Silver Linings Playbook

I can’t believe I just saw a movie unlike any other I have seen in a long time !

I am not mentioning anything about the movie per se, I am not explaining the plot for anyone that would simply rob the pleasure of seeing this outstanding movie.

It is a great yet simple movie with emotions playing out all through the movie – positive and negative emotions. The big thing about this movie is that no one knows what is going to happen at the end of the movie. How is the Director going to direct this movie to a conclusion ? What kind of conclusion will that be ? How come some characters in the movie are not fully connecting with each other ? What is going to happen ?

Yes, while it is not a nail-biting finish, the movie indeed builds up a momentum in an otherwise simple story, pushing viewers to make a guess on what is going to happen at the end. Is the hero going to eventually tie up with his unfaithful wife, Nikki ? Is the hero going back to the mental institution from which he was discharged recently ? Are his letters to Nikki going to backfire on him due to the restraining order ? And, so on and so forth.

While as viewers we are working on the solutions for Bradley Cooper, things are moving in a different direction on the screen.

And, that is the magic of this movie.

I really enjoyed seeing this movie, and while I was walking out of this movie, I had nothing but a pleasant sensation. It was a rather “fulfilling” movie, so to say.

See it ! That’s all I can say !!

Far better than the Bollywood stuff that we end up seeing all the time.

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
26th Feb 2013
Mumbai

Tower Heist

When you wish to relax for a few moments, nothing like watching a Ben Stiller or a Eddie Murphy comedy.

So, when I turned on the TV on Saturday evening, I was pleased to see both of them in a movie called “Tower Heist”.

I enjoyed the action-packed movie, which was nothing out of the ordinary. I am not going to tell the storyline out here in this post, but suffice to say that it is an “action comedy”, with lots of dialogues popping in once Eddie Murphy joins the “swindled” team as the “consultant” or more aptly, the guy who is going to help steal money from the swindler……….

With Eddie Murphy, one has got to be double quick to grasp what he is saying with so many words coming out in such a very short time ! Even if you have subtitles rolling on the screen, it is still difficult to catch his words accurately. But I did, and enjoyed every moment of his fast outbursts especially in the scenes with Ben Stiller acting as the recipient of Murphy’s torrent.

All in all, this is a smart and neat movie with hardly any violence or obscenity. Fast moving sometimes, it captures your attention right from the word go. Not necessarily an award-winning movie, but all the same quite entertaining.

At least, when you wish to get a few moments of relaxation.

I am not giving any rating to this movie ! It is generally enjoyable, so see it !!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
26th January 2013
Mumbai

Skyfall

I saw the latest Bond movie “Skyfall” today.

Overall it was a decent movie, but I don’t think it deserves the big accolades being showered on it for being the best and most innovative Bond movie ever.

In fact, the movie goes so slow at some parts that I felt rather sleepy, which is a first for a Bond movie that I have seen. This means it was boring and long-winded and challenges the viewers to figure out what was going on in the movie for themselves. In my view, the movie was disjointed at several places – not an editor’s fault though. It was a deliberate ploy by the director to bring some heaviness into the movie, making sure that Bond appears to be a loser, having previously lost a battle on top of a train.

I think this movie shows the human and weak sides of Bond as well as “M”. As a long time Bond movie lover, I don’t like that – I always knew that Bond movies are of the escapist variety. They are there purely for driving the adrenalin levels through you when you watch them, with rapid fire action and some subtle humour. When the director decides to change the Bond movie philosophy, he is obviously taking a big risk of alienating most loyalists.

However, Sam Mendes, the director has taken some bold bets in Skyfall. I am not sure I like those bets, but I remain a Bond loyalist for some escapist pleasure. Skyfall has some tense moments, some well shot fast-action sequences (like in all Bond movies), but it has its weak moments as well.

Apparently, my family liked the movie……and also all of my son’s friends who happened to come for the movie show. So, the initial action sequence and then the one chasing the bad guy seem to have captured the fascination of folks. However, I believe that Bond and “M” cannot afford to be emotional and human. And, part of the mystique of Bond is that nutty grin on his face when he arrives at M’s office which is missing in this movie. Bond appears to be frail and fragile in this movie against his determined opponent, who, unfortunately happens to be an erstwhile agent like 007. Not really one of those bad guys out there trying to blow up the world.

Worth seeing because it belongs to the Bond series, but definitely not the best Bond movie ever !

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
10th November 2012
Mumbai

English Vinglish Movie

Once in a while, I get a rare request from my wife to join her for watching a movie in a theatre (I keep getting comments about how my blog is full of spelling mistakes, I was surprised at first and later realized that the comments came from America! For the attention of my readers, I use English English, not the American English while writing, as I have been brought up in that tradition!! Nothing wrong with American English which tries to save some letters and reduce the length of words, but I would rather stick to what I have learnt. Hence I have to keep “adding” to the Dictionary in Microsoft Word quite often, as otherwise normal English spelling is underlined with red ink!!!).

So, this time my wife’s suggestion was to go and see “English Vinglish” a very recent movie shot almost entirely in New York, with Sri Devi as the lead actress (she is a famous actress but did not act in movies for the past 15 years). What a terrific comeback for her to the movies!

While there is not much of a story content in “English Vinglish”, the message conveyed is very powerful – that we often tend to be judgemental in our relationships with our immediate family members, and take them for granted. We typecast and stereotype our own loving folks into silos from which they are unable to break free in the normal course of our lives.

What a pity?!

Especially when the person who we are casually “denigrating” is our own mother.

This movie forces us to think through carefully and even assign an “economic value” to our mothers and wives – it is not surprising that the Indian Government is now thinking of imposing a salary requirement on husbands whose wives work at home, meaning these husbands who benefit by the home work done by their wives need to pay them a salary.

Well, that is not the key point. The main point is that if our mom does not know English, that is not the end of the world and there is no need for us to feel shy and ashamed. In fact, we must make attempt to teach our moms basic English so that they could handle themselves comfortably in the presence of English-only strangers, or while travelling abroad, or even while meeting sophisticated English-speaking rich parents at their daughter’s school (as shown in this movie).

The movie reminds me of the TV Series “Mind Your Language” which was hilarious. While the English teaching classes in “English Vinglish” were not so hilarious, there is enough reason to laugh out at some of the outbursts of the attendees and the idiosyncracies of the teacher.

Overall, Sri Devi has done a commendable job in this movie, and her speech at the wedding reception was an amazing display of a measured actress with immense skills. All the best to the revival of her acting career (though her face looks a bit artificial in this movie, don’t know why).

This is an important addition to the Bollywood genre of movies, authored and directed by a relatively unknown director from the advertising world. Worth seeing with your moms!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
13th October 2012
Mumbai

The Holiday

If you wish to see a very nice movie with no violence and also, no surprises whatsoever, then “The Holiday” movie would be a good choice.

It is about organized home-swapping between two women who go through different life experiences, which all end well at the close of the movie. In that way, it is a movie with what we call a “good” ending, and we all feel good that we have indeed seen a good movie.

The movie in itself is a rather simplistic one with the story line unfolding in front of us in the most predictable manner. There is obviously no thrill of a car chase, things move rather languidly. Sometimes, it does make sense, as life is not about car chases or espionage anyway. We encounter normal people as we would in normal lives, and things happen in the expected way.

The cast for the movie is well chosen – Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, all act in an effortless manner, melding well with the storyline and the characters.

There is of course, no complexity in the story which would make one sit up and contemplate various outcomes, so do not expect much from this movie either.

In a nutshell, The Holiday is an enjoyable movie for a late-nighter, with a pleasant story and expected finish. Enjoy it !

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
11th August 2012
Mumbai

Imagining Argentina

I was touched deeply by this movie.

This movie is about the kidnappings, torture and killings in Argentina between 1976 and 1983 by the official military. Ordinary Argentinians were murdered mercilessly for holding an opinion different from that of the military rulers.

Antonio Banderas and Emma Thompson deliver outstanding performances in this absorbing movie. Like in most despotic regimes, alternate thoughts are expressed via theater conducted by Banderas. Hiw wife is kidnapped and tortured, the same fate befalls his daughter as well.

The key turning point in the movie is the acquisition of psychic powers by Banderas which gives him the ability to foresee what is going to happen. The military obviously does not like such “powers”. But Banderas perseveres and keeps moving on with his life while rendering assistance to many mothers who wanted to know what happened to their sons and daughters.

It is tough to learn that nearly 30,000 people disappeared during those miserable years (what were the global institutions such as the United Nations doing ?). I do not understand Latin America or the history behind all their dictatorships, but torturing your own citizens should have been prohibited, right ? Wrong – it appears to be legitimate government action even today.

Such movies remind us of the importance of freedom and liberty. Hopefully, the few countries which still practice war against their own citizens would learn that it is not a worthwhile practice and they will be eventually brought to book.

See the movie !

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
5th August 2012
Mumbai

War Horse

This is probably the best world war movie that I have seen (OK, that’s after Pearl Harbour and Saving Private Ryan) – and this is the first world war.

War Horse is a Steven Spielberg movie, so the expectation was high. He did not disappoint, though I was surprised with some of the movie reviews that I read.

War Horse is a wonderful movie, full of human emotions and the relationship between animal and man. The actors and the magnificent war settings were outstanding, nothing short of world-class quality. Amazing action scenes kept me fixated on the movie.

The horse that is a key character in this movie is one amazing animal, which deserves an Oscar for its performance. It survives the worst situations of the war, including its severe entanglement in barbed wire. The scene when a British soldier collaborates with a German soldier to un-entangle the horse is truly touching.

The friendship between Albert and Joey (the horse) is unbelievable and depicted very well on screen. Albert follows the horse into the world war in France and the ultimate meeting of the two brings agony to the heart.

Albert finally manages to win Joey back from the French farmer and takes it back to England. The message is clear – war is a waste of time and if man can be friends with animal, why not men be friends amongst themselves ? Why fight and spill blood ?

I enjoyed this movie – see it ! Any day, it is time better spent than watching a Bollywood movie. Hey, watch out – don’t hit me, this is my own thought. Make time to see good movies like these as well.

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
7th July 2012
Mumbai

The Amazing Spider-Man

Children usually persuade parents for an early attendance to see their favourite movies.

In this case, it was a bit different – a couple of friends’ families wanted to go together to see “The Amazing Spider-Man”, and my family decided to go along. My son, of course, was most excited.

Though this was a 3D movie, I did not see many reasons to use the 3D goggles, except in a few scenes when it was really good to use the goggles (it has always been a bit difficult for me as I have to wear the large goggles on top of my spectacles).

My rating for this movie is not going to be above 6.5 Stars on a scale of 1 to 10. I prefer the more humane touch of the Spider Man in the previous movie series. This new one obviously is different from that famous series. One is reminded of bio-terrorism in several ways. We get put off by these famous doctors working in high tech labs, who are trying to prolong lives or grow human organs. What if something goes wrong ? It always does in such movies, as it does in this Spider Man movie.

The actors, while they are good, fall short of the previous cast of actors. Andrew Garfield is no match for Tobey Maguire, while he might be fresh-faced with a question mark hanging on his head and face all the time. The director of the original series, I believe, did a much better job in capturing the Spider Man philosophy and ethos and converted that into one of the best movie franchises ever. He might have focused more on the comic character, than on the actual human, but that was inevitable. The evolution of the movie sequel and the story-telling capability of the previous director has not been matched by the new director – may be he will do better in the next one !

The Spider Man versus the Lizard in this new movie was a bit unpalatable, as the Lizard was not evil enough probably, and lent itself to a quicker destruction than in other movies which would have depicted a long-standing fight. If the intent of the Lizard is the complete destruction of the Spider Man, then that intent is not coming through ferociously in the movie actions.

Further, if the serum invented by Dr Connors at Oscorp is good enough for growing human limbs, with his long duration of research, Dr Connors would also have known of its side effects. I could not understand why he should be totally surprised that the serum had undesirable side effects and made him into a lizard with a funny tail, which grows when the Spider Man manages to cut it off

Well, well, we are not kids and we are not going to be taken aback. This movie is a much awaited one (as is all sequels of famous movie franchise, though this is not an official sequel to Spider Man), especially made for children. So, let me not say much against it (!) as my son is going to read this post (!!). It is a good time killer though, ha ha !!!

If you have time on a Sunday morning, and if there are good folks to spend time with, then it is not a bad idea to go and see the movie, right ?

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
1st July 2012
Mumbai

Downfall

This movie is about the last 10 days in the life of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.

For anyone (and that includes everyone I guess) who wishes to understand Hitler and the people around him, who collectively caused the death and massacre of some 50M people, this is an important movie – it is a second world war movie, very well directed and shot. It is an absorbing movie as seen through the eyes of a young woman, who was hired as Hitler’s secretary in 1945.

What drove Hitler to make those monumental errors in judgement during the war (the war could have prolonged had it not been for those errors and disobedience of his generals) ? Why was he rendered useless as a leader by people who were actually close to him ? Why was he such a charismatic leader of people – was he really so charismatic or all of that was a carefully archestrated illusion ? Why did people worship him ? What led to the downfall of Berlin ?

These and many other questions might find some answers in this movie. I have to point out that the actor (Bruno Ganz) who performed as Hitler was outstanding – he probably got into the skin of Hitler so well that one tends to conclude that the match of the character with the actor was almost impeccable. He brings out the fact that Hitler was not some animal, he was actually a pretty sensitive human being – many viewers may not like this kind of portrayal though. Hitler’s senility and loss of touch with reality has been depicted rather well.

I am not going to do a psycho-analysis here – what I thought about this movie is that it is a pretty accurate depiction of the last few days in the life of one of the most important criminals of the 20th Century – it might not show why he ordered the murder of millions of innocent Jews, why he waged a war and was responsible for the deaths of millions of young Germans and Russians, why ultimately he decided not to leave Berlin and not to surrender to the Allies, why he surrounded himself with some of the worst criminals in the history of mankind, etc., The fact though is that Adolf Hitler was a dictator with a criminal mind and a mass murderer. But it is also important to see how he interacted with his close circle of people, those who admired him, and those who feared him. This movie brings out some of the traits of the man – mankind will benefit in studying the brain of someone like him who could again come by in this world and we should very carefully eliminate any chances for a third world war which could only be caused by deranged minds.

World today is protected by multi-lateral institutions such as the United Nations (which sometimes does not act soon enough), but the key thing is the ability to intervene and stop massacre. The inability of the United Nations (which did not exist during Hitler’s time) to stop the murder of innocent people around the world, the latest example being that of Syria, calls for further development of global institutions with different models which can protect global citizens irrespective of their national affiliations.

But the movie is worth watching – every minute of it is highly absorbing.

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
24th June 2012
Mumbai

The Descendants

I had been to Hawaii some 15 years ago – stayed at Maui and drove around. It is an amazing place for tourists, even for those from mainland U.S. Natural beauty dominates the islands and while maximum efforts have been taken to maintain the pristine beauty, it is difficult to sometimes distinguish the city areas from any U.S. city. Beautiful golf courses, miles of ocean front homes, blue seas, and volcanoes…….what can one ask for more of all these ?

The Descendants is a movie entirely shot in Hawaii and it is about Hawaii – huge tracts of land that was going to be sold to a property developer. It is a complex movie with several unfortunate occurrences impinging on our hero, George Clooney. Clooney has delivered an excellent performance as a father, a husband and a land trustee. There are no “outsiders” in this movie – all the actors are more or less from the same family, it appears – all cousins, brothers, grandpas, et al !

While the story is a bit sad with the wife on death bed, the two daughters giving much trouble, the land deal getting into some trouble, etc., the worst moment for the husband Clooney comes when his elder daughter reveals that his wife had been having an affair with someone. Wrong time, heard from the wrong person and not revealed by even the closest friends of Clooney – how disastrous ?

Clooney deals with all these stuff in somewhat of a non-emotional frame of mind, though occasionally he shows tinges of emotion. He does not show anger easily, though vulgarities abound all around him – from his own daughters. He has to deal with a difficult father-in-law who thinks he shortchanged his daughter, concentrating more on money than a peaceful life. It all appears to be too much, but Clooney deals with it all the same, sometimes in a nonchalant manner, having been used to the rantings and admonitions from his father-in-law for a long time, for example.

This is a good movie, with complexity in its story line, keeping the viewers in some kind of suspension as to how the director is going to end the movie. It has very nice Hawaiian music in the background, and good scenery. It has good actors, including the daughters who do well for their characters, though they could have used less number of expletives.

The eventual migration to maturity for the daughters after the death of their mother, and the integration with the father who had been not so involved with their lives till now, have been depicted rather well in the Western family context. I was trying to imagine the implications and repercussions of a similar scenario in the Indian context – my Bollywood imagination ran riot and the result was that the wife gets up from her death bed when Clooney mutters his good byes in one of the moving moments of the movie ! Well, there will surely be songs running around the trees and the beaches in a similar Bollywood movie – that’s absolutely sure ! The first daughter’s emotional maturity towards accepting her father as the eventual solace in her life all the more so when she had previously been devastated by her mom’s unfaithful conduct, has been guided well by the director, Alexander Payne.

Overall, a good movie not to be missed.

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

23rd June 2012

Mumbai