Short Flicks: 10 Minutes

Dir: Ahmed Imamovic

Plot: This short film, as its title indicates lasts only 10 minutes, but it tells a much longer story which unravels only in our imagination upon seeing the end of the film. While 10 minutes in someone's life mean nothing, they can be fatal in another: a boy and his loving family, tragedy in a war-torn city, death and destruction. All in just ten minutes.

R-view 140: Ko

Inspired from State of Play; but adapted well and polished into perfection by the master cinematographer K.V. Anand. Lots of details. Jeeva and Ajmal underplay, looks fresh. Pia steals the show in every frame she's in. Visuals are a treat to the senses. Political thriller, gripping.

R-view 140: Ardh Satya

The best Indian police movie. Classic. Realistic like hell. Om Puri should have been crowned as India's angry young man instead of AB. The mother of all guest roles, Naseeruddin Shah as Inspector Mike Lobo. This is Indian cinema, not Bollywood. Period.

R-view 140: Orange

Bhaskar cant seem to move on from love and love stories and worlds best love stories etc. Ram Charan Teja's second is a thumbs down, but he looks good. Genelia D'Souza is irritatingly bubbly and cute. Wot did Bhaskar slip into Genelia's drink, whatever it is, sure its double the dose tat was used for Bommarillu!

R-view 140: City of God

Its fine to be inspired, but you get inspired from Amores Perros and name it City of God? Lijo Jose Pellissery disappoints in his second feature since Nayakan. Irritatingly shaky steady cam shots. Beautiful framing and lighting. Some flat characters but lots of emotion. Good BGM and tracks. Realistic in parts.

R-view 140: Yeh Saali Zindagi

Guy Ritchie meets Irrfan Khan kinda humour. Neat parkour sequences and some good action. Long. Predictable.

R-view 140: Confessions

Revenge. The plot couldn't get any better twisted. Nothing short of brilliant. Must watch.

R-view 140: Mirch

Four shorts on sex and sex only. Strong in theme, fails to deliver. Down.

R-view 140: Im Still Here

How far would you go to accomplish something; something weird, completely make-believe.. and miserably fail at it? Obscene in parts.

R-view 140: Sukiyaki Western Django

A tribute to the spaghetti western genre, funky with all those references to literature and heavily choreographed action. A treat if you can sit through some of the weird costumes and humour. And I thought only Tarantino plays around with the exploitation genre.

R-view 140: Aguirre: The Wrath Of God

Madness and men, a masterpiece only Herzog can craft. A tale of obsession, sanity and the thin line in between.

R-view 140: Lennon NYC

Docu. A fan video maybe. But lots of interesting footage and chapter graphics. Good to know about Lennon the humanist. And all those live concerts and interviews.

R-view 140: No One Knows About Persian Cats

Kurd. From the director of Turtles Can Fly. Reminds of Akin's Crossing the Bridge, not a docu though. Guerrilla film making. Undergroung tales of forbidden music inspired by true events. Must watch.

R-view 140: Spanking the Monkey

Incest. A difficult watch. Along the lines of a coming of age drama. Subtle comedy and striking performances. 

Short Flicks: Things I Like, Things I Don't Like

Dir: Jean Pierre Jeunet

Plot: A short comedy starring Dominique Pinon. Featuring muted colors with a sepia black and white, Pinon takes the viewer through various examples of what he "likes and dislikes".

R-view 140: Kalavaani

The light side of the new-found-new-wave of Tamil movies set in the rural milieu. Not your usual Tamil romance, a Rom-Com this one. And no confusing accents or Madurai slang either. Fun. Vimal****

R-view 140: Woodstock: 3 Days Of Peace & Music

Docu. The event of a generation. The generation that was the event.

R-view 140: Urumi

First impression was "Magnum-Opus". I even looked it up on the dictionary; it fit, all that emotion, the cast, the cinematography, music, the reach. But looking at it after the first rush of excitement, the movie looks silly in parts with the revenge driven protagonist mouthing dialogues in extreme confidence, they look comical at times. The script is way too simple (and just because Santosh Sivan himself used this term) like a ballad. Amol Gupte, Arya, Nithya Menon, Jagathy Srikumar, Prabhudeva, Genelia D'souza. The humour was rib-tickling and the action sequences looked way too dull, but detailed with lots of D.I. and slow motion. A Titanic-esque ending, no I wont lash out on that, it was cheesy, my kind of ending. A twist in history or fiction? Epic. Two swords up.

Short Flicks: Agent Orange

Dir: Tony Scott

Plot: A psychedelic love story of a man's frantic search to connect with his true soul mate.

R-view 140: 7 Khoon Maaf

First impression; Susanna - Scary. Don't blame me, the dark humour was too much. The seven men excel in their screen space. Felt like reading pages of a diary, the narrative, long. Vishal Bhardwaj delivers again.

R-view 140: Happythankyoumoreplease

Directed and lead by that guy from How I Met Your Mother. Was enough to get me hooked, and the interesting title. A bit slow, a tad cliched. But nice settings and cast, it does strike some chords. Feel good. Happy. Thank you. More please.

R-view 140: Ichi The Killer

Work of an auteur. Guts-on-the-floor kinda violence, literally. Extremely disturbing. Still confused about how they came up with some of the torturing methods (shudders). Wacko movie.

R-view 140: 127 Hours

All those split screens, what a turn-on! What would have been an extremely disturbing sequence, not when Danny Boyle takes control. Lots of layers, reminded of his own Shallow Grave. One man show. And its something like a celebration of the human spirit, life in itself.

R-view 140: Unstoppable

Tony Scott never lets us down, provided he teams up with Denzel Washington. And this is one of those movies where you genuinely feel that adrenaline rush (in parts). Bright yet saturated tones as usual. Thriller.

R-view 140: Machete

What started off as one of the fake trailers in the Tarantino-Rodriguez Grindhouse venture has now been made to a full blown feature film which can be included in the super-exploitation genre out there with lots of blood and guts. Danny Trejo, the big bad Mexican, in his first lead role with all the cool in the world but lacks any kind of visible changes in expression, except for the "kill kill kill" one. Gratuitous violence. Michelle Rodriguez****

R-view 140: Chaser

My favorite Korean movie. Serial killer, dirty cop, the game, the chase. But above all, the Korean style of pitch black grittiness. Must watch.

R-view 140: Predators

Never been a fan of the Aliens/Predators franchise. Lots of gore, looked like the usual American evil-alien thriller. Adrien Brody can look tough!

R-view 140: Dear John

Neat. Some good one liners. Not too cheesy; with some flat characters. Lots of relations explored. Not a rom-com either. Straight to the point/plot.

R-view 140: Mango Yellow

Brazilian. Hunk, queer, virgin, slut, necrophiliac etc.  Some random characters. Some annoying sex sequences. Beautiful tones. Lush. Not ripe, raw.

R-view 140: The Losers

From the director of Stomp the Yard. A pumped-down version of The Expendables, A-Team etc. with some nice guns, guts and funny one liners. Nothing new or better in the plot. Fun.

R-view 140: Yuddham Sei

Mysskin is an auteur in every sense when it comes to these noir-ish crime thrillers. But all those repeated leg shots? Anjaathe had a whole sequence with the feet alone. I wonder if it turned just pretentious in Yuddham Sei. The action sequence is well choreographed (and reminds of every other Korean; Kitano movie out there). Cheran looks good, but does smash his head against the wall as usual, in despair. Cinematography deserves special mention. Slow; unless you are accustomed to watching those Korean detective movies.

R-view 140: The Fighter

Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale together is a reason enough for a flick like this to go to great heights. Convincing plot and wonderful cast. One of the best boxer-movies ever. Must-watch.

R-view 140: Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey

Utterly butterly boring with the very serious looking Bachchan boy uttering lines in Bengali accent. And very very long, even for a period flick. Informative, that is if this is some textbook we are talking about.

R-view 140: It's Kind of a Funny Story

We live at the edge of a great depression, emotionally/literally. To find your grip is the most important part. The rest will 'come to you'. All smiles.

R-view 140: Eesan

Definitely not what was expected from the so called pioneer of the new-wave in Tamil cinema. Haven't we seen this story before? Nasty politician, spoilt son, honest cop, the innocent village family, big bad city, the rape and revenge? Long.

R-view 140: Due Date

'From the director of Hang-Over.' What more should a road-movie need for a tagline! Zach Galifianakis together with Sherlock Holmes. A lot like Planes Trains and Automobiles, but has its moments.

R-view 140: Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji

Bhandarkar should stick to his inside-drama/jokes/politics kinda movies. The jokes are a bit on the low side and he even managed to make Omi Vaidya sound exactly like how he was in 3 Idiots and overdo it. Filmy, very filmy.

R-view 140: The Other Guys

Mark Wahlberg does full-on mindless comedy! Otherwise a really crap-piece of motion picture.

R-view 140: The Mechanic

OK so they didn't want to call it Transporter 4, that's it. Everything else is the same. Statham sure can kick ass and look like he doesn't give a crap. Predictable.

R-view 140: Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam

Telugu. Siddharth looked loads better in Bommarillu and Oye. Some nice story line, but definitely as cheesy/melodramatic as it can get.

R-view 140: Tron

Unbelievably brilliant Computer Graphics (Made in 1982!). A geek-cult-classic it should have been. Wonder what the sequel looks like.

R-view 140: Buried

How do you set a feature length movie inside a wooden coffin buried in the sand with just Ryan Reynolds (no more Mr. Cheesy lover boy!) trapped in it?  Must-watch.

R-view 140: Devil

Has everything you would look out for in a Manoj Night Shyamalan flick (yup, he wrote the script), and he delivers it. Predictable at some point but keeps you going with its 'mind-blowing' cinematography! Thriller.

R-view 140: I'm Here

Short. Emotional. Futuristic, but not the scary-apocalyptic kind. Learn to dream, and then to live for it. Get hold of the OST if available. 

R-view 140: T.D. Dasan, Std. VI. B

Something feel-good about this movie. Maybe it is all those 4:3 frames in between, the parallel film in film sequence or maybe it is the innocence all about the tale set in the village. Neat.

R-view 140: Grown Ups

Nothing serious or special. Not even a new plot. Bet you can predict the outcome of jokes even. Watch it for the cast, all the funny guys in there.

R-view 140: Band Baaja Baaraat

FUN! Yash Raj Films does wot they are damn good at. Feel-good. Usual stuff though. The Salim-Sulaiman duo scores like never before. Maneesh Sharma debuts good.

R-view 140: My Left Foot

Biographical. Wonderful to know that its a true story. Watch out for the 'Mother' sequence. Daniel Day-Lewis***** Must-watch.

R-view 140: Department 36

French. As a friend said, we should remake it in Malayalam with the two pillar figures sometime. Out and out good cop-bad cop movie. Mixed emotions. Dark.

R-view 140: No One Killed Jessica

Part truth part tricky. Both Rani Mukherjee and Vidya Balan runs the show well, in their respective halves. Thrilling background score and hauntingly beautiful soundtrack. Must-watch.

R-view 140: Nadunisi Naigal

Gautam Menon's tribute to Psycho? Dint know that a movie could be such a turn-off. Brilliant characters and back stories. Manoj Paramahamsa at the cam excels  in all those night shots. A bit of the Korean serial killer flick Chaser somewhere there.

R-view 140: Salt

Liked the movie better from the point where Salt dyes her hair black. Nothing much. Felt like a hangover of all those slick US spy movies.

R-view 140: The Siege

A serious movie, finally! Frightening, they made it before the actual 9/11. Engaging and very convincing. Denzel Washington*****