Michael Clayton (2007)

Genre: Crime/Drama

Starring: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack

Michael (Clooney), an attorney at a prestigious New York law firm, Kenner, Bach & Ledeen, and has managed to create a niche for himself where he specialises in 'fixing' problems. Finding legal loopholes, exploiting situations, using connections and worming the client out of a situation, in short. U-North is an agricultural products manufacturing company that is facing a class action suit and is being represented by Aurthur (Wilkinson), Michael's colleague and good friend. When Aurthur starts removing his clothes in the middle of a hearing, everyone at U-North and Kenner, Bach & Ledeen are very worried. Michael is sent to fix the problem who learns of Aurthurs bipolar disorder and the fact that he has been off medication for a very long time. Karen Crowder (Swinton), the general counsel at U- North, gets hold of Aurthur's possessions and is shocked to learn that since the past three years he has been building a case against U-North rather for U-North. The movie has a beautifully sculpted story whose every moment is gripping. Sure, there was a point where things felt slow and dragged, but that was just for a very few moments until the movie rapidly picks up pace. A good complicated plot, fabulous acting by Mr. Clooney and a marvelous execution job makes this a brilliant movie to watch and debate with others, hours after it is over.

Thumbs up: George Clooney, story line

Thumbs down: Some few slow moments, everyone may not like the 'not-so-simple-to-understand' story

Rating: 8.2/10

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance/Musical

Starring: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell

The genre listed above is a big personal turn-off. People frolicking around, singing and dancing with the added melodramatic romance scenes is simply not my cup of tea. The fact that this movie turned out to be far more enjoyable than I had imagined, speaks a lot for itself. Set in the year of 1927, when movies were still silent and the new trend of 'talking pictures' was classified by many to be a passing trend that doesn't hold any water. Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) are a hugely successful on-screen duo who have created many famous romantic saga's. Don is a noted dancer, singer and performer whereas Lina has nothing but attractive looks. Her shrill and squeaky voice makes her a misfit for a talking picture but at the same time the studio management has a contract with her on which they cannot go back on. Kathy Selden (Reynolds) is a theatre artist who knows the challenges when it comes to acting while talking and believes that actors in movies are not true actors at all. When Don and Kathy meet at a party, they are both at disagreement over each others thoughts about acting but still find a connection between themselves which makes them fall in love. The movie is filled with energetic performances, mostly danced and sung by Gene Kelly himself. The overdose of music may not go down very well with many, like me, but there are still a few select performances where the moves are marvelous and anybody would appreciate it. Singing and dancing apart, the movie beautifully showcases the evolution of movies and the hilarious challenges that directors, producers and actors had to face alike. A good entertainer where one can easily skip the singing and dancing and move on with the movie.

Thumbs up: Good humour by O'Connor, fabulous song sequences

Thumbs down: Too many songs for the average person to enjoy

Rating: 8.0/10

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Genre: Crime/Drama

Starring: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke

When two desperate brothers are desperate for money and land up taking desperate measures to fulfill their needs, the results can be disastrous. Andy Hanson (Hoffman) is a senior finance executive of a company whose funds he has been regularly embezzling. His game plan is to steal enough money and flee with his wife Gina (Tomei) to Brazil. Having spent the money on coke and with the upcoming audit, he needs to collect enough money to flee to Rio and start a new life there. Hank Hanson (Hawke) is the under-confident younger brother of Andy who is unable to pay for child support and never has enough money to lead a regular life. The more aggressive and confident Andy takes his younger brother in confidence about stealing a jewelry store, something in which none of them have any expertise. The theft does not go well and the two brothers soon find themselves in a big, big mess, far from what any of them could imagine. The movie appears to be very slow at first glance but give the plot some time and it manages to capture your interest. The movie does not occur in a perfect chronological order and that might seem a little annoying but that actually forms the true essence of the movie. The climax is decent and reasonable and the multiple parallel plots add a lot of value to it. A decent crime and drama movie which some viewers might find slow but its not all that bad either.

Thumbs up: Great performances, a new angle to the conventional robbery

Thumbs down: Some might find it a little slow

Rating: 7.2/10

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

Genre: Fantasy/Action/War/Adventure

Starring: William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skander Keynes, Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes, Sergio Castellitto, Pierfrancesco Favino, Damian Alcazar, Liam Neeson (voice), Peter Dinklage

1,300 years in Narnia has passed when the Pevensie siblings were living in the real world for only 1 year. Contrary to their expectations, Narnia has changed a lot from what they last knew it to be. The Telmarines are a non-magical, human race that have put the Narnians on the verge of extinction with most of them assuming that they are already extinct. A Telmarine Lord, Lord Miraz (Castellitto) is the brother of the King of Telmar whom he killed along with all his sons, save Prince Caspian (Barnes). Now that Lord Miraz has a newborn heir, he intends to get rid of Caspian and hence pronounce himself the King of Telmar. Caspian escapes Telmar and in an act of desperation, summons the Queens and Kings of Old, the Pevensie siblings. Aslan (Neeson) has not returned and the Telmarines intend to attack the Narnians and Prince Caspian and wipe them out once and for all. The movie is a large improvement from the previous movie on multiple fronts. There is far more action, adventure and anticipation than before and the useless and immature dialogues have been thrown for something more mature and needful. It's a wholesome, entertaining fantasy- war movie that young and old can enjoy and relate to alike.

Thumbs up: Fabulous special effects

Thumbs down: Being an all-rounder there isn't much one can complain about

Rating: 6.6/10

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Genre: Drama/Romance/History/Biography/War/Action

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Jordi Molla, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish, Clive Owen

Queen Elizabeth I of England (Blanchett) was known in history for a string of reasons. She was a virgin queen who never married or conceived a child, the reason for which is not clear. She also stood up against the King Phillip II of Spain (Molla) who despised Elizabeth's Protestant belief as against his Catholic one. He consumed all of Europe in holy war to ensure that the Protestant belief was squashed and only England stood in the middle of his path. He built the famous Spanish Armada, a massive fleet of ships to charge against England which unfortunately crumbled under Elizabeth's shrewd and tactical war strategies. Elizabeth was also known to have expanded England's borders to the new world through the explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh (Owen) who founded the land of Virginia and named it after his virgin Queen. The movie is a sequel to the 1998 movie and focuses on the latter part of Elizabeth's life as compared to the earlier movie that looked at the accession of Elizabeth to the throne of England. The movie provides immense historical knowledge about Elizabeth but sadly focuses too much on her love life and focuses little on the matters of politics and state. The focus on drama and romance is not actually a bad choice but it makes the movie a tad boring. 

Thumbs up: Cate Blanchett's performance

Thumbs down: Boring bits, too much focus on Elizabeth's personal life

Rating: 6.3/10

Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Action/History

Starring: Manoj Bajpai, Jaideep Ahlawat, Richa Chadda, Reema Sen, Piyush Mishra, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Vipin Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Syed Khan, Jameel Khan

India's rural gangs and dacoits are a ruthless lot. Anurag Kashyap's latest venture traces the story of the coal mafia in the past century. Wasseypur is a small town in Erstwhile West Bengal, later a part of Bihar and now Jharkand. Soon after independence, the coal mines were distributed amongst businessman and a group of such mines came under the control of Ramadhir Singh (Dhulia). Ramadir recruits Shahid Khan (Ahlawat) to become his henchman and recruit workers to work in the mines. When Ramadir learns of Shahid's secret desire of controlling the mines for himself, he decides to eliminate him. Shahid's brother, Farhan (Mishra) escapes Wasseypur with Shahid's son, Sardar Khan to nearby Dhanbad. Years later, Sardar (Bajpai) grows up and vows to get rid of Ramadir once and for all, but not kill him, but to torture him and make suffer, bit by bit. The movie is raw and ruthless with a unique melange of motormouth characters, guns, swords, blood and loads of sarcastic humour. If some scenes can make you wince then there are an equal number of scenes that would give you a hearty life. The movie is made in two parts which were shot together but would release in a span of a few months. The biggest flaw in the movie is its endless and slow story that takes a yawning amount of time to evolve and move on. With an almost three hour run-time, the movie is not an easy watch and audiences are warned to brace themselves for a time of their life.

Thumbs up: Brilliant performances across the board, amazing humour and a great crime story

Thumbs down: Very slow to evolve

Rating: 8.2/10

Kill Bill: Vol.1 (2003)

Genre: Action/Drama/Crime

Starring:Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivika A. Fox, Julie Dreyfus, Sonny Chiba

Long story short, an attempted murder victim is out to hunt her assassins down. Short story long, The Bride aka Black Mamba (Thurman) was a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who was targeted by its members during her wedding reception. A blood bath occurred where everyone was presumed dead, including The Bride who got a bullet through her head. Surprisingly, the bullet does not kill her but puts her into an indefinite coma and she wakes up 4 years later. Black Mamba is now thirsty for revenge and O-Ren Ishii aka Cottonmouth (Liu) is target #1 and Vernita Green aka Jeannie Bell aka Copperhead (Fox) is target #2. The movie is very typical of Tarantino's style and character in every way. The subtle sarcasm and humour looming in the background that does not come out in your face but stays there simply adds to the movie's brilliance. The action is an all-and-out blood bath so stay away if you cant see the swish of a samurai sword and the head rolling on the floor with a red geyser emitting from the neck spraying itself all over the room. The random anime segments and the sudden black and white scenes with its non-chronological order add to the entertainment value of this amazing watch.

Thumbs up: Fabulous action, great film-making and Uma Thurman

Thumbs down: A slightly weak start, very slightly weak

Rating: 8.5/10