God Bless America

This is a very strange, inappropriate, quirky, mad movie with killer characters who mirror the ones roaming freely amongst us today. 

I call it inappropriate because it's exactly about what is happening today the world over and it's certainly no laughing matter. People are going nuts, and are enjoying killing others. It may be about religion, or a minor fender bender, or a big black man reaching for his wallet, or rejection in love, or being sacked from the only job one is ever going to get in life, or just feeling the power of a gun in your hands, having no direction in life... Whatever be the cause of this rage virus the symptoms are the same. People kill people and it's not a preplanned, intelligent murder but an open random, on the spur of the moment execution.

Like I said, in today's times this is totally wrong, but still a fun,

satisfying movie. And no, I'm not a psycho for liking this, you may too, give it a try. Because many times I too feel this rage, fantasizing about bashing someone over the head with a blunt instrument (in fact I too have written an entire short story about this desire to kill evil people, check it out here if you like to see a psycho's view of this brutal world - How I Murdered Myself ). If you want to read this story for free then email me at rohitgahlowt@gmail.com and I will send you a copy).

God Bless America is about a man who is terminally ill, his body is dying but his mind is already long dead. Completely frustrated he decides to do a bit of good before he dies, or do some bad depending on how you look at it. 

Before dying he decides to take some people along with him to hell. 

So arming himself with guns that are readily available only in America, he goes on a killing spree, not trying to hide himself at all, or wear a mask, or any such thing. He's open about it and quite fearless, and during one such execution he meets a psycho youngster who too shares his view that killing nasty people is great fun. 

She joins the older, dying man and the two paint the town red, quite literally. 

When I saw this I identified with the reasoning of the two lead characters and even started to feel for them even when they were doing something that was clearly horrible. The empathy factor for the bad guys was high. And the treatment here is comic so one doesn't really feel bad for all the bloodshed. 

In fact seeing the nasty people die is like a fantasy which one likes seeing being fulfilled in fiction. 

So watch this film, because it's not just about America but the world as a whole. It could have easily been named God Bless The World and still it would be just a relevant.  

God Bless America

Hector And The Search For Happiness

This is a significant book and a decent movie starring Simon Pegg. It's about Hector, a successful psychiatrist who treats patients well, listening to them patiently and trying to make them better till one day one patient turns around and asks him an important question - Is Hector himself happy?

This makes Hector take a close look at his own life and start thinking about what makes him happy. Does he really do anything that makes him happy? Does he even know what makes him happy? Is he happy in his life? Can he be happier? 

For a person who is solving other people’s lives, Hector realises that he isn’t really all that happy!

Thus the psychiatrist in Hector starts brooding, the more he thinks the more obsessed he becomes with the question – what makes people happy!

He's so hung up with this question that he decides find the answer. And for that he decides to take a trip to far flung locations to find out what makes there people. It's a subject of research for him, and a personal journey as well.

The two places that he chooses to go to are China and Africa where he has some minor adventures, and one more major near death experience. He meets interesting people... a prostitute, businessmen, drug lord, killers, gay doctors, ex girlfriend, and a happiness researcher... and after all this he becomes a better, more wiser man.

Hector And The Search For Happiness is about Hector’s journey and the people he means he meets and the things he

learns from them. As the story progresses Hector starts a list of things that make people happy and keeps on adding to it after each adventure. And he, and we, realise that happiness and its causes are universal the world over.

Slowly Hector grows more and more mature, learned, and happier. At the end of the journey he is a better psychiatrist and a more contented man, and he does the one thing that he should have done a long time ago, and that makes him truly happy.

This may sound like a cliche but the book is better than the movie because while reading you can linger on the list that Hector makes and see if any of those points make you happy as well.

I would suggest, if you can, do read the book first, then watch the movie.

Speaking only for the movie, it’s quite alright as Simon Pegg plays a decent Hector, but some of the cliched characterizations didn't work so well, specially how the black family in Africa are shown to party and instantly become friends with Hector.

But still, despite its flaws, this is a significant creation and one should read the book and then watch the movie as I did.
Because I am happier person than I was after reading Hector's list.

Hector And The Search For Happiness

Cedar Rapids

Ed Helms lives is a sleepy town in Wisconsin and is an insurance agent. He's pre-engaged to his 7th grade teacher and is a good, god fearing man. He sells insurance to protect other people's dreams and feels he's doing a great job and life is quite satisfactory. He's a small man with little dreams. Quite dull, boring and simple actually. He's a goldfish comfortable in his small bowl. 

But here comes the the real shake up, because as the regular representative from his company dies accidentally and hence cannot represent the company at a major Insurance convention, Ed Helms is chosen as a replacement. 

So now the goldfish is headed to the deep, dark, dangerous ocean. Ed helms is headed to a big town called Cedar Rapids where he will be representing his company in a do or die convention. If he fails to win the coveted 2-Diamond Award at the convention presented by an industry legend then his company goes belly up and shuts shop. 


Now this small goldfish doesn't know how the big sea works and he meets three dolphins and has to start learning the rules of the world from them before he's gobbled up by the circling sharks.

Cedar Rapids has a nerdy, simple minded character who is thrown in one ridiculous situation after another and he continually evolves, turning from a goldfish into a good hearted whale who's not afraid of doing the right thing, even if it means going against the sharks.

This is an earnest film with lively characters and a few absurd situations treated in a very real manner. 

Cedar Rapids

House (1986)

This is a highly innovative, imaginative and inventive low budget horror, suspense, thriller, mystery, comedy movie from the 80s.

I remember watching it a long time back and it has stayed with me since. Some days ago I found it on youtube and decided to try it out again. And I must say, it still worked. 

Even in today's time the film has a very different take on the horror genre. And it's highly imaginative! The most unique thing about this is that it is about a house which has doors and passages that lead you into a different past, time and world, where there are flying monsters, creepy crawlies, and horrors from one's past. 

At one point you open the door and you see a closet on the other side, moments later you open the same door and it leads see right into the Vietnam jungle! Another door leads you to the very edge of a cliff with the roaring sea and large, jagged rocks below, while the very next moment it opens into another room. The sharp tools in the house come alive at night, along with the dead animals hung on the walls. One second you are talking to your beautiful wife, and the next moment she is an ugly monster with a creepy voice (but I guess that's true with many real wives as well, so not much of an imagination there).

  

William Katt plays Roger Cobb and is a renowned novelist trying to write his new novel about his terrible experiences in the Vietnam war. His son has vanished mysteriously and this has been one of the reasons why he is living separately from his wife. He's still haunted by the past - the Vietnam war and his missing son.

The movie begins when Roger's aunt commits suicide and leaves him the house where his son had mysteriously vanished. 

Roger moves into his creepy aunt's house to finish his novel and maybe get closure about his missing son. In short flashbacks we find out that he lived in the house once along with the aunt, his wife, and son. Roger still believes that his son is alive and his disappearance hes something to do with this mysterious house.

Soon he discovers that the House is a portal between the real world and his past. 

As Roger starts to battle the house he is continuously interrupted by nosy and pretty neighbor Tanya, and not so pretty but equally nose neighbor Harold.

All these elements combine to give an old school horror film that still works in today's big budget CGI lead time. 

So if you are in the mood for some time travel, and something different, check this House down below. You will find the link to the full film here.

House

House full movie

Four Lions

This is funny look at terrorism and terrorists. And by funny I mean hilarious with great insight into why youngsters are drawn towards killing others and themselves for Jihaad. This was made way before ISIS came into being and started attracting idiotic youth from across the world to come and get killed in extremely stupid ways. In other words this was a film a bit before its time, and what it showed has actually come true in the past six years. Unfortunately for the rest of the world. 

What the young terrorists are doing today is not funny from any angle, but the reason they want to do it is quite silly, moronic. 72 virgins? They really think 72 virgins will greet them in heaven after they have slaughtered innocents? That they will become martyrs and heroes? Quite foolish, don't you think? 

This film is about four such youngsters from Britain who want to fight the silly fight. They want to become terrorists by committing an act of terror in Britain. They want to blow up

the London Marathon. And for that they have to train themselves on how to become a terrorist.

Unfortunately there are no training courses or books about this growing field, as yet. But yes one can travel to certain countries and get the training and become  MTA (Master of Terrorism Administration - just kidding, no such a degree exists, as yet).

Four Lions is about these four youngsters who think they are Lions, but are actually quite funny pussies (I mean, little cats, no pun intended). 

The film follows as these four youngsters go about training to become terrorists and then finally try to carry out the act of terrorism. For most part the film is a comedy as we look at how these guys train, and their bickering, and how they deal with each other in the group. It seems all quite normal except that the training to be killers. Quite funny, all this. 

But as the film approaches its end, it does turn serious, and ends on a high note becoming a thought-provoking film. 

In short, this is a funny film, yet it has tremendous depth and mirrors reality. What's more, by the end I was feeling for the guys. I mean they were terrorists, yet I wanted them to live, to understand what they were doing was wrong. Making the audience feel for the terrorists? Brilliant work!

In my book, this is a rare, exceptional film. A must watch.

Four Lions

The Marrying Man

This stars Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger who keep on getting married and then separated again and again and again and again. Hence the title. The first time they get married is not by choice, they are forced to get married by a bad ass gangster, but after that they are squarely to blame.

Alec Baldwin (Charley) is rich and is engaged to the daughter of the owner of movie studio. Just before marriage he and his pals go to Las Vegas for his bachelor party.

At a bar they come across a gorgeous singer named Vicky (Kim Basinger) and Charley is stunned. He can't keep his eyes off her, and he wants to one last hurrah before he bites the dust! 

Charley sends his friends away and goes after Vicky and one thing leads to another and they end up jumping into bed where they are caught by gangster Bugsy Siegel and now it comes out that the doll Vicky is his moll. 

Of course, this is where the gangster Siegel is supposed to chop Charley into a hundred pieces and feed him to the hogs, but no, he has a more innovative punishment. He forces rich boy Charley to marry Vicky!

The next day Charley heads back home thinking it was quite a wild night but no harm done. 

But Siegel has gone a step ahead and announced to the whole world that Charley and Vicky are married. 

And thus begins the downfall of Charley as his engagement goes for a toss and he and Vicky get divorced and married again and again. 

They can't stay away from each other and so get married, and then they realize they can't stay together so grow apart. 

This movie was a flop for some reason, but I remember watching and enjoying it a lot. 

And well, the story is so different, definitely worth checking out I say. 

Unfortunately I couldn't find a trailer for this movie on the net, so here's a clip. 

The Marrying Man