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Reviews by abhijeet
Sense and Sensibility review
Posted : 4 months ago on 8 September 2008 03:02
(A review of Sense and Sensibility)The story of two sisters who are torn between marrying for love (sensibility) or money and position (sense) and how their choices don't exactly turn out the way they thought and hoped. A stunning and lavish adaptation of Jane Austen's book by Emma Thompson, who also starred. They take more than a few liberties with the source material but the result is one of the best movies ever made. This is my favourite Ang Lee movie.  0 comments, Reply to this entry
What demons hide inside us?
Posted : 4 months ago on 8 September 2008 02:29
(A review of Mad Detective)The central premise of the movie is the ability of former police detective to 'see' the different personalities that people have combined with a general psychic 'sixth sense'. The filmmakers use clever camerawork and editing to demonstrate how he 'sees' these personalities. Depending on who's looking, we either see the one (original) actor or a group of actors in his or her place. It's a really effective film making technique. The detective uses his to catch criminals until he goes over the edge into some form of mental illness that give him delusions, like his long gone wife. This then begs the question, does he really have the ability to see inside people or are they just his delusions? He is dismissed from the force and stays away until another detective comes calling for help with a troubling case. The investigation of the case forms the central plot of the movie. It has all the requisite twists and turns that all good thrillers must have including the surprise at the end, even if it's not the most original. The acting and direction is excellent and film noir-ish feel of the production provides great atmosphere. On the whole, the movie is in exciting and satisfying psychological thriller. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Action movie classic
Posted : 4 months ago on 6 September 2008 11:02
(A review of Predator)Despite the cookie-cutter characters and limited acting range of the whole cast (the Governator Arnold among them), this movie works very well. Three quarters of it is basically the alien predator hunting down the small band of mercenaries. That three quarters works very effectively and thanks to the fact that there weren't any over the top special effects and practically no computer imagery, the movie has aged very well. An action movie that doesn't embarrass itself despite the passage of twenty years, that's a rarity and this makes it a classic. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Good things come in threes
Posted : 4 months, 1 week ago on 31 August 2008 01:36
(A review of The Globe Sessions)Sheryl Crow's third album completes a trilogy of great albums that she released in the 90s. All three albums featured her blend of classic blues influenced rock, great songwriting and deeply affecting angst ridden vocals. She rocked like few women in music do and always played her guitar in every song. Her kind of music which was a bit of an anomaly in the alt rock dominated 90s music scene in the US. This was her last album before she went in a different direction on her later albums and it is my favourite of the trio, mostly because her songwriting is brilliant. "My Favourite Mistake", "It Don't Hurt", "Anything But Down" and "The Difficult Kind" are four of her best songs, each one crafted to perfection. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
The Bat is Broken
Posted : 4 months, 2 weeks ago on 28 August 2008 01:36
(A review of Batman: Knightfall Part One: Broken Bat)Knightfall is one of the most ambitious Batman stories ever attempted. This book collects the first and arguably the best part of this story - the breaking of the Batman by Bane (the symbolism of the name is pretty obvious). The story begins with Bane engineering the breakout of all the insane criminals that are housed in Arkham Asylum. All of Batman's nemeses - The Joker, Scarecrow, Killer Croc and others - are let loose on the streets of Gotham all at once. This is Bane's clever and twisted strategy to break the Batman. The plot moves forward in somewhat predictable fashion as Batman takes down each of the escapees in turn. He is mentally disintegrating with each encounter and losing his will to fight. Bane and his henchmen are watching his relentlessly, waiting for the right moment to strike and take him down. The story culminates in a final encounter with between Batman and Bane with the Batman almost at breaking point mentally and physically. He does not offer much resistance and Bane literally and figuratively breaks him. The book ends with the final panel depicting Bane breaking the Batman's spine. The slow mental disintegration of Batman is the focal point of the storyline and keeps you riveted throughout. While the several sub-plots with the Arkham escapees are of uneven quality some of them are excellent. The one involving the Joker is, predictably, among the best of the lot. This ranks as one of the best Batman stories ever written and anyone who is intrigued by the character of Batman must pick this one up. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Pop Classic from the 90s
Posted : 4 months, 2 weeks ago on 25 August 2008 11:25
(A review of Seal [1994])Seal produced a gem of an album on his second attempt. He collaborates with producer Trevor Horn to produce an album of beautiful sonic textures wedded to some excellent songwriting. Seal's voice is on top form throughout. It's the songwriting that takes it a notch above most pop albums. This is pop music at it's finest, unlike the vapid junk that constitutes 90% of popular music. Trevor Horn is clever enough not to overwhelm Seal's voice in too much instrumentation while at the same time keeping his musical influences varied. Consequently, the musical variations keep the album from getting boring like most typical pop albums. There's some dance floor influences ("Bring it On"), some Celtic instrumentation (the truly gorgeous "Kiss from a Rose") and some over the top ballads ("Don't Cry"). Fourteen years on, this album aged really well and is still a great listen. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Dull thriller
Posted : 4 months, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 09:22
(A review of Match Point)I've never been a huge fan of Woody Allen (I didn't even like Annie Hall, thought it was interminably dull.) This movie has some excitement in the last 30 minutes, when everything comes together/falls apart but the middle is rather dull. At nearly two hours long, it could have done with some editing to make it a snappier movie. The other problem is that Jonathan Rhys Myers is wooden faced for so much of it. It works in some scenes but doesn't work in most of them. I could not feel any of his passion for Scarlett Johannson's character, which made the whole premise of the movie (infidelity) a little difficult to believe. The climax, as I said earlier, is interesting and saves the movie from being a complete write-off. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Guitar Hero Aerosmith Wii review
Posted : 4 months, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 07:29
(A review of Guitar Hero Aerosmith Wii)This is more like a Guitar Hero add-on than a new game since nothing has changed from Guitar Hero III except the song list. It's always good to have a new set of songs to rock with but it's not worth the full price. Grab it used or at a discount bin and rock on some more! 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Perfect update to Wii Golf
Posted : 4 months, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 07:23
(A review of We Love Golf!)This game has all the upsides of the intuitive Nintendo game and none of the downsides. The controls are *almost* exactly like the Golf game in Wii Sports. The game adds a level of sophistication and feedback to the controls that was not present in the Nintendo version. It also adds a full range of golf clubs. The rest is great as well - more players, more holes and gold courses to play, more game modes. Not to forget - online play. This game is a great experience and anyone who loves the Nintendo Golf game *must* pick this one up too. Edit: The more I play, the more I love. I've played five courses so far and they are as varied to play as they are in appearance. Some of the courses look absolutely stunning and I find myself just looking around the hole before jumping in to play. The courses also get progressively more challenging which will only make me come back to improve my score. There are so many holes that I *just* missed making a birdie. This doesn't mean that the play mechanics are any harder, it's still as easy to play the game, you just need to get more accurate and have to think about strategy a little more. Capcom have done a really good job with this game. Well worth the money spent on it. Another Edit: It turns out there are eight courses in all and winning them in normal mode unlocks the 'Pro' mode with the same courses, with the tee and flag positions being more challenging. I can't wait to go back and play some of the courses again to improve my scores. My two favourite courses are the Japanese Garden course and the Jungle course - both look spectacular. The rest of the courses also look very pretty and apart from a couple of courses, the rest could never be possible in real life and that just adds to the charm of this game. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
My Blueberry Nights review
Posted : 4 months, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 01:07
(A review of My Blueberry Nights)Wong Kar Wai is one of my favourite film makers, Top 5, one of the best of all time. This is his first English language movie, the rest have been in Chinese and almost exclusively set in Hong Kong. So this movie is quite the change, it's not only in English, it's set in America, mostly in New York. It's a rare film maker who can translate his sensibilities into not only a different language but a completely different culture as well. WKW manages this transition almost perfectly, despite a couple of missteps. The themes of the movie are familiar, not just to viewers of his previous movies. It's all about love, loss and yearning. Jude Law plays a cafe owner in New York, Jeremy, who encounters Norah Jones' character, Elizabeth, the night she breaks up with her boyfriend. Their romance doesn't exactly bloom, it's a slow burn, one with a complex flavour and after-taste. I'm using food metaphors here, the movie takes it's title from Blueberry pie after all. There's great chemistry between the leads. Norah Jones is competent for the most part and Jude Law is very good. He's the heart of the movie, despite most of it being centered around the character of Elizabeth. Elizabeth takes off to explore a world different from her current one, without letting Jeremy know. She keeps in touch by sending him a stream of postcards. The two sub-plots are set in Memphis and Las Vegas/Nevada. The Memphis story is weak and Rachel Weisz is terribly miscast. I almost lost hope for the movie there. The Vegas/Nevada story is set around a gambler, played by Natalie Portman, who has a tortured relationship with her dying father. Natalie Portman is completely convincing, even if Norah Jones is on slightly shaky ground in some scenes. After we're done with Elizabeth's journey, the story returns back to New York for it's conclusion. The trouble with this movie (apart from the clunker in Memphis) is that everything feels like it's been covered in a WKW movie before, most significantly in 'Chungking Express'. It's not one of his masterworks that I've become used to expecting from him. Still, it's a satisfying movie and nobody, and I mean nobody, can do romance better than WKW, even if it's a little re-cycled. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
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