This blog is about movies and books. One watches a movie frame by frame and reads books page by page. Since landing in the US around 18 months ago I have been watching loads of movies... of primarily three languages: Kannada, Hindi and English. I have been an avid reader since many many years. In this blog I hope to share my opinions about movies and books.
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I picked up this book at the library and started reading it out of curiosity. As I delved deeper into the book I realized that it is indeed a fantastic resource. It gives useful tips on how to become self aware, monitor our emotions and control our reactions.
Chapters in the book deal with steps and measures to identify our emotional triggers even before they take over and guide our response. The author warns however that readers should not expect overnight changes in their life or actions. This book is only a guide for those interested to become more aware of their emotions. By following steps given in the book it would be possible to control our futures.
Direction: Don Siegel Cast: Walter Matthau, Andrew Robinson, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon Story: Based on novel The Looters by John H. Reese
This is the story of a small time bank robber and his gang. Charley Varrick played by Matthau is a crop duster by profession but his main occupation is pulling off small bank heists in rural America. During one bank heist they run into trouble and his wife and a gang member gets killed. Surprisingly the heist yields an unusually large sum of money $750,000 and the bank declares a loss of only $1,500.
The money actually belongs to the mob and is on its way out of the country. The mob sets people on Charley and the other surviving gang member's tails. Charley is too smart to fall prey to the mob. The rest of the movie shows how Charley uses his ingenuity to get out of the spot he is in.
This is one of those family movies that has something for every member. There is drama, thrill, some violence, action, stunts, and great dialogues. If you can get hold of this 1973 film do watch it.
Incest, Deceit, Rivalry, and Family Disputes This is one Chinese martial arts movie I didn't quite like. Simple reason there is far too many sub-plots for a successful story. There is a king whose second wife is having an affair with his first wife's son... rather her stepson. Then there is the son of the second wife who is totally loyal to his father who switches loyalties at the end and in the process perishes. The king knows his wife's affair with his son and wants to punish only his wife, believing that she is the cause. He poisons her slowly, a small vial everyday... the plot is revealed to the queen and she continues to go ahead and continue to take the medicine.
Then there is a twist to the plot. The prince has another lover, one of his step-mother's attendants. Quite expectedly his original lover is not happy. That girl is none other than the King's first wife's daughter, and the prince's half-sister. As if this were not enough the first wife of the king is married to his own doctor and he doesn't know it for several years. True to its name the move is accursed and ends on a sad note.
The only saving grace of this movie if any is the beautifully executed fast action, martial art stunts. Had these not been there the movie would have been a complete disaster... greater than what it is now.
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Meg Ryan, Colin Hanks, Selma Blair and others Director: George Gallo
This movie probably attracted audiences because of its impressive star-cast. I had heard a lot about this movie but was too lazy to go and watch the movie in the theaters. For sometime I was even wondering whether I was missing something, but after watching the movie I am more than convinced that it was not a bad decision at all.
The story line of the movie is something like this: Meg Ryan plays the role of an obese, drunken single mother whose son goes out of the house to get trained as a FBI agent. When he returns he sees a completely transformed Meg Ryan. A slim, svelte and sexy woman, she has a set of boyfriends that include a college dropout and a drunk Italian chef.
Quite naturally the son Henry (Colin Hanks) is worried about this mother's wayward life. The worries multiply when she bumps into Tommy (Antonio Banderas) in the market and starts dating him. Things get even charged up for Henry when he has to spy on Tommy, he has to bug his own home, and follow his mother. What happens thereafter and how things get sorted out forms the rest of the movie.
The screenplay is honestly quite pathetic. Other than the impressive star cast there is nothing in the movie. If you haven't watched it don't bother, if you have the opportunity to watch it free and don't have anything better to do, it would be a better option.
Starring: Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, etc. Director: Melville Shavelson
Consider a successful American lawyer who has lost his wayward brother in an automobile accident, a beautiful Italian nightclub singer who holds custody of the departed brother's only son, in a tourist setting. The result is a war of wits and mettle over custody of the little boy and in the process the adults fall in love and take over joint custody of the boy. This in effect is the story of this movie.
What makes it worth watching for 120 odd minutes is the stellar performances by top stars Clark Gable (American lawyer Michael Hamilton) and Sophia Loren (Italian nightclub singer Lucia Curcio) which makes you laugh throughout the movie. Director Michael Shavelson has extracted great performances from both the stars and especially the young boy who plays Nandos.
The movie starts off with Michael arriving in Naples to take care of the estate of his brother who was killed in an automobile accident. The brother, who has borrowed $14,000 from Michael and squandered it away, so in effect there is not much money left. There is his young son Nandos, who at 8 doesn't go to school but smokes and drinks. Lucia, Nando's mother's unmarried sister has claimed him as her own and both are very attached to each other.
Michael is not happy with the way the boy is growing up and wants to give him a good education in an American school. Lucia is naturally not willing to give up custody and this leads to some courtship and finally to a court battle over custody. What happens at the end is quite predictable but how it happens is what you will have to discover by watching the movie.
Great Theme, but awful screenplay Director: Danny Cannon Cast: Kuno Becker, Stephen Dillane, Alessandro Nivola and others
I checked out this movie from the public library thinking it would be a great action-packed soccer movie. Was I disappointed? Boy this movie was such a let down. The soccer/ football theme could have been handled so well but the director has chosen to make it a damp squib. No wonder this 2005 movie never made it to the headlines.
The story is about Santiago Munez, a young man passionate about playing soccer/ football. He has illegally immigrated to US from Mexico and is playing along with street boys in Los Angeles. He is spotted by a Glen (Stephen Dillane), a former big-league football player himself. Glen accosts Munez and asks him if he would be interested in playing pro-soccer. Quite naturally Munez is excited and invites him to another match on Saturday. Glen tries his best to get a talent scout to come to the match but fails. Then he gets in touch with the owner of the Newcastle team in England and convinces him to give Munez a trail.
Munez saves all his meager earnings in a bid to buy passage to London. Meanwhile his father is totally against him playing soccer, he wants his son to work hard and make a living. When his savings are just about becoming enough to enable him to travel to England, his father confiscates the money and buys a truck. Munez is shattered, meanwhile his grandmother somehow manages money and buys his ticket and tells him to go. There is some drama about how his mother had walked out on the family on arriving in US from Mexico. Some family drama etc.\
Santiago arrives in England and tries to play. He is not successful in the initial attempts. Glen fights with the team managers and coach and gets him a one month trail. Then there are other players/ coaches who continue to stand by him to ensure a place in the team.
What strikes me as a viewer is that there is not much of football shown in the movie. There is more popular support for Munez rather than talent. Instead of showing his talent with the ball the director shows how people influence to ensure he keeps his position in the team.
I remember Paulo Coelho's quote in The Alchemist: "When you want something with complete passion, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve the goal". This is not the exact quote but something like that. Comparing it to this movie, Munez badly wants to the a pro-soccer player, the whole universe, a passing acquaintance, his grandma, his friends in the team all conspire to get him into the team.
I think the director could have done a much better job with the theme rather than wasting away the chance to make a great movie.
Laughter all the way Cast: Ramesh Arvind, Mukhyamantri Chandru, Umashree and others; Director: Ramesh Arvind
All through my college days I would hear about the loss of quality in the Kannada cinema. I was never a big time movie watcher and hence it didn't do much to change my opinion. Now after coming to the US I actually started watching movies of all types, primarily out of boredom. Being a poor student I can't afford to do many of the cool things such as bowling, going to the movies, eating out, etc. So what is the best form of entertainment. Yes watching movies on youtube. As I watched English, and Hindi movies I decided to look for recent Kannada movies and watch them.
Yesterday I watched this notoriously hilarious Kannada movie Venkata in Sankata. Out of the 2 hr 21 minutes, if I said I laughed for 2 hrs it would not be false. The movie is completely funny and every scene has a bit of humor. Ramesh is a great actor and he has proved that he is a great director too.
The movie traces the professional life and adventures of police sub inspector Venkata whose fate always seems to be against him. His colleague somehow always seems to take credit for his actions and a frustrated Venkata is yearning to do something about it.
There is a terrorist attack in the city and Venkata is assigned the case. The way he goes about doing it and win forms the gist of the story. In between there is the heroine and few songs which add the necessary "oomph" factor to the movie. Even without these added gimmicks the movie is a good entertainer.
If you have lost hope about Kannada Cinema, watch this and I am sure you will change your opinion.
I picked up this book at the library and started reading it out of curiosity. As I delved deeper into the book I realized that it is indeed a fantastic resource. It gives useful tips on how to become self aware, monitor our emotions and control our reactions.
