holiday movie reviews !

avatar : 4/5
the story n mediocre acting is the only thing wrong. the visuals are amazing with the 3d. a must see movie of the decade.

sherlock holmes :4/5
i love mark strongs acting. he was amazing in "body of lies" n he's great now as the evil villain. kudos to robert n jude law for creatin an excellent detective duo .. they remind me a lil bit of batman n robin. a must see

up in the air : 3/5

george clooney plays a guy that is employed to fire other people from their job in companies. he is constantly travelling around the u.s.a . n he loves his job. but soon a new female employee comes to the scene to create online "firing" web conferencing. clooney must take her along with him around the world to teach her how important it is to fire a person directly n realizes his own mistakes in the process. a lot of fun dialogues n sense of purpose acting. clooney is awesome as the smooth talkin international travellar who travelled 10 000 miles via air . a must see

my take on the best movies of 2009

this year was mediocre compared to last year . the only "big" thing was avatar and its new 3d technology. but still .. there are always a couple of standout from the rest ..so here's my top 5 (meaning.. i wouldnt mind going to see it again)

5. 500 days of summer (romantic)

just when you think you get an idea of the female psychology here comes this great movie n shatters everything.this movie just keeps the audience engaged . its basically a story about a guy who spends 500 days with a girl named summer. the twisted thing about this movie that makes it different from others is that in this movie the guy is the one who wants to desperately make the relationship work and the girl doesn't want a relationship at all. the movie begins with day 500 then jumps back to day 1 and hence begins a series of simulateous back and forth switching of good and bad events that occur in the 500 days. the movie is light hearted and well written and even has a musical !! that makes us indian people look bad. definitely need to see this more than once.
runner up : the proposal (its was good movie too but ryan reynolds acting felt weird when he shuts up .. he's better off playing deadpool n more funnier roles ... But sandra bullock was awesome)

4. drag me to hell (horror)

paranormal activity may have been the best horror flick this year but drag me to hell made me jump out of my seat. the legendery horror director sam raimi (u may know him as the guy who makes spiderman movies) return after a long absense to the horror genre (he made the "evil dead" series which back in the day scared me quite a bit). there were a lot of "jump out of the closet" scary moments and some amzing makeup work. the story follows a female bank employee that is cursed by a old gypsy when she doesnt grant her some extension on her loan payment. the curse brings out this evil goat like demon that torments the girl and in 3 days time takes her soul to hell. one of the best things about sam raimi movies is that there is a little bit of comedy in the background so the sudden instances of horror really comes as a surprise. this is one movie you dont wanna watch alone.
runner up : paranormal activity (you will be surprised at how much scary a movie made with a small budget and a handy-cam can be)


3. taken (action)

this movie should be the definiton of action. liam neeson is just amazing and the guy can move fast as hell. the story is pretty basic ; neeson is a ex goverment agent that now works as security for celebrities. the most precious thing in his life is his teenage daughter. he's divorced , so the ex-wife barely lets him see his daughter and doesnt allow neeson to make important decisions. the daughter goes to europe with a friend and gets trapped in some sex slave trafficing. the movies suddenlt switches in pace .. and begins a crazy detective/ass whoopin story of father
search/ kills anyone in his way / saves daughter movie.i cant describe the fight scenes .. they look absolutely real and brutal.You should NOT miss this movie. All you confident girls who think they can do anything they want MUST see this movie.
runner up : xmen origins wolverine (just a good summer blockbuster ... man with adamantium claws kills everyone...whats not to like ?)

2. up (animated)

this is the most emotional animated movie i have ever seen. i went to see it thinking it was going to be like every other cartoon but i never expected to be crying during a lot of scenes . i even tried using my power of will to stop my eyes from watering. the story is about a balloon man whose big plan was to go see the rainforest someday with his wife. but the wife doesnt live long enough to actually make the journey.the guy finally decides to go to south america but the guy has a lot of money problem.so he fills a LOT of ballons wih helium and actually raises his house off the ground n heads off to south america. a typical "denise the menace " kid jumps on board too.then begins an adventure of strong emotional n funny events. the graphics look awesome but like all other pixar movie i felt the visuals would look better when they come out on dvd where they can be the sharpest they can be.
runner up : avatar (yes....it should be in the sci-fi category..but..i consider avatar animated because 90% of the movie is animated ... they didnt even have real set locations ... everything was done in a movie animation studio .. and yes its a runner up beacause it has a weak script and poor acting)

1. district 9 (sci-fi/fantasy)

if you havent seen this or even heard about it then it means your living in a box. it is THE best movie this year. the story , the acting, the visuals , the pacing ... everything is just perfect .the story is about a alien spaceship that arrives on earth (south africa) with alien refugees. its actually a story about a public relations guy who goes around the houses of the refugees and asks them to leave the land without thinking about their feelings . he by accident get a canister of "turn youself into an alien" gas sprayed on him and begins to start slowly turning into an alien. now humans hate him and try to do experiments on him . he then has no choice to befriend the angry/confused aliens he made fun of and try to find a cure in exchange for allowing the aliens to safely return home. the story is actually more complicated than what i just said. but take it from me , this is actually better than avatar .
runner up : harry potter and the half blood prince (it actually had a lot of scenes that i think may have been better than their interpretations in the book .. plus daniel radcliffe's acting was amazing .. it makes you wonder how fast these small kids grew up .. remember the philosphers stone ?)

imdb's (internet movie database) top 25 movies of the decade ...

1. The Dark Knight (2008)
2. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
3. City of God (2002)
4. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
5. Avatar (2009)
6. Memento (2000)
7. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
8. WALL-E (2008)
9. Amélie (2001)
10. The Departed (2006)
11. The Pianist (2002)
12. Spirited Away (2001)
13. The Lives of Others (2006)
14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
15. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
16. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
17. Up (2009)
18. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
19. The Prestige (2006)
20. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
21. Downfall (2004)
22. Gran Torino (2008)
23. Sin City (2005)
24. District 9 (2009)
25. Batman Begins (2005)

house m.d

for those of you who dont know who dr.house is .. its time you do .
for me he is the "best" character to appear on tv in the last 5 years. ive been following the show ever since i saw season 1. now its season 6 and it never dissapoints.

house m.d is a show about a doctor (gregory house) who uses his own rules to treat patients . he speacializes in infecticious diseases . the show is more of a detective show and very much works like this ....
a patient with a rare and "dont know how to cure" disease comes to house .. house mocks them (thats up to them) ...house begins his investigation (more like program code testing and debuging).. house uses his team (3 members) to get ideas ... the members help but dont think outside the box... house breaks rules n protocols ... does something morally "wrong"... saves the patients life :)

the best thing about house m.d is that he is pretty much the worst anti social man you could ever meet (mainly because he is right most of the time).
there's usually some plot around this framework . the plots of the other characters are also excellent .i don't need to say anything more .. just go watch it yourself :)

here : www.housemdvideos.com this site shoudl give you link to pretty much all the episodes

stop wasting time and download !! ... i recomend you begin with season 1 : episode 1 ... and its only 150 mb per episode ... and if you too lazy to download... just watch it streaming

lallettan v.s mamooka debate

hope you dont debate :P ... i love them both .. but i like mamooty more just because of "not so friendly" attitude to his fans (i like scrooge .. not Santa Claus :) )... its hard to defend mamooty when he makes movies like "thurupughulan and dumb ghost movies ... but his acting style is very much different from mohanlals .. mohanalal is the better actor (beacuse of the wider variety of roles he can do) but mamooty feels more intimidating on screen. mohanlals done some dumb roles too in the last year so cant vouch for him too . i hate them both at times but love them too. so its just a matter of what character they do .

Ividam Swargamanu review

dont judge me coz i like mamooty more ... i love mohanlal too at times .. this movie is just filled with great acting and script writing... no songs ... not a lot of fancy flying in the air fighting (there was just one which diddnt have a lot of "flying")..just pure storytelling . i think this is the second movie this year i saw which had no songs (paleri manikyam was another great movie with no songs) i just hope it doesnt flop because of the no song/fight factor.
the story is about a a hardworking farmer (mohanlal) who fights gainst corrupted and rich landlord to keep his "own" land . you will be suprised at the ways the villains try to evacuate mohanlal from his land. and mohanlal's acting is just perfect. this is the kind of mahanlal i love to see (i recommend you see madambi too). but the movie does have its "flaws" ' for starters ..
the movie seems a little slow in its pacing .. till the last 20 minutes of the second half its just bad things happening to mohanlal (untill he decides to fight trickery with his own tricks).
its not a "fun" movie untill it reaches the final 20 minutes.
*a must see : the last 20 minutes were a complete change in pacing .. the movie went from 20 km/h to 120 km/h thanks to the villains . i must recommend you go see this movie just for "lalu alex" and "jagathy". they were brilliant.the script shows them as rutheless villains till the final 20 minutes ; from then on they seem like the best funny villains in history . i would also like to mention innacent . he hardly speaks in the movie but whatever he did had me laughing like a girl (when i cant control my laughing).
there are some great tense moments in the movie thanks to lalu alex . im not giving away spoilers. movies like these dont stay in theatres for a long time (due to competing more "fun" movies ) but the movie is the best thing to go to with a family this time of year...so i hope you go and see it before it goes away .. else you will be missing out on something great

Chattambinaadu review

saw chattambinadu today morning ... well..im a big mamooty fan and i like him even more than mohanlal .. but this movie just felt too predictable .. its basically "rajamanikyum" (another old famous mamooty movie where he plays a rich buffalo owner) but this time mammoty is a rich landlord from karnataka .
even though the movie is predictable .. its saved by two factors ...
1. suraaj (comedian) plays the "dumb gunda" really well. its really a treat to hear his funny quotes and watch his mistakes. he is in pretty much all of mamooty's recent movies and really entertains the audience in what would have been a really boring movie.
2. mamooty shows why he is one of the best actors in the buisness. his karnatakan slangs feel flawless. i dont know if he's saying it properly coz i dont speak kannada but he really makes us feel that there isnt a bit of malayalee in him. there are even some funny dialogues as he mixes up some malayalam words.

overall its an "okay" movie considering how lame and predictable the story is . but its christmas and its the perfect time for dumb mindless fun which this movie delivers . go watch it with a clear mind