Movie Review: Star Trek (2009)

When any thing has a cult following, the subject has to be dealt with great care. The director has to not only satisfy the audience, he has to be careful so as to NOT offend the existing fans and he has to do it while showing something “new” to them. When the movie is Star Trek, the burden on the director increases by manifold as many of the fans will pick and discuss each and every minutest thing in great detail. Everything has to be logically perfect and yet it must be cool! If done right, it will easily make such a movie the biggest movie of this weekend! If done wrong, it can easily make it a big flop.

The thing that I liked about watching this particular Star Trek movie is that the movie has a “new movie” feel about it. Its kind of like the “new car” smell you experience in a new car. The tag line of the movie says “The future is here” and the movie lives up to its tag line. The visuals in the movie are very fresh and clean. The surroundings in the spaceship appear to be new and futuristic. You do not get the feeling of “Hey, That thing reminds me of that other movie. Or This scene feels like its from the Matrix.”

The new Captain Kirk, played by Chris Pine has been given a “I care a damn” attitude in the movie. Something that is different from the old Captain Kirk that I was used to after watching the television series. Although it is this particular quirk about the movie that might make me want to watch the movie again and therefore it actually works to the movie’s advantage if others want to do the same!

Spock! With his odd eyebrows and his seemingly indestructible strength and his high level of intelligence combined with his famous hand-on-the-jugular-maneuver that can instantly render the opposition unconscious, it is but logical it was this character in the Star Trek series that I always wanted to be! Although, I must say that the character played in this movie was not as aspiring, it is perhaps the length of the series that made the Spock of the series way way cooler (its logical, isn’t it!)! Played by Zachary Quinto, the Spock of the movie is also cool as he retains all the qualities of the (dare-i-say) original Spock!

Hikaru Sulu is played by John Cho. (the biography of this character is quite interesting.) The reliable helmsman of the most famous star ship in the world! The character in the movie is vulnerable, yet solid enough to feel at home in the Enterprise!

“Beam me up, Scotty!” – Perhaps the most famous dialogue in the era of Star Trek! Played by Simon Pegg, this character is the practical scientist. A little eccentric, but full of ingenuity. In this movie he has a relatively small yet memorable role.

Dr. McCoy. The ship’s chief medical officer and a personal friend of James T Kirk. Played by Karl Urban, Dr. McCoy smuggles a renegade Kirk aboard the Enterprise in the movie (revealed only because this is not vital to the plot) and also serves as a bit of a comic relief.

Uhura is the ship’s communication officer. Her character is played by Zoe Saldana. Oddly, I thought she was being played by Beyonce in the movie. Logically speaking, the mistake was made by me because Beyonce also had a movie coming out around the same time and there was quite a bit of a resemblance although I did think that the character made Beyonce look skinnier and a little – for the lack of a better word – ugly! I found her bio data quite impressive and her looks unattractive! She has a memorable screen presence in the movie and also serves as a corner of a love angle in the movie.

Of course, as it goes with any action movie, the movie will only be as good as its villain. And the visuals apart, this is perhaps the strongest point in the movie for Nero is real “bad” villain who manages to strike fear in your heart! Ruthless, cold-blooded, calculative, scheming, cunning – he makes bad look cool! Played by Eric Bana, I really liked his characterization a lot even though there is not much time devoted to building it. That may be one of the reasons why I ended up liking his character, because unlike Captain Kirk, the director did not waste any screen time in developing this character. It just unfolded as the story progressed! Efficiently ruthless!
The plot of the movie is simple and yet its complex enough to warrant for a second viewing. There is enough “nerdy details” for a Trekkie to discuss over a few cold beers! Like the creation of an alternate parallel universe caused by the altering of the past by knowledge from the future! A good thing to cause an argument and then discuss “what could have happened” by buying the DVD of the movie.

The only quirk that I had was – even though the cast was international, at least in terms of race, once again the action was centered around the US! It gets a little repetitive to time and again see movie makers show – the world = US – in movies! makes me want to be a little crass and say “Come on – get your head out of your ass! There are other continents too. Its OK to go a little more international. The whole world is a market place now and its for yours to take!” There are other things that I want to discuss too, but it will mean revealing a bit of the plot and hence I refrain for now. And since I have digressed, here is a treat for you…

A visual compa rision of the Old v/s new
Star ship… just for kicks Note that the new star ship is shiner! Also note that many more stars are now visible as this is the age od High Definition )

The commendable thing about this Star Trek movie is that the director J.J. Abrams has managed to give it a fresh feel while retaining the original Star Trek flavour in it. I can see it winning awards or at least posing serious competition to the other eagerly awaited flick of this year – T4!

Go watch it! The ship is really cool, the characters are exciting and funny, the action is also cool and the plot is deep. This movie has enough in it to make a Trekkie out of you! And if you do not get converted in the first screening, we’ll make sure to get a vulcan sign out of you the second time around ) 7.5/10 is my rating! Its really good!

This revu is dedicated to Mumble – who does not have a link to his blog on his profile! Can you please update it buddy? We’d like to read what you have to write…

PS: This started out as a double feature, but the review got the better of me as I started penning it… Sorry to have made you endure me twice

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Movie Review: The Departed (2006)

One question whose answer remains doubtful in the movie is – Whose baby was it? I put my money on Leo Caprio – whats your take…

The movie is rated R for strong brutal violence, pervasive language, some strong sexual content and drug material – The review is rated only PG-13

When the stakes are high, Insurance is everything! And when you are a mole for the police in the mafia that already has a mole in the police – you can never have enough insurance!

A quick review of the movie would be that it was released in 2006 and it won 4 Oscars in 2007 for Best Achievement in Directing, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Writing- Adapted Screenplay. Mark Wahlberg was nominated for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. These awards alone would be reason enough to watch this movie. For a complete list of awards, pls see http://imdb.com/title/tt0407887/awards

Even with a cast like Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga can you be sure the movie will be good? Not unless you have a director like Martin Scorsese putting it all together.

The plot is simple. The Irish Mafia and the Massachusetts State Police both have their moles in each other’s organization. The execution is complex – this is where the movie won its Oscars. The irony shown in the story is superlative – Leonardo Caprio (William M.’Billy’ Costigan Jr.) comes from a crime family that he hates, so its relatively easy for him to penetrate the mafia. hailing from a rich family, he hates his roots so much that he prefers to join the police even if it means leading a life of poverty and hardship. Matt Damon (Det. SSgt. Colin Sullivan) hails from a poor family and since he was a kid, he has been granted numerous favors by the mafia don who treats him like a son – even he joins the police force, but not to serve and protect, but to act as a mole for the Irish crime boss – Played by Jack Nicholson – flamboyant, gutsy, crafty, womanising drug dealer, Frank’s character shows considerable amount of flair that suits his role as an Irish mafia boss. His character is the one to watch out for in the movie – even after so many years, he still has tremendous screen presence and will entertain you in his inimitable style. The casting was perfect as Billy, played by Caprio was cast along side Frank, because Matt Damon certainly could not have played Billy’s character as convincingly and craftily and stood up against a capricious Frank as well as Leonardo did.

But for me, it was Mark Wahlberg as Det. SSgt. Dignam and Martin Sheen as Det. Capt. Oliver Queenan who impressed me much. Together they both played the good cop – bad cop extremely well with Dignam constantly teasing and taunting Billy to keep the fire alive in Billy when he gets tired after living a dual life as a mole. At those times, Queenan plays a father figure in Billy’s life and earns his trust convincingly. Credits to Mr. Scorsese for showing this scene, along with many others, in a few frames that would take 3-4 pages of intense writing for a good author to aptly describe. Indeed, if The Departed were a novel written by a dead author, the writer would be lying peacefully in his grave knowing that justice has been done to the book thru this movie!

All the actors – again, thanks to Scorsese’s direction – get into the skin of their characters, which makes this movie almost like watching a 5 star rated play on the screen. But as this is a movie with opportunities of retakes, it cannot be given 5 stars by me – even though the director is good enough to be compared with other top dogs competing alongside him. I say that because I have seen better directors in Quentin Tarantino and Stanley Kubrik who have managed to satiate the film-freak in me more than Mr. Scorsese did. I cannot help but place The Departed next to Pulp Fiction and it manages go neck to neck with it in terms of entertainment, repeat value and suspense (that in itself is a big compliment to this movie). However, the suspense in The Departed is very tautly managed – I was watching it for the second time, and yet the movie seemed very fresh to me and the ending gave me immense satisfaction – which is why I chose the opening of this review carefully.

The sound editing, the film editing, the screenplay, the casting, the art-direction, the special effects is all top notch – the movie makes all these aspects stand out. The spray of blood shown during executions is very realistic as is the sound of guns being fired during a fight. The “popping” sound of the fire exchange changes when heard thru the police radio – excellent attention to details! Eyes used to convey the lust and lunacy of a mafia boss in a scene was shown extremely well without making the scene gross or showing excessive skin. The craftiness and complexity shown in the only strong female character in the movie was superb (played by Vera Farmiga) – credits to Mr. Scorsese for handling the emotions and the on-screen passion very well and tastefully. The change in the face of a tired and exhausted pill-popping mole Billy is very much noticeable, thanks to the make-up that was done just right.

All in all, this is a brilliant piece of movie making that can be watched over and over every couple of months and it’ll keep entertaining you – but as I had already seen movies like Pulp Fiction and A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrik) that were made ages ago this movie, I cannot give The Departed a 5 star rating – It still gets a stellar rating of 9.8/10 – definitely worth keeping in the collection of all movie connoisseurs!

!! Spike !!

PS: This review is dedicated to my very good friends Lalit (MS id – bildebej) and Ipsi (MS id – ipshonlu) for our Italian discussions that sparked the writing of this review – cheers mates !

Note: This review was originally written by me here. I watched the movie again today and that gave me the perfect opportunity to use my best friends, copy and paste to migrate it to my blog. I’ll be moving my stuff from the old site to the blog as and when time permits.

Movie Review: The Boondock Saints

The movie starts with two brothers in a church where the priest is delivering a sermon.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
[For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.]

The theme of the sermon is the death of a woman who was stabbed to death in broad daylight while onlookers did nothing to prevent it.

“Now we must all fear evil men, but there is another kind of fear which we must fear most. And that is the indifference of good men!“

The priest’s words are synonymous with the brother’s way of life.

The Irish brothers (Sean Partick + Norman Reedus) are two goofy guys working in a meat factory who like to work hard and have fun. They are out partying in a bar on St. Patrick’s day (An Irish holiday), when the Irish bar is forced to be shut down by the Russian mob. The next scene is a crime scene in an alley near the bar.

The investigator of the crime scene is none other than the green goblin.. oops…. Williem DaFoe. He plays a ‘cocky’ FBI detective who is good at his work and is openly gay – Ever since Spiderman, I have fallen in love with DaFoe’s work. He is an actor who makes me feel that he has put in a lot of effort in his work. He portrays complex characters and the roles I like him play are mostly eccentric. But the good part is that he seldom gets repetitive in his work.

The first twist in the tale is when a threatened mob boss hires a vicious killer to go after the brothers. This guy is so violent, he makes Hannibal Lecter look like a Lamb (pun intended)! The killer, II Duce is played by Billy Connolly ->

(Check out the cool assortment of guns he’s wearing)

The twists only get better and better in the movie without it being confusing.

The movie’s uniqueness lies in the fact that it has become a cult hit thru the DVD route. Its the fans that have made “Boondock Saints” famous. This fact speaks volumes about how good this movie is (7.9/10 on IMDB)

The movie has witty and quotable dialogues, the characters in the movie are built strong and deep in a short time. The director really makes it easy to sympathise with the characters in this violent movie. I loved it because of its a cool brand of justice deliverance – undelayed, vicious, funny and serious at the same time.

This movie simply rocks. It is a cult classic. A uber cool intelligent movie that is NOT made by Quentin Tarantino, but is right up there in the coolness factor – It is written and directed by Troy Duffy. What works for the movie is that the lead characters are two ordinary guys who just go for it in any given situation. The make the best of whats in front of them and are thinking on their feet even when the chips are down! The methods adopted by them may be controversial, but their motive is pious! In this age of red tape, their brand brand of justice deliverance cuts right thru the chase! After all, Justice delayed IS justice denied, so they go for the jugular!

My rating, 8.5/10…. 9.5/10 for the coolness and the innovative way of portraying violence and making it pious!

Be a good fan, buy the DVD!