Inglourius Basterds (2009)

QT. I applaud that guy. I'm a fan of his sadistic creations, because it's so much 'in-your-face' & yet 'detailed-slow-background'. Now there's a maniac who uses the sarcasm mark to perfection. The blood, the gore, antithesis of emotions, The pace and culmination of threads.

I wasn't sure of this movie at first. It was there on my list-of-movies-to-see for a long time, but I took my sweet time to get to it.

The ensemble cast; the revenge-story; the anti-hero; the suave back-stories (that's all classic QT); add to the mixture an alternate-history ending; and simmer in a slow-flame to get a pungent aroma. I had to multi-task for Two-Thirds of the movie; I had to distract myself to look at the subtitles alongwith the scenes unfolding on screen. I don't know if I liked or disliked that. Then there's a flood of homage pieces. So there was this additional thread running in my mind trying to appreciate all these references. & the cameos !! I don't know what to think of the cameos.

Highlights of the movie include Christoph Waltz (the Jew-Hunter), Melanie Laurent (Shosanna getting ready in the red dress in the begining of chapter 5) and The grin on Aldo Raine's face (poor opinion on Pitt's acting though). But that's it. It's a long dragged out movie, which had me peeping at my wristwatch several times. Plus, there were yawns.

Favourite scenes include: Frederick trying to chat up Emmanuelle/Shosanna; The Italian stuntmen/cameramen.

Alternate Ending: The all-out firing at Hitler could have been done away with; or a twist in the story about Hitler's body-double.

First Viewed: With friends at home in Doha.

Rating-3

Fight Club (1999)

Mischief.Mayhem.Soap.

A travelling insomniac who gets his kicks by attending multiple support groups meets a handsome soap-saleman & then moves in with him. Classic pitch for dramedy with gay overtones. But that's not how this movie begins... it begins with the narrator getting the taste of gun-metal in his mouth (wink wink) while he's being tortured by the twisted saleman. I am Jack's bewildered brain.

Tyler Durden is irresistable. He's straightforward, he is charming; he is the unfiltered consciousness that probes into the moral system. The mirror that shouts out the ugly truths. The guy who knows the solution. For whom the physical combat and pain was a vent. The narration builds up the scenes beautifully and the audience is virtually as lost as the insomniac. The in-your-face violence and edge-of-the-seat suspense brings to front a brutal but brilliant masterpiece. All 3 of the main characters are very believable and obscene.

The performances were career bests according to me. & I really liked the blunt coming-of-age approach for all the anger and desperation of this generation.

ooooh, the dialogues, really juicy quotes all throughout the movie; I love:
- This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.
- On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
- The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.
- If I did have a tumor, I'd name it Marla.
- I am Jack's raging bile duct.
- The movie goes on... & nobody in the audience has any idea.

Favourite scenes include: the IKEA ad, the first fight, the stylish plans of Project Mayhem, the hotel-room scene of realisation, the awesome ending.

Alternate Ending: The bullethole in the cheek was way too much. That guy really had gone overboard. & the space-monkeys were too obedient. I'd like Blondie to do more. & Marla lost her seductive edge towards the end, I'd like to change that. The rebellion against consumerism was left unclimaxed, but then again, there really can never be a satisfactory answer.

First Viewed: with Kunal, on DVD in Brighton.

Rating-3.5*

(HINT: Tilt your screen back)

Donnie Darko (2001)

When I first watched Donnie Darko, at that time I didn't quite understand what was meant by 'Cult-cinema'. Was it cinema that preached to a section of movie-goers? Was it cinema targeted to Emo-folks and Goths? My first viewing of DD left me in the exact same way that it left most of cult-fans of this movie. My words had dried up, & I knew I was gonna think about the movie for several nights. Subsequent viewings of the movie made me fall in love with the characters and the muddled story-telling. I'm a sucker for multiple intwined story-lines. & here was a movie with a single story but with several diverse viewpoints.

The best viewpoint, I felt, was that of the science-teacher who gave Sparrow's book to Donnie. I could easily have an entire sequel/spin-off based on half-a-dozen of those brilliantly written characters.

For a moment I forget that this a science-fiction story to do with tangent universes and time-travel. The time-travel aspect is so subtle on the screen, that most audiences miss the point. Drama, Thriller, horror, existentialist, sci-fiction... this movie really spans all these genres. The retro look, the amazing musical score, the satire ... all add to a classic mindfcuk movie about how fate binds our actions. I'm not going to interpret the movie for you, view it yourself.

I enjoyed the entire movie, from start to end; Fav scenes include:
- Donnie grinning at the rising sun.
- Gretchen choosing to sit next to Donnie.
- All the scenes with Donnie & his therapist Thurman.
- the first walk-home with Gretchen
- Donnie's promise to Cherita, that one day, everything's going to be better. That's nothing short of a superhero.

Fav dialogues:
28 days... 6 hours... 42 minutes... 12 seconds.
why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
Deus ex machina... our saviour.

I don't care DD gathered under $5million at the BoxOffice... its a far superior movie than most, with plenty of soul. No wonder it ranks high on maximum 'My Fav Movies' lists around the world.

Alternate Ending: This one is so open to interpretation, that it doesn't really end anywhere. Maybe the 'Dream' state could have been detailed.

First Viewed: with Yuvraj at a cinema theatre in Brighton.

Rating-4.5*

Hudson Hawk (1991)

I like a lot of Bruce Willis' movies. So when I found out that he had written the story for the Action-Adventure movie called Hudson Hawk, I had to watch it.

Plus I had already anticipated Willis to carry forward his persona as David Addison (Moonlighting) into this unrealistic slapstick of a movie.
Enter Eddie Hawk, a burgler exiting from prison & being blackmailed into commiting another heist; an attractive nun whom he unknowingly falls for... & a deviant psycho-couple who want ultimate world-domination. Mash into the story some clever tale about DaVinci turning lead into gold & some ultra-bad CIA crooks, & U get some hilarious scenarios.

Moments that I seriously enjoyed: the song & dance routine during the burglery, the desperate attempts to enjoy a cappuccino, the classic wise-cracks (Good Yogi!!), the Mona Lisa smile, The Mario bro with the needles in his face, riding the ambulance cart on the Brooklyn bridge (with exact change!!), Punks in the CIA (MTV-IA), The Villian's intro, the cushion after the ethyl Chloride cappuccino, the paralytic darts scene.... plenty of laughs throughout the movie.

Silly dialogues that I loved:
- No sweat Tommy, you made the biggest mistake of my life.
- (The Damsel in Distress): I got bored so I saved myself.
- I'll torture you so slowly, you'll think it's a career.
- Looks like you won't be attending that hat convention in July.

Alternate Ending: Maybe I would have left it more open-ended; with Sister Anna returning to her church; & Hawk falling head over heels over her bombshell twin. Keeping Tommy alive left a sour taste in my mouth... either kill him off or not have him take the limo-plunge at all. & yes, I too would have ended with a cup of cappuccino.

First Viewed: with Friends at home in Doha.

Did it deserve the Razzie Awards for Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Picture; maybe... but that certainly won't be wiping the goofy grin off The Hawk!!

Rating-3*

Avatar (2009)

I loved the honest fingerpointing. Depicting the Big-Brother status of USA in the brutally selfish RDA Corporation. Mining for precious Unobtanium without care for the well-being of locals! I had prepared myself for an uninterupted 2hr40min joy-ride; with caramel popcorn et al. Unfortunately I couldn't get me a 3D/IMAX version of the movie...but I consoled myself that an extra dimension is just a overrated gimmick. The back-story was very childish - Pandora (the moon for Planet Polyphemus!!) being mined 200 years in the future by Marines and Contract Engineers! a bio-neural network of trees; & the Avatar program !! remote controlled DNA hybrids; & yet, Jake Sully's leg operation is too expensive... is this where Sci-Fi heading towards?

The botonist-cum-socialworker teaching Na'vi natives English! (puhleeese!) Grace's role (Sigourney's looking real old) on Pandora remains undigested. Maybe the intent was not explained properly. & the main-story: A guys acceptance of a new culture, as he romances the beautiful princess, amidst a visually-stunning habitat - HAH.. double HAH! A very predictable plotline (except I had expected even the Sacred Trees to rise up & fight.. a la LOTR2); the roles of the pilot Trudy, the Colonel, the anthropologist friend and the Na'vi prince seem sleep-written, drowned in cliches. The dialogues didn't even amuse. 30mins into the movie I felt that the extra dimension surely would have made it a bit more palatable.

The saving grace; which earned all my stars for the movie: the unearthly imagination for the Pandoran flora & fauna. The colours, the imagery, the landscapes, the night-lights... awesome.

Moments that I seriously enjoyed: the intro to the floating Hallelujah mountain; the giant carnivore scene; the flying touch-me-nots.

Alternate Ending: I didn't like Trudy's death; I'd want her to be taking back the banished humans back to Earth. I'd also want GiovanniRibisi to get punched in the face by the Dr/Scientist. Yeah... there's not much that can be changed in this straight-forward naration.

First Viewed: with Friends & Colleagues at a cinema theatre in Doha.

Quoting RGV - "One can argue that one has seen better films than Avatar; but nobody can dispute that one has seen a film like Avatar."
Rating-3.