Inkheart

I just saw the movie Inkheart yesterday, and enjoyed it. It is about a father and a daughter who possess the mystical ability to bring the characters out of a story book if they read it aloud, an ability they didn't know they had until it was too late. I wouldn't go any deeper in to the plot here as I will only spoil it for you if I do.
I perceived this movie as one with a good mysterious plot that builds up lots of anticipation, and fairly good cinematography. I'm afraid acting performance of the cast in general is very mediocre.      This movie has been shot at some of the most beautiful locations I've ever seen.
Inkheart the movie wasn't as well received as the book on which it was inspired.
 I hope to get whole Inkheart trilogy and read it. If I do, I might post a review on Smart Readers, my book review blog.
 

Signs

I refer my favorite weekly science mag Vidusara in search of good sci-fi , movies to watch, and that's how I got to know of Signs. The review on the mag was impressive enough to persuade me to see the movie. The movie was really good in many aspects.

Lets start with the plot. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson)  lives in a large corn farm with his son and daughter. He had been a priest, but after the death of his wife in a terrible accident, he no more has faith in god. His son suffers from asthma, and his daughter is hydrophobic. his younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) has come to live with them after the tragedy, leaving his baseball career behind. One morning, they are all shock to see a massive crop circles in the corn field. They first think it to be a hoax by a neighbor, but what follows the incident along the next few days  make them think otherwise. Strange figures appearing and disappearing at the farm in the dark, their dogs acting weird, other crop circles and UFO s appearing all over the world, and some other happenings that I wouldn't rather tell you so as not to spoil things for you, convince them of a possible alien invasion.   The plot flows on with how they face what comes for them in the end.

What I liked ,most about Signs is the suspense and thriller effect it generates. Sound effects, lighting,camera angles, pace, and the feeling of anticipation have been used to cause an optimum effect on the audience, and above them all is the brilliant acting performance of all key characters.     

Signs is more of a thriller/suspense movie, discusses deeply about man's faith, under the cover of a plot involving an alien invasion.   So why don't you have a go at it too?        

A bug's Life

A bugs life is  an animation movie about a colony of ants who were made slaves by a bunch of grass hoppers. I found the truly wonderful. 

There is a colony of ants who work hard for all some gathering food, only to offer a very large portion of it to a bunch of bullying grasshoppers. Flik is an ant who is considered an oddball by the rest of the colony. He always invent things, and tries to make a difference. The real starting point of the plot is when Flick's newly invented harvesting machine knocks the pile of offerings for the hoppers in to a water puddle in the haste of getting in to the anthill as the hoppers approach the colony looking for the usual offering. The grasshoppers are furious to find no offering, and threaten and order that the ants somehow gather food for the offering, "before the last leave fall".
              




The movie has a good plot, the voices are brilliant, dialogs are fantastic, and the graphics and animations are superb.

Hot Fuzz, time to roar with laughter

I really did have such a wonderful time watching this movie, laughing so hard that my ribs nearly cracked.  I would say Hot Fuzz is a film in which crime,suspense,action all so finely wrapped in humor.


Okay, time to take a peek in to the plot. Nicholas Angel (  Simon Pegg ) is a police officer of the  Metropolitan Police Service of London. Hardly anything but the duty matters to him. His overly devotion to duty makes his fellow officers look bad, and he gets transfered to  a small station in  Gloucestershire. Though dignified as he is Angel is determined to do his best in the apparently crime-free neighborhood. Unfortunately, the entire staff of his new station is an ignorant and lazy lot.   
Things get a new twist when a few of the villagers die in most odd accidents. Angel is convinced that they were all murdered,but to his dismay all the stations staff including the inspector is convinced they were all accidents. However, Angel is determined to find the truth............
Well, the beauty of the movie is the way this plot has been turned in to a comedy. In my opinion, all rest of the cast do a better job acting than Pegg who plays Angel, but his is a pretty good performance too. Watch the movie and see whether you could agree with me.

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Passengers

I really don't know why this movie was generally negatively received by movie critiques, I found the movie interesting.  

The plot starts with a plane crash. Very few of the passengers survive. Psychotherapist Claire ( Anne Hathaway ) is called upon to counsel the survivors, who are vulnerable to post traumatic stress, in a group setting. One of the survivors, Eric ( Patrick Wilson ) , refuses to participate in group therapy. He looks too cheerful for someone who has just been in a horrible plane crash, which is assumed to be suggestive of significant psychological disturbance. Clair visits him at his place and talks with him,trying to help. He denies her professional help but indicates that he likes her. In the mean time some of her group therapy participants stop showing up for therapy. Things get really spooky when Clair and the patients notice a stranger looking at them during the group sessions. Then certain things happen that make Clair and her patients wonder whether the plane crash was not caused by pilot error as believed but by a defect of the plane, and the airline company is trying to remove evidence. Thinking that knowing the truth would help her patients, Clair tries to find out what really happened. What she ultimately discovers is......................  

The end of the movie is totally unexpected and surprising. Hathaway does do the justice for her role, showing clearly the kind of difficulties faced by a psychotherapist, working with disturbed and uncooperative patients. She also has succeeded in showing that a psychologist is also a human being after all, vulnerable to all those emotions, stress, and so on. The way Patric plays the role of a post traumatic stress victim is nearly perfect. The excellent cinematography of this movie has given it an

air of mystery in a very fine manner.

I'll conclude this review by saying that Passengers is a movie with a very unique theme, a dramatically surprising end, very good acting, and excellent cinematography.

Shutter Island

When I read a review of this movie, I couldn't wait to see it. When I finally saw it, it turned out to be even better than mentioned in that review. Shutter Island is a psychological mystery-thriller with a very strong plot and probably the best acting performance by Leonardo DiCaprio.

The plot is set in 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) investigate about a patient being missing from Ashecliff Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island. As teddy stays in the Island attending his assignment his deceased wife visits him on a dream and tells him that the missing patient is actually still on the island, as well as the man who once set fire to Teddy's house, in which she died. Teddy himself suspects of some malpractice being conducted by the staff of the facility and pokes in to almost every corner, and odd things keep popping up. What finally reveals itself for him is..............

The end of the movie was so unexpected, and that's the best part. DiCaprio's acting in this movie is unbelievable, that good. The art direction is superb, the environment of the island has been created with a bone chilling air of mystery. Shutter Island is an all around great movie.




Directed by         Martin Scorsese
Produced by         Martin Scorsese
                                Bradley J. Fischer
                                Mike Medavoy
                                Arnold W. Messer
Written by                Laeta Kalogridis
                                Steven Knight (uncredited)
                                Dennis Lehane (Novel)
Starring                 Leonardo DiCaprio
                                Ben Kingsley
                                Mark Ruffalo
                                Michelle Williams
Music by                 Robbie Robertson (supervision)
Cinematography Robert Richardson
Editing by                Thelma Schoonmaker
Studio                Phoenix Pictures
                               Appian Way Productions
                               Sikelia Productions
Distributed by        Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)       February 19, 2010
Running time       138 min.
Country               United States
Language                English