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Reviews
I Am Legend (2007)
A good sci-fi thriller.
This sci-fi thriller at first seems to be a perfect copy of 28 Days Later; you can draw striking similarities with it. 28 Days... was based in UK, this is US hence this is visually more appealing and also the special effects are top class. It almost impossible to imagine Manhattan with a single soul, but here we get to see Manhattan where wild animals roam free.
The story of the movie is pretty straight and simple, a virus break out in human race which converts them into monsters and these infected kill tries to kill every human around. Our hero Will Smith, is somehow immune to this virus, also an army guy and researcher, stays in New York City and tries to find a cure.
'I am legend' also highlights the friendship between human and his pet, which is really good to watch, they also try to show the state of the mind of a person, who for years have stayed alone, and the only one to talk to, is his pet.
The monsters in the movie are visually top notch, as the SFX is of very high level. Specially the sequence where Will Smith driving a Ford Mustang, tries to chase down a wild animal in downtown Manhattan.
The end of the movie is pretty much predictable, and no prizes for guessing whether he is able to develop the cure or not. The movie is at least a one time watch, for its special effects and for the man canine friendship.
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Cloverfield (2008)
Amazing movie
Cloverfield is a story of a night when a monster attacks New York City, told from the point of view of 4 friends. At first I thought it to be another monster attack movie but the movie is different.
Firstly because it's a story told from the point of view of 4 friends, who happen to be at a party the night. Secondly it is shot as if one of the friends is shooting the events of the night on his video camera, probably to upload it on YouTube. Thirdly because it does not put them into mission to save the world or in fact the city, as they try to rescue a friend of their.
As the story is told as if being shot from a hand held video camera, many a times camera angle becomes erratic as you don't get the full view and also shaky at times.
Movie has its share of special effects, like the beheaded Statue of Liberty but they are a limited due to the story line and camera angle, which is something hard to digest for a monster movie.
Being a story told from a group's point of view we do lose out on getting a panoramic view of the whole story and at times feels like where some people are just walking the lanes of ruined city.
It's a decent movie with a different point of view. This movie is a must watch who likes movies which are different and not for viewer who like to see loads of special effects and world saving moments.
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Balls of Fury (2007)
Balls of fury.
Balls of fury is a story of a Randy Daytona, a ping pong prodigy who represents his country at 1988 Olympics, reaches the Semis and lose out to a German, his father any army personnel bets on his win, is killed by the bad guys when he is not able to pay the money. Now around 18-20 years later, this guy is contacted by a FBI agent who wants Randy to work for him and participate in top secret private ping pong tournament of the same guy who killed Randy's father. That's it; the story ends in first 20-30 minutes of the movie, for the rest of the movie, there nothing but pure crap. Randy Daytona is trained by a blind ping pong master, who has to be the master of the villain too. This blind fellow lives with a beautiful girl (Maggie Q) who becomes Randy's love interest. Movie is full of cheap and utter useless comedy scenes, after a point you don't even feel like laughing at those scenes. Also from the trailers it appeared that movie would have some great table tennis shots and games but they are just exaggerated and computer generated sequences. Even not even a single actor does a work worth mentioning.
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Untraceable (2008)
Movie with a message.
A serial killer posts live videos of his victims on the internet .FBI now has to trace him down and nab him. That is the plot of the movie in one line.
Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) is a genius in nabbing cyber criminals. She along with her friend and co-worker Agent Griffin Dowd (Colin Hanks) are doing a good job for the society, that is what we assume ;) .One day the cyber crimes department gets a tip of a website where murder videos are streamed live and the task lands on our two agents to catch the killer.
Movie is a plain stereotypical serial killer movie, where the killer nabs his victim from unassuming places and kills them with innovative but brutal methods. This movie can be considered to be mix of brutal horror series "Saw" and many of the serial killer movies, because the method used to kill people can rival "Saw" series in brutality.
Like any other movie, the serial killer has a personal grudge against an issue which forces him to go on a killing spree. Once we know the motive, it actually makes us think over it, I found the grudge to be a valid one. Movie is also like any other movie where cat and mouse game gets personal with the death of a character close to the lead actor, Daine Lane. This shows that movie doesn't have anything new to offer, except the faces and the manner in which the killer kills his victim and his motive for killing the people.
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Bee Movie (2007)
Good movie. Do watch it.
This animated movie from Dreamworks is visually stunning and at the same time hilarious. The graphics of the movie are really top notch and path breaking. The imagination of the bee life is really cool. Imagine a bee having bath, applying some hair gel, deodorant and eating breakfast all of which is nothing but honey.
The movie is about a bee (Barry) who has just graduated! Yes graduated and will now be doing some work at the honey comb. But he just can't decide what work to do. So he ventures out of the honey comb and make friends with a human. One day he finds out that humans like honey and they trap a lot of bee to make it. Now he decides to sue the human race for illegally taking the honey made by bees. This single point could be the most hilarious point in the history of movies. Surely no prizes for guessing who wins the case, it's a "BEE MOVIE".
One should give a pat on the back to the writers and the screen players of the movies for writing such a hilarious movie and a beautiful movie. Even the quality of the animation is great. Don't forget to watch the fun with the Dreamworks logo at the start of the movie.
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16 Blocks (2006)
Can watch movie.
It's a story of a policeman Jack Mosely (Bruce Willis) who is nearing his service tenure and probably bored by his life and job. He keeps on drinking daily and on the job too, just to pass of his day. One day he is given a routine task of escorting a prisoner (Mos Def) from jail to the magistrate's office so the prisoner can record his testimony. Detective Jack Mosely later on comes to know that this prisoner is suppose to testify against many of the policemen who had done many bad things in the past. He decides to save the man and tries to make it to the magistrate's office in time, the detective risks his own life in the process, as the bad policemen are hell bent not to stop them from reaching the court.
The movie has some good moves done by Bruce Willis and the bad men to outwit each other, which keeps you interested in the movie, but at the same time some scenes are too long and take the interest out of their move.
Bruce Willis does a great job. Mos Def looks a perfect blend for an innocent looking prisoner who wishes to open a cake bakery one day. Mos Def voice is distinctly different, which suits his role.
It's a movie which tries to showcase that if a person decides something he can achieve it, no matter how big the obstacle is. It is the person's determination and grit which helps him to achieve great things. The movie is good but the speed of the movie could have been better as it's a bit slow.
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Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (2006)
Beautiful period drama.
Sony Pictures Classic produced movie is about the family politics prevailing amongst the Tang dynasty of China. This a movie where King tries to kill her wife, empress who want to overthrow her husband from the throne has an extra marital affair with her step son, who is the crown prince, this prince is in love with a maid at the palace, his brother wants the throne.
The story is complex but editor and director has done a commendable job of presenting the movie in simple and beautiful way. Movie has very good background score which matches the majestic sets of the Forbidden City, which is portrayed in all its might. This movie boasts of some great special effects, the action and battle scenes are quiet magnificent.
Actors has complimented each other extremely well, Chow Yun Fat as the Emperor is great. But sometimes we are not able to understand where the story is going. Also at times movie becomes boring, as some scenes are repeated.
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Inside Man (2006)
Excellent Movie.
Inside Man, at first seems to be another run of the mill movie, which tries to bank upon good cast and one of evergreen plot in the industry, a plan for perfect bank robbery.
It has everything that bank robbery movie need, the cast, the gang, the weapons, the hostages and definitely the plan, but it's the last one which makes all the difference.
Clive Owen plays the robber, who sets the tone of the movie upfront with the stunning starting scene. Denzel Washington plays the cop who is looking for one case to prove himself; Jodie Foster is the power broker.
The script is very well executed with almost no flaws in it, it's the plan of the robbery and the treatment given to it by the director makes the movie must watch for everyone. Movie has an instances on the problems faced by minority group in US especially post 9-11, it also uses the novel method of story telling wherein it jumps to the near future to link the story i.e the interrogations sequences of the suspects shown during the hostage drama.
Spike Lee pulls out an absolute thriller in this motion picture. The movie will surely go down as one of the best movie Hollywood has produced.
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Johnny Gaddaar (2007)
A good one time watch movie
The debut movie of Niel Nitin Mukesh,grandson of legendary singer Mukesh. The USP of the movie is definitely not the debut, but the story. It is well scripted and equally well told. Writers have taken a lot of effort on the script and it shows as the final result is very polished and engaging.
Casting also was good, being a low budget movie no mega stars acts in the movie, except mega star of his days Dharamendra(surely not a mega star of today), also one would not find any foreign locales in dreamy song sequences, although cinematography could have been lot better.
The debutant actor Niel Nitin Mukesh acts very well for a debutant, he could be the next girl charmer of Bollywood, with great looks, physique and good acting abilities he is here to stay for long time. Dharamendra does a pretty good job and this was expected from an actor of his stature. Its refreshing to see Vinay Pathak in not a full blown comedy role, he shows of his acting abilities to the fullest. The background score of the movie is great; Shankar Ehsaan Loy does a wonderful job yet again. The visual effects and editing should have been better as this steals the charm of the movie Story does become predictable at few instances but overall it keeps you glued to your seats till the end. Surely a one time watch movie.
Saw IV (2007)
Cruelty at it's best.
John Kramer and Amanda died in the last installment but not the traps, in fact the games have just begun, the series gets gorier, more brutal, and throws more light on the life of John. Like the brain surgery sequence of the third movie this movie has a postmortem sequence, which can be rated among the most graphic scenes in the motion picture history.
In this series, detectives are in search of the accomplice of John and Amanda, whom they believe have helped them. As they move on with investigation they become aware that the game has begun already begun and then starts a trail of execution, in the way this series is famous for. It comes to light that the lives of two detectives are at stake and the team tries to save them. Also, the wife of John is introduced in this part. As he story unfolds more light is shed on the life of John and why he chose this path. This is where the freshness of the story ends.
The series is getting stereotypical in terms of graphic scenes, the way the persons are executed and the way they are tested. In the second series detective Eric Matthews was tested, in the third a father of the dead son is tested in this installment again a police is tested who tries to saves everyone's life around him. Graphic scenes as usual are as brutal as they can get.
Watch this movie only if you are a brave at heart to bear to the graphic nature of the movie, but mind it, if you have watched the earlier parts, you still need much more guts to see this one.
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