Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 4:51 AM
Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction/Thriller/Action/Mystery
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Billl Nighy, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly
Lycans or werewolves, and with the Vampires, have been co-existing unknown to the human race for centuries. Both sworn enemies, the Vampires have been killing the Lycans every since the fall of their leader, Lucian. The Lycans for years have been trying to form a hybrid of the two species, but have consistently failed. They found a trait in the bloodline of a certain Corvinus family which allows the amalgamation to take place. They start searching for that descendant of the family who holds the pure trait, Michael Corvin (Speedman). Selene (Beckinsale) realises that the Lycans are after Michael and warns Kraven (Brolly) the vampire in-charge of the coven about this. She also realises that Lucian (Sheen) who was supposed to have been killed by Kraven, still lives. When Kraven ignores her warnings, Selene decides to take things in her own hands. The Vampires have a unique way of ruling. Each Vampire elder hibernates for two centuries while the third one rules. At the end of the century, the ruling elder rests while the next one in line takes over. Selene has an attachment to Viktor (Nighy) the vampire elder who is currently resting. She feels he is the only one who can solve the issue and awakens him one whole century before his reign is to begin. The Vampire-Lycan combine manages to take place, to create a beast who is half-vampire, half-lycan but stronger than both. The entire movie is potrayed very well, giving a gothic cum modern feel to things. The movie ends with a small scene indicating that there is more to come, which did come in the form of Underworld Evolution in 2006.
Thumbs up: Good storyline and movie visuals
Thumbs down: Story could be a bit more complex with some more dramatic fight scenes
Rating: 7.3/10
Action,
Fantasy,
Good Movies,
Mystery,
Science-fiction,
Thriller,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 5:13 AM
Genre: Drama/War/Biography
Starring: Tom Hanks, Philip Symour Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams
First, a short history lecture. The Afghanistan government was threatened by Islamic mujahideen's, who were revolting against the government. Feeling insecure, in 1979, the government asked USSR to invade Afghanistan and take over the countries defense. The United States was at cold war with USSR and at that time and the government had a lot of anti-communism sentiments. Charlie Wilson (Hanks) a Congressman from Texas long with CIA agent Gustav (Hoffman) fought with their government for the Afghani cause. They wanted the government to increase Afghan funding and give the mujahideen's capable weapons of fighting the mighty Soviet Union. The weapons could not be directly sourced from USA because if the Afghans were caught with American made weapons, it would mean serious trouble. Hence, they decided to purchase Soviet weapons stocked at Israel and smuggle them in via Pakistan. This eventually led to USSR withdrawing its troops in 1988. The entire move to support Afghanistan against the Soviets was cited as a very bold and strong move. However, the US government failed to re-build Afghanistan soon after the war, which led to a lot of Anti-American sentiments within the people of Afghanistan. According to them, USA supported them only to fulfill their own intentions and didn't actually care two hoots about their country. This is said to have eventually led to 9/11. The movie does require the viewer to have some amount of prior knowledge about the USSR-Afghan war if he were to understand anything. The movie doesn't reveal the implications of not helping Afghanistan re-build itself after the war. The movie is a good watch to improve ones knowledge of the war but can be slightly confusing and uninteresting for others.
Thumbs up: Tom Hanks as always.
Thumbs down: The movie could have described post-war implications for USA
Rating: 7.1/10
Biography,
Drama,
Good Movies,
War,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:41 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Konkana Sen-Sharma, Supriya Pathak, Anupam Kher
Change is always refreshing, especially when it comes from someone you don't expect it. Karan Johar dumps his cliched star cast comprising of King Khan, Bachchan family and company. Not only that, he has also deviated from his stereotypical family drama stories and has taken up a funky, creative and urban storyline. Ranbir Kapoor, on the other hand, has nicely proven that he isn't here to act just cause his parents made him do it. He can actually do that stuff. Sid (Kapoor) is a spoilt rich kid, whose life has only one agenda, spending his dad's hard earned money. Sid meets Ayesha (Sharma) an aspiring writer from Calcutta who wants to lead an independent life. Sid's academic career goes for a toss, and after a family fight he leaves home and joins Ayesha. First few days go no different for him, until he finally realises that he has to do something if he wants to get anywhere. He pursues photography, the only thing he was ever interested in and finds himself a job. The movie is a big change from the Hollywood rip-off romance movies currently hitting cinemas. The story may sound familiar and not unique, but its not the story but the execution of the story that matters. The movie trailer hints at this very story and it leaves no surprise. Konkana plays the part of the creative writer wonderfully, no surprises there, since she always played the role of an urban youth. Ranbir Kapoor complimented her role with perfection throughout. The movie missed a few beats somewhere after the half-way mark, but she quickly picked up her skirts and came back on par. The perfect alarm the movie industry needs. WAKE UP!
Thumbs up: Ranbir, Konkana, portrayal of Mumbai
Thumbs down: An ending with more climax could do
Rating: 7.8/10
Bollywood,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:31 AM
Genre: Fantasy/Thriller/Drama/Crime
Starring: Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, Marcia Gay Harden, Chris Marquette
Nick Powell (Chatwin) is a high-school smart and rich boy. A school street gang leader Annie (Levieva) steals some jewelry but gets busted later on. She doubts Pete (Marquette) Nick's best friend, for going to the cops and telling them about her. Pete puts the blame on Nick, thinking that Nick is on his way to London but he is actually not. The gang finds Nick and beats him up in which Annie accidentally kills him. Nick's ghost comes alive and he sees the true faces of many people. He also realises that if his body is found, he can still live. Annie's conscious starts getting the better of her and she also realises that Nick was not guilty of turning her to the cops. She repents her doings and wants to undo her mistakes. The movie goes quite well until half-time. The logic behind recovering his body and coming back to life is not convincing and a bit awkward. Annie's ability to suddenly start taking orders from Nick's ghost also is also not explained for. These niggles make the movie a bit far-fetched even for a fantasy movie. It lacks the entertainment factor in any possible movie genre.
Thumbs up: An otherwise decent story
Thumbs down: Unexplained logic
Rating: 4.8/10
Crime,
Drama,
Fantasy,
Pathetic Movies,
Thriller,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:50 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Starring: Govinda, Lara Dutta, Ritesh Deshmukh, Sushmita Sen, Ranbir Shorey, Rajpal Yadav, Sohail Khan
Does David Dhawan intentionally make such mindless comedies or is that he is incapable of churning out something better? Govinda, the very person who pioneered this particular genre, features in this leave-your-brains-at-home comedy as Raj, an industrialist married to Kiran (Sen). Kiran dominates over him and he starts two-timing her by dating supermodel Dolly (Dutta). Mangu (Yadav) spots the two-love birds at it and takes a photograph. Co-incidentally, Govardhan (Deshmukh) gets in the picture frame. Raj must now convince his wife that Govardhan is Dolly's boyfriend and not him. The usual mess up takes place with an apparently dead detective Nunu (Shorey) at a Dubai hotel which tries to pass off as a Delhi location. You cant really expect good laughable humour from Govinda or Ritesh Deshmukh, however, certain one-liners would occasionally tickle your funny-bone. Lara Dutt seems to have worn clothes just because she was forced to and for a change Govinda looked sober. He seems to have swapped dressing sense with Sushmita Sen whose ugly dresses only made her look even more old and out of place. Its definitely an improvement from what we have been seeing since so long but still a long way to go.
Thumbs up: Govinda for his serious attempts at laughter
Thumbs down: Sushmita Sen
Rating: 5.4/10
Average Movies,
Bollywood,
Comedy,
Drama,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:56 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Sook Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, Lindsay Beamish, PJ DeBoy, Raphael Barker, Jay Brannan
I don't know what made me watch this movie and what is the bigger thing that is making me write this review. I thought The Dreamers was the closest one could get to seeing high levels of sexuality in an openly released movie. I was wrong. Shortbus surpasses all levels of expectations. Gay, lesbian, threesomes, you name it and this movie has it. Many would get simply grossed out after watching the first few minutes itself. Its more like a porno with a story. Sofia (Lee) is a sex therapist and is disappointed about the fact that she cant reach an orgasm and feels singled out from society. Jamie (DeBoy) and James (Dawson) are gay partners. Jamie is disappointed with life and feels lost and alone. They meet Ceth (Brannan) and very soon their duo becomes a group of three. Severin (Beamish) is a prostitute who is under depression because of what she is doing. Eveyones life in this movie seems to be a mess right now and they all meet at a sex bar called Shortbus. They all end up finding sanctuary in someone else and relieve their sexual tension and become better beings. I simply don't understand why such high and detailed levels of sexuality were required to portray this story. Even if it was, some utterly gross scenes could be avoided. The movie doesn't actually create an impact and the motivational feel that it tried to bring out. A very avoidable movie even in the censored version (I doubt if there is even one).
Thumbs up: The star casts' guts to perform those scenes on camera
Thumbs down: Everything else
Rating: 2.2/10
Drama,
Pathetic Movies,
Romance,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:07 AM
Genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama
Starring: Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Alan Ford, Benicio Del Toro, Stephen Graham, Dennis Farina, Rade Serbedzija, Lenni James, Vinnie Jones, Robby Gee
I had to see this movie the second time just in order to post a review for it here. A long cock and bull story all for an 84-carat diamond. A very typical Guy Ritchie movie with black humour, sarcasm and one-liners. Every character has their own funny accent to talk in and the movie is best understood with subtitles, especially if you wanna get past what Brad Pitt is trying to say. Franky Four Fingers (Toro) stole a diamond and brought it to London. He informs Cousin Avi (Farina) and in the course of time, a bit too many people get informed. It now becomes a wild goose chase to reach the diamond first. Somewhere else, Turkish (Statham) the boxing promoter named after an airline and his associate Tommy (Graham) not named after a gun but in fact a ballet dancer, go out caravan shopping to some gypsies. They end up losing their best fighter who has a match coming up and decide to replace him with Mickey (Pitt) the gypsy who knocked him out. Brick Top (Ford) the boxing event organiser and a gangster notorious for feeding people to the pigs, has the event rigged and wants Mickey out in the fourth round. Boris the Bullet Dodger (Serbedzija) sends Franky to Brick Top's bookies to put up a bet for that very boxing match. He sends Sol (James) and Vinny (Gee) behind him to steal the case carrying the diamonds. Avi learns about Boris' scheme and hires Bullet-Tooth Tony (Jones) to go look for the sneaky f****** Russian and retrieve the diamond which now is in his possession. It's one whole big mess which also involves a dog who swallowed half a shoe, a squeaky toy and an 84-carat diamond. Might not be a laugh out loud comedy, but definitely worth a watch, if not two.
Thumbs up: Everything
Thumbs down: Nothing
Rating: 8.4/10
Amazing Movies,
Comedy,
Crime,
Drama,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 6:16 AM
Genre: Drama/Crime/Comedy
Starring: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt
This is precisely what happens when various different people get involved with each other unnecessarily and just end up screwing up their lives. Osbourne Cox (Malkovich) gets fired from his government job and is writing a book. Seeing his hopeless situation, his wife Katie (Swinton) wants a divorce. Chad (Pitt) and Linda (Mc Dormand) work in a gym. They both find Osbourne's CD with his half-written book and other confidential information. With Linda wanting to collect money for her cosmetic surgery, the duo get over-enthusiastic and use it to extort money from him. Linda is meanwhile dating Harry (Clooney) who is also sleeping with Katie and Harry is about to get a divorce from his own wife. Chad and Linda hand over the CD to the Russian's (For no reason whatsoever) since they seem to be the more sinister types. One thing just keeps leading to another and everything becomes one big mess. The light hints of sarcasm in the movie is simply amazing. You cant expect anything less from a movie with such an awesome star cast. Malkovich just adds a different flavour to every abuse that comes out of his mouth. A definite one-time watch, but as the dialogue in the end of the movie goes "What do we learn Palmer?" "Well I don't know sir" "Neither do I, but I guess we learn not to do it again". Burn after reading? Burn after watching.
Thumbs up: Brad Pitt and John Malkovich
Thumbs down: A few dragged scenes here and there
Rating: 7.1/10
Comedy,
Crime,
Drama,
Good Movies,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 3:32 AM
Genre: Action/Crime
Starring: John Travolta, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis
Major Vic Deakins (Travolta) and Capt. Riley Hale (Slater) are doing a top secret military drill carrying nuclear warheads on their plane. Deakins and a whole lot of others from the military are actually involved in one large conspiracy to steal the nukes and extort money from the US government. Capt Hale has taken up responsibility to get those nukes back from Deak and save Utah from becoming a barren nuclear wasteland. With him is Terry (Mathis) a park ranger, who senses something wrong going on in the desert and sets out to find out what it is. The movie is actually quite boring when compared to modern day cinema. The story is something highly old and overused. The movie doesn't have the thrills and the action sequences are also nothing you can go back home and talk about. That said, I must say that John Travolta is the best person who can carry off a pair of aviators.
Thumbs up: Improves your knowledge on nuclear weaponry to some extent
Thumbs down: Might have been appealing when released, but not anymore
Rating: 5.9/10
Action,
Average Movies,
Crime,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 2:24 AM
Genre: Comedy/Adventure/Action/War/Spoof
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Tom Cruise
What do you call a war movie spoof that goes miserably bad? Tropic Thunder. A war movie funded by multi-millionaire Les Grossman (Cruise) is not going anywhere. The movies two big stars, Tugg Speedman (Stiller) and Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.) are having ego clashes. In order to get things straight, the group of actors are dropped into the jungles of Vietnam and the entire movie is to be shot using hidden cameras. The shoot goes badly wrong when the director gets killed by a landmine and the actors are spotted by the Vietcong who kidnap Tugg and hold him for ransom. The movie is not even stupidly funny and the spoof was tried to be created by over-dramatising the already over-dramatic scenes usually seen in war movies. Tom Cruise can easily pass off as unidentifiable if it wasn't for the end credits. His role seems minor and insignificant. Jack Black is probably the only person in the entire movie that you would want to laugh at.
Thumbs up: Ben Stiller and his genes for stupidity
Thumbs down: Lacks humour, boring at times
Rating: 4.7/10
Action,
Adventure,
Comedy,
Pathetic Movies,
Spoof,
War,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 4:07 AM
Genre: Romance/Drama/Comedy
Starring: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Jariwala, Anjaan Srivastav, Rajesh Vivek
Harman Baweja needs to publicly admit that he cannot possibly act. His futile and lame attempts at it make the movie an even bigger bore. Yogesh (Baweja) hails from a Gujarati family and is happily settled with an MBA in Chicago. According to his horoscope, his family learns that he is the receiver of a large sum of money on the night of his marriage. In dire need for the money, his family calls him back and asks him to get married within the next 10 days. Understanding his family's urgent need for his 'predicted income', he agrees to start meeting girls but insists that he meet only twelve girls, all belonging to different sun-signs. Enter Priyanka Chopra, playing the role of the various prospective candidates. She is perhaps the only good thing about the movie and even wonderfully manages to execute two of the twelve characters amazingly. Unfortunately though, both these characters are the most horrendous looking but demand the most effort. The movie becomes a bit over-dramatic at certain places. Each of the twelve sun-signs represent twelve possibly different types of people, not just with respect to looks, but family, income, nature, needs and requirements. The supporting cast managed to give the movie a very 'gujju' feel to it. Harman Baweja desperately tries to be in league with the current crop of 'cool and young' actors. To give him some credit, he has some really amazing dance moves. The movie has the potential to do well, but small niggles bring it down drastically.
Thumbs up: Priyanka Chopra, the support cast
Thumbs down: Harman Baweja, certain irritating songs
Rating: 4.7/10
Bollywood,
Comedy,
Drama,
Pathetic Movies,
Romance,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:24 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Comedy
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, Isla Fisher
Will (Reynolds) is a divorcee and his daughter Maya (Breslin) has recently received sex-education at a very premature age. Bursting with questions, one thing leads to another and Will ends up narrating her his love-life prior to her birth. He changes all the character names in his story so that Maya cant know which one is her mom. The story goes on to narrate Will's juggling love-live with Summer (Weisz), April (Fisher) and Emily (Banks). The movie is very simple and neat and unlike other romance movies, isn't loaded with sex and lame teen jokes. Very few movies base the story on a daughter-father relationship. It reflects to some extent, the typical urban American lifestyle. Ryan Reynolds nicely manages to switch roles between a college graduate, lover, to-be husband and a father. A movie that might just appeal to everyone and to some extent even to the romance hating ones.
Thumbs up: Clean and neat storyline, good performance
Thumbs down: Light humour would've been appreciated
Rating: 7.4/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 2:42 AM
Genre: Action/Drama/History/Adventure
Starring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielson, Djimon Honsou
The Romans conquered almost all of Europe. They wanted to free the world of barbarians and bring about civilisation. What they didn't realise is that there lifestyle was quite barbarous itself. Maximus (Corwe) a general serving the Roman Army, was chosen to be successor by its then ruler Marcul Aurelius. This did not go down well with his Marcus Aurelius' son Commodus (Phoenix) who murdered his own father. Marcus was banished from the empire and became a slave. His fighting skills brought him under the ownership of an entertainer, who made him a gladiator to fight within the Colosseum at Rome. The people of Rome loved him and he soon won the heart of the mob and of Lucilla (Nielson) Commodus' sister. Maximus was a noble servant of Rome, and wanted to end the era of monarchy and make Rome a republic once more. He only wanted to fulfill the wish of deceased king, whom he honoured and loved. The Romans lived for honour, and that was brought out well in the movie. The good part was that the character of Maximus was not shown as an invincible hero, with insane fighting abilities and the power to do anything. The movie on the other hand lacked the inspirational feel and felt a tad too lose. A more heightened climax would have helped to a certain extent.
Thumbs up: Russell Crowe, character costumes
Thumbs down: Needs a bit more drama and energy
Rating: 7.9/10
Action,
Adventure,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Historical Event,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 3:11 AM
Genre: Animation/Adventure/Drama/Comedy
Starring (voiceover): Edward Asner, Cristopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson
Up forms a part of the current crop of 3D animated movies hitting cinemas. Two small kids Carl and Ellie share a common passion for adventure. They soon get married and live a happy life. Years pass by and their dream of having a house on Paradise Falls, South America remains unfulfilled. Soon after Ellies death, Carl (Asner) decides to fulfill Ellie's last wish and converts his house into a giant flying thing, by tying together thousands of helium filled balloons and takes off into the sky. To accompany him, he has Russell (Nagai) an over-enthusiastic wilderness boy scout who simply wanted to help Carl cross the road and win himself a badge, but lands up becoming a part of his maniacal adventure and Doug (Peterson) a dog with a talking collar, who is a part of a pack of strays belonging to the ex-explorer Charles Muntz (Plummer) who is currently in South America searching for a rare bird since years to prove its existence to the world. After watching a 3D movie after probably years, i was left a little disappointed overall. Apart from just adding some amount of clarity, the 3D effect was seem to have been added simply as a marketing strategy and attract more viewers. Lift your glasses and watch the regular version and its just as good. The movie was a little slow to start, but the moment his house took off, you knew the actual movie has now begun. The movie was never meant to make you laugh, an essential for all animation movies according to me, but it makes up with an amazing adventure packed and thrilling tale that might just leave you teary-eyed in the end.
Thumbs up: Nice story, character detailing
Thumbs down: 3D is pointless
Rating: 7.6/10
Adventure,
Animation,
Comedy,
Drama,
Good Movies,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 10:15 AM
Genre: Action/Crime
Starring: Jason Statham, Natalya Rudakova, Francois Berleand, Robert Knepper
The third installment in the Transporter series, Frank (Statham) is doing his usual business; transporting goods in his brand new black Audi and no questions asked. Like all movies, this time too the goods is human. A freckle-faced Ukranian girl, Valentina (Rudakova) whose father is a minister of environmental protection to be precise. Johnson (Knepper) wants Valentina's father to allow his ships carrying toxic wastes to dock. If not, then Valentina would die. Frank has to transport Valentina across Europe and just to be sure, Valentina and Frank are tied metal devices on their wrist which will blow up if the get further than 75 feet from the car. Part three is no different from any of the earlier versions, only difference being his client, the cargo and the car. What doesn't die out however, is Jason Statham's complicated fist maneuvers which makes this movie different from other action movies. It has its own set of insane and out-of-this-world stunts, but that's what the movie is entirely relying on. If you want to watch this movie to see what is different in it, then there is nothing. The only reason to watch it is the pure love for action.
Thumbs up: Amazing bare-fist action
Thumbs down: Nothing different from its predecessors
Rating: 6.0/10
Action,
Average Movies,
Crime,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 11:43 PM
Genre: Crime/Drama
Starring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Paul Reubens, Jordi Molla
All dope movies seem to be the same. Telling you not to dope and what happens when you do too much of dope. When you see Johnny Depp in the star cast, you know for sure that there is something very different in this movie. Based on a true life story of George Jung (Depp) a small time drug dealer, that later went on to become one of America's biggest cocaine dealer. His parents kept fighting with each other since there was no money in the family. He promised himself that such a day would never come in his life, hence he took the easy way and started selling dope on the streets of California with the help of a gay supplier Derek (Reubens). He went on to marry Martha (Cruz) but things never worked out for them due to his regular jail visits and his inability to give up the dope. The movie in the end focuses on family ties and relations and the miserable state George is now left in. The movie doesn't try beating around the bush, nor does it get too deep and psychological. Just keep it plain and simple.
Thumbs up: Johnny Depp and the entire star cast
Thumbs down: Johnny Depp's horrible hair style
Rating: 7.3/10
Biography,
Crime,
Drama,
Good Movies,
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