Short Takes

A few short takes on movies that I saw in the recent past.

Inglourious Basterds
A war period movie from Quentin Tarantino. Expletives galore, gore (ripping the scalp of the killed soldiers, yuck) in a fictional story of a plot to execute Hitler and the top brass of the Nazi SS. Brad Pitt is the leader of the small American guerilla group that roams Nazi France and terrorizes the Nazi soldiers with their cold-blooded scalping. Brad's acting is good, but he is overshadowed by Christoph Waltz, who is terribly brilliant in his portrayal of Hans Landa, a SS colonel and to a fair extent by Mélanie Laurent, who portrays Shosanna, a Jew who escapes from Hans as her family is wiped out, and runs a cinema theater in Paris after changing her identity. The second half of the film is engrossing as two divergent plots to take down the Nazi top folks narrow down to the same destination for a climax. A good film, but not Tarantino's best. Inglorious, it wasn't.

Up
Heartwarming tale of a retiree widower escaping his boring lonely life by tying his house with helium balloons and flying to South America to see Paradise Falls which he had wanted to visit with his wife long back. A inquisitive young boy joins as a stowaway in the floating house. Their adventure on landing some distance away from their destination and finding a long lost bird which is stalked for by a wayward scientist provide the comic and serious moments. Nice animation by Pixar adding a feather to its cap. For whatever it was, I loved the movie Cars, the most, of all the Pixar movies. Worth all the adventure, Up in the sky!

From Paris with love
Uh Oh! John Travolta has copy adichified Rajini's "Mottai Boss" get up in Sivaji. If you love the sound of bullets leaving their revolvers and automatics, this movie has lots of it including a few in slo-mo. Story is a worn out one, but carried off pretty well by John Travolta who is a CIA special agent operative, sent into Paris to put down a Pakistani drug cartel. In fact, he pulls the movie through with his wit and style. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is subdued and is double-crossed by his French girl-f(r)iend (Kasia Smutniak). There is a BP raising car chase through the streets of Paris for about 15 minutes. The lady who acts as the friend of Jon's girl-friend and comes maybe for less than 5 minutes looked pretty pretty (Amber Rose Revah). Other than the car chase and Travolta's antics, this movie doesn't have much redemption on it and there is no love lost in Paris!

Parent trap
The plot has been seen in many movies and in Indian movies as well (குழந்தையும் தெய்வமும் in தமிழ்). Twins are separated when young by their parents because of a divorce and they are raised far apart. During an international summer camp, the two serendipitously meet and switch places to meet their other parent whom they have never seen. How they get their parents together back as they find out that their father is about to re-marry one who is interested in his wealth forms the rest of the story. Lindsay Lohan is endearing as the twin kids and is charming with her antics. Parent trap, it isn't, but a kiddie trap for parents!

And in the pipeline, waiting for my eyes and ears over them are (some of them repeat views)
Shawshank Redemption, Godfather I-III, Star Wars I-VI, a few Akira Kurosawa classics, Bicycle Thief, Fight Club, Gladiator, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill I and II, Se7en, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Departed, Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy and a few more. Hopefully I find time to see them.