(Stills) What would you call another movie that spins around the assassination of the high priest of American Politics, the so-called most powerful man of the world, the President of United States? Simple, Vantage Point! Yet, another thriller with some punch in it! Through out the movie you get the feeling of untangling a bundle of entwined wool or a possible jigsaw puzzle while every piece intrigues you with a possible way out. Even if you get the feeling that it has been inspired from master director Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, a movie that kept the audience far from finding out the truth owing to the conflicting accounts or eye witnesses till the end, Vantage Point does give you something fresh to cud on, without any political, social or even moral sidekicks. (more…)

Daunting it is to imagine oneself being the only survivor on a wilderness or an uninhabited island. A tangible theme for a feature, yet not many movies try to explore a scene of total solitude from human race. One forceful reason may be that it is hard to hold the audience single-handedly (for any performer), without any entertaining situations arising out of interaction with ones own kind or warmth of relationships in the life of lead actor. (more…)

The first Rush Hour flick was entertaining; I’ll give you that. The second got on your nerves a little, but then again, the first was a hit so there was no avoiding that. But when the third installment of the movie came out, I braced myself before entering the movie hall. You see, I feared that I would be subjected to mindless antics of tired stars who were doing the entire thing on a lark and the whole purpose of the movie is to rake in the moolah on the strength of the popularity of the predecessors. How I wish that I could say I was being simply paranoid and prejudiced and that the film is not quite bad! Sadly, I was right bang on and I could not wait to get out of the theatre. (more…)

Saw III left Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda dead. He returns in Saw IV as a green shaded murderer. Jigsaw is more visible than in the previous two Saw movies. Two FBI detectives Scott Patterson and his colleague Agent Perez, portrayed by Athena Karkanis set out to investigate the murder of Detective Kerry. They come to help senior detective Hoffman played by Costas Mandylor figure out the puzzle behind a spate of gruesome murders in the city. Unfortunately SWAT commander Rigg, played by Lyriq Bent gets abducted and must use his brainpower to rescue his kidnapped wife and daughter. (more…)

The Mist is based on Stephen King’s novella of the same name. Director Frank Darabont creates an eerie ambience that instills fear in the movie watcher. He succeeds in scaring you on the premise that you have nothing to fear, except the creatures of your imagination. The Mist feeds on the idea that scared folk with overactive imaginations tend to overreact when inexplicable things start to happen around them. (more…)

Lions for Lambs is a thought –provoking social commentary on the US government’s policy in Afghanistan. It depicts two soldiers Derek Luke and Michael Pena in Afghanistan, a senator played by Tom Cruise relating a new war strategy in Afghanistan to a journalist, Meryl Streep and an interaction between a professor, Robert Redford and his student Andrew Garfield. The film tries to explore these three situations as the professor tries to inspire his student by relating that the two soldiers are his former students and that he had a role to play in their enlistment. (more…)

American Gangster is reminiscent of many mafia movies like Serpico and The Godfather. It is based on the true story of Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington who was a drug lord in New York during the 1970s. The movie is quite engrossing and well made but somehow stops short of being a great film in spite of excellent performances by Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts, as the honest cop out to bust the drug lord and by Denzel Washington. (more…)

Oh yes. I am talking about the film- The Bourne Ultimatum. The third in the Bourne trilogy, I was a little skeptical about it from the start. Right up till the time that the commercials were on and I was munching popcorn in the darkened theatre, I had my doubts about this last one measuring up to the previous two. You see, most successful films have bad sequels and this after all, is the third part. I figured that since you can’t even play around too much with amnesia, how on earth would one make it look fresh for the third time? (more…)

Bet director Steven Soderbergh was counting on this play of fate to make his third in the Ocean series - Ocean’s 13, a runaway hit. Can’t really blame the guy - third movies almost always run out of steam unless its like Star Wars or The Trilogy of The Lord of the Rings; but then again, that’s a totally different league all together. Anyway, coming back to Ocean’s 13, it has two great predecessors. Ocean’s 11 was mind blowing, we all know that. The sequel was a little off the bull’s eye, but nevertheless, it made enough money for there to be a third part. (more…)

There are a lot of superstitious folks out there who believe in numbers. As in, some believe that number 13 is unlucky and that number 7 is lucky. Most hotels and building don’t even have a 13 th floor to them. So what is so special about room 1408? Well, if you check, it does add up to 13. Besides, when the unanimous king of horror, Stephen King says that there is something about room 1408, I’d believe there is. Among the score of horror novels and stories that this celebrated author has written, 1408 is one of the most chilling. Why? Because it is pure, unadulterated horror. Forgive me, but I believe that blood and gore just ruin the effect of horror. In fact, the very fact that there is something really disgusting in front of you makes you forget about the horror element. In this movie, director Mikael Hafstrom has beautifully adapted this spine chilling short story from King’s vast collection and has created horrifying magic. (more…)