VALKYRIE ( DIR: BRYAN SINGER ) 2008

This film portrays the attempt of Von Stauffenberg to assassinate Hitler in order to save German.The film is based on the true facts."Valkyrie" was the name of a series of operations to be executed in time of emergency.Stauffenberg changed a bit of these operations and planned to kill Hitler,which would cause an emergency and he will be able to enforce "Valkyrie".But his attempt failed and he along with his associates were shot dead.

The film could have been better.Its enough time that people stop thinking thatGerman,2nd World War,Nazis,SS etc are sufficient enough to make a film succeed.

THE IRON GIANT ( DIR: BRAD BIRD ) 1999

Little Hogarth makes friend with a huge iron robot when it crash lands in his neighbourhood from outer space.He tries to keep him hidden from other people and an poky NSA agent....


The film lacks the sense of proportionality in terms of the size of the iron robot.Otherwise its a good animation film.

THICK AS THIEVES ( DIR: MIMI LEDER ) 2009

Ripley,a master thief offers Gabrial to be his partner in stealing gems worth $40 million....

Except Antonio Banderas ( Gabrial) i found nothing in the movie worth watching or new.

BILLU BARBER ( DIR: PRIYADARSHAN ) 2009

Billu,a poor barber from a remote village used to tell his children and wife that he was a friend of film star Sahir Khan.One day to shoot his new film Sahir Khan comes to Billu's village.Billu's family tell everyone that Billu and Sahir were great friends and other stories.Everyone try to please Billu by various means so that they might get a chance to get near Sahir Khan.Billu denies the fact from the beginning to others and tells them to go away only to give them the expression that he was being modest.Slowly everyone start to feel that they were fooled and lodge false cases against Billu.Even his children start to hate him.On the last day Sahir Khan comes to the village school to talk with the children.There seeing the little children Sahir reminisces about his own childhood.How poor he was and how his friend Billu helped him to become what he is today.How he searched for his childhood friend but cannot find him.Billu always thought Sahir wont recognize him,thus tried to avoid meeting him but hearing this from a distance he walks away home satisfied in heart.Soon Sahir visits Billu's house and the two friends are reunited.

We presume something and start believing in it,never knowing the truth.Distances more often virtual and of silly kind,start to come between as people grow up.

SUNSHINE ( DIR: DANNY BOYLE ) 2007

A group of astronauts are the last hope of the mankind.The Sun is dying and there mission is to make an explosion in the Sun to reignite it.For this they are to travel to Sun.The film takes place inside the space ship Icarus 2 and in the space.

As long as you don't ask common questions like which doorway in the space ship leads where,you will probably enjoy the movie.When everybody is concerned with global warming,the film deals with a totally opposite emergency.

GHOST TOWN ( DIR: DAVID KOEPP ) 2008

Dr. Pincus,a dentist,chose to live a self centered,rude life.He was doing fine until the day he started seeing dead people who has unfinished business.Frank who died recently, desperately wants to stop his "was" wife from marring another guy and thus seeks Dr Pincus's help,as he is the only person who can communicate with the dead.Like Frank all the other dead people also want his help....

A feel good movie.

TRAINSPOTTING ( DIR: DANNY BOYLE ) 1996

In the film we find Renton and four friends of him in Edinburgh.The film is a narration by Renton.Renton,a drug addict is sure about one thing,he is not going to "choose" the things in his life.Rather he would live life as he feels it.To him drugs are far better than sex.After getting caught by security guards for shoplifting,Renton decides to quite drug and goes to London,although he keeps contact with his friends in Edinburgh.The death of Tommy,brings the remaining four friends together in his funeral and SickBoy comes up with a drug deal which will bring money to them.After the successful deal,Renton runs away with the money.He decides that its about time for him to start making choices in his life.

When the film talked of drug,it showed it without glamour.Its a treat to see the film,regardless of whether you know the story or not.Although the scenes can get pretty vulgar at points of time.

DEV D ( DIR: ANURAG KASHYAP ) 2009

In the beginning the film claims to be "loosely" based on the novel DEVDAS.The characters in the film share the same names and more or less the same roles as in the novel DEVDAS.Its not hard to find people who after breaking their heart take to drugs and shut themselves away from life.If this film have not made that claim in the beginning and changed the characters' names,it could have been another film.But probably the film intentionally wanted to mock this kind of Devdas-es.The ending of the film is different though.Dev finds love and realizes that being alive is reason enough to be happy.In the end he confesses to Chanda..."I always wanted to love Paro,but never loved her..".Soon when his constant flow of money from family business stopped,Dev was brought back to real life from the glamour of being a tragic hero.Apart from the story line,the cinema was well shown,with experiments which are not common in Bollywood movies.The music used also helped the movie.

CONFESSIONS OF PAIN ( DIR: LAU WAI-KEUNG, MAK SIU FAI ) 2006

After his wife's suicide, Bong resigns from the police force,becomes an alcoholic and works as a private eye with the help of his chief Hei.Now after the brutal murders of Hei's father in law and his associate,Hei' wife requests Bong to investigate in that case.Bong finds a lot more than what he bargained for....

CHE:PART 1 ( DIR: STEVEN SODERBERG ) 2008

This part starts with Ernesto,an Argentine,meeting Fidel Castro.Ernesto joins Fidel's humble group of approximately 80 rebels,with which they started the Cuban revolution.Slowly Ernesto becomes an integral part of the revolution.He becomes popular by the nick name "che", which is an Argentine way to address common people.They overthrow Batista.Although Ernesto wanted to spread the revolution all through out the Latin America,Castro was content with the win in Cuba. This part ends with Ernesto on his way to Havana.

In between his journey the film shows the speeches Ernesto delivered in front of the UN and also his answers to many questions asked to him in interviews. The film is an informative in site to the journey of Ernesto and also the revolution.

BEDTIME STORIES ( DIR: ADAM SHANKMAN ) 2008

Skeeter's life changes when the bedtime stories he tells to his nephew and niece start to come true in their own accord.

A feel good movie.But Disney should have done better.

OUTLANDER ( DIR: HOWARD MC CAIN ) 2008

Kainan,a man from a far off planet crash lands in Norway during the time of the Vikings and accidentally brings with him an alien predator known as Moorwen.First Kainan was held hostage,but after winning their trust Kainan leads the Vikings to hunt down the creature.

Just another silly movie.

CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA ( DIR: NIKHIL ADVANI ) 2009

Sidhu,a good for nothing bawarchi from Chandni Chowk,Delhi, is believed to be the reincarnation of the great Chinese warrior Liu Shengh.He travels to China unaware of the fact that he is expected to fight the bad guy Hojo and free the people from his torture....


Waste of time.The film could have been better.

IN JULY ( DIR: FATIH AKIN ) 2000

July likes Danial.She sells him a ring with the sun and says that ring will help him find his soul mate.She tells Danial to look for the sun in his soul mate and invites him to a party.But her plan goes terribly wrong when she arrives in the party late with the picture of sun in her dress.Danial already finds someone else with sun in her dress.Heart broken,July decides to go on a vacation and let the first one to give her a lift decide where she should go.That person happens to be Danial.Danial explains that he is going to Istanbul,to find that girl he met in the party who left abruptly and he is in love with that girl.Danial and July embarks on the journey....


The eventful journey is entertaining.Although any one can guess the end,still he will be encouraged to see the movie till the end.

JCVD ( DIR : MABROUK EL MACHRI ) 2008

Van Damme has aged.Its harder for him now to find roles in films.His violent films served as a reason to loose him the custody of his daughter.He is also broke.Now in Belgium he enters a post office to collect some cash when it was being robbed .The gang adds him with the hostages.To make it worse, the authority is under the impression that he is behind this robbery.Van Damme understands real life and shooting in a film are not the same...


It could have been a documentary.It could have been a spoof.It could have been a film.But it is a combination of all three.A film like this is not generally expected from an action star like Van Damme.

OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU ? ( DIR: JOEL COEN, ETHAN COEN ) 2000

Everette who is chained to Dalmer and Pete tempts them of hidden treasure and the three convicts escape from jailhouse.In pursuit of the treasure among other people they meet Tommy,who claims to have sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play the guitar.Together they perform under the name "The Soggy Bottom Boys" for quick cash.Unknown of the band's tremendous success they carry on their search for treasure through eventful encounters...


Alongside the film,the music is also very good.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE ( DIR: DANNY BOYLE, CO-DIR: LOVELEEN TANDAN ) 2008

Jamal,a chai-wala from one of the many slums gets a chance to play in a TV reality show "Who Wants to be a millionaire?".He goes on answering all the questions.This gives raise to suspicion on how an uneducated chai wala is able to answer all the questions?Before the final round he is handed over to the police for interrogation.There he explains how he is able to answer the questions.His explanations give an insight to the lives of many a people and describes his life till now...

The film do give raise to some controversies,but as a film it is very good and also the music in the film is very good.Its always hard to accept an outsider to come and make a film with facts which were their for ages.But when a nation is not ashamed of maintaining slums or poverty then why should it protest when someone shows it in a film?Probably the international castings and the urge to make an international status the main characters (including the slum dwellers) talk in fluent English.It could have used Hindi with English subtitles.Selim, Jamal's older brother,reminded me strongly of the film "City of God".

MARADONA BY KUSTURICA ( DIR: EMIR KUSTURICA) 2008

Its a documentary on Maradona,where Maradona speaks freely on issues on and outside the football ground.Here are some excerpts from the documentary:

"...We were representing our dead who were sent to die by their own country.It wasn't like England pushed a button and killed everyone...It was like a war,
winning a football war.....a lot depended on our beating England. I was so thrilled with that goal(hand of god),it was as if I'd stolen an Englishman's wallet.....
....................
When I came down,I was like everyone,like all of you.And I could talk to you.What messed me up was cocaine.
................
Emir,do you know what a player I'd have been if I hadn't taken coke?What a player we lost!........I could have been much more than I am.I was born into football......"

ROCK N ROLLA ( DIR: GUY RITCHIE ) 2008

Its hard to describe sequentially any of Guy Ritchie's films.He makes the plot complicated.But the best thing is he takes good care to explain or resolve the complications.In the near end he unties the knots smoothly and puts all the pieces in place.This one is also no different from that pattern.And as other films this film is also thoroughly enjoyable.

IGOR ( DIR: ANTHONY LEODIS) 2008

A Igor dreams to be the greatest evil scientist.But due to the hunch he is forced to be just another Igor and work as an assistant.When his master dies accidentally,Igor suddenly gets his chance to prove himself.He creates life.Problem arises when his creation denies to do even the simplest evil deed....

LEGENDARY ASSASSIN ( DIR: CHUNG CHI LI, JACKY WU ) 2008

A female cop befriends Bo,who claims to be on a short vacation in the island where she stays.Due to bad weather Bo was forced to elongate his stay in the island.His prolonged stay sparks up a series of incidents....

VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA (DIR: WOODY ALLEN) 2008

Two best friends Vicky and Christina decide to visit Barcelona when a relative of Vicky's invites them to come.There they meet an artist who in turn shows them an amazing thing which we call life.....


Sometimes dreams are there only to wake up from.Or maybe the briefness of a dream is what makes it beautiful.

CITY OF EMBERS ( DIR: GILL KENAN) 2008

For 200 years the people of the city of Embers have flourished without any knowledge of the outside world.But now the powerful generator which illuminated the city for years is malfunctioning.The box which was supposed to be handed over from generation to generation and was supposed to save the people was lost and forgotten as well.At a time like this a young boy and girl try to save the city...

Not worth watching even if you have plenty of time.

YIP MAN ( DIR: WILSON YIP) 2008

Yip Man was a legendary master in the Chinese martial art form Wing Chun.This film portrays his life,when he was living in Fushun.Here we see at the time of Japanese invasion how Yip Man turned down the offer to teach Japanese army his martial arts knowledge and stood beside his country men.


Bruce Lee was a student of Yip Man.

16 YEARS OF ALCOHOL ( DIR: RICHARD JOBSON) 2003

Frankie,to cope with his disordered family was taken to drinking at an early age.He grew up to become a violent man,moving in a group of four.But the problem arises when he attempts to purify himself,leave the past behind and dream a good life...

Sometimes alcohol make those things which we want to forget more prominent,helping us to remember the things clearly contrary to the belief that alcohol washes away the memory.

INVISIBLE TARGET ( DIR: BENNY CHAN ) 2007

After getting betrayed and paying with the price of their gang members,the remaining members of the gang of seven are back again for revenge and their share of money.Three cops team up to stop them,but they are no match for them.This does not stop them from chasing the gang...


A film were the good is to the mercy of the evil.Maybe the highest power of good is in making people realize.

DAYS OF BEING WILD (DIR: WONG KAR WAI) 1990

After the revelation that the woman who raised him is not his mother,Yuddy spoils himself,denies to keep any attachments with any things and sets his only goal as to find his mother.She refuses to give him that information as she was afraid that Yuddy would leave her.Yuddy drags himself away from friends,love,home....

Yuddy's lifestyle gave others,knowingly or unknowingly a bit of life to live in.And it also raises a question,will you fall in love with someone just because that person loves you very much?

DEATH RACE ( DIR: PAUL W.S. ANDERSON) 2008

In the future unemployment reaches a record high,prisons are overflowing.At a chaotic time like that Jensen is framed for his wife's murder and sent to prison.Their he is forced to drive in the celebrated brutal "Death Race" which is run in three stages.Before completing the race Jensen finds more than what he intended to find....

Just another mindless action film where the action is mainly on the race tracks.

EXILED ( DIR: JOHNY TO) 2006

Here we find five outlaws.Their friendship is tested against loyalty,honor.When Wo decides to go against the boss,their brotherhood gets divided due to conflicting point of views.

A film were the exiles are portrayed the way they should be.The play of emotions,frustrations in them are shown well.