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Reviews
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Entertaining
The casting coup, though not quite matching up to K3G, would still draw big crowds. Hopping onto the bandwagon is Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich), the flavour of the year 2000.
The movie is a re-make of a 1960s one with same name, starring the 'Ratpack' led by Frank Sinatra. In short, the story deals with eleven men joining hands to loot three casinos in Las Vegas (where else?). The plot and cast arousing a good deal of interest, Soderbergh wouldn't need to worry about marketing.
After an initial good pace, the movie slightly slows down and then picks up steam in the second half. The planning and execution of the robbery are impressive, with some surprises and subtle humour packed in. Some glaring loop-holes and cliches in the screenplay become forgivable.
Clooney strides his part like a king, while Pitt is stylish. The rest are adequate in their small roles. Soderbergh maintains his trademark slick and realistic narration, aided by intelligent editing.
Overall, an enjoyable movie, enhanced by the presence of big stars.
The Cell (2000)
Visually stunning
This Hollywood movie is known in this country more for the director of Indian origin. The curiosity value increases further with this being his debut.
The movie is about entering the mind of a psychopath to rescue one of his potential victims, using a VR-like sci-fi method. The story itself is uncomplicated, but what sets it apart are the stunning visuals.
Art direction, cinematography, special effects and editing shed their boundaries and merge to provide something not really viewed before. In the twisted mind of a schizophrenic, everything cannot be pleasant though. The background score is suitably haunting.
The acting is just fine. Singh seems to have fully understood the power of the medium and takes over the proceedings. Another notable aspect is the absolute dearth of Hollywood formulae.
When the movie ends, one gets the feeling of leaving an alternate world and it also sets off a thought process.
Legally Blonde (2001)
Good time-pass
This is a movie with no big stars but only a few known faces. But romantic comedy is a hugely successful Hollywood formula and rarely does it let the audience down.
The story is about a blonde who tries to prove the people who belittle her intellectual capabilities wrong, by taking up law at Harvard University. The interesting plot is well-enhanced with a lot of fun-poking at blondes and a bit at lawyers. Added to it are the regular dose of melodrama and a couple of interesting court-room scenes.
Reese Witherspoon (Best Laid Plans) carries the entire movie on her frail shoulders, in style. All the other characters just move in and out of the scenes.
The movie moves along with hardly any room for boredom, though the end is pretty cliched.
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001)
Nothing much beyond the stars
This movie needs absolutely no introduction, being touted as one of the most expected Bollywood movies ever. With three superstars sharing the screen for the first time and a director with a highly successful debut movie behind him, that is only understandable.
The story revolves closely around the six principal characters, with a lot of melodrama. The Yash Chopra 90s kind of story-telling is taken to new heights, becoming a bit too artificial and illogical for the audience to digest.
Kajol and to an extent, Kareena walk off with the top acting honours, despite the presence of the three big male stars. Amitabh is superb in the climax scene while Shah Rukh seems to be working on his emotional scenes. Jaya's role is quite small for her potential; she shines in subdued reactions.
Everything about the movie is grand and that is done impeccably. The music is quite average in spite of busting the charts, with just one song ("Suraj Hua Maddham") rising above the stereotypes atleast in the aspect of picturisation.
Overall, the movie has hardly anything new to offer when it comes to content. It's worth watching only for the huge star cast.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Another brilliant movie from Spielberg
This movie is based on a short story written about three decades ago, and raised quite a bit of expectations as it involved a collaboration between the late Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, Eyes Wide Shut) and Spielberg.
As is obvious from the name and promos, the movie deals with a robot equipped with an advanced form of artificial intelligence, that of giving and expecting love. What better way to do it than with a kid!
And who better currently than Osment (The Sixth Sense) to play that role! The boy scales amazing heights, even being able to show measured emotions just like a robot would. Law steals the show in a cameo appearance.
The movie manages to bring up various relevant questions and pointers about the future, for which a special round of applause is warranted. Towards the end, the viewers' heart-strings are tugged at strongly. However, the pace is mostly slow.
Needless to say of a Spielberg movie, the technical standards are simply brilliant, even as the background score lends able support. His obsession with fairy tales continues, this time around with Pinocchio.
This movie is certainly not of the futuristic thriller commercial genre. It provides an interesting peek into the future, in Spielberg's mastery laced with Kubrick's off-beat ideas.
Aalavandhan (2001)
Interesting with exemplary technical stuff
Warning: I have viewed this movie only in Tamil. Telugu and Hindi movie-goers are expected to add a pinch of salt while reading further.
This is one of the most hyped-up movies ever in Indian movie history. When people begin to wonder if it can live upto the hype, the movie reveals the calculated gradual publicity built up over the months. In case you haven't watched and read enough on television and the Web, do so immediately to comprehend the movie better.
The basic story is nothing new, but the movie delves to a large extent into the dark recesses of the psychopathic mind of Nandu. We get to view the real-plus-imaginary world inhabited by this schizophrenic character "with paranoid delusions", courtesy special effects and animation. All this happens even as an engaging action thriller unfolds on the screen. The delusion and flashback portions seem to slow down the pace. Many scenes involving Nandu send a chill down your spine, though the language and violence, at times, seems unfit for children.
While the commando operation in the beginning and the relationship between the lead pair remind of you Hollywood movies, the designer clothes worn by the antagonist and sponsor promotion towards the end are true Bollywood 'ishtyle'. What you get is a curious mix of cliches and innovations.
Kamal Haasan plays the negative character alternating between style and realism, though things seem to get repetitive. The other character of an NSG major seems much like the real-life Kamal, mouthing anti-religious remarks and sporting a unique lifestyle. Raveena manages to hold her own while Manisha is good despite appearing only in a few scenes. The dubbing for both of them seems odd on a few occasions. Talented actors like Gunaji and Gidwani seem wasted in roles with few scenes and little potential.
No stone has been left unturned when it comes to the technical aspects of the movie like art direction, cinematography, editing, sound effects and visual effects; but the computer graphics is found wanting sometimes. Double role picturisation has possibly never been better, even in Hollywood, though those movies rarely employ an actor portraying two roles. The attention to detail is also stunning.
The songs blend seamlessly with the movie, beyond expectations -- the title track serves as the background for a chase sequence and still manages to come out good! But this certainly isn't another Dil Chahta Hai for Shankar-Ehsaan Loy. The background score might seem mediocre at places when viewed in the surroundings of other superior elements. Vairamuthu's lyrics and poems bring out the various dimensions of the complex character. Symbolism is built into the script (done by Kamal Haasan himself) much like Hey Ram, reducing the work of the director.
To sum it up, this is an interesting masala movie, with exemplary techniques and a lot of sensible elements incorporated into it.
Asoka (2001)
Huge disappointment
Historical movies seem to be in vogue again after Lagaan and Gadar - Ek Prem Katha. That also puts on such films the burden of living upto the expectations of the audience. Added to that is the presence of two big stars and the huge hype generated over the months.
Though the public were hoping for a historical account of one of the greatest rulers of our subcontinent, neither is this movie anyway near that nor do the makers claim so. It seems more like the folks behind the movie wanted an interesting plot to make a typical Hindi movie and they went ahead. The 'prologue' announces that certain portions are "fictionalised for dramatic appeal". But what you get is a blatant distortion of history to suit the whims and fancies of the producers and probably the distributors too. Historical movies have been made before with some imaginary portions added for entertainment and with even the basic fictional story set against the backdrop of real history, but none like this.
Shah Rukh tries to tone down his dramatic style of acting, with little effect; the audience rarely get to see the emperor behind the actor. Karriena (spelt as prescribed by the titles) is at ease in her role even as she is one of the selling propositions of the movie itself. Rahul Dev and Hrishita Bhatt have too tiny roles to offer great scope. Danny appears in a different role, though etched without much care. Ajit is adequate in a negative role and for the first time in Hindi. Suraj Balaje, the kid who plays the role of Arya, impresses with his enthusiastic acting.
The combination of Anu Malik and Ranjit Barot (music arranger) yet again produce some interesting sounds and chart-topping music. The disappointment though is that there is no attempt to create music that is suitable to the period of the story. Sandeep Chowta once again seems to indicate his preference for background scores to the regular song-and-dance music routine, with some interesting interludes.
Santosh Sivan hardly requires any special note for his cinematography; you just need to watch it to enjoy it. On the direction side though, it seems like he lost his inspiration, atleast as the movie progressed. Aberrations in the movie include his Malayali influence in some scenes. The depiction of Buddhist teachings in the movie are extremely superficial and never touch the viewer.
Recently, Rediff.com reported a Oriya historian questioning the censors and even Vajpayee and Advani, who had viewed the movie, on how they had allowed such a gross distortion of history to pass. One can't disagree much with him after viewing the movie.
PS: I am extremely shocked to see a high rating for such a movie on IMDb. I guess the international audience who don't know the actual history, were impressed by what they saw, not knowing how much of the real history has been disfigured by this movie. Watch the movie, but don't believe it.
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Funny
The movie is based on Helen Fielding's novel, but the story-line is nothing novel, and in fact reminiscent of Picture Perfect. But the focus here is on the spinsterhood of the sulking heroine.
The plot gives ample scope for humour and it is exploited fully by the cast and crew. The difference is that the movie is set in the UK and hence accomplishes a unique marriage of British humour and Hollywood film-making.
Zellweger does her role to perfection in all aspects, while the others are adequate. Grant takes a break from his "nice guy" stereotype. The soundtrack might be worth buying.
You can be assured of a good time if you don't expect too much of the usual mushy stuff. Don't bother about the diary; it's there just to keep things interesting.
A Knight's Tale (2001)
A good ride...
Hollywood has looked upto British history often, probably since American history by itself is relatively short. This movie is a fictional account of the medieval times when knights were revered even in other parts of Europe.
The story is fairly straightforward, dealing with a commoner who aspires to be a knight. In spite of the regular emotional and love angles, this movie stands out since it packs a heavy dose of humour. For a sample, how do you fancy people of those times singing and dancing to contemporary pop music?
Ledger (The Patriot) plays his role with ease while Sossamon just serves the romantic purpose. Sewell is probably a good villain prospect.
As an audience, we get to relive those interesting times, particularly the thrilling sport of jousting, in two hours of good fun (though crude occasionally). One is reminded of Evolution, which also took the lighter route. Anyway, hats off to the writer / director for the different approach!
Swordfish (2001)
Exciting
What do you expect in an action flick today? Guns (including rocket launchers), car chases, gadgets (of the computer kind preferably) and possibly girls.You get all that and much more here.
The story involves advanced computer hacking using worms, international terrorism and of course, the FBI. The narration is racy, in spite of some hackneyed and exaggerated 'masala' portions. Also, there are some explicit language and situations which add to the action.
Excellent cinematography and special effects take the viewer right into the middle of some action sequences. Travolta excels as usual in his negative role. Jackman is comfortable playing a character with various shades of grey, while Berry and Cheadle don't have significant roles.
Terrorism assumes new dimensions in the wake of the happenings in today's world, which this movie certainly didn't venture to touch upon in a great depth. Nevertheless, a good entertainer for a weekend evening.
Chandni Bar (2001)
Good documentation of beer-bar dancers' lives
Thanks to the plethora of movie and music channels, the 'non-commercial' movies of today get enough and sometimes, extra publicity. Hyderabad Blues gave some distributors the confidence to venture out with such movies.
As is obvious from the title of the movie and from the promos on TV channels, the story revolves around the central character, Mumtaz, and her life and times as a "beer-bar" dancer. Rather than just narrating one particular story, the movie tries to document the misery in the lives of such people.
Hats off to Madhur Bhandarkar for boldly doing a movie the way he wanted to do it. The movie hits you on your face even more than Satya (to which it has drawn comparisons), primarily because of the absence of commercial elements (including songs). The movie is raw yet clean.
But the other half of the credit should go to Tabu, who stakes her claim for a second National Award, with a sensitive portrayal. The only problem is that she tends to maintain a kind of laziness in all her roles. The other actors are adequate and play characters which move in and out of Mumtaz's life. Raju Singh's background score is a good supplement to the movie, though it sounds eerie at times.
This movie is strictly not for entertainment. Just go out and get the satisfaction of watching a good movie.
Evolution (2001)
Thoroughly enjoyable movie
Science fiction movies can be spell-bounding, thrilling or scary. But very rarely do you get humourous ones. This movie intends to be one and succeeds quite well.
Two teachers (Duchovny and Jones) in a small town college in Arizona chance upon a discovery through a fire-man aspirant (Scott). To be brief, they are witness to an alien evolution. The military enters the scene and so does a government scientist (Moore). They team up to see to that "good triumphs over evil" in the end, as usual. If you still can't believe some room for humour here, just take my word.
There are some crude jokes, especially targetting an embarrassingly clumsy Moore. There is the usual love angle, which is half-baked and unnecessary.
Duchovny (X-Files) and Moore (Hannibal, The Lost World) are just adequate; their roles are certainly not upto their potential. Jones (Say It Isn't So) and Scott (American Pie, Dude, Where's My Car?) are the rib-ticklers. Ivan Reitman (of Ghostbusters fame) never lets a dull moment creep in. The special effects are good.
A thoroughly enjoyable movie worth the money, overall.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Visual treat
Visually stunning movie, with an excellent recreation of the times of 200 years ago and graphics. The last half an hour gave me my first gripping edge-of-the-seat experience. Background music score is also excellent and complements the story-telling very well.
American History X (1998)
A lesson on racism
Must-see film on the why, how, what and why not of racism. Powerful performances from both Edwards. Black and white used for flash-back with great effect. Cinematography is excellent, though it sometimes goes overboard because the director is the same person.