Frequency

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I have seen a lot of movies, good, bad and ugly. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. Imagine watching one movie, sometimes even two or three each day. Most of them are forgettable, meaning even a few days later I don't remember much of what I saw and they pass into movie heaven never to be heard of or seen again.

But then there are certain movies that stick with me all along. I never forget them, for various reason. It could be the actor, the location, the setting, the action, or anything else that makes it unforgettable.

And then you come across a movie which ticks all the right boxes, and most importantly it leaves an impression because of its story/writing. This kind of a movie is the very best as for me writing is supreme, it is numero uno. No star or director can save a movie if the writing sucks. 

If I were to make a list of such films (which I am doing right now via this blog), this is frankly the best of the rest! As far as the story and the script goes, this stands apart in originality, mystery, suspense, action, thrill (I rate it as highly as Back To The Future and a tad better than The Butterfly Effect! That's how good it is!).

This is loaded! And it blew me away.

The story is set in two separate timelines - 1999 and 1969. We intercut between the two and meet the two lead characters, in 1999 it's NYPD detective John Sullivan (Caviezel) who stays in the same home as his fireman father Frank (Quaid) who stayed there thirty years ago. 

John find his father's old radio and begins to tinker with it and because of some mumbo jumbo the old radio starts to connect to its old (when it was new) self! Meaning it starts to transmit conversation between two men in two timelines (1999 and 1969) who are talking via the same radio to each other! Meaning using that radio the cop son (John, the cop) starts to talk to his own fireman father (Frank in 1969) one night before the father is going to die in a fire related incident.

Realizing that it's his father he is talking to John warns his father not to do such and such thingy (of course, the son knows how his father died and tries to change events). 

The connection gets cut and father and son separate once again. The next time the son logs in he finds out that his father is still alive and has not perished in the fire as he was supposed to. 

But this one event has changed history because of this small change they have put themselves in danger as a psycho killer will be targeting both in their two different timelines (not to mention their wife/mother has been killed and what not!). So father and son join hands via the radio to stop the brutal killer  targeting them and become a family once again.

Well it may sound confusing and a bit far-fetched but it's really not, inspite of the twisted storyline the it's easily understood and exciting and edge-of-the-seat, nailbiting stuff.

If you haven't seen it, watch this one. No, no, don't thank me, I'm just doing my good deed of the day. But if you do want to help then do check out my writing How I Murdered Myself. 

Frequency

  

WATCH THE FULL MOVIE HERE

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11.14

This is a very smart film. Like Go and Vantage Point this is about an accident/incident that happens exactly at 11.14 and then we go back 14 minutes and see what lead to that event from five different perspectives. We see the different people involved and what they did that eventually caused what finally happened.

It begins with a simple accident but as the different perspectives, stories are told and retold we find out how they are all connected to each other like pieces of a puzzle. It has crimes, sex, money, vandalism, traffic accidents, severed body part, two dead bodies, a dog, crazy decisions, loving father, loony daughter... and much, much more. And by the time the final story is told it all becomes clear, and we can see the final picture that emerges.

And that is quite frankly stunning! 

Everything is it interconnected like a house made of cards, you remove one and the other cards fall apart.

This is a memorable film. Five stories that smartly come

together leading to a fantastic climax. If I were to compare this to food, this is not a light snack. Instead it would be a heavy five course meal, all formal and sophisticated, for which you have to have a stomach and hunger to digest. This is heavy, heavy stuff. So if you're feeling intelligent, and those grey cells are ready to go, looking for some action, check this film out. This will give them plenty of exercise and will leave you satisfied and thinking.

11.14

Watch the full film here 11.14

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Traitor

The question one keeps on asking through the entire movie is - is the protagonist a traitor or not?

The movie starts with a US citizen Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) in the Middle East selling bomb detonators to Islamic radicals (Traitor!). He is arrested and thrown into prison where he befriends a dangerous man who escapes taking Don along him (Traitor, again!).

Don is taken into the belly of the terrorism beast, where he meets the big players and becomes an integral part of a massive attack on US (Traitor, yet again). 

But then we find out Don Cheadle is a former US soldier (Traitor or not?), but he is also a devout Muslim (hence the suspicion - how can a devout Muslim be a soldier loyal to US? Aren't those two the opposite ends of the spectrum? Traitor!). 

We also find out he is working deep undercover for an American agency (Not Traitor!), but he is also with the terrorists now and has taken part in a vicious terrorist attack (he has bombed an embassy and has killed some innocent people). He is a terrorist now! 100% pure, unadulterated, genuine, without a doubt Traitor!) 

And as the movie zips (and zags) along you will see that things keep on changing and he is not what he seems to be! Or is he exactly what he seems to be? Confused? Watch Traitor and find out for yourself.

  

As his own men start suspecting him one doesn't really know which side he is leaning towards - is he a terrorist or is he still a spy? Is he feeling betrayed and hunted by the own agency? And if he is still a spy how can he stop the massive attack the terrorists have planned now? 

Traitor is a taut thriller that grabs you from the get go. Quite like Eye In The Sky this is an edge of the seat stuff. A thriller, spy, drama that's quite remarkable and the ending is quite ingenious and unique. A must watch. 

Traitor

Taking Care Of Business

If this film was a food item this would be a freshly baked the pastry, or maybe a chocolate doughnut or an ice cream.

It's a light, fluffy, silly comedy with an implausible, unbelievable, storyline.

But still it's quite funny because of the two main characters, the way they are written, and also because the actors who play the part do great job and seem to be enjoying themselves while playing off each other.

This is a golden oldie, a buddy film with two comic actors, one a tight assed advertising executive, slick, smooth and sophisticated, the other a mad convict who has won tickets to a ballgame where his favourite team is playing, and inspite of being in prison, he hatches a plan to watch the match live in the stadium. With the help of other convicts he breaks out of prison just to watch the match! What's more, he had just 48 hours of his sentence remaining, which means he would have been a free man in two days time anyways, but he puts all this in jeopardy just for that match! Such a nutcase he is! Imagine, breaking out of prison to watch a match, and after it ends, breaking back into prison without getting caught! Imagine that!

So he risks it all and breaks out sometime before the match starts. And outside what does he do? You and I would lie low and try to be invisible so that we aren't caught.

But no, this is loony man and he does the exact opposite. Outside he finds a Filofax that carries the keys to a mansion and pretending to be the person whom the Filofax belongs to, he breaks into the mansion and takes on the new identity! (Identity theft! Putting his freedom into even more risk, this is one crazy but funny man, I tell you!).

It's James Belushi who plays this mad character who doesn't care about the future at all, he lives for the moment, enjoying it to the fullest! And so we enjoy with him as well (a bit like Jim Carrey, don't you think?).

The person whose identity he has stolen has no fun in life and is all business at all times (Charles Grodin). When these two diverse characters, on the opposite ends of the personality and intellect spectrum, meet sparks will fly, and hilarity will ensue.

These two characters are forced together as a team and more fun and games begin!

Watch this film if you want to watch an old buddy film with good comic actors. It is silly and is like a light and tasty sweet dish. Enjoyable fare from the 1990s.

Taking Care Of Business

School for Scoundrels

No, no it's not really a school for scoundrels, meaning it's not where scoundrels come and study and graduate and make life hell for us normal people, instead it is a school that takes naive, simple, unmanly, unmacho, shy, wimpy guys and turns them scoundrels that make life hell for us normal people (specially the bullies).

It's for those who lack confidence and have been bullied about, and its teacher, Billy Bob Thornton converts the bullied into the bully. The victim becomes the scoundrel, the hunted the hunter, the fisherman becomes the food for the fish. I'm sure you get the gist.

Jon Heder plays the student who is such a wimp that even wimps would be ashamed of him. He even faints when he tries to talk to the girl he wants to ask out. He's a meter reader, who's ridiculed by everyone, and has no hope at all till someone suggests to him these school that can make a new man out of him.

So to build up his self-esteem and strengthen his self confidence he signs up for a course taught by Dr. P (Billy Bob Thornton). In the class Jon is traumatized even more and strange methods are employed to make men out of him and his classmates, including further bullying and humiliation!

But soon Jon gets his mojo, he finds his groove and changes so much that he becomes serious competition for his teacher as both try to woo the same girl. The student and the teacher fight it out on who is a better scoundrel! 

Now isn't that some plot (does it remind you a bit about Whiplash?... Whiplash was a far superior movie, but this wasn't bad either)   

I found the plot quite different. I wished there was such a school in real life, I have a few directors and producers I wish to stand up to. But sigh, this is fiction, very good fiction but fiction nevertheless. So watch this and you can fantasise about bullying the bully...

School for Scoundrels

The Hudsucker Proxy

This is an imaginative creation that reminds us of the good old days of movie making. It’s fast paced, a bit over the top, loud acting and rapid fire dialogues, greyish, subdued colours and a highly imaginative and ingenious plot. And all that is expected as it’s co-written, directed and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen with Sam Raimi as their co-writer.

 

But what’s quite unexpected is the total effect it all creates. This is funny, moving and memorable.

The plot, well it starts off with Tim Robbins as a simple minded business-school graduate who is unable to find a decent job so he takes whatever he can get. And what he gets is a job as a mailroom clerk delivering mail to the bigwigs in Hudsucker Industries’ office.

Meanwhile, the Hudsucker founder and president climbs on the conference table during a meeting and runs and takes a leap out of the top floor window of the Hudsucker high rise building. Now Paul Newman is a conniving, foxy and powerful member of the board of directors who knows that Hudsucker's stock shares will soon be sold to the public, so he hatches an ingenious plan to become the top boss of the company by making the stock price fall to the depths at which point he will pick them up at the lowest possible price thus become the controlling member. The jumping of the boss from the window isn’t enough to kill share prices, he needs

an idiot to work as the president of the Hudsucker company to take de-value the shares even further. So the foxy Newman needs a Hudsucker Proxy! 

And hence he hires the mailroom idiot Tim Robbins as the President. And Tim Robbins comes up with the launch of the next big product. He presents a circle. A zero, a hula-hoop! A totally idiotic product which is ridiculous and has no chance of success. And much to everyone’s surprise Paul Newman flags the product through. Now Newman is sure he will be a ‘Newman’ soon, because it is evident that Proxy President, is going to drive the shares into the ditch and make him stinking rich (sorry for the rhymes and the puns). But such is the effect of this brilliant film.

I wonder why this isn’t so well known, because this is what movies once were. Fabulous beginning, entertaining middle and an ending that’s so imaginative that I’ve never seen anything like this since. You could also call it the story of the Hula-hoop, a zero that made it’s inventor a hero.  

The Hudsucker Proxy

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Here Comes The Boom

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This is quite a light movie about an underdog, a heavy, heavy underdog who goes after his bone with full energy, and the bone here Mixed Martial Arts!


Kevin James plays a high school biology teacher who wants to save the school's music classes from being scrapped by raising money by putting himself in the mixed martial art fighting ring and getting bashed up. But he ends up beating others up along the way and winning a lot of hearts because he is putting himself through all this it mainly to help the elderly music teacher who would be completely broke and in deep, deep soup. So reason isn't selfish, yet there are many hurdles along the way. Biggest is he is fat, and from fat to fit is a long way off. 


The story isn't highly unique, it's like a light, funny Rocky type sports movie, but the quirky characters and Kevin James and his comic and action scenes make it quite entertaining.

This is for one of the days when you don't want anything heavy, not in the mood for something deep and meaningful and artistic. All of want is a gentle laugh and a good time with a feel good movie. 

If this were a food item in some formal restaurant's menu, or a drink in a high class bar, this would be a cheese-burger in the former and beer in the latter. But good meaty burger, and a cold, frothy beer! 

It's not got class appeal, but it's certainly got mass appeal, possibly because Kevin James massy body. 

Add to that Salma Hayek who is being wooed by Kevin and other lovable characters you have some romance and matters of the heart too. 

Quite worth a watch, when one is tired and doesn't want to exercise the grey cells too much. Let Kevin James do all the exercise, you just let your grey cells relax a little and enjoy this one.

   Here Comes The Boom

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With Honors

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This is a film I saw a long time ago (more than 10 years!), yet I remember it quite clearly. That is truly the magic of a remarkable movie. It makes an indelible impression on you and you can't ever forget it.

Set completely in a cold, snowy university campus, this is a tremendously heart warming film!

Brendan Fraser is a Harvard undergraduate who is working on his thesis which when finished will help him pass with honors. All his eggs are in one thesis basket. It is critical for him, it's his entire student life's work!

Luckily his thesis is about to finish and he will be able to pass out with honors.

Unluckily his computer crashes taking along with it all his hard work, his thesis has gone to thesis heaven!

Luckily he has one print out of his thesis. The only copy in the world.

Unluckily he loses that very last copy.

Luckily it falls into the hands off a homeless man who keeps it with him.

Unluckily he uses it warm himself, no, not warming himself by reading the work, but by burning it page by page to keep the cold away.

Luckily Brendon locates him and manages to stop him from burning his entire thesis, and saves his future from going into flames.

Unluckily the homeless man isn't willing to give it back.

But luckily he is willing to make a deal for it. He'll give back the thesis page by page if Brendon lets him stay with him in his home, all he wants is food and shelter in return for returning the thesis piece by piece.

Having no other option Brendon accepts and the homeless man has found a home and the thesisless student is going to get back his thesis.

Unluckily for the student there are a few twists on the way...

Luckily for the audience, the story, script and the lovable characters all gang up to make us feel lucky to have stumbled across this inspiring movie.

If you feel the world around you is growing cold inspite of global warming, what with ISIS, and crazed truck attacks, and axe attacks in trains, and shooting of cops and by cops, and crazed religious zealots, and everything else in between, then warm your hearts with this little gem which shows that humans aren't all that bad, these is still hope that humanity may continue to exist. And some of us may graduate from this university of life 'With Honors'! 

With Honors

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Grabbers

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This is the height of absurdity, and quite equally, the height of fun.

Imagine, one fine day a bunch of sea-dwelling, bloodthirsty and truly ugly aliens attack a small town in Ireland. It's the back of beyond, where suddenly these aliens show up raising their slimy, gooey tentacles and start gulping and chewing up people as if they were peanuts that accompany drinks served at your local town bar.

So as people go missing, the survivors start to get scared and wonder how they will survive the night. Because the creatures seem to be everywhere. People are terrified and panicking when they find out that one of them who had been gulped down by the alien was instantly puked out. Why they wonder? And then it hits them, the the person was drunk! They realise that the 'Grabbers' hate drunks more than your neighbourhood traffic cop and your mom combined. 


So the solution to the problems, the immunity to the creature, and the key to survival is to get drunk! I love this! 

Imagine! The survivors now gather at a bar to hide and everyone starts to drink as if their life depended on it, which it really does! 

And as the creature hunts them down, the people of the town start a party in the bar getting drunk like many a skunk. 

This is a thriller, it's well made, well acted, the creature is yucky and dangerous with tentacles and all, some of the scenes are suspenseful and scary, the characters are well etched and likeable, and yet at the end of the day this is a really funny movie. It is so different in idea, hence the story and the script are quite novel, quite quirky. 

The drink-to-survive idea is so unique, that you have to see it to believe it. What an idea! I personally drink-to-survive every evening but never thought of making it into a film, somebody did and did it well!

Imagine the climax, where a group of piss-ass drunk people try to take on the creature which is sober as a nun and has only had warm blood to drink! Can you guess who wins? 

The ending doesn't let you down, it gives you a high and is thrilling, scary yet hilarious. No hangovers here!  

And the name of the creature! Grabbers! Imagine that, By that logic a dog should be called Biters, a python Swallowers, a mouse Scurriers, and so on and so forth. The name could have only been given by a perpetually drunk, or an imaginative scriptwriter whether drunk or not.

So if you're in the mood for some simple fun, this is your lucky day as the entire movie is there on youtube. Grab a drink and enjoy!

Grabbers (trailer)

The full movie 




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Hero

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Now this is what movies are all about! It's stories like these that make you laugh, cry, get excited and tear out your hair in frustration at the injustice you see on screen. But it all comes together in the end and the Hero is a Hero again. It's true, you can't keep a good man down. Unfortunately the same is not true about a good movie.

Hero is the story of a zero, a nobody, a petty thief, pickpocket, drunk, a divorced man whose wife hates him and has custody of his son and he is going from bad to worse to downright pathetic.

But one dark, gloomy and rainy night, while he is going somewhere in his drunken stupor he witnesses a plane crash and ends up as a reluctant hero, angrily saving quite a few people from the about-to-burn wreckage that was once a plane. 

Then without a word this hero staggers away to sleep it off, After having taken whatever he could get his hands on. No biggie, it was all in a night’s work.

Next day he wakes up to much hullabaloo as the world is looking for this shy hero who risked his life to save so many and then vanished like an angel heading back to heaven.

And the next thing you know, a good looking impostor who fits the role of what we think a ‘Hero’ should be claims he is the saviour, he is the hero of that night! And he is perfect in every aspect!

Now our real hero, watches this from the sidelines and is amazed at the madness surrounding the fake hero who has become an overnight celebrity, a sensation, an icon!

The pathetic hero starts to realise that maybe he should go ahead and tell the truth to the world. But at this point nobody is willing to believe him. Of course, a man like him cannot be a ‘Hero’, look at him! Is that what heroes are supposed to look like? (Remember Hancock?) 

Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, Andy Garcia are superb in this. It really is fabulous story, well told and acted and the climax, sniff, what a moving, brilliant climax. It’s the ending that makes or breaks a movie, and the ending here makes this Hero soar high as far as the endings go.

This Hero is a true Hero as far as movies go, watch it!

Hero

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Sledge Hammer

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Trust me, I know what I'm doing when I recomend this show to you as the funniest show probably ever.

Yes, there I said it. It's the funniest ever! Yes POLICE SQUAD was fantastic, but this was, is better.

Unfortunately, to maintain such high standard of writing isn't easy. So there aren't too many episodes to watch, but whatever there are are pure gems with a laugh every few seconds. Also the visual gags are a feast, you have a very serious scene happening in the foreground, but in the background is a strange, funny incident taking place that takes all the focus from the serious scene and makes you laugh. So, in a way there is nothing serious in this show, even the violence is funny!

What is it about? Well, there's this cop called Sledge Hammer who talks to his big gun (and I mean his Magnum, not the you know what!) and sleeps with it too. He treats his Magnum like it's a living thing, and treats living beings like vermins, and criminals like they don't deserve to live.

Sledge, you see, is a brutally, violent man and wrecks havoc (and laughs) wherever he goes, whatever he does and says. For instance, there is this running gag in most episodes that whenever Sledge takes out his gun people all around him hide for cover, so lethal he is! But the violence here is all funny, visual gags, crazy situations and all, and not the Saw, or the Hostel kind of gore.

All this is hilarious but funnier still are the dialogues, they really are. The punchlines come thick and fast and if you aren't listening carefully you will miss a few which is some viewers may be left behind trying to understand the jokes. Truly, the writing is as best it can possibly be.

Now comes the biggest draw of the stow. The star attraction here is the actor who plays Sledge Hammer (David Rasche), he says and does the funniest things with such a straight face, such seriousness that adds to the craziness of the entire situation. He just doesn't know he is funny. He is totally serious and that makes him even funnier.

The best of the best. The number one comedy show in my book (and it's really a thick book, let me tell you, which I will be sharing with you one page at a time at this blog). 

This is Sledge Hammer for you. It's doesn't get any better.

You can watch the an episode here. But try and watch a few more to really get the hang of it. Some of them are there on youtube.  

Sledge Hammer

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The Man Who Knew Too Little

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Bill Murray travels from Iowa to London to meet his brother and his family and celebrate his birthday there. But the brother doesn't want to be bothered by his unimpressive sibling, so to get him out of the way, as he has an important dinner planned for the evening, he gives a ticket to the 'Theatre Of Life' to Bill.

Now the 'Theatre Of Life' of life is supposed to be an audience participation game that looks like a real life event (remember Game) where things happen with the character that look real, but eventually it's all a game and everyone the person meets is just an actor with a role and nothing is real.

So our protagonist heads to the theatre of life and to begin proceedings he has to pick up the phone at a particular phone booth from where he will get his instructions. 

And sure enough the phone rings and Bill does pick up the phone but the call is meant for an assassin and unknowingly Bill gets involved in a serious terrorist plot still thinking it's all a game. He takes the identity of an assassin and ends up saving the day in the process.

So, in a way, this is the reverse of 'Game' where the character was in a game with actors all around him but didn't know it thinking it was all brutally real. Here the stupid protagonist is in a real life terrorist plot but thinks it's all a game! And as he presumes that it's all a game, he has no fear of the others whom he thinks are just actors, hence he is the bravest guy in London that day! And for this reason fits the part of a lethal assassin perfectly!

Wow, isn't that some plot! For the story itself, this is worth a watch. Add to that the imaginative title that parodies a classic (The Man Who Knew Too Much), and an in form Bill Murray and you have a clear winner.

Watch this just for the fun of it. You may not end up knowing too much after you watch it, or even more than what you already know, or becoming a more intelligent, more wiser, more mature person, but you may end up enjoying this a lot.

This is not a life changing movie. It's a mood changing one. 

The Man Who Knew Too Little