Fred Claus starring Vince Vaughn is meant to be a jolly, good- humored Christmas tale and does succeed to an extent. So we have Fred Claus, the not so famous brother of Santa Claus who has fallen on bad times and seeks his good brother’s help to bail him out of a messy situation. Santa agrees to help his sibling provided Fred comes to the North Pole to help out in the week before Christmas. (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…)

When a trend has begun, there is no stopping the followers. Fads, though short lived, almost possess people into doing what is “in”. Right now, I suppose the trend points towards a magical bend of the directors and script writer’s wrist. You see, the public is bored of our own mundane, bad world and want to enter another realm which takes them deep into the world of fantasies and enthralls them, if only for an hour or two. Take the Harry Potter series, or Lord of the Rings for example sake. And now, we have another one jump onto the band wagon. This is Stardust. (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…)

No. we are not talking about another slasher flick which decided to cash in on Psycho. Most people who have not heard of the film will be forgiven if they thought that. But Sicko is actually a documentary film that is based on the American health care sector. Those not living in America think of it as the land of opportunities and can’t wait to get there. They think that everything in America is superbly perfect and this includes the health care. All you have to do is get medical insurance and then you are set for life, right? (more…)

Comedies really are nice to have around. I mean, you return home all stressed out from work and may be feeling down. A comedy will get your spirits up right away. Romantic comedies are even better - you can watch them with your chick friends or with your guy. That’s for the girls. What about the guys? Nah! Romantic comedies are for pansies, there is no way you will catch a real boy watching that stuff! No way until girl wants to watch the film. So to solve the dilemma that the poor guys face, Judd Apatow has magnanimously come up with a movie guys don’t have to be ashamed of watching. (more…)

This is really unfair. If god is honestly just materializing in front of people and giving them the opportunity to become him, I want in! How come this does not happen to normal people?! Yes, you might think this is the hysterical outburst of a small child, but truly, when you see films like this don’t you just want to scream? I thought Bruce Almighty was a mistake that Jim Carrey made. Of course, he made the mistake more watch able, but it was mistake nonetheless. Just when I had thought that was behind me, here comes Evan Almighty - the sequel! Tom Shadyak sure does not believe in learning from mistakes otherwise he would never make this film. (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…)