Movie Movies Movies - Part 3







I have watched several movies in the last six months and thought I would post reviews on the ones that I enjoyed watching.  I don't post reviews on movies that I did not like.


English


Bound (1996)
Gripping... suspenseful... tense... edge-of-your-seat thriller are some words that come to mind when reviewing this movie.  It's about how a female ex-con tries to steal two million dollars from the mafia with the help of her new lesbian lover who is also married to one of the gangsters.  The only problem is - the mafia are not-so-easy to steal money from.  Also, in order to pull off their scheme, they need to trust each other completely - can they?

Harrison's Flowers (2000)
War is a terrible and useless thing and this movie drives home the point.  The battle of Vukovar shown at the end is far too realistic and gruesome to watch.  Watch this movie to get an understanding of the Yugoslav War of the 1990s.  The movie is really a tribute to all the journalists who lost their lives while covering this dangerous war.  The only negative thing I can say about the movie is the love story that is unnecessarily woven into the plot, which is, needless to say too unrealistic.

Inception (2010)
I didn't understand a single word of this movie, but I still loved it!

Mountains of the Moon (1990)
What is the source of the longer river in the world, Nile, in Africa?  Based on a true story, the movie follows the adventures of Richard Burton and his friend John Speke who set out to discover the source of the river.  Richard and John are brought together in the wild and get driven apart in civilization.  The African wild is wonderfully captured and one really gets the feeling of being in Africa.  This is a must watch for anyone who likes adventure movies - don't expect an Indiana Jones though - this is more historical and intellectual.

Reservoir Dogs (1992)
A favourite on cable TV, I only got a chance to watch it recently.  It's about how a bunch of random criminals are brought together for a bank heist job and begin to suspect each other when the heist goes horribly wrong.  It's quite an interesting watch; there's more dialogue than action in this movie.

Shot Through The Heart (1998)
This is a tale of two friends - a Serbian Christian and a Bosnian Muslim - and how their friendship gets affected during the Yugoslav War of 1990s.  It's a must watch for those who wish to learn more about this war that tore the former Yugoslavia into several different countries drawn apart by different religions.

Shutter Island (2010)
The plot is quite unique and giving up anything about it would be doing injustice to anyone who hasn't yet seen this movie.  Leonardo DiCaprio's acting is top notch and anyone who enjoys watching a psychological thriller will enjoy watching this one.

True Romance (1993)
I would describe this movie in Hindi as hatke.  A lonely man with a mediocre job is setup with a prostitute, and they fall in love with each other.  The man tries to rescue the damsel from her pimp who happens to be a mafia gangster, and inadvertently kills him and mistakenly picks up an identical briefcase containing millions of dollars worth of drugs.  Thus begins a thrilling game of cat and mouse where the mafia are hot on his trail as he tries to sell the drugs in a get-rich-quick scheme.

Up (2009)
Most people get so caught up in the rat-race and the materialistic way of life that by the time they realize what they've missed, it's often too late to do anything about it.  So what have they missed?  Living their dreams.  We live in concrete jungles that's full of people - yet we're lonely.  We have all the materials things that money can buy - yet we are unhappy.  This is a tale of a man who lived the "American dream".  He had it all - a loving wife, money and a nice house with a white picket fence.  Yet, at the tale end of his life he feels he has missed living his childhood dream of exploring the world and sets out to explore and discover...


Hindi


City of Gold (2010)
This is one of the best Hindi films I have seen in a long time.  In spite of it being a low-budget film (which implies unknown actors), the acting is top-notch and the plot is very realistic and interesting.  At no point does the film fall apart.  I would classify this as a semi-documentary/art-film.  It's on the life of Mumbai's textile mill workers who lose not just their employment and livelihood when their mills get shutdown (and land sold to real estate developers), but also their hopes...


Marathi


Aatmavishwas (1989)
I don't normally like family dramas, but this one was a definite exception.  The acting is superb, and the storyline is engaging and entertaining to watch.  It's about how a stay-at-home mother is taken for granted by everyone in her family and how she gets her self-respect back through supposed "black magic".  Quite an interesting watch.

--
Related Posts: Movies Movies Movies Part 1 | Part 2

5 comments:

Mee said...

Barring "Bound" I've seen them all too, and understood Inception too:):)

Neeraj | www.bharari.net said...

Wow you've seen them all except Bound? The list is quite diverse so I'm surprised. Cool.

The reason why I didn't understand Inception is an inside story :P

Mee said...

Heheheh ok:)

Inception stays with one for a while- infact we found ourselves discussing it after 2 mnths yet again this wkend when we had friends ovr frm Bglr- its that kinda movie:)

Did you get Bound from a dvd Library? Whats it about?

Neeraj | www.bharari.net said...

I don't remember the last time I purchased a dvd. You can easily download it online- just do a torrent search.

Check out my review for Bound... I don't want to give anything else away. If you enjoyed all the movies on the list then I think you'll enjoy watching Bound.

Mee said...

o :(:(

am on intnl roaming right now on my bb, will figure once I am back:)