. Some of the concepts in this movie are interesting to explore - like what if your memory is not true. I felt it was slightly lacking in execution though - as in not to the potential of the idea.

I wish I had the patience and effort like others to write story outlines, but being laziness personified, cannot do so .

 

[Pratters]

Kick-Ass

When I first heard some one mention Kick-Ass was genre redefining I was deeply interested in this movie. However after watching How To Train Your Dragon (average hollywood fare) and Iron Man 2 (good but nothing special), I was not sure how this would turn out. When one of my friends mentioned it is CRAP, I had my expectations way low down and I thank him for that.

This movie is great. Firstly awesome sense of humour and some great lines. To go with it some really amazing action sequences. The movie never stops to enthrall and excite you as it plays out. The love angle which I guess they couldn't avoid was minimalistic unlike Spiderman's last release.

The movie ups the scale for super hero movies. Your average fare won't do it any more after The Dark Knight and now Kick-Ass although they are landmark movies in completely different ways.

It is a top movie. Watch it! 9/10

 

[subhash]

Dont you worry, Subhash. I am enjoying them movies to heart's content. About absolute heights of boredom, if you think 'Dogville' is boring, then well, I can only say that you are not into serious cinema. That is nothing wrong.

For me, a change from the mindless crap that we see in terms of the popular mainstream movies is required from time to time.

no worries mate ,extremely good to guess you either belong to a niche group of audience or its got to be age related ,a fact and nothing to worry .

calling popular mainstream movies as mindless crap isnt too wise.

 

[thevortex]

no worries mate ,extremely good to guess you either belong to a niche group of audience or its got to be age related ,a fact and nothing to worry .

calling popular mainstream movies as mindless crap isnt too wise.

Subhash - I dont care too much to see my wisdom certified by people on the internet whom I do not know too well and vice versa. I hope you see my point.

Not all popular mainstream movies are mindless crap. But a good number of them indeed are. Again, that goes for me. I could be part of a niche group. It could be an age related thing. Or a mixture of both. Does not matter.

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Hi,

That's a nice way to get inspired, good luck!!! But our screenings are done in an actual theater itself. It is done by DreamWorks Animation Studio, LA.... for the entire 800 employees in our studio + 3 accompanies for each employee, so the theater is booked for the entire day. But the catch is for the Indian studio it's only movies released by Dreamworks Animation, but back at Glendale and Redwoodcity, the studio has got it's own private theater where they screen all most all movies......... hope the get the same facility in our studio soon.

enjoy!!!
cheers.

Aneel,

It is only in the rarest cases do we have passion and profession going hand in hand. So, definitely you're one blessed kid!

Cheers!

 

[looser]

By the way I still do not understand what exactly you guys talk about when you say Ishqiya is slow moving and taken like a drama. It does belong to the drama genre actually .

Perhaps an example as to why you thought it was slow may be required for me to understand?

this my first post ,great forum,plenty of movie discussions
to be very frank my opinion on ishqiya is nothing but a Pathetic film, have watched plenty of stage ,even they have better sound and visuals,3 good actors wasted in a drama thats not like a film nor stage play,all characters lifeless ,bad direction .the film never got going and failed to involve

couple of songs ok , but good only to listen , very sad Beautiful vidya balan wasted in ishqiya,verdict for this film everywhere rightfully is FLOP
somepeople claiming this film is very good ,very strange

 

[thevortex]

this my first post ,great forum,plenty of movie discussions
to be very frank my opinion on ishqiya is nothing but a Pathetic film, have watched plenty of stage ,even they have better sound and visuals,3 good actors wasted in a drama thats not like a film nor stage play,all characters lifeless ,bad direction .the film never got going and failed to involve

couple of songs ok , but good only to listen , very sad Beautiful vidya balan wasted in ishqiya,verdict for this film everywhere rightfully is FLOP
somepeople claiming this film is very good ,very strange

Nothing strange about it, looser! It just means that there are different people with different tastes of movies/music in the forum. Enjoy your stay.

 

[sud98]

Nothing strange about it, looser!

For a minute I thought why are you flaming him, then realised you are calling him by his handle and not abusing him :lol: