.sparkymat

Casino Royale – A Bond for the new Millenium

Posted on November 24th, 2006 ~ 03:04:04 PM
Tagged as | 2 Comments »

Rating - 9/10 (absolute) .. 10/10 (for a Bond movie)

Daniel Craig – Potrays perfectly the transformation from a rough-edged rookie into the perfect suave, cold-blooded spy.

Plot – Engrossing. Despite apprehensions, the Poker game was quite engaging.

Style Quotient – Departs from the gadgets, girls and cars formula of the previous Bond movies. Instead, we see a darker, grittier potrayal of 007. In short, amazingly stylistic in a new direction.

Dialogues – Definitely above average.

Bond Girl – Eva Green plays a different kind of Bond girl. Finally we know why Bond never bonds with anyone anymore. “You don’t trust anyone, do you?” “No.”

Direction – Finally, a Bond movie that can stand on it own without needing any support from the 007 brand. Brilliantly directed. Almost at par with the giants of the year.

New Urge – Keep a close eye on the rest of the Daniel Craig movies. Especially Bond-22, Bond-23 etc.

Locations – Gooooood. Good. Gooooood.

Overall view – Finally, the first chapter in the life of Agent 007 is brought to the silver screen. Dark and gritty, it shows the steely loner transform into the refined, suave gentleman. For the first time, he is more than the sum of his parts (which include mostly gadgets and cars). We see why he is Agent 007, the best agent MI6 has. I never used to be a big fan of the Bond movies. Thanks to Daniel Craig, now I am (I can’t say why I liked Daniel Craig so much without giving out spoilers!)

Farwell, to good cinema

Posted on August 20th, 2006 ~ 08:32:24 AM
Tagged as | 10 Comments »

Yesterday, I lost 3.5 hours of my life in one of the most horrible ways imaginable – by watching one of the most pathetic movies of my life. I left the cinema hall feeling thoroughly disgusted with the movie and it’s director. The saddest and most depressing part is, this movie is gonna make a lot of money, thus encouraging the director to churn out more rubbish like this.

To be fair, the theme of the plot was good. Well, not good good, but decent enough. The characters were good. They were believably real, to an extent. No superhuman heroes here – just plain, flawed human beings. Almost everything else about the movie was dismal. The only saving grace were the songs, which Radio Mirchi had drilled into my brain, and the Bs. Big B and Little B were the only ones worth watching, especially Little B. His character had a emotional depth that resonated well with me, and he actually managed to provide some respite in, what is otherwise, the most horrible movie I have ever seen.

I was slightly affronted by the almost-trivialized potrayal of the institution of marriage, though I must admit that the alternative climax would have been too cliched to bear.

This movie does carry a very VERY powerful message. In fact, two of them.

1. Karan Johar must not be allowed to direct anymore. His repeated “successes” with movies like this, will forever cripple the movie industry and prevent it from providing us with more gems along the lines of Swades (don’t get me started on Swades losing out to Veer-Zara at the awards)

2. Move over ‘King Khan’, Abhishek ‘Lallan’ Bachchan is here.

There was one more high point in the movie, or rather, before the movie. The trailer for D2. I had loved Dhoom and was looking forward to the sequel, and judging from the trailer, it’s gonna rock – John Woo style!!!!!!!

PSP vs. GP2X

Posted on October 30th, 2005 ~ 10:16:36 AM
Tagged as | 5 Comments »

Which would be a better hand-held for playing games/music/movies? Here’s a head-to-head feature comparison. Tell me what you think.

Display size

Display resolution and color-depth

Audio Formats supported

Video Formats supported

Image Formats supported

Physical size

Weight

Connectivity

Storage

Storage expandability

Non-media uses

Price

Interface

Looks

PSP vs. iPod Video

Posted on October 18th, 2005 ~ 07:27:13 AM
Tagged as | 4 Comments »

Which would be a better hand-held for playing music/movies? Here’s a head-to-head feature comparison. Tell me what you think.

Display size

Display resolution and color-depth

Audio Formats supported

Video Formats supported

Image Formats supported

Physical size

Weight

Connectivity

Storage

Storage expandability

Non-media uses

Cost of content

Price

Interface

Looks

Reviews on UT and UT2004

Posted on August 19th, 2005 ~ 05:29:27 PM
Tagged as | No Comments »

Please find my reviews on UT and UT2004 @ mouthshut.com

UT

UT2004

Gmail

Posted on August 18th, 2005 ~ 10:58:45 AM
Tagged as | 6 Comments »

Here’s my review on Gmail at mouthshut.com

Link

Sarkar

Posted on August 16th, 2005 ~ 06:31:39 PM
Tagged as | 4 Comments »

“There are no rights and wrongs. Only power…”

Sarkar touches heights of brilliance that few Indian cinema have managed to attain. With a stunning cast, brilliant music and excellent camera work, RGV has managed to elevate his directorial skills to deliver one of the most captivating movies I have ever seen. Both Bachans scintillate but its Bachan Jr who stood out, giving an almost perfect performance. I especially loved his last line, the “that’s what i want too..” one. Also commendable is the performance of Ravi Kale as the Sarkar’s lieutenant, Chander. The scene in which he and his goons beat up the college guy in the beginning of the movie, totally took my breath away. The flow of the movie was also good, not once boring the audience and yet without falling into any cliches. The realism with which the entire movie is potrayed is highly praiseworthy and takes the viewer on an emotional roller coaster ride, as we see the fall and the subsequent rise of Sarkar (oops! spoiler!).

This movie is a major achievement for RGV and the Indian movie industry as a whole and proves that we do have good movies among the Veer Zaras and Kya Kool Hai Hums.

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