Tag: Movies

Idiocracy

Prasad Ajinkya5 Comments

idioThere have been sci-fi movies and there have been sci-fi movies; But none like this one. In any sci-fi movie, you expect the human civilization to be so ultra advanced and modern, that it is set to baffle the viewer of today. It’s always shone as a rosy picture that technology being at a zenith with everyone striving to do more. Well maybe I went overboard with the striving bit, but I am sure you get the picture, right?

Idiocracy is different in this regards, it paints the real picture and drives home a point, that if the world continues as it is currently, then this scenario might just come out to be true. Especially in the developed countries (I wonder why they call them developed countries?) – See the major nations for a change, all of them have skilled labor problems. People do not have an incentive to do more … to become what they could have aspired for. What countries like India now need to do is learn from this and ensure that our people do not make the same follies.

Don’t worry, if you do not wish to think over this so much, then just watch the movie and laugh it out. Worth a watch, better still if you can think.

Luck By Chance

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449px-LuckbychanceWent to see Luck By Chance this week. Yes on a roll here. And extremely free :-).

Farhan Akhtar impressed everyone through Dil Chahta Hain. Many called it over-rated, but I loved the freshness of the movie. Then came a string of decent hits … then came Rock On, when people could actually put a face to the director. Imagine a 32 year old father of two, becoming a heart throb of Bollywood. People were calling him an overnight success and a lucky boy.

I guess that’s why he decided to make Luck By Chance. Luck By Chance shows us the life of a typical struggling actor and what are the sacrifices they have to make in order to make it big. Not to mention the paparazzi and affairs and the wheeling and dealing that one has to do in order to shape one’s career. Its startlingly true, and its being accepted by mainstream cinema. Akhtar is not a fluke kid, but a genuine all-rounder when it comes to films.

Give the movie a go, I do not want to put forth all the details in the movie, but suffice to say that its recommended watch. Movies like this make me think that Bollywood still has a chance.

Outlander

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Outlanderposter The Vikings have a legend amongst them. A story about how an outsider came from another world, and saved their tribes from a terrible monster. This is the basic outlay, multiple movies have been made on this theme, yes. Beowulf (the animated version), The 13th Warrior (Antonio Banderas) and finally Outlander to name a few. Michael Crichton has also penned a book on the same theme. The different thing about Outlander is that it actually managed to plug a few holes in the story and come across as a more coherent legend. Not to mention FX.

Outlander takes us to the past, time of the Vikings when our hero who has come from another world (who surprisingly has the same physiology as us humans, beating the theory of evolution to the ground) and with his ship comes a terrible creature … the Moorwen. The creature in its bloodlust wreaks havoc amongst the hapless Vikings. Its upto Kainan (the hero) to reunite the tribes and forge his modern technology with the Viking weapons to bring the creature down and kill it before it can spawn more of its kind.

I would suggest download the torrent and watch it on your machine rather than spending those hard earned rupees in a theatre. Good movie if you have friends, chips and some ale to give you company.

Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans

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Underworld_Rise_of_the_Lycans_poster This week went to the movies with the missus. Fortunately she likes action movies especially ones with magic and the ilk. Rise of Lycans was it. Underworld fans, spoiler alert!!

The movie is actually a prequel to the previous duology of movies. It starts off as the base for the next two movies. The story is about the love between the princess and daughter of the Vampire King Victor and the first of the Lycans (werewolves who can control their abilities). Needless to say Victor does not approve between this unholy alliance and his fury ensues. Battered and loveless, Lucient (the first second generation werewolf) arises from slavedom and starts a rebellion to overthrow the vampires.

Overall, its a good movie with all the familiar faces of the duology back in action. It also tells us small information about some of the characters. Why are they what they are in the next two movies. Pity you dont get to see Kate Beckinsale much in this movie!!

Wall·E

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walle This weekend we decided to catch Wall-E, thanks to my best friend Ashish‘s suggestion. I am not such a great fan of Pixar, I love their culture, but not much of their art … well, that things changed now! I mean, I like animated movies … the effects and all that jazz, but why would you resort to toons … only because you cannot render the same effects in real life? C’mon … give me a break here. Then came a genre of movies which used toons to good effect, and how!! KungFu Panda, Finding Nemo … and now this. This is the coup de grâce of why you should look at animated movies as a serious competitor to other motion pictures.

The movie takes us around 800 years into the future, when the Earth is a lonely desolate planet. It’s a touching love story of two robots, and how they rescue us human from permanent space colonization. A whopping 8.7 guys, do check this movie out.

Some radicals will always rant about AI and the terminator crap, but honestly, each machine has a fail-safe mechanism, and that can have another fail-safe. So why worry? The machine can only be as devious as its creator :-)

PS – Watch the end titles of the movie, the background changes from the initial cave drawings to hieroglyphics to sketches to classic art to renaissance art, so on. History kind of repeats itself, now with machines and humans. Awesome conceptualization.

Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay

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Harold and Kumar Movie night at my place in Hyderabad, always sees us roomies get together in my room, and watch one of the movies. Yesterday was one such day, we were determined to watch a movie, but could not decide on which. Diptesh wanted to see Hancock, I wanted to see AVP2, Jay was pretty much okay with anything that had a lot of action and sex thrown in. Finally we decided on Harold and Kumar … and what an awesome choice it was.

The movie is about two american friends who are of Indian (Kumar) and Korean (Harold) origin, and their zany adventures. I cannot stress more on the word zany, trust me. You also have the antics of Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Howser MD and of recent, How I met your Mother fame) playing himself. Go watch it if you want to laugh and not think for 2 hours on the trot.

There is also a beautiful piece of poetry in the movie … its the coup de grace

 

The Square Root of Three – by David Feinberg

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

American Pie Productions

Prasad Ajinkya5 Comments

nakedbeta

I am not that big an American Pie fan, although I have seen more than my fair share of american teen comedy movies. Quite a lot of them, watching those movies I sometimes realize that the average IQ of an american must be really low. I do not mean to be condescending or even orthodox for that matter. They are rated 5.0 and 5.4 respectively. Watch only if you have time and/or grey cells to kill.