Skyfall: Bond getting Darker!

Bond: 007 reporting for duty.
M: Where the hell have you been?  

Bond: Enjoying death!

50th year of Bond Movies, must be marked with a legendary story to tell.

I haven't been a Pierce Brosnan fan of Bond Movies. When I was growing up Pierce Brosnan was releasing a Bond movie every 2-3 years, but none would enthrall me. It was when Pierce Brosnan actually signed off from Bond franchise, it gained my attention. I thought, ok, here is something new. This guy looks different. He doesn't have the charm of Pierce Brosnan, he looks more like a spoiled millionaire. He was Daniel Craig, much intense, rarely smiling, dialogues rather smaller than Pierce Brosnan had got. He got more action, more athletic, less gadgets, would kill people by just beating with bare hands. He got cruel, more cunning and cold heart.

Skyfall starts with a chase which is a signature start of Daniel Craig's James Bond portrayal. And from the first moment of the movie, you are on a ride with him. One would wonder what is the age of James Bond?

Like every Bond movie, the Antagonist should be equally strong, he must be so evil that even Bond would have to take a gasp.Javier Bardem portrays that evil antagonist, he is epitome of baddest man you would ever see. At one point I actually remembered the Joker of Christopher Nolan if Javier Bardem has taken notes from it. But please don't think that I am comparing the two characters. They are all from different universe altogether. So coming back to the point, the antagonist has to be bad to make the protagonist suffer. He has to have a upper hand always. And that happens here as well. 

Re-entry of Q (portrayed by Ben Whishaw, I was actually excited to know that he would be part of this movie) has got a good effect in the movie, M has got comparatively larger role than the previous movies, Bond Girl(s) (Bérénice Marlohe and Naomie Harris) have been equally good and they have got good chemistry with Bond. And since the story goes to roots of Bond, his origin, this movie becomes special.

London tube's display and Turkey's presence with Scotland's portrayal in the movie adds to its artistic sense. Beautiful Aston Martin getting blown up actually irked me, as I was in love with that beauty.

So, don't wait, go and enjoy the movie! It has got some sarcastic humor as well (like all Bond Movies). at IMDB, movie is already with 8.5 ratings so I am no one to tell you what rating it deserves. People have already termed it finest till date. 

And yeah, Adele's song is so good, it actually sets up the Skyfall's theme and story. You would love it. I am in love with it and would be listening it all night!

Let the sky fall, when it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
At skyfall!

Halloween Special Review: Paranormal Activity 4

You would wait for something bad to happen. And you will be jumped with many moments, after that you will feel foolish, after realizing, that all the while you were alert for something scary to happen, and finally you got scare-jumped because of something foolish and common.

Above three lines are the summery of this new Sequel of Paranormal Activity franchise. The Genre is shifting. No, It is still "Found Footage" but stand still cameras have made way for Laptop and Kinect and Mobile Videos and Laptop Chat windows. 

I never intended to watch this movie in theater in first place. I went for Skyfall, which apparently didn't have any seats left. So bought it's next day's ticket. Yeah, next post will be about Skyfall. Then what to do? I still had time and wanted to watch something, so asked the lady at the counter which English movie is running next? The answer comes Paranormal Activity 4. Immediately I said yes and she was shocked. My friend also agreed and we booked next 2 hours with Paranormal Activity 4. 

My friend didn't have any background of previous 3 movies, so I was explaining him before the movie, about the characters and story so far. While explaining that, I realized, the Genre has become a template and how this movie would be shown. How the sequence of happenings are going to be. I realized, that first 30 minutes would only be spoon feeding about characters, and the story build up. I also realized, that since it is laptop video and Kinect is also going to play a big role, the characters will be more paranoid to the thoughts of devil's existence and one guy/girl would keep telling about something weird happening to others, and those others would certainly ridicule him/her and eventually all would succumb to death by the ghost. The question was how it has to be narrated. The narration should be new. Every-time it has to be new!

So, as I imagined, first half an hour, was exactly like that. But, now we had Robbie, the Kid, which I supposed would be Hunter, makes you jump in his very first appearance, and that too within first 15 minutes. It was kind of new. It made every one scare-jump and then everyone laughed at their stupidity.

Similar thing happens for 5-6 times in the movie, and it is really good, it adds to the the storyline, and keeps audience busy with these jumps. But I guess still something was missing. Since this is 4th installment of franchise and the makers have not tried anything new, they should have taken the risk of doing something new, instead they have taken the risk of playing safe, which I afraid has backfired. That is movie's biggest drawback. First hour. Important and full of scare-jumps, and interesting stuff but something missing!

But the 2nd half is promising and freaks out everyone. The story plays well. But only thing wrong I found here was quick killing of characters, the screenplay is so fast, there is no time to separate different characters' killing. Very small build up of the fear makes the movie little weaker. Yet, it is a scary movie. And what I felt in the theater was the creepy feeling after the movie. This is the weakest movie of the franchise and still it leaves the audience shocked at the end.

So, if you watch this movie and are getting dull in the first half, just wait, the movie still has something good to offer, and you will not go home unhappy err.. unscared!

Happy Halloween!

Eega: Full Package of Entertainment (Review Part 2)

"We know the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharatha, yet we go to watch whenever a movie based on these Epics is made. How much interestingly you narrate your film is what matters"

~S. S. Rajamouli

I never realized that I have started loving Telugu movies so much now. I should start learning a little Telugu, I hope some day I would be able to speak some Telugu dialogues or Sing Some Telugu Songs. There are many movies which have given me reason to love Telugu movies, would write about them all.

However the time is for Eega. Everything else can take backseat and you must watch this movie. Even though I was watching it on a DVD player, I didn't even pause the movie and went to my Kitchen to bring back my awesome cooked chicken, which I love to the core of my heart. 2 years back when I watched Rajanikanth's Robot, I was in awe, I was amazed that such feat could be touched in Indian Cinema. And Eega tops it. If Robot started it, Eega takes it to next level. The cool Fly protagonist of the movie, is better than any hollywood flick based on such idea. 

I don't want to compare with other movies here, because Eega is a different genre. It doesn't belong to Romance, Horror, Comedy, or Science Fiction. It belongs to Entertainment. And you don't have to leave your brains aside and watch this movie. This movie works fine with brain as well. The thin line between creativeness and absurdity which I talked about in the first part of this review, remains intact even after the movie has been completed. After watching movie, I just want to share my experience with you, before I pounce on the delicious chicken waiting for me.

Small yet important, Nani's role has been played by Nani in the first 1 hour of the movie and he steals the magic when he says "I will Kill you" to Sudeep. Your heart will cry at his fate though, but he played his role very well. His role is simple and charming.

To my surprise, Samantha Ruth Prabhu plays a vital role in the movie, I was expecting that her role would end soon, but the makers have really made her role important, and believable. She has not been used just like a chick in the movie, the part has been portrayed well.
Sudeep on the other hand, is an antagonist who also had very little to do when you think that the movie is about a fly's revenge, but you will be surprised to see Sudeep's performance in the movie as he takes on the fly on par. Sometimes he would just miss a win, other times he would lose. Whatever I say about the third character of the movie, the fly itself, is less and won't be satisfactory, the makers have made it close to unattainable. 

The story is not one sided, and the flip flops make it very interesting. You will forget that this is a bedtime story being told by a father to his daughter.

My favorite scene of the movie: Whole movie didn't have a single scene which could be missed, the movie has been woven in such manner. However, I would personally thank creators for putting Chinta ta ta! Do watch for it.

I have made a personal commitment, to watch all of Rajamouli's movies. I will share my experience of each movie here.

Till then.. Chinta TaTa!

Eega: The beautiful tale of Love and Revenge (Review Part 1)

This is happening for the first time with me, that I have started writing blog in the very first hour of the movie and that too a Telugu Movie. I am impressed, the words are not enough for this. The fly is cool. The Protagonist of the movie is a fly. The thin line to make movie absurd has been carefully kept away, and within the confine of what's possible and what's not possible and what's absurd, the story has been amazingly told, and remember, I am watching Telugu version of the movie, not the dubbed. I am having subtitles here, but I think, subtitles aren't required here.

Nani's love was shown with much care, and it works well with the story of Eega, it's birth and it's revenge. There is not even a single dull moment in Nani's story. Nani's enemy, Sudeep does equally well to draw the hatred of the audience.

I felt like the makers of Eega showed too much in the trailer of the film when I watched it first and I was little annoyed at them for revealing many things, actually full story of Eega in the trailer itself. But believe me, trailer is nothing, the movie is a must watch even if you know full story.

Eega starts as a normal fly, and the experience of Eega the fly has been shown with much respect, from it's point of view. How it starts experiencing beautiful things of life, comes across it's enemy and realizes his goal then, tries to kill him then and there, and Eega's helplessness will push you to even think and you would start thinking how Eega can torture it's enemy. The possibilities are endless. Eega, The fly is weak at places, like a normal fly. At the same time it enjoys the advantages of it's small size.

The Sound track is awesome and it will put you in a spellbound story of Eega. Why I am writing this blog? I should continue watching the movie.

Will Post rest of the review after the movie.

To be continued..

Is Lance Armstrong real life Walter White of Breaking Bad?

 

About Lance..

Lance Armstrong is a hero and will always remain a hero for me.
For me, he is a survivor! When I first came to know about him, he was already 4 times Tour De France champion. Over the years, he won 3 more titles, fought with WADA and USADA, wrote 2 books, became center of at least 8 books, retired, returned and again retired. But this does not tell full story about his life.

He too has a family like everyone else, has problems in his life, worried about his and his family's future, and like all of us he is equally marred by one major thing in life: Uncertainty!

He became a social ambassador for Cancer Patients and became a synonym of Hope. His foundation, followers, social stature, probable Political career, all those things speak of themselves.

About Walt..

Walter White on the other hand, is a hero too nevertheless. He doesn't have same stature as Lance Armstrong in social media, or in his life he is not too popular like Lance Armstrong. In his universe, whoever knows Walter White, respects him. He is a symbol of hope in his people. His students have very high regards for him and the family respects him, well, at least who are unaware of the other "Walter White"! They sympathize with him for being a Cancer Patient.

How Walt Breaks Bad..

Walter white breaks into crime, or rather I should put breaks bad when he realizes that he will leave his family financially unsecured with too much at stake. His treatment, his children's education, his family's day to day living are his main concerns. What his world did to him at that point?

 At that stage, But he never looks for charity, he doesn't want someone's money. He doesn't cheat anyone to get the money. The Motive was to survive. He breaks bad for his survival. He starts at just a novice who just wants to "cook" and earn for his primary issues. His Primary crime could be understandable as a Morally wrong thing with Illegal thing to cook. He never motivated anyone to cook for him or consume his product or he doesn't sell it himself. He is proud of his product and since it is his brainchild and chemical genius. He is not a greedy person but he wants to earn enough to support his family. He gets pulled into the mud by others when the learn that he is a genius and his product is one masterpiece.

How Lance Breaks Bad..

After USADA revealed the evidences about Armstrong's cheating, I wasn't shocked or felt bad on my hero's fall. Because for me he still stands tall. His crime wasn't killing someone or doing any harm to the nation. His crime would be categorized to be "Morally". I was more amused on the thought, when he really got to know that he is suffering from such a gruesome disease and he has 3 little kids and a wife to support. His life suddenly lies on uncertainty and he finds himself isolated from the world. What this world did for him at that stage?

At that stage Lance was just a cyclist and was winner of few small championships but not taken as a celebrity or a serious contender of Tour De France. But suddenly he becomes very vulnerable for the fact that he has to provide for his family. That little concern eats him. The treatment is different thing altogether. providing for family would have been his first motive.

Why Lance and Walt are Heroes..

Lance wasn't alone in the crime, there were people helping Lance and his team throughout his criminal adventure, successful races, I mean 7 times. It takes heart even to come out on top with the use of drugs after getting diagnosed by cancer. Some would end their lives, some would wait for the end, some would just put their lives inserted in the treatment. And here we have 2 characters who after getting diagnosed, fight for not only their lives but set an example for others as well.

Average Survivors to Anti Heroes..

USADA has said, that U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team was running most sophisticated drug use in the history of sports. Doesn't it look similar to how Walt started breaking into crime scene and then getting played into the crime scene with what we call "Sophistication", nobody comes to know, not even his family, and he works out a way in which he looks clean outside. To me Walt is a hero as well, he later kills many, many people who come in his way. He tries to remove such obstacles either himself or with the help of his various partners. They clean out all that dirt from Walt's clothes so that Walt still looks like a good citizen to outer world.

The reason "Providing for the family" shouldn't be taken as a cause to break into the crime scene. I mean, there are many bad people already out there, and they start giving examples of Lance or Walt and say if people can accept Walt and Lance, why they can't accept those corrupt politicians, those crime lords, those hooligans, those tax eating corporates, political scandals? Those all things are completely different to Lance and Walt's worlds. They did wrong things, but they did for themselves and they had to pay a cost for it. Doing crimes and not getting caught is a different topic altogether, Lance had to pay the cost after so much time, being called a shame in tabloids. Walt as well had to pay the cost becoming a bad person in his own eyes and becoming more and more involved in the crime day by day.

So, there were costs, there were obstacles and most importantly motives in both of their lives, although completely different in the detailed versions of their lives, but the abstract of their lives looks similar. Both become Anti Heroes in the pursuit to become Average Survivor. I don't call them Villains and they both are heroes to me even if Anti Heroes!

To Lance and USADA and Lance Haters:

After writing this, I want to clear it, that I might have done a sinful act of comparing a real life hero with a fictional hero. These both heroes are very near to my heart, as they did everything which they thought was right for their family. Right now, Lance is facing tremendous heat and he is alone in this battle of hatred. He would have to pay the cost of "cheating". But everyone has forgotten that cycling was nothing before a cancer patient became 7 time champion of a cycling event. He has been stripped of all the titles and today he removed them from his twitter bio as well. It's hard to imagine what he is going through. But does anyone care what he went through for those 15 years? Please think about it!

People are acting like Lance was Lex Luther, but I just want to say, he used drugs to win a bloody cycle race, which wasn't anywhere on the globe before he started winning it. If I know about Tour de france, and I know that it is a very exhaustive race, it's all because of Lance. Lance should never apologize for giving people hope. He is still a hero! I don't care about those 7 wins and those lies, because I know only one thing, Hope is bigger than a Lie! The cost he is going to pay would be enormous, People are terming him as a psychopathic liar.. But he is a survivor. He is a symbol of Hope. The world will be divided, I will be on that part which still believes in the hope which he gave!

I say, make those drugs legal if you can't get such hope in next 10 years without those drugs!