Change Your Image
arjunkaul
Reviews
The Deserter (1970)
One of the Best Westerns Ever
I first saw this film on Television in the 80s. Seeing it even now, it still feels like an excellent film, thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable.
It has everything: a great story, solid acting, great action, good humour and just a totally badass feel.
The story revolves around an army officer who loses his wife to dacoit-apaches and then deserts the army to live in the wild. He is then recruited years later by general Miles to help them find and destroy Magnus Tanarngo an Apache warlord who is building a massive apache army to wrest control of the entire US Suoth West.
Great acting by Bekin Feihmu as Captain Kaleb. Captain Victor Kaleb is way more badass than Rambo or the Terminator.
General Miles is played by the great John Huston. Great supporting cast with Richard Crenna (who ironically played COlonel Trautman to Rambo) and Ricardo Montblan. More great performances from Chuck Connors as the dynamite wielding priest Chapman. Tattinger the scout is also great.
Good music as well. The soundtrack has a jazz feel with more primitive sounding percussion. Very unique.
Superb characterization and narrative. Never a dull moment in this film. If you like Westerns or Actin films, this is a must watch.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
Very Well Made Period Films that is both Compelling yet Comical
Great performances all around, Trevor Howard, Marlon Brando and Richard Harris. Even the girl who plays the Chief's daughter did a great job. That's saying a lot considering she had ZERO acting experience.
Now onto Brando.
I personally feel this is one of his greatest performances. I say this simply because you will get an almost 360 degree view of the personality of the character he portrays.
Brando's Fletcher Christian is funny, witty, considerate and charming. An upright officer despite having somewhat of a hippie/bohemian streak.
The scene where the mutiny actually happens is like a blood rush. Brando's on fire in that. Amazing stuff.
The scenes on the island with the tropical beauties are all well shot and have a pervasive charm about them. Tantalizing.
This is a must watch movie.
If you're a Brando fan or even just a fan of old sea movies like myself, check it out.
Morituri (1965)
Another reason why IMDb ranking CANNOT be used to judge a film
I'll quickly cover this film and then go on to talk about IMDb and its rankings scheme in general.
Morituri was for me a big surprise as I wasn't expecting much. Frankly Im not very used to watching black and white films and most films from that era do seem rather dated to me. This movie rocked my socks. It was tight, gripping, and moving. Like a well written thriller played out on screen by arguably the greatest leading men of all time - Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner. If you haven't already seen this, watch it right now. Its worth your time and $.
Now lets have a look at IMDb rankings. The Dark Knight was released in 2008 and has about 637,794 votes. Casablanca released in 1942 has about 207,358.
There's no logical or artistic reason why The Dark Knight is rated higher than Casablanca on IMDb's ranking.
Therefore if you're reading this, do your best to promote the films that you really like because there are millions of fools doing the same for substandard, trashy ones. Now I'm not saying the Dark Knight is trashy but just used that title as an example.
Alexander (2004)
Great film. Breathtaking cinematography. Open mind needed
I cant understand why people blast this movie. I feel quite strongly that its more about homophobia coming about and the influence of modern day lifestyles with its metro-sexual attitude.
Sure, this isn't a perfect movie but then there is no such thing as a perfect movie.
+ Great acting from everyone including the supporting cast. + Angelina Jolie has never looked sexier. NEVER + Cinematography. wow. + The Battle of Guagemala sequence. + The emotional aspect of Alexanders character + Vangelis's score. "Titans" is great.
Oliver stone worked very hard to put this together, The dude who wrote the screenplay, gave up the rights to it to Stone just for a chance to participate in the filming of the battle scene at Guagemala against King Darius. Now THAT's rock and roll! ;) Angelina's accent is very funny. That's probably the weirdest part of the film. Not that its a bad thing. It just made more of the sex kitten she is.
Telstar: The Joe Meek Story (2008)
Disturbing film with some great moments
This is a cinematic adaptation of the life of Joe Meek.
If you don't know who Joe Meek was, lets just say that he was a pivotal figure in the evolution of popular music whose innovative production techniques and zeal for creation laid the path for a lot of the things that are recorded and broadcast today.
This movie by Nick Moran may not be factually accurate let me say that upfront. So don't treat it as a dossier on Joe Meek's life or that of his colleagues. This film is however a tribute to Joe Meek and certainly has some of the things that Joe was great at: Music, Inspiring people and being a sensitive soul.
Good performances from everyone. Thats one thing about British cinema. You can be assured of superior acting than their American counterparts. That's a given.
I've put an open letter from Patrick Pink in the forum below in case you may care to read it. Its his less than happy reaction on the film.
However, this film will certainly help spread the legend of Joe Meek and Telstar and its definitely a good movie to watch.
You will feel lousy for him at the end of the movie. For him as well as the other pop music heroes who then succumbed to their less than great fortunes as ordinary people and died in squalor and poverty unknown to the rest of the world. That's pretty phucking sad!
Watch it, let the music inspire you and say a prayer for them.
The Hangover Part II (2011)
A pointless waste of time
If you're an intelligent person, even slightly cultured with a sense of humor, you'll get bored of this film.
I had no apprehensions watching this film, I just put it on one night and it was just terribly uninteresting.
I guess it just works on some people.
The humor is forced and pretty lame IMHO.
The short annoying bearded dude was just awful.
I'm yet to see a good comedy from the last two years. Nothing really good has come out. Or maybe I haven't seen it yet.
That said, check out a trailer or something and see if you like it.
For me personally it was just not happening.
There are way better films out there to watch.
There are funnier comedies from like even 30 years ago.
This was just yawnnnnnn.
Thor (2011)
Skip it
I enjoy Scandinavian mythology and am well familiar with all its cinematic and musical offshoots.
That said, this movie has all of the following features: 1. Great special effects 2. Expensive sets 3. Cute costume design. Yes 'cute' 4. Anthony Hopkins
And here is what this film DOES NOT have: 1. Acting 2. Story 3. Direction 4. Music 5. Any kind of entertainment for an even remotely intelligent mind
At the end of it I felt I had just wasted my time. It just wasn't entertaining at any level. It added no value to my life either. The best things about this film are probably Kat Denning's boobs. But they weren't seen (or felt) either so...
I wondered later why it was so overly hyped worldwide.
I realized that you can generally avoid hyped films and be rest assured of having not lost anything important.
Reading glowing reviews of this film here really made me laugh.
If Thor could see them, he'd laugh too.
Oh and remember less one in four people is intelligent.
The Next Three Days (2010)
Enjoyable movie
The reason that this film probably didn't make as much money as a lot of other films of the time has to do with the fact that the general film going public today has a culturally challenged view of cinema.
This film had everything you would want in two hour entertainment: Great story, well acted out characters, crisp narrative, excitement, longing, drama, and a persuasive mood.
Apart from the great performances by the leads, the supporting roles were played very strong. Think memorable.
This film is another one I'll want my friends/family to see.
Well done.
Westworld (1973)
Great Film - Very Original. Inspired many films in the future
I think a lot of later evil robot films including 'The terminator' borrowed a lot of ideas from this film. Even 'The Predator' got a lot of ideas from this. (The robot vision mode, the heat sensing)
This film is totally original. i don't see any title that came before this that had the same ideas. Michael Crichton is one of the most creative people in this business. Although i think he did re-use the Westworld amusement park concept with Jurassic Park (Carnosaur). Just replacing androids with dinosaurs. It pretty much the same concept: Man made environment that falls to chaos.
And the most bizarre part of the film is the pervasiveness it transmits. Its so pervasive. It really titillates you with its concept. The female droids and how they are used. Its crazy.
And the fact that three different cultures (The wild west, Rome, and medieval england) all spill over each other. That is really wild.
Great movie.