Road Trip

My Rating : 3/5

After watching 'Hangover', I got impressed by Todd Philips and started downloading all his films. This was the third film of Todd Philips that I watched within a month.
After watching Old School, I didn't have much expectations about this one but this was gud. I liked watching this and I think that there is a scope of remaking this in Malayalam

The BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS

My Rating : 3/5

When people say that Twitter is a revolution, I always wondered how it can be a revolution. But after watching this movie, I realise that.
I got to know about this movie from a tweet from Rajeev Masand. He had given a good review about this movie.

The movie was superb, though it is in the lines of Life is Beautiful.

Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in prewar Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and SS Commandant father. The family relocates to the countryside where his father is assigned to take command a prison camp. A few days later, Bruno befriends another youth, strangely dressed in striped pajamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an electrified fence. Bruno will soon find out that he is not permitted to befriend his new friend as he is a Jew, and that the neighboring yard is actually a prison camp for Jews awaiting extermination.

It is a deeply moving and--it must be said--disturbing movie. But it is a remarkable story, told with masterly intelligence and grace.

Old School

My Rating : 2/5

Came to know about this movie while browsing google for more info about the director of Hangover, Todd Philips. Read in the reviews that it is not as good as Hangover but I thought of giving it a try.

Reviews where right :)
Plot summary in IMDB:

Mitch, Frank and Beanie are disillusioned with their personal lives begining when Mitch's nymphomanic girlfriend, Heidi, cheats on him, then former party animal Frank gets married, but unwilling to get go of his wild life, and Beanie is a family man seeking to reclaim his wild and crazy youth. Beanie suggests that they form their own fraternity in Mitch's new house on a college campus to re-live their glory days by bringing together a variety of misfit college students, losers, middle-aged and elderly retirees as their new friends and later try to avoid being evicted by the new Dean of Students, Pritchard, whom still holds a personal grudge against all three of them.

The scene in which Frank (Will Ferrell) is streaking down the street and his wife drives by him and tells him to get in the car was hilarious

The Hangover

My Rating : 4/5

This movie was suggested by Manu during one of our boozing sessions. I was so moved by the concept of the movie, that i wanted to watch the movie that day itself. But due to obvious reasons (by the end of the boozing session) i forgot about this movie....HANGOVER

A few days later, I got this movie from Sivan. The whole idea of this movie was marvellous. Its all about four friends celebrating bachelors party at Lasvegas.
The plot summary in IMDB reads thus
"Angelenos Doug Billings and Tracy Garner are about to get married. Two days before the wedding, the four men in the wedding party - Doug, Doug's two best buddies Phil Wenneck and Stu Price, and Tracy's brother Alan Garner - hop into Tracy's father's beloved Mercedes convertible for a 24-hour stag party to Las Vegas. Phil, a married high school teacher, has the same maturity level as his students when he's with his pals. Stu, a dentist, is worried about everything, especially what his controlling girlfriend Melissa thinks. Because she disapproves of traditional male bonding rituals, Stu has to lie to her about the stag, he telling her that they are going on a wine tasting tour in the Napa Valley. Regardless, he intends on eventually marrying her, against the advice and wishes of his friends. And Alan seems to be unaware of what are considered the social graces of the western world. The morning after their arrival in Las Vegas, they awaken in their hotel suite each with the worst hangover. None remembers what happened in the past twelve or so hours. The suite is in shambles. And certain things are in the suite that shouldn't be, and certain things that should be in the suite are missing. Probably the most important in the latter category is Doug. As Phil, Stu and Alan try to find Doug using only what little pieces of information they have at hand, they go on a journey of discovery of how certain things got into the suite and what happened to the missing items. However they are on a race for time as if they can't find Doug in the next few hours, they are going to have to explain to Tracy why they are not yet back in Los Angeles. And even worse, they may not find Doug at all before the wedding."

No wonder it was one of the biggest box office grossers of hollywood...The most interesting part of the movie is to watch its Titles at the end of the movie. The whole movie and what happened on the D Day is well narrated using photos. The scene when the Doc removes his teeth to prove that actually he is a Doc is hilarious..

Wake Up Sid

One reason why i decided to watch this movie is Konkona Sen Sharma...I like her very much as an actress right from Mr & Mrs Iyer.
Although I don't like Karan Johar and his production house, the only relief was that he was not directing the movie. It was Ayan Mukerji who directed the film.
The film was a good movie but it had shades of Farhan Akhtar's Lakshya.
Sid (Ranbir Kapoor), a spoiled son of a wealthy Mumbai family, takes his privileges for granted. He sleeps through studying for his final exams and winds up failing them. His father gives him a job in his firm, but he quits after a week.

This causes conflict between him and family, he is forced to go off on his own, without his parents' money.

He meets Aisha Bannerjee (Konkona Sen Sharma) at a graduation day party. She has just arrived from Kolkata and desires to become a professional writer. Despite their lack of common interests, Aisha allows him to stay at her flat; they agree to be "just friends". However, although free all day while Aisha is out working, he makes a mess and cannot cook. He learns to cook, and later also cleans up after himself.

Aisha gets an editorial assistant job at a Mumbai magazine and, through her contacts there, gets Sid a position as a photography intern. Sid slowly comes to realize what responsibility is and gradually matures and finds his own identity. As he does so, he reconciles with his parents and moves back to their house.

Aisha is upset, because she was beginning to fall in love with him. However, Sid reads Aisha's thoughts on their relationship in a printed article in the magazine that they work for and realizes that he too loves her. They have a happy reunion on Marine Drive in an early monsoon shower.

Pazhassi Raja

This was the movie that malayalam film industry was eagerly waiting for so many years. The team which created 'Vadakkan Veera Gadha'. The release of this movie was delayed many times because of various reasons.
And atlast yesterday it was released and we(chayakada group) managed to get tickets at Kairali Theatre. The movie was released in four theatres - Sree visakh, Kairali, Dhanya & New theatre.
The movie was brilliant, except for the stunt scenes. The visuals, sets, background score, sound effects all were excellent.
Sharat kumar was the surprise in this movie. With his looks and acting skills, he shadowed even mammooty. His looks reminds us of Kurosowa's samurais'. Heard that this roll was initially offered to Suresh Gopi but he rejected the offer since he thought that this role was less important than tat of mamooty's. Any way that was good for us. We didn't have to watch his OVER acting.
The movie was produced by Gokulam Gopalan. He has spend 27 crores on this movie, a budget of average ten Malayalam movies. This fim is really a magnum opus
Pazhassi who has been termed as revolutionary by the British uses techniques of guerrilla warfare against them. For this he avails the expertise of tribals lead by Thalakkal Chanthu (Manoj K Jayan). There are other people also who unflinchingly support him like Edachena Kunkan (Sarath Kumar), who is his commander-in-chief.
This film is technically several notches above the standard fare offered in Malayalam cinema. he camera work by Venu and Ramanath Shetty give the film a sleek look.

Vilapangalkappuram

This malayalam movie directed by T. V. Chandran in 2008 is based on the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002. The story revolves around Sahira, a Muslim woman who flees Gujarat soon after the riots and arrives in Kozhikode. There, two doctors, Mary Varghese and Gopinath, bring her back to normalcy even while she is haunted by the problems related to the aftermath of the riots.
Not a great movie but can be watched once. The problems that sahira faces haunts our conscience.

In this movie, actress Priyanka got best actress award by Kerala government.

Quick Gun Murugan

This bollywood Comedy-Drama film is directed by Shashanka Ghosh and written by Rajesh Devraj.
The movie is based on a character created for television promos at the time of the launch of the music network Channel [V] in 1994. The character had a cult following, and made catchprases like 'Mind it' and 'We are like this only' popular. In recent years, the character has inspired a sequence from Om Shanti Om where Shah Rukh Khan does a take-off, incorporating elements of Tamil legend Rajinikanth's performances.
Quick Gun Murugun is an Unlikely Superhero (played by Telugu star Rajendra Prasad) a South Indian Tamil cowboy whose duty is to protect the world against arch villain restaurant owner, Rice Plate Reddy, who wants to create the ultimate non-veg dosa! The movie revolves around adventures of Quick Gun Murugun along with his love to-be Mango Dolly (played by Rambha) and Locket Lover (played by Anu Menon).
Murugan is a typical vegetarian cowboy who made himself into Quick Gun Murugan. The cowboy has to do something good for the world so he believes that vegetarianism is the need of the hour.
Quick Gun Murugun enters into an battle that spans time and space, from a small south Indian village to Heaven and then finally to cosmopolitan Mumbai across 25 years.. He is torn between Mango Dolly who loves him secretly and his first love Locket girl and his loyalty is put to the test.
But even with all its wit and antics, the movie is a big Box Office dud! Except spoofing typical Bollywood clichés, the movie has nothing to offer as it fails to deliver with all its overcooked storyline and overblown cinematography.