Skyfall

If there's one gripe about Bond films, it is the lack of characters. Most films feel like action sequences interwoven with the barest minimum of a story involving international intrigue. This is a formula that's served the franchise well for over 50 years now. However, in recent times with Casino Royale and now, Skyfall, character development is suddenly quite important to the cannon.

After the disappointing Quantum Of Solace, EON went back to Sam Mendes and gave him the reigns to helm the next one. Rocked by cash flow problems, the production was quite troubled and took it's fair time to get started. Daniel Craig reprised his role as Bond while a host of the Bond cannon regulars returned such as Q (Ben Whishaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris).

The story begins with Bond and Eve (Naomie Harris) chasing a mercenary, Patrice who has stolen a hard drive containing details of all undercover agents inserted by NATO in terrorist organisations around the world. This doesn't end well as Bond is mistakenly shot and presumed dead, while the names of the agents are revealed on YouTube. Bond however, returns and follows his usual around the world in 2 hours routine by dropping off to Shanghai and Macau in search of Patrice. He learns that the main player behind all this is Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), an old Mi-6 man who has his own personal axe to grind with M (Judi Dench).The film oscillates from London and then on to Skyfall estate, the place where Bond grew up.

The direction is assured and thankfully doesn't have the jerkiness that plagued Quantum of Solace. The theme of cyber terrorism is well chosen and fantastically dealt with. Javier Bardem is stunning and the most memorable Bond villain for quite, quite some time. The suave brutality he brings to the table is a welcome change and one we are thankful for as Bond would be nothing if it weren't for his villains.

M (Judi Dench) has her biggest role of the series yet and she pulls it off with nonchalance. There is this world weary look in her lined face as the realities of the decisions she has had to make have made immune to what we would call human sensibilities. Moments abound that make you marvel at her command of her character, be it her quoting Tennyson at a public hearing or ruthless decision making that could see one of her agents killed.

Daniel Craig is again fantastic and brings that vastly human factor despite being ruthless when he must. Having seen all the Bond films, I am well placed to make a judgement and frankly, Craig deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Connery and when he is done, that might yet be elevated.

Above all, there is a distinctly different aura at work in the film that sets it apart from the 22 before it. Sam Mendes must be given credit but so must Neal Purvis, John Logan and Robert Wade who pull off a miracle of sorts by coming up with an action packed story that allows for an emotional undercurrent. In what could be truly regarded as a rarity in the Bond cannon, the characters are afforded time and space for development which works like a charm.

There are also small nods to Bond's history with his origins being explored and ironic humour such as Q's "Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that anymore" and Bond driving M around in a Aston Martin DB 5 from well, Goldfinger. The shot of the tombstone of his parents is also immensely poignant to anyone who's bothered to read the books.

While being a huge, huge fan of James Bond and having religiously followed all his adventures, I will admit that it had started to feel a bit old and grossly irrelevant. But, Casino Royale and more so, Skyfall has made Bond relevant again. 

So much so, that this isn't just a good film, it’s a bloody good film

                                                                      Trailer : Skyfall

                                            

Good Will Hunting

Nearer the end of the film, Will Hunting talks about childhood domestic abuse. He talks dispassionately about how his foster father would keep a wrench, a belt and a stick and ask him to choose. His psychiatrist says he’d choose the belt. Will replies he’d rather take the wrench. When asked why, he says “Cause F*** him, that’s why”. It sums up his resentment and desire to not care for authority and more importantly indicates the damage that a disjointed childhood can do, even to geniuses and savants.

Genius is well, genius. There's a reason they call it that. It's because us common folk can't make head or tail of it. However, despite knowing or being able to figure it all out, genius could do with a hard look at reality for once. Good Will Hunting attempts to cut past the trappings of extraordinary intelligence and come up with a story that is refreshingly relevant, even 15 years down the line. Written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, directed by the enigmatic Gus Van Sant, the film won two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Robin Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Affleck and Damon.

The story kicks off with Professor Lambeau(Stellan Skarsgard) at MIT,scribbling down a difficult problem for his students to solve on a blackboard in the hallway. The question is solved by an unknown student, leading Lambeau to put up an even harder one. This time, the solver Will Hunting(Matt Damon) is caught and the professor takes note of Will's gift of mathematics.

Will, however has numerous problems of his own. Orphaned and disciplined cruelly by his foster parents, there is the classic mental block that causes him not to trust in anything for fear of abandonment. His only solace are his friends Chuckie(Ben Affleck),Morgan(Casey Affleck),Billy McBride(Cole Hauser) who are as close he any one can be to him. His excitable character gets him into trouble with the law; Lambeau saves him recognising his immense potential with the only stipulation being that he must see a shrink regularly. Will plays with the official shrink and thus the professor brings in one of his old classmates, Dr. Sean Maguire(Robin Williams) to deal with this troublesome yet incredibly gifted young man.

Along the way, Will finds time for a relationship with Skylar(Minnie Driver),a British student at Harvard. Being the reticent genius that he is, Will finds it hard to accept his feelings for her and pushes her away so that she cannot do it to him, a fear born of his orphan childhood. This makes for a scene so intense; you can feel it gnawing at you. It is said that they fell in love during the making of the film and it is almost visible in their scene. Either that, or it's some of the best acting I’ve ever seen.

Robin Williams is brilliant as the neighbourhood kid who grew up amidst violence and strife, working to remove the demons of his patients. His concern for Will is in stark contrast to Lambeau's attitude of forcing him to make the best of his abilities, rather than resolve the issues that prevent him from doing so. There is a particular scene when he tells Will that "It's not your fault", backing him into a corner from where acceptance is forthcoming .In a way, it is a scene that is so ironic it is almost funny and we'd be laughing if well, we weren't crying already. The man with a high IQ and incredible talent needs a broken down shrink to see sense, there’s irony in that.And while we're at the irony part,I might as well remark on how a janitor at MIT is better at mathematics then well,the students at probably the finest technical institute in the world.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are fantastic and do more than just justice to their roles. Initially when the film was being floated, studio executives wanted Brad Pitt and Di Caprio in the lead roles. While that may still have been a formidable cast, this one feels just right and in making Damon and Affleck’s careers in Hollywood, it’s  given us two great actors who despite all their excellent work since ,have probably never made a film this good. Matt Damon in particular is incredible as the savant kid who is smarter than everyone else, but yet can’t be bothered to prove it

On a personal note, I saw this film with a friend of mine who despite being more of a film buff than even me, opted to put it this way. She said "Any director worth his salt can make his audience shed tears of sorrow, but a director that can make you cry at redemption has truly transcended his art"

I simply couldn't agree more.

Black Swan

While looking over Darren Aronofsky's work, there is always a certain psychodrama element at work be it the remarkable 'Requiem for a Dream' or the underrated 'The Fountain'. He seems to be at his best whilst dealing with the bleak side of human nature. Certainly not Kubrick-esque but arguably the closest modern cinema can get to him. And that is in itself an achievement of staggeringly epic proportions.

In 'Black Swan', Aronofsky does not disappoint us. A film about the ballet, rather more the ballerinas, it is a look at two proverbial white and black characters. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) and Lily (Mila Kunis) play two ballet dancers in a production of 'Swan Lake' helmed by Thomas Leroy (Vince Cassel).The girls are polar opposites in the extreme with Nina's dainty ways and inherent goodness contrasting with the brash and almost libertine Lily. The concept of 'Swan Lake' where there is a black swan (evil) and a white swan (good) is central to the story. Nina is chosen to play the Swan, yet she finds it hard to display an evil side. Enter Lily, who is the archetypal Black Swan. There isn't much of a story line, just a metamorphosis of Nina's character into one resembling that of Lily's or rather White Swan to Black Swan.

Nina's character is formulaic, almost. She is as pure as a flower, a girl who's probably never been with a man. Looked after by her mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey) who was a dancer herself but put all her energies into making her daughter what she could not be. Her journey or rather metamorphosis is visceral in the extreme. Everything she does somehow filters back to her sexual repression. It could be argued that sex is but one of the fundamental choices that humans make, or rather even have the freedom to make. And when this choice isn't even an option it just adds to the mental drudgery of a too-pure-to-be-true experience. Nina's mental problems are quite possibly just an offshoot of all her desires being repressed or told off. While it is not clear that being good is her defining trait, it is more likely her mother's raising of her impregnated her against being a wee bit bad.

It is here that Aronofsky displays a control of his characters so intimate that one cannot help but marvel at his sheer brilliance. The major gripe with most people who prefer books over movies is that emotions cannot be transmitted to the screen whereas within a book, you can be inside the character's head. This is one of those rare films where you can actually enter Nina's mind space and observe how Lily causes it to disintegrate amidst chaos. Lily's character is a fascinating journey into another extreme. She is liberated and at ease with her own sexuality, a modern woman aware of the power she commands just by being her. Her conversations with Nina are indeed particularly interesting as she introduces her to a world unlike her fairyland. This different world cannot help but seduce Nina. If there's one constant in humankind from the Adam & Eve days, it is the overwhelming temptation of being bad. Nina’s mental battles to resist change are handled well and offer an insightful portrait of the mental tussle that she undergoes.

Ballet as a medium is well chosen. Simply because, it is inherently transcendental in nature. The dancers transcend their current selves in a way, to reach the graceful heights and play characters expressed only through their bodies. Natalie Portman gives a cracking performance and her perfection is scarcely believable at times. Lily is at complete ease and you feel that the role was tailor made for Mila Kunis. The ballet performances are brilliant and especially the actors who've learnt ballet just for their roles are scintillating.Indeed when Nina does her Black Swan act,we break into heartfelt applause.

The strange thing about this film was that there was no normal 'grey' character; all the characters were extremes in their own ways from the darkness of Lily and Thomas Leroy to the light of Nina and her mother. What this leads to is removal of any empathy with the audience, as there is simply no connect with any of the characters. So, while you feel horrified at what Nina is going through, you never really feel anything more than just pity at her thrill-less existence. Black Swan is an exploration into the foundations of human character and a very insightful look at why we are what we are. One wonders though, if only Nina had more sex then she probably wouldn't have had to go through all this.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is a film that could be broadly classified as a sci-fi romance. Scripted by the legendary Jason Kaufman whose scripting credits include Being John Malkovich, Synedoche and Adaptation and helmed by Michael Gondry, it is certainly a film that is 'different' and very refreshingly so.

The movie is about the life and mind of one Joel Barish(Jim Carrey).He is shy, restrained and gentle. His girlfriend, Clementine(Kate Winslet) on the other hand is everything that he is not, vivacious, foul mouthed and brash. They break up and Joel learns that she has had the memory of him removed from her brain at 'Lacuna Inc' a firm/clinic that removes people's desired memories.  Shocked, he decides to do the same. All his memories of her are being wiped out, when he realizes he doesn't want it to happen. He takes the memory of her and hides in umpteen places such as his childhood, even so that her memory isn't lost to him.

The whole thing turns into a race through Joel's mind to try and protect his memories of Clem, as he calls her. The transitions from memory to memory are a bit lacking in production quality, but the subject matter is such that it simply does not matter. It is about a romance that is almost feral in its intensity.

While the film won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, technical perfection is simply not what this film is about. Jason Kaufman's script is probably the biggest star amidst a cast of actors such as Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst. The actors chip in with performances that are delightfully understated with their characterizations being secondary to the script's musing about love and separation.

The endearing thing here is its ability to make us think. We've all wished we could forget something from our lives. And so we begin to think, should we be grateful for our memories or get rid of them if they're too painful? It isn't an easy question to answer. Clementine does because she's impulsive, Joel wants to abort because he'd rather have all those memories of the one woman who actually did love him.

The movie is summed up when in his memory, he leaves a house simply because of Clem's brashness and now when it is his last memory, she asks him to make up a goodbye at least and instead of walking away, he comes close and tells her he loves her. The house she is in is crumbling as with the rest of that memory, but we want him to hold on. We want him to have a final goodbye. Maybe as much as he does. That is where this movie wins, in getting you to emote with Joel and Clem who love each other, but have differences simply on account of being so vastly different from each other.

Jim Carrey does a fantastic job as the shy, insecure man who has loved and lost. His face betrays the emotions of a despondent man, one with sadness etched into every line. The few moments he is happy we see the difference in his smile,  that tells how unfamiliar it is for him to smile. Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst and the rest of the cast are equally good and we can understand and appreciate each ones travails.

The quote that gives the film its title is oddly fitting and comes from Alexander Pope, poet extraordinaire, forever in the shadow of Tennyson, Hardy and the like

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd

While an article could be devoted to what it means, I’ll be brief. An innocent pure woman is happy only because she has prayed for and received the gift of forgetting everything she's been concerned about. Ignorance is bliss, and such is the case for this woman.

'Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind' refers to the fact that a mind unclouded or shrouded in memories is eternally bright, like sunshine.

This isn't a great movie; not even a very well made one but reaches far deeper than most blockbusters with all special effects and no heart. As I listen to the background score as Joel travels through his Clem-less memories, the twinge of the guitar may be the twinge of his own sadness. The film put simply, has this human element. It isn't just a script or a collection of actors, it's us, people we've known and choices we've made, lives we've led...it is about all of that. And heart-breakingly beautiful...

Trainspotting

For all those who have experienced drug addiction, it isn’t just a mere fleeting high. What potent ecstasy must it brew up to allow a man to squander and fritter away his prospects, life and even loved ones ?

Trainspotting is essentially, a story. And a very well told one at that. Danny Boyle's first major feature after the criminally underrated "Shallow Grave", it presents drug addiction in a form that delights and horrifies in equal measure. Adapted from Irvine Walsh's book of the same name, it follows five friends and their dalliances with drugs in Edinburgh

Narrated by Renton (Ewan McGregor), the film is about him and his friends: Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Johnny Lee Miller),Tommy (Kevin McKidd) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle). All except Begbie and Tommy swear by drugs and regard it as their reason for existence. Begbie is addicted to violence and loves picking up fights in bars.

The film's black humour is a pleasant surprise and could be considered akin to 'Pulp Fiction' in pop culture reverence terms. However, the real strength of the film lies in it's depiction of what it believes to be a story, without any taking of sides. When Renton tells us “Choose your future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that ? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons ? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin ?"

We begin to see where this will go. The friends have no place to stay and no one to care about or for. They are truly the Lost Boys .

When Renton's parents lock him into a room to go cold turkey on his addiction, we see the full horror when he is tortured by his days of ecstasy. The drugs within him turn into enemies that torment him every second of his ordeal. His friends continue their drug fuelled ecstasy ride with disastrous consequences. Begbie's character is interesting because of his addiction to violence. He isn't so much a danger to himself as to others.

Danny Boyle does very well in bringing out what he wanted to do. He succeeds in creating a film that is fun, serious and not at all preachy. His ease is apparent in the many memorable scenes that dot the film. The music is full of the eclectic pop rock that we've come to expect from British movies and plays a major part in not letting things get too serious.

A major theme here is the one of camaraderie between the drug users. They appear to be good friends, best mates even. However, as the ending shows their friendship didn't mean that much at all. Or maybe, it was the fact that addicts do not care who comes in their way to do what they must.

Ewan McGregor as Renton is good and comes across as a character we might like to be friends with, despite all his despicable traits. His scene in 'The Worst Toilet In Scotland' is one of the most vomit inducing scenes you shall ever see and he deserves special praise for allowing himself to go through with it.

What shines through all this is however the inherent simplicity of the film. At no point does it claim to be a British 'Pulp Fiction' and simply looks like a likeable story strung together very capably. There are no complications, no deep characterisations and the almost bare bones look gives the film a character of it's own. It is what we could call a cult film. With some Edinburgh slang ('shite') and some brilliantly understated black humour, this is one film that should be watched. Not for its drug themes, not for its lessons but simply as an exercise in entertainment. And if you learn something, so much the better.

No Country For Old Men

There are some movies that are just that, movies. There are others that cross the line and stare you right in the face. No Country For Old Men obliterates this line.

Directed by the Coen brothers whose oeuvre includes movies such as The Big Lebowski and Fargo, this is a simple enough story. Set in 1970's Texas, it is a story with three men at it's centre. These men are Sheriff Ed Tom( Tommy Lee Jones), Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) and Josh Brolin (Llewelyn Moss). Their lives intersect in a mire of fate, consequences and pure evil. Adapted from Cormac Mccarthy's book of the same name, it is a highly faithful adaptation and fans of the book will be delighted with the efforts of Joel and Ethan Coen.

The movie starts off with a drug deal gone sour and a hunter, Moss (Josh Brolin) spots the scene of the altercation. He clambers down and finds dead bodies all over the place and a suitcase full of cash which he pockets. There is a barely alive man who asks him for water but Moss shows glimpses of the heartlessness that is at the core of the film by refusing to help him.

Josh Brolin as Moss

To recover the money, a psychopathic hit man, Anton Chigurh is hired. Chigurh is the archetypal psychopath with a taste for refined cruelty. A scene where he strangles a policeman to death with his handcuffs is one of the few times where his face betrays any emotion. When it does, it is an expression that could translate as pure animalistic joy, the very sensation of being alive. After his deed is done, his face returns to being a cold, violent mask.

Looking over all this carnage is Sheriff Ed Tom (Tommy Lee Jones), a veteran whose bitter and rueful humour betrays the trials and tribulations he has faced. He is tired of all the crime in the world and we hear it in the starting voice over when he says "He killed a 14-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion, but he told me there wasn't any passion to it. Told me that he'd been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he'd do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell, be there in about 15 minutes. I don't know what to make of that."

Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom

The three men and their paths intertwine and a game of cat and mouse ensues. The storyline is nothing spectacular, but the Coen brothers are masters of the unsaid. There are scenes which feature nothing more than characters shuffling across doors, waiting in anticipation. The characterisations are vivid and purposeful.

Another factor that contributes to the gloomy outlook is the lack of background music. Carter Burwell comes up with a score that sounds like an indistinct machine hum that you could hear in the street if you listened hard enough. Movies have long used background music to lead watchers on, especially horror ones. But here, this experimental score works like a charm. It breaks the barrier and transports you to dusty, hot Texas.

The film is chock full of scenes that you simply do not want to end. When Chigurh makes an unknowing shopkeeper call a coin toss to decide whether he should live or die, it is the knowledge of knowing that the man we see could die in an instant if he was unlucky enough to call wrong. Moss's wife when faced with the same situation is however aware of what that toss represents. Her defiance in not letting a coin decide rather than being the 'wimpy wife of a tough man' is refreshingly not naive.

Javier Bardem plays Chigurh to his brutal best. He rarely flinches, even when stitching up his own bullet wounds. While The Joker may probably be the best negative character of the previous decade, Anton Chigurh provides stiff competition. While the Joker came across as the devil himself with all his devilish dialogues, Chigurh is more practical, letting his cattle shotgun do the talking.

Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh

The film works so well simply because it reminds us that cinema exists beyond mindless, verbose dialogue and redundant special effects. One of the major feats that this movie achieves is in the darkness that it creates, even though much of it set in bright sunlight. The funereal atmosphere hangs like a giant, gloomy cloud engulfing us and leaving us grateful.

At the risk of sounding like a sadist who enjoys violence,  I will say this. "No Country For Old Men" is a beautiful film, with beauty stemming from it's violence. This despondency is best summed up when the sheriff says " I always figured when I got older, God would sorta come into my life somehow. And he didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I would have the same opinion of me that  he does."

There Will Be Blood

Paul Anderson is a director who i known for his exploration of different themes which quite uncommonly change from film to film. Starting with his look into the porn industry in 'Boogie Nights' and onto riveting drama in 'Magnolia' whilst taking a romcom detour in 'Punch Drunk Love', he has consistently reinvented his boundaries and been heavily praised for it.

His 'There Will Be Blood' is however a huge departure from his usual works. The oil epic is one of massive proportions and unlike anything he's ever done before. One would think that new territory for most directors is harder to cover but Anderson does a great job.

The movie is about one man and one man only, a certain Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis). We begin with him prospecting in the old Midwest and discovering oil. Despite certain setbacks, he manages to return safely and starts his own oil empire. His dogged determination and ruthless streak are apparent and it is these qualities that lead him to becoming an oil tycoon before long. However, he prefers to call himself an 'oil man’, playing to people's family instincts unlike the big state owned corporations. He adopts the baby son of an employee killed down a well and uses him as a mere prop to proclaim his respectability to the farmer folk whose lands he wants to buy. Privately, however he laces the boy's milk with whisky.

Upon being informed of a poor family that lives on oil rich land, his ambition leads him to become enslaved to corporate social ethics as he promises to build schools and better facilities for the local people. He also promises a donation to the local church run by Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) who is known for his frenetic sermons. Plainview is not impressed however, and believes it all to be a charade.

There is not as much blood as one would have thought but it is obvious that it wasn't intended to be. Oil is the driving force here and Plainview's lust for the wealth and power it brings are responsible for bloodshed. He loses an employee and his loses his hearing in an accident. It is here that we realise the extent of his callousness when he abandons his adopted son.

The plot goes on and on with a multitude of characters coming in, such as Daniel's half-brother and the big oil corporations that wish to quell the challenge of this 'oil man'. It draws on over the years with the struggle between Plainview and Eli very close to the centre. One could say that this is a highly pessimistic film with characters some way off from sanity with Eli and Daniel both shown to be almost deranged in their devotion to oil and the Church.

The film is one very long exploration of Daniel Day Lewis's character and fans of classic cinema with more dialogue and moments open to interpretation will devour it. Lewis confirms what we already know, he is arguably the best British actor of his generation and delivers a hypnotic performance with his measured syllables and pet hates all perfectly done to give us a look at who Plainview actually is. The ending sums up the paroxysm that he can work up if his beliefs are challenged and provides a fitting contrast to how we started the film, admiring him for his determination.

Another theme here at play is the father son relationship, with the sons having enough courage to stand up when needed. Indeed, the scene where Eli leaps on his father and calls him a 'stupid old man' is certainly revealing when considering how often Anderson's films have featured such a theme.

Western epics have received a huge shot in the arm in recent times with the release of movies such as 'No Country For Old Men’, ‘The Assassination of Jesse James' and 'There Will Be Blood'. While certainly not the best of the three, it is still a very intelligent film and indeed an eminently watchable affair.

The film majorly plays on the human curiosity that sociopaths stir up. It is best summed up when Plainview talks to his half-brother and says,"I’ve built up my hatreds over the years, little by little. Having you here gives me a second breath. I can't keep doing this on my own with these... people." and we all think about it for a small second only to condemn or nod our heads in silent agreement.

Total Recall

“The past is a construct of the mind. It blinds us. It fools us into believing it. But the heart wants to live in the present…”

Paul Verhoeven's 90's classic stands as one of the best sci-fi adaptations ever. The action, Arnie, Sharon Stone and the mind numbing storyline all combined for the quintessential 90's science fiction flick. Len Wiseman (Die Hard, Underworld) and Colin Farrell team up to give us their take on this classic.

Based on Philip K Dick's short story 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale', the plot has remained the same as the original with just a few differences creeping in. Instead of there being a conflict between Martian colonists and Earth’s powerful baddies, Wiseman tries for a fight between the good old United Federation of Britain (UFB) and a sleazy underworld known as the ‘Colony’ – formed by the remains of Australia. The rest of the world is uninhabitable as a result of global chemical warfare but the two habitable areas are at least connected by a huge travel shaft, known as The Fall, that runs through the core of the planet.

Farrell plays Doug Quaid, a humble Colony assembly line worker whose dreams see him as a super spy. To live his dreams he visits Rekall, a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led. The procedure goes haywire, though, and Quaid finds himself on the run, fighting the powers and trying to stop a full-scale invasion of the Colony, using the very robot policemen he’s been making for years in his day job.

The CGI is impressive as you'd expect from the director of Underworld. In fact, it is just all just too impressive and perfect. Somewhere, in this CGI jungle the film loses it's essence and becomes one of those blockbusters fuelled by special effects and machine like. Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale look good as Melina, a resistance fighter and Doug's wife respectively but that is almost all they do.

The action is good and the visuals would remind any movie fan of Blade Runner. However, that is pretty much the only 'classic' factor in the film. Chases and fights abound but all feel horribly repetitive. The director's effort seem to be directed toward giving us CGI thrills whilst forgetting the other components. Despite it's big budget and star studded cast,the movie feels like a soulless adaptation of the original. The dry humour of the original is lacking as well. However, a counter argument could be made in favour of the film as it does not lapse into a cerebral experience and hold it's own as just a sleek action thriller that gives what it promises. Farrell does as good a job as he could but his expressiveness works against him as Arnie's screen presence takes some beating and ditto for Kate Beckinsale who falls a bit short of Sharon Stone's allure.

So, go ahead and watch it if you like your special effects. But don't expect a classic like the original. Indeed, all this movie succeeded in, was reminding me how good the 90's one was.

The Bourne Legacy:

The Bourne trilogy has always had a separate place in the movie world. James Bond may come close, but Bourne's brand of hard as nails action at breakneck speed simply stands alone. And so when the Bourne Legacy was announced, us action buffs were chuffed to bits. However, with Paul Greengrass opting out and Matt Damon not reprising his role, we wondered if it would still be the same.

Essentially, the rogue actions of Jason Bourne, namely his attack on Operation Blackbriar, cause the CIA, headed by Retired Col. Eric Byer (Edward Norton), to shut down black ops programs including Treadstone – leading to the execution of countless field agents and support staffers. After narrowly avoiding an attempt on his own life, Cross is forced into a kill or be killed chase as he flees the covert purge. Unfortunately, Cross is low on his “green and blues” – drugs supplied by the CIA through “Operation Outcome” (a Treadstone offshoot) that give agents an intellectual and physical edge in the field. Cross seeks out another CIA target, Outcome physician Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), in an effort to find more of the necessary medication. Without the drugs, Cross and Shearing don’t stand a chance against Byer’s ruthless (and blood-drenched) attempt at containing Blackbriar fallout.

Cross does the usual Bourne routine: car chases, parkour and running all the time. Directed by Tony Gilroy, the man who wrote the first three movies of the trilogy it is an adrenaline fueled ride. But it does miss the direction of Paul Greengrass as it tends to meander with excessive plot details and explanations, that add excess runtime and even make you wonder about the length of the action sequences which start to feel drawn out as a result.

Jeremy Renner does a great job even if the script isn't exactly very conducive to him displaying his acting abilities. The film does miss Matt Damon and the intrigue he brought with his search for his origins. The standard CIA and government and agents are starting to feel a bit old after three movies of toeing the same line.

Edward Norton and Rachel Weisz do well, but their characters simply lack depth. Weisz comes off across as a popcorn heroine, rather than the gritty and intense characterisations we have come to expect from this franchise. Ditto for Norton, whose only job is to react to what his agents and operatives tell him.

There is also an interesting sub theme at play here, Cross's battle is more of an attempt to get his pills so that he can keep at his high physical and mental levels that he has become accustomed to (Think "Limitless").

The music is taut and the action brilliant, the tension and intensity seem to hang in the air like a giant mushroom cloud. A case could be argued for an over complicated plot which wasn't really a feature of the Matt Damon trilogy. Also, certain terms from the earlier three films are used and it is assumed that the viewer does know certain things. But, it is still an enjoyable film on its own and can be viewed without any previous experience of Bourne's derring do.

While the film lacks the Bourne experience and misses Matt Damon's silent emotion, it is still eminently watchable. The action is as good as it gets and is good enough for the movie to be solely watched for it. For all action buffs, who've had their fill of superheroes tearing cities apart and want some gritty, hard nosed action, this is the film you've been waiting for.

Despite all this, it really dosen't feel like a Bourne film. Mr Damon, if somehow this gets to you: this isn't the kind of 'legacy' we were hoping for. All we'd want is for you to be the intelligent man's badass one last time.

GoodFellas

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States."

Ray Liotta's words, spoken as Henry Hill, sum it all up. This is what this movie is about. About a young kid who saw gangsters and mafiosi do whatever they wanted and wanted to be like them. A story of simple childish desire turning him into a violent gangster, forced to make tough decisions every single step.

With Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway, Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito, the casting was done admirably. Based on Nick Pileggi's book 'Wiseguy', it follows the rise and fall of the Lucchese crime family associates Henry Hill and his friends over the course of thirty years. The considerable issue in adapting a book for the screen is the extent of the director's input. However, this is where Scorsese delivers a masterclass leaving his own imprint on a film that barely deviates from the source material.

The central themes are many and all of them are rooted in violence and guilt. Whether it be Tommy's temper that flares up like napalm, or Henry's pistol whipping of a neighbour for trying to hit on Karen (Lorraine Bracco ) or countless other scenes. However, amidst all this, there are other things to think about. Why does Karen love a man, who gave her a gun to hide ? Is it his power she loves or the man himself ?

Scorsese's Catholic roots are visible in their entirety. The guilt of the characters is palpable because of how they never thought that this was what they signed up for. After Henry's Mafia career is nipped in the bud, he starts selling drugs and is unable to give it all up, because violence and crime are all that he has now. The guilt that dogs him is not one of being a criminal but of betraying the one he considered comrades.

A special mention would be in order for Karen who does a brilliant job as the wife of Henry Hill. Her emotions are told from her view and she is not the silent spectator that most Mafia films mistake women to be. Her morals turn scrupulous and shady because of her husband and maybe more importantly due to her access to the power that he wields.

The plot is almost a sidenote to the characters who reveal themselves in due time,enthralling us with their naivete and brutality in equal measure. Scenes such as where Henry's father beats him up for 'not going to school' of all reasons are littered throughout the film provoking thought and seeing things in the larger context. If i had to choose a single scene that would sum it all up, it would be one closer to the end where Henry attempts a cocaine deal, cooks a meal for his family, assures his mistress, all the while wondering if he's being followed.

There have been gangster films before and after, but none of them may have reached a greater height. 'The Godfather' remains arguably the most stirring Mafia testament ever but 'GoodFellas' provides it fair competition with it's sinful portrayal  of violence interwoven with guilt.

Pulp Fiction

There have been cult films before and after, but there is hardly one that personifies the 'cult film' tag as Pulp Fiction does. An achievement of epicly irrelevant proportions. Quentin Tarantino's defining opus, it stands as a frighteningly awe inspiring example of the gangster/crime genre. From it's wicked dialogue to ironical excesses, it is indeed a groundbreaking movie.

Quentin Tarantino stands as a peerless figure in the world of direction. His brand of violence may have been invented by Scorsese, but there is hardly any director apart from Guy Ritchie who has managed to make it seem so utterly palatable,delicious to be precise.

In Pulp Fiction, he gives us ample evidence to his class and a gift to know what his audience wants. This could be marked as a milestone for Non Linear storytelling with it's different plotlines interwining in one heady cocktail. The various characters ranging from Butch the boxer (Bruce Willis), Jules and Vincent (John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson), Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) were all very aptly cast and did justice to their characters. However, this is one film where the stars take a backseat to their characters, the story and the dialogues.

This is certainly best exemplified by Jules (Samuel L Jackson) whose dialogues range from "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men" to the far more earthly and pop culture reverential "Well I’m a mushroom cloud layin’ motherfucker, motherfucker. Every time my fingers touch brain, I’m "Superfly TNT". I’m "The Guns of the Navarone". In fact, what the fuck am I doing in the back? "

There are so many fantastic scenes that it doesn't let the whole film sag for even a bit. The dancing scene at Jack Rabbit's, the accidental killing of a guy in Jules and Vincent's car, when Butch finally meets Marcellus Wallace, the Honey Bunny section, there are quite a lot. Indeed, memorable moments abound throughout the film.

The violence is there in all it's gory glory but it is again a testament to Tarantino's brilliance that we are laughing when two guys are cleaning a car covered in blood. With his use of irony and twists of fate, lined with eclectic character lines, the violence is often just a spectator to the action unlike most similar movies where violence is glorified.

While this film followed the excellent "Reservoir Dogs" you can still see the impact of Kubrick's "The Killing". That does say it all, maybe Kubrick's successor is Tarantino. But, Tarantino is his own man and his decided American character filters through in his movies. The man has a legacy based on a single movie and it's impact on pop culture.

The incredible thing about this movie is it's attention grabbing. Most movies today cannot feature this much dialogue as is evidenced by the constant violence and special effects that today's movies are so highly reliant on. When Butch's girlfriend Fabienne tells him she wants a pot belly but later remarks `It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye are seldom the same.'', a dialogue that would find people turning up their noses in any other movie but here we care, we reflect and realise the stark, irony clad truth and it is where this film wins.

The Dictator

The Dictator is a Sacha Baron Cohen film directed by Larry Charles, the man behind movies such as Bruno and Borat. That makes it pretty evident that is intended to be a comedy film. And for fans of comedy, this movie does not disappoint. One of the funnier movies of the year, it certainly acheives what it set out to do.

The story revolves around Admiral General (must have done a tour in the Army before the Navy) Aladeen (Cohen) who is a dictator of the republic of Wadiya, a country in North Africa. He is portrayed as having nearly every antisocial trait that dictators supposedly have. However, his antics are forced to a head when he refuses to sell Wadiyan oil and is secretly developing nuclear weapons. The UN wakes up and resolves to intervene millitarily and our Dictator is forced to explain himself to the Security Council. However on his visit to New York, he is kidnapped, courtesy his uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley) and replaced by a decoy. Our dictator obviously redeems himself, going through life changing events such as being taught how to play with himself and other rib tickling incidents with Zoey (Anna Faris) and Nuclear Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas ).

The film picks off from one of the basic premises of comedy, putting a character into an environment he is not familiar with. He discovers things that we take to be obvious and in the process, generates laughter as we simply do not believe how anybody could not know the most trivial of things, leading to rib-tickling moments. The film picks the formula, sticks to it and does so very well.

The movie is certainly a bit uneven in terms of comic relief, with certain scenes inducing manic laughter, while others failing to raise even a chuckle. The soundtrack is peppy and certainly works well enough. While it isn't exactly the funniest movie of recent times, it has quite a few redeeming features.

The film has an actual storyline which is paid the requisite attention which is something that even most big banner movies these days have slaked off a bit on. The performances are brilliant, with Cohen being surprisingly funny and Ben Kingsley and Anna Faris being as delightfully understated as could be possible.

On the whole, the movie succeeds in what it set out to do. And while it isn't exactly a laugh-a-thon it is certainly a funny ride that will undoubtedly cheer you up.