Boys Dont Cry (1999)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Biography

Starring: Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alicia Goranson, Jeannetta Arnette

A young girl, Teena Brandon (Swank) has a sexual identity crisis and although she has all the sexual organs of a female, she behaves like a boy and is attracted to women. She flirts with Candace (Goranson) a woman she meets at a bar and later gets acquainted to Candace's sister, Lana (Sevigny). Teena is attracted to Lana and flirts with her and the duo eventually fall in love. John (Sarsgaard) and Tom (Sexton III) are friends of Lana and Lana's mother (Arnette) all of whom regularly go out for a night of revelry. Teena manages to gel well with the family, Tom and John and feels that she is leading a whole new life. Teena has a shady background and is wanted back home for stealing cars. Her legal summons come back to haunt her and its not long that her true sexual identity starts coming out for everyone to see. The most outstanding feature of this movie are the performances, especially that of Hilary Swank. Being able to carry such a difficult role with such finesse gave her the Oscar she truly deserved. Other supporting performances of Sarsgaard and Sevigny added positively to the movie and made it a better watch. The only downside in the movie are the middle forty-five minutes which get a bit slow and boring, but it give it some time and it would throw up a fabulous climax. The movie is a critics delight but an average audiences nightmare.

Thumbs up: Hilary Swank and other performances

Thumbs down: It has its own slow and boring moments

Rating: 7.2/10

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Biography, Crime, Drama, Good Movies, Romance,

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Little Fockers (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Jessica Alba

The third installment of the comic epic continues to narrate the life and lies of Greg aka Gaylord Focker (Stiller) and his father-in-law Jack Byrnes (De Niro). Gay is happily married to Jack's daughter Pam (Polo) but Jack continuously interferes with Gay's family life and tries to dictate terms on family management and parenting. Jack fears that his death clock is ticking and his time is coming. He wants someone to continue the Byrne family history in the same manner in which it was held high for so many centuries. In order to do this, Gay must fulfill Jack's standards and Jack only keeps on dictating and judging Gay's moves. Meanwhile, a drug sales agent, Andi Garcia (Alba) is trying to convince Gay to become the spokesperson for the drug to get a higher salary. Unknown to him, his and Andi's meetings have been interpreted wrongly by Jack who thinks his family needs a 'course correction'. The first thing anyone would notice is that the movie has unnecessarily pulled ahead the previous movies storyline thinking that the audience would still enjoy it. Sadly, the first half of the movie is a complete waste and its only right towards the end that the humour seems to get a bit better but not altogether amazing. If you enjoyed the first two movies, this one would never live up to your expectations. Stiller and De Niro could have done much better.

Thumbs up: Different humour which had scope for improvement but only towards the end

Thumbs down: Tries to bask in the glory of the previous movies

Rating: 5.8/10

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Average Movies, Comedy, Drama,

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Hellboy (2004)

Genre: Science-fiction/Fantasy/Drama/Action/Romance/Thriller

Starring: Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Rupert Evans, Karel Roden

Towards the end of World War II, Adolf Hitler attempts at opening a dimensional portal and to free the Ogdru Jahad, a beast from another dimension in order to destroy the Allies. Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin (Roden) succeeds in opening the portal but their attempt is stubbed by an Allied attack on the portal, led by Prof. Trevor Broom (Hurt). Although the Nazi's attempt fails, a creature from the portal manages to pass through which the Allies adopt and name Hellboy (Perlman). Sixty years later, Hellboy grows up with Prof. Broom and does good for the world rather than evil. FBI agent John Meyers (Evans) is recruited by Broom to aid him in his Bureau and look after Hellboy. Rasputin's followers resurrect him and unleash a fearsome beast on the world which multiplies each time it dies. Its finally up to Hellboy to put a stop to Rasputin and prevent him from re-opening the portal. The movie does a very good job of mixing various elements together, yet the romance element does not seem to suit the movie and it makes it a tad boring. Probably if the focus was on the usual action and trying to solve the mystery, the movie would have been a less of a bore. The movie leaves behind a lot of lose and unanswered strings which make you wonder what really is going on. Probably they would get answered in upcoming sequences, yet the audience needs to have a basic understanding of the plot if one expects them to enjoy the subsequent parts. Its not something entirely new, but not something completely boring either.

Thumbs up: Good thrills and action

Thumbs down: Unanswered and messy plot

Rating: 6.4/10

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Action, Average Movies, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Science-fiction, Thriller,

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Band Baaja Baaraat (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Romance

Starring: Anushka Sharma, Ravneer Singh

Two college graduates are poles apart, where one plans on a career the other plans on nothing. Shruti (Sharma) aims on becoming a successful wedding planner, whereas Bittoo (Singh) the son a sugarcane farmer wants to do anything to get away from cutting canes all his life. Bittoo meets Shruti when he is crashing a wedding and starts flirting with her. He soon persuades her to make him a part of her wedding planning company so that he doesn't have to go back to his dad. Shruti agrees, given the condition that Bittoo would not fall in love with her. Being a Yash Raj film, the rest of the story can be narrated flawlessly by a two-year-old, scene by scene. The movie has the very regular Bollywood cliches like the dialogues, plot development, twists, climax etc. There was a slight spark of comedy in the beginning which simply faded away as the movie went along. Probably if that aspect was picked up on, then the otherwise boring plot would still have become a bit more watchable. The movies soundtrack is catchy and appeals to the fans of this genre. Overall, a good two hour paid nap is what you get.

Thumbs up: Ranveer Singh, having no previous modelling or acting experience has done a fairly decent job

Thumbs down: Everything else

Rating: 3.7/10

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Bollywood, Comedy, Pathetic Movies, Romance,

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Red (2008)

Genre: Crime/Drama

Starring: Brian Cox, Noel Fischer, Kyle Gallner, Shiloh Fernandes, Kim Dickens, Tom Sizemore

The peaceful country life of Avery Ludlow (Cox) becomes not so peaceful when 3 teenage boys attempt to rob him and eventually kill his dog while he was fishing. Danny (Fischer) shot Red at point-blank range while Harold (Gallner) and Peter (Fernandes) stood there laughing and doing nothing. Red was close to him and he swore revenge against them. He wanted them to regret what they did and get punished for doing what they shouldn't have done. Danny and Harold's father, Mr. McCormack (Sizemore) is a highly influential man because of which, both, the sheriff and the district attorney refuse to take any action against. Carrie (Dickens) a local newspaper reporter tries to help him out by reporting his story on TV but soon the channel editor too starts facing pressure from McCormack to stop broadcasting the story. Having nowhere to go, Ludlow takes the law in his own hands and decides to fight the McCormack's for what is right and what is wrong. Brian Cox's performance is worth giving him a golden statue and he very aptly fits the role. The movie cant be labeled as entirely boring but there is nothing exciting about it either. It's one of those movies that you cant find fault with and that you can easily forget about it soon after its over. A nice watch to pass some time without getting bored but not something you would talk about all your life.

Thumbs up: Brian Cox

Thumbs down: Has good scope for plot improvement

Rating: 7.3/10

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Crime, Drama, Good Movies,

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This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)

Genre: Documentary

Starring: (various)

The MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) and its long serving president, Jack Valenti implemented a ratings system on Hollywood movies in order to curb mature movies from being openly screened. This ratings system did not go down well with Hollywood directors because of its secret and non-transparent feature. Films were supposedly watched by ordinary parents of children aged 3-7 years who rate movies and decide whether the movie is appropriate for children to watch. Movies which get rated NC-17 don't go down well with the director since children below 17 cannot watch those movies and they lose their core movie-watching audience. The MPAA members are heads of the worlds largest media corporations and accusations of bias in ratings in favour of these corporations has been alleged. Kirby Dick, the director of this movie tries to dig deep and reveal the profile of the raters and bring out the truth whether the MPAA is actually doing what it set out to do and what it claims to do. The movie reveals quite a few secrets about the film industry and 'the liberal and free America' quickly appears to become conservative and shy. Probably everyone associated with the movie industry should watch this, perhaps to learn something new or get a fresh perspective.

Thumbs up: Reveals a lot of unknown secrets

Thumbs down: Being a documentary there wasn't much to pick up as flaws

Rating: 6.8/10

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Documentary, Good Movies,

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Faster (2010)

 

Genre: Action/Crime/Drama

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Carla Guigino, Billy Bob Thornton

Freshly out of jail, Driver (Johnson) does not intend to make his life any better. He is hungry, hungry for revenge from those people who killed his brother. Killer (Jackson-Cohen) is a multi-millionaire and a part-time hit man who kills for fun and never for the money. Killer wants to accomplish every hurdle that life can throw at him and aims to become the perfectionist. While Driver is hunting down his targets, Killer has been assigned the task to kill Driver. Cicero (Guigino) and Cop (Thornton) are two police officers who are investigating the murder trail being left behind by Driver. Dwayne Johnson is the macho indestructible self that he always was and is only more meaner. The movie is pretty much predictable and does not throw up anything new or exciting. The movie projects the conflicts within Driver and Killers' minds but that does little to improve the overall impression it gives.

Thumbs up: Dwayne Johnsons presence

Thumbs down: Cliched and predictable

Rating: 6.4/10

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Action, Average Movies, Crime, Drama,

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Spy Game (2001)

Genre: Crime/Action/Drama

Starring: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane, Larry Bryggman

1991, just as the cold war is about to end, the United States President is due to visit China in order to ink a trade deal. Days before the presidents visit, a CIA operative Tom Bishop (Pitt) attempts to break into a Chinese prison and rescue a British national, Elizabeth Hadley (McCormack). Bishop gets captured and his arrest puts the United States government and the CIA in an uncomfortable position, especially since Bishop was working on his own. If USA does not claim Bishop he would be executed in 24 hours, however, claiming him could put the trade deal at risk. Nathan Muir (Redford) is a mid-level CIA agent who recruited and trained Bishop. The top-level of CIA try to grill Muir in order to extract more information from him about Bishop and pin-point an incidence which would give them an excuse for not claiming him. Muir realises the ugly game that the CIA is playing and uses his all his skill and experience to save the young boys life. There is a very interesting plot surrounding the movie and it seems to have gotten all the correct things in place. Good cast, good plot but the only aspect that let it down was the lack of character and substance. The movie has enormous scope to become a very enticing watch, if only there was more excitement and feel attached to it. Anyhow, you can never go wrong with a Brad Pitt movie.

Thumbs up: Great plot and performances

Thumbs down: Movie needs more excitement

Rating: 7.4/10

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Action, Crime, Drama, Good Movies,

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (2010)

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure/Thriller/Action/Drama

Starring: Daniel Radciffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Toby Jones (voice)

The seventh installment of the revered Harry Potter series of children's books gets divided into two parts. The division probably reflected Voldemort and his horcruxes, but maybe not. Harry (Radcliffe) and Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy have destroyed two of the seven horcruxes, magical objects that hold the divided soul of Lord Voldemort (Fiennes). Voldemort despises Muggles or non-magical people and wishes to put an end to them, much to the disagreement of other magical folk. After Dumbledore's tragic death, Harry is left with the task of finding and destroying the 5 remaining horcruxes. Without destroying them, he cannot eventually kill Voldemort. In the previous movie, Harry and Dumbledore found a locket which is supposed to be one of the horcruxes, however, this locket turned out to be a fake, in which the original was stolen by a certain R.A.B. Harry, along with his friends Ron (Grint) and Hermione (Watson) are on a quest for R.A.B and the remaining horcruxes. As a personal opinion, I didn't particularly enjoy the seventh book and the movie reflected just the same. Like the previous movie, this one too simply picks up the major scenes of the movie and glued them together without making any logical sense. For someone completely unfamiliar with the book, this movie is a complete waste, in fact, many people who have read the book might feel a bit lost at some parts too. There was little attempt in making the movie exciting and even the parts which were slightly more exciting were cut short for the sake of conserving screen time. A huge disappointment and an outright insult to the book, felt as if it was made for the sake of being made.

Thumbs up: Special effects

Thumbs down: Bad editing, unexciting and boring

Rating: 5.9/10

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Action, Adventure, Average Movies, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller,

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