Inglourious Basterds [2009] – Hall of Fame

Tarantino movies are always about criminal acts gone wrong. In most of his movies,his characters always seem to plot some really ingenious plan,which topple like dominos when some minor flaw gets exposed and this failure of plans and the subsequent commotion is what drives Tarantino’s plot forward. Inglourious Basterds also follows the same technique so does Pulp fiction and Reservoir dogs. But neither Pulp Fiction nor Reservoir dogs has impressed me and consider both overrated. In short I never really was a fan of Tarantino works,But this movie is definitely an eye opener!

The Basement Bar Scene

The Movie opens with a Jewish girl,Shosanna who escapes from the slaughter of her family by the SS Colonel Hans Landa,who is better known by his nick name, The Jew Hunter. A few years later, in German-occupied Paris, Shosanna  has the opportunity to burn down the Film theater where the Nazi propaganda film’s première is held. The real catch of the situation is that the première is attended by the Nazi élite which includes the Führer .  Shosanna’s avenge plot is only one of the three threads that are crisscrossed  in this movie.  While the girl fine tunes her plan to perfection, Lt. Aldo Raine [Brad Pitt],puts together a special Jewish-American force who are trained trained solely for one business and that is the Nah-tzee  killing business. The all-Jewish killing squad includes Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), aka “the Bear Jew”, who beats Nazis to pulp with his baseball bat, Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), a former soldier in the German army, who holds an impressive record in killing German officers, and other six American Jews who are in this ”booming business”. The third thread in the plot includes Winston Churchill conspiring to join the The Basterds in their mission by sending a commando who in his civilian life works as a movie critic with his specialty being German cinema!With a German actress-turned-Allied-spy (Diane Kruger) on their side, the British devises this “ingenious” Operation Kino, which is aimed at wiping out the SS high command. And when this plan is set into motion,the acts gets wrong completely and rest you can watch it in the screen.

Melanie Laurent - Shosanna

The ensemble cast which mainly consisting of American and German actors are one of the main highlights of the movie. And the highlight among the highlights is the Austrian born Christoph Waltz.The extent of success of this actor can be known from writer’s own words,as Tarantino has once said he feared that he wrote a part that was unplayable! Col. Hans Landa‘s[Christoph Waltz as the The Jew Hunter] character throws in a lot of “coin toss” scenes [No country for old men] which generates a lot of tension thanks to Brilliant portrayal by Waltz and superb writing from the maker himself. Every time Hans Landa enters the screen,the scene gets electrified and makes the audience uneasy. Mélanie Laurent does justice to her character by limiting herself into what her character demands,In short she doesn’t over do it. But in turn, both Brad Pitt and Eli Roth over do it,only because the larger than life characters demand it !Diane Kruger may have done the best role in her career with Bridget von Hammersmark.

The Coin toss scene in Inglourious Basterds

The movie is completely over the top when it comes to the plot,visualisation and the characters,actually no surprise there considering its a Tarantino film.The plot really is blown up,far from what history books says but still the movie is pure fun at its best!It seems that Quentin Tarantino made this movie to celebrate the phenomenon of cinema.Cinema acts like a silent but expressive character through out the movie.Brad Pitt’s mannerism closely resemble to the legendary Marlon Brando. We see Hitler laughing like he was nuts[Should I really use the word "like"?] when he sees Allied soldiers being killed by a German soldier and how Hitler sees cinema as an important medium. We also see how Nazis viewed cinema seriously and usage of it to spread Nazi ideologies and antisemitism. The character Lt. Archie Hicox, played by Michael Fassbender is actually a movie critic with exceptional knowledge in Nazi Cinema whose knowledge plays a crucial role in Operation Kin’s success. Then there is Bridget von Hammersmark,a German Actress who doubles up as a british spy,the femme fatale in this movie.There seems to a lot of other cinema references in this movie but it would be punitive to load up the entire page with it.But i would like to add one more and the best comes last.I still don’t know if Tarantino meant to do this but still…Perrier LaPadite,the French dairy farmer played by Denis Menochet has a striking resemblance to Stanley Kubrick!  But interestingly Hans Landa is the one who does the Kubrick stare.

Brad Pitt-Marlon Brando;Kubrick-Menochet

When Inglourious Basterds moves towards its end credits, a character says something like “I think this just might be my masterpiece”. As soon as I heard it,I suspected that Tarantino placed that dialogue with an ulterior motive.And when i checked Wikipedia,my suspicions were laid to rest when I learnt that he consider this movie or screenplay to be precise,to be the greatest work he has ever done.As a viewer I have to agree that this is his best work till date.For me it even qualifies to be termed as a modern-day classic!

P.S-The movie’s title is a tricky one.Every time I type the movie’s name,the spelling and grammar thing on my blog platform corrects me!Even though Tarantino refuses to explain why he made this “supposed” typo,the rumor going around the internet is that it was used to distinguish itself from the Italian war movie “Inglorious Bastards”.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 [2011]

 

 

 

Harry Potter is still in the hunt to find the remaining 3 horcruxes to defeat/kill his archnemesis once and for all. The movie starts right off from where it ended in the Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part -1. He needs to find and destroy the horcruxes which contain parts of Voldemort’s soul. Harry,Ron and Hermione break into Gringotts bank’s underground vault and back to Hogwarts itself to destroy the remaining horcruxes.

 

 

The series has come a long way since the first installment of this epic series. Harry is no longer the innocent and charming boy- next- door we saw in Harry Potter and The Philosophers stone. He has grown into an adult with the responsibility of saving the wizarding world  weighing down on his shoulders! And Daniel Radcliffe has been at his best in this film when taken a look at all the earlier films in the series.  Rupert Grint and Emma Watson has shorter screen space in the movie and Alan Rickman may have even toppled the duo when it comes to the importance of supporting cast due to the fact that Severus Snape is a pivotal character in the finale . Alan Rickman surprised the audience with his truly marvelous depiction of Snape’s previously unknown emotional side just with some short words and a tear drop. There are some truly delightful character moments from Neville Longbottom and Professor Mcgonagall which not only brings some relief to the tension in the plot but also moves the audience into applause.Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort is epitome of evil!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 can surely be called as intense battle movie.David Yates take on Gringotts “bank job” surpasses any Harry Potter fan’s imagination. The overall dark and murky treatment of the visuals of the film is consistent Yate’s earlier potter works.Unlike part 1 , the script work in this movie is more pacy and the momentum picks up by each and every scene.*Spoiler Alert*. The scene in which Harry meets his dead dear ones before his walk towards impending death is unarguably[for me] the greatest scene in the entire harry potter series. And the director requires special appreciation in portraying the scene like every HP fan would have wanted*Spoiler Alert*. The special effects and the set direction team requires a mention as the intense battle scenes in the grand castle of Hogwarts was truly jaw-dropping. The battle scenes are filled with some really sick special effects which quite efficiently utilizes every single thing digital “magic” has to offer.

David Yates, since his first harry potter flick[Order of Phoenix] has had a history of  deviating from his source material and through this movie, he takes it to a whole new level. The movie has a completely different climax except that the final outcome of the climax stands true to the book’s one. The kings cross station scene was not up to  the mark, as it was not quite engaging as it was in the book.But nevertheless the final harry potter[possibly] film satisfies even the HP illiterate because the fight between good and evil transcends languages and boundaries.

The end,the bittersweet moment was truly rewarding for every Potter fan! David yates has created a visual extravaganza which easily becomes a fitting finale to the whole harry potter phenomenon!

Rating-  [/5]

 

 

 

The Great Dictator[1940]-Hall of Fame

The great dictator begins with an interesting note,”Any resemblance between Hynkel the dictator and the Jewish barber is purely co-incidental’. Well considering the fact that Chaplin’s evergreen Tramp character sports a mustache which highly resembles Hitler’s and that they were both born with in a week in the same year,everything between Chaplin and Hitler seems coincidental. Like that there seems to be a lot of physical similarities between the both except for their outlook.

In 1940 when the film was released, America did not consider Hitler as a potential danger and their government followed a policy of non-intervention at first when it came to matters dealing with Europe. Not even American Jews viewed Hitler as an archetype of evil. And there lies Charlie Chaplin’s great vision in projecting Hitler as we now know.

Hitler vs Chaplin

The Great Dictator is Chaplin’s first talkie, leaving behind his stardom of the bygone silent era. Chaplin plays the dual roles of commiserate ,nameless jewish barber and Adenoid Hynkel,a despotic dictator who rose to power in Tomainia while the former was recovering from an injury induced amnesia after World War I.The antagonist in this movie is most definitely Hynkel[read Hitler] but we never feel any sort of revulsion towards the dictator,mostly because we don’t have time to be disgusted with him.Charlie chaplin plays his role as if he was born to caricature hitler and he is so effective that he imitates hitler’s way of speaking[with saliva all bursting out while he is at a speech!] with utmost precision and yet makes us laugh for its apparent buffoonish overtones.There are plenty of side cast in this movie who play important roles and add humor to the excellent script of Chaplin but the one who stands out among them all is unarguably Chaplin himself.

Chaplin has used music in this movie to an undefinable level,incorporating into his physical comedy with great dynamism.Two particularly noteworthy scenes are “The shaving” scene and the ‘Globe-ballet” scene.Both these scenes are blended with classic musicals with such a perfection only Chaplin could manage.The director-actor equation seems to be in perfect equilibrium for chaplin becuase the way he amalgamated the tragic realities of holocaust and comical side of nazi authoritarianism is really a work of genius.With all that has been said, there is no denying the fact that there are some moments in the film where tongue in cheek dialogues and physical buffoonery can be tiring.

Hynkel With Globe

Chaplin shows the lives of Jewish people with great respect and doesn’t force anything on the viewers.For Chaplin The Great Dictator was a really personal movie and this is clearly evident from the barber’s emotional speech about humanity at the end of the film.Throughout the film barber sports an artificial voice for his dialogues but for the final speech, it seems the voice is coming directly from the Chaplin’s heart.

More than 70 years since the movie’s release, Chaplin through his satire on totalitarianism and its evils is still able to move,inspire and tickle the funny bones of audience at the same time.And that definitely qualifies this movie for a place in The Great Movies list of Movie Junkyard.

Trivia

1.Some of the real life characters and names of geographical locations caricatured by Chaplin.

::Hitler-Dictator  of Germany - Hynkel – Dictator of Tomainia

::Mussolini-Dictator of Italy   - Napaloni – Dictator of Bacteria

2.During Hynkel’s speech, there are several recognizable German words used. Most popular are “Wienerschnitzel” (a Viennese style breaded veal cutlet), and “Sauerkraut” (a kind of sour preserved cabbage). Others are “Leberwurst” and “Blitzkrieg”. Though some other utterances vaguely resemble words in German, the speech is actually gibberish. Several times in the film, Hynkel utters “cheese und cracken!” in the context of an obscenity.

3.When this film was released, Adolf Hitler banned it in Germany and in all countries occupied by the Nazis. Curiosity eventually got the best of him and he had a print brought in through Portugal. He screened it not once but twice. Unfortunately, history did not record his reaction to the film. When told of this, Charles Chaplin said, “I’d give anything to know what he thought of it.”

4.Charles Chaplin blinks fewer than ten times during the entire final speech, which lasts over five minutes.

Reference-IMDB

To Kill a Mockingbird [1962]-Hall of Fame

When I first saw American Film Institutes list of Greatest movie heroes of the 20th century,i was really disappointed to not see the The blonde’s name on the list.I have always thought Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of Blondie was the ideal example of being a hero and that was the time when I associated masculinity with heroism.But times have changed and I don’t blame AFI who voted Atticus Finch as greatest movie hero ever.

To kill a mocking bird which was released in 1962 is a perfect example of how the charm of the source material can transform the movie into a classic.The movie is based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer winning novel of the same name.The story by Lee is so intricately carved that it brings out the depression era of America quite soulfully through the eyes of  6 year old  Scout played by Mary Badham.The movie begins with her Voice Over Narration ”Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932, when I first knew it.”This fact is quite effectively established by the slow yet involving pace of the movie.Scout’s father, Atticus Finch is a lawyer and a bona fide one at that.The role played by Gregory Peck is a widower with 2 kids,Jem and Scout.

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch

The most part of the movie deals with Scot and Jem‘s adventures with Dill who is spending his summer with aunt Stephanie.They go spy on Maycomb’s supposed boogey man Boo who is said to be chained to his bed.There are lots of scenes in this movie which makes the audience nostalgic about their childhood.Mean while as a parallel yet linked storyline Atticus Finch is defending a black man who is alleged to have raped a white woman.This part of the movie brings out the social structure of America that was prevalent in early part of the 20th century where black  people were subjugated more intensely.The scenes in which Scout and Jem are taught by their father about different perspectives through which one has to look at people’s characters before assessing them are quite heartening.There is a dialogue in the movie which I found really interesting where Finch asks Scout whether she knows what a “compromise ” means to which Scot answers rather innocently “bending the law?”.

Jem and Scout

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch is marvelous.He plays his role with such perfection that his role is said to be an inspirational factor for many who take up law as their profession.Mary Badham as Scout and Philip Alford as Jem were a delight to watch as their performance brings  out the sinlessness of childhood.But almost all other characters in the movie look like mere caricatures[except may be Dill played John Megna] thanks to mediocre direction.

Even though Mulligan was able to reflect the warmth in the movie,it has too many structural flaws both in the script and its execution.Mulligan maybe doubted for his sincerity when he visualizes a novel which puts forward the prejudices against a colored man in the society.For example black men shown as relative and the friends of the accused are always shown in the background with little dialogue whatsoever.Their casting makes us feel that they were just being used by the director to fill  the screen space.Even though a lot of screen time is dedicated to unnecessary white characters, the wife of Tom Robinson[accused] is given not even a single complete dialogue.The execution of climax by the director seemed forced and half-baked.

This movie would have been sure shot nominee for my all time best movie for its story,characters and the lead cast.But sadly Robert Mulligan’s direction is no great shake.But still when my rational side of a movie buff says the movie is good, my heart says it is great.And since for a movie, soul is the only thing that ever matters and hence I am adding this movie to Movie Junkyard’s Great Movies list.

P.S-When you see the film take a close look at “Boo” Radley,well he is none other than Robert Duvall who is known for his dialogue “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”[ Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore in the movie "Apocalypse Now"]

Udaan[2010]

udaan

17 year old Rohan returns to his hometown,Jamshedpur after 8 long years as he was kicked out of his boarding school for unruly behavior.His return was not really welcoming as his uncaring and tyrant father was not really happy with the fact that Rohan’s engineering career will be in ruins since he wont be admitted to a good college.To make the matters worse,Rohan discovers that he has a half brother.Rohan aspires to be a writer but his authoritarian father has other plans for him.He makes Rohan to work in his factory and study engineering.The whole story of this movie revolves around the troublesome relationship of father and the son.

The movie was at first marketed as a coming of age film.Even though the” coming of age” part remains to be a major act  throughout the film what makes the screenplay involving, is the relationship between family members involved in the film.The script remains the huge plus point which is laden with characters etched from real life.
Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap has woven the screenplay in such a way that it hits the viewer hard emotionally.And that plays a huge part in the success of the film.The story is very relatable and heartrending that we feel connected with the characters throughout the film.The only downside of the movie i can mention of about this movie is the the second part which is a bit lagging.Motwane could have cut short his movie by atleast 10-15 minutes.

Motwane’s casting made it sure that well woven characters in his screenplay was well enacted on the screen.  Ronit Roy’s portrayal of Bhairav Singh was the best among the spectacular cast. His portrayal of the impassioned and brutal father was really affecting. Rajat Bermecha’s depiction of Rohan Singh requires special mention as he skilfully manages the two important shades of his character,Rebellious yet anguished. Aayan Boradiaa who plays Rohan’s  half brother Arjun  is really a revelation as he easily provides the necessary mildness in the screen to counteract his father’s mercilessness.

I really had a difficult time writing about this movie as it is really difficult to write about a story that is heavily laden with emotions. Udaan’s scenes will lingers in audience’s mind due to the perfomance driven screenplay which is beautifully crafted by the debutant director, Vikramaditya Motwane. The movie will definitely be remembered for its scene finale which really makes the viewer understand the meaning of the movie’s title. Flight,which symbolizes freedom.

Rating-     [/5]

Apoorva Raagam/Body Guard/Pokkiri Raja

Apoorva Raagam

Apoorvaragam is the story of three youngsters Roopesh (Nishan), Nancy (Nithya) and Tommy (Asif Ali). Roopesh has always been in love with Nancy, but has never had the nerve to express it. For Nancy, love is something that is beyond words. Tommy is the perfect Cupid, who would make things happen for these two. Slowly Roopesh and Nancy falls in love.

Apoorva Raagam is a movie so heavily laden with twists and turns that it looks all artificial.The problem lies with the screenplay which is structured in such a way that it is reminiscent of the B grade horror movies churned out from hollywood beacuse of its ill fitting twists which are designed to provide shock value.And that brought the movie down.The only good thing about the movie is Nithya Menon who essayed her role quite convincingly.

Rating- [/5]

Body Guard

Bodyguard revolves around young Jayakrishnan (Dileep), who has a very strange habit; he adulates anyone with a trace of heroism. Whenever he develops an admiration towards a person, he prefers to move with that person as a sort of bodyguard. He starts admiring Ashokan (Thiagarajan), a former liquor tycoon and leading businessman. Jayakrishnan wants to be Ashokan’s bodyguard, but Ashokan does not need a bodyguard. later, Jayakrishnan approaches Ashokan with a recommendation from someone he cannot refuse. He achieves his luck after saving Ashokan from danger.

Jayakrishnan thus becomes the bodyguard of Ashokan’s only daughter Ammu (Nayantara). Jayakrishnan follows Ammu to her college as her bodyguard. Ammu and her friend Sethulakshmi (Mithra Kurian) gets irritated with him following them all day.

Body Guard is one of the better films I have seen in the recent years.Its  kind of a movie that is expected from a director like Sidique who is renowned for making movies with a great sense of humour.The movie has an unusual yet refreshing screenplay which caters to the need of some comic relief.But that doesn’t mean the screenplay is not flawed,especially in the first half of the movie in which it is half baked.Dileep has donned his role remarkably well and it maybe one of the better roles he has done in the past decade. Surprisingly Nayanthara has done a good job and newcomer Mithra Kurien looks promising.

Rating-  [/5]

Pokkiri Raja

I dont want to strain my mind nor my fingers to write the plot of the Pokkiri Raja.But I will say some thing about a Prithviraj starrer film called Vellithira.In that movie style raj is a drifter who moves from place to place with a projector and shows the movie to public for a living.And that movie has been made by putting together scenes from different films of Rajnikanth.It seems like director of Pokkiri raja is yet another version of style raj (or maybe style raj 2.0).

Vyshakh Abraham’s pokkiri Raja has bits and pieces of various telugu and tamil B grade masala.It doesnt doesn’t even comes in the genre of Tamilspired Masala films which are atleast entertaining[well atleast some of them...].Seems like this film likes to look upon itself as parody of masala films but it has failed miserably.It doesnt even come close to entertaining.But it still it remains a mystery as how this movie has got a 150+ days run.[maybe this shows the detiorating Quality of malayalam cinema!]and oh yeah,Mammooty and prithviraj stars in the movie along with shriya sharan.Blah!

Rating- [/5]

Casino[1995]

In 1983, Sam “Ace” Rothstein (De Niro) exits a restaurant and gets into his car, which explodes when he turns it on. Sam then narrates the story, and flashes back to the beginning.BOOM!Yes,the movie starts with a bang and this isn’t the only bang involved especially because of the violence involved in the film!Thanks to Nicky Santoro[Joe Pesci],the ultimate badass in town who happens to be a childhood friend of Sam Rothstein now runs an A-list casino named Tangiers in Vegas.

Some mob bosses wanted Sam to be the casino boss so they could “skim” off the money that is flowing in through the casino.Sam does his job well and money starts flowing across the Las Vegas desert towards the gangsters.All was well until the hot-headed Nicholas “Nicky” Santoro makes an appearance at the “sin city”.I havent seen any other director of Scorsese’s class stereotyping his own characters in a movie.The only time I have seen Joe Pesci[as of now] is in Scorsese movies[with an exception of a comedy film],and every time he is the same bad ass gangster in all Scorsese movies and he helps in getting the movie into “most uses of the word fuck in the movies” list.

Sam Rothstein’s trouble starts when Nicky Santoro begins an organised gangster roll in the city.Whenever nicky gets in to trouble Rothstein’s name is also dragged into the news due to his long time association with Nicky.In the mean time Sam falls for a call girl,Ginger and makes her to marry him by showering her with expensive  jewelery,clothes and all other stuffs of the luxury kind.Finally Sam and ginger easily became the “happily married” couple in Vegas.But the happy times soon comes to an end when Sam realised that his wife still maintains contact with her Pimp boyfriend back in town.All hell breaks loose in their marriage life.The role Ginger McKenna played by Sharon Stone fetched her the Academy Award.And she deserves it because every time she is on-screen she defines the word “bitch”.The funny thing is Ace knows that Ginger is a bitch and he even admit it through his narration,but he just cant shut his world to Ginger because he is madly in love with her.So madly in love that he  buys millions worth of jewelry just for her and puts millions of dollars in cash in a bank under her name.Through out his narration,he says that he is doing all this because he trust his wife as though he has a doubt in his mind.De Niro effectively evokes sympathy for Sam, and Pesci and Stone does their best to evoke hatred!

Casino is full of Voice over narration of its lead characters.Just after the opening sequence the narrations start explaining how the mobsters skimmed money off the casino.The information is in very fine tuned detail that I found it very hard to comprehend how the system worked.Maybe that’s the point,Scorsese just wanted us to understand that gangsters looted money from the casino.Maybe he just wanted the audience to get the feel of how fast system works  and how complicated it is.Scorcese brings a lot of energy into the movie through the rich and well contained dialogues in the pacy screenplay.The 3 Hour running time just felt like a whiz as the movie was entertainment at its best.Robert De Niro once again proved that he belongs to the list of class actors.Joe Pesci still remains god to the real life gangster.No one is better than Pesci when it comes to Bad Ass gangster!

Casino,for me is one of the best works by Scorcese,it is on par with Taxi Driver and The Aviator.The movie has such ferocity and momentum which makes it one of the best American Crime movie made till date.To pay tribute towards the number of “fuck” and its derivatives used in the movie I must say that this a Fuckin great movie!

P.S-Many critics say that “Casino”  is the final chapter of his Gangster movies.But i don’t think so,”Gangs Of new York” is a gangster movie based in  19th century.Gangsters are always gangsters,Knives and guns are the only difference!