October 2006 Archives

Last Kiss, The' - UK Rated: 15
Runtime: 103min 53secs
Tagline: We all make choices. What's yours?

Plot Outline
Adapted from the 2001 Italian film L'Ultimo bacio, this flick goes through a number of relationships, spanning a number of different ages, and disects the hardships of those relationships. - Sounds typical mush mush, huh?

This film has been incorrectly advertised as a romantic comedy that puts Michael in the middle of two girls, and he cannot decide which one he wants to continue his life with. This is a plain marketing lie to get the rom-com crowd to go watch it. This film deals with the story of four male friends and how their relationships with women have evolved. They are all in their late 20's about to hit 30 and the reality of behaving and acting like an adult suddenly sets in.

We follow the main character Michael played by Zach Braff and follow through his thoughts as his future is neatly being planned out in front of him.

Overall Impressions:
Amibuous though it may sound, if you're in the right frame of mind you may walk away with something more than just entertainment from this film, then again maybe not..

Zach Braff has become something of an easily identifiable every man. He filled the shoes for a generation unsure of its path and desperately in need of meaning. And though he merely plays a role in this film, he has become the face of the film thanks to all his praise and enthusiasm for it. If looked at from an analytical point of view, his performance is the saving grace of the film, since the story, dialog, etc have very little scope for treading new paths. Its an age old story retold.

That all being said, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometimes you just have to let the critic sleep and enjoy the simplicity of human affairs. Thats what it is & through these means I actually found it quite interesting, even thought provoking.

Above the generic rom-com standard fair, more a thinker (i found). (6.5 out of 10)

I'm off to Manchester for a couple of days representing the face of Fidessa to the students at a graduate job fair. Its a great opportunity for me to do what I do best. Mingle with randoms & work my charms, selling them the idea of something they never would have considered otherwise, for once its a job i'm selling & not a movie. They're putting me up in a swanky hotel for a couple of nights with a swimming pool .. should be good!

Alvida for now ..

So y'all know what I'm up to in the backgrounds:

Debatably the most highly anticipated Bollywood film this year has now seen its release. Kicking off a trend of remakes and modern day adaptations, this one is most certainly one that falls under both categories.

Firstly I shall talk about the origins:
The Amitabh starring ‘Don’ of 1978 was without a doubt comparable back then to something as large scale as Star Wars, certainly not through never seen before special effects or sci-fi, but merely through being ahead of its time.

The producer (Nariman Irani) was a cameraman who was in deep debt after his first film Zindagi Zindagi (Life Lifebit the dust. So to get out of this financial mess he was advised by what later became the cast & director of Don (Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman & Chandra Barot) to make another film.

It was a very high risk taken by the producer taking on this particular script, since originally, the script did not even have a name. It was a script pertaining to a character called Don & that is all there was. The writers Salim-Javed hadn’t been able to sell the script for a long period of time, in fact it had already been rejected by a number of large production houses as they considered it unsafe forcommercial cinema for being so unconventional.

Nariman must have found it a gripping enough read to take such a risk with it as it was clear that this film was to make or break his film career, & right he was to do so.

Once it saw a release, it took much praise by all viewers for finding a happy medium between being commercial & entertaining, yet maintaining originality. Within the industry we hadn’t seen anything of this nature before, it hit the industry like a storm and was in a short time considered a cult classic (& still is).

Like children of the 70’s & early 80’s rant on about Star Wars, in India it was all about Don, with children imitating the character of Don, quoting his cool dialogues, or even choreographing themselves to the Khaike Paan song as immortalised by the Big B.

Now in this day & age, those children have come into their own, become actors, directors, producers & this (I guess) brings us to why Farhan Akhtar (son of Javed, who originally wrote the script) felt a remake of this cult classic was now due, bringing the story once more to the viewer as a modern interpretation that the current generation can relate to.

All praises being given to the original it does have to be said, if a modern day viewer saw this 70’s flick, their reaction would be nothing like it was back then. It unfortunately falls under those trend-setting categories where much of what was original back then has been beaten repeatedly by consequent films to a pulp since then. A good comparison I would say is the bullet-time we all were so amazed by back when the Matrix was released a few years back. It was amazing, and then it was seen everywhere, Scary Movie, even Bollywood got its share of spoofing it in Main Hoon Na (I’m Here Aren’t I?).

So in my personal opinion, it made total sense for this remake to be done, but a straight up remake wouldn’t cut it, it would need modernising. – It occurs to me I haven’t really said what this flick is all about yet so I’ll cover that before going into comparisons & details that will otherwise make little to no sense to you.

The synopsis (of both):
...

Details still being written & re-written ...

In 1998, this day celebrated when I first began work in the world of cinema! The film release that kicked off my cinema addiction was even eariler on.. but that celebration is another day .. this is the day I got a job there. The release was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai by Dharma Productions - this day I have received my DVD copy of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna by the same production house. I recall it was the only film we were showing on all 3 screens & it was sold out weeks ahead - good times were had by all. The only burden that weighs on my mind for the little guilt around this is that I know the big bosses that ran the cinema were unfair to the distribution & screwed them out of their percentage share. I only knew about this a lot later ofcourse, when I realised that the figures being fed to EDI (the organisation that publishes the Top 10's & Box Office returns) were not entirely accurate, in some cases far from. I'm glad to say in the end, justice prevailed in its own twisted way & the guys found competition that got the better of them - & they soon went bankrupt. My little hand in this was I did my best to ensure competition did come about, its always a healthy thing in business I find. This also meant I lost my job, but this was a team spirit (mass quitting) & happened a few years later. - Later I moved to a multiplex but that's a story for another day.

• Demon is a single man again .. (yes ladies, single & looking)
• Charlie now only has 2 jobs .. he quit Mosh
• Farmer is dead .. again
• A book called Still Reading Khan on SRK has been released.
• I've begin organising the mass note-taking I have been doing for the past couple of years
• I am still .. the KING :)

Departed, The' - UK Rated: 18
Runtime: 151min 08sec
Tagline: Cops or Criminals. When you're facing a loaded gun what's the difference?

Plot Outline
A remake/adaptation of a Hong Kong film called "Wu jian dao" (aka Infernal Affairs), now set in South Boston. The crux of the plot is that Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). While Billy quickly gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there's a mole in their midst, the thrills begin to roll.

Overall Impressions:
Firstly I will say, Infernal Affairs was one of the best thrillers of this genre I've seen in many years. So if you like this, watch the original. Secondly, they've done a top-notch job adapting it for the American cine-goer. The guys that haven't seen the original are loving this & rightly so, its one of the best gangster flicks Hollywood has churned up in a long time, that being said, my only dig at this film & a minor one at that, i sthat it seems to have lost the charm the original had. Minor things missed, like the morse-coding, character development of Matt Damon's character that differed, even the end, the differences 'to me' seemed a step down - yet as an independent film with no connection to Infernal Affairs, I'd probably give it an 8 ...

Spectacular performances. Top Story. I just get this tingling feeling I would have liked it 'even' more had I not seen Infernal Affairs - for me it had the upper hand. (7 out of 10)

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal, Isha Koppikar, Boman Irani, Om Puri
Special Appearances by: Chunkey Pandey & Kareena Kapoor
Produced by: Ritesh Sidhwani
Directed by: Farhan Akhtar
Releasing Worldwide : October 20th

Arguably the most anticipated Bollywood flick this year - Did I hear a "Why??"
I think I heard a why in the crowd, okay okay I shall tell you why :)

Going back to the 70's there was a point where One man could sell a film, no matter how bad the film might be (most weren't but some 'really' were), the entire country would still rush to the cinema on that first weekend to see a this film. This guy was a Hero, a Legend -- correction not 'was' .. IS a legend. In fact only last year this man won the Best Actor's Award from FilmFare (India's Oscar Equivalent) for the film "Black" for playing a teacher to a deaf, mute & blind girl. The name of this man known widely for his Angry Young Man image in the 80's is "Amitabh Bachchan". With over 150 films up his sleeve since 1970 the peak of his young-age career was around the late 70's & at this time where the Big B (as he is fondly called for his extereme height) came along an unconventional role for the man in a film called 'DON'

Now some people may argue this but I like many others believe that in this day & age there is only one man that comes close to having this level of power in the Indian film industry today & that is Shah Rukh Khan (picture above). If the character of 'Don' could be brought alive for a whole new generation, only this man could do it. The director when questioned about this says "Shah Rukh has such a larger than life personality off-screen" & for this reason he's perfect for the role.

I don't feel anyone can dispute that SRK has the same if not more crowd-pulling pwer that Big B had in the peak of his career. Is this because of the way the industry has evolved? Is it because we are known seen globally as opposed to within the realms of India? - Perhaps these things have helped, Yes, but the man has an undeniable charm & charisma & now stepping into the role of 'DON' we get to see the bad-ass side of him that gave him his fame in films like DARR and RAM-JAANE after almost a good decade. Have a sneak peak here: Theatrical Trailer (I shall warn you beforehand that you'll have to probably watch a shampoo commercial or something similar first - it is a shame its not on QuickTime or Yahoo's trailer sections). For those that didn't know a remake was in the works they'd realise at the point we hear the: *knock-knock-knock* .. “yes, who is it??” ….. DON - Much of the original dialogue has been left intact for the nostalgia of the original flick, but just looking at the promo's and trailers its obvious they're selling this not only to the die-hard 70's fans but to a whole new generation.

With a couple of weeks to go promotion for this flick is looking pretty slick & me for one am certainly looking forward to this: For further details check out their Official Website too.