Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:44 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/History
Starring: Kate Winslet, Ralf Fiennes, David Kross
Set in post World War II Germany, a young man, Michael Berg (Kross) falls in love with a much elder woman, Hanna Schmitz (Winslet). Hanna is a tram ticket collector in Neustadt and responds to his love with equal passion. They set a routine wherein Michael would read her books and later make love to Hanna. Their romance continues for a considerable period of time when due to a disagreement, Hanna leaves Michael and leaves Neustadt too. Years later, Michael sees Hanna undergoing a trial for working as a guard at Aushwitz, a German concentration camp for Jews during World War II. She along with other guards, are held responsible for the death of many and sentenced to imprisonment. Their relationship has deeply affected Michale's life and years later, a much elder Michael (Fiennes) is still finding it hard to forget his past love. Kate Winslet puts on one of her best performances to date and although the story is slightly cliched, she doesn't let you give you that feel. Shes not the dazzling seductress from Titanic but the old simple ticket collector, a role tailor made for her. Her outstanding performance gave her a well-deserved Oscar and any amounts of praise is not enough. Its only now that I realised how old shes actually become.
Thumbs up: Kate Winslet all the way
Thumbs down: A bit slow at some parts
Rating: 7.8/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:22 AM
Genre: Drama/Thriller/Crime/Mystery/Fantasy
Starring: Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Saoirse Ronan, Rose McIver, Susan Sarandon, Michael Imperioli
Set in the 1970's, a happy average American family faces one of the most disastrous crimes of society. Young 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Ronan) is murdered by her rapist, paedophile neighbour, George Harvey (Tucci). Her father Jack (Wahlberg) and mother Abigail (Weisz) get into a desperate search for the rapist and for months altogether are left without a trail. The family finds it hard to get over the loss and cracks in their relation start to appear. Meanwhile, Harvey is busy planning his next victim. The movie has an extremely strong and emotional plot, but plays too much on Susie's afterlife. The constant transition between reality and heaven goes a bit too far and the movie would be an absolutely fantastic watch if it wasn't this aspect. Stanley Tucci has put on a fine piece of acting which simply steals the entire show away.
Thumbs up: Stanley Tucci, plot
Thumbs down: Susie's afterlife story
Rating: 7.3/10
Crime,
Drama,
Fantasy,
Good Movies,
Mystery,
Thriller,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:18 AM
Genre: Action/Drama/Science-fiction/Thriller
Starring: Christian Bale, Sean Bean, William Fichtner, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, Angus MacFayden
A third world war in the early 21st century, threatens to bring mankind to extinction. Realising that war rises out of human emotion, a clan of people develop a medicine, Prozium, which subdues human emotion and makes them robotic and hence curbing war. They belong to Libria. The Tetragammaton Council governs Libria and its law enforcement agencies' only task is to hunt down people who don't take Prozium at regular intervals and hence are termed as 'sense offenders'. John Preston (Bale) is a Cleric of the highest class and is a master of combat. His partner, Errol Partridge (Bean) stopped taking Prozium and was killed by Preston for the crime. Somehow Preston himself stops taking the drug and over a period of time gets convinced that the natural life is the way to live and not the robotic one that he has been leading for so long. The movie has a decent start but becomes hopelessly slow until the end where it once again picks up pace and ends on a high note. The action is definitely Matrix material but becomes a bit too repetitive and does not do much to improve the movies slow pace. Worth watching for the climax, the rest is a long bore.
Thumbs up: Action, climax scene
Thumbs down: Slow
Rating: 6.4/10
Action,
Average Movies,
Drama,
Science-fiction,
Thriller,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 12:15 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Starring: Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, Chris Addison, Mimi Kennedy, James Gandolfini, Anna Chlumsky
The United States President and the United Kingdom Prime Minister fancy a war on the Middle-East. UK Minister for International Development, Simon Foster (Hollander) makes a statement on radio that the war is 'unforeseeable'. This statement causes an uproar in countries on both sides of the Atlantic with some supporting it and some against it. The Prime Minister's foul-mouthed communications chief, Malcolm Tucker (Capaldi) lets his tongue lose on any soul who dares cross him or support Simon and his statement. New recruit Toby (Addison) is not sure on which side does he belong and tags along with Simon on a trip to the United States. Simon just doesn't know when to speak and when not to, due to which he lands up in more than one embarrassing situation. Not to mention that a garden wall in Simon's constituency is threatening to collapse and it has gained enough momentum to reach the top brass in the government. The movie is a spin-off of a famous British television series and mocks the behind-the-scenes run-up to the Iraq war. There is no roll-over-the-floor humour here but sarcastic one-liners that one may find a little hard to catch. You need to pay hard attention to the dialogues if anything should be understood of the movie and the only saving grace is Peter Capaldi and his innovative abuses. Nice, but not good enough.
Thumbs up: Peter Capaldi and Tom Hollander
Thumbs down: Lack of laughable humour
Rating: 6.9/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Good Movies,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 2:43 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Musical
Starring: Daniel-Day Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench
Coming from the director of Chicago, this musical entertainer promises to live up to the name of its predecessor. Rome, 1965, famous director Guido Contini (Day-Lewis) has announced a new movie. Contini is finding it increasingly difficult to come up some inspiration for this movie, and although the film exists on paper, it does not in the maestro's head. To make things worse, his married life with a once famous actress Luisa (Cotillard) is on flimsy grounds and he seeks sexual respite with Carla (Cruz). Everything coupled together make his life one big mess, as if it wasn't already from the beginning. The movie somehow fails to bring out the song and dance the way Chicago did and fails in more than one aspect. It has some nice dance moves and a huge sex-appeal but that's about it. The performances were indeed good, but not enough to cover up for the movies flaws. Daniel-Day Lewis looks amazingly different from his previous hit There Will Be Blood and his brilliant performance does little to make the movie more appealing. An average entertainer which could have been much better
Thumbs up: Performances
Thumbs down: Storyline not good enough
Rating: 6.0/10
Average Movies,
Drama,
Musical,
Romance,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:52 AM
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Starring: Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Gigi Rice, Elisa Donovan, Molly Shannon
Two very stupid and annoying brothers, Steve (Ferrell) and Doug (Kattan) Butabi go club-hopping in big hopes to find some good girls to flirt with and get laid. Their over-enthusiastic attitudes coupled with a stupid dressing sense doesn't get them anything except slaps and kicks. They have a huge ambition to start a nightclub of their own which would allow people like them to gain free access without standing in lines. Their brotherhood breaks over a disagreement and both their lives go for a toss. A pretty lame attempt at trying to make the audience laugh at stupidity which lacks any aspect of humour. The entire getup of Ferrel and Kattan are enough to put one off from watching the movie and any sane person should entirely stay away from this one.
Thumbs up: Tough to figure this one out
Thumbs down: Almost everything
4.1/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Pathetic Movies,
Sex Comedy,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:43 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Musical
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jack Nation
An alcoholic veteran country singer, Bad Blake (Bridges) has taken the road, performing at various towns and cities. Cigarette's and whisky being his only companion, he befriends and later falls in love with a young Santa Fe journalist, Jean (Gyllenhaal). Bad's friendship extends to Jean's son Buddy (Nation) and the three are all set to become a nice happy family. Bad's affinity for alcohol gets the better of him and circumstances give Bad and Jean a new outlook on how things have happened over the past few months. The story has nothing which makes you want to sit right till the end or wait to see what happens. Its simple and sober, apart from Bad and Jeff Bridges' phenomenal acting makes him a deserving recipient for the Oscar. The country music played in the movie may not be to the liking of all and hence puts the movie on dicey grounds. A good watch but not an entertainer.
Thumbs up: Jeff Bridges
Thumbs down: Slow, music not to everyone's liking
Rating: 7.0/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Musical,
Romance,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 3:14 AM
Genre: Action/Adventure/Thriller/ Fantasy
Starring: Harrison Ford, Amrish Puri, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan
The great American archaeologist, Dr. Indiana Jones (Ford) is doing business in China when things turn out to be terrible wrong. Along with showgirl Wilhelmina (Capshaw) and a young Chinese boy Short Round (Quan), he soon finds himself in the jungles of India. The nearby villagers help him and believe that he has been sent by Lord Shiva to remove their worries. The villagers believe that the king of the nearby Pankot Palace has stolen their sacred stone which gives them power along with their children. They request him to bring back the stone and the kids. On arriving at the Palace, despite multiple assurances that the villagers claim is untrue, Indiana stumbles upon a secret passage which leads him right to a Thuggee ceremony, led by the high priest Mola Ram (Puri). There were originally five sacred stones of the Thuggee cult out which three exist and two are buried under the palace. Mola Ram has kidnapped the children to dig and excavate the remaining two stones. The movie is quite typical of the series with astonishing stunts and a highly predictable plot. The movie doesn't harp of anything different and its simply the action and thrilling stunts that make this movie a classic favourite.
Thumbs up: Stunts and action
Thumbs down: Predictable outcome, poor depiction of India
Rating: 6.7/10
Action,
Adventure,
Fantasy,
Good Movies,
Thriller,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:53 PM
Genre: Action/Science-fiction/Drama
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Patrick Stewart
A human scientist develops a cure for the mutants. All mutants would become human if they inject themselves with the new medicine. The cure in-turn has been developed by the help of a young mutant boy whose mere presence would make mutants temporarily human. Magneto (McKellen) along with his followers are against this cure and are lobbying to withdraw it. Meanwhile, Jean (Janssen) who is supposedly dead, has been found alive but with a psychic imbalance. She has grown stronger but has lost control over her power and gets manipulated to join Magneto. With Charles Xavier (Stewart) dead and with Jean by his side, Magento wishes to destroy anyone in support of the cure. Wolverine (Jackman) and Storm (Berry) are the only X-Men left and they have to assimilate a new army to fight Magneto. Although the movie still sings the 'saving the world' tune, it has gone a long way in showing something different from what we have been seeing in the previous movies. The mutant powers were explored with more depth which makes the movie all the more interesting. Astounding action sequences only makes this movie more desirable.
Thumbs up: Mutant powers, action
Thumbs down: Still saving the world
Rating: 7.0/10
Action,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Science-fiction,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:23 PM
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour
Set in 1970's London, a young 16-year-old Jenny (Mulligan) finds herself seduced by David (Sarsgaard) a man twice her age. Her father, Jack (Molina) is adamant that she gets admitted to Oxford for her graduation and doesn't allow her any social life. David and Jenny start lying to Jenny's parents about David's contacts with famous writers in a bid to go out with each other. Her father is so overwhelmed by David that he soon forgets that his daughter needs to go to Oxford and accepts Jenny and David's relationship. David's actual occupation is to make black people move in next door to white people who are scared of them and then to buy their houses cheap and re-selling them. Along with his friend Danny (Cooper) they also steal valuable artifacts from the purchased houses and sell them at astronomical prices. Jenny is initially shocked when she learns of David's occupation but she finds the her new life so glamorous, she chooses to ignore the dark side. She is completely convinced that education is not a necessity but merely something that world thinks you require it and slowly moves away from her academic career. Although the movie seems to be on the slower side, it actually manages to maintain a steady pace along with audience interest from start to end. The movie has some fine performances and those little cliched parts turn into well-discovered niches. Carey Mulligan's fabulous performance steals the show throughout.
Thumbs up: Carey Mulligan and well-executed plot
Thumbs down: A little dull climax
Rating: 7.7/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:03 PM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Musical/Thriller
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helene Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Ed Sanders, Jayne Wisener
19th century, Fleet Street, London. Benjamin Barker (Depp) is a happily married barber with a prosperous business. The corrupt Judge Turpin (Rickman) has his eyes on Benjamin's wife and puts Benjamin in prison in an attempt to seduce her. Once out of prison, Benajmin takes on the name of Sweeney Todd and returns to his old residence. His neighbour, Mrs Lovett (Carter) tells him that his wife consumed poison and his daughter Johanna (Wisener) is being kept locked in Judge Turpin's house. He wants to seek revenge for his family and decides to lure Judge Turpin to his saloon to get a shave and cut his neck open. One would realise that most of the characters in the movie are common with Harry Potter but it is merely a coincidence and nothing more. The musical narration of the story was better explored in Chicago which used dance and background music more effectively, something which lacked in this movie. The Lyrics, however, are worth reading with subtitles on and takes on a nice rhythmic motion. Watching Johnny Depp and the other cast singing is not quite bad and their efforts should be appreciated. The movie doesn't have a very strong plot to narrate but Johnny Depp's mere presence take it to new levels.
Thumbs up: Johnny Depp and other performances
Thumbs down: Songs could have been used more effectively, slightly weak plot
Rating: 7.2/10
Crime,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Musical,
Romance,
Thriller,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:46 AM
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus
Set in the 1970's, simpleton Prof. Lawrence Gopnik (Stuhlbarg) is a Jewish man living in America. He can easily get lost in the crowd of average people and he likes it that way. His average life gets disrupted when his wife Judith (Lennick) wants to divorce him to marry Sy Ableman (Melamed) one of Lawrence's acquaintance. One of Lawrence's students bribes him to pass him in his exam and on Larry's refusal he threatens to disrupt his career. Lawrence's brother Arthur (Kind) is staying with him and is proving to be a burden to the family. Lawrence's son Danny (Wolff) is secretly purchasing gramophone records without his knowledge which are costing him a bomb. These are just a few things that haunt Lawrence's life which make it anything close to being average. The movie is a regular life and lies of an American immigrant. The Jewish aspect might be a nice addition but wasn't played into very deep. It has a very ambiguous end and the movie on a whole is nothing really entertaining. Watchable, but yet avoidable.
Thumbs up: Michael Stuhlbarg
Thumbs down: Boring plot
Rating: 6.2/10
Average Movies,
Comedy,
Drama,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 4:25 AM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl
A Russian crime syndicate by the name Vory V Zakone, is based in London is and headed by Semyon (Mueller-Stahl). Anna (Watts) is a young nurse working at a hospital whose father was Russian. A young 14 year old girl dies in her hospital giving birth to a baby girl. The girl entrusts Anna with a diary, which tells Anna the secrets of why she is in such a condition. Not knowing Russian, she approaches Semyon, whose visiting card was there inside the diary, to interpret the diary. She meets Semyon's son Kirill (Cassel) and his chauffeur Nikolai (Mortensen) and half realises that they are in some way responsible for the condition of the young pregnant woman. Nikolai develops a soft-corner for her and tries to do whatever he can within his control to help her. Things get from bad to worse and Anna soon realises that she is stuck deep with the Russian mafia. The movie puts on an average show which has a lot of scope for further improvement. Better performances, barring Viggo Mortensen and some better plot execution could have helped the movie a lot. The movie proudly states 'from the director of A History of Violence' and I'm not sure if that is a good idea.
Thumbs up: Viggo Mortensen without a doubt
Thumbs down: Weak plot execution
Rating: 6.1/10
Average Movies,
Crime,
Drama,
Thriller,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:11 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Comedy
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
How does it feel to have a fortune of money but yet no home? Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is just that kind of guy and he loves his life. His house is up, up in the air in an aeroplane. Travelling 323 days in a year is no joke but he loves his well-synchronised routine and cant ask for anything better. He fires people for a living on behalf of company bosses who don't have the guts to do it. His own boss has a new MBA recruit who wants to cut down on the costs agents such as Ryan incur with all their travelling and proposes to conduct the lay-offs via video conferencing. Ryan is disappointed with Natalie's (Kendrick) proposal and feels as if he has been kicked out of his home, which in a way he has. He wants to prove that Natalie is wrong and people cannot be fired over the Internet and hence decides to take her along in his nation-wide tour. Ryan has a very mechanical lifestyle and prefers to stay away from relationships of any kind, be it family or love. He hooks up with Alex (Farmiga) whose life is similar to his and they both spend the night together whenever they are in the same city. Natalie and Ryan spend a lot of time together and get know each other. Each one shares delicate aspects of their lives with the other and they slowly watch their life transform in front of them. Although the movie may sound very typical, it is difficult to judge the outcome. The movie starts off on the right foot and somewhere before the half-way mark it loses focus which it only regains towards the end. The performances are stunning with George Clooney being the spectacular person that he is. The movie does feel a little slow and longer than its actual run time, but is a good watch overall and is not to be missed.
Thumbs up: Mr. Clooney
Thumbs down: The middle 45-odd minutes being slow
Rating: 7.7/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:54 AM
Genre: Action/Adventure/Thriller/Drama/Mystery
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Ed Harris, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Helen Mirren
Continuing on the success of National Treasure, Ben Gates (Cage) is once again determined to break down priceless pieces of historical art to hunt for hidden treasures. Ben's great-grandfather was accused of conspiring in the murder of Abraham Lincoln by Mitch Wilkinson (Harris), something which Ben does not believe in and is determined to prove wrong. His determination to prove his ancestor innocent, puts him on the trail of the City of Lost Gold, a supposedly fictitious place which has a huge stockpile of gold. Along with his friends from the previous movie, Abigail (Kruger) and Riley (Bartha) and accompanied by his father Patrick (Voight) and mother Emily (Mirren) they search for mind-boggling clues that can lead them to this treasure. Breaking into the Tower of London, searching for clues in the White House Oval Office and kidnapping the United States president, their adventure is not what someone can call, a smooth ride. If you like the previous version than this one does not give you any reason to hate. However, if the first installment didn't go down your throat, this one wont either. The movie gives an interesting perspective towards popular historical artifacts which gives you the urge to personally examine them to see if what the movie says is genuinely true. The light inputs of humour are a relief and help make the movie more watchable.
Thumbs up: Gripping adventurous story
Thumbs down: On almost similar lines as the previous movie
Rating: 7.2/10
Action,
Adventure,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Mystery,
Thriller,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:19 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Marsden, Joan Allen, James Garner, Gena Rowlands
Romance movies have a very typical and cliched story lines with a happy ending. Once a while there comes a movie which goes beyond the convention to give us something we fall in love with all our life. Noah (Gosling) is a poor young lad from the country who falls in love with Allie (McAdams) a girl from an affluent family who has come to the country on a vacation. Her mother Anne (Allen) despises this relationship and takes Allie back to New York, and disrupts all forms of communication between them. Years later, Allie enlists herself as an army nurse and soon falls in love with Lon Hammond (Marsden) and is all set to marry him. It has been years since Noah and Allie have not met and they each think that their love for each other is long dead, but an instance makes Allie remember Noah and this time she finds it very hard to forget him. One fateful visit changes everything in their life. An undead love suddenly jumps back to life, a crazy childish love that they both thought never existed. The movie would typically appeal to young girls in particular who would go 'awww...' with every passing moment. The story has a beautiful and enchanting climax, which could have been slightly better but is not actually bad the way it is. A must watch for stupidly in love couples and gives the guys some nice ideas to woe your loved ones.
Thumbs up: Amazing story
Thumbs down: A bit improved climax
Rating: 7.5/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
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