Category Archives: Movies

5 Best Hollywood Action Films

Posted by on October 1, 2011 1 comment

Time to pick 5 action movies! Whoooopeeeeee….

Before I type, I have to warm up (does 50 virtual pushups, 100 virtual sit ups, 200 virtual bicep curls… ok… thats enough… thank God that was virtual… I would have died doing all that)

Now for these action flicks… hmmm… what qualifies?? There are several segments that all qualify as ACTION. You got the martial arts flicks, the sports flicks (sure… sports are action), the violent flicks (where bones break for no rhyme or reason) and so on. No point speculating… will just pick 5…

#1: First Blood
Sylvester Stallone was once the third most recognized face on this planet. Right after good old Ronnie Reagan and Mike Gorbachev. And its all because of the Rambo and Rocky flicks.

First Blood is the tale of John Rambo, the green beret who fought many a war including the Vietnam one (dont know how many movies exploited that one). While hitchhiking down the Canada-US border, he gets into trouble with the sheriff of the town who takes his position a bit too serious. Rambo is arrested for no reason and taken to the local precinct where he is mistreated. He snaps, unleashes his fury on the cops and makes his escape into the wilderness. The sheriff launches a manhunt but Rambo eludes him. Finally, John Rambo, a true warrior, trained in survival and the grim art of warfare, takes down the entire town and humbles the sheriff.

Sylvester Stallone in this movie is young and with a body thats carved out of solid rock. He had already become THE icon of action.

#2: Mad Max
And God made Mel Gibson…

Years before LETHAL WEAPONS and BRAVEHEART, there was a movie called Mad Max. Mel Gibson’s second movie made him a cult icon.

Set in Australia of the future, a notorious HELLS ANGEL style bikers gang murder a cops wife and child. The cop, played by Mel Gibson, takes his revenge by taking out the entire gang and becomes Mad Max. The movie had two more installations in MAD MAX 2 and BEYOND THUNDERDOME.

#3: Enter The Dragon
I am a huge BRUCE LEE fan. And no action movie list of mine is complete without mentioning the man who brought Kung Fu to the mainstream. Although this would have qualified as a martial arts flick, to me the sheer intensity that Bruce had was reason enough to put it here. Its more of an homage thing than a pure ’’I will conform to the topic’’ thing.

Bruce Lee is on a mission to bust an evil criminal Han who has only one hand. He accepts an invite to a Martial Arts tournament on a remote island owned by Han to spy on his activities. There he find the people who caused his sister to commit suicide. He makes short work of them and sends them upstairs. Several action scenes later, Lee destroys Han and his henchmen with the help of an American Roper (John Saxon)

R.I.P Bruce Lee… WAKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

#4: Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Had to pick this one because of one reason. Its CULT material. Its got so many hooks, twists and ground breaking CGI. Not narrating the storyline here because I’d be hit by someone. Arnold Schwarzenegger throws some of the most memorable one liners… including the now legendary ’’Hasta La Vista… Baby’’

#5: Die Hard
Bruce Willis is the epitome of an action star in this one. He plays a reckless cop on vacation who singlehandedly saves a whole bunch of hostages from a dozen terrorists/crooks who have taken over a building (Nakatomi Plaza) and threatened to blow the whole thing, and the hostages, to smithereens.

With limited resources, no help, sheer ingenuity and survival skills to bank on, the hero triumphs and the terrorists end up in body bags. The title of this review was borrowed from a line Bruce used in the movie. Brilliant!

I have one more… saved this for a special occasion…. here it is…

MY FAVOURITE MOVIE: THE CROW
’’People once believed that when you died, a crow took your soul to the land of the dead…..but sometimes, just sometimes, the crow could bring that soul back, to make the wrong things right…’’

Eric Draven, a talented musician, is engaged to Shelly Webster and they are set to be married on Halloween day. Not to be, as a crime lord called Top Dollar’s thugs brutally rape Shelly and put a bullet through Draven. He dies and some hours later, she crosses over too. Eric Draven’s restless soul is brought back from the dead by a crow (to which his soul is bound). One by one, he destroys the gang and avenges his and his fiancees death.

The movie was tragic in real life too. The lead role of Eric Draven was played by the promising Brandon Lee – son of the legend himself, Bruce Lee. During a scene where the gangsters fire randomly at Lee (the crow) Lee too a shrapnel from a gun in his heart. He passed away….

All the guns were loaded with blanks for the scene. However, due to a quirk of fate, a piece of metal in one of the guns broke off, traveled and found its place in Lee’s heart… one of the most promising action heroes of all time was gone.

The Crow is a movie that brings a shiver down my spine every time I see it. Mostly because of Brandon’s haunting performance… and because of what fate had in store for him

Here ends my review…

~finis~

One Crow For Sorrow – The Crow

Posted by on June 25, 2011 No comments

The pitch black night is serene and the vibrating strings of the guitar has come to rest. Its time to pay tribute to a fallen actor and a film noir masterpiece…

People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can’t rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right. – from the 1994 movie – The Crow.

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The Crow
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The Crow is a tale of Eric Draven, an up and coming rock star, and his girlfriend Shelley Webster, who are brutally murdered on a halloween night by a gang of cut throats, lead by Top Dollar. A year later, Draven rises from the dead, his soul bonding with that of a Crow. The crow becomes Draven’s link with the world.

Blessed with supernatural powers, Draven dons the garb of the crow and sets forth on his earthly quest of destroying the evil gang that took away everything he had… including life. What follows is a blood-fest which leaves only one man standing – The Crow!

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The Movie
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Right from the first frame, the Crow demonstrates a host of unique characteristics that made it the Film Noir classic that it is.

The camera moves around in a fluid vertigo inducing motion, capturing dark images that can leave one feeling totally awestruck. It alternates from normal view to birds eye view (crow-vision), courtesy the winged creature that watches all the action from above, in silence.

The film also avoids the normal colour palette and opts for eerie dark tones that add to the atmospheric qualities of the movie.

An awesome soundtrack that includes some brilliant rock tracks and a lot of ambient passages adds to the overall effect.

The Crow has great production values and is a treat to watch.

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The Cast
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Brandon Lee, The son of the late great Bruce Lee, plays the lead role of Eric Draven aka The Crow. The actor struck all the right chords in this movie, playing the role of a rock star in love and the dark brooding avenger with relative ease and conviction. The gang of cut throats add to the general mood by wreaking havoc whenever they got a chance. The rest of the cast act as mere props as Brandon Lee carries the tale on his able shoulders.

Sadly, for Brandon, the movie came with a heavy price. During the filming of a fight sequence where the evil-doers spray the hero with bullets, a freak accident occurred. The guns were all loaded with blanks and aimed at Brandon. Unfortunately, one of the gun’s malfunctioned and a fragment of metal was fired out of it….

… it found its way into Brandon’s heart… the actor lost his life…

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R.I.P Brandon
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The Crow was based on a comic of the same name. The story of a dark avenger whose mission was to destroy the darkest forces of evil. Just like the comic book hero’s immortality… Brandon Lee lives on forever in the minds of those who have experienced – The Crow.

This is a story that will touch that raw nerve inside your soul…

~finis~

Footnotes
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The Crow spawned a Sequel called The Crow – City Of Angels starring Vincent Perez in the role of The Crow. There was also another movie called The Crow – Stairway to Heaven. It was based on this tale (the one I reviewed) but formatted for the small screen.

The crow happens to be my favourite bird along with its ilk – the raven, the rook, the magpie and so on…

Few Best Scenes / Moments of Bollywood films

Posted by on June 23, 2011 No comments

This might seem pretty mental because I’m not one of those ’’I’ve watched every hindi movie ever released including Alam Ara’’ type people. My bank of movies is limited but then, from the ones that I have seen, there are some scenes / moments that can be deemed memorable.

Now Hindi movies have memorable scenes by default. You have:

  1. The 10 minute bleeding to death sequence where the dying actor spews more dialogue than he or she ever did for the rest of the movie. There’s normally enough time to save the fallen person if they just rushed to the hospital instead of talking about how happy the dying person feels because his girlfriend is marrying his best friend or brother.
  2. The ’’siblings lost in mela and reunited because of a common symbol on body’’ routine. The common symbol is normally a tattoo on the body which is revealed just when one sibling is about to jab a spear down the other siblings throat. This is normally followed by emotional outbursts and a revenge against the vile thakur or don for what they did to the happy family. This was a speciality of the late Manmohan Desai.
  3. The ’’yell at a statue of God and work miracles’’ routine. If God really did exist, She (God is a woman after all, right?) must be really ticked off with Hindi movie actors and actresses for the on screen Abuse God sessions. Normally, this happens when some close relative is mortally wounded or ill.

Anyways, Here’s my pick of ten:

The Chaiyya Chaiyya song sequence – Dil Se
A song sequence to start with. Why would a song feature in a ten best scenes list? Simply because Farah Khan and Mani Ratnam packed Shah Rukh, Malaika and a whole bunch of dancers on a wee toy train in Ooty, made them do a great dance sequence, Gulzar penned a memorable song, A.R. Rehman added a huge dose of musical magic to it and finally, Sukhwindra Singh’s voice. So what if the movie didn’t do all that good. That one song on the train will be remembered.

The Chale Chalo song sequence – Lagaan
The entire cricket match might have not been technically correct. The last ball six might have been a bit too much. But the movie had this one gem that shone brighter than the rest of the movie. It’s a song that oozed inspiration from every pore. There were no flashy dancers. No intricate choreography or settings. Just a bunch of ragged villagers, tanned and dirty, egging each other to go further and stand together to oppose the might of the British Raj.

The climax scene of Vaastav
To me, Sanjay Dutt is an actor who came up the hard way. Sure he had an influential dad, but he also had his demons. The one thing the man never lacked is the fire inside to do better each time he started an inning.

The climax scene of Vaastav has an element that is very difficult to digest – a mother taking her son’s life. But they pulled it off… very well. You have the delirious Dutt pleading for deliverance from the demons of his past and his mother, played by the serene Reema Lagoo, releases him from his miseries with the pull of a trigger. It’s intense and touches a raw nerve as you watch Dutt lying motionless on a swing, blood trickling from his forehead… and his stunned mother stares into the distance… knowing that she had given her son the greatest gift of love… and yet…

Kamasutra
Oops… no kamasutra… accidentally wrote that… Kamasutra is not memorable… skip to next movie…

Amitabh’s death sequence – Muqaddar Ka Sikander
First there is the scene where Amjad Khan and Amitabh Bachchan fight (all due to a misunderstanding). Then they stab each other. And then, the death sequence. It’s memorable because of that slow song that wafted in the background… ’’zindagi toh bewafaa hai…’’. During the entire movie, my heart went out to Amitabh. It’s just that lady luck seems to be one picky female…

How many more… ah yes… 6 more:

The climax scene at the railway station – Sadma
It’s Kamal Haasan. And everyone knows that he can act. This movie (based on a tamil flick – Moonram Pirai) had a nice storyline and some good acting by the limited cast consisting of Kamal Haasan, Sridevi and the late Silk Smita. Due to a tragedy, Sridevi loses her memory, thinks she’s 3 years old and ends up with Kamal Haasan who takes very good care of her. In the process, he falls in love with her. She reciprocates (in her 3 year old state of mind).

However, one fine day (after a lot of drama and emotion) she regains her memory and is reunited with her family. She’s all set to go and is sitting smug in a train compartment when a battered Kamal Haasan tries to refresh her memory and remind her of her love for him by making faces and performing the antics that he used to do when she was mentally challenged. She thinks he’s nuts and throws him some money….

Kamal Haasan has that unique ability to convey every kind of emotion without saying a word…

One tragic song – Pyaasa
Yeh Mahalon, Yeh Takhton, Yeh Taajon Ki Duniya
Yeh Insaan Ke Dushman, Samajon Ki Duniya
Yeh Daulat Ke Bhooke, Rawajon Ki Duniya
Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye, To Kya Hai?

This roughly translates to ’’Of what use is a world that is the enemy of mankind, laced with greed and rules made by society’’ (not the best translation but you get the drift)

Though it’s banks on self pity and is laced in tragic innuendos and cliche, this black and white classic is memorable thanks to Mohd. Rafi’s voice and Guru Dutt’s craftsmanship.

Is this turning out to be a music review? Maybe, but sometimes music might be the most memorable aspect of a movie…

The lynching of Bhagat Singh and colleagues – Shaheed (1965)
Even though most people believe that India didn’t bleed enough for her independence, there are some moments in history that depict patriotism of the highest degree. To me, the most memorable and most patriotic sequence in India’s history is when Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru kissed the ropemaker’s daughter, smiled… and died… and even when their limp bodies dangled at the end of the rope, one knew that they had managed to do the impossible… spread fear in the hearts of their enemies.

The talented Prem Chopra, perhaps the most endearing villain of all times, was memorable in his role as Sukhdev.

Gabbar Singh’s Entry – in Sholay
I have no words to define this!

The climax – Agneepath
Well… maybe it’s just Amitabh and the way he looked all bloodied and intense… the way he modulated his voice and went against the grain… the way he just tore into the hearts of the people who destroyed his peaceful life at a very young age… classic Bollywood revenge tale… but innovated and implemented well by the legend…

Shah Rukh’s progress towards death… – Kal Ho Na Ho
Face it, it was intense. From the Mahi Ve dance scene onwards, the movie brings forth a flurry of emotions thanks to Shah Rukh’s intense acting and the support lent by the other members of the cast. It’s also safe to say that the title song is one that will also be remembered for a long, long time.

This review has been very taxing and I’ll end it with something I always wanted to tell you:

’’Pachaas pachaas kos door… gaon mein jab bachcha raat ko rota hai… to maa kahti hai beta soja… soja nahin to Gabbar Singh aa jaayega… ’’

~finis~