My Movie Rack

Resurrecting the Champ [2007]

rishikanta — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:51:45 +0000

Second movie I watched today (first one Son of Rambow). Anyway, this is one of the not-so-good-movies, but-you-can-watch-just-once type. The story is good though, just the way they carried it out isn’t good enough. The tagline reads “Based on a true story, that was based on a lie”. The movie is about a newspaper reporter (Josh Hartnett) on the downhill who thinks he’s got an article piece that will help him put back on top. Instead he finds out about lies, and betrayals, and the sad world of journalism and showbiz. The article is the story of a famous boxer (Samuel Jackson), back in the old days, who now everyone thinks is dead, but instead he’s been living in the streets unknown to everybody and eating off scrap foods. And the reporter wants to show that true champions may be down, but not out.

The movie goes through some interesting turn of events, and some pretty nice words and thoughts, especially the one at the end when Josh thinks about his father,who left him, and then his six-year old son. The main theme about fatherhood, trust, families, love, truth… and so on, are good, but the movie could have been done a lot better.

The Love Guru [2008]

rishikanta — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:22:47 +0000

The Love Guru

Guru Pitka (Mike Myers) is not your ordinary guru, he who has taken vow to a life of celebacy until he learns to love himself, goes on to give love to others, and also teach others to love themselves. As a child he wanted to be a ‘guru’ so that girls will like him, and then he will start liking himself. He starts an organisation called “Ecumental Intuitive Enlightenment Iniative Organisation” or EIEIO (or ee-ai-ee-ai-oh ). He likes people to call him ‘GURU’ (Gee yoU aRe yoU). He believes in the ’BIBLE’ (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth). He has written books on life-lessons like, “I Know You Are, but What Am I”, “If You Are Happy And You Know It, Think Again”. Now he has to help an Ice Hockey player Darren Roanoke, a rising star whose life is suddenly spiralling down when he found out his wife Prudence was cheating on him with another Ice Hockey player, whose name is Jacques “Le Coq” Grande. He puts Roanoke through a training session called ‘DRAMA’ (Distraction Regression Adjustment Maturity Action). Through the session, the guru himself also learns lots of things on “loving himself” and “loving others”, (others in his case includes the beautiful lady who is the manager of Roanoke’s hockey team, who also happens to believe she is cursed). However, these so called Life-lessons are not the ones you should be learning, it would just leave you laughing at yourself, or making others laugh at you.

Mike Kyers is just his usual self, what he was in the Austin Power series. The movie is hilarious, and the story is what it should be: a no-sense movie. And it’s not for kids.

Sin City [2005]

rishikanta — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:08:56 +0000

Sin City

Its name is Sin City, and it is full of ruthless people with no rules and no boundaries and they don’t give a shit about what you think. It is a place where crime has reached such a height that even the police are afraid to go there, let alone take steps to stop these criminals. The city is ruled by mindless mob bosses and corrupt officials whose only dream would be to ‘own the city’. There are the beautiful women you might think would be unsafe in such a place, but you take a good look at them and then you are left wondering what has happened to ‘man’-kind. And in this place, there are lots of people with a history behind them which can make you shudder even at the thought of coming across their way. There is a guy who wouldn’t die until he has taken his ‘long and sweet’ revenge on the man who killed his woman, a prostitute who gave him the ‘night of his life’. There is a corrupt police officer who hits on women, and then one day crosses his paths with an ex-convict who happens to fancy one of the women ‘owned’ by the officer. There is a cruel son-of-senator who takes pleasure only in ‘exploiting’ young innocent girls. And there are only a few guys who have guts enough to take on these people. There is also an old honest cop on the verge of retirement, both from duty and his own life, and his relationship with a young girl who he has vowed to keep safe from the unkind hands of SinCity.

Frank Miller captured the grueling and dark sides of this hell-on-earth place and has put it in a way that no such movies could be done in any better way. Everything in the movie is as dark as can be, the graphic novel style and the presence of only two colors throughout the movie – red and yellow in addition to black and white, gives the eeriest feeling imaginable. And the script and dialogues are none like any other, it will make you think why there are only a few geniuses. Movies wouldn’t easily get better than this.

Felon [2008]

rishikanta — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:04:44 +0000

Felon

The movie is about a happily married man who is wrongly accused of muder and gets thrown into a state prison. Things only get worse from there, what with all corrupt police officers, vain cops, mindless criminals, and the wrong side of prison politics. The man gets charged with all wrongs accuses, and then he starts losing it. However, he does find a good friend in Val Kilmer, inside the prison. The story is quite captivating and thrills nicely too. Hell, I was even left wondering if the stuffs they have shown happends for real. Few days ago,I had read about prison guards sexually harassing women inmates in US Jails, courtesy The Times of India, Aug 13, p 20.

This movie is nice whether it’s reality or not. The small amount of action they added is a bonus feature, and the actors as the criminals look pretty much like mindless criminals, really. The story also goes on in a smooth and continuos flow, helps you forget that you sat for a pretty good one and half hour.

Son of Rambow [2008]

rishikanta — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:01:22 +0000

Son of Rambow

Well, this is one of the few good British movies. The story is pretty well put, though it’s somewhat not that much exciting. The acting is all very amatuer type, but it does suit with the theme. Common, it’s about some kids who saw “Rambo:First Blood”, and then decide they wanna be like him, or at least like him in a movie. So, they go on making a movie about the son of Rambo, when Rambo gets captured, and they wanna win an entry to kids filmaking awards. So, what better way to make the film than in a childlike, kinda amateur-ish type.

The main theme of the film is about friendship, family values, and the dreams that everyone has when they were kids. The film is nicely done, it’s shot nicely and the kids have done a great job. The comedy elements are pretty funny, and at the same time, makes you wander back to your childhood days in a touching manner. However, it’s also pretty much what all British movies are like, they are ‘strange’, and as a result not all are patient enough to watch them. The problem lies in the fact that the movie doesn’t carry itself in a very captivating style, not much comedy, not much drama, and not much action also. Instead, it goes on slowly, and gives you enough time to think what’s happening. So, if you are in a kinda happy and retrospective mood, you will like the film. Otherwise, you might just pass it as an average movie. I do give a 7/10 for this movie.

Hellboy II – The Golden Army [2008]

rishikanta — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:57:46 +0000

Hellboy II

Great graphics, amazing animation effects, awesome designing, and beautiful layouts are the highlights of Hellboy 2, a very nice sequel to Hellboy from 2004. Although, there are some things like a not-so-good story, some poor acting and a plot that comes up short on everything.

For those who came in late, Hellboy is a “creature” that was rescued by US armies back in the times of the Second World War. He is a demonic creature but he is on the good side, maybe that’s the American side, but anyway it doesn’t make a difference. He works for a secret government facility, doing chores for some guys who research on extraordinary creatures, neither man nor beast. All he does is help capture these visually stunning creatures who are bent on disturbing the peace and order on earth.

Seriously, the plot isn’t much different from the first movie, I liked the previous one more. It’s the same old hero who saves the world in the end of the day, who is personally having problems in his relationships, who faces an acceptance problem from the society just because he looks different (read devilish, in his case), and yes, who doesn’t care what other people think. This time he has to save the world, and humankind from an army of indestructible golden soldiers who were once almost responsible for wiping the human race from the face of the earth. This golden army was designed to help the animal kingdom fight off humans, but a generous king of the animal kingdom realized that it was a force too powerful and dangerous, and so he’d decided to keep the army locked away. However, his son has different plans. He hates humans and does not believe in their promise of peace. And so, he goes againts his own father and decides to take control of the indestructible army. And then starts a fight between the good, the bad and the worst.

The only things they have done considerably better is in the graphics and designing. There is a huge variety of creatures on the animal kingdom who look fantastically unrealistic, but amazing at the same time. The action got bigger and better. Even Liz (Hellboy’s girlfriend) and Abe (his sidekick) looks way better than the first movie. Only things missing are a compelling story and a tight script. If you are prepared to be amazed by what computer graphics can do, go watch it.