Before I begin, I must state that I have never read any of Dan Brown’ s novels therefore, when I enter the cinema for both the adaptation for the silver screen, I can say with a degree of certainty that I went into it with an open mind. With aside, let’s go into the real review about the movie.

 After watching Da Vinci Code, you cannot help but expect much more for the installment of the Dan Brown’s series. You have the high hopes of being whirled through a nail-bitting string of mind-numbing codes and clues. But somehow, this movie did not manage to give me that feel. It felt rather mild infact compared the DVC.  The cinematography, however, was more spectacular as compared to DVC.  Despite it being night shots mainly,it made me  want to just go and visit Vatican City!

The acting. Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor are definitely the two top actors. Flawless performance. The lady who played Vittoria Vetra somehow felt like she’s a ‘ka la fe’ (canto for rookie actress holding a secondary role).

The plot like all good plots had a twist in the end which made it rather interesting. Unlike the DVC which caused quite a stir with the Catholic Church, this movie however showed the Church in a very good light. I particularly like Cardinal Strauss when he told Langdon that the religion is flawed only because men is flawed. Truthfully, when I was growing up, this was basically taught to me by the dear late Reverend Father Arthur Julien; truly a servant of God. So while hearing Cardinal Strauss saying those word, it remindedly so much of Fr. Julien.

After watching this movie however, I do have some desire to want to read the book because the movie did leave out more ‘pockets’ of details which entices the viewers to want to know why things were done the way they were done!

Overall, I give this movie very worthy rating of 8/10 (you will want to go into the cinema to watch it again !  )

Ok. I think I am amongst the last few people who have not watched this fantastic epic. The movie, of course, is about Down Under set during the time of World War II. The story is told in a narrative format by a litlte creamy (A derogatory slang to refer to people who are of mix Aboriginal & Caucasian  parentage), Nullah.

The story begins when Lady Sarah Ashley (played by the gorgeous Nicole Kidman) insisted that she flies from England to Darwin, Australia where her husband, Lord Maitland Ashley is breeding cows to win the contract to supply beef to the Australian army. She, of course, thought that the cows are not the only reason that is keeping her husband Down Under, at least not the animal variety! ( this is a line from the move, I am not that brilliant to quote that! )

So there she sets off in a flying boat to Darwin but to her horror, she found that her husband has already been murdered. Allegedly by King George, an Aboriginal witch doctor. While mourning for her dead husband, she met little Nullah; who is a little intrigued by this strange Caucasian aristocrat. I’ve got to agree with this. I do not entire understand the way they do things! To cut the long story short, she founds out that her late husband’s foreman, a Mr. Fletcher (played by Faramir of LOTR, can’t rmbr the actor’s name) has been doing some hanky panky business i.e. letting some fat cheeky bulls across the Billabong into King Carney’s land. Without a moment’s hesitation, she fires him and is left with a monstrous task of herding 1500 cows from Faraday Downs to the wharf over at Darwin City.

Therefore, the first person she thought of was The Drover( played by the very yummilicious Hugh Jackman) to help her with this herculean task. The rest of the story here becomes quite predictable. From hate turns into love, yaadaa, yaadaa. Of course, there is a scene doing the wrong-side of Business! Like the rest of great epics, the hero and heroine always gets back together in the end.

The brilliant thing about the movie is definitely not the storyline because that is rather cliché. The cinematography fantastic; however was second only to the superb acting by Nicole, Hugh and little Nullah! These three actors certainly brought star quality to the whole production. Nicole has always been the regal, no-nonsense, won’t buckle under pressure kind of damsel-in-distress, while Hugh… What can I say? He’s definitely the eye-candy! Unshaven and full of manliness!

Another point to stress is that, this is based on a true story and I particularly liked the fact the producers included a little note at the end of the film that Kevin Rudd, the current premier of Australia offered the Aborigines an apology for the wrong that they did in the past.

Overall rating for this movie is a resplendent 8/10!!!

p/s: Nicole Kidman looks sooooo totally right with Wolverine rather than Mr. Minority Report!

Yes, it is another ‘foreign’ movie! Maybe this is an acquired taste

Anyway, back to business about this. Think Mongolia. Who is the first person you’ll think of? Don’t anyone dare say it’s  Altantuya. Most people would probably have answered The Great Genghis Khan. I watched a few months ago but did not really have a chance to blog about it.

I was not really expecting much from this movie after the very disappointing viewing of the utterly nonsensical boring Nomad, by the same director, Sergei Bordov and Kazakhstan. But then again while we were at our friendly DVD store, this was playing and it looked great. Lucky for us this time, this movie really did not disappoint.

Mongol, like the title, the greatest leader of the Mongolians, Temujin a.k.a. Genghis Khan. Basically a biography of this legendary figure. The suffering and the rise. The plot is very well written and guides you to how much this leader sacrifice in order to achieve the greatness that is bestowed upon him. Another part of him shown during this movie is how magnanimous Genghis Khan really is and the loyalty that he showed to his betrothed-who-then-became-his-wife, Borte is just incredible.

This movie is a great watch for the whole family and in the between parents can educate their children too a little bit in whole history of the greatest conqueror the whole have ever scene. This movie can almost rival the mighty Braveheart in terms of period war epics. Worthy of informative rating of 7/10

First of all, I must say, the whole show despite it being filmed in English with minor parts of Hindi, to me, it shows the ‘true’ India with all the filth and glory at the same time.

A story of a young boy winning one of India’s most watched shows, Who wants to be a Millionaire? just to find himself being charged on the account of fraud. The whole story unfolds when the inspector ask the boy, Jamal Malik (played by Dev Patel) how he knows ALL the answer to the questions.

I shall not give away too much of the storyline to this show. You can simply do a search and get the full account if you really wanted to. If you have watched Kite Runner, this story basically falls under the same theme. A very tragic comedy. An extremely tragic love story.

You will begin with lots of expectations that the story will end up with a happy ending but as the plot progresses on, all hopes seems to be dashed. At some point, I actually wished that I didn’t start watching this show in the first place.

In terms of the acting, the kids in this show are good but compared to the kids in Kite Runner, the kids in Kite Runner were excellent.  The only character I recognized from the show was Anil Kapoor who played Prem the host of Who wants to be a Millionaire. Other than that, of course, they mentioned Amitabh Bachchan, the actor idolized by the very young Jamal. The rest of them are relatively unknown. Despite not being famous, the acting was actually pretty good. I found myself very convinced with the characters.

This is an excellent production worthy of a very highly recommended to watch rating of 9/10. But be warned that it is a tragedy and not recommended for children without the supervision of adults as some of the plots can be too complicated for the innocent minds.

I am a sucker for romantic chick flicks. No matter how crappy they are to other people, to me they are still very much watch-able.

Uma Thurman plays Dr. Emma Lloyd (don’t know what’s the Dr there is for, shrink?), who is a radio personality dishing out advices for love!  R.E.A.L. love. She herself wasn’t doing too bad in that department. She was engaged to Richard Bratton, her publicist played by the very handsome Colin Firth.

I guess like how Colin is portrayed in this movie. He is extremely nice and very good in what he does, perfect husband candidate but this also equates him as a rather boring person.

So, what happened one day as little ol’ Dr. Emma was doing her program, a lady called in and tells her that she is having second doubts about marrying a guy whom she just met 5 months ago. She assures Emma that is no ordinary wedding jitters. Emma, the “love” guru, told the lady to ditch her guy and move on with her life, which she did!

This is where the movie slightly interesting. The guy who is being ditched is Patrick Sullivan played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan: hunky, raw male appeal  & a very sexy firefighter with the NYFD . He happens to be renting a place above an Indian restaurant and was great buddies with the owner’s kid, Ajay. Ajay is a computer expert, had managed to hack into the the States registry to change the marital status of Emma to be married to Patrick. This is their way of giving Emma a little taste of her own medicine?

This is where all the predicable things that can happen in a movie happened!

Other than the guys in the movies are super duper attractive, there isn’t really much a storyline to watch. So most folks can probably give this movie a miss!

This movie was picked up by Alex purely because we saw that the cast includes Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fatt and also it was in English. The story is based upon a real account from the writings of George Hogg, the main character.

George Hogg is an English journalist in Shanghai who wanted to go into Nanking. So much so that he swapped identity with a Red-Cross driver who is about to get married. Naturally, the Red Cross driver willingly gave up the identity, thus George Hogg and another of his journalist friend went into the warzone of Nanking delivering medical supplies.

When Hogg was there, he witness the many atrocities that the Japanese did to the local people there and managed to capture some of these on film. Unfortunately for him, his films were discovered by the Japanese authorities and he was to be beheaded for this offense. As the executioner was about to lower his katana, out came Chen (Chow Yun Fatt) and his merry men to save the day. This is that part were I was a bit lost about why a communist would want to save an Englishman from being beheaded.

After the spectacular save, Hogg was to sent to Huangshi ,on the recommendation of an Australian nurse, Lee Pearson who is a close friend of Chen. Huangshi is home to a group of boys orphaned by the war. Hogg was sent there to ‘learn’ more about China. Then comes the usual struggles he had about himself, some resistance from older boys to Hogg’s presence, etc.

As for Michelle Yeoh, she played Mrs Wang. A dealer of a variety of goods. Food, medical supplies, opium. You name it. She’s got it. Above all, Mrs Wang was a patriot. She loved China. When Hogg approached to do to ‘business’, she readily helps out. The children will work the land to provide her food in return she woulld provide the seeds for them to begin toiling the earth.

The amazing thing about the whole thing was also the journey of the children of Huangshi to Shandan. A 700-mile journey if I am not mistaken. The scenes from that journey was spectacular!

All in all, the movie had a great plot line. Shows us that in times of adversity, there are good souls who are so willing to lay down their lives in helping others. The most moving part in the movie was the ending where they did an interview with some of the Hogg’s children who are still alive. They spoke with so much admiration and gratitude of a man so different from themselves and yet did so much to ensure that they had better life.

Highly recommended for those with school going children to teach them about appreciating the things that we take for granted. Some parental guidance is needed as there are some rather violent scenes in the movie.

I have been wanting to do write a review on this right after I finished watching it but somehow, I didn’t manage to find the time. Probably it was also because of my block module, it slipped my mind.

I watched it with no prior knowledge of what the movie is about. Alex bought it based on the sysnopsis that was written on the cover. The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Khaled Housseini, a native Afghan (yes, from Afghanistan, not the blanket).

The plot is written very accurately over at Wikipedia’s. Click here. (Spoilers Alert!)

Amir and Hassan going for the kite competiton

I thought the little boys who did the potrayal for Amir and Hassan were superb! They managed to show to the audience the intense emotions of what was happening. The fear, the knowledge of being betrayed, the shame of being the coward, the bravery, the love and the pain . All the emotions you can possibly think of. In fact, I think they outshone all the adult actors in the movie.

Another thing which I liked, but am very depressed about was the realness of the show. Although I know now, that most of the scenes are shot in China, but it really made me believe that this is what Afghanistan is really like.  A cold and barren land with little natural resource.  The transition of the times was well depicted. From the monarchy rule, till the Soviet Invasion and lastly the Taliban rule.

Although this is a movie on the kids, but there are several scenes which are quite disturbing and kids, if you should allow them to watch with you, you must really guide them well. Scene No. 1 that is truly disturbing is the anal rape by an older kid, Assef to Hassan. This is his way of taking revenge on Hassan when the younger boy threatened him with a slingshot when Assef tried to bully Amir. I really cannot fathom why Assef have to resort to sexually abusing Hassan. Assef at that time was most probably around 15~17 years of age.  The scene was also disturbing because, I remembered on article in the newspaper regarding the practice by Aghanistan men of taking pre-pubescent younger boys as lovers (little boys who has yet to have deep voices and facial hair were seen as ‘women’). This is again potrayed many years later in the film when Assef is now a ‘high official’ in the Taliban rule visits an orphange on a monthly basis in the war-torn capital Kabul to have his pick of both little boys and little girls to satisfy his sadistic desires.

The second scene which was disturbing to me was when they had a football match, during half-time, some officials from the Taliban brought a woman dressed in burqa’ and another man. They have been accused on committing adultery and were to be stoned to death. To me, that scene is just too graphic.

All in all, this movie is very emotionally intense. Definitely a highly recommended watch. However, this is not for everyone because of the language, the rape scene and some violence. I rate this at a very high 8.5/10

Anyway, I am listening to this. Totally loved the song

Various Artists Way Back into Love Lyrics

Oh yes, I am talking about Bee Movie. When the trailer was up last year, it got me pretty excited. I thought we’ll be expecting another classic from Pixar. Another production to join the likes of The Incredibles and  Shrek. It turned out more like Robots instead.

Bee Movie is about one bee trying to break the mould. Instead of having just a single choice of career for the rest of his bee life, he wants to try something different. He wants to discover the world.

This production have quite an impressive cast.  Jerry Seinfeld as the leading bee. Renee Zellweger the human love interest of Mr. Barry B. Benson ( the bee). Chris Rock was in there as some blood sucking mosquito in search for moose blood! Oprah Winfrey had a small role as the judge. In my opinion, they did quite a good job in voicing the characters.

Animation wise, it was very pretty. Very much like Robots’ style. Very ‘clean’ look about it. But it also suffered like Robots, great case, good visuals yet it lacks the ‘oomph!’ I give it a very weak 5/10. Go watch it if you’re really free.

The movie is based on A Mighty Heart : The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Daniel Pearl written by Mariane Pearl, widow of the slain Wall Street Journal reporter, the movie stars Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl. Truth be told, when I saw Angelina playing the lead role of this movie I wasn’t that impressed, but I figured, What the heck just buy it for a lazy afternoon watch!

When America decided to go to war in Afghanistan, it drew a large community of journalists from all over the world, to the neighbouring country of Pakistan. So this is where the movie takes place, Karachi, Pakistan. Among those there, of course are Daniel & Mariane Pearl, both journalists in their own rights.

Danny (as he is refered to in the movie played by Dan Futterman who looks remarkably like the real Daniel Pearl) is conducting a research on shoe bomber Richard Reid. Therefore in order to get an exclusive piece of information, he goes through a series of unidentified middlemen to get the one final interview he needs to complete his article. He and his wife, who is six months pregnant is due to fly to Dubai next day en route back to America. That day was January 23rd, 2002. Danny did not return. It was also the last time Mariane saw her husband.

The story then quickly develops on the frantic search for Danny by both the American officials as well as the local Pakistani force. Angelina Jolie was fantastic in potraying all the emotions Mariane was enduring throughout the whole period. Although I usually viewed her as a sex symbol is most movies, she threw all of that persona out for this one. She really nailed the character for this one. Although she was phenomenal, the talks about her getting an Oscar for this is a little teeny bit too much. She is good, but she’s not THAT good!

What really captured my attention was how unbelievably calm Mariane’s reaction is. I am not saying that she couldn’t be bothered about her husband, but even in her worried state, she stand defiant and not let terror have a gripe over her.

I truly recommend this!