Change Your Image
vishwas-verma
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: The Punishment Room (2018)
Amazon Prime showing censored version in India
Amazon - This show is great, but why are showing censored version in India? What's the point of your platform if you are conforming to the same self censorship which usual TV shows impose on themselves? And to think of it, in addition to the nudity you are blurring the cigarettes too! I would still continue watching the show, because as I said it's great, but you have lost the respect!
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
Pretty Lame
In the last couple of decades Pixar has raised the bar so high for animated movies, that even if a perfectly fine animated movie comes along, we end up feeling underwhelmed by it. That's precisely the case with Hotel Transylvania.
Hotel Transylvania tells the story of modern day Dracula, voiced by Adam Sandler, who runs a hotel away from human world meant only for monsters. When the whole monster world – including all type of zombies, werewolfs, mummies, and Frankenstein, comes to his hotel to celebrate the birthday of Dracula's daughter's 118th birthday, a human boy discovers the hotel and falls in love with his daughter.
Though it was fun to watch the whole monster world assemble under one room, but soon the proceedings get reduced to silly jokes which would make only 12 year olds laugh. I kept thinking about The Cabin in the Woods throughout the movie, where all different kind of monsters are assembled and thought even if some part of that innovation was applied in this movie, this would have been eminently watchable.
The only person who could make some kind of an impact through his voice was Adam Sandler, who did a nice impersonation of Dracula's voice. But even that was unfunny after some time. But looking at his standards, I guess this was the best movie Adam Sandler would have done after Punch Drunk Love. Andy Samberg as Jonathan, the boy who discovers the hotel, is irritating, and Selena Gomez as Dracula's daughter is nothing to write about.
It's a shame to see that there is already a sequel planned for this lame movie. I just hope that the sequel goes the Madagascar way and not the Ice Age and Shrek way.
http://vishwas8317.blogspot.in/2012/12/hotel-transylvania-2012.html
Zui hao de shi guang (2005)
Simply Brilliant
Nominated for Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2005, Hsiao-hsien Hou's Three Times is a moody exploration of love, freedom and youth. The movie unfolds in three separate stories which take place in three different time zones over a century in Taiwan, with the main roles in each story played by same two actors – Qi Shu and Chen Chang.
In the first story – A Time for Love – set in 1966, Chen meets May in a bar while playing pool. They stay in touch when he joins the army, but when he comes back May doesn't work in the same bar anymore. So he seeks her to different places. In the second – A Time for Freedom – set in 1911, Mr. Chang is frequent visitor to a brothel where he keeps interacting with a singer. When he frees one of the other girls by providing financial help, the singer asks if he would help her too. The last story – A Time for Youth – set in 2005, shows a relationship of girl with a photographer and a bisexual singer.
This is one movie where actually "nothing happens". There are long shots without any dialogue at all, camera just pondering on characters when they do trite stuff, where everything depends on whether you will get sucked into the day to day lives of these people. But even then when you find yourself hooked to the screen, and admire each shot for its perfection and at the same time you connect with the characters all of them being from radically different eras.
The music plays a huge part in the movie and sets the gloomy mood of the movie throughout – especially in the second and third stories. In fact, in the second story, there is no spoken dialogue at all. Though you can see people speaking, all you hear is a long musical piece in the background, and you get to see what is spoken written on the screen like in a silent movie. The first story is played on the background of two soulful songs – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by The Platters and Rain and Tears by Aphrodite's Child. I became an instant fan of these two songs. I would love to go back to watch this movie again just to listen to these songs with great visuals and atmosphere of love and longing.
Qi Shu gives electrifying performances as May in the first story, the singer in the second, and as the girl torn between the loves of his boyfriend and a girl. Chen Chang is also brilliant – particularly in the first and last story. The best part of the movie is the direction, where Hou keeps you riveted for nearly two hours without much of any story. Overall, this is one of the best movies I have seen in recent which I would love to watch again and again.
http://vishwas8317.blogspot.in/2012/12/threetimes.html
Wanee wa Junah (2001)
Wanee & Junah
This is probably the second Korean romance which I have seen. The first movie which I saw around 8 years ago was the brilliant My Sassy Girl. And today on a lazy Saturday was just browsing UTV World Movies, and caught this captivating romance, which came in the same year as My Sassy Girl.
Named as if it is one of the eternal love stories like Romeo & Juliet, Laila Majnu, Veer Zaara, it is hardly anything like that. Instead, it deals with many mature themes at multiple layers, which many people will find as a kind of a taboo or even repulsive. But it is shown with so much sensitivity and subtlety that you end up caring for the main characters.
Wanee is an animator, having a live-in relationship with Junah, who is trying to put his foothold in the movie industry as a writer on his own terms. Things get complicated when Wanee's old friend visits her, and unearths memories of her first love, who happened to be her stepbrother.
Making his debut as writer-director, Yong-gyun Kim creates a perfect poignant atmosphere, where in the beginning when you see the two young protagonists, who should be living happily with each other, but there looks something missing with them. When Wanee gets reminded of her past love, she gets so involved in her memories, that it becomes a love triangle, without being an actual one. The third person in the love triangle is not a person, but memories of Wanee's stepbrother. Many people would have considered falling in love with one's stepbrother as a taboo, but having already witnessed a similar story line in the 7th season of Showtime TV series – Dexter, I was very much open to it.
The performances are extraordinary, especially by Hee-seon Kim as Wanee shows great subtlety in her performance. It's a shame that she hasn't been in anything major since this movie. Though Jin-mo Ju was just fine as Junah, it was Seung-woo Cho as Yeong-min, Wanee's stepbrother who gave a very competent performance. I would love to watch a full movie which shows just their love story.
Overall, I would recommend it to anyone who would like to experience some of Asian cinema. Try to catch it on UTV World Movies sometime, watch it with an open mind and I am sure you'll love it. And after having a very good experience with two Korean movies, I am going to search for more in Korean cinema.
http://vishwas8317.blogspot.in/
American Horror Story: I Am Anne Frank: Part 2 (2012)
I Am Anne Frank - Part 2
5th episode into the 2nd season, American Horror Story is impressively following up on the legacy of the 1st season, and remarkably holding on its own.
The fifth episode – I am Anne Frank – Part 2, shows that Sister Jude getting suspicious of Dr. Arden after getting somewhat convinced that Anne Frank was telling the truth. Dr. Thredson keeps on helping Kit and Lana. And finally, the identity of Bloody Face is revealed.
Though I saw it coming who was Bloody Face, but the creators revealed his identity too soon as compared to last season, when it was pretty late in the season when they revealed the identity of Rubber Man. They better make sure that other twists in the story, the alien arc and the creatures / monsters sub-plots live up to this one. Similarly, I would have liked to see the character of Shelley a bit more. Too bad that they made her a monster so soon.
It will also be very interesting what route the character of Sister Eunice takes. Also, I am sure that Monsignor has many secrets hidden under his sleeve, which hopefully we will witness next week. Regarding the characters of Kit and Grace, I am not too excited by their story, but very interested in alien angle nevertheless.
In terms of performance, Jessica Lange was so brilliant, particularly in the scene when she talks about her childhood, that I would not be surprised if she wins Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress this year as well (or will it be Best Actress this time around?). Other actors who are a treat to watch are James Cromwell, Lily Rabe and Zachary Quinto. I personally can't wait to see the team of Dr. Arden and Sister Eunice wrecking havoc in the asylum.
The thing which I absolutely loved was the wicked sense of humor in Anne Frank's story when her husband comes looking for her. Looking for more such innovations in the future episodes, and till now I am not disappointed!
http://vishwas8317.blogspot.in/
Black Friday (2004)
Simply Brilliant!!!
The tag-line of Black Friday says 'The Shocking Truth Behind the '93 Bombay Bomb Blasts'. No matter how much you prepare yourself for it, you will still be getting shocked by it.
I was waiting so desperately for the movie ever since I came to know about Anurag Kashyap. I was mesmerized by one of his interviews in which he blasted all the conventional thinking present in Hindi cinema. Finally it got released after 2 years of ban.
So the movie claims to be the truth behind the Bombay Blasts. It not just covers the Bombay Bomb Blasts but also other events that led to them, like Babri Masjid demolition, and riots after that. But still it is a version of Anurag Kashyap (or rather S Hussain Zaidi, on whose book the movie is based). It follows the same pattern of chapters given in the book.
The depiction of what all happened is the closest one can ever get to the reality on big screen. And the inclusion of various real video footages, which apart from making the movie sometimes seem like a documentary, only enhances its credibility. The shooting is done at all the real places and that makes it much more real. For some scenes, even hidden cameras were used to capture genuine reactions of people. And even after being a two year old movie, it is technically brilliant.
Calling this movie great would be a gross understatement. Everything in the movie is just perfect. It has entered my list of all-time favorite movies. The actors seem like they were born to play these roles only. Pawan Malhotra as Tiger Memon and Kay Kay are steal the show while others like one playing Badshah Khan are also no less wonderful in their portrayal. Other aspect is that how daring the movie is. It openly takes names of various real political personalities, who are alive today (Advani, Thakrey, Jethmalani) and shows how the training camps are organized in Pakistan by ISI to give training to jehadis.
As far the message of the movie goes, I think every Indian should see the movie and understand that violence is not the mean to achieve anything. Watching what kind of things people do to each other in the name of religion sometimes makes me feel ashamed of my religion. Don't miss this movie for anything.