Saturday, August 24, 2002

The Insider (1999) - TV - 7.5/10. imdb
Rising Arizona - DVD - loved it. 8.5/10.
La Femme Nikita (1991) - French - slick spy movie without much substance and logic. TV - TNN. 7/10
Some Like It Hot (1959) - the original 'rafoochakkar'. marilyn munroe, jack lemmon. 6.5/10. imdb

Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Color of Money, The (1986) - Sequel to The Hustler (1961), 25 years later. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Paul Newman ages as Fast Eddie. Tom Cruise is the new kid on the block. Interesting, even if you have never played pool.
DVD. 6.5/10. imdb

Awaara, Paagal, Deewaana (2002) - akshay, suni shetty, aaftab. the real hero though is paresh rawal. he provides some hilarious moments. okay timepass.
VHS. 5.5/10

Bada Kabootar - Deven Verma produced. A C-grade venture throughout. Ashok Kumar plots a plan and form a gang to make it work. could have been interesting if the makers were interested. disheartening to see RDB gem like 'haay re haay re' getting wasted in movies such as this.
VHS. 2.5/10.

Yahi Hai Zindagi - sanjeev kumar, utpal dutt. typical south Indian family fare. sanjeev excels. rest are mediocre. the idea of the movie is fine, yet the assumptions and results are cliched. very predictable and soon gets boring.
VHS. 4/10

Friday, August 16, 2002

Fargo (1996) - A homespun murder story which actually happened. the tale is weird and fascinating. excellent performance as the pregnant cop by Frances McDormand.
DVD. 7/10. R-L1V1S0. imdb
The Hustler (1961) - paul newman. DVD. 6/10
Nine to Five. DVD. 5.5/10

Monday, August 05, 2002

Minority Report (2002)

Loews Cineplex. 7.5/10
The Chamber

TV-USA. 6.5/10
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - what a movie!. . great chemistry between newman and redford. directed by george roy hill. this story of the real western bandit duo is written by william goldman.

DVD. 8.5/10. imdb

Friday, August 02, 2002

Chandni Bar (2001) - good story, brilliantly told. madhur bhandarkar shows a lot of promise as the dir. the efforts to maintain authenticity is heartening to see, for a change (in a bollywood movie). the penchant for authenticity can be seen in sets and even the songs selected to be played in the bar. also quite uniqely, even the film used seem different for 80s and 90s, as both the image and surroundings get a polish as the story progresses into 90s.

The flaw remains in some loud performances by the supporting artists. may be it was just too difficult to match tabu and the contrast gets striking.

the movie achieves what it wants, that is to tell a bar-girl's story by walking on the thin line that divides the glamourisation and disregard of the profession. kudos..

DVD. 8/10. R-L2V1S2. 241 mins.
High Noon (1952) - a western without fights. the thing which makes it unique amongst its genre is that it focusses more into a man's dilemma than the typical stuff. very low-key affair. prod by stanley kramer. dir by fred zinnemann. gary cooper gives an oscar-winning performance. start grace kelly in a low-key role. watchable.

DVD. 6.5/10. -L0V0S0. b/w. 85 minutes. imdb