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Reviews
The Butler (2013)
Good movie, but 'inspired by a true story'? Maybe not
If you feel that the rating is too high, I would not blame you. I too was confused because a) the movie is good and deserves a good rating or b) the tag 'inspired by a true story' which is mostly false. Yes, there was a butler (Eugene Allen) who served many presidents but that is where the similarities between Cecil Gaines and Eugene Allen mostly end.
Lets look at it as a movie and ignore the true story tag for a moment. A movie that is the life of a black man living in a hate filled era. A man working close the most powerful man, yet he is among the most powerless men. He wants to live a normal life, stay out of trouble, get the children educated and have a happy family. How would he react to circumstances that are destined to take things in an opposite direction?
Then I believe the movie deserves a good rating. The story, direction and acting is really good. The director shows us a butler, who first adamantly believes that the president will change everything. He hates his son for not having the same belief. He is looking at the world from inside the white house. And slowly towards the end, his reactions change. He starts to understand that the son might be right. And that the world might be different outside the white house. Even with the son, you get this belief that he is a radical and an extremist. But, eventually you find out that he is not. And the story ends with Barack Obama becoming the president. Its like saying that the world is normal again.
Acting by Oprah Winfrey as the butler's wife is truly memorable. At the very least it deserves an Oscar nomination. The rest of the crew has turned in a great performance as well. You will see major historical incidents weaved into the movie. Most of it is lynching, assassinations, white owners ill treating slaves, white-black hatred in American society etc. I did not see or learn anything new. But, all in all, a decent movie and could be watched once.
However, after coming out of the theater I tried to find out more about Mr. Gaines. Only to realize that the majority of the story was fabricated. It did not leave a good after taste.
Dasavatharam (2008)
Don't hesitate to hop on to this roller coaster ride
This movie is probably a better chase sequence movie I have seen in a long time. This can be a lesson to all the Bollywood and other directors who are trying in vain to produce a quality chase movie. The movie simply put is this- the villain is trying to hold on to something that the hero is trying hard to protect and make sure the right authorities have it. To make an exciting movie out of such a simple premise requires some effort and a good storyline. This movie has both of it, added to that is a fine acting by Kamal and an ease with which he makes an transition from one character to the other. Even those who do not agree with me would accept that the movie despite the flaws is watchable at least once. Moreover only Kamal would try such a brave movie (some might put it as foolishness), he did it at his peak when he tried a silent movie and he has done it now. Characters such as the CBI officer and the villain are amazing, Kamal has perfectly gelled himself in to the walk and the accent of those characters. For that matter he has gelled in to all the avatars though few of them are unnecessary, right from the dressing style to the dialog delivery. It is not possible by everyone to deliver such a performance. The first half is totally action packed and you will not realize how the hour and half fly away. If we do not consider this as another Rajni vs Kamal movie or for that matter compare it with other movies, just watch it as yet another movie it turns out to be a roller coaster ride that is enjoyable and turns out to be a very good family outing. It would be wrong to miss this movie for all its wrong reasons, because this is not a bad movie at all.
Now lets get to some movie bashing. As said previously, this movie is more enjoyable if we watch it as yet another movie, but it was never projected that way. It was supposed to be something else, something amazing which the movie is not. The vital part of the movie were the make up artists, who are a great let down and are never up to the mark. If we look at the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu, one thing that stands out is that no two avatars are similar, they look different, not subtly but completely different. It makes no sense if two characters look similar. Here more than two look similar, the same long face and the same tan. Secondly, the motive of any filmmaker should be to make a good movie and not aim at a ridiculous record. If three or four characters make a good movie, its better to keep it that way. Here few characters are senseless, they make the movie boring, and get this- add nothing to movie. There are few characters which deserve more time, which would have been possible if those senseless characters had been removed. The next flaw is that the music is awful, a director like K.S.Ravikumar knows pretty well that if you are trying to make an Indian movie the music must be right on the dot. Why get someone like Himesh to do the music, who is losing his hold in Hindi industry itself? Is Tamil industry suffering from a music director drought, or are they on vacation or maybe they refused to be part of the extravaganza? Whatever the reason, the music is simply awful. The next big problem is the computer graphics, a case of overcooking the meal. The graphics are way too fuzzy and a pain to watch. Maybe they are futuristic, but that is not going to push the audience up or increase the ticket sales. In a age where movies are trying to out beat Matrix, this movie decides to be immature in this aspect.
Finally, I would recommend this movie to almost everyone as this is not a bad movie. The commitment and effort definitely deserves credit. If Kamal is more modest, ready to listen to his fans and make a movie for them instead of having 'My way or the highway' attitude, we can expect better movies. Instead of that all we can say is that this movie has all the ingredients for a 10/10 perfect score, but simply does not deliver it.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
A must watch
An accountant named Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins is found guilty of murdering his wife and her boyfriend. He is sent to Shawshank prison, a prison run by a God-fearing and a strict warden. Andy meets 'Red' played by Morgan Freeman at Shawshank and the lives of the prisoners and their emotions is captured in the movie in an excellent manner. The premise of the movie looks too simple but there are a very few movies that are as powerful as Shawshank Redemption. You can watch this movie time and again without getting bored. The first time I saw the movie, by the time it was almost coming to an end I felt that it was a pretty good movie and then there was this unexpected and a memorable ending followed by an explanation in Morgan Freeman's deep voice that made the movie simply great. I couldn't help but stand up and clap at the completeness of the movie. It captures every possible human emotion and portrays them every possible way you wanna see it. The movie runs at a pretty good pace, no lags or halts or irrelevant scene added to enhance the effects of the movie, and a simple background score. Or in other words this movie has its own natural flow, nothing in it seems out of place. Add to all this is the fine acting of Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins and all the other support crew. This is a classic and not to be missed for any reason whatsoever.
You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
Leave your brains out of the theatre and enjoy the movie
First of all the film lacks logic- no matter how hard you try to think. This movie might embarrass Superman that he cannot do stuff Zohan can, but, that doesn't mean this is a bad movie. Its one of those movies you would be laughing your heads off and come out of the theater with a "I have no idea what happened in there" kinda feeling. The storyline is way too predictable, the jokes are too crude (if your girlfriend doesn't appreciate such humor, its more enjoyable to go watch it with other guys) and many of the scenes are totally senseless. But if you wanna go see the movie, go for it. You will enjoy it only if you go there to see a comedy flick and not attend a science seminar. Here Adam Sandler starring as Zohan is part of the Israeli army with super-human abilities. He is called in to capture a Palestinian terrorist named Phantom whom Zohan had caught previously, but is let off because of a Israel-Palestine trade. But Zohan is sick of killing and considers himself as an artist, one who wants to cut hair the Paul Mitchell way. He fakes his accident and escapes to the States to become a hair-dresser only to find out that it is not going to be a cake-walk. He finally starts working at a Israel-Palestine neighborhood hair-saloon. From here the movie is better to watch than to read. If you ask why 6/10- its the ending. The filmmakers have stretched their imagination way too far and opened up too many variables in the end which makes a predictable ending too long, too goofy and too boring. In short this movie is not going anywhere close to Oscar awards, but its a good 2 hours of fun. Some might call it gross comedy or cheap comedy, but its comedy nonetheless.