4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile (original title)

Genre: Drama
*ing: Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu

Some background before I say anything. Look up a bit about Romania or try to remember what Romania was pre-democracy days whilst under a communist rule. I am not sure in how many countries abortion legally remains illegal in present times but in the past there were quite a few countries and Romania was one of them. This movie talks about the story of two young girls, one of them assisting her friend to arrange an illegal abortion. By far one of the most impressive movies I have come across in recent times. Extremely powerful story, piece of art I say.

Highlights of the movie, brilliant direction and narration style, fantastic camera work, good performances and the lack of background music in many places … makes it very serious. I loved the way the whole movie goes about showing a network of underground doctors who carry out illegal abortions. How the patients, the doctors and all who support abortion risk jail terms. Loved the plight of a common man depicted in the movie, basic things like cigarettes are smuggled and sold in black, something as common as sugar is a luxury commodity, communist rule means no imports of vehicles all the cars look alike and are the same brand, buses are rickety and it seems they ply with uncertain schedules … I truly loved the handheld camera work in certain places. Positively a must watch … no wonder the movie bagged a Palm D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1032846/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/4_months_3_weeks_and_2_days/

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Genre: Drama, Comedy
*ing: Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman, Eddie Marsan

It does not matter if you like this movie or not like this movie … watching Sally Hawkins playing the Happy Go Lucky girl is enough to bring a smile on your face and make you feel Happy Go Lucky!! :-) 

I absolutely loved this movie for what it is. Brilliant acting by Sally Hawkins, wearing a convincing smile for almost the entire length of the movie is no easy task at the same time displaying mixed emotions that are anything but happiness is truly an art which few actors can carry it convincingly. Sally Hawkins does a marvelous job. It does not end there, Director and Writer Mike Leigh does a fantastic job in capturing the Happy Go Girl and presenting her to the audience. In terms of a story line … well … rather simple … it’s the story of a 30 something girl who lives life to the fullest and inspires others to wear a smile and a live life :-)
Truly a must watch, one of the most colorful and peppy movie I will ever remember.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045670/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1195103-happy_go_lucky/

Stanley Ka Dabba (2011)

Genre: Drama, Comedy, Not your typical Bollywood shit
*ing: Partho Gupte, Amol Gupte, Divya Dutta

In one word … Brilliant!! However, this brilliant of piece of art will be much less appreciated by most cine-goers … only the critics will welcome and give it an applause. It’s sad to see such awesome movies don’t generate the kind of response they deserve. I think it’s high time India starts having special screening movie halls for low and medium budget non-masala movies. The lack of special screening venues means all these movies have to compete in the same movie hall displaying some shitty movie starring a Salman or a Shahrukh. Besides these days a movie for 2 in a multiplex means a dent of around 500 INR … unfortunately since there are no special screening venues the plexes are forced to charge you the same fare for the shitty big-wig movie and ‘Stanley Ka Dabba’. If there are special venues for such movie they can probably charge half the normal fare and audience will find that acceptable. I understand if you have to pay INR 200+ for a big-budget multi star movie you will gladly do so but for a movie like ‘Stanley ka Dabba’ most audience may not be willing to part with that money. Price such movie at 2 digits or less than INR 120 per head and I am sure there will plenty of takers.

Anyway, getting back to my take on the movie … hang on … I will not say anything about this movie … I don’t wanna kill the plot, go watch the movie or rent the movie … trust me … it’s worth a watch … fat chance you may not like it as much as I did … but it’s worth a watch. Brilliant direction, writing and acting by Amol Gupte and his son playing Stanley. I am gonna be looking forward to more work from Amol Gupte and this kid Partho playing Stanley sure has potential.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1907761/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stanley_ka_dabba/

Biutiful (2010)

Genre: Drama
*ing: Javier Bardem, Maricel Alvarez

I am not sure how many of your watched ‘Babel’ and ’21 Grams’ … if you did watch them and liked them it means you liked Alejandro González Iñárritu. The same writer, director who was nominated twice for Palm D’Or at Cannes and having many other awards at major film festivals comes with yet another masterpiece titled ‘Biutiful’. Most of you may be familiar with Javier Bardem and he needs no introduction … however … in this movie you get to see a very different Javier who truly displays his acting skills as a serious actor. ‘Biutiful’ is a powerful story of a dying man, a caring father, a man seeking redemption and a man connecting with afterlife. Brilliantly set and shot in the by lanes and shanties of Madrid exposing the dark side of the city. I say this movie is a an extraordinary piece of work on part of the writer, director and the actors. The only set back is the runtime … a slightly better work by the edit department and snip away 20 min from the run time … this movie will be 100% complete. Nonetheless, all said and done this one is a fantastic piece of art if you have liked earlier works of Alejandro Iñárritu.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1164999/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/biutiful/

The Secrets (2007)

Ha-Sodot (original title)

Genre: Drama
*ing: Ania Bukstein, Michal Shtamler, Fanny Ardant

My first Israeli movie and this one was recommended by a friend of mine and it was lying around for a long time ... finally gave it a go and well ... I am impressed. A very nice touching story of two young girls from the orthodox community cross paths in a Jewish Seminary and along comes a French lady who is terminally ill and seeking redemption for her crimes in the past ... how the two girls rebel and help the dying lady in seeking redemption by the way of religious cleansing and in the process discover a truth that will change their lives for ever. Very impressive direction, screenplay, very crisp impressive background music and noteworthy art direction ... couple all that with fantastic acting by the two young girls and Fanny Ardant who plays the terminally ill lady ... other members of the cast who play smaller roles too do a good job and prove their talents worth. End product is a movie that deserve a standing ovation and a generous round of applause ... I say ... truly worth a watch ... gives a nice insight into the traditional Jewish orthodox way of life for young girls.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0782867/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hasodot-emeth/

Katyn (2007)

Genre: Drama, War, Thriller

* ing: Andrzej Chyra, Maja Ostaszewska and Artur Zmijewski

Another World War II movie and guess what .... I am not tired watching them ... I started realising there are so many of them and yet each is so different from one another. Thanks to WWII we get to watch these many quality movies ... not just that ... had it not been for WWII ... we may not have been enjoying so many other things we take for granted in our every day lives ... for instance Flying ... yes ... seriously ... thanks to WWII airplanes and airplane engines evolved at a phenomenal pace ... compare it with auto-mobile and auto engines which haven't changed much ever since the first automobile rolled out off the assembly line. Anyway ... coming back to Katyn ... this one is an pretty interesting movie that talks about the mass murders of Polish soldiers in the forest of Katyn. Why the murders happened, who did it and why ... is something best discovered if you watch the movie and see the story unfold from the perspective of a Polish war soldiers wife.
Brilliant movie, the cinematography, direction, decent bit of acting thrown in makes this one a good watch.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0879843/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1207748-katyn/

Yeh Saali Zindagi (2011)

Genre: Drama, Thriller
 

*ing: Irrfan Khan, Chitrangda Singh, Arunoday Singh, Saurabh Shukla
 

3 Things. 1. Chitrangda Singh 2. Chitrangdha Singh 3. Chitragdha Singh, Irrfan Khan, Saurabh Shukla, Arunoday Singh and Sushant Singh :)
There ... with that kind of cast and Sudhir Mishra seated in the directors chair calling the shots ... what can possibly go wrong ... nothing. Yeh Saali Zindagi is a movie that scores in every department and I mean it. Definitely not the movie for mass audience who form bulk of the Indian movie going crowd ... I have a feeling most people may not be able to appreciate the movie or are simply too tuned to appreciate the Masala movies with the likes of Shahrukh or Salman with a couple of hit songs and an item number thrown in. I have no idea how this movie fared at the Box Office or with the critics ... but ... I won't be surprised if the movie was trashed by critics and went out to receive a luke warm response at the BO.
Guys and Gals .... if you liked 'Jaaney Bhi Do Yaroon', 'Hazaroon Khwaishein Aisi', 'Chameli' and other works of Sudhir Mishra ... you should like this one too :)
 

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754920/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yeh_saali_zindagi/

Water Lilies (2007)

Naissance des pieuvres (original title)

Genre: Drama, Indie

*ing: Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachère and Adele Haenel

I usually love gay movies ....I have this friend of mine with whom I talk and discuss such movies at length and usually between the two of us we have watched practically every Indie lesbian movie out there that made it big. She keeps recommending me the movies and I watch them and then we talk :) Water Lilies ... I tried hard ... I mean ...real hard to appreciate the movie ... however ... I simply could not quite find myself to appreciate this French movie that speaks the story of two 15 year old girls. To sum it up ... I was only too happy to see the movie end. Even for a die hard indie movie enthusiast I think it will be a bit difficult to find this movie interesting to watch. I think the direction messed it up or something in the script messed it up somewhere ... the novice 15yr old's have done a commendable job playing their respective roles ... so ... yes in terms of acting I quite liked it ... but there was something amiss in the movie and I quite can not put my finger on it.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0869977/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/water_lilies/

Lives of Others (2006)

Das Leben der Anderen (original title)

Genre: Drama, Thriller

*ing: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck and Sebastian Koch

Remember Berlin Wall coming down?? Well, that is where this movie ends ... it ends with the coming down of the Berlin Wall. There ... did I just break the suspense ... nope .... I did not ... this movie is all about how the erstwhile GDR (East Germany) used to snoop on every man on their land. East Germany was know to eavesdrop on everyone who mattered to them including the common man. This movie talks about the oppressive regime and it's snooping psychology. The story of one German government agent who is one of best in eavesdropping and a writer ... how their paths cross and how they eventually recognise each other. I loved the direction, the screenplay is brilliant ... moves at a very swift pace through out the movie and keeps you interest ON. +vely would like to rate this movie as a must watch if you like movies that talk a bit about history, communism and stuff like that.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lives_of_others/

He Was a Quiet Man (2007)

Genre:  Drama, Romance

*ing: Christian Slater, Elisha Cuthbert and William H. Macy

Every once in a while I watch a movie that has me quite impressed and then I go looking for what kind of comments did it garner from the critics only to find out that the movie for some reasons generated a luke warm response among the critics and at the box office ... I term such movies as under-rated and 'He was a Quiet Man' is one such under-rated movie. Seriously, I loved this movie ... for whatever reasons. A very straight forward story of a an everyday office goer who is stagnating in a huge corporate office one fine day quite by chance saves the life of one of his colleagues and is declared a hero. However, that is not what he wanted. I loved the screenplay, Christian Slater does a fantastic job playing the office goer. Direction is good ... could have been better .... but all in all I loved the movie. I am not sure if I should be recommending this movie ... however ... if you get some time and in a mood to watch something that is under-rated ... this may be a good watch ... trust me you won't be disappointed.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0760311/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009156-he_was_a_quiet_man/

Game (2011)

Genre: Drama, Thriller

*ing: Abhishek Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Boman Irani

I was intentionally avoiding this movie knowing it well this is not my type of movie. However, my roomie watched it and kinda had me convinced into watching this movie. Well ... guess what ... it's not bad afterall. Turned out to be a decent affair, a much better affair than what I had expected. Having said that I am not saying this ia a great movie to watch or you should skip this if you can. A story of a old man who invites (read lures) a politician, a casino owner, an actor and a journo to his island and that changes the fate of all the visitors and a lots of other usual twists and turns. Good part, the movie does deliver some surprising twists in the tale keeping you guessing ... which is good and keeps you interested. What fails the movie? Well I guess it's the direction and acting by the cast ... it all looks very amateaurish. Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Jimmy Shergill are wasted. I would really not comment on Abhishek, if 'Guru' was any benchmark he is a pretty good actor who can really act and could have delivered in 'Game'.
Bottom-line: Let me catergorize it as a Bollywood one time watch kinda movie.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772872/

Animals United (2010)

Konferenz der Tiere (original title)

Genre: Comedy, Animation

*ing: Voices of Various Artists

Its only after watching the movie I realised the Original was a German movie and not an American Animation work. Now, considering that this comes from Germany a country not known to churn out quality animated movies, 'Animals United' fares decent enough. I personally liked the movie, though honestly I would not rate this as one of my favorites or an animateed movie that I would like to watch again and again ... this one is a decent one time watch. Having said that ... if you rent the DVD or get your hands on a download of this movie, watch it ... it's really not that bad. As the name suggests its the story of Animals in the wild coming together to fight humans who are destroying their habitat. The animals get together to say "Enough is enough and human greed has to be capped". In terms of getting an environmental message across the movie does a good job of entertaining too but somehow the story line is kinda a bit kiddish to appeal for a mature audience. The 5 to 10yr old in your house will love this movie ... but ... you ... with all your baggage will find it difficult to love this movie ... however if you like the movie ... it's good news ... it means a 5 to 10yr old still lives in you :)
So .... yes ... bottom-line .... watch this movie as honestly as you possibly can and try to honestly find out if you have a 10yr old in you :)

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1620449/
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/animals_united/

Wyatt Earp (1994)

Genre: Drama, Action
 

*ing: Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid and Gene Hackman
 

Biography of Wyatt Earp played by Keving Costner. His good times, his bad times, his love, his hatred, his family, his friends and his enemies. Very interesting movie if you like watching the Wild West kinda American movies. The only problem ... or rather the only thing that goes against is the length of the movie ... its a full 3 hr 10 min run time ... now that is a seriouly long movie ... but then again ... it does not really bore you since it makes you run thru Wyatt's life from his teens to youth to middle age to old age. Kevin Costner looks amazing in all those phases of life, his acting ... well brilliant ... I guess there are very few movies of him where he has been criticised for his acting. Dennis Quaid and Gene Hackman add to the dazzling performances.
All in all ... not the best American Wild West movie but considering the fact it's a biography of Wyatt Earp it kinda makes it an interesting watch. Well directed, screenplay could have been better, it kinda drifts away in places and as an audience there are couple of moments you may loose interest. But ... if you are having one long Sunday afternoon to kill ... this one may be a good watch.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111756/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1052698-wyatt_earp/

Black Book (2006)

Zwartboek (original title)

Genre: Drama, Thriller

*ing: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch and Thom Hoffman

In one word ... Awesome!! By far one of the best World War II movies with the Nazi - Jews theme. Brilliant direction, awesome music, fantastic screenplay, it never lets your mind wander elsewhere even for a moment, performances that deserve a standing ovation ... all in all a movie with all the right ingredients in the right places and right quantities. I am not saying this movie is a masterpiece ... but it sure is worth the time and money you will be putting in to watch it. Trust me ... it will leave you asking for more. Story of a Jewish girl who is a part of the resistance fighting German occupation and genocide of Jews at the hands of the Nazis. How the girls adventures reveal one secret after another. Brilliant ... these are the kind of scrips and screenplays that interest me.

BTW ... the lead actress ... Carice Van Houten ... looks Hot and has acted real well. If you like movies on the WWII theme ... you gotta watch this one.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389557/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10007417-black_book/

Somewhere (2010)

Genre: Drama

*ing: Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning

A fantastic story of a father and a daughter relationship. A father who is a Hollywood actor leading a spoiled life, however the loneliness is killing, pausing his life everyday .. his colorful life seems bland and blackwhite every morning when he wakes up ... that is ... until one fine day his ex-wife drops their 11year old daughter in his custody for sometime and the protagonist's life gets colorful and meaningful. The estranged father daughter chemistry between Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning is truly noteworthy, the screenplay drags but still holds ... lacks the holes that makes you loose interest mid-way. I would say the Direction and the storyline by Sofia Coppola makes it a rather interesting. Yes, she is the same one who directed 'Lost in translation' .... one of the most slowest yet interesting movies that I've ever come across. Bottom-line: For most people this is a movie I would say 'Skip' ... however ... if you've loved movies like 'Lost in Translation' or atleast found the movie palatable ... you should have a look at 'Somewhere' it's a good piece of work that deserves some appreciation.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1421051/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/somewhere_2010/

I've Loved You So Long (2008)

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (original title)

Genre: Drama

*ing: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein and Serge Hazanavicius

One of the finest movies starring Kirstin Scott Thomas ... that pretty much will sum it up :) Anyway ... that's too short right??? Well ... an impressive story of Kirsten Scott Thomas playing a mother who returns from a 15 year imprisonment period and the world outside is anything but forgiving for her ... the challenges she has to face trying to live normal, a normal life which she once enjoyed before getting behind bars. What I really liked about the movie is the brilliant screenplay ... absolutely brilliant indeed and to compliment Director Philippe Claudel  has done a marvellous job at creating a masterpiece of a movie. Absolutely loved the way the story unravels itself as the movie progresses and the climax could not have been any better. Positively a must watch if you are a French cine lover ... the only spoiler in the movie is the pace ... like most good French movies the movie really drags itself ... a tad faster pace and it would be a perfect 10/10 .... albeit .... right now I would rate it a 9/10 :)

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068649/

Rotten Tomatoes:  http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ive_loved_you_so_long/

Chalo Dilli (2011)

Genre: Comedy, Drama

*ing: Vinay Pathak and Lara Dutta

Yet another Vinay Pathak movie and let me warn you once again my take may be skewed due to the liking I have for Vinay Pathak :) In my opinion ... truly brilliant movie ... the kind of movie that deserves to be a Box Office hit ... however due to a huge number of movies that hit the Box Office alongwith Chalo Dilli the movie is gonna take a beating, add to it the limited marketing budget and add to it no big names expect Akshay Kumar who plays a cameo to promote the movie to the masses away from the main metro's. Chalo Dilli in my opinion is a movie that can be enjoyed by a non-metro, non-multiplex audience too ... however ... ill luck ... this movie will not create waves except among the critics who will rant and applaud this movie.
Amazing story of a very simple man Manu Gupta played by Vinay Pathak ... a man who is a die-hard optimist, a man who always says and views life as being beautiful, a man who says never say die ... and how a woman crosses paths with Manu Gupta and learns the true meaning of what life really has to be. I am Manu Gupta (not 100%) and I want to be Manu Gupta :) Watch out the climax .... it's Kickass ... you'll love it :) Bottom-line: A must watch ... you just can't afford to miss this movie.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1884268/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chalo_dilli/

Rio (2011)

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Animation

*ing: Voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway and Various other artists

Finally 'Rio' happened .... I have so desperate to watch this movie for the last few weeks since it realised but somehow something or the other kept me away ... and now that I have watched this movie ... I simply can not stop watching it over and over again :) My only regret .... I missed the 3D action ... if you get an opportunity to watch it in 3D please do so ... I can imagine some of the scenes in 3D would look brilliant :) Very colorful movie ... a must watch for all ages be it kids, grown-ups or granpa's and granmum's :) What's the story about? It's all about Blu (a domesticated Macaw) finding love in Jewel (a Macaw from the wild). the adventure Blu and Jewel experience over a period of something like 24 hours in the streets and by lanes of Rio de Janerio. In terms of screenplay or plot 'Rio' is nothing great ... what really makes the movie attractive to me is fine mix of humor and romance between Blu and Jewel :)
Lets not forget the movie comes from the creators of 'Ice Age' a standing ovation to all the countless behind the scene animators who toiled hours ... btw ... did you know that it takes a team of 2 to 3 animators an entire day to produce just one second of animation?? Yes ... movies like 'Rio' take a lot of time to make if you average the number of people working on the project, total manhours and total seconds of animation produced that is roughly what it may average out to.
 

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1436562/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rio/

No Strings Attached (2011)

Genre: Comedy, Romance

*ing: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher

To start with don't expect any 'Black Swan' performance from Natalie in this movie. This ain't a Black Swan. This one is more of the Hollywood Romantic masala movie that is made to please a larger audience in general. Not a must watch, but sure is your money's worth if you are gonna watch it. Story of Natalie and Ashton playing a couple who want to keep their relation purely physical minus all the emotional baggage ... that is until the dirty four lettered word 'Love' creeps into their smooth and easy going relationship. What happens to the 'No Strings Attached' relationship once the emotional baggage walks in?? Well ... that's something you gotta find out. All the laughs and fun moments makes this not so interesting movie a pleasure to watch. One of those lazy Weekends or public holidays when you wanna laze on your couch and catch a movie ... this might a good bet :)

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411238/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_strings_attached_2011/

Last Night (2010)

Genre: Drama, Romance

*ing: Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes and Guillaume Canet

In one word this movie is 'Passable'. Not a dud ... but at the same time nothing really strong about the movie to win my rants. If you like drooling at French men ... Guillaume Canet will be a pleasure to watch ... for the men folk ... well ... Eva Mendes has a brief show but carries her Latino sex appeal pretty well. Story of a couple that spans one night where the man gets attracted to his colleague at work during a business trip and the wife encounters her past love while her husband is away. The music is good, screenplay is average, direction average, some of the intimate scenes could have been shot better and to my knowledge the actors form a decent cast if the director had worked a bit harder maybe he could have squeezed better performances from them and could have added couple more of those missing ingredients and made this movie truly interesting to watch ... but at the moment ... it looks like a half baked product that was released in a bit of a rush.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1294688/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1211199-last_night/

...And God Created Woman (1956)

Et Dieu... créa la femme (original title) | Genre: Drama

*ing: Brigitte Bardot, Curd Jürgens and Jean-Louis Trintignant

There are some movies you like and there are some movies that you have to develop a taste to like it ... well ... ".... And God Created Woman" is one such movie ... if you watch this movie out of the blue ... chances are you will not watch this movie beyond a certain point ... but if you have watched atleast 2 dozen French Drama's with Romance as a center theme ... fat chance you will like '... And God Created Woman' as much as I liked it. This is not you every day staple diet kinda movie. To start with, it's a 1956 movie, don't expect slick camera work, slick art direction, music et al ... the movie has a rather raw feel to it. The story is of an seductive orphan girl (Brigitte Bardot) and two brothers ... she loves one and marries the other ... but what happens after the marriage, the show of emotions, love, hatred and forgiveness is something noteworthy, which kinda makes it an interesting watch. Once again .... this is not your everyday movie ... you been warned.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049189/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000914-and_god_created_woman/

Dum Maaro Dum (2011)

Genre: Masala (I know there is no such genre ... but I can't help it ... I wanna term this as a Masala)

*ing: Abhishek Bachchan, Rana Daggubati, Prateik Babbar and Bipasha Basu ... and yes ... Deepika Padukone ;-) in the item song ;-)

If you wanna skip this movie ... skip it ... if you wanna watch this movie ... watch it ... either ways you are not gonna miss anything much ... nothing to loose. That sums up my movie review on 'Dum Maaro Dum' ... but .... that will be a bit of an injustice right??? Okay .... positives ... Rana Daggubati (Gurlz ... he is drool worthy .... I am gonna watch his Telugu movie 'Leader' ... just for his raw looks), decent music ... no doubt the item number rocks ... but the other songs are not bad either. Direction, Screenplay, Dialogues etc all are a tad below average. The movie is all about a Dirty cop gone clean who is doing his best to cleanse Goa off the drug scene. That sums it up. I can't think of anything else to rant on this movie.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1618430/

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dum_maaro_dum/

The Smell of Success (2009)

Genre: Drama, Comedy

*ing: Billy Bob Thornton & Téa Leoni

A must watch and I mean it. What I really liked about the movie, great performances by Billy Bob Thornton and Tea Leoni (Okay ... I am hopelessly in love with Tia Leoni ... man she has the looks in this movie ... and I meant it ... trust me ... when you watch her you'll agree with me), amazing camera work .... in the sense ... great art direction ... the kinda sepia burnt hues used through the movie to make it look rustic the kinda effect used in '300', I am not sure what is such effect called in technical movie making jargon. Fantastic story narration. Infact it surprises me why this movie did not make an impact at the box office, technically and otherwise a great movie ... seriously under-rated ... reminds me of 'The Boondock Saints', in my opinion that movie is one of the most under-rated action movies of all time. What the movie is all about? Well ... it's about a company that is No.1 in the No. 2 business ... we are talking manure :) A fantastic comedy of a manure salesman and a heir to the manure making company ... what happens when they cross paths and how they revive their fortunes. Guys and gals ... trust me ... when I say this movie is under-rated I really mean it ... I fail to understand why this movie has not received any nominations at any film festivals let alone winning an award.

IMBD: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985695/